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Sunday School and Worship Service at Kootenai Community Church
Are we good? All right, good morning, everyone. Hope you're doing well. Hope you're enjoying the spring-like weather. Seems like it's spring, but probably gonna get hit with 10 feet of snow here soon.
But Earl, you probably already got 10 feet, don't you? Almost five. Well, thank you all for coming, I appreciate it. Before we get going, let's have a word of prayer. Father, we love you and praise you and just thank you for all you do in our lives, the way that you watch over us and guide us and give us your strength each day, that you've provided a beacon of hope in the scriptures and in Christ himself, that we can know him, that we understand him and can find hope in the midst of any storm.
We thank you, Lord, for all you do in our lives and ask that you go before us as we open your word today, illuminate it to our hearts and our minds, help us to learn it and apply it to our lives that we might share it with a lost and dying world and that they might come to know the love that we share as well.
We just commit this to you now in Jesus' name. Before I start, I wanted to make a personal comment, if I could, to start off. Before I started teaching this class three weeks back, I hadn't really taught for about five, six years.
And I taught one Sunday school class, I think, for the teens and then just what I've done here. And the church that I was in prior, before coming to Kootenai, it was more about books. It was more about going through a specific book, talking about different things.
And it just wasn't where I was at. I didn't really like that style, so I never got involved in the teaching of it at all. I met Justin, Justin Peters, and his ministry is all over the place, but he was in the process of moving here at the time.
And so I thought, well, he's going to Kootenai Community Church. I don't know what that's all about. My family wasn't happy with the church we were at. And so we started to come up here probably four or five years ago.
And when you're around teachers like Jim and Justin and a good church, it motivates you to strive to be excellent. It wasn't something that I had before. So I wanted to tell you that because I appreciate your grace and understanding as I'm teaching this class.
And I'm trying to get better and I'm trying to focus on some things in my teaching. One of the things I'm trying to do is to just get comfortable. I mean, it's terrifying to be up here teaching a class.
And so I'm just trying to get comfortable. Teaching God's word and public speaking at the same time can be a little daunting. So I'm trying to blend those two things together into something good and glorifying for the Lord.
And I'm also trying to work on delivery of the material. How I can say things and how I stand up here and communicate God's word is something that I'm really working on. And a little bit more interactive would be, I would say, the third thing.
A little bit more interactive is if you get comfortable with me, hopefully we can have good discussion and good dialogue in the class itself. So if you'll bear with me, I just want you to know that I'm working on these things and I appreciate your patience as I'm trying to work back into some kind of a style here and find my own groove.
So with that, open your Bibles to 1 John chapter two. We're gonna read the first 11 verses of 1 John chapter two. So if you'll open up your copy of God's word there, we'll begin reading. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
The one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.
The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light. And there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
We're gonna be focusing on verses three and four this morning. And the title of this message, if you will, is Marks of a True and a False Believer. Marks of a True and a False Believer. And we're gonna see that in a couple ways.
One is you can know by the phrase come to know him. We're gonna look at that, come to know him. You can also know true and false believers by the fact of whether they follow his commands, whether they keep his commands or not.
We're gonna see that, talk about that. You're also gonna learn today that a true and false believer can be identified by how they guard the commandments, how they guard the commandments. How many times over the years have you known people that have seemed to have a solid faith, they've walked in the church, and for some reason or another, they left the faith.
Something happened. You thought they had a strong family, they had a strong marriage, kids were good kids, involved in all kinds of youth groups and everything. But only to find out later they had walked away from their faith to serve their own passions and desires.
You had thought they were a believer for all that time, and then you realized that they really weren't. I look at, sometimes I have some old church directories, the old ones, we do use digital now, but you look in the church directory and you see all the faces in there, and over time, you realize, well, they left the faith.
There's some kind of sin entered there, and their family is destroyed. And then you also see on the other side where there's a lot of true believers that you see still persevering in the faith, and you kind of go, okay, well, the ones that are leaving the faith, you wonder, well, were they ever really saved in the first place?
You have no idea whether they were saved in the first place. Did they have any kind of a genuine faith or a profession there? And I think we wrestle with that. I mean, I do wrestle with whether we know someone is saved or not.
You ever think that in your own head? Like, well, that person's not saved. Well, that one is. But how do we really know from the scriptures whether someone is a true believer and who is not? Who is a false believer?
We're gonna be talking about that in the lesson today. One of the things that we deal with is those that are in rebellion. We probably know people or have known people over the years that have been in rebellion, and we wonder, well, are they saved?
They've been walking against the Lord for a long time, and do we say they're saved or not saved? Is that a struggle for you at all? I know it is for me, because I want to say, well, yeah, they're saved, or yeah, they're not saved.
So a question I have to ask is, is it our place to talk to somebody and tell them they're saved or they're not saved? What's your thoughts on that? Is it up to us to do that? See, this is the part where I'm working on the interactive part.
And, and, what's that? Ask an easier question. Yeah, that is a difficult question. Well, we're gonna cover that. I mean, the comment always comes back is that, you know, we don't know their heart, and we really can't say.
Yes. Okay. That's a good point. Only God knows, and we can't know their heart. Yes. Your response is, either way, wouldn't we know whether they're a believer or an unbeliever if we preach the gospel? Solution is the same, whether we know their heart or we don't.
That, yeah. I think that's true. I mean, we have to look at the scriptures, and we have to see from there how God views it. You know, I think what I hear a lot is we don't know their heart. You know, they always point to the story of David, and they say, well, you know, David walked away from the Lord, and then he eventually came back, right?
So we don't really know, and it's a struggle for us. But we can know from the scriptures, as you had said earlier, about their actions. We can look at what they do, and that fleshes it out quite a bit for us to the point where, you know, you probably have a pretty good idea whether they are or not, just by looking at their walk and what they do.
But, you know, the question in rebellion for me is how long in rebellion is somebody before we say, well, they're not a believer? Is it one year? Is it five years? Is it 20 years? What is it? I know an individual that has been in habitual sin for over 10 years, and claims to be a believer.
I mean, at some point in time, I feel like I gotta call it. Like, you know, this is just not right. But like you say, I don't know God's heart on it. I don't know their heart. But from the scriptures, I do know that their actions go against the scriptures.
And every fiber of my being says that that person is not saved. Every fiber, based on what the scriptures teach. Yes, sir? David had a Nathan, your comment is, and would we be a Nathan? Confront somebody in their sin and talk to them about it.
And I think that's an important aspect of it. You know, that's, the scriptures do teach that. We need to confront people in their sin, and give them an opportunity to make a change. But on the other side, as you are a believer, can you really stay away from God forever?
Is that possible? Is it possible? He says, all that the Father gives me, I will lose none. Not gonna lose any of them. So eventually, they gotta come back. But we struggle with the timing. Is it a day, a week, a month, a year, and so on?
So we're gonna be talking about the marks of a true and false believer today. The Bible is pretty clear about it. It's nice because it's black and white. Yes, sir?
Friendship with God.
There you go.
Right, right, yeah.
The comment is, just for the tape, is that I don't think we can really know. It's by our witness and our walk. And Judas walked with the Lord and still walked away from Him in the end. So we don't really know.
That's a good comment. I think it does come down to the simple tests of the Scriptures. I mean, what we're gonna look at today is really that, marks of a true and a false believer. I mean, it comes down to very simple understanding.
Either you're gonna follow the Lord or you're gonna follow your own way. It's manifested out in your actions and the things that you do. So our first verse is verse three. By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.
By this gives us really a nice segue into just kind of a quick review for anybody that might not be here or haven't been here before. It's been a couple weeks and people may be online or watching, but just a little bit of a review.
And I think back to when we started, we talked about John the Apostle writing this and his headquarters is in Ephesus. And he's, you know, Ephesus is right on the Aegean Sea. It was a pretty big city, a lot of commerce going on there, but it was also famous for the Temple of Artemis.
And if you remember in Acts 19, Paul had preached there and Demetrius, the silversmith, and all the other craftsmen were in an uproar in Ephesus because they worked in the Temple of Artemis and because people were defecting from the temple worship to the one true God, they weren't making as much money.
So there was a serious uproar there. But the Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world. I mean, it was 425 feet long and 225 feet wide. It had 120 columns that were 60 feet high and four feet around.
This thing was massive. I think back to my Navy days and the submarine that I was on was 425 feet long. Same as this temple. It's a big, massive structure. And I think with length, just to put it in perspective, I mean, a football field is 360 feet long, so it's that and then some.
It's a pretty big structure. So I just wonder as John walked around into that city, the impact of seeing that structure, did it affect him in the sense of writing this gospel? Writing this, not gospel, but writing this letter.
Because he saw the temple worship, the false worship, it would be easy for him to write in verses one through four the way to deal with this is the one true God, Jesus Christ, who was from the beginning, who we have seen and heard, this is the one true God.
I just wonder as he's seeing these things, is he thinking about that? I mean, how much easier in verse two and three of chapter one to proclaim Christ. When you see all this idol worship going on and you're focusing on the one true God and you're screaming out in your soul saying, no, this is the one true God here.
We proclaim him. We don't proclaim any other God at all. And I often think about this. Did John see believers walking into the temple of Artemis and also walking into the church? Maybe that's why he wrote, if we say that we have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
It would be easy for these kinds of things to happen. And I just wonder if John was looking at the temple when he wrote these words. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if you do, verses five through 10, we do have an advocate with the Father. We have someone that is going before us on our behalf to bear the wrath that we so rightly deserve. And so it's easy to sit back there and look at this book and understand that John had this firsthand knowledge and experience with Christ.
I mean, he knew the marks of a true and a false believer. Think about the times he's walking with Christ and he's seeing the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the people that ran away from Christ. And then he's seeing the ones that hung in there and manifested their faith by following him without deviating in any way, shape, or form.
He had that skill. He had that experience. And I think somebody mentioned Judas here. It might have been you. Yeah, you mentioned Judas. I mean, yeah, Judas, perfect example. I mean, how do you know that that guy was with Christ?
He walked with them. Could we say, was there signs along the way that we could say, yeah, that doesn't line up with the scriptures. But in the end, he defected. So he never really was saved. But the actions, I don't know if there was anything along the way that we could see that.
So the first point here is in our verses, verses two and three, or three and four. By this we know that we have come to know him. And verse four says, the one who says I have come to know him, wanna focus on those come to know him.
Those who come to know him are the ones that are saved. Those who come to know him are the ones that are saved. One of the marks of the true believer is that they desire to know God. They wanna utilize their energy and time to come to know him.
You can know a lot about somebody by how they spend their time. You can see where their focus is. Is it all self? Is it some work? Is it, you know, what can you put in realistically into the relationship with Christ?
How you spend your time is important. People that come to know him, they keep his commandments. That's what it says here. There are a lot of ways we can get to know God better, right? We can know him by reading our Bible.
We can listen to podcasts. We can read other books about the Bible to learn that. And we can still do all those things and not really have a strong relationship with him. See that? That's true. There are people all over the world that have made a decision for Jesus.
But yet you look at their walk and you realize, well, if you made a decision, are you really saved because I'm seeing all these other things that don't line up with the scriptures and, you know, people that have prayed a prayer and believe that they are saved.
This message is for them as well. That to be confronted with the truth, it gives an opportunity for people to change. If you let people go in, you know, their slide, then maybe they don't realize some of the things that they're doing are against the scriptures.
So that's a good component of it. But what does come to know him mean? Any thoughts? What does come to know him mean? If we say we come to know him, what's that saying? They have heard the gospel. Okay, good, yeah.
What else? What else? It's one of those hard questions. It's, the word for know is called, it's Greek for ginosko, and it's used 23 times in John. First occurrence is here. And it's to have a relationship with a person.
It's to have a relationship with a person. The person here, obviously, is Christ. We have a relationship with Christ. We're gonna come to know him. We're getting acquainted with the God of the Bible. It's coming to know him in a variety of ways.
Ginosko, in the verb, is the perfect tense. So it denotes something that happened in the past, but it has present-day implications. Jim talked about this last week, when he talked about Hebrews 10, 14.
And he said that by that one sacrifice, we're being perfected for all time to those that are sanctified. That word perfected is the same concept here, is that Christ's sacrifice on the cross 2 ,000 plus years ago has present-day implications for those that are being saved.
Coming to know, in this case, is at some point in time, you were saved. But today, you are coming to know him more and more as you live your life for him. That make sense? That's what that perfect tense is doing for us.
To know means at some point you were saved. I think of it like when I got saved or when anybody got saved. It's like an infant to a toddler to a full-grown, mature adult. When you were an infant, born again, just saved, I mean, how much did you really know?
You knew a little bit, but you didn't have a full grasp of it. As you're maybe seven, eight, nine, whatever, you begin to learn a little bit more. Maybe like the Old Testament and New Testament and how they fit together and dovetail.
But as you're maturing in your faith, it's something that you're reading the scriptures, you're maybe cracking open a commentary, you're listening to podcasts, you're digging deeper into the word of God, you're maturing in your faith and you're living that out for the world to see.
That's kind of the idea here. But not everybody does that, do they? This is the hard part when you go to a church and you go, well, you know, Sam over there just doesn't seem to be living his faith. He just doesn't seem to be growing at all.
The scriptures talk about this. In 1 Corinthians 3, one through three, it says this, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it.
Even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. This is the kind of individual that has not grasped and grown in their faith. They haven't come to know God in that deeper, mature way. They're still fleshly.
They're still requiring the milk from an infancy. Hebrews 5, 11 through 14 really kind of drives this home a little bit further. Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant, but solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
The dull of hearing, you ought to be teachers, but you're not. Someone to teach you, we need that, and you need milk and not solid food. This is evidence of an immature believer. Someone that should be further along in their faith.
After 30 years in the faith, we probably shouldn't be still drinking milk. We should be focusing on the deeper things of the scripture. So tell me, what are some ways we can get to know God? How do we get to know him?
What are some ways? Study the word of God. There you go, boom, done. We can maybe listen to a podcast. Do that. Teach adult Sunday school. That'll do it. It's a lot of ways. But what kind of knowledge gets us the deepest understanding of God?
What kind of knowledge gets us the deepest depth of our soul knowledge of God? What's that? Reading his word. There you go. Reading his word. Pray, okay, absolutely. Can't know scripture at all unless you're saved.
That is true. The scriptures are spiritually discerned. Can't know it until you're a believer, so that is true. I look at it like a woodworker or a mechanic. They have all the tools, don't they? Which I know how to use zero of those.
But they have every tool. And someone new as a mechanic or new as a woodworker wouldn't, what if they just looked at videos and read books about it? What if they didn't really know how to use those tools?
They just had an intellectual knowledge of those tools. Isn't it the application of that knowledge, the experience of it, that drives home the usage of those tools? They're not gonna know how to replace a transmission or build an intricate table strictly by reading everything.
You still have to know how to use the tools and sometimes that takes experience because you learn as you're using them. That's, a lot of people try to do it the other way, right? They try to do different ways of learning God.
The Gnostics in this book tried to do it their own way by the superior knowledge. That's how they were knowing God. But John really blew them out of the water here with the Gnostic teaching because you come to know him, that's through experience.
That's through living your faith. It's not just simply an intellectual ascent to our faith. I'm not saying that reading and praying and all these things are bad. They're good for us but we also need to go one step further and push that out into our communities and people that we know and we need to talk about it to other people so they can understand the gospel as well.
It's about obeying the word. When we obey and live our faith, it's visible for everyone to see. And that's how you really know. That's how you can see whether someone is puffed up with all kinds of knowledge or they're living their faith in obedience to Christ.
Because a lot of times people say one thing and then do another. I mean, you probably know people like that. I do. They say, oh yes, yes, I love Jesus, I love Jesus. And then their actions say otherwise.
And then you begin to question that. Are they saved? And you go down that rabbit trail, right? If those who practice their faith, they're able to discern good and evil, aren't they? You're in your word, you understand it.
We're growing and progressing from an infant to a mature adult. We're living it out, we're growing. That's what we need to do. Growing your faith by experience is often uncomfortable. Isn't it? It's not easy.
We have grown up in an America that's pretty comfortable where we've been prosperous and people really aren't dying for their faith so much in America. We do hear it in other countries. But in America, we are not made to bow down to another God.
So you see that in how do we live our lives. The Old Testament and New Testament saints, they were put under duress. They had to make a stand one way or the other with their faith and in the result and midst of that, their faith was put into action.
It was tested to see what metal they had. Mark of an unbeliever is that when faced with difficult situations, a lot of times, they don't conform. And so you see their actions doing one thing different than the scriptures do.
And so I wanted to talk just briefly about a couple lessons from Daniel because that really solidifies some very concrete examples of someone that is living their faith for Christ. And Daniel was taken to Babylon from Jerusalem.
Can you imagine that when you've been taken from your own home? Think about that, somebody came to North Idaho, take you from your home, took you to another country, took you to Pakistan or India or some other foreign country and you were made to conform to the practices of that country.
I mean, that would be earth shattering, wouldn't it? That's what Daniel had to do. He had to follow that. And remember when he got there, he didn't want to follow the dietary laws. And so he pushed back on them.
And he said, I don't really want to do that. And they agreed. But you know what, took courage to do that. Took courage to do that. It's not easy to stand up in the face of this kind of adversity. You discover though, how strong you can be during those times.
You think back to hard things you've done in your own life. When you go through that, you're much stronger after you do. You're easier to go through it the next time. Or maybe go raise your game to a different level.
Whether it's work or something that you're really struggling with. But the thing is that we have to realize also is that God took Daniel through this situation. We're not alone, are we? We're not alone in our struggles and trials and how we live our life.
I mean, God gave Daniel wisdom in the literature of the culture. He gave him wisdom in understanding how to do these dreams and visions. You know, he just didn't leave them hanging out there. And that's what we have to remember for our own wives is that God's with us as we live them.
We're not alone. We rely on him for his strength. We also see in the story of Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You know, they didn't want to bow down to the gods of the Babylonians. The golden image and the god of the Babylonians.
And they were put under some extreme pressure to bow down. And we have not faced that in our country. We've not faced that in America where we're forced to bow down to another god. But I don't know if you know this or not, the times they are a-changing if you haven't seen what's gonna happen in our world.
I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. But we're certainly not at that level of bowing down to another god. What would you do if you were asked to bow down to another god? How would you react?
Would you say, well, okay, I will do that because I want safety and freedom and calm, or would you lose your job, lose your income, lose your home, lose all those things to say, no, I'm not going to do that because I have a higher calling which is in Christ, and I'm not going to do that.
That would be a tough situation to have to deal with. But these are some of the things that when we're called to the faith, it could happen, where we have to really make a stand. But they would not bow down under the extreme pressure that Nebuchadnezzar put on them.
We're talking about a sovereign king that had full authority to do anything he wanted. There was no one looking over him. He could do whatever he wanted, and I'm sure that he wasn't used to hearing no.
When you're that kind of a sovereign, you're not used to hearing no. So can you imagine the immense pressure on these individuals to conform to that? And they say, absolutely not. We're not going to do that.
And you know why? Because we believe that God can save us. God can take care of us. And I love it because he's like, but even if he doesn't, makes no difference. That's beautiful. You take the consequences of obedience to Christ, and you let God worry about those things.
And that's the hardest part, isn't it? Is just letting go, because man wants to control our own destiny in a lot of ways, and the faith is about giving up self. It's about following him and not our own path.
So, I mean, you see a lot of this happening in the scriptures, but the lessons from Daniel are relevant for us today. Faith must be a home in action. It must be something we live. We come to know God by keeping his commandments.
This is the next portion of it here. We'll get a few more minutes, and then we'll probably have to start it next time. But Mark's of a true and false believer. They come to know him, and the second point is they keep his commandments.
They keep his commandments. First John 2, three. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says that I've come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
What commandments are we talking about? Where does your mind go? Matthew? Where else? When you say follow these commandments, where do you go? Go to the law of the Old Testament, right? The 10 commandments.
It's something that you're like, okay, I go there. But this is not what this is talking about here. The word for law is nomos, and the word here is entole, which is completely different. It's precepts and commands of the Lord Jesus.
That's what we're talking about here. It's not the Old Testament laws and requirements, because Christ came to fulfill all of that. So it's those commandments. It's personally something that Jesus taught, or it was taught through the apostles.
So what are the precepts and commands that we're supposed to follow? Any ideas? What are the New Testament commands and precepts that we're to follow? There's quite a few, quite a few. Any ideas? Yeah, Peter, exactly.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Perfect.
But there are others. Repent is one of them. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There's something we should be doing. Like Peter said, love one another. We're to follow Jesus. We're to come to Jesus for rest.
We're supposed to forgive 70 times seven. We're to partake of communion. We're to preach the gospel. Love God, love our neighbor. There's others. But that's the idea. These are the commands that define us.
As a believer, when we come to know him, we learn these through reading and studying and understanding, and then as we have to live them out, everyone can see what we do. And that's where we should be.
But what about a false convert? Do they care about these commands? False converts may not even know what they all are. They might not care. They might not worry about it. I love what John says in 1 John 5, verse three.
For this is the love of God that we keep as commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. I love that. We're not carrying around this heavy weight around our neck. It's something that we do because we love him and we care for him.
It's not something that's burdening us down. But we learn from experience through difficult situations, and we have to keep our eye focused on the scriptures, on him. The last point here is they guard his commandments.
And that's from the word keep in verses three and four. By this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Pretty simple test of faith. Either you keep them or you don't. It's how you can look at somebody's walk.
Either they follow these or they don't. But the word keep, it means to guard and to keep an eye on. That's what it means. Someone that keeps his word is someone who guards these commandments. We're guarding them like a warden guards his prison.
It's like that. He looks over the prison inmates and the guards, and he has a standard and he upholds that standard. He's committed to keeping that because he doesn't want any escapees, and he's committed to that.
That's the idea here. True believers have a desire to guard the precepts and the commands of the Lord. And so to do that, we have to come to know him and understand who he is, and we have to learn that through an experience because what does it say at the end?
If you don't keep these, you're a liar, and the word is not in you. I mean, you ever call somebody a liar and say, hey, you know, that's a lie. We tend to not want to do that. We come alongside them and say, look at these things here.
If you say you're a believer and you're not doing these things, then you gotta check your faith at the door somewhere. And that's our responsibility is to confront that, talk to people about it, because the goal in all of it is to glorify God.
That's our goal, glorify him with our lives and our walk, and I hope we can do that. We need to think on these things. So you know to trust Jesus, but do you? You know to pray, but do you? You know to forgive, but do you?
You know to love your neighbor, but do you? You know to serve your spouse, but do you? You know to love God with all your heart, but do you do these things? I would say just think on these things, brothers and sisters, and see what the Lord has for you.
Looks like we're out of time. Is there any questions at all? I know we're right at the end, but if there are any, I don't want to miss any. I covered everything so comprehensively, there are no questions.
All right, let's pray. Father, you alone are worthy. Thank you for your word and the truth that is there and so relevant to our everyday lives no matter what we're doing. We pray that we could glorify you no matter what we do, and say, help us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to be able to walk as Jesus walked, try to conform to your image with all that we are and are coming to be.
Thank you, Father, for loving us in Jesus' name, amen.
Check, check, check, check, check. Check, check, monitor check in the piano. Check one, check one, check one, check one, check one, check one. Check two, check three, check. Check one, check, check, check, check, check, check, check.
Paul Taylor, Paul Taylor.
Paul Taylor, good morning.
We welcome you guys to Kootenai Church this morning. We're gonna do an acoustic set for you today, so that should be exciting, but if you would stand up and join us as we sing this morning, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.
Immortal, invisible, God in light Inaccessible, hid from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days Almighty, victorious, thy great name we honor Resting, unhasting, and wanting nor wasting Thou rulest in might, thy justice like mountains High soaring above, thy clouds which are fountains Of goodness and love, to all life thou givest To both great and small, in all life thou livest The true life of all, thy wisdom so boundless Thy mercy so free, eternal thy goodness For naught changeth thee Great father of glory, pure father of light Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight O praise we would render, O help us to see Tis only the splendor of fine heighteth thee
Take this time and greet each other this morning.
Are the slides on?
Yeah.
Okay, good.
Oh, it was great. Well, good morning all. Just one announcement. Starting next week, we're gonna be returning to our study in Sunday school. God wrote a book dealing with issues of canonicity with the New Testament and Old Testament.
And so we've been doing that in sections and I've been taking a break teaching through that. We're gonna resume that and this will be our third and final group of lessons on that subject. And we'll resume that next Sunday in adult Sunday school class.
Well, our world is changing quickly. You may have noticed that. And I would have nothing to say about that except what scripture says. And I would just remind you that this world is not our home. We are citizens in heaven.
That is where our citizenship is. We wait for a kingdom that is not of this world, a city whose maker and builder is God. And one day, all of the nations of this world will be the nations, the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.
That's what we wait for. That's what we anticipate. And until then, we will be faithful until he comes. And I would just remind you of what scripture says concerning those things because that is where our hope is.
It is not in this world. We trust not in princes or in men and certainly not in the Republican Party for anything. So turn in your Bibles to the book of Psalms. We're gonna look at Psalm 47. We're gonna read Psalm 47 and Psalm 48.
Read these two Psalms, Psalm 47 and 48. They describe God as the king over all the earth. We'll read these together and then I'll ask you to stand with me as we pray. Psalm 47, for the choir director, a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Oh, clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with a voice of joy. For the Lord most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdues peoples under us and nations under our feet. He chooses our inheritance for us.
The glory of Jacob whom he loves. God has ascended with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our king, sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth.
Sing praises with a skillful psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God.
He is highly exalted. Psalm 48, a song, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.
God in her palaces has made himself known as a stronghold. For lo, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. They saw it, then they were amazed. They were terrified, they fled in alarm.
Panic seized them there, anguish as of a woman in childbirth with the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord our host, in the city of our God, God will establish her forever.
We have thought on your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple. As is your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad.
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Walk about Zion and go around her, count her towers, consider her ramparts, go through her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation.
For such is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us until death. Will you stand with me as we pray?
Let's bow our heads.
Our Father, you are the great king over all the earth. There is no purpose of yours which can be thwarted. It is good to gather together and to worship with the saints, those who trust in you and wait for you and look forward to the coming of your kingdom, the establishment of that righteousness.
That is what we long for. We set and fix our hearts and our minds and our hopes upon heavenly things, trusting not in the things of this world nor in the establishment of worldly princes or worldly powers, but only in your sovereign grace and the accomplishment of your purposes.
We thank you that you have loved us even before the foundation of the world, that you have chosen us even before the foundation of the world, and that you sent your son to bear our punishment, to die in our stead so that we may have eternal life, and eventually that we may inherit the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
That is what our attention is on. That is where our hope is fixed. And that is the case for all those who belong to you. For our citizenship is not here, it is in heaven, from which we wait for and long for a savior who will conform us to his image and transform the body of our lowly estate into conformity to the body of his glory.
Hasten that day, we pray, and may we, in all this time that we have here, be faithful to occupy until he comes to preach the gospel. We pray that you would attend that with your power and with your word and the power of your spirit so that the lost may be converted and we may rescue many from this world and prepare them for the world to come.
Be honored and glorified through us, your saints, as we praise you and worship you this morning. Be magnified here in our song and in the affections of our hearts, we pray in Christ's name, amen.
Reaches to the heaven, your faithful Stretches to the sky, righteousness Is like the mighty mountain, your justice Like the oceans, worship you, I will find my strength In the shadow of your, your love, oh Reaches to the heaven, your faithful Stretches to the sky, righteousness Is like the mighty mountain, your justice Lord, I will find my strength in the shadow I will live in the shadow, stretches to this mystery In the dawning of the king, he the theme of heaven Look to Christ, who condescended, who rots among us See the purpose, see the truth, come to save The hell-bound man, Christ the wondrous mystery Christ the Lord, in the shadow hangs the lamb See the price of our redemption, see the fall Bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured The wondrous mystery, slain by death of life But no grave could ever restrain him, praise the Lord he is alive What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope Resurrected as we will be when he comes What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope Christ in power, resurrected as we will be A fountain filled with blood, drawn from our splash Beneath that flood, beneath that flood, lives his day And there
Colossians chapter two, verses 13 and 14, it reads, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us.
And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to a cross.
For the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and bleeds for me My name is graven on his hands, my name is written on his heart I know that one, no tongue can bid me, and Satan tempts me To despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free For God the justice, and raised the lost righteousness, the great unchangeable I am The king of glory, one with himself I cannot die, my soul is purchased with his blood My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my savior and my cousin's son Bow before the cross of Christ, and marvel at his love divine, God's perfect son My son was sacrificed, to make me righteous in God's eyes, this river's depths I cannot know But I can glory in its flood, the Lord most high has bowed down low, and poured on me his blood
You may be seated.
You take me to your banqueting table, your love is all I need You're like an apple tree within the forest, I long to sit in your shade You are my God, and yet my friend
And now in your copy of God's word, will you please open up to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, we're going to be in verse 14 this morning. And when you've found your place, we will pray together before we begin.
Our gracious God, we thank you for your word. It is our source, it is the revelation of our source of our hope, for that is in Christ. And in your word, you teach us all that is necessary for life and godliness, that we may know you, that we may place our hope and our faith, our confidence and trust in Jesus Christ and him alone.
And we pray that as we look at your word, and we look at a difficult subject and a difficult passage, that you would grant to us an ability to understand these things, to know how it is that we ought to live in light of this truth.
And we pray that you would make the confidence and the trust of our heart to be in Christ and Christ alone. May we look nowhere else for the satisfaction of your justice and the provision of all that we need for life and godliness and for the life in the world that is to come.
Convince us again of how sufficient Christ is and what he has done. And bless this time, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen. Well, last week we stopped in the middle of a verse, verse 14, and it was not something that I thought we were going to end up doing until about halfway through last week's sermon, and by that time it was really too late to stop the inevitable flow of everything.
But I left you with a question last week, because I started with a question, and then I told you, promised you, kind of alluded to the fact that I would answer that question by the time we were done last week, which I didn't do, so I would remind you of the question.
The question I left you with last week was this. Is there any way in which any of the features of the new covenant are inferior to the old covenant? Is there any way in which any of the features of the new covenant are inferior to the old covenant?
In other words, is there anything about the sacrifice and the work of Christ that is just not quite as good as something that was provided under the old covenant? And I'm sure you spent all week thinking about that and mulling that over and researching it, reading up on it, probably books and volumes in preparation for this morning, and I do plan, if I can remember, to answer that question before we're done here this morning.
That is my intention today. I promise we will get to that point. Whether I'm able to answer it for you or not, that's a different issue. So we are considering this statement in verse 14, and I would just have you to read it again.
Actually, we'll pick it up and read the context here, beginning at verse 11. This is the concluding paragraph of a theological argument that the author's been making in this middle section of the book of Hebrews, and he is now bringing the theology of this to a conclusion, and he ties in here a whole bunch of themes that he has already brought up earlier in these middle chapters, chapter, really, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
Verse 11. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.
For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Verse 14 there is our focus. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Now, that's the verse that we stopped in the middle of, and it is necessary for me to give a little bit of a reminder of what we were covering last week because it's difficult to just parachute into the middle of this and remember that everything that the author has been saying up to this point, particularly in this verse, because what we're looking at today, namely the extent of the sacrifice of Christ, has direct bearing here in this passage.
This passage bears upon that subject, but we have to understand what the author has been saying even in the very verse itself. So we're just going to back up to the beginning of verse 14. I'm just going to give you a very brief, very quick recap of what we looked at last week.
I suggested to you last week that the effects of his sacrifice and the extent of his sacrifice are described here in verse 14. The effect of his sacrifice, namely that he, by that offering, has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
That perfection is the effect of his sacrifice. And then today we're looking at the extent of his sacrifice, which is contained in the last part of that verse, those who are sanctified. There is a limit circumscribed around the effects of his sacrifice.
This sacrifice was effective and did what it did for a particular group of people, namely, verse 14, those who are sanctified. So to remind you of what we covered last week, really the key question is this.
What did Jesus Christ accomplish in his death on the cross? Did he make salvation possible? Did he make a potential atonement that the sinner actuates through his faith, his belief, and his response to the gospel?
Or did the Savior actually provide a payment price and take away sin, effectively guaranteeing the salvation of all those for whom he died? That is at the heart of the debate concerning the extent of the atonement.
Did he accomplish what he came to do or was he trying to do something that only succeeded for a very few and the rest are punished in hell? That is the question at hand. So that word perfected, verse 14, it says, by one offering he has perfected.
You remember that verse is in the perfect tense. Kind of interesting, the word perfect is in the perfect tense in the Greek. The perfect tense describes something that happened in the past that brings into being a present state of being or has produced a present state of being.
So the author is looking at something that happened in the past that has created a present state of being on behalf of those for whom that past act was performed. The past act is the offering of Christ.
That's what happened in the past. And the perfect tense emphasizes not so much the past event as it does describe the present reality or the present state of being that has resulted from that past event.
The past event is the offering. For by one offering he has perfected or achieved perfection for all those for whom he has died. Now what does the word perfect mean? The word perfect describes a completed salvation.
It's not describing a moral... It's not used in a moral sense. It's not describing a moral state, a perfect state of sanctification or glorification or moral perfection or moral betterment. The word has to do with bringing something to a completed state.
And describing us and salvation in the book of Hebrews, that word perfect is used repeatedly to describe a state of us being brought near to God, reconciled to Him, brought into a right relationship with Him, being drawn near into a state of completed accomplishment that was not achieved by the Old Testament.
And what was the thing that was not achieved by the Old Testament? The actual reconciliation of the sinner to God. The Old Testament priests could not do that. The sacrifices could not do that. The offerings could not do that.
The law could not do that. None of those things could perfect the worshiper. None of those things could actually achieve atonement, salvation, and reconciliation with God. Those things were pictures of those realities, but they didn't actually accomplish those realities.
Those things never actually brought reconciliation between God, the offended party, and the sinner, the rebel who had offended God's law. There was no reconciliation made there. They were never actually brought near in any real sense.
So the Old Testament law, the sacrifice of the priesthood, could never perfect us, could never bring us near, could never bring us to that state. What was the ultimate state of God's redemptive plan for sinners?
It was to bring them into relationship with Himself and to reconcile them to Him. Christ has done that. He has completed that work, that act, through His one offering on the cross. And remember that this state of perfection is an objective thing.
It's not a subjective thing. It doesn't depend on how much we feel it. It doesn't depend upon our feelings at all. We may not feel perfected. We may not act perfected. We may not even realize that we are perfected.
But this is something objectively that happened before we were born. It happened in the cross of Christ, and it is something that is accomplished by Him. It's not something that is accomplished by us.
It is not something that is improved upon by us. It is not something that is made effective by us. It is something that was made effective and secured and accomplished through the one offering on the cross.
That is why the text in verse 14 says, by one offering He has perfected those who are in Him, those who are sanctified. It doesn't say that our faith perfects us because of what Christ has done, nor does it say that our faith, our belief, our repentance, or our good deeds are instrumental in perfecting us, nor does it say that we are being perfected present tense.
It means that there is a state of perfection, reconciliation with God, and all of the current blessings that we enjoy which are part of that, which are secured for us by the death of Christ in His death on the cross.
That offering, that one offering, has done the work of perfecting those for whom He died. So that past event created a present state which we, you and I, enjoy, and Christ has done that. It is not something that we do.
It is not something we contribute to. It is something that He has done. He is the one who has achieved this. And how long has He achieved it for? Verse 14, By one offering He has perfected for all time.
That's forever. Forevs, bro, forevs. Forever and ever and ever. This is not something that wears out. It's not something that peters out. It's not something that kind of loses its effectiveness after a period of time.
This thing which He has accomplished, it lasts forever. It secures forever all those for whom that state of perfection has been secured. It is an eternal thing, an everlasting thing, because it does not depend upon us, and because it is not ours to contribute to, and because it is not ours to work out or to work for.
It's already been achieved. And so since He has done it, and it was done at the cross, what He accomplished at the cross has everlasting and eternal and forever benefits and realities. He has perfected, reconciled forever those for whom He has died.
So now we come, that's the effect of His sacrifice, His work on the cross, and now we come to the extent of it in verse 14. Who is it that He has perfected? Who is it that has been made perfect in this sense, been reconciled to God?
Who has been made perfect by that sacrifice? Verse 14 says He has perfected for all time a particular group, a particular group of people. Who is it? It is described as those who are sanctified. He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
Now that word sanctified, this is not the first time that we have read about this concept of being sanctified. A few weeks ago when we were in verse 10, and I just want you to look up in chapter 10, verse 10.
A few weeks ago when we were in this verse, we saw what it means to be sanctified. Verse 10, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now notice there the reference to the offering again.
He is talking about the offering in verse 10. He describes the offering in verse 14. This offering in verse 10 has sanctified us. The offering in verse 14 has perfected us. It is the same offering, and it is the same group of people who are sanctified in verse 10 and are perfected in verse 14.
For in verse 10 he says that we by God's will have been sanctified or set apart, and that's what the word sanctified means. I'll just remind you of what we covered back in verse 10. Back in verse 10 I said there are three tenses to the word sanctified, or three stages of sanctification.
There is a past event of sanctification where we are set apart for God by God in eternity past. Paul describes this in Galatians 1 .15 that God set him apart. God sanctified him even before he was in his mother's womb.
God knows us. He has sanctified us and set us apart for himself when he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's Ephesians 1. When we were granted grace in Christ Jesus before the world began.
That's 2 Timothy 2. That act of God choosing us has set us apart for himself. Then there is a present reality of sanctification. That is the process of sanctification where we are made holy in our conduct, where we grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ, and God conforms us to the image of Christ.
So as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and we grow in our understanding of truth, and we mortify sin, and we become more and more like Christ and more and more obedient, we become slaves of obedience, that's progressive or present-day current sanctification.
But then there is coming a time when we will be sanctified, set apart entirely even from the presence of sin. That is in the future when we are glorified. So in the past we are set apart in God's choosing, in eternity past.
We are set apart by the death of Christ and his sacrifice on the cross even before we are born. Then we are continually being sanctified and changed, conformed into the image of his Son presently, ultimately striving for that final glorification and that final sanctification which is yet future.
And it is by this will, verse 10 says, the will of God that sent Christ to give his life on a cross, that same will has sanctified us or set us apart in him. Now back in verse 10, the tense of sanctified was in the perfect tense, meaning that verse 10's sanctification describes, or the reference to sanctification in verse 10, describes a past event, namely the offering of the body of Jesus.
Look at verse 10. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That offering, verse 10, sanctified us. That is a past event that took place that has brought about a present state of reality, a present condition.
Currently we enjoy that position, if you will, of being set apart or sanctified by God for God because of what Christ has done. On the cross before you were born, God sanctified you, set you apart for himself through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then in verse 14, the word sanctified is in the present tense. Now if you're reading the NASB, it doesn't look like that because verse 10 says sanctified, verse 14 says sanctified. But if you're reading the NIV or an ESV, then you'll notice that it refers, it puts it in a present tense.
The ESV says those who are being sanctified and the NIV says those who are being made holy. That's the same idea. So those two versions kind of capture the present tense sense of the word sanctified in verse 14.
You say is that significant? I think it is. And here's why. It reflects the fact that those who are sanctified in the past by the death of Christ are also being sanctified, made holy in the present through the work of the Holy Spirit.
So there's two senses of sanctified being described between verses 10 and verse 14. Two tenses and two senses of sanctification. And what are they? They're the past act which God has done, which you had nothing to do with.
Then there is the present act which God is doing with which you cooperate and pursue holiness without which no one sees the Lord. Those are two different elements of sanctification. So in the past this one happened.
It has brought about a current state, namely your present being sanctified or being made holy. Why does the author use the present tense here in verse 14 and not again the past tense? Because he could have used the past tense.
He could have said that by one offering Christ has perfected all those whom he in that same offering sanctified, past tense.
He could have referred back.
To the same kind of sanctification that he mentions in verse 10. He could have done that in verse 14. He could have said for by one offering he has perfected all those whom in the same offering back then he sanctified.
But instead he switches it and uses the present tense referenced sanctification. Why is that? I think that there are a couple of reasons and I'll give them to you. First, by using the present tense the author connects what happened in the past with what continues to happen in the present.
Do you see that? He is reminding us again that those who are set apart by the death of Christ are those who are being set apart by the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying them and making them holy today.
So that there is a connection between what happened in the past positionally and what happens in the present with us practically or experientially. That those who are sanctified in the death of Christ are also sanctified in their daily walk.
And nobody who can say that they are sanctified by the death of Christ sorry, nobody who can say that they are not being sanctified today can say that they were sanctified in the death of Christ. There's no reason there's no way you can know that.
The only evidence that you were sanctified back then is if you are being sanctified today. So the author by using the present tense is describing here this connection between that past event and a present reality.
So that our salvation which was secured in the past is experienced by us in the present and it would be fulfilled in the future. And at no point between the past and the future will God ever drop what He is doing along the way.
If He sanctified you in the death of Christ I promise you this He will sanctify you in this life and He will ultimately sanctify you in the future. And nobody in the future in hell will be able to say yes I was sanctified in the death of Christ and then I was sanctified in the life that I lived but at some point I fell off and now God failed to sanctify me in the future and removed me from the very presence of sin.
That will never happen. Because this tense of sanctification this work of sanctification takes place positionally in the past.
It was worked out.
Experientially by us in the present and it will ultimately be fulfilled fully in the future when God delivers us from the presence of sin. And again this work of being transformed practically into what Christ has made us it is only because He has already guaranteed what the outcome is.
But you understand this because God has secured the ultimate outcome of your salvation because He has done that. And when did He do it? On the cross in Christ through that offering because He has done that.
He is making you today what you will eventually be. Moving you in that direction. It must be so. If He is not sanctifying you if you are not being made holy if you are not progressing in holiness you have no reason.
In your life.
To believe that you were sanctified.
Back then.
Or that you will be sanctified in the future. The evidence that you have that you were set apart for God back then is the fact that you are pursuing holiness and you love holiness and you are being sanctified today.
That is the evidence you look at. We don't go back to a prayer that we prayed. We don't go back to an evangelistic meeting we were at where we walked down the sawdust trail and fell on our faces before some holy man who was up there spitting and yelling and screaming and preaching and thinking that was when God saved me.
That is not what we go back to. What do we go back to? We look at our present life and say am I pursuing holiness? Am I growing in holiness? Is God conforming me into the image of Christ? Do I love the things I once hated and hate the things that I once loved?
And if that's true that's my evidence that I was sanctified.
So there is a connection here between what happened in the past and what is taking place in the present for those who are sanctified. For by one offering He has forever perfected back then at the cross those who are currently being made holy.
Those who are being sanctified. There is a connection. The Bible never divorces our sanctification in the past from our sanctification in the present nor does it divorce our sanctification in the present from our sanctification in the future.
We are the sanctified ones. That's the root word of the word saint. And because we are saints that means that all three tenses of this sanctification are ours because of what Christ has done. The second thing that using the present tense does is it answers an objection and the objection usually goes something like this.
Jim, if you believe and think that you were saved or that your salvation was secured on the cross of Christ then that must mean that you think that it doesn't matter how you live from that point forward at any point in your life and that you're going.
To go to heaven.
Because your salvation is guaranteed. I had a young man say this to me in my office. He sat down in my office one time and he said God chose me and eternity passed. It doesn't matter if I commit adultery on my wife which he was currently in the process of planning on doing when I talked with him.
So his view was that because he was he looked back at his election and said my election has secured my salvation it doesn't matter how I live. And I looked at him and I said the very fact.
That you think that.
Is evidence to me that you're not saved. Because saved people.
Don't think that way.
And so this answers that objection. Is it possible for me to just live an unsanctified, unholy, impenitent and unrepentant life loving my sin, diving in it, swimming in it, enjoying it, planning it and glorying in that sin and expect to be ultimately saved from it in the future?
That's not possible.
Those who were.
Sanctified in the past are being sanctified in the present. Third, this word used in the present tense helps us identify those for whom he died. The limits of this sacrifice, the limits of the extent of his sacrifice is prescribed right here in the text.
Who is it that has been perfected for all time permanently by the death of Christ? Here's the question. Was it all men who have ever lived, even those who were in hell at the time that Jesus died, or was it a group of people known as God's elect, his people, his sheep, his bride, the believers?
For whom did Christ do this work of perfecting us and sanctifying us? Who was included in that sacrifice? This gets down to the heart of the difference between Reformed theology and Arminian theology which is the extent of the atonement.
For whom did Christ die? Now listen, unless you believe, and we said this some weeks ago because this is not the first time we've had to address this, so just if you're new here, understand that we've worked through this issue in the past as we've gone through this middle section of the book of Hebrews.
This is not the first time we've talked about this. As I mentioned several weeks ago when we talked about this subject again in another passage that deals with it here in the book of Hebrews, everybody limits the atonement.
So if you're upset by the notion of limited atonement or the phrase limited atonement, just understand, unless you believe that everybody goes to heaven, you limit the atonement. If you believe that Jesus died for all the people who have ever lived and he paid the price for every sin that's ever been committed, then you believe that the atonement is unlimited in its scope, but you believe that it is limited in its power because though he paid the price for all those people, that price doesn't actually save and secure any of them since millions perish, and therefore you believe in an atonement that is unlimited in its scope but limited in its power.
If you believe that Jesus Christ died to pay the price for his people and his people only and that atonement has not been made and the price has not been paid for those who go to hell, then you believe that the atonement is limited in its scope but unlimited in its power because the atonement that is made ends up saving.
All those for whom.
It was made. So everybody limits the atonement. You limit the scope of it or you limit the power of it. If you limit the scope of the atonement, then you are saying that it is man,.
Sorry,.
Let me get this right, okay, you either limit the atonement.
By,.
You either believe that God limits the atonement in his intention or you believe that man limits the atonement by his response to it. So if you believe in an unlimited atonement that is paid for all people who have ever lived, that Christ bore all of their sins, then you believe that the power of the atonement is limited by the response of men, that we by our faith.
Make effective.
The sacrifice of Christ, that man limits the atonement by his unbelief,.
The effectiveness.
Of the atonement. If you believe that Christ died to pay the sins for his people, then you believe that God has limited the atonement by his intention in sending Christ to die for the sins of his people.
But everybody limits the atonement. So don't get upset by the idea of limited atonement. The only person who believes in a truly unlimited atonement is somebody who believes that everybody gets saved in the end and that hell will be empty, save only the demons.
And even then you'd have to say that Jesus didn't die for the demons, so even then you'd have to say that his atonement was limited. So here's the question,.
This perfection.
In verse 14, this state of sanctification in verse 10 that was accomplished in the offering of Jesus Christ, was that done for all men or for some? Was it done for all men or for some? Can you say or would you say that all men are sanctified in the death of Christ?
If all men are sanctified in the death of Christ, then would not all men be being sanctified.
Today?
And would not all men eventually be sanctified in the future?
You'd have.
To say that. Would you say that all men, everyone who has ever lived, even those in hell at the time that Jesus died, that all of them have been perfected through the offering of Jesus Christ? Can the person in hell right now say for by one his one offering.
I was perfected.
For all time? Can the person in hell.
Say that?
No, the person in hell cannot say that because they were not perfected by the death of Christ. And again, this state of sanctification and perfection is something that is achieved in the death of Christ, not our response to it.
It is not our faith that perfects us.
It's the offering.
That perfects us. It's not the offering that makes our perfection possible so long.
As we respond.
Appropriately and work it out and achieve it or make it active and effective.
By our faith.
Our faith does not achieve this. His offering achieves this. That's the point of verse 14. By that one offering He has achieved this. He has done this. He has perfected for all time.
Those for whom.
He died.
So follow the argument of the author through the book of Hebrews if you will. The author has been arguing that the death of Jesus is infinitely superior to the death of all the animal sacrifices that were made in the Old Testament.
Why? Because the death of Christ actually achieves the purpose for which He made that offering. He sacrificed. The death of Christ is infinitely superior to the Old Testament sacrifices because those sacrifices had no inherent power to justify us, to sanctify us, to glorify us, to make us holy, to liberate us from sin, to reconcile the worshiper to God.
Those Old Testament sacrifices had no inherent power in themselves to atone for sin, to cleanse the conscience, to forgive transgression, to satisfy the wrath of God, or to secure eternal salvation. Those Old Testament sacrifices had no ability to do that.
But the sacrifice of Christ, on the other hand, is infinitely powerful and infinitely able to achieve all of that. If in His death He perfected for all time those for whom He died, then those for whom He died have received an actual atonement, not a potential atonement.
They have received a satisfaction of divine wrath. They've been reconciled to God. An actual payment has been made. They have been forgiven. They've been justified. They are sanctified. He has set us apart as His own, and He has perfected us forever.
So those for whom He has died, did He achieve this perfection for all men? Ask the question another way, are all men perfected? If the answer to that is no, then the answer to the first question is no.
He did not achieve that for all men. He did achieve that for some. So here's the horns of the dilemma. If the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in and of itself secured and accomplished these things so that they are guaranteed to those for whom He died, then it obviously was not made for all men.
If the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in and of itself did not secure these things so as to infallibly guarantee and secure the salvation of all those for whom He died, then the sacrifice of Jesus is not superior to the Old Testament sacrifices.
We're coming back around to the question I asked you at the beginning. You see, those Old Testament sacrifices didn't guarantee the salvation of anybody either, did they? Those Old Testament sacrifices were made for thousands, nine millions of people, and they were effective for none of them.
They didn't perfect the worshiper, they didn't achieve their salvation, didn't achieve their sanctification, didn't deliver them, didn't atone for sin. Those Old Testament sacrifices were useless for all of those things.
They perfectly did what they were supposed to do, but in terms of our salvation and atonement, those Old Testament sacrifices did not achieve that. So if you say that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has secured infallibly the salvation of all those for whom He has died, then it must not be made for all people.
But if you argue that it was made for all people, then I say to you it was no more effective than the Old Testament sacrifices because the sacrifice of Jesus and the Old Testament sacrifices at least have this thing in common, that neither of them secured infallibly the salvation of anybody for whom it was made.
Both of those groups of sacrifices, the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the animals, both of those sacrifices required something else to make them effective. And so therefore, the sacrifice of Jesus is not superior at all to the sacrifice of the animals, at least in this regard, that neither one of them guarantees the salvation of anybody.
But if indeed He has perfected.
Forever all those.
For whom He has died, then He has in that death and in that offering secured gloriously and infallibly and fully and forever the eternal salvation, redemption, glory, and blessedness.
Of all those.
Who are included in the sacrifice. And if He has done that, it is a limited sacrifice and not an unlimited sacrifice in terms of its scope. For I believe that it is unlimited in terms of its power and effect because it fully accomplishes everything He came to do.
So remember the question I asked you. Is there any way in which any of the features of the New Covenant are inferior to the Old Covenant? Are there any features or forms of the New Covenant that are inferior to the Old Covenant?
Now, the Old Testament sacrifices, this is going to require you to think for a little bit. If you haven't been thinking now, up till now, now is the time to put it into gear, the thinking gear. The Old Testament sacrifices accomplished what they were intended to accomplish.
They accomplished it perfectly. They fulfilled their role. The Old Testament sacrifices were intended as a reminder of sin year after year. Did they do that? Yeah, every year they brought the sacrifice, a reminder of my sins year after year.
The author of Hebrews says that earlier in chapter 10. Those Old Testament sacrifices were a reminder of sin year after year. That's what they were intended to do. They fulfilled or accomplished their purpose.
Those Old Testament sacrifices were intended to cover sin, not remove sin, not take it out of the way, but to cover over until another sacrifice could be made, namely the sacrifice of Christ. So those Old Testament sacrifices fulfilled that role.
Those Old Testament sacrifices were to be a prophetic picture of the sacrifice of Christ. Did the Old Testament sacrifices fulfill that? Yeah, they perfectly pictured the sacrifice of Christ just as God intended.
And those Old Testament sacrifices were intended to demonstrate the seriousness of sin and that a sacrifice would be necessary to atone for sin. That's what the Old Testament sacrifices were intended to do.
To be a reminder of sin year after year, to cover over sin, to prophetically picture Christ, and then to demonstrate the seriousness of sin. Now I ask you, did the Old Testament animal sacrifices fulfill the purpose for which they were given?
Yeah, they did. Every last one of those things. The Old Testament sacrifices.
Did that.
The Old Testament sacrifices fulfilled the purpose for which God made them or gave them. Now in the death of Christ, if you believe, number one, that you can lose your salvation, or number two, that Jesus Christ made atonement and paid the price for millions of people who perish in hell, then I ask you this, does the death of Christ fulfill the purpose that He came to die for?
If He came to make atonement and to save all people and He doesn't do that, then did He fulfill His purpose? That's not difficult. If Jesus Christ came to make an atonement and He tried to save all people and He doesn't do that, millions of people perish, then did Jesus' sacrifice fulfill its purpose?
It did not, did it? No, because you'd have to argue that He came to perfect and to provide perfection and sanctification for millions of people who are even right now in hell. Therefore, He did not achieve the purpose for which He came.
His sacrifice does not have its intended effect. If the intended effect or the intended result is the salvation of all men, and He doesn't achieve that salvation of all men, then His sacrifice did not do what it was intended to accomplish.
And in that way, then, the sacrifice of Jesus is inferior to the Old Testament sacrifices because the Old Testament sacrifices did what they were intended to do. You would have to argue if you believe in unlimited atonement or if you believe you can lose your salvation, then you have to believe that the sacrifice of Jesus is inferior because it did not do what it was intended to do.
Does that make sense? Did He achieve what He came to achieve? Or did He fail in the task? If He achieved what He came to achieve, then He has perfected forever all those for whom He died. And none will be lost, and none will be forgotten, and none will be left out.
He will gather them all together, all His sheep. His whole body will be there. His whole bride will be there. All His sheep will be there. All whom the Father gave Him will be there. Why? Because He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and He came to give His life as a ransom for His people and to save them from their sin.
He didn't come to make salvation possible. He didn't come to make salvation probable. He didn't come to simply open the door to God's grace that people can come in and maybe some will, maybe some won't, and God is in heaven wringing His hands, hoping to see, waiting to see how many people come in.
God is not waiting for our faith or our response to the gospel to make the sacrifice of Christ effective. He came to do what He came to do and He fulfilled His purpose fully and completely, and that makes His sacrifice at least as glorious as the Old Testament sacrifices, and I would argue more so because those Old Testament sacrifices could never perfect and never guarantee the salvation of anyone for whom they are offered.
If the offering of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of Christ is greater than the Old Testament sacrifices, then that means that He has guaranteed the salvation of all those for whom He died, and if He has guaranteed the salvation of all those for whom He died, then He did not die for the millions who will perish.
He perfects forever all those for whom He died. He didn't attempt to perfect us.
He did.
He didn't attempt to sanctify us.
He didn't attempt to satisfy God's wrath on our behalf. He actually did, and He doesn't attempt to save anyone. He saves. Our God does not try to do anything. He does what He intends to do, always, fully, and perfectly.
By one offering, He has perfected forever those who have been sanctified.
By that offering.
And those who are sanctified, His people. That is the effect of His offering, and that is the extent of His offering, and it is a perfect sacrifice.
Father, we thank You for such a great mercy and such a great sacrifice as what Christ has done on our behalf. It is only by Your grace, and not by our doing or our works or our faith that we are included in that, but by Your grace.
And the blessings which we now enjoy, repentance, faith, regeneration, a relationship with You, these things flow out of what has been secured for us on the cross. And so we thank You for those things, those blessings, and we thank You for that work of Christ which has made it possible and secured it for us.
We stand in You, with You, before You, in Jesus Christ, righteous, perfected, sanctified, only because of the work of another. And so we give all glory and honor and thanks to Him, our great God, our Savior, our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His name we pray.
Amen.
Please stand. Have a great week.