according to your word and pray that we would retain the things that we cover in this passage in Romans. We thank you for the book of Romans and what we've covered thus far and how your servant Paul laid out the clarity and simplicity of how we might be made right before you. And we rejoice in the truths presented and just thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, if you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter 8. We are in Romans chapter 8, and Lord willing, we will cover 33 through 34, with it being only two verses. I sure hope that we're able to cover that in our amount of time. As if you remember from last week, and of course, some may not have been here last week, we are in the, what we've called the Huppifora section. Now, the Huppifora section, I know some of you have never heard that before. So we're going to review, because review is important. Paul structures the Book of Romans, at least chapters 1 through 11, using what is called a hoopephora. Now, a hoopephora is a Greek word, and it's simply a method, a rhetorical device, of asking a question and answering it directly. It's similar to a rhetorical question, but the difference is that you're answering it, so you're removing, without a shadow of a doubt, what the implied answer is. And it's a It's kind of a legal tool that lawyers would use to defend certain truths or arguments to build their case. So Paul is presenting a legal case about our justification. And there's five cycles to this. persuasive argument concerning justification. And the typical format of a Hoopoephoros cycle or section is he presents the theme and then he gets into the question and answer time where he leaves no room for opposition. Because that's the other aspect of the Hoopoephoros question is again, you're dealing with potential objections and you're answering those objections head on to leave no doubt of what the answer is. The five cycles, of course, chapter eight, you'll notice, is in cycle number four, and that is where we are at. But to retrace our steps, we looked at chapters one and two covers, and parts of chapter three covers cycle one, the universal need for justification. Paul established the principle that we all have a need of salvation. There is no one who's ever had the breath of life who did not need to be saved. Of course, Jesus Christ is God who took on flesh, He doesn't count, even though he did have breath and he took on flesh, he was perfect. And that's what made him the only viable candidate to be the substitutionary sacrifice. So after telling the Roman audience and us, as a result, the universal need for justification, we're all sinners guilty before God. Cycle number two deals with the only means of justification and the powerful Truth of Romans 4 5 to the man who does not work but trusts in him who justifies the ungodly his Faith is credited as righteousness. So the one who trusts in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is His faith is credited for righteousness. And that's the righteousness needed to be in heaven, have a relationship with God, whatever verbiage you want to use there. But it's how we are justified, how we are declared righteous. And then cycle number three is the benefits package to our justification. He talks about the immense blessings we have. We talked about and focused on the three in particular in chapter five, verses one through five. He talks about the grace in which we stand, the hope that we have, and the peace that we have with God. And he elaborates on those in chapter five and chapter six. In chapter seven, he kind of deals with the relationship of the law. since we're now under grace and not the law. Chapter eight, it's a continuation of cycle number three, but it is its own cycle because he deals with things, and I've adjusted Pastor Dave's outline slightly, looking at the focus of the ramifications of justification, specifically the eternal security, the security of our justification. Once you are justified and you're justified by faith alone, you can't be unjustified. God won't retract his declaration of you being made righteous. Why? Because the thing that made you righteous had nothing to do with you. So in order for God to do that, he would have to undo the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And so that's the beautiful promise that we have. And he talks about in chapter eight and what we've been more recently looking at, in that we're not only saved by God's amazing grace, we are also heirs, which implies the question, heirs of what? And I think we all down deep realize that this life is not All there is for us. God created us for eternity. And we know from other passages in scripture that there is a kingdom that is coming where Jesus Christ will establish his reign on this earth, literally, physically, walking among us, and those who are believers reigning with him as heirs, co-heirs and co-rulers with Christ. Now, if you find that hard to believe and hard to be true, the Roman audience did as well. And so I think Paul anticipated, well, how in the world are we, sinful man, going to rule and reign with God? And so that's where we come to our Hupa Fora section. And there's four questions that Paul asks. We dealt with the first one last time. Lord willing, we'll deal with number two and three today. And then I want to focus on number four next time, because partly it's one of my favorite passages. just the reality that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. And that's an immense comfort. But number one, we looked at what then shall we say to these things? And he asks, if God is for us, who can be against us? Now, the implied answer is no one. But the implied truth that he's talking about is God is for us. And that's the emphasis from last week is God is for you. Because you trusted in Jesus Christ, you are declared righteous. There is no penalty of sin on you. God doesn't see your sin. He sees his son, and he sees you as his son or daughter if you are female. We're children of God, and that is the point Paul is wanting to drive home. Today, we're looking at two and three. Number two, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Again, the implied answer, not to spoil the sermon, is nobody. The only one who could bring a charge is God, and does he? He does, but who did he issue the charge to? His son. And his son was condemned. Number three, who is he who condemns? The implied answer is God. But he's just dealt with there being no condemnation for those who were in Christ, right? You remember that from 8.1? We'll look at it again today. And then he concludes this section with, who shall separate us from the love of God? Again, the implied answer is nobody. And he's working this into our thinking because it's important for believers to understand this. Now, there's a lot of confusion and Pastor Dave and I have been working through the Book of Romans. Of course, Dave got there much earlier than I did, but I've been persuaded that Paul has not transitioned to the point of sanctification yet. In other words, salvation is our position, right, in Christ. Sanctification is our practice in Christ. How do we live set-apart lives, holy lives unto the Lord? Now, I'm not saying that there's not applicable truths in Romans 1-11 that deal with sanctification. I think you can make some of those applications. But he's not gotten there, and I think that's important to highlight. And the reason it's important to highlight is you have to know and understand your position in Jesus Christ before you do anything for the Lord. Why is that? Because there's a great many things that we can, quote, do for the Lord, but they're not actually for the Lord. We're maybe doing them for ourselves. We're doing them to have a better opinion of ourselves or for other people to have an opinion of ourselves. Whatever motive it may be, it's going to be self-righteous. And I think if you don't understand your position, I like to explain it this way, that you're going to be caught up in the pendulum swing of life, where you're going to swing from the pendulum of licentiousness and legalism, or self-righteousness and unrighteousness. Well, how do you get off the ride? How do you get off the pendulum swing? Understanding your position. And the way that looks, that pendulum swinging looks, is if you don't understand your position, you're going to try to live your position. You're going to try to make your practice match what you think your position should be. That's legalism, right? You're going to formulate all of these rules that if you do them, I'm righteous. You know who did that? the religious leaders in Jesus's day. And I've talked about the concept of the rabbis building fences around the law. The law says do this, don't do that. So the rabbis said, okay, we agree, we won't do that and we will do this, the things you say. But in order to maintain that, they would build all sorts of other laws, which we can look at like a fence. And it was to guard against them trespassing or breaking the law of God. Problem is, they did pretty good at not breaking their laws, their traditions, and they thought, we're doing pretty good, we're righteous. And Jesus came into the world and he exposed that thinking. The law was not intended to be something by which we were made righteous. And that's Paul's argument in seven, right? The law cannot make us righteous. So is something wrong with the law? Meganoita, right? The law is good. God gave the law. It's holy. So what's the issue? Sinful man. We can't measure up. And if we don't understand our position, we still fall into the same traps that an unbeliever has. And that's why, you know, we talked about Romans 7, the controversy of, is he talking about life as a believer or unbeliever? That's why there's interpretations that who do think it's a believer in Romans 7. And that's why, and I think truly, it could be. A believer could still struggle with those same things. Now, we've dealt with that. If you're interested, you can go back and listen to that. But believers can fall into the same trap, the same line of thinking that if I do this and don't do that, I'm righteous, God will love me more. One of the best quotes I ever read, and if you've never read the book, it's called Grace, the Glorious Theme by Lewis Barry Chafer. Phenomenal book about grace. And one of the things he said that has stuck with me is, grace is not increased or decreased by merit. Does that make sense? You don't get more grace by doing more good, but you also don't get less grace by not doing good. That's grace, unmerited favor, and it's important for we as believers to understand that. That's our position. Nothing can change that. It gets ingrained in our spiritual position. It's the same as, you know, we might liken it to biology, where my sons will always be my sons. Even if, you know, like my father, who wasn't there in my upbringing, I was still his son. Even though we didn't have that relationship, I was still his son. And so likewise, I think we can liken our spiritual position as we will be God's children, no matter what. And of course, we'll get to the point to where, OK, well, how do we then live? But you have to know your position first, or else you're going to be messed up with legalism. Now, the opposite side of the pendulum, you might be able to keep up with your list of rules, or maybe someone else's list of rules for a while. And if you've ever fallen into that lifestyle, what happens? It's tiring. It's exhausting. But I think also down deep, you know, I can't do this. I can't keep up with this. So then you throw up your hands and you say, well, I'll just live my life. Come what may. And you fall back over to the opposite side of the pendulum swing, which is licentiousness or unrighteousness. And you just, you're hopeless. You live the way that you will, and you know, you maybe try here and there to do the right thing, but all in all, you kind of get the idea that God's gonna cover your sins. And is that true? Yes, it's true. But do you see how it ruins your practice? Because you don't know your position. And up until this point, Paul has been emphasizing our position, and he's saying, dear child of God, live out of your position. Be who you are because of who you are. Don't try to be what you think God desires. God made you who he desires when he transformed your life the moment you believed. And so he's driving these points home in this who before us section. Now the title for today's message is related to the judge and the attorney. This is the comforting truth that I that seems to be Paul's focus with the second and third Hupah IV question, that you're related to the judge and the attorney. Now this isn't, you know, some form of divine nepotism, anything like that, but in some extent it's a comfort knowing that your father's the judge, right? I heard it said, I want to say it was maybe Ironside, Harry Ironside, or maybe it sounds like a J. Vernon McGee quote, but he was talking about the passage in Hebrews of And he said, how comforting it is to know that our father is the judge, and how fearful it is to know that our father is the judge. And I think that's a good tension to have, because sometimes we might be thinking that, well, my dad's the judge. I'm going to do what I want. At the same time, if you had a good earthly father, there was a healthy level of respect for him, a reverence, if you will. And that's important to have. But related to the judge and the attorney, the outline for today is we'll look at Hupa 4, number 2 and 3. And with that, we'll look at the question Paul asks and his answer. Now, this Hupa 4 cycle is much different than the other ones. They're very short. And I think the reason for that is partly because he's been building his argument. He doesn't have to explain too much. He's already done that. And so what he's about to say is built upon or based upon what he's already said. So we'll look at the question of number two, and then his answer, and that's contained in verse, just one verse, verse 33. And then we'll look at the question, who before number three, and then his answer, and that's contained in verse 34. And then we'll kind of wrap things up by looking at summary and application and how we can apply this to our lives. So I hope before question number two is who shall bring a charge against God's elect. Now to break this up. First of all, the bring a charge. It comes from the Greek word, ekkalese, which is a verb future tense. Active indicative, third person singular. It comes from the root word kaleo, which is to call. And en is kind of in, to call in. The idea is to summon. So a charge is some, you're being called to task. You're being called to order. You're being called to be in front of the judge body or the judging body, the council of elders, maybe if it's in Israel or the synagogue or the Sanhedrin in Israel. Or maybe it's the pro-council if you're Greek. But you're being called to order. You're being summoned. It's a court summons. This, I think, can be illustrated if you've read the book of Acts. Frequently happened to Paul, right? He would be charged with all sorts of things, you know, civil unrest. He's a disturber of the peace. In fact, forget which community it was, but they basically say, this man's turned the whole world upside down. What a praise. They meant it as a charge. They meant it as a negative thing. But I'm sure Paul smiled and he said, wow, thank you. That's very, very kind of you to say. And then the second part, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Now, election and elect, that has caused its fair share of controversy over the years in history. And I don't think that was the intention. I think Paul intended anytime he talked about election, it was always a comfort. So bare minimum, even if you have a different view, it's a word of exhortation. It's a word of comfort, not a, you know, a word that should spark controversy. Now, that being said, I may have a view that you don't agree with. That's fine. This is my view. It's not the view of the church. We're very intentional as elders that on the essentials, we absolutely agree. And I want you to know that first and foremost. But on things like this, where there's some room for discussion and biblical arguments, that's the key. If one of the elders was basing these on unbiblical arguments, well then, Maybe there's a conversation to be had of not being an elder. But that's not the case. There may be some nuance in our view. So I just want to preface what I have to say with that. Next, we're not going to do an extensive study on the doctrine of election. I've weighed maybe possibly doing a little bit more next week. But we'll definitely get into it in chapters 9 through 11, because that's an important principle that Paul is highlighting. But I just want to summarize. my understanding of election. First of all, I think Israel is elect in the sense that they are the chosen nation of God to be the recipients of blessing through the Abrahamic covenant. This is an election by grace and not merit, right? Abraham did nothing, and yet God chose him to bless the world. That's election. He chose him. Abraham didn't do anything. It's a choice position is kind of the direction I go with this. Secondly, it is mistaken to think that a natural-born offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob makes one an automatic recipient of the Abrahamic blessings. They must believe the gospel. So this was a fallacious thinking in the idea of the Jews, especially by the time Jesus entered the scene. They thought, well, because I'm descended of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I'm elect. I am righteous by my genetics. And Jesus said, I can make these rocks the children of Abraham. Get that argument out of here, basically. They must believe. And that's where we come into contact with the doctrine of the remnant. Now that's going to be a really important doctrine that we're going to cover in chapters 9 through 11. The doctrine of the remnant has to do with the Jews. And that is that in any generation, there will always be a believing remnant of Jews. And that's been true. It's even true today. Even though the nation as a whole has rejected their Messiah, there is a remnant who have believed. And even in some of the darkest times in Israel's history, Elijah, right? Elijah, it was so bad that Elijah thought he was legitimately the only believer. That's interesting. And what did God say? There's hundreds who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In other words, quit whining, Elijah, you're fine. But that's where we get acquainted with the doctrine of the remnant. Third, consequently there is provision under the Abrahamic covenant, and specifically Genesis chapter 12 verse 3, for Gentile blessing. This would, of course, be on the basis of grace through faith. So what I'm saying there is that I think we can be, quote, elect in that elect position under the Abrahamic blessing through faith in Christ. Gentiles who believe in Yeshua are under this blessing contained in the Abrahamic Covenant, thus they become elect in their position. So when I take the view that when it talks about us being elect, it's talking about our position by being in Christ. I don't think we were hand-selected to be in that position. By being in that position, we are elect. Does that make sense? That's kind of the subtle nuance. Now if you disagree with that, that's fine. Five. This is illustrated by Paul's conversation in Romans 11 when he talks about the root and the branches. There's a lot of conversation about what in the world does the root and branches mean. The root, I believe, is the Abrahamic covenant. The branches, the natural branches, would be Israel, right? They're the natural branches biologically descending from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're the natural branches. The wild branches are Gentiles who are not biologically of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet they're grafted in. How are they grafted in? Through the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. How do they receive those blessings? By being rightly related to Jesus Christ. If you believe, you are grafted into that clause in the Genesis 12.3, and the nations will be blessed through you. Thus, elect is a positional term communicating the choice, privileged position of being under covenant blessing. And I fixed that. I don't know. It's covenantal blessing, not covenant so blessing, whatever that means. So that's my understanding of election. Again, that's mine, not the church. And I'm open to correction and development. I think that this is a heavy topic that greater minds, far greater minds than my own, have looked at throughout history. And they've come to different conclusions. So this isn't done deal. The case is closed. Everything is settled. Jacob solved the problem. In fact, maybe we made more problems we had before. So then he gets into his answer, right? So the question in verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? And mind you, again, let me just quickly say, even if you disagreed with my particular view, elect still, we have to believe it's, if you're a believer, you're elect. How you got there, you know, that's what the discussion is. But the point remains, nobody can bring a charge against God's elect. And his answer is, it is God who justifies. Again, he's getting at that principle of the only one who could bring a charge did so, and he leveled it against his own son, and his wrath was fully absorbed in and by his son. Meaning there's no more wrath. That's the doctrine that the million dollar word you spend lots of money at seminary to learn, propitiation. The wrath of God is satisfied through the death of Jesus Christ. That's why it's by faith alone, by the way. There's nothing else that we can do. Even if we could, nothing we could be righteous enough, but there's nothing left to do. Jesus paid it all. Now, first of all, this is God's position as judge. Flip over to Genesis chapter one, if you will, for a moment. Keeping a finger in Romans. Genesis chapter one. I've mentioned before that I'm doing a segment on Grace Global Radio and I've been working through Genesis. The idea is to work through narrative parts of scripture and to develop doctrine from narrative. And I'm basically taking principles from Charlie Clough's biblical framework. But this crossed my mind as I was doing this week's segment. Genesis chapter 1, verse 6 through 13. It says, then God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven, so the evening and the morning were the second day. Now notice verse 9. This is the third day. Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gather... Excuse me. And the gathering together of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. Now that clause, God saw that it was good, the creator of heaven and earth is giving us an assessment of what he just created. And in so doing, is he not demonstrating that he's the judge? And I think this is a foreshadowing for the Israelites who are reading this letter from Genesis, and for us for that matter, who are becoming acquainted with our creator of heaven and earth. that he's also the judge. He not only has the ability to judge, as demonstrated by him declaring that it is good, but he also has the right to judge, and he's the only one who has that right. Correct? Could anyone else, could the angels at this time who were there, say, God, I don't like what you did there. What right do they have? None. In fact, even though they didn't have a right, what did they do? They praised God. They just stood back in awe, thinking of, look what our creator's doing. And I think that gets lost on us, doesn't it? Sometimes we just kind of overlook beauty and nature and what God has done. And sometimes it's good to just stop and reflect upon and say, wow, I have no right to judge God, but you did a pretty good job. Now, mind you, the beauty that we're looking at is the result of a curse, the flood. Have you ever thought of that? Beautiful mountains and valleys. That's the results and consequences, the aftermath of God's wrath. That's pretty cool. So just imagine what the kingdom is going to look like, the new heavens and the new earth. So we see that God who justifies, and we know from past scripture, especially Genesis 1, 6 through 13, God is the judge. He's the ultimate judge. And I think that that implies also other passages of scripture. Every single person will stand before God. Did you know that? Now, if you're a believer, you will be what is believer during the church age, you will stand at what is called the great earth, excuse me, the Bema seat of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ. And if you're at the judgment seat of Christ, you are a believer. It's not a judgment to determine whether you're a believer. It's not a judgment where they're going to say, okay, did you have good works? Hmm. You're a couple short. I don't think you're a true believer. Get out of here. That's not what that judgment is. If you're at that judgment, it's already established you're a believer and your works are judged to determine whether you will receive rewards. Now the other judgment that the unbelievers of all time will stand before is the great white throne judgment. And that judgment, if you're at that judgment, it's not to decide whether you are saved or not. You are unsaved. You rejected God's grace. You were standing before him not to determine whether you will be saved or get a second chance or how long your time in purgatory will be. You will be judged by your works. And I think even that is an act of grace. Even though you can't be justified by your works, God, the perfect judge, will judge you accordingly. And he, I think, will show you how you fell short if you're at that judgment. Now, I'm confident of better things for you, brethren, as Paul would say, that you won't be there. But you know that it's our job to make sure that the people at that judgment is less than what it could be. And the only way we can do that is to share the gospel, right? Because what's the only means of justification? Faith in Christ alone. It's so simple, but do you see how hard it is for us to grasp that? We want skin in the game. We want investment. We want to say, I did something. And the gospel is the opposite. Jesus said, I did it all. It is finished. Some of you may know this. That's actually a transaction term. In fact, they used to argue over Greek, the Greek that the Bible was written in, saying that it might not have been, you know, it's just a different form of Greek, until an archaeological dig found a dump with basically all these transactions. And, you know, one of the things they found on some of these transactions is the Greek word, tetelestai. And they realized that when Jesus says, it is finished, it was a banking term. It's paid. A count can be closed. It has been finished and remains finished. Who justifies? Now again, justification, it's not the cute Sunday school, just as if I'd never sinned. It means even though you have sinned, God declares you righteous. That's justification. You are declared righteous by the judge. And if you are declared righteous by the judge, do you think his declaration means anything? It's the only thing that means, right? So that is the answer to who before number three. Who before number two? This is number three. Who is he who condemns? So breaking this up, who is he? It's literally who is the condemning one? Can anybody condemn another person? The only way that you can condemn another person is if you were not condemnable, right? In other words, you'd have to be perfectly righteous in order to condemn another person. It's kind of what Jesus said about the principle of, you know, before you judge your neighbor, what are you to do? Make sure you take the plank out of your own eye. We don't have a right to judge. So that's kind of what Paul's hinting at is, who is the condemning one? Who can condemn you? The implied answer is God. God can condemn you, but what's, who condemns? But what is his answer? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Now there's four things I want to highlight. Number one, Christ was condemned. And we see that in the phrase, it is Christ who died. Do you see his argument there? He asks the question, who is it that can condemn? And his answer is, Christ was condemned. He took your place. There is therefore now no Condemnation. Do you see how this might have some effect on how we or how we should interpret chapter 8 verse 1? Again, I don't think that's talking about a conditional. I think it's positional. There's no condemnation if you're in Jesus Christ. None. Same word, catechrema. I think to use the illustration of double jeopardy, anyone know what double jeopardy means? This is an example from the Fifth Amendment law within our nation. It says, no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger. Now, pay attention. Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb. Now, of course, this isn't scripture, but do you see the point here, the law of double jeopardy? If Jesus was condemned, he paid the sentence. Is there any sentence left to be paid? No, and that's Paul's argument. And mind you, again, this is contextualized by what he's just said in chapter 8, that you were a son and an heir. How is that so? Well, because there's no condemnation. You're a child of God. You can't be charged with anything concerning your positional righteousness because Jesus Christ paid it all. Number two, Christ completed the sentence. We see it in the clause, and is also risen. The resurrection of Christ showed that he was a perfect sacrifice. Death could not hold him, and yet he died for our sins, right? The sentence was paid out. What are the wages of sin? What is the consequence or penalty of sin? Death. Who died? Jesus. Who rose? Jesus. The debt is paid. The sentence is fulfilled. It's like that law of double jeopardy. Again, compare this with Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Number three, Christ's current position. So not only is the sentence paid, he's also in a new position, and that is, who is even at the right hand of God. Now, I have Mark 16, 19, but for sake of time, we won't go there. But turn to Hebrews 1, 3. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Mark 16 is just giving us the details of what happened of Christ ascending to heaven and sitting at the right hand of God. But Hebrews 1.3 tells us a little bit more. Hebrews 1.3. Speaking of... I'll start in verse 1 just for context. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. whom he has appointed heir of all things. Hey, if he's heir of all things and I'm a co-heir with him, what am I also an heir of? All things. Through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself, no help from you or me, purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." Now who's the majesty on high? He's the judge, right? The one who paid our sentence is now at the right hand of the judge. That's his position. Last, number four, Christ's current ministry. We see this in the phrase, who also makes intercession for us. Jump over to chapter seven of Hebrews. Hebrews 7, 25, tells us, therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Now, this is in the context, again, just the broad context of Hebrews. There were a group of Jews, second generation believers, who were going to default back to their Judaism. They were faced with immense persecution and they got the idea that if we just forsake Christ and we go back under Judaism, the persecution will stop. And that was a tempting offer. And we need to be a little bit gracious with them because we depart, we forsake Christ all the time and we're not faced with the level of persecution that they were. And so the writer of Hebrews structures his argument saying, why would you go back to Judaism when Christ is superior to the Levitical priest? He's superior to the high priest. He's superior to the temple. He's superior to the sacrifices. He is superior. I.e. don't go back to the inferior. And so with that, chapter 7, he's arguing about the priests who would every year intercede for the nation of Israel, and they would offer the required sacrifices for the nation of Israel. But there would come a point where they would die. And you hope that the next high priest is going to do his duty to intercede for the nation of Israel. But Jesus is at the right hand of God, and he's making intercession for us, and he's not going to die, meaning there's a perpetual intercession ministry of Christ on our behalf. Now, what is he interceding for? Well, Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 calls Satan the accuser of the brethren, meaning the way I picture this in the heavenly courtroom is, which mind you, Satan and his angels, they still have access to heaven. I don't know if you knew that. Job talks about that. They are fallen angels, but yet they have access to heaven. There's going to come a point in Revelation 12 where they will no longer have access to heaven. That's a sermon for another day. But the way I see it is that Satan comes before God. And I think that when you sin, not if, but when you sin, he says, Jacob, pastor Jacob, he's your son. You saw what he just did. You know what he has done. And Jesus making intercession means, what does he point to? Still paid. That's the comfort. And he does that for you. Every last one of you. The accuser of the brethren. Satan steps in. He's throwing accusations. That person's not righteous. And Paul's kind of alluded to it a little bit, right? You're no longer in bondage to sin, the sin. the taskmaster of sin who makes you perpetually unrighteous and do unrighteous things. Believers in Jesus Christ are elect in Him. He is the chosen position for the believer, thus to be in Him is to be in the chosen position. If you're in Christ, you are elect. Why? Because Christ is elect. He's the choice, you know, butcher-select grade Texas beef, right? The prime rib, so to speak. The elect choice cuts. We are elect in him. We cannot be condemned for what Jesus paid for. So the question is, what did he pay for? All our sins. And how many of your sins were future from the standpoint of the cross? All of them, right? So what about the sins you're going to commit later today? Don't do it, by the way. Paid for. What about tomorrow? Paid for. Next week? Paid for. The rest of your life? Paid for. I think a lot of pastors throughout history and a lot of Bible teachers have used hell as a tool. They'll hang believers over hell and say, oh, if you're not doing the right thing, you could go to hell. You may lose your salvation or some will say you never had it to begin with and we're going to hold you over the fires until you get serious and you start following Christ. One of my mentors, Pastor Dennis Roxer, calls it big stick theology. There's a lot of big stick theology where pastors carry a big stick and they beat their congregations into submission because they want them to do the right thing. And I think largely a lot of these ideas, now it's been happening throughout history, a lot of it though I think is a result of the evangelistic crusades, which I think is a good thing, I'm not belittling that, but you had thousands and hundreds of thousands of people coming to Christ. How many of them were trained in the Bible? Hardly any of them. If you were sending a bunch of toddlers or babies into battle, what might you expect? A mess, right? Unless they're teething, then you might have some good fights. But do you see the relationship? You've got someone who just trusted Christ, knows nothing about how to live the spiritual life, and talk about pendulum swing. If you're totally ignorant of those things, what are you going to listen to? You're going to listen to what this religion says, what that religion says, or maybe the guy who says, hey, just forget all that. Go do what you want. That's enticing. And that's what happens for a lot of believers. And I think, as a result, pastors said, we can't have this in our congregations. We need to buy a big stick and use it. and put the biblical stamp on it. The problem is the Bible doesn't stamp that sort of thing. The Bible says you are righteous, declared righteous by faith alone in Christ alone. And there's no condemnation. Now that's not a license to sin because what did Paul argue? You're free from sin and you're free from the law. When accusations of our positional unrighteousness are made, Jesus is our defense attorney. He intercedes for us. Our father is the judge and our brother is our defense attorney. And our brother sits at the right hand of the judge. What a great position we are in. And I hope that comforts you because Again, not if, but when you sin, not only is Satan giving accusations to God about you, I think he's also wanting you to feel a certain way about it. When you sin, he wants you to feel dirty. He wants you to feel like you're in darkness. And he wants you to run from God. And he wants you to have this thinking that you've got to be in probation. That you've got to toe the line. You've got to do the right thing. And then God will, you know, you'll have his favor again. But again, grace is not increased or decreased by merit or demerit. Never forget that. You are in the position permanently. God loves you. Now, there is a role of confession. When we sin, we confess our sins and God is what? Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How can he do that? Well, he can because all our sins were paid for, right? So when we sin as believers, and we confess, which literally means to agree with God, we're acknowledging our sin, and I liken it to dragging our sin into the light, saying, God, I've sinned. A man, many of you have been influenced by his teaching, use the vernacular of rebound. Now, some people have really fought against that, but I think that's a helpful, you know, it's like it or dislike it, whatever. It's a good concept. Because when you fall down and stumble as a believer, when you sin and you're out of fellowship with God, what do you do? Do you run? Do you hide? No. Get the ball back. Rebound. Get back up. Keep walking. And that's the Christian life. Because guess who also does that? Toddlers. When they're learning to walk. So as a believer, a new believer, you're learning these spiritual truths, you stumble. If you're like our son Daniel, he's got two older brothers that he needs to catch up with. He, I think, started running before he started walking. But guess what happens? He'd be taken off, and then he falls. And he's done that. But you know what? He does it less often. He's learning. He's growing. Likewise, as believers, as you continue to learn and study God's word, you get strengthened. Your steps are made more sure. Your stumbling is made less certain. Now you won't reach a level of sinless perfection as some may teach. You'll always deal with sin. But when you do, get back up. Bring your sin before the Lord. Walk in his righteousness. Don't turn tail, don't hide. Enjoy his grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you that you are the judge We thank you that you have declared us righteous. We thank you for your immense love. We love you, and we do want to honor you with our lives, Lord. Continue to grow us and edify us according to your word. In Jesus' name, amen.