Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: We're gonna open up with a word of prayer and get started, Lord willing.

Father, we're grateful for another day of life to learn from you, worship you, serve you. And we, as your people, stand in desperate need of a word from you, either encouragement, correction, whatever the case may be. And I pray that you would provide that today through the teaching of your word. In preparation for that ministry, we're just going to take a moment of silence to do personal confession before you, if need be, not to restore our position but broken fellowship, if that issue has arisen in our lives so that we may receive fully from your word today.

We're thankful for the promise of 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. And I pray now that you would lead us as we study. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, amen.

All right. Well, if you could open your Bibles to Hebrews 2 verse 9. And last week, I came back from a long hiatus, and we jumped right back into the book of Hebrews. So we're continuing in this hour through our verse-by-verse teaching of the book of Hebrews. Really, what the book of Hebrews is, is it's an apologetic, if you will, a defense to a group of second-generation Christians following the apostles, regenerated Jewish believers living in and around the temple area there in the city of Jerusalem.

It's an apologetic, which means a defense, to get them to not lapse backward into Old Testament Judaism and in the process leave the full revelation of Jesus Christ. They, of course, were very tempted to do that because they were under persecution by the unbelieving Jews, and they thought, if we just lapse backward, this persecution will stop. And the author of Hebrews says don't.

So really, the first two, three verses of the book is a description of why Jesus is the final act. And if he is that, why would you leave him and go back to a shadow that prefigures him but is not the final reality? And then you hit verse four, and you get taken all the way through the end of chapter two, and his point is Jesus is higher than the angels. And that seems kind of odd to us for him to talk that way—whoever the author was, we don't know. Everybody wants to figure it out, but I respect his anonymity.

But the point is, if the author can show that Jesus is higher than the angels—and angels were the messengers of the Old Testament—he could show that the message of Jesus is higher than any message found in the Old Testament. So why would you leave what you have and go back to that? And in the process of developing his argument concerning Jesus being higher than the angels, he weaves together seven Old Testament citations using the Hebrew Bible to show them that Jesus is higher than the angels. That's the rest of chapter one.

And then what happens five times in the book is the author stops and gives a severe warning and says, if you do drift backwards, there's going to be something bad is going to happen to you. So we handled that. That's the first warning against drifting, chapter two verses one through four. And then as is common once he finishes his warning, he gets back on the beaten trail and completes his argument about how Jesus is higher than the angels.

And what he begins to do in chapter two verse five through the end of the chapter is he starts to explain why Jesus became man. And he says no angel ever did that. That is kind of the point. So what he's dealing with here is a doctrine that we call the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God. This is sometimes called the hypostatic union. And it basically is the idea that Jesus at the point of the virgin conception became 100% God and 100% man. He became the God-man. And as a result, he's totally unique.

So an angel of course never did anything like that. And that's why when it describes him this way, it uses the expression "the only begotten." And we've analyzed that word, "monogenes," that's used in John 1, John 3, many places. And what it means is "one of a kind." What makes Jesus one of a kind? Well, he became the God-man.

So you're living in this culture today where everybody is saying Jesus is just an option. There's people running for Senate, by the way, that are saying that. They have theological degrees and they're running around saying everybody gets to God their own way. One of them I can think of right here in the state of Texas, another guy in Kansas is running. I won't tell you which party they're in.

But they all have these reverend titles, pastor titles, theological degrees. There's another guy in Georgia, a current senator. And basically, what they're all saying is Muslims are already Christians, they just don't know it. And so they're going to get to heaven and say, "Oh, I knew it was you all along, Jesus." And so they're kind of portraying Jesus as kind of an option.

And how could Jesus be an option when he's the only God-man? And because he's the God-man, he's the only one that could bridge the gap between God and man. An angel can't do that. Any other religious figure in history couldn't do that unless they're the God-man. But there's only one of those; he's the monogenes.

So this is called sometimes the emptying of Christ. Dr. Walvoord in his book "Jesus Christ Our Lord" describes it this way: "The act of kenosis, emptying—it's the Greek word 'kenosis' found in Philippians 2 describing this—the act of kenosis, emptying, as stated in Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8, may therefore be properly understood to mean that Christ surrendered no attribute of deity but that he did voluntarily restrict their independent use in keeping with his purpose of living among men and their limitations."

So Jesus at the point of the virgin conception didn't stop being God. He's always been God. He's the eternally existing second member of the Godhead. It's just at the point of the virgin conception, something was added to him. So it wasn't an exchange—I'm putting off the God coat and putting on the man coat. It wasn't a substitution, meaning let's substitute manhood for Godhood. So it's not an exchange, it's not a substitution, and it's not a subtraction. Let's emphasize man and stop being God.

There's no subtraction, there's no substitution, there's no exchange. What it is, is an addition. Humanity was added to eternally existing deity. And he became the monogenes, the God-man, the unique one to voluntarily live among us. And when he lived among us, he still had all of his prerogatives as deity. But he surrendered those to the will of the Father.

He didn't stop having those abilities, but he surrendered the independent exercise of those abilities to the will of the Father. So he kept saying throughout his earthly ministry and life, "Not my will be done but thy will be done." And so he's used there as an example of someone who emptied himself in that sense for a season. He didn't give up the prerogatives of deity, he didn't stop being deity, he gave up the privileges of deity. He gave up heaven for a season for our benefit. And he took his powers as deity and surrendered them to God the Father.

And Paul says if that's what Christianity is, then we ought to be imitators of that in the sense that we ought to be people that aren't interested in power and authority but in service, because Jesus is the ultimate example in that sense. So what Hebrews 2 verses 5 through 8 is tracing here is eight reasons why he did that. I mean, if he did not become man the way I'm describing it, then eight things could not have happened.

And so the author of Hebrews traces these eight things. These come from the book "A Faith That Endures" by J. Dwight Pentecost. I took his outline and sort of embellished parts of it, but these are the eight reasons why God became man in the person of Jesus Christ.

The first reason is to restore God's original purpose for man, verses 5 through 8, which we covered last time. And you see in that a citation from Psalm 8 verses 4 through 6, which actually goes back to Genesis 1 verses 26 through 28 and describes why God created man. Why did God create man? Well, he created man to rule creation on God's behalf. It's what's called the office of theocratic administrator.

And our forebears were given authority, both man and woman, over the earth. And the problem is, as you know the story from the Bible, the account, they stopped ruling creation for God and started listening to creation—a talking snake in particular, who was Satan. And that's why Satan came into Eden as a serpent. He could have come in any other way.

But he came in as a serpent, not as an angel, because he is a fallen angel. I don't know if he took the form of a serpent, if he possessed the body of a serpent, I'm not exactly sure how he did it, but that's what it was; it was a talking serpent. And he did that for a reason because he's trying to pervert this hierarchy that you see on the screen, which is what Satan does; he's a perverter.

He's not so much a new creator, he doesn't create things, although maybe there's some examples of it, but he takes what God has already established and he puts a twist on it where it becomes disfigured. That's what perversion is. And he does that in all kinds of areas. And here he's trying to pervert the office of theocratic administrator. And once he did that and they started listening to the animals instead of ruling them and in the process rebelled against God, Satan became the prince and power of the air. That's how he was able to become the illegitimate ruler over planet Earth.

So what the author of Hebrews is saying is Jesus came into the world to fix this problem. And how do you fix God's purpose for man unless you become man? So there's very rich theology right there in verses 5 through 8 as it's quoting Psalm 8 verses 4 through 6. Now, what angel did that? I mean, angels are wonderful, but no one ever did that. So obviously, if angels are messengers in the Old Testament, then Jesus' message is much higher.

And then he goes on and he gives a second reason. This is now new material, picking up from last week: he came into the world to taste death for every man, number two. So notice Hebrews chapter 2 and notice, if you will, verse 9. He says, "But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels"—see how the angels keep figuring prominently in his thinking—"namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone."

Some translations say he might taste death for every man. So he came into the world to taste death. Why did he come into the world to taste death? Because that's the penalty for sin. That was something that God said at the beginning prior to the Fall. I mean, Eve, I don't even think exists yet, and God is speaking to Adam.

And he says in Genesis 2 verses 16 and 17, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may freely eat'"—I mean, this is like the easiest job description on planet Earth, do whatever you want—"But," here's one thing that's off-limits. And God has to have this one thing off-limits because people are made in his image.

And if they're made in his image, they have to have an avenue for rebellion should they choose it, because part of being an image-bearer of God is this power that we have of choice. No tree of knowledge in Eden, no choice. So they have to have the avenue of rebellion should they choose it. And God is respecting how he manufactured Adam as an image-bearer.

That's why all these theological systems today that aren't giving humans any choice, that misses the whole point of the fact that we're made in his image. "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.'"

And God was very clear: "For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die." And death hit right when they ate from the tree. They were separated from God spiritually, and they began to physically die. Adam, we know from Genesis 5, lived to the ripe old age of 930, but he eventually died because that's what God said would happen.

And as you go through the Bible, it says it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again that the wages of sin is death. Genesis 2 verse 17, which we just read. Genesis 3 verse 21, God taught them the reality of death because they were clothed with animal skins to cover their sin. Well, where do the animal skins come from? Well, an innocent animal was killed.

And you're dealing with people that I don't even think were carnivorous at this point. So when they saw this animal killed, I mean, they were like, "Wow, this sin stuff is a big deal. This is serious." I mean, God said the wages of sin is death, and so the way this is going to be made right is someone has to die—in this case, an innocent animal.

Ezekiel 18 and verse 20 says, "The soul that sinneth shall surely die." You know Romans 6 verse 23, "For the wages"—a wage is a price, right?—"the wages of sin is death." And then we just read Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9, which teaches the exact same truth. Death is now on the table because of Adam's sin. And the way to fix this problem is death.

The problem, though, is an animal sacrifice is not going to completely fix this problem because sin is an eternal offense against a holy God. We sometimes call sin bad choices, and we really don't know how to water things down. But when you really think about what sin is, it is an offense demanding death of the perpetrator against a holy God.

And God is eternal. It's an eternal offense. So how in the world is this problem going to get fixed? Eternity has to die. See that? And there's only one being that's eternal, which is God. So God has to die. That's the only way this can get fixed. So then the question becomes: well, how do you kill God? You ever tried to kill God? "God, I'm so mad at you, I'm going to strangle you." I mean, it doesn't work out very well.

How in the world would you kill God? Well, you can kill God if God becomes a man. See that? So that's why he had to become a man. So Jesus is born into this world to die. That was his job. I mean, we know ultimately he's going to gain victory over the grave through the resurrection and all of that, but his whole life, it's like there's a death sentence hanging over his head.

He's born for the purpose of dying because only an eternal death is going to fix this problem. The wages of sin is death, and this is an eternal offense against God. And so how can you kill God? God has to become a man. So Jesus is born into the world to die. He is born into the world to taste death in our place.

Notice that word "taste." It's the Greek word "geuomai," I think is how you say it. It means a full experience. It's not—we think of taste as, "Hey, can I sample your ice cream? Can I have a little spoonful? Or if you're not afraid of my germs, can I have a little lick of it? You mind if I just get a little taste of it?" And so we think that's what the word taste means because that's what it means in English.

But that's not—obviously Jesus didn't just get a little sampling of death; he went through the full experience. And that's going to become a big deal. You need to file that in your memory banks because eventually we're going to come to Hebrews 6, right? One of these days, which is the most debated warning passage in the whole Bible.

And it's going to say this in Hebrews 6 verse 4: "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit." And when we get to that—well, most people when they get to that warning passage, they're going to say that's so severe, that's got to be talking to unsaved people.

And then you turn around and you say, well, wait a minute, it says these people tasted death. And they'll turn around and say, well, a taste means they got close, but no cigar. Like Judas—he was close to the things of God, but he never had the full experience of salvation. All the Calvinists argue that from Hebrews 6 verse 4.

In which case, you say, well, you know what, Hebrews 2 comes before Hebrews 6. Amen? I had to go to Sugar Land Bible Church to learn that one. And in Hebrews 2, taste doesn't mean a little lick of the lollipop, right? It's a full experience. So in Hebrews 6, when it talks about people who have tasted of the Holy Spirit, that's not talking about people that never got saved.

That's your Calvinistic theology talking, but that's not what the biblical text says. So this warning, although it's really strong and severe, applies to the believer. You can't just say, well, that's for the unbeliever, doesn't work for me or doesn't apply to me because of the word taste, and that's not what the word taste means in Hebrews. It means a full experience. So just file that away because it'll become important later on.

So Jesus went through the full experience of death because only eternity dying could fix the eternal offense against God in Eden resulting in death. See that? Now, who did he taste death for? For the elect, right? Doesn't say that. That he might taste death for who? For everyone. Every man. Every single human being on planet Earth right now is savable.

Now, they're not saved, of course, until they—it's not efficacious for them until they trust in the Savior, but they're savable. And we had a missions conference here yesterday. There's where the whole missiology, "Christ for the world," comes from because we don't believe he just died for a select few. We believe, not just for Americans, we believe he died for the world.

Well, if he died for the world, boy, we better get the message out. See that? This is called unlimited atonement. And in the Calvinistic system, which we've taught on and against, they go by the mnemonic TULIP, which stands for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.

And by limited atonement, they mean Christ died for some; he didn't die for everybody. Well, such a philosophy is contrary to the word of God, which says it right there: he tasted death for everyone. Some translations say every man. So when I condemn this teaching, I like to put up quotes that show you, yeah, they really teach this, this limited atonement doctrine.

Jay Adams in his "Competent to Counsel" book—which is a great book, but not this part—and this nouthetic counseling, counseling from the Bible because it's sufficient, which happens to be a viewpoint I agree with. Chafer Seminary, as part of our doctrinal statement, has a sufficiency of scripture statement in it. But when you go to their conferences, it's jam-packed full of Calvinists.

Absolutely. Calvinists have just totally taken over that movement. I'm not sure why, just like they've taken over the homeschool movement. I mean, I believe in homeschooling. I think homeschooling is biblical. We're a homeschooling family. But try to get your hands on homeschool curricula today and ask yourself, is it free of Reformed theology?

Nine times out of ten, it's not. So you could be learning in homeschooling all these wonderful facts about American history or whatever and just have Calvinism jammed down your throat without you even knowing it. So I guess our side needs to create better curriculum, don't you think? But anyway, Jay Adams writes here—and it's not—I like to use printed material because this is not something someone said in the heat of a moment, because we can all misspeak.

I've made a career out of it, to be frank with you. I misspeak and I go back. One of the most painful things is to listen to your own stuff. It's like, "Oh, God." But when you're writing, it's different; it's very deliberative. And so Jay Adams in this seminal book says, "But as counselors, as Christians, we're obligated to present the claims of Christ to the counselee. Praise the Lord.

They must present the good news that Christ Jesus died on the cross in place of his own." Whoops, what's that mean? "That he bore the guilt and suffered the penalty for their sins. He died that all whom the Father had given to him might come unto him and have everlasting life. As a Reformed Christian"—that means Calvinist—"this writer believes that counselors must not tell any unsaved counselee that Christ died for him, for they cannot say that.

What? No man knows except Christ himself who are his elect for whom he died." So here's Adams in this wonderful book, and all of a sudden on page 70, he kind of runs off the rails here, and he says, "You know, when you're counseling someone and you're not sure if they're saved, don't give them the gospel.

Don't tell them that Jesus died for them because you really don't know if they're one of the elect or not." And that's just stunning to me because if he gave the gospel to everyone, this would fix 99% of the counseling problems, wouldn't it? So you should have no equivocation whatsoever to go to every person you see that you think is unsaved and say Christ died for you.

When Jesus was dying on that cross, he was thinking about you as an individual. I mean, that's what John 1:29 says, right? John the Baptist: "The next day he, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the'" elect? "World." Sorry. Easy.

But read John MacArthur's note on this in his Study Bible. Read what John MacArthur writes about John 1:29, which to me ought to be easy. You know, his ministry "Releasing"—what does he say?—"Releasing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time," something like that. "Releasing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time."

He's not releasing God's truth one verse at a time; he's releasing God's truth through a grid of Calvinism one verse at a time. That's what he's doing. And it's not like he doesn't say things I agree with, as does Jay Adams, but I don't agree with him here because he just rewrites John 1 verse 29.

This is what he says in his printed Study Bible: "'Sin of the world,' right? 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' What's his comment on it? 'Sin of the world: In context, world has the connotation of humanity in general, not specifically every person.'" Why would you say something like that? Because you have an a priori philosophical commitment that for—consciously, subconsciously, however you're doing it—you're interposing it on the plain meaning of the text.

And isn't R.C. Sproul great? I've heard people say, "I would go anywhere to listen to R.C. Sproul speak. It doesn't matter if he's reading out of the Yellow Pages." I mean, I just love the way he sounds. And the truth is, maybe there's a lot of things in the teachings of R.C. Sproul that I agree with, but have you read what he says about limited atonement?

He says, "My point is that there is confusion about what limited atonement actually teaches. However, I think if a person really understands the four points, that is the other four points of Calvinism, and is thinking at all clearly..." Oh, so if you reject limited atonement, you're not thinking clearly? I see.

"...he must believe in limited atonement because of what Martin Luther called resistless logic." So what he's doing is he's using logic to rewrite the Bible. Logic is wonderful. It's a God-given thing. Major premise, minor premise, conclusion. I mean, that's all wonderful. But here's the thing to understand about logic is it's only as good as its starting point.

If your major premise is flawed, the other syllogisms or whatever we might call them built on that are going to be flawed also. So be careful about human logic, particularly when it violates the scripture because the Bible over and over again says, "Don't do what's right in your own eyes." I mean, there is a way that seems right but ends in death.

Proverbs 3:5 and 6 is on your refrigerator, right? Or somewhere in your house. "Trust the Lord with all your heart." What's the next one? "Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, he will make your path straight." So notice that middle part: lean not on your own understanding.

If something is in the Bible that contradicts a logical syllogism, then you go with the Bible because your intellect has been touched by sin also, and you may not be reasoning the way God reasons. Sproul says, "However, I think that a person really understands the other four points and is thinking at all clearly, he must believe in limited atonement because of what Martin Luther called resistless logic. Still, there are people who live in a happy inconsistency."

Now he's talking about his brethren that are four-pointers and not five-pointers. He says, "Oh, you guys can live there if you want, but you're inconsistent. I believe that it is possible for a person to believe four points without believing the fifth, although I don't think it's possible to do it consistently or logically.

However, it's certainly a possibility given our proclivity for inconsistency." So if you reject limited atonement, you're not living consistently with the other points of Calvinism. So that's his response to the Calvinists that say, well, we're four-pointers and not five-pointers. Sproul says you can live there if you want, but you're really not consistent.

So very clearly R.C. Sproul here, in addition to infant baptism—you realize R.C. Sproul taught infant baptism? I mean, he's dead now, so he knows better, as I like to say. But he taught infant baptism, he taught limited atonement, he believed that the Antichrist was Nero, he believed that most of the book of Revelation already happened, he believed that we're in the Millennial Kingdom now.

I mean, you look at all this stuff he believes, you know, and he's just borrowing all of this stuff from Augustine, much like John Calvin did. So you know, we don't really have at this church R.C. Sproul books we're passing out to people and, "Hey, R.C. Sproul and his son are in town for a big conference, let's all go."

A lot of churches do that. We don't do that here because we don't agree with his theology even if he says a thing or two that we might agree with. He also didn't believe in the assurance of salvation because he was at the big event in Orlando and James Boice was dying, who is a wonderful Bible commentator, teacher.

I've got James Boice's commentaries on Genesis and other things on my bookshelf. And R.C. Sproul in front of this group says, "Okay, James Boice is dying, and all 5,000 of us need to believe that he dies in faith." Why would you say something like that? Because we need to—he needs to prove he's one of the elect because he persevered.

If he died with doubt or died, as my dad passed away, with limited mental capacity, then he's not one of the elect; he didn't persevere. So you guys really need to be careful of the people that you're listening to because you might agree with them on a ton of stuff, but they'll bring in this other stuff.

What they give you with one hand, they'll put at this other stuff in with the other hand. And it doesn't—what does Paul say? A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So we reject limited atonement. Here are the strongest verses I know of that teach unlimited atonement. You can jot down 1 Timothy 4:10, which I think I have underlined there: "For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God," 1 Timothy 4:10, "who is the Savior of all men, especially believers."

Did you catch that? I mean, he's really the Savior of us because we're saved, but he's the Savior of all men. I mean, if that doesn't refute limited atonement, I don't know what does. 1 John 2:2: "And he himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only," believers, John says, "but for those of the whole world."

Not just the world; he adds the adjective "whole" in front of it. I mean, this whole world is savable because of what Jesus did. John 1:29, I already gave you: "The next day he, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'"

This the same John recording John the Baptist who would also write John 3:16, 1 John 2:2. You know John 3:16, right? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Paul on Mars Hill, speaking to unbelievers, Acts 17:30 and 31: "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent," meaning change your mind about Jesus, metanoeō.

"Well, why should I do that?" "Because he's fixed a day in which he will judge the world." Wow. "In righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead." Now, wouldn't that be kind of unfair for God to judge the whole world if he didn't die for the whole world?

I mean, here somebody goes off into judgment and they never had an opportunity to believe in the first place because of the doctrine of limited atonement. What kind of God would do that? God is going to judge the world because he died for the world; he gave people a way out.

Just like in our passage that we're studying in the main service related to Passover, judgment is coming through the Destroyer in the tenth plague, all of the firstborn all over Egypt are going to be killed, and here's your way out: apply the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts. That's your way out. God doesn't judge unless he provides a way of escape.

"Hey, Noah, I'm going to destroy the whole world. Here's your way out: start getting to work on the ark for 120 years." 1 Timothy 2:3 and 4: "This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God our Savior, who desires what? All men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth."

You shouldn't look at unbelievers as, well, you know, I'm not sure God really wants that one over there to get saved. That's not how God thinks. God desires everyone to be saved. Now, contrary to Universalism, which says everyone gets saved in the end, and inclusivism, which says you're saved as long as you're sincere, you know, Muslims are really Christians, they just don't know it yet, you know, kind of thing.

People are not saved until they trust in the Savior, but the opportunity to trust in the Savior is available to them. That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. I mean, I'd rather get saved now than face his judgment. I'm glad he gave me a way out. So this is why Jesus came into the world. He came into the world to taste death for every man.

There's a third reason Jesus came into the world: to bring many sons to glory. And that's verses 10 through 13 of chapter two. It says, "For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings."

Verse 11: "For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Verse 12 saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise."

Verse 13: "And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold the children whom God has given me." So you'll notice he's quoting the Hebrew Bible, Old Testament. If you want to jot this down, he's quoting Psalm 22 verse 22. He's also quoting Isaiah 8 verses 17 and 18. And you notice these words: sons, brethren, children.

That's why he came into the world: to create sons, brethren, and children. Now, how did Jesus define sons, brethren, and children? Remember Matthew 12 verses 46 through 50? It says, "While he was speaking to the crowds, behold his mother and his brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him.

And someone said to him, 'Behold your mother and your brothers are standing outside to speak to you.' But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said, 'Who is my mother and who are my brothers?' And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, 'Behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.'"

See that? So he's talking about a family that he was going to create and was in the process of creating that transcends the lines of physical families. "Hey, Jesus, your family is out there waiting for you." Well, who is my family? And he starts talking about spiritual brotherhood, spiritual fatherhood, like Paul saying to Timothy, "My son in the faith," things like that.

Spiritual motherhood. And I think what he's talking about is a body that would come into existence on the day of Pentecost, the body of Christ, and we are all joint-heirs, fellow-heirs, equal standing in that body, which makes you my brother in Christ. I'm a Christian, you're a Christian, we're part of the same family. You're my brother in Christ or you're my sister in Christ.

Or in some cases, I might disciple someone; they're my son in Christ. The guy that led me to Christ, I think of him often as my spiritual father. And my physical father, wonderful person, was a different role in my life entirely. So that's why Jesus came into the world to create this brethren, children, sons.

So you're a son of the living God, did you know that? Well, what does that even mean? You're an heir. That's Galatians 4 verse 7: "Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." I mean, it's not like you're the CEO of the big corporation; you're the inheritor of it.

You own it. That's what sonship is. You're not like a high-paid employee, right? You're an heir of the whole enterprise. And so that's why Jesus came into the world to create this scenario. So we know from Romans 8 verse 29 that he desired to be the firstborn amongst many brethren.

So he would come into the world and create this spiritual family, believers in him, and he would be the firstborn of the brethren, but there'd be many brethren that follow—and sisters, for that matter. So we're all part of this spiritual camaraderie. "Yeah, but I want to join the fraternity." Well, go ahead, join whatever fraternity you want, but it pales in comparison to what you already have. I mean, you're—like, you're not serving, you're at the table as an heir.

So one of the things he did is he came into the world not just to create these brethren but to put them on a fast track into glorification. See that? So what you see there in Romans 8:29 through 30: "For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined"—notice that foreknow is in front of predestined there, that's interesting—"for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would also be the firstborn among many brethren." That's us.

"And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified." So have you been foreknown? Yep. Have you been predestined? Yep. Have you been called? Yep. Have you been justified? Yep. Well, then you've already been glorified.

It's a done deal. Now, I'm looking at you guys, you guys don't look very glorified to me. And I doubt I look very glorified to you, even though I put on my Sunday best and even took a shower this morning and other bodily necessities, but I don't look glorified. I'm in a body that's decaying.

But the Bible presents my future glorification as if it already happened. See that? Because my arrival in heaven is such a done deal that it presents my future glorification in the past tense, just like the other phases of my salvation have already been executed, so is my future glorification.

So R.C. Sproul should have brought up this verse when praying for James Boice who was dying. He should have been saying, "You know, it's great that his arrival in heaven is 100%." I was listening to JD Vance and then I've heard our president say this, say things like, "Well, how do you know you're going to get to heaven?" on a sliding scale.

And JD Vance says, "Well, I'd give myself like a six or a seven." And then you can listen to our president saying, "You know, I really don't know if I'm going to get into heaven, but I'm hoping I can do enough good stuff down here, you know, where I'll get the nod," he says these kinds of things.

And you hear these kinds of things and you say, what? You've got all these spiritual counselors around you, Mike Huckabee and all of these people, and no one has ever really explained the gospel to you where you might be a wonderful world ruler, political person who I voted for three times politically, but you don't even understand like the ABCs of Christianity?

You don't even know if you're going to make it? The vice president says, "I'm on a sliding scale. You know, I used to say I was a six, but now I'm a seven." I mean, what kind of folly and unbiblical thinking is that? I mean, that's with the case of JD Vance, that's like way too much Roman Catholicism and not enough Bible.

Because every person that understands the Bible understands that on a scale of one to ten, you're like a ten-plus-plus. Why is that? Because it doesn't ride on your shoulders. See that? I mean, if it rides on—they think it rides on their shoulders. Well, of course, who could arrive at the assurance of salvation if they thought it rode on their shoulders?

But it doesn't ride on your shoulders; it rides on what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago, and we're one of his brethren. So your arrival in heaven is 100%. It's as certain as you could be about anything. That's why glorification is put there in the past tense. So the point is: what angel did that for you? Created brethren with a 100% guarantee of arriving in glorification?

And then there's a fourth reason that Jesus became a man—and I got to get this one in because it's my title. My title is "Demolishing the Devil," and that's where verse 14 comes in: is to break Satan's rule over humanity. And so we see that in verse 14: "Therefore, since the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death"—how do you kill God? God has to become man—"through death, he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil."

So Jesus came into the world to demolish the devil. And ever since our forebears listened to the animals and the office of theocratic administrator was lost, planet Earth, Satan became the illegitimate ruler over planet Earth. The prince of this world, the god of this world, the prince and power of the air.

We're living on enemy—behind enemy lines. That's why we have to put on the full armor of God; he's the roaring lion who roams about seeking someone to devour, and the whole world lies within his power. So God became a man to take away Satan's illegitimate authority over the planet. And this is where it's hard to talk about it without understanding Revelation 5, the seven-sealed scroll.

And notice Revelation 5 verse 1: "I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals." Now, this is the title deed to the earth. Once this is opened and the seventh seal is broken—and every time a seal is broken, the scroll gets looser and it brings a judgment to the earth, which looks an awful lot like the Exodus judgments, which I'll explain if I have time today, if not next week.

Once this is open and the seventh seal triggers the trumpets, which the seventh of that will trigger the bowls, this is game over. Jesus is reclaiming authority to this earth. So John sees this seven-sealed scroll and he starts crying. Revelation 5 verse 4 says, "Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it."

So John sees the thing shut. And that would make me cry too. Because if it remains shut, Satan's authority can never be vanquished, and this world continues on and on and on in its current state, which is what our youth believe. It's what evolution teaches. Everything just continues on the way it's always been.

Well, no wonder they're abusing drugs and committing suicide. I mean, we've got the greatest message in the world, folks: hope and optimism. This world is the nasty now and now, but it's temporary because the scroll got opened by somebody. Who opened it? Well, the guy with the qualifications to open it, which is Christ is qualified.

Revelation 5 verses 5 and 6: "And one of the elders said to me, John, 'Stop weeping. Quit crying. This is going to end well.' One of the elders said to me, 'Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.'" So you'll notice that Jesus is the overcomer. He overcame.

How did he overcome? He became a man and lived amongst us without sin; that's how he overcame in addition to dying on the cross and rising bodily from the grave. And here's some more of his credentials: he's from the right tribe, the tribe of Judah. Messiah has to come from the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49 verse 10.

And he's from the Root of David. Messiah's got to come from the Davidic line, 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 through 16. So let me ask you: how can you be from the tribe of Judah and the Root of David unless you become a man? See that? So he's got the right credentials to open the scroll.

And then you've got these awesome words there in Revelation 5 verse 7 as Jesus goes over to this scroll and takes it. It says in Revelation 5 verse 7, "He came and took the book. Wow. Out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne." And once he takes the book, what does everybody in heaven do?

They start praising the Lord. And it's loud. That's in Revelation 5 verses 8 through 14. It says, "When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. And they sang," verse 9, "a new song." Verse 11: "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels." Verse 12 saying with a loud voice—"I don't like loud music, Lord." Well, you're going to hate heaven.

Verse 14: "And four living creatures kept saying 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." I mean, everybody in heaven, whether it's the four living creatures, the myriads of angels, the 24 elders, they are just yelling, not in an obnoxious way, but they're praising the Lord at the top of their voices, vocal cords, because this book is being opened and Satan's authority over this planet is about to stop.

And that's why, as we pointed out so many times, so many of the judgments in the book of Revelation mirror the book of Exodus because the book of Revelation is the ultimate Exodus. God is not just taking a nation out of 400 years of bondage; he's taking the whole world here out of the bondage that it's been in ever since the Fall in Eden.

And that explains the similarity in the judgments between Revelation and Exodus. And guess what? You're part of it, which makes you an overcomer. "Boy, pastor, I don't know if I'm an overcomer; I'm really working hard at it." Well, the truth is you're already an overcomer because you're connected by faith to the one who overcame. See that?

Every Christian is an overcomer, whether you feel like it or want to be, you're an overcomer because it never really rode on your shoulders to begin with. That's why Jesus in John 16 verse 33 says, "These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I've overcome the world."

And we know in Revelation 5 that he's the overcomer, which makes me an overcomer. 1 John 4:4: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome"—it's the same word, "nikaō," where we get the word "Nike" as in the shoe company—"and have overcome because greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world."

Wow, I'm on the winning side because I'm connected to the one who overcame already and is qualified to open this scroll whenever the time comes to open it. It's not going to remain shut forever. 1 John 5:4 and 5 says, "Whatever is born of God overcomes the world." Oh, so every born-again Christian is already an overcomer.

"And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. Who is the one that overcomes the world? But who—you want to know what an overcomer is? Here it's defined by John, who also wrote Revelation: "Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" That makes you an overcomer.

In fact, Paul tells us in Romans 8 verse 37, we are "super-overcomers" because the word "huper" is added to the word "nikaō." That's why he says, "In all of these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us." I'm not just an overcomer, I'm a super-overcomer because I'm connected to Jesus.

And I'm going to jam verse 15 in here. The fifth reason he came into the world is to release those who through fear were their whole lifetime subject to bondage. Release those who through fear of death—there we go—were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Greatest fear people have is death.

And yet why fear death if you're on a fast track to glory? See that? You're already glorified. This is why Paul says, "We are of good courage." Most people aren't when they face death. "I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body is to be what? At home with the Lord."

And then he says in Philippians 1:21 through 23, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose, but I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh is necessary for your sake."

Paul says if I were to die, that's gain. If I live, I'll just continue on with fruitful labor, which you Philippians need, and I'm mad at you for keeping me here, is basically what he's saying there. And so everybody's scared to death—pardon the expression—of dying, and you can live that way if you want, but you're living beneath your privileges.

Jesus came into the world to remove the fear of death, might free those who through the fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. What angel did that for you? Is what he's saying.

Father, we're grateful for your word and your truth. Thank you for becoming man in Jesus and thank you for these wonderful benefits. Help us to walk these things out this week. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, amen. Happy intermission to you guys.