Hebrews 4:1-10 | Resting in Christ

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church July 25, 2021 Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice Hebrews sermons playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8sIrq0gsadTndjGu3dBznMGKYtIAWjyd

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If you have your Bibles today, please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4.
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We will be considering verses 1 through 10. Chapter 4 of Hebrews, verses 1 through 10.
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Please pray with me. Oh God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, I ask you to, in this moment, speak through me.
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Lord, use this vessel as a vessel for truth and mercy.
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Fill me in a unique way with your Spirit to speak forth the magnificent works that are done by your hand and give grace to myself and to your people,
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I pray. From Christ's name, amen. So this week, scrolling through Facebook like I normally do to pass some time, right?
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An old pastor friend of mine, well, he was my pastor, now is my friend, said these words.
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The secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory, is determined by what you do today.
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This is in the context of the church. I'll say that again.
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The secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory, is determined by what you do today.
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Our theme for this Lord's Day is resting in Jesus, resting in Jesus.
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Our timeless truth is this. God has only given to the world one true rest, one.
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God has only given to the world one true rest. Jesus says of himself in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 and 30, quote,
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Come to me, all who are labored and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.
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For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, end quote. Ladies and gentlemen, today, if you will give me your attention, you will see that God had never, it was never
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God's intention, I want to make sure I say that right, that it was never God's intention for the land of Canaan to be the final rest for God's people.
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Last week, well, sorry, not last week, but two weeks ago and the week before that, we were looking at God's people were to rest in Canaan.
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But it was never God's intention for that to be the final rest. So look with me, if you will, to our text,
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Hebrews chapter 4, 1 through 10. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
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For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
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For if, for we who have believed entered his rest, entered that rest, as it is said,
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I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
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And again, in this passage, he says, they shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news fail to enter because of disobedience.
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Again, he points a certain day, today, saying through David, long afterwards, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
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For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not have spoken of another day later on.
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So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for everyone who has entered
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God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
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In our outline today, the Holy Spirit is teaching us three ways, yes, three points,
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Cal, three ways to rest in Christ. Point number one, the good news of the gospel.
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Point number two, our response to the gospel. And point number three, the
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Sabbath that the gospel provides. Now, we will only be looking at one of the points today.
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My plan is to take this three -point message and to spread it out for three weeks, so we can focus in on this.
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We're about to, as we enter into chapter five, it's going to be some difficult passages coming up for us, and I want us to have a real strong foundation of the meat that this book is providing for us, something that we can point back to.
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You know, we, growing up, we all have memories, and say, hey, remember that time that we can, we're hanging out with our friends and talking?
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I want this, these next three weeks to be that for us, as we're walking through this book where we can point back.
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Remember the gospel, remember our response, remember what he has given us for a
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Sabbath rest? That's what
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I hope to accomplish in the next few weeks. As we transition,
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I want us to look back just briefly in the context of where we just left. We have God speaking of the time whenever he was bringing the
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Israelites out of Egypt, and he was going to bring them to the land of Canaan.
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And we looked in the text where they were grumbling. They had no water, they had no food.
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God makes it rain manna, he makes water come from a rock. God's doing all these miraculous things.
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They got a cloud covering them from the sun by day, and a pillar of fire to warm them from the cold at night.
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Their outfits, their clothing, their shoes did not wear out for 40 years.
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Like they're seeing the magnificent works of God. They saw the sea part and they were able to cross it, and their enemies drowned who tried to chase after them.
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They saw all these wonderful things happening, and when God told them that he was giving to them a land, and that he was going to fight for them, that it was theirs, that this land is yours.
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And they replied, oh, there's giants there. I mean, we brought back a pomegranate, it took two people to carry the pomegranate.
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These are big people, there's no way we can take this land. But God said he was going to give it to them.
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And so because of their unbelief, they did not enter that rest.
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But then we have in Christian circles today who says that this is teaching that a Christian can lose their salvation.
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That someone that has believed in Jesus Christ who has received eternal life, well, it just really isn't eternal.
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You can lose it. They said that that's what this portion that we looked at for two weeks is speaking about.
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And I fault and argue that that's not what it's speaking about. As a matter of fact, nowhere in here is it speaking about sins, moral sins, such as lying or stealing, adultery, or any of that, that most
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Christians would apply on the text. And I'm not saying that those things are right, like don't do them, okay?
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Don't hear that. I'm saying that that's not what the text was speaking of. It was speaking of unbelief, them not believing what
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God has said. They didn't enter, not because they were sinful, but because they didn't believe what
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God has said. That's why they did not enter his rest. So to our first point, the good news of the gospel,
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Hebrews chapter 4, we're just going to be in verses 1 and 2 today. It says, therefore, therefore, because of everything that I just said previously now, them,
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God giving them the land, them refusing to enter, look at verse 19, so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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Therefore, since they did not enter because of unbelief, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
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For the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
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So before we get into breaking down this text, what is the good news?
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What we have here in the gospel is the result of one man's sin versus the result of one man's obedience.
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One man's sin, Adam, versus one man's obedience, Christ. That's how we explain the gospel.
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There's bad news and there's good news. You'll never understand good news without knowing the bad news.
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It's impossible. If you just walk up to someone and say, hey, I've got good news for you. Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose on the third day according to the scriptures.
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What does that do for me? What does it do for me? They need to know the bad news or the point of Christ dying for them means nothing.
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Him being buried and rising on the third day means nothing unless they understand why.
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Are you following me? So what we have here in the gospel is the result of one man's sin versus the result of one man's obedience.
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If you would turn with me to Romans chapter 5. I'm going to be reading verses 12 through 21.
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Romans chapter 5 verses 12 through 21. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of the one man
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Jesus Christ abound for many. And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespass brought justification.
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For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more were those who reigned in the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reigned through the one man
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Jesus Christ. Therefore, remember because that's true, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification for all men, for as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
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Now, the law came to increase trespass, but where sin increased, grace abound all the more.
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So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Subpoint number one this morning is the result of one man's sin.
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So what do we get added to the world because of one man's sin?
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Here's the list. Because of his sin, Adam's, sin entered the world, death through sin bestowed upon all mankind, red, yellow, black or white, precious in his sight, male or female, condemnation upon all mankind, and the law was given to make man accountable.
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But it's not as if they had no law, right, Adam and Eve? It's not as if they had no law.
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It was just not given to them by way of stone tablets. I want to look for a second at our confession, chapter six of the
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London Baptist Confession of Faith. I'm going to do my best to read through this quickly.
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Paragraph one, God created humanity upright and perfect and gave them a righteous law that would have led to life if they kept it, but threatened death if they broke it.
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Yet they did not remain for a long time in that position of honor. Satan used the craftiness of the serpent to subdue
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Eve, who then subdued Adam. Adam acted without any outside compulsions and deliberately transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating of the forbidden fruit.
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God was pleased in keeping with his, listen to this, his wise and holy counsel to permit this act.
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Why? Because he had a purpose to direct it for his own glory.
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By this sin, our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. We fell in them, listen, we fell in them and through this death came upon all.
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And because death, and because, excuse me, came upon all, all became dead in sin and completely defiled in all capabilities, parts of their soul and body.
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By God's appointment, by God's appointment, they were the root and representatives of the whole human race.
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Because this, the guilt of their sin was accounted and their corruption, their corrupt nature was passed on to all their offsprings who descended from them by ordinary procreation.
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Their descendants are now conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin and partakers of death and all misery, spiritual, temporal and eternal, unless the
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Lord Jesus himself frees them. All actual transgressions arise, listen to this, all actual transgressions arise from this first corruption.
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By it, we are thoroughly biased against and disabled and antagonistic toward all that is good and we are completely inclined toward all that is evil.
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During this life, the corruption of the nature remains in those who are regenerated.
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Did y 'all hear that? During this life, speaking of the Christian right now, this corruption of nature remains in those who are regenerated.
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Even though it is pardoned and put to death through Christ, yet this corruption of nature and all its actions arises from it are truly and actual sins.
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Here's the question, how can God, how can God be sovereign over all things and not also be the first cause of sin?
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That's a question that's posed to us as Reformed people quite often. How can God be sovereign over all things and yet not be guilty?
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Real quickly, back to our confession, I just want to touch on one little point. I had more of this to read, but I'm just going to focus on paragraph four of divine providence.
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The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom and infinite goodness of God are so thoroughly demonstrated in his providence that his sovereign plan includes the first fall and every sinful action, both of angels and humans.
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God's providence over sinful actions does not occur by simple permission.
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Instead, God most wisely and powerfully limits and other ways arranges and governs sinful action.
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Through a complex arrangements of methods, he governs sinful actions and accomplishes his perfectly holy purpose, yet he does so in such a way that the sinfulness of their acts arise only in the creature and not from God, because God is altogether holy, righteous, and he is neither the originator nor approves of sin.
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So what is sin? What is sin? Well, the
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Bible gives the answer, 1 John 3, verse 4. It says, everyone who practices sinning also practices lawlessness.
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Sin is lawlessness. It's breaking
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God's law. God gave them a law, right? God gave them a law.
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Sin is breaking God's law. What was it that Adam did?
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He broke God's law. You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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And what does this law of God show us? The law of God, the 10 words, the Decalogue, what does it show us?
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Good and evil. You have this tree in the garden that they're told not to eat.
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If you eat this tree, what was the name of this tree? The knowledge of good and evil.
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You eat of this tree, you're going to know good and evil. What does the law do for us? It shows us good and evil.
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You see this parallel going on here? We got what we asked for, right?
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You want to know how good God is? Look to the law. You want to know how bad you are?
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Look to the law. You don't have to create evil.
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All you have to do is give rules. I gave this illustration before.
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If I told my daughter Trinity not to do something, and if she does that, did I cause her to do that?
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Did I create that being evil? No, I just told her not to do it. By her breaking it, which she does, right, kids?
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By her breaking it, it's wrong, it's sinful. God gave a command, don't do this.
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If you do this, you are sinning, it's evil. First one was eating of a fruit.
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There's nothing wrong with eating fruit, in and of itself, right?
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He didn't say, you know, don't eat that big old juicy hamburger, which all of us will probably fail.
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He just said, don't eat this fruit. In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with eating fruit. But God said not to do it, from the day you do, you will die.
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So because of Adam's sin, sin entered the world, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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Death through sin bestowed upon all men, the soul, you know, the soul that sins will die.
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For the wages of sin is death. You want to know why you die?
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You're getting paid. You're going to be paid in full. The wages, what you've earned, the wages of sin is death.
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Condemnation upon all mankind, the sin of Adam brought to us inherited guilt.
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It was passed down generation to generation, traced back to Adam and Eve. And the law was given to make man accountable.
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Listen to this, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.
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Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Our next sub point, sub point number two, the result of one man's obedience, the results of or because of one man's active and passive obedience that we have in Jesus Christ.
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This is what we get. We get the obedience of Christ. I hope that as I'm reading this, your hair begins to stand up.
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We get the obedience of Christ. We get being counted as righteousness, being brought to justification, having and having the abundance of grace given to us by his mercy.
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The abundance of grace given to the many by his mercy.
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So in the Bible, we have what the law, again, the law.
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So the Jews would equate the law being one continuous law. The reformers came and they broke it up, and I've mentioned this before, into three parts, the moral, the ceremonial, and the civil.
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The moral, the ceremonial, and the civil. So if you look at God's law, the Ten Commandments, the
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Decalogue, the first four are civil, I mean are ceremonial.
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Your duties to God, you are to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
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All civil, all the ceremonial laws kind of reflect the first four commandments.
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Your duties to God. This is where the sacrifice takes place. When you would sacrifice, it would be your sacrifice unto
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God. You break one of these sins, you need to sacrifice to God. The last six, the civil, would be our love for a neighbor, our love for a neighbor.
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Break one of these, and we're going to strap you down like an axe and stone you to death.
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Right? And so you have the ceremonial, sacrificial, love your neighbor, do something bad to your neighbor, sleep with your neighbor's wife, you're going to die.
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You're getting put to death. And so from the moral law, it's kind of like you got this spout.
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This moral law is the spout, and as it comes out, that's where the ceremonial and the civil are created from, all from God's moral law.
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
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And so what we have in Christ, Him coming, His act of obedience,
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Christ living the life that we could not live, what did He do? He loved
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His Father with all of His heart, with all of His soul, with all of His mind, and with all of His strength.
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He kept that law, that law that you and I could not keep, that they did not keep.
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He came and kept that law. He came and kept the covenant that Adam broke.
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He came and kept the law that the Jews could not keep. He loved the
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Lord His God with all of His heart, with all of His mind, with all of His soul, with all of His strength, and what happened to Him?
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He was treated as if He didn't. The Bible calls
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Him the Apostle and High Priest of our faith, sorry, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
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As the, remember, we went through this a few weeks ago, as the Apostle, He brings to us the message from God, and as the
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High Priest, He made sacrifice. So not only did
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He make the sacrifice, but He Himself is the sacrifice. So because you and I could not keep the first part of the law, the first four commandments,
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Jesus Christ kept them, but He made the sacrifice of Himself, because we could not keep them.
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We could not keep them. So as the Apostle, He makes sacrifice, and the offering is
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Himself, His body, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sins of the world.
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And His passive obedience, passive obedience is Him dying the death that we deserve to die.
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This is Him loving His neighbor as Himself. Christ came, He loved His neighbor as Himself.
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The Jews then, now, past, present, future, all the way, us, you, me, look at me, you, me, we cannot do this perfectly.
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Christ did it perfectly, but He was treated as if He didn't.
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So because you and I, them then, you and I now, were unable to love our neighbors perfectly,
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Christ took the punishment of death upon Himself. So in His active obedience,
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He lives the life we could not live, and provides the sacrifice for Himself. In His passive obedience,
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He died the death that we should die by taking upon Himself the death that we deserve.
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Is this making sense? Because what
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He has done, not what you can do, because of what He has done,
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He has kept the covenant, He has kept the law, and He became our atonement.
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He stood in our stead. And by Him doing so,
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He reverses this curse, this curse that came upon the earth. He reverses the curse.
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So what we see first is we have the sin of Adam versus the obedience of Christ. Which is greater, the sin of Adam or the obedience of Christ?
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Christ kept the law, Adam couldn't. Second, we have the sin that brought forth death versus the free gift being counted to us as righteousness.
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Romans 6 .23 says this, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Which is greater? Christ.
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What Christ has done. Third, we have the trespass that brought condemnation versus the free gift of righteousness that brought forth justification.
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Romans 5 .1, therefore, the therefore here is speaking about, when you go look in context, it's speaking of Abraham and the promise that's through faith, not of works.
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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, since we have been justified, how?
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By faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have not been justified by faith, you do not have peace with God.
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And that means you are an enemy of God. You are an enemy of God if you have not been justified by faith, because only justification by faith gives you peace with God.
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Also, look at Romans 8 .1 and 2, therefore, there is no condemnation.
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Adam brought condemnation when he, through his sin, he brought condemnation. But in Christ, therefore, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the
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Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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Fourth, we have the law of Moses, which came to increase trespasses versus the abundance of grace.
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Let's stay where we are right there in Romans 8. Look at verses 3 and 4. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
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By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the
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Spirit. So when Christ fulfilled this law, he fulfilled this law in us, them that believe, them that enter his rest, you and me.
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If we're in Christ, if we have been justified by faith and we have peace with him, notice because of the obedience of Christ, you and I can be counted as righteousness.
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Not that we are righteous. The Bible calls for us to be righteous. It calls for us to be holy.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we're not holy and we're not righteous. So if it calls for us to be these things, we should ask the question, how?
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How am I to be righteous? Well, the same way through Adam's sin, we were counted, we were accounted with his trespass, the same way we are to be credited, accounted righteous because of what
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Christ has done. And that comes by faith alone. And if that takes place, we can stand before God completely justified because of his grace, what he has done.
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Remember, I was talking not long ago about propitiation. What is propitiation?
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It's the payment for wrongdoing. You and I broke
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God's law. God has paid our fine. It is as if God reached into his pocket and he pulls out the eternal son, sent him because Jesus Christ is the propitiation.
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He is our payment for our wrongdoing. Paid in full by reaching into his pocket, he sent the eternal son into the world to live the life we could not live and to die the death that we deserve to die.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that is the gospel. Now, with that information in mind, with that clarity in mind, listen or read with me this gospel message again that we see in Romans chapter 12,
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Romans chapter five. And if this doesn't make a
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Baptist want to do a Pentecostal two -step, I don't know what will. I'm not going to do it.
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I'm going to try. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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Sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not accounted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through the one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by his grace of the one man,
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Jesus Christ abound for many. And the free gift is not like the one, is not like the result of one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespass brought justification.
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For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign through the reign in life through the one man,
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Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification for all men.
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For as by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Ladies and gentlemen, that was you and I.
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By one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. That's where we are now.
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Now the law came to increase trespass, but where sin increased grace.
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Ladies and gentlemen, grace abound all the more. So that as sin reigned through death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
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Lord. Now turn back to Hebrews chapter one.
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Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest stands, let us fear, at least any of you should not seem to have failed to reach it.
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For the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
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Right here where it says, let us fear, who is the us? And the text, the us is true believers.
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True believers, those who have entered his rest. Let us fear, let us true believers fear.
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It says, let us fear at least any of you. Who are the any of you? This is baptized members of the church.
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Those who professed faith, but didn't truly believe, yet took the sign and seal of baptism.
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They professed with their mouth, but they did not believe in their heart. They're saying, let us true believers, those who are in Christ, fear at least any of you.
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Baptized members of the church should seem to fail to reach it. Ladies and gentlemen, we can do all the proclamation of the gospel on the streets.
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And y 'all look, you know, I love doing that. All we want, we can go out into the community, all we want.
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But we should fear at least any of the members of our church fail to reach it.
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We should be in fear. There should be tears on our pillows and it's failed to enter what?
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Rest. Look at verse 4a.
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For he has spoken somewhere of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
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Now go back to verse 2. Since for the good news came to us, that good news is the gospel.
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As to them, the good news for them at that time was entering
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Canaan. But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith.
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Why didn't it not benefit them? Because they weren't baptized? No. Because they weren't circumcised?
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No. Because they were not united by faith. Go back to verse 19 of chapter 3.
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So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. They were not united by faith with those who listened.
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Who listened? Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb were the only two that said,
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Hey, we can do it. I don't care how big these guys are. We can do it.
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Why? Because God is with us. God is with us.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus told us to go into all the world to make disciples, to baptize them in the name of the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe all that he has command. And yet the church is saying,
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Oh, I don't know. Look at that pomegranate. It's big. Ladies and gentlemen, we can do this because God is with us.
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And when you know God is with you, you know that it ain't you doing it. It's him. It's grace.
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This message they heard was pointing back to the church in the wilderness. And as we see, Caleb and Joshua was the only one.
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They were the only one. At this time, you had, well, at that time, you had
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God giving, wanting to give them Canaan. They reject
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Canaan and wanted to go back to Egypt. At this time in the text, when the writer of Hebrews is speaking to this
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Jewish church, he was presenting to them Jesus. But they kept running back to Canaan.
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They kept running back to Canaan. The secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory is determined by what you do today.
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No, absolutely not. That is a false gospel.
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The secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory is not a secret.
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And it's not determined by what you do, but by what you believe today. Who is your faith in?
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Is it in yourself? Ladies and gentlemen, I hope not. If you're trusting in yourself to make things happen in your life, then you are trusting in a false gospel.
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Jesus in the gospel is the primary purpose for Christian fellowship and for Christian and for the life of the believer.
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So in closing, I want to invite you today. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.
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I want to invite you today, if you hear his voice, to rest in Christ.
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To rest in Christ. To trust him and stop trusting in what you can do, but trust in what
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God has already done through Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, when you do that, you'll actually see things grow in your life.
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We need to trust, we need to rest in Jesus Christ and to trust in the providence, the divine providence of God.
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I'm available if anyone would like to talk. If anyone needs prayer,
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I'd love nothing more than to pray for you. Please join me in prayer. Oh God, thank you for this day.
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Lord, I thank you for your people. Lord, I pray that your hand is upon them.
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And God, as always, I pray if there's anyone in this room, Lord, that does not know you, I pray that today they rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus on the cross said, Telestai, it is finished. What is finished? The work that he set out to accomplish.
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You sent him into the world to fulfill a purpose. He came and he fulfilled that purpose.
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Lord, help us to rest in what he has done. And Lord, right now, I ask that you bless your supper that you have prescribed for your church to partake in.
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This means of grace for baptized believers. Lord, I pray that your hand has blessed it.