Hebrews 4:1-10 | Resting in Jesus Pt. 2 | Partial Preterist Postmil

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August 1, 2021 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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Hebrews 4:11-13 | Belief in the Word of God Pt. 3

Hebrews 4:11-13 | Belief in the Word of God Pt. 3

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If you have your Bibles, please turn to the fourth chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews 4, again, we will be considering verses 1 -10,
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Hebrews 4, 1 -10, let's pray. Glorious God, Lord, we worship you,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, please speak to your people today through this vessel,
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Lord, I pray that your word, Lord, is understand clearly,
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Lord, that you have given me the right interpretation of this text,
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Lord, I trust in you for all things, and today we come to Mount Zion at the feet of Christ to feast, so please,
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Lord, please speak to us, in Christ's holy name, amen.
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Alright, so our theme for last week is the same theme for today, it's resting in Christ, that if you want true rest, it's only found in Jesus Christ, and our timeless truth is the same this week as it was last week, that God has only given to the world one true rest, only one, one true rest, and Jesus spoke this of himself in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 -30, he said, quote, come to me, all you who are labored and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
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They being under the tyranny of, I hate to say it this way, but the old covenant, the old covenant, their guardian, and the fullness of time had come,
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Jesus is there, and he is telling them to, this burden, this work that is put on you, take that off, and take my yoke upon you, my yoke is easy, it's light, and with his yoke we can find rest.
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We can find rest, we can rest in Jesus Christ. And so, like last week, today, if you give me your attention, you will see that God never, it was never
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God's intention for Canaan, the land of Jerusalem, for Canaan to be the final resting place for God's people.
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There's Christians today who say that God has to fulfill the promise, the rest that he gave to Israel through Jerusalem, that God has to fulfill this promise, and of course we know that he has in Christ, and that's what the author of Hebrews is trying to get into our thick skulls now, as well as their thick skulls then.
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So let's read Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 through 10.
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Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, at least any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
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For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
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For we who have believed entered that rest, as he has said,
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I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere, for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.
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And again in this passage he has said, they shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and to those who formerly received the good news fail to enter because of disobedience.
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Again, he appoints a certain day, today, saying through David, so long afterwards, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
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For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not have spoken of another day later on.
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So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
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For whoever has entered God's rest has rested from his works as God did from his.
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Today in our outline, the Holy Spirit is teaching us three ways to rest in Christ.
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And we looked at the first point last week, which was the good news of the gospel. And I know last week
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I said that I was going to try to break these three points into three separate weeks. That did not happen.
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So I'm going to do the last two points today. And the reason being is because the passage seems to circle so much it would be hard to to really dive in deep to the second point without revealing the third.
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And so I didn't want to just keep repeating that same process. And so I figured we would accomplish both points today.
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And so the second and third points today would be point number two, our response to the gospel, and point number three, the
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Sabbath that the gospel provides. And as we transition, you remember last week,
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I told you that I heard a pastor that someone that used to be my pastor is now my friend say this.
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He said these words, the secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory is determined by what you do today.
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And this is something that's said to a lot of Christian churches today.
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We spoke about it earlier in Sunday school, that a lot of churches, they do hold to the justification by faith and that, you know, for the most part, justification is monergism, that it's all of God, but that our sanctification is synergism, that, you know, once you get yourself up by your bootstraps, you have to continue to continue to hold yourself up by that bootstrap.
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And it's just not right. Like, you know, if you're in Christ, you need to find your rest in what
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Christ has done, what his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, what that all accomplished.
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And I believe as Christians, that's what we need to do. Our life's focus needs to be on Christ.
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And if you're focused on Christ, you will not gear away.
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You will not fall into sin. It's not about you making sure that you covered all your tracks.
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This is not about you. Your life in Christ is about Christ. It's not about you.
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A lot of time when it comes to testimonies, and I love testimonies, I have a pretty rough testimony myself.
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But if your testimony is not ultimately pointing to Christ, then you're just telling me things about you.
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I want to know about Christ. What has Christ done for you and how you are resting in him?
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Because the secret to tomorrow's success, to tomorrow's victory is not a secret, and it's not determined by what you do, but by what you believe.
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It's by how you've been rescued, what you are putting your trust in.
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Are you trusting in your own performance of how you perform in this
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Christian life, or are you trusting in what God has done for you in Christ?
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Which one is going to get you to the finish line? Ladies and gentlemen, if you're trusting in your own performance, that is not a light yoke.
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That is a burden. It's a burden. To our first point, our response to the gospel.
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Hebrews chapter 3, verse 4, we'll just be looking at section 8. For we who have believed entered that rest.
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For we who have believed enter that rest. And that's the gospel.
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The good news that we have broken God's law, but God has paid our fine.
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And again, I elaborated on this last week of how we spoke about the propitiation, that Jesus is our payment for wrongdoing.
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And several times I gave the analogy of breaking a window, that if Trinity breaks a window,
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Trinity has no job. She cannot pay for the window. Daddy would have to reach into his pocket and pay what she cannot pay.
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We have broken God's law. We cannot pay that fine.
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God reaches into his pocket and pulls out the propitiation, his eternal son.
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And he pays that fine for us. We cannot pay that fine.
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God has paid our fine and he has paid our fine in full.
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And that's why we can rest in the finished work of Christ. Trinity would not have to go to bed that night thinking, oh, how am
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I going to pay for this window? No, daddy has paid for the window.
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Trinity, don't go breaking windows. We broke God's law.
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God has paid our fine in full. What I normally try to do is to break it down in ways that you can understand these big theological words such as propitiation.
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Jesus is our propitiation. It's the gospel message. And then also from last week,
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I had two sub points when it came to the gospel. Sub point number one was the result of one man's sin.
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And from the result of one man's sin came to the world, sin entered the world, death through sin bestowed upon all mankind, condemnation upon all mankind, and the law was given to make man accountable.
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And the second sub point we looked at was the result of one man's righteousness. So this is the verses, one man's sin versus one man's righteousness.
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So the first sub point shows what Adam brought to the world through his sin. And the second sub point shows what
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Christ has brought to the world through his obedience. And that is the obedience of Christ.
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The obedience of Christ brought to the world the obedience of Christ. He obeyed.
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Also, being counted as righteousness, being brought to justification, and the abundance of grace, and that abundance of grace is given to the many.
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And we looked at the act of obedience of Christ, speaking of him living the life that we could not live, that he kept the covenant, he kept the law, and through his passive obedience, him dying the death that we should die.
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He was the sacrifice. He stood in our stead as the acts of God's wrath was coming down to destroy all humanity.
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Jesus on the cross stood in our stead. The first part of the passive obedience is pointing to the sacrificial offering of himself as the high priest.
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The second half of the passive obedience is him loving his neighbor but still being punished as if he had not in your place, in my place.
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So he has lived the life we could not live. He has died the death that we should die. And yet, churches are still teaching we need to hold ourselves up by our bootstraps.
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We need to focus on our own performance. Listen, when you start focusing on yourself, you're going to crash the car.
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You're going to crash the car. I talk to a lot of people who, you know, in counseling, they look back at their past.
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Well, I can't do this because this happened to me. Because this has happened to me,
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I can't perform this action. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're driving your car and you're looking at the rear view and not the front windshield,
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I mean, the front glass, you are going to wreck your car. If you're looking at your past and your past performance, you are not going to succeed in Christ.
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Your focus, your gaze needs to be looking forward. And my argument today is that our forward focus needs to be on Christ.
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As Christians, we are monotheistic. We are monotheists.
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Excuse me. We are monotheists. That means we believe that there's only one God. These N words kind of confuse me sometimes.
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We're monotheists. There's one God, but yet we're Trinitarian. That this one
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God has revealed himself into three persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. But yet out of all that, we are
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Christ -centered. Our focus is on Him. Him who came and lived the life we could not live and died the death that we should die.
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So when we read things like John 3, 16, just for say, it's one of my favorite verses.
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I know I say it all the time. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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When you're believing, what you're believing is this. So when it says for all who believe in Him, what you're believing is this, that He came from the
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Father to accomplish the purpose that was set, that He was sent to accomplish.
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That He came from the Father to accomplish the purpose that He was sent to accomplish, meaning life,
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His life, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. Turn to John 6.
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John 6, verses 28 and 29.
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Jesus had fed the multitudes with bread and the fish.
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The crowd is following Him. They're wanting more bread. They want more fish.
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They want to know how can they do the works of God. Verse 28, then they said to Him, what must we do to do the works of God?
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Verse 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God.
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Right here, very profound. This is it. This is key. This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom
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He has sent. You want to do great works for God?
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You want to do the great work of God? Believe in Christ.
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Believe in Christ. That is the great work of God. You want to do the works of God?
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Believe in Christ. You say, oh, that's just too easy.
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It's too simple. You have no idea.
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As we transition, if you're looking to that, looking to Christ Jesus as your only hope, listen, you have, present tense, right now, as we speak, you have eternal life.
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If you are looking to Jesus, looking at that as your only hope, my only hope is
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Him. If He is your only hope in life and death, you have eternal life.
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So when you hear people giving their testimony, and it's 30 minutes of I did this and I did that and two minutes of Jesus, man, come on.
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Your testimony should be one that points directly at Jesus. I've heard it said, but it was talking about worship, that your worship should be so Christ -centered that you should be like a man standing downtown looking up.
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And as people walk by, they look at you, and they look up to see what you're looking at. Your testimony about what
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Christ has done for you should be as one as a man downtown looking up. And as people walk by, they see you for a second, they look to who you are looking to.
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Christ, the
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Bible is Christ -centric. We need to be Christ -centric. What has
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Christ done for me? Point number three, the
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Sabbath that the gospel provides. It's found in verses three through 10.
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I'm going to read, I'm going to read just to verse, we'll read it all, verses three through 10.
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For we who have believed enter that rest. As he said,
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I've sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Though he, I mean, although his works were finished before the foundation of the world, we've spoken somewhere of the seventh day in this way, that God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.
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And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who have formerly received the good news fail to enter because of disobedience.
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Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through the prophet
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David, after long after in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, listen, church today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
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For if Joshua had given them rest, they would have not spoken of another day later on. So then it remains a
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Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered
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God's rest has rested from his works just as God. Has.
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So we need to keep in mind the original audience. As we're reading this, as we're going through this, the primary thing that we really need to focus on is, right now is the original audience.
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How would they have understood this text? The background of this is that the
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Bible's clear that Jesus told his disciples to be expecting a return before their generation would end.
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And we see that clearly in Matthew chapter 10, 23, 16, 28, and 24, 34.
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So if you turn to Matthew chapter three, I mean, excuse me,
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Matthew chapter 10, I'm sorry. Matthew chapter 10, verse 23.
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Let's go back to verse 16. If you look back at verse five, we won't read verse five, but this is
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Jesus sends out the 12 apostles. So this is just the context.
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Jesus sends out his 12 apostles. And so that's just the context of what's taking place here.
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He says to them, Behold, I am sending you out as sheeps in the midst of wolves.
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So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in the synagogues.
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And you will be dragged off before governors and kings for my name's sake. For my sake, to bear witness before them and the
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Gentiles. And when they deliver you over, do not be anxious on how you are to speak or what you are to say.
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What you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you.
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Brothers will deliver brother over to death and the father, his child and children will raise against their parents and have them put to death.
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And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
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Verse 23, And they will persecute you in one town, flee to the next.
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For truly I say to you, speaking to his disciples, you, the disciples will not have gone throughout all the towns of Israel before the son of man comes.
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Chapter 16, verse 25. No, 28,
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I'm sorry. 16, 28. But let's go back to 24.
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Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
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For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
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For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father.
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And then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Listen, 28, truly
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I say to you, speaking to his disciples, second person plural, there will be some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.
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Verse chapter 24. Remember, it wasn't long ago we walked through chapter 21 to 24 in a quick way just to give a context of the coming of Christ and judgment.
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24, 34 says this, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
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So everything that you read in Matthew 24 up to 34, Jesus makes clear that this generation, the
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Greek word genea, this generation, genea, will not pass away until all these things take place.
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Jesus had prophesied within that generation, a generation being 40 years, that he was coming back.
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Ladies and gentlemen, he's not speaking of the second coming that will come in our future when
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Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, but he's speaking about a coming in judgment.
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The book of Hebrews was written around 64 to 66 AD. Jesus started his earthly ministry at 27
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AD, making the crucifixion take place around 30 AD.
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30 plus 40 equals 70, 70 AD. Jerusalem, the land of Canaan is destroyed in 70
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AD. The persecution began at 66 AD, around 66
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AD, and it ended 30, 70
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AD, a period of three and a half years. Here in chapter four, verses one through 10, it is speaking about a rest, but also in chapter three, 17 through 19, it is speaking about a rest.
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One is speaking about resting in Canaan, one is speaking about Canaan, and the other is speaking about Jesus, resting in Jesus, and that's what we're focusing on today.
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But the writer of the Hebrews, to the Hebrews, the writer of this book seems to be corresponding the rest that is given to us in Christ over with the rest that is given to Israel in the land of Canaan.
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Again, let's look back at verses eight through 10. He says, for if Joshua had given them rest, if Joshua, speaking of Israel in the wilderness, the church in the wilderness, would have given them rest as they entered into Canaan, we read this as we get into the book of Joshua, if Joshua would have given them rest,
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God would have not have spoken of another day later on. So then it remains a
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Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
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There is no rest in Canaan. Canaan offers no rest.
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There is no rest in the old covenant, do this and live. There is no rest.
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They entered the land, God promised them the land, they entered the land, but it was do this and live in the land.
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You wanna live in the land, you have to keep the covenant. You have to keep the rules.
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Break the rules and you will be removed from the land. There is no rest in Canaan.
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This is teaching us that Jesus is the one true rest, that Jesus is the
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Sabbath. Whoever believes in him has present tense eternal life.
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Whoever believes in him has eternal life. A Sabbath was for rest.
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There was the Sabbath year, there was the Sabbath day. The Sabbath year, you would let their land rest for one year.
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So every Sabbath year, Jerusalem had the people, the Israels had to let the land rest for seven,
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I mean for a year. The reason why they were taken into Babylonian captivity is because they did not keep the
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Sabbath year rest. For 490 years, that's 70 years that they did not keep that.
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The land was supposed to rest for 70 years, they were taken into Babylonian captivity for 70 years.
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Sabbath stands for rest. We hear of pastors taking a sabbatical.
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That means a rest from their teaching duties. We gather here today on this
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Lord's Day as a Sabbath, not only to rest from our work, but to worship
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God. We set this day aside to worship God. But ultimately,
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Jesus being our true Sabbath, you and I can rest in him.
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Yesterday morning, I got a text message from a friend of mine that I grew up with, and I've been trying to explain to him the gospel.
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He has went online, he has gotten a minister's degree, a doctorate degree online, and just has an eschewed view of the
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Bible and just believes that we have to live holy.
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Or we're not, you can't believe in Christ. If you are not holy, and I've explained to him time and time and time again, that yes, the
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Bible calls for us to be holy. Be holy for I am holy. Listen, I know that's in the
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Bible. It's there. It also says to walk upright before the Lord.
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It also says that we are to be righteous. Ladies and gentlemen, listen, when you read, be holy for I am holy, to walk upright before the
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Lord and to be righteous, you should say, how? How is this possible?
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Look at this garment of flesh that I'm in. How is this possible? And so he sees this and he says,
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Jeff, you must be mistaken. Look, it says, be holy as he is holy.
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And I'm like, listen, if we could be holy, Christ would not have had to come and die.
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If you and I could walk upright before God, why would we need Christ? If you and I could be righteous, why would
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I need his righteousness? Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world.
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That's what the scriptures teach. But the only way anyone, anyone can be holy, upright and righteous is if they have the righteousness that is not of their self, the righteousness of Christ.
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And how do you get the righteousness of Christ? By believing. The same way
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Abraham was saved is the same way that we are saved. Abraham believed God. It was counted.
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It was credited to him as righteousness. You and I, the only way to be holy, the only way to be righteous, the only way to walk upright before God is to be credited with righteousness.
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God does not make you righteous. He counts you righteous.
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That's the difference. You are not made righteous. You are counted as righteous. You are counted as holy.
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You are counted as walking upright. Why? Because he lived the life we could not live.
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He died the death that we should die. And because of what he, Christ, has done, you and I are made right with God.
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His righteousness credited to us as if we lived his life.
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That's why in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it talks about the man of heaven, that some people are gonna come out of the dust clothed in the man of dust,
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Adam. Some people are gonna come out of the dust clothed in the man of heaven.
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It is gonna be as if Jesus is behind you with his arms wrapped around you. And you can't tell where he begins and you end.
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And that's how it's gonna be when you stand before God. You're gonna be clothed in Christ. You're credited with righteousness, not of your own.
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The new covenant tells us that we're no longer under the old covenant, the covenant of works, but we are under the new covenant, the covenant of grace.
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Where justification, sanctification, all the way to glorification, we rest in Christ.
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We're looking to Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the author and finisher of our faith, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
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We're looking to him as we're moving forward in life and not looking at our rear view mirror or not turned around, driving forward, looking at the back glass.
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We're looking at Christ, what he has done for us. And just to kind of show this,
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I wanna go to Ephesians real quick. Ephesians chapter one. And in Ephesians chapter one, there's a lot of he and hims.
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And I went through this morning and done the antecedent. So I'm just gonna, as I get to a he or him,
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I'm gonna name off who it's speaking with. And please go back, do it yourself and see if I'm right.
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And don't call me out in front of people to bring it to my attention now. But listen, chapter one, verse three.
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Blessed, I mean, okay, yeah. Blessed be the
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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he, the father, chose us in him,
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Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him,
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Christ. In love, he, the father, predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he, the father, has blessed us in the beloved, being
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Jesus. In him, Christ, Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his glory, which he, the father, lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, his being the father, according to the purpose which he, the father, set forth for us in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.
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The fullness of time is when Christ came into the world and started his earthly ministry to unite all things in him,
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Jesus, things that are in heaven and things that are on earth. In him, Jesus, having obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, the father, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory, the father.
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In him, being Christ, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him,
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Jesus were sealed with the promise, Holy Spirit.
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Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. Speaking of our glorification, our glorified bodies to the praise of his, the father's glory, that God, the father, chose to save a people in his son.
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His son comes and accomplishes that purpose. And the spirit applies that redemption on us.
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It's all of Christ. If you can read that and put yourself in it, that you've done something, you are not handling the text well.
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You're not handling your text well. So in the text,
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Hebrews chapter 4. Verses 1 through 10. We have to understand that this group of Christians are waiting for the return of Jesus.
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He said this generation a generation is 40 years. It's book was written in probably 64, 66
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AD. It's coming on 40 years. They're being persecuted. The Jews have been persecuting them.
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The religious Jews. They're being persecuted.
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They're waiting this generation. And we are not sure exactly how things.
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We're not sure exactly if they know how things are going to play out. We can be sure that they are looking for the return the soon return of their
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Messiah to rescue them from the persecution that they're under. The persecution of Nero began it began in 66
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AD. Nero was taking Christians and tying them up, putting black pitch on them and lighting them up.
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If you ever heard the phrase Roman candle, that's where it comes from. A Roman candle was originally a
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Christian with pitch on him, set on fire to light up the night.
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He would dress in animal skins and eat the private parts of Christians. His nickname was the
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Beast. Persecution was taking place.
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But not only from the Rome from Rome, but also from Jerusalem. They were telling the
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Jews, listen, all you have to do is come back. Come back to the temple.
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Come back to temple. Leave this Messiah.
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Come back to the temple and we'll stop putting you down. We'll stop killing you.
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We'll stop putting you in prisons. We'll stop flogging you. We stop dragging you before the synagogues.
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Just come back to temple. Make a sacrifice. That's what he's telling them.
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Stop going back to the temple. Jesus Christ is enough. Jesus Christ is enough.
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The writer of this book is telling them not to turn back. Why? Because Jesus Christ is enough.
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He's greater than the prophets. He's greater than the angels. He is greater than Moses. Jerusalem is about to be destroyed.
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This is what he's telling him. Listen, listen to me. You Christians who are wanting to run back to temple, who are wanting to run back and sacrifice an animal,
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Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. Jesus is coming back to destroy
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Jerusalem and we are going into a new land.
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We are going into a new land. You say, well, where do you get that from? Well, chapter two, verse five, for it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, which we are speaking of.
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And as we read through this passage, we see that Christ sent his son to subject the world.
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The word subject means to hypotasso it. The word for world here is oikomene, which means the known land.
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And it says to come the known land to come. The known land at that time was the
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Roman Providence. There were over 10 kingdoms and he sent his son to hypotasso to subject the world to come.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the world to come is right before our face. It's bigger than 10 nations.
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We're now able to travel the globe. We're able to reach out to people and listen, Christ Jesus is hypotasso in it.
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And he's doing so by being born into the likeness of human flesh.
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That God became man, creator into creation, infinite became finite. He took upon himself flesh, not only just flesh, but the flesh of a
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Hebrew in order to be the high priest, to make that sacrifice, to stand in our stead.
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By living the life, we cannot live and die in the death that we should die. Jesus Christ will conquer this world.
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And right now I want to point out to you in our last few minutes, our giants. Just as when the
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Israel was afraid to enter Canaan because of the giants, because of the pomegranates being so big.
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I want to point out to you, our giants. I touched briefly last week on Matthew 28.
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If you would turn there real quick, Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20.
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Jesus says, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Is it some authority or is it all authority? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the
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Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold,
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I am with you to the end of the age. When God told the
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Israelites to take the land of Canaan, he told them that he was giving them the land.
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Take the land of Canaan. I am giving it to you. It's yours. Take it, take the land.
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It's yours. When Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, he did so because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.
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Jesus was giving the land to the disciples, to Christians.
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If you're a Christian, Jesus has given you the land because he has been given all authority in heaven and earth.
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It was given to him and he's given it to us because of the message of him being born, him being taken on flesh, him being born of a virgin, suffering under the hands of Pontius Pilate, being crucified, coming out of the grave three days later because of that message, he's going to hypotasso, subject the whole world.
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And the way that he is going to take possession of it is by discipling. The way that we are going to take possession of it is by discipling, baptizing, and teaching.
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So he takes possession by his death, burial, and resurrection, gives us this ministry of reconciliation, this message, what
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God has recreated in the world. And we are to go out with this message because of what he has done and disciple, baptize, and teach.
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The giants that we deal with today have more to do with, I wonder what people will think about me if I do this.
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The giants of fear and reputation. And listen,
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I do not want to sound like a Pentecostal up here. I am believing
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God for Tallahoma. I am believing God for where I am, that he is going to use me.
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I am believing that. Ladies and gentlemen, you need to believe that too.
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When we step out in faith, we do not want to sink in water. We need to have our focus on Christ and believe that he has hypotasso the world to come.
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Through his death, burial, and resurrection, through this ministry of reconciliation, the message is preached about him by discipling, baptizing, and teaching.
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You say, well, how do I disciple someone? It's by baptizing and teaching. In Christ, we are to rest.
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Listen to this. If you don't get anything else, get this. In Christ, we are to rest from the works of our salvation.
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But also in Christ, we are to work for the salvation of our neighbors.
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In Christ, we are to rest from our salvation. But also in Christ, we are to work for the salvation of our neighbors.
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I'm available if anyone wants to talk. My only question is, are you resting in Christ?
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Is your focus on him? Are you looking to your own performance?
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Or are you looking at him in all things? Let me tell you something. You're no more righteous before God on your best day than you are on your worst day, because this does not depend on your performance.
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It depends upon what Christ has done. And I am available if anyone wants to talk.
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Let's pray. Father, Lord, we thank you for Christ.
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We thank you for your spirit. Lord, I pray that your hand is on this congregation.
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Lord, I pray that you bless them and keep them. Lord, I pray that they are looking to you in all things.
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That they are believing in what Christ has done for them, and they're not looking at what they have done for themselves.
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They're not walking around holding their self up with their bootstraps, Lord, but they're trusting in the promises of that you have given us in Christ, that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of your son.
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And that is through looking to him. And God, I also pray that you bless the body and blood, which is represented here today in a regular piece of bread and wine and juice.
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Lord, you bless the supper that we take in remembrance of what
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Christ has done for us. And Lord, I pray that you use it as a means of grace in our life to grow in holiness.
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To grow in our righteousness and to grow in our uprightness.
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Before you, we love you.