Book of Hebrews - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-16 (12/09/2001)

Park Meadows Church

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There is an instrument in the world that is sharper than anything we know.

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Bill, what is the sharpest instrument known? It is so sharp that it can divide the spirit and the soul.

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Now, how sharp would it have to be to divide the spirit and the soul? What? It divides the soul.

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Well, it's sharper than anything known to man. And we know some pretty sharp things.

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But it will divide the spirit and the soul. Who has a hold of it?

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Who uses this instrument, Verge?

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God the Father. We apply it, but he uses it.

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The spirit and the soul. Two different things.

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First verse of chapter four. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise left to us of entering into his rest.

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Any of you should seem to come short of it. Now, this is not talking about salvation.

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It's talking about rest. Fear is good or evil, however you want to look at it.

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If we fear God with a godly fear, it works repentance. Repentance belongs to what group of people?

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What? The chosen. The world can't repent, but his chosen can and does.

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That's what? Well, that's because Christ, that Jesus, no, he didn't repent.

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Man repents. Now, ask your question again. Yes, yes.

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That's a good point. He gives it to us. We wouldn't know to repent unless he did.

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In James, the second chapter, verse 19, we read,

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Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.

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Why do the demons believe in God? Dennis. All right, but there's one other reason.

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All right, but there's one other reason why they know him.

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All right, who said that? They were created by God. They come into existence by God.

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They know that they were created. Now, all of the other reasons you gave were good, but first, he created them.

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Then fear is evil and will lead us to feel that God is a tyrant if we dwell in it. This fear will eventually lead to hatred.

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Godly fear creates love. Proverbs 1 -7, the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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Our pilgrimage through this land of sin and sorrow is to be traveled in fear.

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Now, it is to be traveled in fear. Clarence, help me out a little bit.

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How can that be? All right.

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We are to worship him. We're to honor him, but also fear him. I fear him somewhat like I feared my father.

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I love my father, but I didn't want to make a mistake. In verse 1,

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Paul is not talking about salvation, which we established, but he is talking about rest. Today, we're going to talk about rest.

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What did we discuss in the first chapter? Chapter 1 is what,

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Greg? All right. The second chapter?

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Greg? All right.

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And the third chapter? Where is the third chapter?

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Is anybody here that was here for the third chapter? The high priest.

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The high priest. Now, did Jesus inherit anything,

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Greg? All right. How could

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God inherit, David? All right.

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He's the son in what form? All right.

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So, we're dealing with the son of man. He inherited. He did it as a human, and he sat down on the right hand of God.

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He was set down. He was given that position. Jesus didn't, on his own, go sit down.

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But God the Father gave him that position. So, in this chapter, we're talking about his rest.

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Let's see if we can figure out what that is. It brings peace to the soul.

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To really believe and trust God gives us a peaceful life that no man, no man can distrust this peace.

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Psalms 37, 7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

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Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in the way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

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Then in Psalms 116, 7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul.

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For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

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Joshua 1, 13. Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying,

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The Lord your God hath given you rest and hath given you this land.

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Isaiah 14, 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give them rest from thy sorrow, from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou hast made to serve.

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The promise of entering in has been given to us. In the

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Old Testament and the New Testament, all the way through Revelation. Now, Leverage, when was the

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Gospel first preached? I'm just asking, when was the

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Gospel first preached? Bill, why do you say that?

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Being the first man? And he was a great man. He was a great man.

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He was a man of sacrifice. He was a man of faith. He was a man of truth.

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and not be what we could have been. Think about it.

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We can, but I don't want to dwell on the shortness. I want us to know it.

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Now in our verse it has the words come short of it, meaning the rest. To suffer want, to be devoid of, to lack, be inferior.

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Inexcellence and worth is what the word means. There are very few believers who are not afraid of their own ignorance, and we should be.

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Hebrews 2, 4 -2, For unto you was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

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But who is the them, Greg? All right.

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And why couldn't they understand? All right.

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Then do we not have an advantage over them?

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Absolutely. We understand. Just think for a moment.

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You can read the Bible and understand it. Now, true, you don't understand all of it that you read, but little by little he's revealing it to you.

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You know, I think that the first peoples learned or knew what they had to know.

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Then come up to Moses and he knew what he had to know. Come all the way up to the apostles, they knew what they had to know.

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We know what we have to know. We know it all up to here.

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That the gospel is no new doctrine, no new law, but one and the same to all persons and at all times ever since the first publication of it in the original promise.

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The unsaved hear the gospel, but they cannot gain peace because they cannot hear it with understanding.

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When you know a fact, you cannot understand why somebody else doesn't know it.

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How can I put that different? When you can explain it to them in such a way that they should understand, but they don't know it.

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You know it because somebody explained it to you. Is that true? No. You don't know anything because somebody told you.

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That's right. Yes. Well, he is somebody, but I'm talking about the human telling another human telling another, and we know something because it was revealed to us.

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No. That's right. I can think back to when I found out I was sitting in a revival,

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I guess it was, and I didn't know. I thought

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I was fine. But one time, one night,

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I knew, and I can still feel that force. It wasn't me that pushed me out on the island down.

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Going down didn't save me. I was saved before that. It was the Holy Spirit bringing me to Christ.

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Where are we? The gospel, the unsaved hear the gospel, but they cannot understand the peace of it.

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They can't understand it. John 8, 34, why do you not understand my speech?

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Even because you cannot hear my word. For the most part, what did

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Jesus do when he was here on earth, David? Alright, that covers everything.

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Greg, can you help him any? For the most part, what did

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Jesus do when he came? Claire?

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Alright. Alright.

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Absolutely. Absolutely. And somebody over here,

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Ed? Alright. For him, he did things for people to know who he was.

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He told them who he was. He did everything to bring the

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Father in word, and he glorified God. How is a beautiful, what?

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That's right. How is a beautiful flower on the side of a volcano like some

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Christians? Well, that's true of all of us.

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Clarence? Well, the flower is blooming.

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It's living. It's, well, it's just a blooming flower.

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Most Christians are content to act like they're not in danger.

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I'm content because I'm going to heaven. They are, they act like they're calm, not in any danger, when any moment, the devil can tempt you.

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He can explode in your face. Don't act like that.

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Be confident of your salvation, but live in fear and trembling of your salvation.

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John 8, 44, you are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.

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He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

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When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.

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And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. We cannot expect the world to believe.

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I cannot expect an individual to believe. No one believes until the

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Holy Spirit reveals it. Now, I can voice words, we can all do that, but only

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God, only the Spirit of God can reveal Him to you.

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Verse 3, For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

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Now, we have entered into His rest, we have salvation. I hope we're entering in more and more of this salvation.

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But, finished from the foundation of the world jumped out at me. It was finished.

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I believe God created this creation in a nanosecond. Why would

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He take a week to do certain things? But He created it outside of time.

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It was in time, but He was not. But we as man are walking through it.

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That's why it's taking so long. Because we're doing one day at a time.

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In verse 3, the world means cosmos. If it had meant age, it would have been aeon.

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And if it had meant the globe or the land, He would have used okay -meon.

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Verse 3, For ye speak in certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all of his works.

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Now, why did God appoint one day of rest?

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Well, yes, He did not rest in His work. He rested from His work.

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And the little word from being taught here. Finished.

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He'd done it all. All the creation was finished. That's right.

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If it hadn't have been like that, we wouldn't have the week. We wouldn't have the calendar. We wouldn't have years.

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So He rested on the seventh. It brought about all of this. And it was because of what man was going to do.

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Man needed a time to worship Him, specifically worship Him.

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And in this place, again, if they shall enter into my rest.

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All right. He speaks of two rests. This was the second rest which the

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Lord promised to those that believe. And as it was spoken of in the days of David when the

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Jews actually possessed his long promised Canaan, therefore it is evident that that was not the rest which

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God intended for to be the last rest. Verse 6,

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Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.

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See, the key word in that verse is must. M -U -S -T. Since God has a rest for His people, does it not follow that we must enter in?

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We must. Can you see that? Because He has a rest for us, there must be somebody to enter in.

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Since God has a rest for His people and it is not made in vain, there must be some who enter therein.

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There must be. And it must be you. Those to whom it was first offered entered not in because of what?

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Unbelief. As far as they knew, it was their unbelief. Hence it remained to all who, like Joshua and Caleb, have faith.

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Those that enter in must enter in. Those that must will.

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Hebrews 7, Again he limiteth a certain day, saying unto

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David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said,

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Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day?

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Well, he did. For it is Jesus, Joshua, the old

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Hebrew term Joshua. Joshua led

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Israel over the Jordan into Canaan. Do you remember that? But that did not give them complete rest.

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If that had been true, David would not have exhorted them to seek to enter into rest.

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Five hundred years after he entered Canaan. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

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There is another rest. The rest that we have in God never goes away.

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You cannot enter back into the world. It's always there.

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Even when we're not restful, it's there. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

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Now, when

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I finally enter into rest, when is that, Virg? As far as I know right now, it's when

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I die. And I'm getting closer all the time. But when I step across,

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I'll be in rest. Now, if Jesus said that, we will enter from all of our work.

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Not in our work, but from our work. We will enter to that final rest from our work.

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Does that mean, Clarence, that I will not work anymore?

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No. In heaven.

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There'll be no work in heaven. Is that true or false? Joy? Alright.

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Today, if you love your work, you don't work. If we in heaven love the

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Lord, which we will or we won't go, there'll be no work as we understand work today.

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The believer is said to have entered in this verse, and this is done two ways.

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Initially and imperfectly in this life. Fully and finally perfect and completely in the next.

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They have now a present title and right to enter into this rest. The actual enjoyment and full possession of it is to come.

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That is offered to us right now.

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That's right. I came across this question, why do we not have fathers in this life?

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I've been a father for a while.

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I came to an early church fatherhood. We're in the first 150 years after Christ, so way back in the early church history.

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And there's a whole couple paragraphs in written that we would have been in contiguous with that.

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Because, as the first instance, for he that is entered into his rest, he also had to leave from his own work.

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So once we're born again, and then we have been taught by the

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Holy Spirit through the scriptures, that there's one thing we can do in the flesh to stop it.

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In that moment, it now came to those who have come to realize that we can't speak the gospel, not only our salvation gospel.

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So we don't have to keep strict status to status if we're in the world of chapter 8 and we're truly armed in Christ, resting in his savior, because we have that status.

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It's either sinning or, well, how can

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I put this? He's not pleasing God.

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If you consider it work, if it pleases God, you should love to do it.

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You like to do it. You will do this to ultimately overcome that.

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But you do work. But it's not work. We have a human explanation of the word work and a spiritual explanation.

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We are in the spiritual. For he that is entered into rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from him.

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Verse 10, he that has entered, he that has found out, he that has been notified,

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Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief, as if our apostle had said,

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Seeing there is such an eternal, glorious rest prepared for us and promised to believers, then it is the duty and ought to be the business of every one of us to secure our title to it and our interest in it by a steadfast faith, and preserving obedience, lest following the example of our forefathers in the wilderness.

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Not that we will ever fall from salvation. That's impossible.

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But the glorious end that we can achieve here will not be known unless we enter rest, unless I know

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I'm in rest. I hope I can practice that more. It's hard.

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For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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Here's that instrument, the one that goes in and even divides your thoughts.

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My, what a sharp tool, my soul and my spirit, discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart.

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Thirteen, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.

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What's that mean, Virg? Nobody, no thing, nothing.

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But all things are naked and open unto the eye of him and whom we have to do.

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Open and naked. You cannot dress fancy enough to hide yourself.

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You can't put on enough paint to hide it. You can't do anything to hide the real you.

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Everything is open and before God. Does God, now here's a question for you, does

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God ever call you to salvation and that person never is saved because he does not want to be saved?

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Greg? Why? Is our salvation dependent upon your wanting to?

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We don't. We have no choice in it. What?

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He just knows it.

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No, he'll follow that one. Yeah.

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Joy? Well, it's just a waste of time when we do.

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God wouldn't do that. God wouldn't send all those people to hell. Well, he gives us example after example in the

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Bible of his doing it. But, see, we're so far removed from that, that's ancient history, that we don't think he'd do that now.

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He doesn't change. God's calling is irrefusable, irresponsible, and powerful and nothing can prevent it from returning to him as he intended.

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Hebrews 4, 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,

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Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. He has passed, past tense.

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He has already passed into heaven. Right now, there is a man someplace in heaven, the other dimension, that is sitting at God's right hand that will intercede for us.

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For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

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Isaiah 55, 11.

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And so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which

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I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.

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In Revelation 19, 9. David, how can we do that?

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Alright, on earth, we take Aaron, there were other high priests, but Aaron, once a year would carry the blood into the

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Holy of Holies. He would sprinkle it, he would do whatever he was instructed to do, and he would come back out.

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Because he had a family, because he was going to die. Our high priest, which is

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Jesus Christ, entered in, but Greg, has he ever come back?

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No, he has never had to come out. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, find grace and help, grace to help in time of need.

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Time of need, is there ever a time when we're not in need, urge?

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No. Yet it seems as though he is there just when we need him.

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We use that phrase, God was right there. Well, was he ever not there?

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Now, go back to verse 1 briefly. If you're thinking that Hebrews 4, 1 is teaching us that it is possible to be born again and a redeemed child of God is come short and not enter into God's rest of salvation, the answer is found, and let me give that to you.

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Romans 8, 31 through something, 37, 38, 39.

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Romans 8, 31 through 39. Our time's gone,

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I won't read all of that. What shall we say then to these things, if God's for us, who can be against us?

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Jesus is my substitute, they're not dealing with me, they can't deal with me.

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In regard to salvation, the only possible way is to be God's, in regard to salvation, the only possible way is to be

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God's calling you into Jesus as a Christ. The only way a child of God can find daily rest is to trust, believe, submit to God's providence as it comes to us.

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John 6, 44, no man, no man can come to me except the

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Father which has sent me draw him. The word draw means drag, means compel.

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Then I'll raise him up at the last day. Any word from anybody.

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Yes. But he doesn't say we don't, but he says in time of need, he says he only has a certainty that in this world we'll have his grace.

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So we just don't until we hear from him. You just recognize in them that it's eternal.

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You don't avoid his grace. No, we wouldn't.

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helps. Yes.