Hebrews 4:11-13 | Belief in the Word of God Pt. 2

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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August 19, 2021

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN August 15, 2021 Pastor Jeff Rice

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

00:06: If you will turn to your Bibles, to Hebrews chapter four, we're gonna be considering again, verses 11 through 13.
00:18: Hebrews chapter four, 11 through 13.
00:24: Let's pray. Father, Lord, we've come to this portion of the service where I need you the most,
00:44: Lord, I pray that you will speak through me, that you will fill me with your spirit to speak forth the magnificence of your work and that through doing so, you will grow us in holiness.
01:07: Oh God, have mercy on us, we pray in Christ's name, amen.
01:20: All right, so our theme for this week is the same as it was last week, belief in the word of God.
01:27: And I can remember my whole life, I had a presupposition that this was the word of God, like I can never remember not believing this.
01:39: I mean, growing up in a home, I wouldn't say we were Christian. You know, we sometimes went to church, we had
01:48: Bibles, we had one of those big holy Bibles, that weighed five to 10 pounds that you would sit on your coffee table.
01:56: When you would open it up, not that we did, but it would take up your whole coffee table. That although my parents didn't raise us to be
02:07: Christians, per se, they taught us that this is the word of God and it was sacred so almost 20 years ago,
02:20: I started reading the Bible, 9 -11, 2001, almost 20 years ago, when
02:25: I approached opening this book to read it, I had that presupposition that this is God's word.
02:34: Before I even opened it, I just knew that this was the word of God, that as I was opening it and as I was about to read it,
02:40: I was going to hear from God. Our timeless truth is this, that the word of God is as much alive today as it was then or as it has ever been.
02:57: There's never been a moment where the word of God has not been alive, living.
03:07: And here in our text today, we're going to see the power of the word of God. I trust that today you will give me your attention so that we as a church, not that you individual or me individual, but we as a church can experience the word of God preached, that we can experience this.
03:32: I believe there's two ways to experience God and that is through the word of God and through prayer, that we can actually have an experience with Him.
03:42: We can hear Him speak and we can speak back to Him.
03:51: So I pray that as I'm preaching in your heart, you will pray for me for I have undergone a huge task today.
04:01: Please look with me at our text, Hebrews chapter 4, 11 through 13.
04:11: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
04:21: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joint and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and attention of the heart.
04:36: And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
04:52: In our text today, the writer of Hebrews will outline three ways that the word of God is being used.
05:00: Three ways. We looked at the first point last week, the word of God points us to our
05:06: Sabbath. Point number two, the word of God is skilled for judging.
05:14: And point number three, and by the word of God, we will give an account.
05:21: That the word of God points us to our Sabbath. We'll focus on the second point today, the word of God is skilled for judging, and the word of God, and by the word of God, we will give an account.
05:36: So as we transition, a quick recap of last week, we looked at verse 11, verse 11 reads again, and let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
05:52: So the key word here, let us, I pointed out, is the church. That this is not let me, this is not let you, or this is not
06:02: I'm good, but I'm worried about you. This is let us, the church, do what?
06:09: Strive to enter that rest. That this is not individual, this is corporate.
06:16: And we as a body of Christ should strive for one another. There's this old movie, we were watching a show called
06:26: Fire, Chicago Fire or something, but it reminded me of a movie, of a firefighter movie when
06:33: I was a kid, I think it was Backdraft or something like that, but I can't remember the details of the movie, but I can just remember this one part where this guy was holding another man's hand as he was falling, but he caught him, and as he's holding his hand, the guy tells the guy, holding his hand, he says, let go, let me go.
06:56: There's no way I'm gonna survive, let go. And he replies, if you go, I go.
07:05: I'm not letting go, if you go, I go. And as I'm reading this, that's what's on my mind as a church, we need to be so Christ -focused, but also focus on the body of Christ that we're willing to say, if you go,
07:22: I go. You're entering this with me. We're in this together.
07:28: We are the body of Christ. I was having a conversation last night explaining the difference between church and temple, on how individually we're not the church.
07:41: I know that's counterculture to what you've been taught, I know that. My friend was having trouble understanding this.
07:49: Individually, you are not the church. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not the church.
07:57: The corporate gathering, the assembling ourselves together, that's the church.
08:05: You want me to prove it? The temple in the Old Covenant is not the synagogue.
08:13: The gathering took place at the synagogues, but the Holy Spirit was in the temple.
08:21: New Covenant, you are the temple, you have the Holy Spirit, but you gather as the church.
08:31: We're only the church corporately. Individually, we are temples of the
08:38: Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, that spirit that once tabernacled in the tent, that tabernacled in a temple, now tabernacles in men.
08:51: And verse 11 was pointing us to our Sabbath, that we are to rest in what
08:58: Christ has done for us. That let us strive to enter that rest.
09:03: What's the rest? What Christ has done for us. And we saw that the disobedience, the antecedent to this disobedience was found in Hebrews 3, verses 18 and 19.
09:22: Says, and to whom did he, men God, swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who are disobedient.
09:31: Now it's gonna tell us in 19 what the sin of disobedience was.
09:37: So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
09:48: In order to enter this rest, we must believe God and trust.
09:57: And what God has done. You know why it calls us to rest? It's where the trust comes in.
10:05: If you're trusting in what God has done for you, why would you work to earn your favor with God?
10:12: Rest, trust in what he has done for you. We don't have to earn salvation. Salvation has been earned for us by what
10:22: Christ has done for us. Now getting into our second point.
10:30: The word of God is skilled for judging. Hebrews 4, verse 12.
10:40: Again, last week I said that I was, so I was dreaming about this verse. It's been a doozy, okay.
10:49: Good time. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, for piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joint and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the attentions of the heart.
11:11: The writer of the book of Hebrews has given us a word picture describing the word of God.
11:19: That it's living, it's active, that it's sharper than any two -edged sword. It seems to give us an image of a warrior going into battle.
11:30: Just picture that. A warrior going into battle. The word here, where it says for the word of God, the word here is logos in Greek.
11:43: The logos of theos, of theos.
11:49: The word of God. Which I wanna look real quick at John chapter one.
12:01: John chapter one, the gospel of John. Says in the beginning was the word, logos, and the word was with God, logos was with theos, and the word was
12:21: God. He was with God in the beginning, and all things that were made were made through him, and without him was not anything made.
12:30: So right here we have logos prosanteon, that the word of God and God were face to face, but that this logos and this theos are the same.
12:45: That when this theos speaks, it's the logos, but that this logos in verse 14, and the logos, the word became flesh, and it dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
13:01: Glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. And so we have this word of God, this logos that was with God, face to face with God, that was
13:13: God, became flesh. Now if you would turn to Revelation chapter 19.
13:27: Revelation chapter 19 beginning in verse 11. Revelation 19 verse 11.
13:39: And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse.
13:45: The one who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
13:56: His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name that no one knows but himself.
14:07: He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.
14:19: And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and purple, followed him on white horses.
14:29: And from his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.
14:37: And he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he would tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the
14:48: Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
14:57: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So in this text we see that this
15:03: Jesus, this word of God, this Logos, who was prostanteon, face to face with God, but was
15:11: God, who became flesh, he is called Faithful and True, the word of God, the
15:17: King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. And he has a, this word of God has a sharp sword coming out of his mouth.
15:32: Picture this, the Bible's giving us word pictures. Now turn your attention to Ephesians chapter six.
15:46: Something else is said about the word of God. Verse 16 and 17.
15:58: So here in Revelation we have the word of God is the Son of God. The word of God is the
16:06: Son of God. Now look at Ephesians chapter six, 16 and 17.
16:13: In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darks of the evil one.
16:22: And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
16:27: Spirit, which is the word of God.
16:36: Now the antecedent here in our text, the antecedent to the word of God is taken from chapter three.
16:46: And we read this last week. It is a quote from Psalm 95, verses seven and 11.
16:55: And I wanna read that real quick. Psalm 95, beginning in verse seven.
17:02: So this is the antecedent where it's speaking of the word of God. For he is our
17:13: God. And we are his people. And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
17:21: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in Meribah, as on the day of Masses in the wilderness.
17:30: When your fathers put me to test and put me to proof, though they have seen my work.
17:39: For 40 years I loathed that generation and said, they are a people who go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways.
17:50: Therefore I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
17:56: The quotation is from chapter three. I wanna read through this real quickly. Chapter three, this is the writer of Hebrews is bringing
18:07: Psalm 95 to bear when he says this. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.
18:24: Therefore I was provoked with that generation, Israel in the wilderness, and said, they always go astray in their hearts.
18:33: They have not known my ways. Therefore I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
18:39: Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living
18:45: God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hindered by the deceitfulness of sin.
18:57: For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold to our original confidence firm to the end.
19:03: As it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
19:09: For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
19:17: And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
19:25: And to whom did he swear that they will not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient?
19:34: So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. So is the word of God, Jesus, or is it the scriptures?
19:52: Because apparently we have scriptural basis for both. That the word of God, this living and active word of God that's sharper than any two -edged sword is
20:02: Jesus. We see him in Revelation, he's called the word of God, he's got a sword coming out of his mouth.
20:11: But yet the writer of Hebrews is bringing to bear upon them Psalm 95.
20:18: And the word of God in our text, the antecedent to it is the quotation from Psalm 95.
20:26: So the writer of Hebrews is showing us by using the word of God, what happens when the people of God disbelieve the word of God.
20:37: He says that they saw the glory of God, they saw the glory of God, the judgment that came upon Egypt.
20:45: And they were given the word of God, the law through Moses. They were given miracles to validate the message and yet they disbelieved.
21:02: So you have miracles given to Moses and Joshua for a period about 65 years.
21:13: And these miracles were to validate the message. This is the message from God, here's proof, water being split, water coming from rocks.
21:27: I mean, just so many things over and over. Get into Joshua, they're marching around a city.
21:35: The city falls just by them marching around and screaming, playing instruments. The work of God is being displayed, they're given a message and the miracle is to validate the message.
21:48: But the same thing takes place at the time of Elijah and Elisha.
21:55: So Elijah and Elisha, they're prophets, they're speaking the word of God. God is validating their message through miracles and yet the people disbelieved.
22:11: And so we see it takes place again with Jesus and his disciples. But this time, it was a period about 70 years.
22:18: You have Jesus and his disciples speaking the word of God and God validating their message with miracles.
22:29: And yet, they disbelieve. The writer of Hebrews is a man.
22:38: Y 'all always go astray. Y 'all always go astray.
22:45: He has given to them the message, he is validating it with miracles. Today, we have the word of God that validates our message.
23:00: So today, I stand before you with a message and what validates that is the word of God.
23:08: I'm not validating my message with miracles, I'm validating the message with the word of God.
23:18: And yet, still today, people dis, D .O.
23:27: Moody says, quote, the scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives, end quote.
23:40: The scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.
23:47: It's so easy to look back and think, man, those Israelites were stupid.
23:54: How could they not see it? How could they not see it? The miracle has taken place.
24:02: And yet, they disbelieve. And so many people in our nation today disbelieve when the perfect has come.
24:19: We have the word of God in abundance. And it's living and it's active and it's sharper than any two -edged sword.
24:31: So let's look. Let's look now and see how sharp the sword of, how sharp the sword of the warrior is.
24:40: Again, verse 12. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing through the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.
24:58: Our text seems to lay out some key words, that being soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and the intentions and the thoughts and the intentions of our heart.
25:09: Deuteronomy 6 .5 says this. Quote, you shall love the
25:16: Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, end quote.
25:24: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
25:34: Jesus quotes this in Matthew 27, 30, I mean, Matthew 22, 37 through 40.
25:42: He says, and he said to them, you shall love the Lord your
25:47: God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So the only thing that changed was might and mind.
25:58: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
26:04: And Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 5 .23
26:10: says this. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
26:25: Lord Jesus Christ. It seems to describe the being of a person having a mind, a body, a soul, and a spirit.
26:36: So your being has a mind, a body, a soul, and a spirit.
26:48: For the remainder of our time together, we will consider soul and spirit. Look back at verse 12, but we're only gonna read part of it.
27:01: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit.
27:14: So Jesus is living and Jesus is active. This Bible is living and this
27:22: Bible is active. Some say when you read the Bible that it is actually the Bible reading you.
27:31: That no matter how many times you search the scriptures, you read through the scriptures, you're learning something new.
27:38: You're seeing something you haven't seen before. That Jesus right now is at the right hand of the
27:51: Father. He's putting all enemies under his feet and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
28:00: But right now this word of God that we have before us, this 66 books, it's skilled for judging.
28:15: It says that it's living and it's active. I believe speaking both for Christ and for what we possess in the scriptures.
28:26: The word piercing here in the Greek gives the idea of passing through. Passing through something, that this sword is passing through your body.
28:39: In the Greek and in our own dictionary, the definition for division is the action of separating something into two parts.
28:50: So that the word of God, it is able to separate the soul from the spirit.
28:57: That the sword of this warrior is so sharp that it's able to separate your soul from your spirit.
29:13: That it gives the idea that they were together, but that this sword of the warrior is able to separate the two.
29:23: And I believe in the same way that the writer of Hebrews is bringing the word of God to bear in Psalm 95 for his listeners.
29:31: I believe now him to be bringing the fullness of the word of God to bear here in this verse.
29:41: The teaching of scripture is that because of Adam's sin, we, you and I, are born dead in our trespasses and sins.
29:50: That as living beings, listen, as living beings, and by living, I mean having a body, a soul, a spirit, and a mind.
29:57: We are born counted with the unrighteousness of Adam, the unrighteousness of our covenant federal head, making a part of us, that is our spirit, dead.
30:11: That although we have a body, a soul, a mind, and a spirit, our spirit is dead.
30:21: That through this separation, the word of God, this prophecy that was spoken, that right here, he is pointing back to what
30:34: God did. That this separation is not taking place right now, the separation took place at a moment in time.
30:47: That this is something that has already happened, but we are seeing the fulfillment of it take place with every child born.
30:56: Ephesians chapter two, one through three, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
31:10: And when you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedient, among whom you once lived in the passions of your flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and you were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
31:36: Colossians 2, 13, and you were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh.
31:49: Genesis 2, 16 and 17, and the
31:56: Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but the tree of knowledge and good and evil, you shall not eat.
32:13: For the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So because of the sin of Adam, the word of God has separated the soul from the spirit.
32:32: My brother, Josh and our Sunday school was speaking about, we were created, we had a will, we were able to please
32:41: God, but because of his sin, he's no longer able to please
32:47: God. You have a spirit. You're born with a spirit, but it's dead.
32:59: Now, does that mean that it's actually dead? No. Spirit is like a desire from the desires, right?
33:08: We're born spiritually dead because we cannot please God. We have no desire for God.
33:15: We want no part of God. So that part that we lost because of our federal head, this verse is telling us that that's how sharp that sword is.
33:30: It has separated your soul from your spirit, that you're no longer able to please
33:36: God in any way, in and of yourself. Like he said, unless an outside force intervenes, steps in, for in the day that you eat it, you will surely die.
33:52: Remember the word picture, the image of the warrior in battle. It is as if the unrighteousness of Adam that was counted to us is suffocating the spirit within us.
34:07: His unrighteousness has suffocated the spirit that is within us, that we are no longer able to please
34:16: God. And for a deeper understanding of this,
34:24: I would ask that you would go and read Romans chapter eight. That being born in Adam, being born spiritually dead, credited with the unrighteousness, with his unrighteousness, is the very reason why we need to be born again.
34:49: I was talking with a friend of mine recently. And as y 'all know that I've been jumping headfirst into baptism.
35:04: And I've asked myself, is this such a weird thing that Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again?
35:14: You must be born again. And so I've asked myself several times going over the past few weeks, what's going on here?
35:26: But the idea was in order to enter the old covenants, you just had to be born a
35:34: Jew. A Jew was to be born. And then they would take the sign circumcision.
35:43: Jesus is saying in order to enter the new covenant, you need to be born again. Born from above.
35:52: Of course, we believe that the sign that we have been is baptism. So if the word of God given in Psalm 95 was to be brought to bear, and it was, how much more the gospel message?
36:17: For us today, the writer used Psalm 95.
36:23: He brought it to bear. He was using it as a hammer. How much more today?
36:33: How much more today? The word of God is able to separate.
36:46: How much more is the word of God able to place us back together in Christ?
36:54: And that's through the gospel, ladies and gentlemen. And I know y 'all hear it from me every week, but that's why we are a church that stands on the gospel.
37:08: If you're gonna be known for anything, in my opinion, especially for a minister, you need to be known for the gospel, not known for eschatology, not known for any other doctrine outside of the gospel.
37:28: Like, you need to be a gospel center preacher. And listen, I say that as someone that loves eschatology,
37:35: I love theology, I love studying baptism, I love studying church history, but I don't want that to be my driving force.
37:44: I want myself to reflect the gospel of Jesus Christ.
37:51: And you have this man, this religious leader, he comes to Jesus and he says, good teacher.
37:59: And Jesus said, you must be born again. You must be born from above.
38:06: Something outside of you must intervene and change who you are.
38:13: Something outside of you must intervene. I wanna quickly go and look at that just for a moment as my way of explaining to you the gospel this evening, this
38:33: Lord's Day. John chapter three.
38:41: Now, there was a man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher that come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
38:58: Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
39:06: Notice right here, unless you are born again, you cannot see. This is with your eyes.
39:15: How can someone be baptized into Christ if they cannot see?
39:24: If you cannot see the kingdom of God, why would you be baptized into the kingdom? He says, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom, which tells you that an outside force has to intervene.
39:39: Why? Because we are spiritually dead and we cannot please God. Entering the kingdom pleases
39:46: God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
39:55: Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
40:05: So most of church history states that water here is baptism. But notice the antecedent.
40:15: Notice the antecedent to Nicodemus' question. How can a man be born again when he is old?
40:23: Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? Jesus' answer is, can he,
40:30: Jesus answers the question, can he enter his mother's womb a second time? And he says, truly,
40:40: I say to you, unless he is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
40:49: He says, that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Notice flesh and spirit.
40:57: Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
41:06: So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
41:14: Listen to this. Jesus answered, truly,
41:19: I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not understand our testimony.
41:27: Here's the answer, verse 12. If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
41:40: So we have earthly things, heavenly things, spirit, spiritual things, fleshly things.
41:46: And it points back to Jesus's answer. Truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the spirit.
41:56: So this heavenly thing, this fleshly thing is water. When a baby is in the womb, the baby is in water.
42:08: And the spiritual thing is when Jesus, you're baptized into his spirit.
42:14: This is being born again. And so the question is, is
42:20: Nicodemus, he has entered the old covenant by natural birth.
42:27: Being a Jewish man born, he has entered the old covenant. And Jesus is saying, you need to be born again.
42:35: So here's the question. Does the Bible show us a pattern of how this is done?
42:41: Does the Bible show us what it looks like to be born again? I'm always taken back to a story from Paul Washer.
42:52: Paul Washer was telling people, I mean, Paul Washer was, he went and listened to a preacher.
43:00: And the preacher was telling him that you have to walk by the spirit. Walk by the spirit. You must walk by the spirit over and over and over.
43:08: Walk by the spirit. At the end of the message, Paul noticed that he didn't tell him how to walk by the spirit.
43:14: So Paul gets up and he approaches the pastor and he says, sir, I really enjoyed your message, but you didn't tell us how.
43:23: You told us to, but you didn't tell us how. Pastor got very, very upset. Started yelling at Paul.
43:31: Paul being a young man, an older man standing behind Paul. And Paul said that this guy was big and I don't know if you've ever seen
43:37: Paul Washer, but that's a big old boy. So I imagine how big this guy was. He says, sir, answer the man's question.
43:46: You did not tell him how. And so I see the scripture saying that we must be born again.
43:53: I'm asking how. How is this done? We cannot, please
43:59: God, the sword has separated the soul from the spirit. How can this be?
44:12: And the answer is in Ephesians. I read verses one through three earlier. Now I wanna read verses one through 10.
44:23: And right here is the prime description of what being born again looks like.
44:32: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedient among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
45:00: And we were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love in which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sin, listen, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.
45:21: Born again, born from above, grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
45:39: So that in the coming ages, we might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
45:47: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing.
45:54: It is the gift of God. It is not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
46:11: Eternal life is the gift of God. In order to enter the new covenant, what do
46:20: I say every week? We believe that the entrance into the new covenant is faith alone in Christ alone.
46:29: You're saved by grace through faith and that this is not of yourself being the faith.
46:36: How is it not of yourself? Because of grace, you are born again. You hear the gospel and God steps in supernaturally like we was talking about in Sunday school.
46:48: He steps in and he does something that you could not do because you're spiritually dead. And what does he do?
46:57: He attaches the spirit back to the soul. He awakens, he undoes the curse that was spoken over us.
47:08: Through the preaching of his word. Again, if the word of God is able to separate, how much more is the word of God able to place us back together?
47:24: One more verse. I read from it earlier. I just wanna, I did not read the ending.
47:30: I just read the bad news, Colossians chapter two, verse 13 through 15.
47:36: Last time I read just 13. Listen to this. Listen to the beautiful news that we have in Christ.
47:43: And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, spiritually dead. The spirit separated from your body and you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
47:54: God made alive together with him, having forgiven us of our trespasses by counseling the record of dead that stood against us.
48:03: How? With its legal demands that he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
48:10: So this legal debt, us breaking God's law, how did he pay our fine?
48:17: He set it aside. He nailed it to the cross. And he says, he, speaking of Jesus, disarmed the rulers and the authority, the religious
48:29: Jews and the Romans of his day. He, Jesus, disarmed the religious
48:36: Jews and Roman authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.
48:45: How did he triumph over them? In him. So this death that our savior died was the death blow.
48:53: It was the heel that bruised the head of the serpent. It was the death blow to the religious
49:01: Jews and to the Roman authority system. He has counseled the record of death that stood against us.
49:10: He has made us alive. He has put the spirit and the soul back together. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do not believe that, it's because your soul and your spirit is separated.
49:30: Your soul and your spirit is separated and that it was a prophecy that has been made known to us in the
49:37: New Testament. So if that is true of you, please,
49:43: I'd love nothing more than to talk with you. I'm available to anyone who has questions.
49:48: If you want prayer, whatever it may be, please come and see me and pray with me.
49:57: Father, thank you. Lord, I thank you for this people. I pray your hand of blessing upon them.
50:03: I pray that you will richly provide for their needs as well as for their spiritual need to be awakened in spirit, that they may worship you in truth.
50:15: Lord, I pray for these children, Lord, as they're growing up here in the gospel, Lord, that you will cause them to focus and to pay attention,
50:27: Lord, and that they will ask their parents questions concerning the word of God.
50:33: Lord, we want nothing more than to take them with us. We wanna say, if they go, we go.
50:41: Lord, let them see that our pledge before them is to bring them into the kingdom where we are, where we're living in the presence of you,
50:51: Lord. You have filled us with your spirit. We're so grateful.
50:58: Save our children, we pray. And right now, Lord, we pray for this ordinance that you've given us, your supper.
51:09: We pray for the bread and the wine, the body and the blood.
51:16: This bread and wine that represents what Christ has done for us in the gospel, that his body was broken and that his blood was shed for us.
51:25: Lord, we ask that you bless it, that you bless those who partake and that you use it to grow them in holiness.