Rest For Your Souls - [Hebrews 4:3-8]

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

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

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

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

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

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, probably for the last 30 years,

Answers in Genesis has done a good job in bringing to the attention of evangelicalism.

What about Genesis? What about Genesis 1, 2, and 3? What about creation?

Is creation important? Is evolution real? Can you blend creationism and evolution?

Lots of questions have been asked and answered in regard to Genesis. How old is the earth?

Is it young earth or old earth? Did God create over billions of years, or did

He create in six literal days? Are Genesis 1 and 2 complementary or contradictory?

Why is God called one thing in Genesis 1 and He's called something else in Genesis 2? What's the gap theory?

Is there a gap between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2? What happened there? When did

Satan fall? Did God really make dinosaurs? All excellent questions.

But I think the most important question when it comes to creationism with the battle of creationism and evolution in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, why did

God rest on the seventh day of creation? I think that's the most important question to ask and to answer.

Why did God rest on the seventh day of creation? Why is that important? I'm glad you asked.

Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4. We're going through the book of Hebrews and we're in Hebrews chapter 4.

I hope to get through around 5 or 6 or 7 today. And we will look at Hebrews chapter 4, this book that extols

Jesus as better, better than the prophets, better than the angels, better than Moses, better than Aaron, better than the old covenant system, better than slaying animals every

Passover, better than slaying a goat every Yom Kippur. Jesus is better. And for the

Jews that were getting persecuted, they thought about going back to Judaism. How do you convince them not to go back?

Going back will lead you to your own spiritual peril. That's true. But positively, Jesus is great enough.

Don't turn your back on Jesus. And so 13 chapters about Jesus is greater, a message that we all need, our society needs, evangelicalism needs, with some punctuation throughout the book of Hebrews that would be taken in the form of warnings.

We're up at Hebrews chapter 4 today. Remember last week when we looked at verse 1 and 11 of chapter 4?

That's the kind of bookends. It's called an inclusio. And everything in between talks about that same subject.

So remember Hebrews 4 .1. It talks about the promises of entering

His rest. And then in 4 .11, it's the same thing, is it not?

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. We're not talking about physical rest, getting into the promised land.

We're talking about spiritual rest. That is rest for your souls. Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden,

Jesus said, and I will give you what? Rest. No more working for your salvation. No more doing religious deeds for your salvation.

No more trying to keep your salvation. It's all been accomplished by the work of another. And simply by trusting in Him, believing in Him, you can have rest for your souls.

Probably the answer that this author gives is, the question that the author states is essentially,

Israel was frustrated and they didn't get into their rest. Can we get into our rest? And the answer is, yes, you can get into your rest.

But it's important, so don't slack off. If I could summarize verse 1 of chapter 4, it might be with the word fear.

Just with a quick review, verse 1. 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.

Augustine said, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.

It's important, so fear. Do not just think this is a very minor, trivial thing.

Also in review, we looked at verse 2 last week, and we could summarize this verse with maybe the word believe, or faith.

For good news came to us just as to them, Hebrews 4 .2, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

For Israel, remember, it wasn't enough that they heard the promise of God, but they had to believe

Him. And similarly for us, it's not enough for you to know that Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead.

You have to trust in Him. Exodus did not, the Exodus generation did not receive their rest because God's promises were faulty?

Of course not, but because they didn't believe. And remember, for them, it was Cana, it was the land.

I'll read you Exodus chapter 23. This was the rest they were waiting for, but they didn't believe. This was the good news promised by God.

Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice.

Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then

I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. Can you imagine this from God to Israel?

When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the

Hivites and the Jebusites, I will blot them out. You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.

You shall serve the Lord your God and He will bless your bread and your water. I will take away sickness from among you.

None shall miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come.

And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the

Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you. And he promises the

Israelites, I'm going to give you this rest. I'll go ahead of you even. You trust in me. And of course they didn't and they fell in the wilderness.

Hebrews 11 says without faith, it's impossible to please God. That was true for the

Israelites and that's true for us as well. Paul writes something similarly, 1

Thessalonians 2 .13. And we also thank God constantly for this. That when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it as the word not of men, but what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Jews, don't turn away from Jesus and go back to Judaism. It's not going to profit you.

And now we come to verses 3 through 5. And maybe the best word to summarize these verses is available.

Fear, believe and available. Israel failed to enter. Can we enter into rest?

Is the door closed? Is there still a possibility for us? Let me read verses 3, 4 and 5.

And then let's talk about this Sabbath rest. This rest that God has for us.

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, as I swore 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. Verse 5. And again in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest.

Here's the big picture and a brief summary of these verses. God created in six days and rested.

And he wants his people to rest. Israel didn't rest. That means there's still a rest available for you.

That's what verses 3, 4 and 5 talk about. Israel did not fulfill the rest that God had for them.

That means there's still rest. If God made rest, he wants his people to enjoy it. Israel's not.

Is there rest for me? The answer is yes. Verses 8, 9 and 10 give you a hint as well.

Let me read those verses. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not spoken of another day later on.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered

God's rest had also rested from his works as God did from his. God rests.

He wants his people to rest. Israel didn't rest. That means there's still rest for us. Back to verse 3.

See still again the key word believe. Those who have believed. Everything around the

Christian faith in terms of our response has to be believe. And there it is again.

To know about God, to ascent to his person and work and then to trust in him fully.

You can tell it's tied to the first two verses with the word for. There's a connection there.

And the author's going to prove that God's plan of rest is still available for you. That's what he's about to do.

And how do you think you go about proving something if you're a Bible teacher? If I want to prove to you that something is true, what do

I say? Survey said. Popular polls. Latest psychological works today say.

Freud said. Adler said. Skinner said. Maslow said. I'd say what?

You guys are the frozen chosen today. That's for certain. The Bible says. And so he's talking to Hebrew people and he's going to be quoting from the

Hebrew Bible. Let me show you from the scripture why this is true. The four shows the grounds for the preceding statement.

And now he's going to tell everyone. Listen, there's still a rest for you. Now, one of the best things you can do when you study the

Bible, as I said last week, is slow down and ask lots of questions. And ask yourself this.

What's the verb tense? Now, for me, I grew up in Nebraska. I won't blame my elementary school.

Matter of fact, my elementary school was not related to Master's College or Master's Seminary, but it was called the Master's Elementary School.

You cannot run from that name, I'm telling you. And so they probably taught me wrongly or poorly or they did no good when it comes to my education.

But once I became a Christian, I started to read. And some of you, I know, can resonate with that. The only books you've ever read in your life, basically as an adult, besides, you know,

People Magazine, is the Bible. And then, all of a sudden, now you get saved and it's the Bible, the Bible, the

Bible, the Bible. And you need to stop and slow down, especially with epistles. And you think of verb tenses because it matters.

Is this a future tense? Is it a past tense? Is it present tense?

How do I know that I can still trust in Jesus today, that the door's not shut? Maybe you think, well, there's a future tense that you could believe in the future.

There's a past tense, well, they used to. What would be the tense that I would use to show you today you could believe today if you're not trusting in Jesus?

It would be the present tense. And that's exactly what happens. The present tense is used, not past tense.

What's it say in verse 3? For we who have believed, enter that rest. That's fascinating to me.

And even when Jesus was on the earth and he quoted those verses I quoted earlier, come unto me. He must have known that although God had created the world and had rest for his people as he rested, and Israel forfeited that rest, how can

Jesus now say, come unto me and get rest? Answer, the promise is still open for all those that would trust in Christ Jesus.

God's rest is still available, that's the point. Now look at that passage there.

Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. That's fascinating.

And he gives some support here in verse 4. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way.

God rested on the seventh day from all his works. Here comes the author's proof text from the

Bible. Now who talks this way by the way? What Bible teacher do you know? Remember this was a sermon.

For it is somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. It's kind of odd initially, so be careful.

What if I were to say going back to the previous Matthew 11, come unto me passage, that's very famous, verses 28 through 30.

I don't even remember where Jesus said it, but it's in one of the gospels, come unto me. I know it's there somewhere.

It almost could be kind of a derogatory thing. Yeah, some Bible teacher you are. It's somewhere in the

Bible. Sometimes I get asked questions on the radio or here or from you.

Well, you know, there's that one Bible verse that says such and such, and I want to know if you could help me. I always have a, it's not a trick, it's not a ploy, but it's just something

I do. Could you show me that verse so then I can basically interpret the verse instead of interpret your misinterpretation or reading of that verse?

I mean, what's the verse really say? Well, I know it's somewhere found in the Bible. You know, you look at this and you think, who talks this way?

They haven't been to navigators. Memory school. Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning

God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1, 1, give me the markers. But what if you had a scroll?

You're going to unroll that scroll and find it. And you know it's in there somewhere, but that takes a lot of time. What if this verse was found three places in the

Old Testament? I think that's probably what's happening. Exodus 20, 11, for in six days the

Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the

Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. It's also found in Exodus 31, 17.

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

It's also found in Genesis 2, 2. That could be the reason why he says somewhere spoken.

But this was a very common way to say it. If that's not the reason, it's because there's a common way to give scripture citation references.

I mean, we put in the chapters and we put in the verses. It's not that easy to find it in a scroll.

He knows God says it, so he doesn't need to find exact. If you turn your

Bible to chapter 1 of Genesis, let's kind of work through this a little bit and see what happens because it's so interesting to me.

God creates and then God rests. What does that have to do with our salvation?

Is creation rest linked to spiritual salvation rest? Before we read chapter 2 from where this author is quoting,

I want to read chapter 1 to give you the emphasis. Each of the six days of creation has a beginning and an ending and marked words at the end, and I will highlight those.

Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and following. In the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. Very important here for our conversation in Hebrews.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. There's your marker. Evening, morning, first day.

God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.

And it was so, and God called the expanse heaven. Marker 2, there was evening, and there was morning, the second day.

God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas.

And God saw that it was good. God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.

And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Marker 3, and there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, verse 14, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.

And let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. Verse 15, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

I'm trying not to make too many comments as I go through this passage, but I have to make a comment here. It is not a throwaway line, but when it comes to those stars in the sky that you see at night,

I mean, how does God describe it? He makes the greater light to rule the day, the lesser night to rule the night, and, by the way, and the stars.

He just makes the stars and the stars. Isn't that fascinating? God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good. Marker 4, did you see it? And there was evening, there was morning, the fourth day.

God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures. Let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.

So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swam according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the waters and the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth.

Marker 5, do you see it? And there was evening, there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image and in the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.

God blessed them. God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with its seed and its fruit.

You shall have them for food. And every beast of the earth and every bird of the heaven and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life,

I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. Marker six, do you see it?

And God saw everything that he made. And behold, it was very good. And there was evening, there was morning, the sixth day.

And now we come to our passage in Hebrews chapter four. Genesis 2 -1, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.

And here's that quote that's found somewhere in the Old Testament as Hebrews says. And on the seventh day, read carefully,

God finished his work which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day, made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

True or false? And there was evening and there was morning and there was the seventh day.

True or false? There's no marker.

Isn't that amazing? What does the text say? He rested on the seventh day from all his work.

And off we go into the creation of man and woman. Here's the point.

It's a simple point. It's an obvious point. If God said at the end of his rest there's another day, evening and morning, the next day is coming.

There's no more rest. But since he doesn't have that marker, that rest keeps going. To the one day, to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next.

There was evening and morning for all these other days, but not here. At the conclusion of creation,

God rests. Why? Because he's tired? No, because it's all accomplished.

He still has to uphold the universe, but there's a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and he needs to create no more.

And the rest keeps going. There's no final ending of the evening and the morning. That's the point.

Why did God rest on the seventh day of creation? Yes, it was because no more creation needed to be done.

Yes, it had satisfaction. But number three, and most importantly today, so you could rest.

He rests so that you could rest, and that rest doesn't stop at the end of day seven. Something very practical could be done here.

When you're talking to your friends, maybe at WPI, maybe someplace else, and all this evolution comes up, and all this creationism comes up.

What's your number one goal when you evangelize, when it comes to creationism? Is it that you want to convince them that there's six days?

It's a literal six days, and every time 24 goes with Yom, the word day, it's a literal day.

Are you trying to win the argument that evolution is wrong, theistic evolution is wrong, but six -day by divine fiat creation is right?

Well, even if that was true, I can remind you by saying, you can believe in six -day creation and still go to hell, can't you?

I don't need to win some kind of argument. How often, I'll tell you

I've never done it, but I'm going to start doing it. How often do I talk about the six days of creation and lead into evangelism, where these people can find rest for their souls?

That's what Hebrews is using it for. I was reading Ecclesiastes this last week. What's the option if you're not going to find rest for your soul?

I went to one man and said, what's the cure for hedonism? To attempt it.

How's it working out for you if you think, my whole life is built on pleasure, because the world doesn't deliver.

And so what the writer is doing with Genesis 1 and 2 is this, God creates and God rests, and He's still resting, and He calls you to enter

His rest. It's not about, well, what day do the dinosaurs get, what about the fossils, what about the carbon dating, what about intelligent design, what about irreducible numbers and irreducible mechanisms and everything else.

Hey, you need to rest for your soul. Would you like to have rest for your soul? Wouldn't you like to be forgiven? And if it said evening and morning after the seventh day of God's rest, you're out.

But He didn't say it. He said, God made a rest, and He opens up His arms and says, rest.

Don't get bogged down with all this. Well, okay, let's look at the answers in Genesis, and, okay, why do some people have lighter skin and darker skin, and where are they coming from, and palingenesis, and what about all these continents, and when did they move?

Fine, answer all your questions, but if you don't get to the point where you say, what about you? What about your sins?

What about standing before God, dying and standing before God? I know basically you're like Nietzsche, and you're saying, you know,

I have to have evolution because I like immorality, but your soul is immortal, and you will stand before God, and you're running hither and thither, and what are other words that sound like that?

Pelmel, back and forth, trying to find satisfaction in your life, and you know what? I guess if Alistair Begg can quote

John Lennon, I'm going to quote Jagger Richards. I can't get no satisfaction. Okay, the newer generation.

You still haven't found what you're looking for, have you? Rest, where you can just say, you know, it's done by another.

Jesus did it all. All to Him I owe. There's no evening and morning at the end of the seventh day.

That means there's rest for you. This is going to be just rhetoric.

I do technically care about Yom and 24 hours and six days, and I'm a six -day creationist.

I care about that, that's true. But I could care less if you win that argument and you don't talk about Jesus and rest.

It doesn't do any good. There are plenty of intelligent design people who are brilliant, and they're going to go to hell because they're brilliant, but they still trust their own brilliance and their own self -righteousness and their own

IQ. So when it comes to creationism, when it comes to God resting,

I hope the next time when you think of someone and you're working through evolution, anti -evolution, everything else, you think, okay,

I've got to drive this to the gospel. Turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians for a moment as well.

This has nothing to do with Hebrews 4 per se, but it has everything to do with creation evangelism, creationism evangelism.

Why do we want to talk about creationism? Is it to study the Bible? Sure. Is it to figure out

Genesis? Sure. If we lose Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, isn't the rest of the Bible just a mush pot?

Yes. I get all that, but the point is, we're to tell people good news.

And the good news is not simply God created the world in six days. Frankly, that's impressive news.

Wow, who can do that? God wants to make all the animals and all the teeming things and the creeping things, and what does the text say?

It was so... When I was a kid,

I had this little crawdad, the lake of the Ozarks, and we could make it do tricks.

I'm not kidding you. I know it's from Nebraska and all that. And we had trained this little crawdad not to pinch us, and we had one of these really heavy floor mats that when you walk in a welcome mat, and you walk in your house and go like that, and it was made out of old tires or something like that, and it had little squares inside of it, and it was heavy, and we could fold that thing up like this, and we could have it climb through certain things, almost like a little flea circus or something, but it was crawdad circus.

The visitors are just thinking what I walk into today. And we could have all this stuff, and we thought we're going to make money down at the

Barnum and Bailey Zoo or something, or down at the mental institution or something, and we could do tricks.

And I slipped, and I dropped it, and it crushed my crawdad. That's why

I have psych problems today. I mean, everything in me wanted to like resurrect it, to like make it come to life.

Friends, I can't even give life, let alone create something. I need to like, okay, what's it going to take for me to create the new crawdad?

Whales, and the moon, and the sun, and the stars, God makes everything, and it's so.

And unbelieving friend, He made you. And He is the Creator, and you're the creature, and He made you to worship

Him and His Son. And I'll answer any question you want about evolution, and palingenesis, and everything else, but at the end of the day, friend, you're going to stand before God, and then what?

Then it's going to be judgment. And Colossians 2

Corinthians chapter 4 is an encouragement for us, because it talks about creation, and it talks about salvation, and it links together, and it should give you encouragement for evangelism.

Paul is getting attacked, and here's how he responds. 2 Corinthians 4 .1

Therefore, having this ministry, by mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

Oh, maybe he wants to give up, but the word, we don't lose heart, probably means, unlike you people that have moral failure, we're not going to have moral failure.

Unlike you people, you false apostles who act wrongly, I'm not going to act wrongly.

Verse 2, but we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's Word, but with open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

I'm not in it for money, you guys are. I'm not in it for prestige, you guys are. Paul is talking to these false teachers, and he says, we're not going to tamper with God's Word.

How do you tamper with God's Word? Here's the picture. You have a bottle of wine, and you say, you know what?

I can make that wine go farther as I sell it by diluting it, and I will make this wine into something that's a little less whiny by putting some more water into it, and I will dilute it and tamper it.

That's what he's saying. When it comes to God's Word, I didn't dilute it. I gave it to you with all the rough edges and the straight edges and the wrath of God and the justice of God and the kindness of God and the love of God and heaven and hell, sin, death.

I didn't water it down. That's how we would say it today. If our gospel is veiled, verse 3, it's veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. I mean, how do we evangelize in such dire straits?

It's veiled to these people, and above and beyond that, it's blinding. They're blinded from seeing it.

To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, they can't grasp it.

They can't get a hold of it. They're deaf, dumb, and blind. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, like you false apostles, but Jesus Christ is

Lord, with our sakes as your servants for Christ's sake. And do you want to know why

Paul doesn't preach himself? Do you want to know why the Hebrews author doesn't preach himself? Verse 6, because only

God can do this. How do you get the veil off? How do you get the blinded eyes to see?

For God said, using language of Genesis, creation language, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That's the language here. When God says, let there be light physically, guess what was made?

Light. When God says, as you preach Jesus Christ, let there be new birth, guess what happens?

New birth. Paul is comparing natural creation and spiritual creation, recreation, creation and recreation.

That's why Paul doesn't preach himself, because as you're talking about Jesus, when God wants to at His own free will,

He turns the light on, He makes alive. When you look at Genesis 1, what's illustrative of Genesis 1,

God says it and so, He does it on His own, monergistically, He alone works. It's the same thing when you preach the gospel to people,

God at His own will, makes alive. That is the example, Genesis 1, for how God makes alive today.

Through the veil, through the blinding, because the powerful Word of God is so powerful. We're the stars saying, before they were made, please make us.

We're the moon, and the stars, and the sun, and the animals. You know what, we would really like to be made, but please, don't, you know, we want to make sure we got free will, so we're not robots, and we're just, you know, love means, you know, there's a choice, and reciprocal thing, and you know, if it's just only you, and not just us together, and hand in hand, it would be somehow, less than love.

Light, it's made. Moon, it's made. Christian, no wonder

Peter says, God caused you to be born again. I'm not that smart, but if I meet the smartest person at Harvard, and they know all the stuff about evolution, this, that, and the other, and I preach the gospel of them,

I don't have to do anything, except wait for God at His good pleasure to go, you're a Christian. And then what do they do?

Well, they respond with faith. God is the creative agent. God regenerates.

God looks at the heart of the chaotic sinner, and says, let there be light. God alone working.

That's fascinating to me. Why don't I believe in day age? Why don't

I believe in pictorial age? Why don't I believe in a gap theory? Because that's not how people are saved.

You'll see the symmetrical ways. God creates by divine fiat.

He saves by divine fiat. He creates by His own free will and initiative. He recreates by His own free will and initiative.

He saves instantaneously, justifies, you could never be more justified than the day God saves you.

He makes the star half a star. He progresses the star. The star is getting better.

The star is almost like a star. It's becoming more star -ish. It's progressing along. It's getting better.

You're a star. I don't mean you're a star. The star is a star. I have no idea what they're laughing about, but it shows they're listening.

Paul says, light shines. You can just imagine he's thinking probably what? Damascus Road.

We're a great light. Same root word in the Greek, by the way. Shines on Paul, and he's undone.

Well, Paul, make sure that we do this together. I don't want to impinge on your free will, and you've got to come this, that, and the other, and robots and everything else.

Paul, you're a Christian. Yes, Lord. What's my point?

My point is if you get so wrapped up in Genesis, questions and answers, and don't evangelize or don't think this is the template

God creates by divine fiat, he recreates by divine fiat. This is what gives me hope in evangelism.

I can meet anyone and tell them, listen, it's not about me. As Paul says in verse 5 of 2

Corinthians, I preach not myself. I preach Jesus as Lord. God made you. He is Lord. He dies on the cross.

He's going to be raised from the dead. You must believe. And at God's free will and his good pleasure, he makes people alive.

What do you do? You don't do anything except preach the gospel to them. I believe in literal creation.

Why? Because I believe in a literal recreation. It has to be.

Omnipotence was needed to save people because men by nature are sinners and dead and dumb and blind and deaf and hardened and rebellious and polluted and unable to change and unable to come to Christ.

You don't evolve into a Christian. You're made one. That's Paul's point. If you're a

Christian, by the way, this is how God did it, by divine fiat of his own good pleasure.

P .S., if you don't believe what I'm saying, you still pray this way. You pray like it's a divine fiat of creation and a divine fiat by recreation, don't you?

You've got a loved one who's not a Christian. How do you pray? God, over an evolutionary time period with gaps involved and a long day age and a pictorial day age, you know, don't impinge their free will or don't do this, that or the other.

Make them not robots. What do you do, friends? God, save them.

I hate to pray this, but if you have to humble them, then humble them, but please just save them.

This is God alone working. It is by his doing you are in Christ Jesus.

Do I like evangelism? Yes. Do I like creation evangelism? Yes. But make sure you tell them the good news.

Well, I wanted to get to verse 8, but it's a little poem that I'll end with and then we're going to just lead right into the

Lord's Supper to tangibly be reminded of what God has done. And it's written by Joseph Hart, and this is the response to the work of God, and it's entitled,

Come ye sinners poor and needy. Come ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore.

Jesus stands ready to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Come ye thirsty, come and welcome.

God's free bounty, glorify. True belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh.

My favorite line. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all.

View him prostrate in the garden. On the ground your maker lies. On the bloody tree behold him.

Sinner, will this not suffice? Let not conscience make you linger.

Not of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth is to you to feel your need of him.

I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms, in the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are 10 ,000 charms.

Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for your time, where you would say back in Genesis 1, let there be light.

And it was so. And you have recorded that, so we can see for many reasons, to see your power and wisdom, but also to see as a template for how you make people

Christians. We could never do it on our own. We need the last Adam, Jesus Christ. So I pray today for the

Christians that are here today, that you'd give them opportunities to evangelize this week and reflect on their salvation, how you did it all.

For those that aren't Christians today, I pray that you would grant them new life, and they might respond with trust in your

Son. In his name we pray. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.