Obedience Required (Part 2) - [Hebrews 10:1-10]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, this morning I'd like to ask you this question to start the sermon.

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What blows your mind? What would you think would be awesome? I think that's a word, of course, we throw around all the time, awesome.

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How many times in your life have you been so amazed your mouth just drops and you just stare?

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And you're thinking, that is just incredible, that is awesome. Those moments, I say,

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I think, are few and far between. Of course, when you watch a baby being born, you think, this is just, this is awesome.

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Maybe the first time you went to the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls and you think, this is awesome. I remember when

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I went to the Sea of Galilee for the first time and I thought, a real historical Jesus walked around and by this sea and I just had to pick up a rock and just skip it.

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And I just thought, this is like one of my most spiritual moments ever. It's awesome to think we're not worshiping some phantom, but a real historical

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Jesus. Maybe when you got married, you thought, this is awesome.

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But these moments are few and far between. And of course, at the top of the list for Christians, the most awesome thing is, knowing that we're so sinful and we deserve

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God's judgment, our conscience even bearing witness to that, we get to be forgiven.

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Isn't that awesome? No matter what you've done, Christian, you're forgiven because Christ's death is so great.

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That old song that says, grace greater than all our what? Sins. It is awesome to be forgiven.

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And we won't know the half of it until we get to glory and see our risen savior face to face.

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But maybe number two in my list of awesomeness is that God chose sinners before Genesis one to save.

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It's amazing to think of that. What was God doing before he made the world?

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Now we know God exists. The Bible says in Psalm 90, before the mountains were brought forth, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are

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God. God is eternal. And so even before Genesis one, one, I probably can't even use the word before because it's a time word in eternity.

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God existed before he created anything. This great God who said to Moses, I am who

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I am. I just exist. What's your name? I exist. I am this

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God in revelation one who says, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the one who is, and the one who was, and the one who is to come the almighty.

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This morning we're going to look at in the book of Hebrews. What was God doing before he made the world?

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Now of course, when Augustine was asked that question, what was God doing before he created the world?

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Augustine's alleged sarcastic reply was creating hell for curious souls. I wouldn't go that far.

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Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist of the 19th century said, if God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to create.

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Back of that commencement, there must have been an eternity. In that eternity, what was this

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God doing? He certainly did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever happened.

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What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence, an infinite nothing wasting an eternity?

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Well, today we're going to look at what the Bible teaches that God was doing. And of course, God is existing as a triune

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God, one God, three persons with perfect satisfaction within the Trinity, perfect love, perfect contentment.

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Please take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 10, and we're going to ask the question and answer it. What was

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God doing in eternity past? Was there a plan that he made in eternity past?

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What was that plan? And I think as we study it today, you are going to say, that's awesome.

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It will rank right up there on your awesome list. You will probably say with Paul in Romans chapter 11, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.

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The eternal decree of God. And what I like about this topic is it forces you to study who

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God is. The focus is on the Godhead. We're thinking about who he is and what he does instead of spiraling down into ourselves.

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Remember, Luther said we're curved in on ourselves, just naturalistically, naturally a narcissistic.

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The study of the Godhood helps you. Spurgeon said, this study of the Godhead is the highest science, the loftiest speculation the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God.

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There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity.

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So deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. I like that.

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And the book of Hebrews starts off from the very beginning, like Genesis chapter one, without a lot of intro, without a lot of formalities.

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It's just instantly God. And this God in Hebrews, like the God in Genesis, he exists and he exists for his own pleasure.

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And he exists to be exalted by his creatures. Jesus in this book of Hebrews is known as the great king, the great savior, the great high priest.

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He's the mediator and he expects to be worshipped. You say, well, how good is

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Jesus? He lays out, does not the writer of Hebrews. Angels are great. You'd probably worship them, but you shouldn't.

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Jesus is greater. Moses is great. If you met him, you probably be a groupie, but you shouldn't be because Jesus is so much greater.

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Aaron is great. The system of the old Testament was great and purple and vestments and incense and gold.

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But you shouldn't worship that. Jesus is the one with whom you have to do on that day.

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And he's the one that you will focus on as you live by faith. Last week, we asked this question.

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We began to look at Hebrews 10, 1 to 10. Here was the question. Why was Jesus born? Why did what we call

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Christmas have to exist? And the answers are found in verses 1 to 10.

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Why was Jesus born? Number one, he had to be born because the sacrifices of animals were inadequate.

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Verses one through four. Let me just read that. Make a couple comments in review. He had to be born because sacrifices of animals wouldn't do.

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Verse one. 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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And we know they didn't work because they kept going. 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 these sacrifices, 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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So remember, God wants obedience of his creatures. We disobey, the wages of sin is death.

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There's a sacrifice. There'd be no sacrifice needed if there was obedience. If you obeyed, you wouldn't need a substitute, a sacrifice in your place.

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Sin is so bad against God, something has to die either you do or the sacrifice.

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And here, in anticipation, as shadows, as the silhouette, as this outline in the

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Old Testament would show us, sacrifices needed to be done, but they were all pointing to the real one and done final sacrifice.

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I like verse three when it says, there is a reminder of sins every year. That is language only used, remember, when

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Jesus talks about the Lord's Supper. What is the Lord's Supper as he's instituting it? He's with the disciples in the upper room, and it's the last

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Passover, the first Lord's Supper, and he says what? Do this in remembrance of me. The sacrifice was, do this in remembrance of your sins.

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Do this in remembrance of your sins. These sacrifices meant, you remember your sins, make them very clear in the forefront of your mind.

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You sin all the time. But now in the New Covenant, because of what Jesus did, all those types and shadows pointed over here, and now we have the reality, and the

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New Covenant is, do this in what? Remembrance of me, because the New Covenant is, he remembers your sins no more.

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Christ had to be born because the sacrifices were pointers. They didn't ultimately forgive one sin.

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Number two, we also observed last week, why was Jesus born? Sacrifices didn't work, and secondly, he had to be born because only

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Christ's sacrifice could fulfill God's will. Only his sacrificial life and death could fulfill the will of God, verse 5 of chapter 10.

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And by the way, if you're here visiting, we're thankful you're here. We just marched through the Bible, verse by verse, and the main thing about Bible study that's important is that you see it for yourself, and you can see the context.

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I want you to be able to read this when you go home and say, that's exactly right. When you hear me say something and you go, my pastor's so smart or intellectual or so this, that, or the other, he sees things in the text

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I could never see. It's a bad thing. I want you to see that. Now, you might see, now he showed me context, and he's shown me this, that, and the other, so I can grasp it.

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But I want you to know, and what you need to know is, sinful people need a sacrifice, and not just animals, but the ultimate sacrifice,

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Jesus. And what did this Jesus do? Verse 5. Consequently, when

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Christ, the Messiah, came into the world, he said, and I asked the question last week, what did you say when you came into the world?

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What did Mr. Crane, young Mr. Crane, one day old yesterday, say when he came into the world? I wasn't there, but I could guess.

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He didn't say this. 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, this is the

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Messiah talking. He existed in eternity past, he's doing the Father's will, he enters into the world, into the time -space continuum, if you will, and he said, verse 7,

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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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Before Genesis 1, the Father and the Son with the Spirit have a plan, and that plan could have been eradicate humanity, they deserve it, and justice would have been upheld.

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But this plan, because God is a gracious God and a forgiving God, and a God who loves to give pardon, said to the

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Son, I want you to go obey. Adam didn't obey, somebody has to obey, and Adam was the representative of all humanity, he disobeyed.

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Jesus, my Son, in eternity past, you go rescue the lost people by being the last

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Adam and perfectly obey. Notice verse 5,

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A body you have prepared for me. Here we have the sinless

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Jesus. Think of the Holy Spirit hovering over Mary to make sure that baby

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Jesus was not tainted by sin. And you have the triune God making sure that this baby Jesus, born of a virgin, who has to be real man to be a representative for real man and for real women, his body is made for the

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Lord and now with that body he obeys. No wonder Paul said in Galatians 4,

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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

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Jesus was righteous, he didn't have to obey the law to get righteousness, he obeyed the law to give righteousness to us.

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Now I want to ask you this question. When was this decided that Jesus would get this body?

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Was it kind of just this knee -jerk thing? And here's plan A, it went south, our if -then flowcharts.

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This was planned in eternity past, that the Father would give the Son a body and that Son would become incarnate and he would live the life on earth and die on the cross for sinners and be raised from the dead.

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One thing we know about God and we've learned from Scripture is that God decrees things, he plans things, he purposes things.

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And anybody that talks about a God who winds everything up and just lets it go, I mean I guess in my mind the only person that creates something and he's not in charge of it, that person's name is

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Dr. Frankenstein, I guess that might work. But the God who creates everything, he's in charge of everything and there's a plan and there's a purpose.

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So much so that when you think of the plan of God, I don't want you to think of plans plural, purposes plural, decrees plural.

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It's one thought in God's mind for all eternity and existence. Everything that's ever happened isn't stages, isn't time, isn't successive things, it's just the decree of God, the purpose of God, Ephesians chapter 3, including sending

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Jesus. Nobody's in eternity past forcing God to do it, this is free.

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Nobody's saying, God, I don't think you figured this out properly, you need to be a little more educated, there could be a little kind of problem that might have a bump in the road.

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No, God is free in his decision and wise. And God's decree didn't have to happen, he didn't have to do this.

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He was under no obligation to send his Son. Would you send your Son, your only

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Son, who is perfect, to go suffer your wrath for the sins of other people?

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Pink said, God was alone when he made his decrees and his determinations were influenced by no external cause.

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He was free to decree or not to decree. To decree one thing and not another. This liberty we must ascribe to him who is supreme, independent and sovereign in all his doings.

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Where is that God these days preached from the pulpit? And this decreeing

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God decrees from his eternal love, his eternal goodness, his eternal kindness.

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Terton said that very thing, the triune God does not decree all things in order to increase his goodness, which would be impossible, but in order to communicate to his creatures a share in his goodness.

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He's not doing it because we say, oh, he's better now, but so we get to understand this great

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God who's worthy to be worshipped and exalted. So when you look back to chapter 10, verse 5 through 10 essentially, do you see two times, one in verse 7, one in verse 9,

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Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. There it is again in verse 9,

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Behold, I have come to do your will. Here's my question. When was that will determined?

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When was that will decided? When was it told the Son, you go do this?

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And that's what we're going to look at today. When Jesus said, I have authority to lay down my life, crucifixion,

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I have authority to raise it up again, resurrection, this commandment I received from my Father. Christian, when did he receive that commandment from the

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Father? When Jesus prayed in John 17, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

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When did Jesus receive the work from the Father? And the answer is, in eternity.

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We call it eternity past, but eternity. Turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 1. Let's just think through this for a minute.

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This passage here in Titus 1 is the best. It just makes you have an exalted view of God. This passage along with this topic for this sermon, makes you take a telescope and have it the right side, the right side to your eye.

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You know, you take the lens and the big side of the telescope. I don't know what the parts of the telescope are.

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There's the big side, there's the eyepiece. When you put the eyepiece there, you see how big things are and you see properly.

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When you flip it around the wrong way, and you've got that big thing right here, what do you see then when you look through the telescope the wrong way?

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What do you see? I'll tell you what I see, my eyelashes. My own self. And this is kind of our life, you know, left to ourselves.

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We just focus on ourselves. This kind of contemplation, Spurgeon says, the telescope is switched, and you're going to see

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God for who He is. And you go, that God is worthy of worship. No wonder they're in heaven, falling on their faces saying, worthy is the

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Lamb who was slain. Titus chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect,

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I'm here to preach the gospel to the elect so they come to faith, and their knowledge of the truth. I'm here in gospel ministry so that the elect here, and also the saints begin to grow in sanctification, which accords with godliness, holy living, and also for glorification in hope of eternal life.

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Hey Paul, what's your ministry? Justification, sanctification, and glorification. He doesn't personally do it, but he talks about the one who does.

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He talks about the one who justifies, the elect come to faith, talks about the one who sanctifies, they become godly, and about the one who glorifies.

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That's why I'm in gospel ministry. But look at the comma, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.

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And you just kind of stop and let that sink in for a second. The God who never lies. By the way, Paul is writing to Titus, who is on the island of?

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Crete. And Crete, guess what's on Crete? Guess who's on Crete? Go ahead and say it.

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Well, Cretans, yes, I know that. There are lazy gluttons there, there are evil beasts, and there's who else?

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Liars. That's an island full of liars. You know, you got survivor, and the idol's island, what do they call it?

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This is liar's island. Everybody there's lying. By the way, when we went to Crete years ago with the church, and some of us,

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Lucille and others, we went, and so we're walking around Crete, and the people in Athens said, be careful of the

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Cretans, because they're not very good. And I said, they're like lazy gluttons there, and evil beasts, and liars?

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They're like, yes. I go, some things never change. I'm not really a

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Starbucks fan, but I wanted to get the Starbucks mug that said Crete, just to set on my desk as a statement.

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Everything about the Cretans, it was lies, lies, lies, even with pagan mythology. How does

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Zeus get the woman? By lying, so he can sleep with her. Even the Cretans lied and said,

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Zeus' tomb is on our island, which is also a lie. What's the text say?

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This is the unlying God. This is Hebrews chapter 6, it's impossible for God to lie.

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Paul says, I'm in gospel ministry, I want the faith of the elect to come to true, of fruition. I want people to learn and grow in godliness.

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I want them to be glorified. And this is a promise from God, who never lies. But here's the part

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I want to focus on. Promised before the ages began.

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Does the text say, promised to angels? Promised to people?

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Promised to Abraham? Promised to anybody? What does the text say? The text says, he promised.

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To whom did he make the promise? Eternity past, there's no one there, except the one

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God, subsisting in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And within the triune

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God in eternity past, there was a promise made. He promised. He determined in eternity past, to go rescue sinners.

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To whom did God make the promise? The Father to the Son. And just start thinking about this for a second.

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Wait a second. Before the world began, if you're a

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Christian, the Father said to the Son, I want you to go rescue him. You can just put your name right in there.

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You go rescue Mike Abendroth, along with all these other people. I didn't have to decree it. He didn't deserve it.

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But I'm so gracious, I'm so good, I'm so forgiving, that I'm going to go rescue this man, and it's going to display to people, that I'm a great

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God. The plan is great. The execution is great. The application is great.

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Everything about this is great, because the greatness is not found in that Mr. Abendroth. That's for certain. Before time begins, there's a plan to go rescue individual sinners, called the elect.

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This is called the covenant of redemption. This is called the pactum salutis. This is called the covenant of life.

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I don't care what you call it. I call it awesome. That's what I call it.

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Without this, there's no salvation. Without this, there's no heaven. Without this, there's no forgiveness.

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Here's how Martin Lloyd -Jones described it. There was a great eternal council between the Father, the

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Son, and the Spirit. Do we realize, I'll turn it to you, do you realize that your salvation was planned before the world was created?

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It is the realization of this fact that makes a man stand on tiptoe and shout out praise to God, chosen before the foundation of the world.

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Lloyd -Jones, the three persons met in a conference. I speak with reverence in terms of Scripture, and planned it.

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Let us get rid forever of the idea that salvation was an afterthought in the mind of God. It was not a thought that came to God after man had fallen into sin.

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It was planned before the foundation of the world. The work of Jesus, the cross,

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His life, the incarnation, the virgin birth, it's all planned, all determined. It had to happen because God doesn't make accidents.

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God doesn't perform things randomly. Turn please with me, if you would, to Ephesians 1, and you'll see the same kind of language.

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Remember, we're in the book of Hebrews, and the Lord Jesus says, I come to do your will.

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When was that will given? When were those instructions for obedience given? God requires obedience, and now the

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Son will go obey where all the sons of Adam disobeyed. Ephesians 1,

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I know you know the verse, but could you read it enough? We learned that Pastor John here lives in Beloit, Ohio, and he lives by the road called

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Damascus, right? Something close. That's a road to Damascus. That's a road to Damascus. Okay, don't all the roads lead to Damascus.

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This, by the way, was written not a year after Damascus Road experience where Paul got saved, not five years, not ten years, not twenty, but probably twenty -five years later.

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Do you know when you're a new Christian, you're all fired up, God is so great, you're running around evangelizing everybody, and you're like, okay, slow down,

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Pepe, you know, and we older people try to do that. Why do we do that? It's great to be around these new

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Christians, and they just can't stop saying, listen, I deserve to go to hell. I get to go to heaven. Why?

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How? I didn't do it. I didn't merit it. I didn't even look for it. I wasn't seeking it. God just said, you're mine. And He arrests us in the middle of our sin.

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And Paul never got over it. And here's Paul twenty -five years later. Did Paul get over his salvation? Blessed be the

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God and Father, verse 3, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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And at the top of the list, what does Paul praise God for? Before he praises God for redemption through the

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Son, before he praises God through sealing through the Spirit, here's the number one thing Paul praises the triune

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God for. Verse 4. By the way, you tell me I don't believe in predestination.

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Yes, you do. It's just what your definition is. Verse 4. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, not because we were holy.

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He doesn't pick based on what we are because He picks for free grace. But that we should be holy and blameless before Him. Predestination is so unloving, pastor.

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In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

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Who ties in praising God to sovereign election? Paul does.

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You should. Praising God that He would choose you and He knew all about you.

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I tell the story all the time. I know you probably hear it too often. But in my mind I'm thinking, okay,

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I asked Him on May 6th to marry me in 1989 and we got married on June 6th.

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You're like, why did you do that? And I tell people regularly because if she ever found out who

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I really was, she might say no. So let's get this thing done. I know she's a woman of her word.

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She's not going to back out once we say I do. Let's run to the altar. Come on. Promises kept.

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Worked. The Lord knew, though, everything about me that I would ever do with all my sins.

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I hadn't committed them yet, but He knew it and in eternity past, He said, you know what? I'm choosing you anyway that you would be holy.

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I'm choosing you anyway that you would be blameless. And in love, I'm going to predestine you. I'm going to pick you. There's a bunch of apples here and I just pick the ones

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I want. They're all rotten essentially, but I'm just going to pick these out and they're going to be mine and I'm going to send my son to go die for them, rescue them, and make them into what

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He is by union with Christ, by giving them His righteousness imputed and they're going to look just like Him in the sense of the legal standing and then

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He, on that great day of judgment, is going to hand them back to me perfectly, the perfect bride.

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That's why when it comes to all this and people are like, I just, Pastor, need four more ways to get through a work week.

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No, you don't. Because you've already broken all the other work week laws. Why should I give you four more to break this week?

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I already broke them too. I need to know who God is. Remember what that lady said to John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace?

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She said, Dr. Newton, I know God would have to choose me before I was born because He would never choose me afterwards.

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Isn't that true for every one of us? Everyone who's laughing, you're Stan convicted. So why?

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Before the foundation of the world, it has to be free. Well, what about my free will? I'm not talking about you right now.

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I'm talking about God. He's got free will, does He not? And He freely said, you're mine.

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Charlie Crane, you're mine. Jim Crusoe, you're mine. Carol Rathbun, you're mine.

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And son, I just can't accept them into my heaven because they're sinful and I'm holy.

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So what I want you to do, they're the law breakers, you go law keep for them in obedience.

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And the positive sanctions of the law, you go keep for them.

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And the penalty for law breaking, you go pay for them. And when you go do that, since you're sinless and you have had that great exchange, then

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I'll raise you from the dead. And then I'll start having the Holy Spirit apply that work to people in time.

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And so we have this eternity past. It's planned. At the cross, in Christ's life, cross, it's accomplished.

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Resurrection. And then in time, the Holy Spirit begins to make people alive. And Paul says, I praise God for that.

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Nobody praises God like this when they think, you know what, I chose God, I did the work, I took the first step, God helps those who help themselves.

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Whatever God's given you, you do what you can with it and then God will do the rest. This is full bore,

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God only gets the praise. As my brother would say, you're not going to get to heaven and fist bump

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God and say, we did it. And this is not really that awesome unless we know how sinful we really are.

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But deep down, don't we know? It's like empirically true. I couldn't empirically prove this, but I probably could empirically prove that we're sinful people.

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You say, well that's just one or two verses here or there. 2 Timothy chapter 1, He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

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How about Revelation 13? And all who dwell on earth will worship

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Him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the

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Lamb who has been slain. There is a book. You say, well I think God looks down the corridors of time,

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He sees that I believe in Jesus and pick me. Do you like that? I call that wormhole theology.

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Some kind of wormhole thing. Here's what God sees when He looks down the corridor of time. People dead in sins and trespasses, people blinded by Satan, the

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God of the age ruling them, and they can't do anything. Plus if God looked down the corridor of time and saw that you did something, then

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He would be learning something in eternity past. That can't work either. This is all so God can be extolled and God can be the one who's praised.

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And dear friends, what God determined to do in eternity past, can you lose in time?

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I'm really struggling with anxiety or I'm really struggling with this, that or the other. I'm not loving my wife like I should.

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I'm not submitting to my husband as I should. I'm not doing this that I should. I'm not doing this, that and the other. I know

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Christian sin. But what do you do when your child sins? Kick them out of the family? Especially when that determination in eternity past has been to I'm going to rescue them and redeem them and sanctify them and glorify them.

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Can you undo in time what God has decreed in eternity past? The answer is obvious.

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Jesus had to obey. He needed a body to obey. And the Father said, You go seek and save the lost.

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Yes, Father. You go give your life a ransom for many. Yes, Father. You go keep the law.

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Yes, Father. You go reconcile people. Yes, Father. You go redeem people out of the slave pit of sin.

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Yes, Father. And every time we should have been the ones saying, Yes, Father, we will obey.

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We'll love you. We'll love our neighbor. We couldn't, but the Lord, the Son did. Swiss theologian

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Heidegger said, The covenant of God the Father with the Son is a mutual agreement by which

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God the Father exacted from the Son perfect obedience to the law unto death which

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He must face on behalf of His chosen seed to be given Him and promised

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Him. If He gave the obedience, the seed in question as His own prerequisite and inheritance and in His return, the

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Son in promising this obedience to God the Father and producing in the literal act demanded of Him in turn, the right to demand the seed for Himself as an inheritance.

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The Father gives a work for the Son to do and He does it. When was that work decided? Turn to John chapter 3, please.

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Let's continue to answer that question. I know we're skipping around here and there, but it's important for you to understand that God is eternal.

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His plans are eternal and they're worked out in time. And once you start to think about this,

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I think you're going to say, This is incredible. This is wonderful. Why don't people tell me about this all the time?

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You say, That's controversial. Oh, it in fact could be. But here's what I say to people who say, Well, Pastor, I don't think you should be talking about this on Sunday morning.

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This should be for home group. If you're going to split up the church, do it at Pradeep's home group. Split up his church, his little home group rather.

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Sorry, it's not a church. Do it there. This can't be for everybody. This is

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Paul and Ephesians to a bunch of farmers and agragarian folks who aren't really,

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I mean, they're smart, but they're not intelligentsia academia.

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He just wants them to know. Did the Holy Spirit mess up by putting this in here? God, you know, keep that stuff, that eternal decree stuff to yourself.

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It just causes problems. No, it doesn't cause problems if you'll submit to it. It causes praise. Show me somebody who looks at all the promises of God about all the eternity past and still says,

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Well, whosoever and I've got free will, I want to help them and work with them and help them mature. But God's on first to use the language.

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It's God who's the one who's God, the Godness of God. Where is the Godness of God from the pulpits these days?

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Oh, God's my buddy. God's my friend. He's my little, you know, toy. He does what

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I say. Now, here's what we're gonna do with John. Did I say

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John chapter 3? All right, John chapter 3. I want you to follow with me and see if you see a theme.

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What's the theme? John 3 .17 For God did not send his

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Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Verse 34, please.

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What's the theme? For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the

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Spirit without measure. John 6 .29 You already see the theme and it's a recurrent word.

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John 6 .29 Jesus answered them, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has what?

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Sent. The theme is he sent. When did the Father send the

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Son? That's the question. Jesus kept saying over and over and over. The Father sent me. The Father sent me. The Father sent me.

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When did he decide to send the Father? That's the question. And of course, the answer is in eternity past. 6 .38

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For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will because obedience, by the way, has to be fulfilled.

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Adam failed. We need to obey. But the will of him who sent me. Obey the Father. Do this and live.

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Love God, love neighbor. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on that last day.

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I'm going to live for every one of those and die for every one of those and every one of those that the Father has given. And by the way, he didn't give all and he didn't give none, but these sum that the

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Father has given, the Son dies for those sum, lives for those sum, the Spirit of God raised for those sum.

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6 .57 As the Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

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And we could go on to chapter 8, chapter 10, verses 11. In chapter 11, he sent me, he sent me, he sent me.

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When did the Father decide to send? And the answer is in eternity past. Jesus said to Pilate, when

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Pilate said, so you're a king? Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king. For this purpose,

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I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

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Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And Pilate said, what is truth?

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After this, he said, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. Friends, the doctrine that Hebrews author is trying to get through our minds with Titus and Ephesians is that in eternity past, there was a plan and that plan included you, dear

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Christian. And when I think of that, I think, I want to praise God. Where was my faithfulness in eternity past?

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There wasn't any. Where is my free will in eternity past? There wasn't any. Where were the angels in eternity past to make a promise to?

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There weren't any. Before angels, before matter, before this globe, before anything,

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God makes a promise to go rescue sinners like you and like me.

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This informs me about something. Too many people have kind of like a schtick version of God's love.

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Well, what's God's love? You know, I go to the gym sometimes and I know these dear people mean well.

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I mean, we all went through that charismatic T -shirt phase, did we not? I don't mind charismatic

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T -shirts as long as they're good. God loves you this much and it shows some guy bench pressing, you know,

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Jesus bench pressing some cross beam. I'm sorry, even if you are my friend, don't wear that shirt.

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You can clean bikes with it, that might be good. It's just kind of sentimental and maudlin and sappy and, you know, the love of Jesus, He loves you this much.

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Friends, these are the kind of passages that tell you the immensity of God's love. They guard from some kind of sentimentality and protect us against the speculations of what happens.

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This is the love of God. In love, He predestined you. He chose you.

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One writer said, the Spirit's love for the Father and the Son is expressed in His work to bring this plan to completion.

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And the Father and the Son's love for the Spirit is expressed in pouring out on the church as their special gift from heaven.

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Hey, wait a second, I'm thinking too smallly. I think this choosing of me is because God loves me and He's eternally loved me.

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That's true, but friends, that's secondary. Here's the primary love, that the Father loved the

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Son and the Son loved the Spirit and the Spirit loved the Father. And because they were love, because they love, in terms of definition,

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God is love, then they show that love by communicating it to others for all the more glory.

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God has intrinsic glory that He can't have additions to or subtractions thereof. But He has a glory that can be, that intrinsic glory can be recognized and you say, yes, in fact, that's that glorified

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God. So the same thing with love. God is love. Father to the Son, to the Spirit, Spirit to the Father. And you say, since God loves people, that must be a manifestation of His love within the triune

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God. It's amazing to me. It's fascinating to me. This, dear

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Christian friend, should give you comfort. It should give you assurance. Is the

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Father going to let down the Son or the Son let down the Holy Spirit? Christ did the work and it was work.

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One writer said, the God of Scripture has no plan B or plan C. His plan A is from everlasting to everlasting.

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It is both perfect and unchangeable as it rests on God's eternal character, which is among other things, holy, omniscient and immutable.

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God's eternal plan is not revised because of moral imperfections. Within it, that must be purified.

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His plan was not corrected or amended because He gained new knowledge that He lacked at the beginning. God's plan never changes because He never changes and because perfection admits no degrees and cannot be improved upon.

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Did you get that? Perfection admits no degrees and cannot be improved on.

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No matter what trial you're going through, this God protects and this God keeps. Not for your sake necessarily, but because the

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Son is never going to drop what the Father has done. He's never going to drop the proverbial ball, if I could even say that.

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So, back to Hebrews, and we're going to end there. We're almost done. Hebrews chapter 10. I just want to read and explain the last few verses that are important in this section that in some ways reiterate this truth, but also give us the final exclamation point on Jesus' body sacrificed in contradistinction to these sacrifices of animals and other things.

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Hebrews chapter 10, verse 8,

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When He said to the above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.

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You can just see offering after offering after offering after offering. These are offered according to the law. It wasn't wrong to offer them, but they just were pointers.

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They weren't the final destination. Then He added, oh, this is fascinating. Behold, I have come to do your will.

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He does away with the first, that is the Mosaic covenant of all these sacrifices and priestly vestments and everything else in order to establish the second.

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So, dear friends, when you see that Jesus comes and says, I'm getting rid of Moses, and the language, by the way, is slitting

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Moses' throat, sacrifice language, butcher language. Moses, the system, had sacrifices and you had to slit the throat of animals for sacrificial covering of sins.

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Now, in a sense, Jesus slits the throat of Moses and you can't make an amalgamation.

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You can't say, you know what? Messianic Judaism is for me. We'll keep the booths festival. We'll keep Passover festival.

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We'll keep Yom Kippur. By the way, keep all your ethnic Judaism. I don't care about that. I'm talking about religious

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Judaism that gets jammed into Christianity called Messianic Judaism. Jesus said, I slit its throat.

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You don't need Torah garments and phylacteries. You need water, bread and wine.

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That's what you need. And so He says, I've done away. It's obsolete. Moses, friends, is over. It's done.

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It's kaput. And He established the second. No amalgamation.

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And here's the exclamation point. And by that will, the will of the Father sending the

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Son to obey on our behalf to both positively keep the law and suffer its penal consequences, we have been sanctified, set apart.

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That's positional. That's legal. Through the offering of the body, that body that the

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Father determined to give to the Son of Jesus, front -loading His humanity, it doesn't just say

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Christ, the body of Jesus, a real man, once for all.

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Isn't that good news? Your salvation is accomplished. Your redemption is done. You can't add anything.

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And if you had to add anything, it'd have to be perfect. And since we can't add anything perfect, Jesus paid it all.

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And then when we see things like that, I remember every night, I'd say to the kids and I'd tuck them into bed and I would rub their stomach if they were upset and I would sing the same song every single night because it just goes together.

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This is what happens when you understand awe, you want to give God glory and thanks and gratitude. Jesus paid it all.

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All to Him what? We don't say, Jesus paid it all and all

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I can get away with, I'll do. That doesn't really make sense, does it? Jesus paid it all.

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Of course not. He did this for you. This is the God with whom we have to do and He welcomes you as children.

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Even knowing what you did in the last week or didn't do and you go, He did this for me. I want to respond with,

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Thank you, Lord. And I don't have to say, my thanks better be perfect or God's going to kick me out again.

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When my children don't thank me properly and they're three years old, they're at least trying and I give them the benefit of the doubt.

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And by the way, that illustration goes by the wayside when I think, what I do before the

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Lord God as a son doesn't affect my legal standing because I am already justified. So many

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Christians I know, they're like, I want to obey, I want to obey, I want to obey. I know a friend and he had like a mental breakdown for this.

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He realized that the Bible said, as a Christian, love your wife as Christ loved the church. And he had two options really.

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My option basically is, I'd like to do that, but I think I do that more than I do. That's called self -righteousness.

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The other option, and my friend had this and about lost his mind. He actually thought it was true.

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And as a Christian, he thought he actually needed to do it. And he got so depressed. How could a

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Christian not do these things like he ought to? And about lost his mind. If I could go back in time and say to my dear friend, listen friend, your legal standing is taken care of.

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It was determined then, it's taken care of. I'm glad for your desire to love your wife and when you don't, ask for her forgiveness.

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But even if you're obeying for a week, I know it's going to happen next Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday or whatever.

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You're going to say something, but that's not going to undo the salvation that God accomplished back then. Once for all sacrifice.

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And by the way, if you're not a Christian, it was prayed. If you're not a Christian, the once for all sacrifice is going to be you.

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And you will pay for your own sins without a sacrifice. And you will stand in the presence of God without a mediator,

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Jesus. And the Bible says, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living

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God. But our Jesus fell into the hands of the living

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Father and absorbed and extinguished our wrath. What happened in eternity past?

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One writer says, the son said something like this to the father and I close. My father on my part,

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I covenant that in the fullness of time, I will become man. I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race.

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I will live in their wretched world and for my people, I will keep the law perfectly. I will work out a spotless righteousness which shall be acceptable to the demands of thy just and holy law.

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In due time, I will bear the sins of all the people, all my people. Thou shall exact their debts on me.

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The chastisement of their peace, I will endure and by my stripes, they shall be healed. My father,

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I covenant and promise that I will be obedient unto death, even death on the cross.

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I will magnify thy law and make it honorable. I will suffer all that they ought to have suffered. I will endure the curse of thy law and all the vials of thy wrath shall be emptied and spit upon my head and then

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I will rise again. I will ascend into heaven. I will intercede for them at thy right hand and I will make myself responsible for every one of them so that they might not ever be lost and I will bring all my sheep of whom thy blood, thou hast constituted me shepherd.

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I will bring everyone safe to you at last. That's awesome.

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Let's pray. Thank you father for your wonderful plan of salvation.

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When was that plan? We recognize today and bow in submission even though it's beyond our finite sinful minds.

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It's in eternity. Wow. Thank you. I pray for every dear

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Christian here that they would be caught up in remembering you, the object of our faith. The just shall live by faith.

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And father, I pray as one of my mentors taught me to pray for those who will not rest in the finished work of Jesus.

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I pray you would not give them rest until they do. In Jesus name. Amen. and in the evening at six.

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We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org