Rest For Your Soul - [Hebrews 4:1-ff]

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that's what we think of. As a matter of fact, the number one Google search under meditation is how to meditate like a
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Buddhist. It says, with the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and overworked.
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It often feels like there's not just enough time in the day to get everything done. It makes us tired, unhappy, impatient, frustrated.
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It can even affect our health. A simple 10 or 15 minute breathing meditation, as explained below, can help you overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance.
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Eastern meditation, hijacking the word meditation. I did find the seven features of the posture that you're supposed to sit in and meditate.
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Legs crossed. This helps reduce thoughts and feelings of desirous attachment. I don't have any idea what that means, but my legs hurt already.
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This is not for old people. The right hand is placed in the left hand palms upward with the tip of the thumb slightly raised and gently touching.
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The hands are held about four fingers width below the navel. This helps us to develop good concentration.
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The back is straight, but not tense. The lips and teeth are held as usual, but the tongue touches the upper back teeth.
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The head is tipped a little forward with the chin slightly tucked in. The eyes are neither wide open or completely closed.
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The shoulders are level and the elbows are held slightly away from the sides to let the air circulate.
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I'm not a Buddhist for lots of reasons, but I'm already tense just trying to figure out how to meditate.
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My mind's already not clear. The word meditate simply means to think.
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It means to ponder. It means to ruminate. Now lots of times as a pastor,
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I do things that I want to teach you and some things are taught and some things are caught.
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I want to teach you specifically when we study the Bible, look for authorial intent.
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Look for Christ -centeredness. Look for context. We go verse by verse by verse.
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See things as they just unfold as God wrote them. I want to teach you those things very formally.
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But other things are more caught. For instance, how should you study the Bible at home? Just like I teach it, verse by verse.
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How should you teach your kids at home? Just like I teach it, chapter after chapter. Some things are taught specifically and other things you think, oh yes, by inference they're caught.
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And one of the things that I want you to catch as I teach the book of Hebrews is that meditation is good.
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Slowing down and thinking about the passage is important. Not going too fast, but understand what you're reading.
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The book of Hebrews does this very thing. You feel like you want to move along a little faster, but he won't let you up for air because he wants you to think about these subjects and to mull them over and to make sure you get them down in the depths of your soul.
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I'm glad if you read the Bible, but I'm more happy and more joyful if you study the
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Bible so you understand it. Reading is better than not reading, but reading slowly and studying and meditating is better than reading.
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I like it if you listen to the Bible on your way to work, but I like it better if that's a supplement for you as you take other time to slowly meditate and ponder and stop and reflect to think about who the triune
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God is. Joel Beeky said, reading may give you some breadth of knowledge, but only meditation and study will give you depth and growing assurance.
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The difference between reading and meditation is like the difference between drifting and rowing toward a destination in a boat.
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If you only read, you will drift aimlessly. If you meditate and pray over what you read, you will have oars that will propel you to your destination.
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Listening to the Bible is wonderful. Reading is wonderful. Stopping and thinking to understand what you're reading is the best.
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Joshua 1 .8, the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
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Before we get into the book of Hebrews, would you just turn to Psalm 119, please, and I want to show you the key passages that discuss meditation, to stop and to think and to study.
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This is not a sermon against reading through the Bible in a year. That's not my main focus today.
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But if your goal is to simply read the Bible this next year, just to read it, that's a wonderful goal, read the
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Bible. But if you're reading so fast that you've got to get through it and don't understand, just relax, study, hunker down, get a nice cup of Pete's coffee and enjoy yourself.
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What I'm doing also as I'm going to show you these verses about meditation is I'm going to help you when you get to the book of Hebrews, there's so many themes that are repeated over and over and over.
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You're going to say to yourself if you're not thinking rightly, he already said that. I already got that. Didn't he say that last chapter?
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Didn't he say that last paragraph? Why is he repeating himself? Well, he really wants you to understand and slow is better than fast.
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Deeper is better than superficial. Studying is better than reading only.
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Look at Psalm 119, this great Psalm about the word of God. And so when it comes to the word of God, how do we approach it?
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Speed reading, we just get our verses in a chapter a day, keeps the anxiousness away.
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Psalm 119 verse 15, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
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He simply does not say read, although read is good. Verse 23 of Psalm 119, even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.
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Verse 27, make me understand the way of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
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Verse 48, I will lift up my hand toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
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Not just reading, but studying and thinking about. Verse 78 of the same chapter,
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Psalm 119, let the insolent be put to shame because they have wronged me with falsehood.
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As for me, I will meditate on your precepts. Verse 97, oh how
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I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Not just scanning, not just cliff notes,
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I have in my office as a matter of fact, cliff notes of the New Testament. For those of you old enough to know what cliff notes are, why was
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I not smart enough in school to realize that the teacher would ask questions that weren't in the cliff notes? If you were a teacher, would you do that?
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Psalm 99, that was a rhetorical question, whoever just said that. Psalm 119 verse 99,
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I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. Reading is good, listening is good, the study and meditation and thinking about is better.
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148 of the same psalm, my eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise.
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To suppress the desire to rush and to just think and ponder, that's why memorizing is so good, because you're forced to do that very thing, to meditate.
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And then Psalm 1, we'll get to Hebrews, Psalm 1 verse 1 and 2, these are probably the two most well -known meditation psalms in the
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Old Testament canon, in the Psalter especially. Not to go too fast, not to read without understanding, doesn't do you any good unless you understand what the text says and means, because the meaning of the text is the text.
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Psalm 1 verse 1, a great gateway to the Psalter, how blessed is the man, oh the blessednesses, plural with an exclamation, oh how extra blessed is this particular person, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of Yahweh and on his law, or in his law, he meditates day and night, that's just poetry, day and night and everything in between, all the time he's thinking about it,
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Kidner said, whatever shapes a man's thinking, shapes his life, and he's right, thinking about the word of God.
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Now the Hebrew word there to meditate in verse 2 and in the other psalms, it means literally, it's very onomatopoetic, it means to mutter, it means to, in some translations, to growl, it means to, in another translation about a dove, to moan, and so here's the idea, someone is so caught up in the word of God, and they're thinking about it, they're not thinking about anyone else, they're almost repeating the words in their mouth about the scripture, and he meditates it on a day and night, day and night, and they're a moan, because far off, you don't know what the person is doing, they're so caught up in thought, they're just repeating it, and then they're just, oh yeah, and then, do
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I look funny? I feel funny, I confess, I feel funny, but if I was really meditating,
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I wouldn't care how you perceive me, because I'm caught up in this, here's this God that elected me, and he redeemed me, and he sealed me, and he loves me, even though he knew all my sin, and he forgave my sin, you just get caught up in it, and you're thinking about it, it's almost like, you know, in the old days, when you first got your
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VCR, and your VHS, and you could record something, and you would record,
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I don't know, you probably all recorded Robert Parrish and Bird, and Havlicek stole the ball,
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I don't know what you recorded, and you would replay it, and you would rewind it, and you would watch it over and over and over, that's what this is, over and over, it's like, so caught up in it, can you imagine, you deserve to go to hell, every one of you, including me, and you believers get to go to heaven, and there's a
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God who loves you, maybe nobody in this world loves you, but the triune God loves you, and gave himself for you, in the person of his son, and you're just like,
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I can't get over that, I have to think, and repeat, and go over, I don't want to go too fast, I don't want to pop the clutch here, this word meditate means to utter a sound to yourself, so endeavoring to figure this out, to understand the mind of God, I mean,
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God is talking, you look at someone, and they're in meditation, on scripture, it's like, almost like a droning sound, that's the idea, and it's day and night, it's regularly,
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John Calvin said, God is favorable to none but those who devote themselves to the study of divine truth, the author of Hebrews, doesn't want you to go too fast, he keeps bringing up these topics, over, and over, and over, belief, confidence, the danger of unbelief, the supremacy of Christ, he's better than angels, better than prophets, better than Aaron, better than the
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Old Testament, better than Moses, and it is our desire sometimes, just get me to 13, where there's something
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I can do, the marriage bed is undefiled, don't love money, respect your leaders, remember
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Jesus Christ, but over and over, the writer here, especially in chapter 4, wants you to meditate, and so with that introduction, please turn to Hebrews chapter 4, this writer, this author, this preacher, remember it's a sermon, he's just settling in on this concept of rest, you could probably read this and preach it in one week, but he just comes at it from every possible angle, like he is meditating, and wanting you to meditate on the topic, some concepts are so important, you can't rush through them, and this is one of those, the idea of rest,
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Jesus, I am resting, resting, resting, all the legalism, all the works righteousness, all the self -sufficiency, all the self -righteousness,
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I don't have to bring any of that before God, I trust in Jesus, and I can just rest before him, the work's been done by another, he does not want you to go too fast, and as a backdrop, remember what he's using, he's using
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Israel as the bad example, they didn't enter into the promised land, they didn't rest, they didn't trust, chapter 4 verse 1 and 11 contain the same thoughts, they're like bookends, and everything in between helps us understand those two bookends, in language we call this an inclusio, there's the front verse of 1, the back verse 11, they both say the same thing essentially, so that means everything in the middle is designed to modify and amplify that idea, to get you to what?
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Meditate, to get you to think about it, and here's the wild thing for me at least,
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I'll make this admission, when you underline verses in Hebrews 4, which ones do you underline?
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I bet you underline verse 16, I bet you underline verse 14,
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I bet you even underline verse 12, but after next week you might not want it so underlined, are any of your
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Bibles underlined in chapter 4 verse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, but he is underlining and underscoring the topic by repetition and here by this wonderful way of writing called inclusio, chapter 4 verse 1, therefore while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to fail to reach it, then the other book end verse 11, let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience, the writer says, if you want points today, number 1, fear to enter into God's rest, remember that from verse 1, let us fear lest any of you should have seem to fail to reach it, trust in Christ Jesus and rest for your souls and we have talked much about that, as Augustine said you have made us for yourself oh
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Lord and our hearts are restless till they rest in you, he goes on to say number 2, you enter that rest by believing, remember that, verse 2, for good news came to us just as to them, the
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Israelites, they heard good news too, but the message they heard did not benefit them, why?
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Because they were not united by faith with those who listened, it is not just enough to know about Jesus, you have to believe in him, it is not enough just to know about doctrine and sign a confession, you have to trust in him, it is not enough to just know the facts intellectually, you have to be committed and have a confidence in Christ Jesus, the
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Israelites, they had promises, here is the promised land, trust in me, fail, we have better promises, they are not just of land, they are of eternal rest in heaven, a privileged position,
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I mean, here was Israel's promise, Exodus 3, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, the
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Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt and I promise that I will bring you up out of affliction of Egypt to the land of the
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Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jesubites, a land flowing with what?
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Milk and honey, that is my promise to you, just believe in me and they did not, but we have got better promises than land, just because you hear the message, it does not mean anything, there is a fear of unbelief and 2 million people dead in the wilderness should be a warning.
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By the way, this is the first time in the book of Hebrews, the word faith is used and he will use it 32 times, not used any place more than this book except the book of Romans where it is used 40 times.
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There are requirements to get into heaven, hear the gospel, believe the gospel, learn about Christ Jesus and his person and his work, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, soon return and then trust your life to him.
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What does this imply by the way? It means as my father would say, it does not happen by osmosis.
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I do not think my father really understood the word osmosis and its epistemology, but he would always come down to my room in the basement and he would say, son, that room of yours does not get cleaned by osmosis.
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Dad did not take chemistry class, but I knew what he meant. The way to heaven is not just learn about Jesus and die and then you go.
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The way to heaven is not learn about Jesus and then do whatever you want. I know the facts.
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The way to heaven is not, well, I'll just be better than someone else. My good will outweigh my bad. I'll just be nicer and kinder.
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This whole idea assumes if you're not a believer, you're not in rest. So enter into rest.
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He's saying believe. I read last week,
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Psychology Today magazine, article entitled, I had to read it.
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The surprising reasons we dislike photos of ourselves. Number one, the first reason we dislike our own photographs.
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Quote, we think we're more attractive than we actually are. Look at your passport picture and prove it.
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It says, when we think about ourselves, we're prone to a bias called self enhancement, which is the tendency to evaluate our own traits and abilities more favorably than is objectively warranted.
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Evidence for this bias is revealed when researchers ask individuals to identify photographs of themselves. Researchers have presented participants with real photographs of themselves as with photographs which have been manipulated to be more attractive.
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Then they ask the participants to choose the real photograph of themselves. And every time they chose the airbrush.
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And you know, here's the thing, it's the same thing spiritually. I'm not really as bad as God says I am.
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I'm not really as bad as Hitler and Stalin and the rest of them. God's not really as holy as he says he is.
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And pride in our own self righteousness trick us. You're not born a elder's kid.
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If you're the child of a deacon, you go, I know all about Jesus. If you're at this church, you've probably got better doctrine than most pastors in the world.
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But if you don't believe, young person, it doesn't do you any good. You can be doctrinally correct and bust hell wide open.
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Now just think about it for a second. The writer of Hebrews is writing to Hebrew people.
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And what's their backdrop? And what are they thinking? And what's going on? Hey, I was born a
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Jew. I have father who? Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father
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Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. That's blasphemy.
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But that's the Jewish sentiment. The better song if I could sing special music and by the way, thanks Tim and Stephanie.
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That was wonderful. What a great, what great lyrics to a different tune. Thank you. Father Abraham had many sons.
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I am one of them and so are you. If you just trust the Lord, right on. Amen. Sit down, repeat.
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You're just not in the kingdom by being Jewish and you're not in the kingdom either about just hearing about Jesus.
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Turn to John chapter eight for a second and I'll show you this, this mentality that exposes
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Hebrews, the recipients of Hebrews and it's insipid in evangelicalism too, because people think
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I go to church, I'm in. My mom's a believer, I'm in. My dad's a believer, I'm in. I know doctrine,
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I'm in. I'm not a pagan like you. I don't do yoga like you. Entering into rest, trusting in Christ means if you're not a
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Christian, you better enter. You better fear and enter because the consequences are great.
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This is the classic test case and I love the test cases that display Jesus in all his grandeur and how he teaches like no one else.
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To sit at the feet of Jesus and watch him teach. John 8 verse 12.
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This is all designed to get you the mindset of those recipients of the book of Hebrews and then make sure that if you're here today and you're not trusting in Jesus but you know all about him, that you enter that rest by faith.
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John 8 verse 12. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I'm the light of the world.
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Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. So the
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Pharisees said to him, you're bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true.
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Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true for I know where I came from and where I'm going.
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But you do not know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge according to flesh. I judge no one.
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He's talking about his first coming here, not his second coming where he will judge. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true for it is not
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I alone who judge but I and the father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
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See, the testimony is Jesus and the father. I'm the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me bears witness about me.
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They said to him therefore, where's your father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father.
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If you knew me, you would know my father also. These words he spoke in the treasuries, a building, as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.
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So he said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin.
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Where I'm going you cannot come. So the Jews said, will he kill himself since he says where I'm going you cannot come?
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Verse 23, he said to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are from this world,
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I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins unless you believe that I am he, that I am who
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I am in Exodus, the eternal God. Unless you believe I am he, you will die in your sins.
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So they said to him, who are you? Jesus said to them, just what
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I've been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but who sent me is true and I declare to the world that I have heard from him.
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They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the father. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, that's a description of crucifixion, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of my own authority but speak just as the father taught me.
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And he who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
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And he was, as he was saying these things, many believed in him. Now pay attention, it will help you understand the book of Hebrews.
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So Jesus in verse 31 said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
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That verse is taken so out of context so often. Verse 33, here's the mentality, think
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Hebrews 4, they answered him, we are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.
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By the way, the Romans are in town. How is that you say you will become free?
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Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practice sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever.
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So if the son set you free, we're talking about from sin, not social injustice, you will be free indeed.
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I know that you are of the offspring of Abraham. Yeah, of course, I know that. Yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
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You're not believing me. You know about me, but you don't believe in me. I speak of what I have seen with my father and you do what you have heard from your father.
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Oh, great. If I was Jesus's handler, I would say, don't talk that way. We've got to get out of here alive.
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If somebody talked about your father, I mean, when I was growing up, you know, if you said your mother's got army, wears army boots or, you know, your dad, this or that or the other, can you believe what
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Jesus just said? You do what you have heard from your father. What do you think they're going to say now?
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Chapter eight, verse 39, they answered him. Abraham is our father.
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Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
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This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did. They said to him, we're not born of sexual immorality.
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We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me.
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For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
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Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil.
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And by the way, that is true of every person that doesn't trust in Christ Jesus, our father, who is the devil is your prayer.
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You are of your father. Verse 44, the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning.
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He does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own heart, out of the heart of the mouth speaks.
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In other words, he is a liar and the father of lies. Get ready, folks. But because I tell you the truth, you do not what?
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Believe me. It's all about trusting in Christ. Which one of you convicts me of sin?
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If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.
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How do you think they respond? The Jews answered him. Are we not right in saying that you are a
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Samaritan and have a demon? I mean, it'd be bad enough to call somebody a Samaritan. It'd be bad enough to call somebody demon possessed.
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By the way, you're a Samaritan who's demon possessed. Jesus knew they are physically descended from Abraham.
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He knows that they're Jewish. And what is the theme of Abraham's life?
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When you think of Abraham, I know it's all the grace of God in Abraham's life, but the pinnacle of Abraham's life is what?
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And Abraham what? Believed. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
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Abraham trusted in God. They're the stars. And Abraham said, I don't know how you're going to do it,
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God, but I trust in you. Abraham was the trusting Abraham, the believing
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Abraham. If you were really his children, you would be believing, but you're trying to kill me and it proves your dad is the devil.
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Verse 49. I do not have a demon, Jesus answered, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.
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Yet I do not seek my own glory. There's one who seeks it and he is the judge. Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
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The Jews said to him, now we know. Abraham died as the prophets did. Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
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Are you greater than our father at Abraham who died? Well, we know the answer to that question and the prophets died.
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Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
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It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our God, but you do not.
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You have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.
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Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day and he saw it and was glad. I mean, the whole of Abraham's life, when
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God saved him, he was waiting for that Messiah to come. Is it in this generation? Is it in this generation?
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Abraham waiting and waiting and waiting. That was basically his life. He trusted in God. It was counted in him righteousness and Abraham just kept waiting for the
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Messiah, waiting for the Messiah, rejoicing, rejoicing, rejoicing. So the
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Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old. Wait a second. Abraham rounded 2000 years ago was
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Abraham and you're not 50. You have to be 2000 to be alive when Abraham was alive.
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You've seen Abraham. Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was now look at the text.
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He doesn't say I was. I used to be. I had a dream about it.
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I read about it in the Old Testament prophets. Using the language of the eternal,
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I am God. Before Abraham was 2000 years ago, I already existed.
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I am. Now they know this is bad. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
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Hebrews says they heard the word, but it did not profit them because it was not united by faith.
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That's the Jewish people who turned their back on Jesus. That's the people that the writer of Hebrews is saying, you know all about Jesus.
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Don't turn your back. Don't run back to Judaism. Trust in him. And it's very applicable for all here who today say,
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I know all about Jesus. I believe in God, the father maker of heaven and earth, but I don't trust in his son.
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Back to Hebrews, please. Hebrews chapter four. The writer of Hebrews is writing in a day and age where there's two sets of people.
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Even back in the Bible days before this was written in the sixties, you had people in the
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Israel area like Zacharias and Elizabeth and Simeon and Anna and Joseph of Arimathea and Mary and disciples.
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Besides Judas, they trusted, they heard about Jesus, they saw Jesus and they believed in him.
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Then you had other people who saw Jesus. Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, but they didn't trust.
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And by the way, everyone knew who Jesus was. These unbelievers, Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes, lawyers, and then the common people as well that didn't trust in Jesus.
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They knew Jesus raised people from the dead. They saw him change water into wine.
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He was not some kind of philosophical abstract concept. They saw what he did, but I will not trust in him.
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And maybe you're going to have some food tonight. If you have a nice platter, what would be your best platter of food on New Year's Eve at midnight?
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Oh, side note, a good way to deceive your kids. I'll just tell you this ahead of time. The guy at the automotive rental place yesterday told me
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I need to rent a car. And so I went down there. I mean, I woke up and the truck's like click, click, click, click, click, click. So I go rent the car and the guy's telling me, you know what?
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Before I discovered Netflix that has the ball dropping that you can do on demand anytime you want and tell the kids at seven o 'clock, let's watch the ball drop.
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They watch the ball drop, put them to bed. It's party time. My kids are all grown now. Where was that when
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I needed it? Happy New Year. It's New Year's somewhere. You got this food, a big platter.
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What would be your best food on the platter tonight? For me, it'd be sashimi.
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Maybe my friend's butter chicken. Talking about you. Hors d 'oeuvres.
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Some kind of angelic eggs, deviled eggs or something. You have to redeem the names.
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Some meats and cheeses. But if you go to that platter, my friend, tonight and you don't eat it, that food will not help you.
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Wow, look at the food. It's wrapped up. Caviar on top. Salmon roe.
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Look at that. Cheese. Sausage. That's sausage with the cream cheese put in the little mushroom cap.
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Wow. If you don't eat it, it's not going to do you any good.
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Here's Christ Jesus dying on the cross. Look to me and you'll have all your sins forgiven.
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Every sin that you've ever committed and will forget and will commit can be forgiven.
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But you have to trust. If it's not united by faith, it does no good. If it's not united by faith, you'll pay for your sins in hell forever.
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Every sin must be punished because it's against God. Spurgeon used this language, quote, that which is not appropriated can be of no use to you.
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Look at your food. How is it that it builds your body? Because you take it into your mouth and it descends into the stomach and there it is mixed with certain fluids and is digested and ultimately is taken into system and becomes a life -sustaining force.
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So it is with heavenly truth. If it is taken to the heart, mixed with faith, it is digested, becomes food to every part of the spiritual nature.
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Without faith, the gospel passes through the soul undigested and rather feeds disease than promotes life.
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In other words, friends, food doesn't do you any good unless you eat it. And Jesus doesn't do you any good unless you believe in him.
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And actually, everything you know about Jesus, if you will not believe, will condemn you all the more.
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It will be better for you if you've never heard one thing about Jesus, to just die in your sins, let alone turn your back on who
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Jesus is. There has to be a response to the gospel.
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Neutrality is in response. No is not the right response. And what does the writer of Hebrews do?
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Don't forget to look on the floor of the wilderness. A hundred and thirty -seven people per day on average die in the wilderness on the floor of the desert for forty years.
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Warning. And see, this is meant to combat all that, well, I've got my own life to live and there's that guy that I'm interested in, that girl, and that job, and that money, and that career.
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No wonder he says, let us fear to enter. Turn to Acts chapter 2 and I want to show you a response to the gospel.
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The gospel, good news, forgiveness found in Christ Jesus is proclaimed. Jesus lives a perfect life, dies on the cross as a substitute, is raised from the dead.
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The Father confirms that great testimony that He wasn't dying for His sins, but other people's sins.
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And God says, you distrust in Me, you believe in Me. You turn from your own self -righteousness and believe in Me.
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This gospel has to be believed. There's a demanded response. And by the way, even if I were to tell you,
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Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you, you should be thinking, even if I don't say repent and believe, you should be going, well then what can
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I do to appropriate that? How can I benefit from that? If this happens, there's got to be some transaction.
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What's the transaction? It's built into the gospel and built into the system that you should feel this compulsion.
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Even if I don't say repent, even if I don't say believe, I'll prove it right here, Acts 2. Acts 2 .22,
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Peter is preaching a sermon and it's a doozy. Men of Israel hear these words.
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By the way, this isn't the Peter that we used to know. This is a Spirit -empowered Peter. Hear these words.
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Acts 2 .22, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
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You've seen this. God confirms Jesus as messenger and the message is confirmed because of the signs
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He did. Touching lepers, raising people from the dead.
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This Jesus, verse 23, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. There's the sovereignty of God.
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You better believe in the sovereignty of God. It's everywhere in Scripture. You crucified and killed by hands of lawless men.
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That's human responsibility. You better believe it. It's everywhere in the Bible. Both of those right there together, Peter just lets them lie.
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He doesn't have to reconcile friends. God raised Him up, verse 24, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.
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And now he quotes the Old Testament. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I might not be shaken.
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Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your
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Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
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Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried.
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And his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of His descendants on His throne,
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He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ. That He was not abandoned to Hades nor did
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His flesh see corruption. Verse 32, this Jesus God raised up. And of that we are all witnesses.
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Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
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For David did not ascend into heavens, but he himself said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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The last line of the sermon, verse 36. Notice what's absent.
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Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both
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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. That's the end of the sermon.
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Where's the altar call? Where's just as I am repeated 500 times until at least somebody comes to the front?
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Where are the people that are in actual real crusades these days that are already believers but are told when the preacher starts preaching and he tells people what to do, even though you're a
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Christian, you need to prime the pump and walk up to the front so the unbelievers, they'll come up too, in every other man -centered way.
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These people knew, here's the gospel, they just heard it and built into their systems, they knew they just couldn't stiff arm
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God, oh okay fine, come see, come saw, that'll be good, that's good for my children,
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I'll do it when I'm older. What's the text say coming up right after, verse 37?
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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
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Isn't that amazing? That is so amazing, the gospel itself demands a response, it elicits a response.
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It's fine to say, repent, believe, trust, have confidence, but if I don't even say it, you should know it, you should feel it, you should sense it, you should comprehend it because here's this
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God of the universe that in eternity past was alive and then he decided to cloak himself in humanity, take on humanity, truly
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God, truly man, to live as our representative, die as our substitute and he was raised from the dead.
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Why did God all do that? Why did God do all that? Just to impress you? Just to make you think, wow, that's interesting,
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God can do all that? No, he did it for his own glory and for your good and when you hear the gospel, if it's presented rightly and biblically, deep down you should be feeling,
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I have to respond, I must respond, I can't go on any longer like this,
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God is my mortal enemy. Friendship, he's provided reconciling, he's made a way of redemption, he loves me enough to send his son for me and I'm just going to go, all right,
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I think it's a one o 'clock game today on CBS, right? Brothers, what do we do?
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They had to ask Peter, what do we do? And the book of Hebrews tells us, you've got to have the message united with a response.
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Some places in the Bible that's with faith, trust, confidence, repentance and it'll flesh itself out in baptism, obviously.
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In Hebrews chapter 4 verses 3 and following, tell us that that rest is still available.
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I always thought to myself, when I go to little baby's rooms and people have the thing that hangs over the baby's crib and it's called a what?
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Not a mural, what's it called? A what? A mobile, Mobile, Alabama, a mobile and you're like, oh that's cute.
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We used to get the ones for Haley and Luke and I guess I owe you a dollar each and they were like these optical illusions like swirling black, like spinning things and like I was supposed to,
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I don't know, make kids learn foreign languages by osmosis. But I always found it interesting.
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People would have Noah's Ark stuff there. I guess because it's animals.
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Noah's Ark though, 120 years, it's not raining, he's out there preaching righteousness and every single person on the planet except eight are flooded and drowned.
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Grandmas, two day old babies, pregnant moms, grandpas, good grandmas, they're all drowning, they're running to the highest hills, they're at the top of Wachusett, they can't get any higher and here comes the flood of God from underneath the ground and from the skies, flooding people who will not trust in the
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Messiah. And when that door shut, it was over.
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And the writer of Hebrews we'll see next week says, the door's open. Today the door's open, but it's going to shut one day.
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You need to enter by faith. Have you? Let's pray.
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I thank you Father for our time and your word. I'm thankful that even our faith for those of us that have believed and entered into your rest, it's from you that God be the glory, great things he has done.
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Father, for this year I pray that you would help us by your spirit's power to be studiers of the
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Bible, to meditate, not to go too fast, not to jump to the next subject, but even like the writer of Hebrews, just take time in understanding who you are.
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That's what we'll do for eternity, to be marveling at your presence and who you are and what you've done.