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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On the first we gather together, song 442. He stands from the stress, sing praises to his name. He forgives not his own. Beside us, unite us, our God with us. Join him, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine. So from the beginning, the fight we were winning. The Lord was our son, by the glory he denied. On the last, we hold a wish, holding a leader in hand. And pray that thou still, our defender, will be. Let light of the nation, his name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. One, zero, nine, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. It's on one, zero, nine. On the first. Skateboard like a shepherd lead us, much be the night's ender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our useful's repair. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us thine we are. We are thine, thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way. Keep thy thoughts and defend us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, he will hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, he will hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive us, for a sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve us, praise to plant and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hurly let us turn to thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hurly let us turn to thee. On the last. Hurly let us seek thy favor, hurly let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior, when thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, loved us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast loved us, loved us still. Amen. All right, great singing this afternoon. This time we'll go through our announcements. Once again, if you do not have one of these bulletin, just slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we're going out to you. And if you open up to the first page, you'll see our service times there. Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. temporarily now until we switch over on June 26 to 5 p.m. So just note that change. Again, as I mentioned this morning, the whole purpose of this change is to allow for more time between the services to do soul winning. I also like the ability to be able to do a little bit of fellowshipping after after service, especially we have guests and visitors and, you know, people come through. You haven't seen for a while. We don't want to just go rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush in order to get like a little bit of time out soul winning. So that's the purpose behind this. And we will be beginning that on June 26. Wednesday night seven, of course, is our Bible study. We are getting close to wrapping up the book of Isaiah. So come on out for that. Lots of great passages still in the book of Isaiah. Soul winning opportunities listed there as well as salvations and baptisms. Let's go ahead and count up. Prior to today, real quick, did I miss anyone from this morning? Anyone have salvations to report for prior to today? All right, then how about for today? Here, one, two. One there and two there. Amen. And one there. All right. Very good. Excellent. Well, good job out. We're in Seoul today. Seven, eight, eight out as a team. And then there was the family that was visiting here from South Carolina. They said they got someone saved this morning. So nine for the day total. So awesome, awesome day. Good job. The senior living home. Sorry. A couple of you, a couple of people know what I'm talking about here. I call everything a nursing home. So that's what I paused because I have to try to get there. Some things are assisted living homes. This one is just a retirement home. Retirement home. Thank you. Retirement home. I swear I'll get it right. One of these, I won't have to think for a minute before I could open up my mouth. Retirement, retirement home went well. So that was very nice. I got a chance to preach there today, this afternoon. And I know you all missed it, but don't worry, because I'm going to preach the same exact sermon every day. I thought about changing it, but I don't want to do that to myself. So we'll be, we'll be, you'll get to hear, although here's the thing with my sermons, it's not like I write out exactly like what I'm going to say. So I just have scripture. So no two sermon is ever the same. Like it's, it's, you're just going to get whatever, wherever the spirit leads on that one this evening. So, but anyhow, it was a good, a really good experience. Nice people there. They've got things, really nice facility too. And you know, they, the people accepted, seemed all like the, the sermon and preaching and you'll get, you'll get to hear what, essentially what I was, was teaching over there. You know, part of it is on salvation. I'll probably emphasize, I probably emphasize salvation more over there than I will here tonight, but that was good. And looking forward to the ability, I'm pretty sure we're looking good for being able to have two, I think we'll be able to have two services every month going forward. We'll see about that for sure. But, um, they wanted to see how things go with us before committing to have us come regularly, uh, twice a, twice a month. So I think that's going to go really well. I think we have that opportunity. So anyone who's interested in that, get ahold of brother Peter and you know, brother Carter's not here today, but, um, he's, he's actually preaching a pure words, but he's going to be, um, just making sure that that's staffed with preachers. And I know I keep saying this, we probably won't have one. Uh, preaching class until August is what I'm guessing either end of July or August, my schedule is super busy, but, um, we do do preaching classes and give you opportunity and main opportunity to learn how to, how to preach, get some pointers and some tips on that. So it's also really good getting experience like this. So, uh, I'll let you know when the next preaching class is going to be. And if you're interested in preaching at the, at the retirement home, then you can talk to, talk to one of us about that. All bring total is this on their bottom of the page for the month of June prayer requests. Uh, please continue to pray for everyone on our list. Uh, bring these home with you. Pray for people on a regular basis. Does anyone have any updates for the prayer requests? Anyone? Any updates? All right. And as I mentioned this morning, you know, shield of faith Baptist church, Boise, Idaho, pastor Joe Jones. Um, they're going to be in there. They're in the news. They wrote, they did an article on them, whatever. And anytime our churches go get in the public eye due to the news, I can't think of an issue other than the, the homo issue. Like it's, it's always, it's always that they always like to highlight that. So, um, just pray for their church and their family. Just pray for God to protect them, their safety, right? You never know what people are going to do since, especially since the, uh, the bombing over at, uh, uh, first works, you know, but Hey, we're, we're trusting in the Lord. Lord's our shield. He's our buckler. He's our defender, right? We know we're not the violent ones. We just believe the word of God. It's funny. We were talking after church a little bit today saying how, uh, you know, we're talking about, you know, someone's asking me if I, if I heard, I think, I think pastor Shelley put out a video maybe about, about the voicemails and stuff they've been receiving, right? Like all the hate mail. Cause you get, a lot of people don't, don't understand what goes on behind the scenes when, when these things happen, like the, and it's usually, it's usually because the pastors don't want to, you know, burden the rest of the congregation on, on all the things that go on behind the scenes. But there's a, you know, typically a lot of hate mail and, and all kinds of, of, of nasty stuff. People send things to the church and, and just do whatever they can to kind of, to kind of mess with the church, right? Ultimately is what it is. And based on how many threats you get, like almost none of them ever come to fruition anyways. I would say the only one I could think of is, is what happened at the first work. Someone actually did something. Generally they're just idle threats. But, um, what I, what I, the point I was going to make is what's interesting is that, you know, do we preach that, that sodomites deserve the death penalty? Of course we do. Of course, that's what the word of God says. But are we going around and harassing sodomite groups and calling them up and sending them messages and doing, you know, like, and, and bringing hit squads or, you know, like bombing their facilities? We're not doing that. We're not, we're not the ones doing, and in fact, we're not even going in front of their places and, you know, we're, we're having church. So, but, but we, we are the violent ones is what, is the way the media wants to portray it. We're the ones that are inciting violence and our speech just needs to be shut down and everything else. But what they're actually doing, they're the ones that are, that are making all the threats to literally commit crimes. Like we're, we're, if anything, we'd be pushing for legislation, right? Like make this a law like it used to be. Just bring back the laws that we had in this country, you know, a couple hundred years ago and we're good. But, you know, so anyways, I digress. I don't want to, I don't want to go off on that during announcement time. We'll be here all night. Let's continue on with the announcements. On the next page here, we got the congratulations for Denzel Kristin. And by the way, like the reason why I was even getting that, Prayford, pure words, and Prayford for steadfast as well, because that's, now that they're in the news, they get a spotlight on them, which means all the haters are going to come out of the woodworks and just try to harass them and bother them and stuff. I mean, thank God these, the men, the men there are faithful men. They're not going to buckle. They're not going to cave to that. But, you know, nonetheless, it's still an added stress or pressure to deal with. So just pray that God will bless them. Denzel and Kristin had that baby, Charles Harrison Miller, who was born last week. A cute little thing. Everyone's doing well. So that's awesome news there. June challenge, attempt to give a gospel to at least one person every single day of the month. You went soloing with us today. You got this covered for today. But don't forget about the rest of the week. You got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, right? Soloing, or excuse me, the stronghold anniversary weekend is going to be, the big day is Saturday, June 25th. We're going to have a lot of fun there at the park. 10 to 5. We have the place reserved. You can show up at 10 if you want to help get things set up, but we can't show up. We're not allowed to show up earlier than that to use the facilities and stuff. So if you show up at 10, don't expect everything to be in full swing, basically. You can come whenever you want, but that's what's going to be going on. We'll still be setting up at 10. So if you want to show up when things are already going, come closer to probably 11, 1130, and everything should be up and going and no problem. So, and of course, we will have lunch provided there. I'm not sure exactly what. We'll have to get a count on who all is planning on attending. And then we've got Father's Day next week. So remember to try to bring your dads to church and you can entice them saying, hey, you get a free gift. Stronghold will give every father in attendance a free gift. So come on out, invite your dads out. A guest preacher on July 10th is going to be Pastor Anderson. It's going to be, I'm anticipating a very big day for this. A lot of people coming and visiting from out of town. So we're also going to have an extra soul winning time on Saturday, July 9th. And the time is to be determined just because I need volunteers. Anyone that wants to help coordinate this soul winning time specifically, please let me know and we'll work a schedule out that is going to work for you. I will not be here that weekend, so I'm going to be relying on someone else to kind of be in charge of things. And you know, you can make it for as long as you want. I don't care if you want to do a whole day out of it, you want to do a few hours. Great, whatever, whatever, whatever you guys want to do, whoever wants to lead this up will put some times in here. And if you want to go all day, as we always do, church will provide all the food for that event. But my plan was to still keep it relatively local. So we'll have church as home base. So we'll be in this area. We're not going to go anywhere on this day. That'll be kept close. Our next soul winning marathon that we're going to, I'm planning on doing is going to be somewhere in Alabama. And I'm planning again tentatively for a Labor Day weekend type of an event for that. But I'm not certain about that yet. I haven't done any more work on that. Bible memory passage. I apologize for not having your prizes for this. I know that's not some huge surprise for you. But I will do my best to get some prizes next week for everybody for what I owe. But we've got what and then next week. Well, so who we got one week to finish versus seven to 12. Who thinks they're going to have this done? Seven through 12. Seven through 12. One, two, three, four, five, six. Did I count myself? I forgot now. One, two, well, whatever. Let's say eight. You got a week to get six versus seven, right? I want to see eight people complete this by next week. All right. But what we're doing with the Bible memory, if you're not aware, we're going through the entire book of Hebrews. So we've done Hebrews chapter one, Hebrews chapter two. We're in the middle of Hebrews chapter three. This one I broke up into smaller sections. I'll probably do bigger sections for the next one. But the whole point is to try to get you to memorize the entire book of Hebrews. So join us. If you missed chapter one, still try to get that. I mean, think about what a big task that is. If you can knock this out, you could always go back, then, to try to memorize chapter one if you missed chapter one, or one and two if you missed chapter one and two, or whatever, right? Like, that's not that much to add. We're not so far into this that you wouldn't be able to. If you got chapters three on out to go back and do one and two, not that challenging once you've already done the rest. So on the back, we've got the birthdays and anniversaries. Jax, did you get an ice cream today? I forgot to mention, man, did you have to do pull all that stuff off of the freezer? Or did you just get it from the other one? Good, good. That's all I was going to tell you to do that, because we got a bunch of junk on top of that freezer right now. But did you get, did you find something good? What did you get? Twix. All right, not bad, not bad. I hope you enjoyed it. It's the only one you get. It doesn't look like we have a record breaker tonight. So maybe, maybe we'll get some people come in at the last minute. But all right. Happy birthday, Jax. And Joshua Jr.'s got a birthday on the 14th. That's about it for announcements. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, church. Let's open up our hymnals to solo number 392. A song 392. Soul winner for Jesus. Song 392. Church, let's sing this out on the verse. I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day. He does so much for me. I want to be a lost sinner to leave his every grave and be from bondage free. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each day. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. He's done so much for me. I want to be a soul winner and bring the lost to Christ. And may his grace be known. I want to live for Christ and renew his blessed will because he loves me so. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each day. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. He's done so much for me. I want to be a soul winner till Jesus calls for me to lay my burdens down. I want to hear and say, serve and together may he receive a starry crown. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each day. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. He's done so much for me. In church, while the offering plate is being passed around, can you open up your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 2? That's Ephesians chapter 2. As we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. I'm going to ask brother Devin if he can please do that for us. Once again, that was Ephesians chapter 2. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Let's pray. Brother Lindsay, can you pray for us? The Lord, thank you for our chance to gather again at the end of the day. Please be with us. Let us have hears to hear, Lord. Amen. Alright, so as I mentioned in the announcements, this is a sermon I preached already this afternoon at the retirement home. Thank you. I might never get it, it's alright. You know what, I'm okay with that. I'll call it the nursing home. So I was at the nursing home this afternoon, and it's not going to be exactly like what I preached there just because it never really is, but the title of my sermon is Rest in Peace, so you say, Pastor Berzins, what are you doing going into a nursing home and calling a sermon Rest in Peace? Like, what, are you ready to die? Like, come on, I know they're old, but let's give it a break here. And I had apologized, I said, look, this isn't a morbid sermon, and you know what, it's not a morbid sermon, but it's just a catchy title, Rest in Peace, we all know what that is, you see RIP on tombstones and stuff, you see it in cartoons, you see it all over the place, Rest in Peace. Why do people say that when someone's going to pass away, someone dies, you know, hope they rest in peace. Why? Because there's only two places you can go when you die. One place is a place of peace, and the other place is not. And oftentimes, you know, the unsaved world have all kinds of different ideas, you know, you could say, like, oh, they went through a lot of struggles here on this life, now they're in peace. Well, if they're not saved, they're not in peace. Right? At all. They're not in peace, they're suffering, they're burning, they're being tortured and tormented, which is all the more reason why we need to find that peace before we die. So that when we truly do rest, when our body goes to sleep, right, as the Bible talks about, those of us who are asleep in Christ, because you don't really ever die, you have eternal life, you live forever, even though our body passes away, hey, even that's going to be transformed and renewed and we're going to be reunited with our body one day at the resurrection, so there's nothing permanent, definitely for the saved, right, we have eternal life, that's the permanence we have. But you have to have that and you have to enter into that peace while you're still alive, so that you can rest in peace. And in fact, we're going to enter into the rest that Christ offers us, and so I'm going to start off kind of talking a little bit just about that briefly, I know I'm speaking to a group of people here who, I believe we're all saved, right, we have the Holy Spirit, we understand what it means to be saved, but I'm going to go through that just real briefly, but what I'm going to focus more of the time on is how magnificent God's Word is, and how many layers there are to God's Word, especially when you look at things in the Old Testament, and all the deeper meanings that exist in the Word of God, and that ultimately, everything in the Bible points to Jesus Christ, it points to the everlasting Gospel, it points to our salvation by grace through faith, and even to the small, fine details you read about things, and we'll get into this in a little bit, about the tabernacle and all the chapters of the Bible that you read that might seem to be real boring, and how when you look at it from the right altitude, right, you kind of see the big picture, and especially when you read the New Testament, because the New Testament is shining this great deal of wisdom and understanding of what that all means, it really is amazing, and I hope that you can share just in my awe and amazement at the Word of God through the sermon today, because and you know what, maybe there's nothing brand new that you didn't already know today, but hopefully you can gain just an extra level of appreciation on how amazing God is at being able to create and give us His Word that has so many things built into it that are impossible to be coincidence, yet so precise and so, to have the number of layers that all gel together and fit together, it's wonderful, and just this one concept of having peace and entering into rest and being able to rest in peace through all the imagery through different commandments in the past from the Old Testament going into the New Testament, it's absolutely awe-inspiring, so I'm going to read for you real quick from Romans chapter 5, stay in Ephesians chapter 2, we're going to go through this a little bit, Romans 5.1 says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have peace with God, because as sinners we are at odds with the Lord, we've broken the commandments, we've become transgressors and as a result of being a transgressor of God's law, we deserve punishment. We deserve judgment. We've done wrong. We are not in good standing with God until we receive Christ. Because then once we receive Christ, Christ makes that, He's made that atonement for us, and that word atonement, if you look at it, and you could chop it up into three words, at-one-ment, at-one, it makes us at-one with the Lord. He's satisfied the price that we deserve to pay, that we ought to pay for our sins, reconciling us to God. So we receive the peace that we need to be at peace with God. We don't want to be at odds with God, we want that peace with God. The only way we get that is through Jesus Christ, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So the grace that we have, it says the grace wherein we stand, we have this grace, the only reason that we have something we don't deserve, we have this awesome grace that forgives us of all of our sins, we have access to this place because we put our trust and our faith in Jesus Christ. And that's, you know, imagine a physical area, this is the area of grace, right? This is a great place to be because in this place all of my sins are forgiven, everything is taken care of, I have no punishment, I have received mercy and grace and I'm in this place. But see, you don't get to that place, when you sin and you're without Christ, you're not in that place. You say, I want to get into that place. And a lot of people try to work to get into that place, say, well, I'm going to do all these good things and I'm going to be building everything, I'm going to be going to church, I'm going to be helping people out, you never make it into that place. You never make it into that place. But once you put your trust in Christ, you know what Christ says? Okay, I'm going to take you and put you in this place because the only way you can get access or entry into that place, it's impossible to get there, to stand in that grace, you have to go through Jesus Christ. He is and in that place is perfect peace. The peace of God is amazing and man, I hesitate to even say this, I don't tell the story very much at all. It's relevant to the sermon so I guess I'll bring it up. Let me just start off by saying this, I don't put stock in dreams. Now I know that in the Bible there have been people who have been able to interpret dreams and things from God, but I don't bring this up because I don't want to sound like real creepy or anything too weird, but the night I got saved, the very night that I called on the name of the Lord, I got saved, I had this dream. And the reason I don't bring this up, because everyone here, you're saved, you know what salvation means, I definitely don't bring this up to people I'm giving the gospel to. These personal weird things that happen just stick to the Bible. But I had this dream and I think what this does, my interpretation of the dream is just my own understanding of what being saved meant. But I had this dream where I was confronted by an apparition that was like Satan. In my mind it was the devil. And all around me, the whole room was like in the middle of a tornado. I mean there's furniture, there's stuff flying all over the place, and Satan is mad. And he's like just furious and angry. And I'm standing right in the middle, like the calm in the midst of the storm. And to me it was just like that he was angry because he couldn't have me. Because I got saved. So this even popped in my mind because I'm talking about this place where you stand in grace. So that dream was just a dream, whatever. I'm not saying it was from God, but it was a good illustration and that is my understanding. Like when I got saved, that's how I know I got saved. Even though I didn't have someone walk me down the Roman road and lead me in a prayer and do all that, I understood salvation because I knew that I was saved and it was forever. It was a permanent thing. Satan couldn't have me, not just that day, but ever. Ever. Because I was born again. I was saved. God saved me. Jesus saved me. So this is how you get that peace. And that place that I was standing in my dream, perfect peace. Around you could have all the turmoil. We live in a world today that has so much turmoil. So many storms. So many problems. So many pressures. So much stress. All this stuff going on. But you have peace. We can have that peace through Christ. Sometimes you gotta remind yourself of that. Sometimes you gotta remember to be like, hey, what is this all... Even just recently at work I had to remind myself, people were asking how's it going or whatever, and I've had all kinds of things thrown at me and deal with all kinds of junk at work or whatever. But you know what I say? It's just work. Just work. Don't let yourself get too bogged down at work. That peace... And the reason why I think I could even have that attitude is because I know the peace of Christ. And I know what's really important, too, by the way. The things of God are what really matter. Whatever is going on in my company, hey, do I care about it? Yeah, sure, I care about it. I mean, I'm employed there. I care to some degree. But not to the point of that having some major impact on me, and even it shouldn't have some major impact even on my mood. Like, okay, well, I've got a lot of work to do. So what? But these other people did this and now you gotta fix it. Okay? If I wasn't doing that, I'd be working on something else. So what? Right? But anyways, I'm digressing from this sermon quite a bit. Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 2. Romans 5 tells us we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into that grace wherein we stand. Ephesians 2, look at verse 13. Ephesians 2 is bringing up the reconciling between the Jews and the Gentiles, right? Because there are people this is written to the church at Ephesus with Gentiles and they're saved, right? They're part of the body of Christ. And he's giving them this explanation, hey, you guys were foreigners. You were not part of the commonwealth of Israel. Because in the Old Testament, God chose to have a place where his name was and the people were to go and join themselves unto that nation essentially if you wanted to be around God's people. That was the way it was built. God was saying, okay, he's gonna have his prophets and these people and he was gonna use one particular nation to be that nation that was the lighthouse that was there to shine the light of the gospel to the world but he was still dealing with it as like, he's the lawgiver and he's the one that's the king and supposed to be in charge and everything else. And that changes in the New Testament when he opens it up more broadly to the world. And we see some of this being mentioned here in Ephesians chapter 2 how God is making of two one new man. So in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile, there's male nor female, right? It's a unifying thing of bringing people together regardless of where you're from and where you live. It doesn't mean that people weren't able to be saved before. But what he's done now though too is he's opened up way more dramatically than in the past of, hey, you need to go forth and that's why they're starting these churches all over the place all over the world preaching the gospel to every creature which hadn't been being done before where the focus was everybody would come to Jerusalem for the Passover, people would come into that place as the holy place to serve the Lord and do those things whereas in the New Testament with the changing of the priesthood, hey, that stuff's done away, you don't need to go to that altar in Jerusalem anymore, you know, you can serve the Lord out in the world, right? Just out and about in different nations and different countries. You don't have to go to that place anymore besides that country, that nation rejected the Lord Jesus Christ by and large. So he's saying, okay, you were my people and now you're not anymore. But let's read here, sorry, in verse 13 of Ephesians chapter 2, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So obviously we're jumping right into kind of the middle of this chapter, but he's talking to the people, the Ephesians, hey, you were, sometimes you were made far off, but now because you're saved, because of the blood of Christ, you're brought right back here to be one of the people of God. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Now, he's talking here about the partition that was between the Jews and the Gentiles, right? He's saying, hey, I'm making up two, one new man. But this also references the middle wall partition that's broken down even in the temple that went out through Christ, we have access to the holy of the holy. We'll get into that a little bit, but that's some of the imagery of the Old Testament with the access into the peace of God and it's through Jesus Christ. Let's keep reading here, verse number 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. So, not only is he opening up, as it were, to these Gentiles, more importantly, what he's done is he's given the answer to the punishment for sins, the result of the law, the commandments, the ordinances, he's nailed them to his cross, and he's made the ultimate price in order to bring peace to those people who were afar off, as well as those who are nigh, nigh meaning close. The people who are close, the people who are far, they all are receiving peace. Now, flip over to Isaiah chapter 53. The peace that we see received through Christ, through the Savior, the peace that we have with God through Christ is not just some New Testament thing, it's not even a New Testament teaching, it is found and prophesied in the Old Testament quite a bit, and we're going to see the very first place, I think, probably the most obvious place for those of us understanding the New Testament and Jesus Christ, as we see a prophecy of Jesus Christ himself that's going to essentially say the same thing about the peace that we get with God that we saw in the New Testament, we saw in Ephesians 2, we saw in Romans chapter 5, we're going to see that in Isaiah chapter 53. Verse number 1, the Bible says, Who hath believed our report unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form, no crumbliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Now, I preached through this chapter already not that long ago, you can go and find that on YouTube if you didn't hear it, this is definitely talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, there's so many applications that you can make understanding what Jesus did and how this applies to him, but I want to point out and specifically here, verse number 4, the Bible says, verses 4 and 5, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. So, he came to help out the people, right, he came to bear our griefs, to carry our sorrows, to do all this work for us, to be the burden, right, to carry the burden for us, yet we esteemed him stricken, oh, oh, you're under God's judgment, that's what it means, like, smitten of God and afflicted, right, that's how the people kind of responded to the man who came, hey, let me take that for you, hey, let me take your burden for you, hey, let me come, you know, and when he came, people were like, oh, yeah, look what God's doing to him, remember what they, they wagged their heads at him, well, you know, how about you come down from this cross, right, then we'll believe you, right, they're looking at it like, look, look at what God's doing to you, well, if you are the son of God, then why don't you just come down off that cross then, hmm, right, and they mocked him and ridiculed him like that, and they esteemed him to be stricken and smitten of God, the Bible says, see, that's how the people viewed it, verse 5 says, but he was wounded for our transgressions, but that all happened for us, not only was he carrying our sorrows, not only was he bearing our griefs, but he was wounded for our transgressions, you know, to pay for our sins, he was bruised for our iniquities, look at this, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, in order for us to have peace with God, there needs to be a chastisement, there needs to be a reckoning of our sin, and in order for us to have peace, Jesus needed to receive that chastisement, so the chastisement of our peace was on him, I mean, this is Old Testament scripture, knowing peace, receiving peace through the Savior was taught, and I would say taught very clearly, obviously we have a much clearer understanding of this, with the advantage of having, being able to look back, but this truth was being taught in Isaiah's day, okay, under the law of Moses, this is under that jurisdiction of the laws of Moses put into place which weren't changed at all until the Reformation, and I'm not talking about the Protestant Reformation, I'm talking about the real Reformation, I'm not talking about reforming the Catholic Church, which is, by the way, what the Protestant Reformation is, Protestants, they protest the Catholic Church, but they don't, you know, they don't just completely abandon it as they should have, and say, you know what, you are not of God at all, they just say, well, I kind of don't like that you have this and this and this and we should do things a little bit different, we want to reform your Catholic Church, your universal Church, no, we're not of that branch, we don't come from that seed, what we believe has always been believed outside of the Catholic Church, by the way, called by different names throughout history, doesn't matter, the belief has always been there, but I digress, again, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed, we're healed by his blood, by his stripes, what he went through for us, that is how we receive our peace, the peace that we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, sounds just like Romans 5.1 I mean, maybe not just like, but same concept, same truth being taught, turn if you would to Hebrews chapter 3 ... ... ... ... For those of you that may not know the book of Hebrews, if you want to understand, if you really want to get a good understanding of some of the differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Hebrews is a great place for that, it's essentially one of the primary purposes for the book because it's written to the Hebrews, and who are the Hebrews? They're the seed of Abraham, they're the people when Jesus came on to his own, so the people that got saved, it's not written to unsaved people, it's written to people who are saved, but it's written to people who were physical Jews, of the nation of Israel, people who were Jews, that's who the book of Hebrews is written to, and the New Testament believers in these other Gentile nations, they didn't need this as much because they weren't transitioning from the Old Testament ordinances of following the Lord to the New Testament change in that priesthood, because these churches that were popping up, they're just getting saved, they didn't need as much instruction, they just need to know, hey, here's how we do things, great, follow the Lord, obviously they'll be able to learn more, I'm not saying they didn't need all the word of God, but the real clear explanation appropriately was written to the Hebrews, which obviously, hey, I'm not a physical Hebrew, but I'm reading the book of Hebrews and learning from it, but the purpose of this book was to, especially at the time, reinforce and solidify all the reasoning behind the changes that needed to be made, because the main purpose of the change was that under the Levitical priesthood, when God gave the commands to Moses, there was an order, and the order was Levi was selected out of the tribes to be the tribe that was going to serve the Lord, and they were going to be the ones in charge of the service of the Lord, the service meaning performing the sacrifices, doing all the duties, putting out the showbread, doing everything, when they picked up and moved the tabernacle, who was going to take down which parts and set it back up again, and in charge of all of the order, of all the service of the Lord, everything that God required was given to the Levites. And the children of Aaron, Aaron was the priest, he was also the tribe of Levi, but his specific lineage were the people who had the priest job, so they were the job, the role of the priests, all the rest of the Levites, they served in other capacities. So that was established when God gave the law unto Moses. Well, that law in and of itself was insufficient to provide us access to the holiest of holies, to provide us the access to the Lord, to provide the peace with God that we need because that covenant and that order gave us the law, and the law is good, but we were unable to keep the law. And people have always been unable to keep the law. No one has ever been able to keep the law outside of Jesus Christ himself. The only one who's ever been able to keep the law of God perfectly. Everyone else has always failed. Now, you say, well, what did they do? I mean, how were they saved? They were saved just like you or I are saved, just without knowing the name of Jesus. But they knew there was a Savior, they knew it was by grace through faith. That's why we see my favorite passage in Scripture. I know I had you turn to Hebrews 3, but I'm going to look at Romans chapter 4. Many of you probably already know this passage. I love Romans 4, and if you ever talk to people who want to tell you that people in the Old Testament were saved by works, you know, you give people one or two admonitions when they're wrong about doctrines and stuff, but Romans 4 is an excellent place to show this truth, and if you've got someone trying to tell you, well, no, but people, they were saved by works in the Old Testament. The two places that I would go to personally, Romans 4, number 1. And if I had to go somewhere else, I would go to Hebrews 7, 8, 9, any of those chapters showing them that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to save. Because that says that, and the way it's phrased, the way it's worded, it's always been impossible. It's not like, well, under the law of Moses, the blood of bulls was able to wash away their sins and give them salvation. No, it never has been able to. Because as we'll see, we'll get to it, that was all symbolic, and there's many things in the Old Testament. Now, look, was it law? Yes, it was law. Yes, they had to do this regularly. It was something that was commanded and in place. It wasn't meaningless. In fact, it was more than, you know, it was weighed the opposite of meaningless. It had a lot of meaning. So, God instituted a lot of commands that were to be done that were symbolizing greater truths and those greater truths, I believe, were already known to the people who were practicing those aspects of the law. I don't think that those were all just hidden from people. The reason why I don't think that they were hidden, because they're saved the same way that we are. So, if they were trusting that the blood of that bull or that goat was literally saving their soul, then they weren't saved. I mean, so they had to understand that that's not what it was doing for them, and you say, well, how can you know that they would even have that knowledge? You want to know how I could know? Because you could go all the way back to Abraham when he was commanded by God to offer up Isaac and what did he tell Isaac when they went, when he went to go offer up Isaac? He said, God will provide himself a lamb. Now, he was commanded to offer up Isaac, but what did he tell Isaac? God will offer up himself a lamb, a sacrifice. God will offer up himself. He knew it. Why? Because the Bible also says that the gospel is preached unto Abraham. They were aware. We read this, the Bible, but we weren't alive during that time. You could read the stories, you could gain some insight, but you have no idea what the knowledge of a people was without really being there. I mean, this is such a short snapshot of life in that time. Everything in here is true, absolutely. But, I mean, this is just like saying, we have no idea of knowing what the knowledge of Adam was or any of his descendants, which actually is another sermon I plan on preaching here in a little bit. When you read through Genesis, it talks about all these different fields of study and things that people way early on in history were into and bringing forward, whereas, you know, school is going to try to teach you, oh, well, you've got the Bronze Age and Iron Age and all these different ages and, you know, it starts with the wheel, right, and the Stone Age and, oh, people are so stupid. Look, people haven't been that stupid ever, except maybe in the Dark Ages from the Catholic Church. But God gave knowledge and wisdom from the beginning. Mankind, in general, is not stupid. Very arrogant and proud, but not stupid. God created us in His image. God created man. We didn't have to increase our understanding. In fact, I believe when people lived longer, there was probably even more knowledge. Because how many people were able to gain more wisdom over the years and pass that on and just understand how much your understanding grows. I'm 45 years old. My understanding is continuing to grow, right, and it's slow. It's a process, but I understand way more than I did 10 years ago. Now, it doesn't mean I was stupid 10 years ago, but I understand a lot more, and I reckon that in 10 more years, I'll probably understand a lot more. And if I were to live an extra 100 years, I'd probably understand a lot more. Because you learn not just through study, but through experience. And the more time you have to do things, you could achieve all kinds of things. But see, people want to say, oh, but they didn't have computers, or they didn't have this, or they didn't have that. Technology changes. But it's no, I would say it's no less impressive, though, because what's funny is that there's still things that exist today that are unexplainable by modern technology and things that are not able to be done that were done back then. What does that show you? They weren't stupid. They had ingenuity, innovation, because that's how God made human beings to be. And yes, your focus changes based on your needs, based on your environment, based on the challenges you have to overcome, right, or maybe based on the wealth. Now, we've been a very prosperous country, so you could, the more prosperous you get, you could kind of get into different fields and different areas that are maybe not as critical as providing food and water and other things to different locations to live and survive and, you know, whatever. Now I'm starting to get off into that sermon, so I've been thinking about that for a while. I probably should have just preached that one tonight, but that's all right. Let's get back, where was I? How did I get off on this? Romans 4. Yeah. I didn't even read Romans 4. Romans 4 is awesome. Romans 4, okay, now I think I know where I'm at. I know where I'm at. I don't know where you're at, but I know where I'm at. Romans chapter 4. The reason why I like going to Romans chapter 4, to prove to people that salvation has always been the same, is because you have different people referenced here, going all the way back to Abraham. Abraham was not under the law of Moses, right? So he didn't have the sacrificial ordinances in place, the way that they're spelled out in Exodus, right? Yet, what does the Bible say in Romans 4.1? What shall we say then to Abraham? Our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. What sayeth the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Wow, look at that. Abraham is considered righteous. Why? Because of his works? No. Because he obeyed God? No. Because of his faith. Because he believed God. That's why. Well, what about David? I mean, hey, David is a good example, because he is like smack dab in the middle of the time period that the law of Moses is in effect. I mean, he is one of the kings of Israel, God is supposed to be the king, but, you know, God's law is the law of the land for the kings. That's the time of David. Well, what does it say here in verse 6? Even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man under whom God impudeth righteousness without works. Well, why would David be saying that? I mean, don't you need the works of the law? I mean, aren't you saved by the law in the Old Testament? No. Saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So in Romans 4 you've got Abraham, you've got David, you've got every dispensation covered. Right? And it's all saying hey, it's not of works. Because it's never been of works. Peace of God. Peace has always been available. That peace of being reconciled to God has always been by faith. It's always been. And you know what? That makes sense. Because if it's not possible for us today to obey the commandments, I mean, we've all sinned and come to the glory of God, how is it that we could ever possibly be saved by works? Well, how could anyone ever have? Human beings have not changed. We all have the same flesh. The same sinful nature. No. In fact, going all the way back to Adam and the first sin, the sacrifice was made. The blood sacrifice. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. The shedding of blood needs to be made in order for your sins to be remitted. To be paid for. Well, if you go back to that very first sin with Adam and Eve, what did they do? They were trying to cover their sin. They were trying to cover their shame. How did they do that? Trying to put fig leaves together and hide their nakedness. Which, yeah, that's the best man has to offer. Go ahead and try to make yourself out of fig leaves a sufficient covering for your nakedness. You're going to have some kind of apron or something and be like, look, we're covered. Like, no, you're not. And if you heard my sermon this morning, you'd understand a little bit more why I'm saying that. Like, no, you're not. You're not covering your nakedness by making this little covering out of fig leaves. But what did God do to cover their shame? He made them skins, coats of skins. Which means an animal had to die. Which means blood needed to be shed. That was the first sacrifice made for sinners. But again, was it that animal that he killed that cleansed their sin? No. That was the foreshadowing of the one that was to come and make the one sacrifice, the one payment for all time. This covers Old Testament, New Testament, everything. Resting in the peace of God. That peace has been available for all generations. It's been available the same way. Now, turn if you would to Hebrews 3. Did we get into Hebrews 3 yet? No. Oh, good night. This is a different sermon than what was preached at the nursing home. Sorry, I'm going with that. I'm an old dog. Hebrews chapter 3. Yeah, there's so much symbolic reference here with the rest of Christ, the rest of God. Resting in having that peace. Let's start reading here in verse number 7. The Bible reads, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost said today, if you will hear his voice, harden out your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my way. So he's referring to this time period when the children of Israel, they were led out by Moses out of Egypt, out of bondage. They were delivered. They were saved and brought out in the wilderness. And the plan was that God was going to bring them into the promised land. But what happened? Well, they provoked the Lord. They tested God. They were saying, oh, you know, they started complaining and when it was time for them to go spy out the land, and God was trying to take it easy on them, too. He didn't even make the most direct route. He thought that it might have been too much, so he kind of brought them around so that they wouldn't just freak out at the thought of war, like, immediately. But then they went to spy out the land and what happened? Two of the guys were like, brought a good report. They're like, yeah, this is great. Hey, this land that God has promised us, amen, let's take it. God's with us, let's do this. But the other ten were like, no, they brought an evil report saying, we saw the people there, we can't do this, there's no way. They were relying in their flesh. They were relying in their works. They were trusting in what they can do, and because of that, God says, sorry, no entry into the Promised Land. Now, the two that said, no, no, no, we can do this, let's gain this inheritance, God allowed those two to enter into the Promised Land. Everyone else, no access. Now, we see that story, but, you know, again, reading the book of Hebrews, which does a great job of showing some of the differences, Old Testament, New Testament, and the like, we see this, and he's even referencing here what was stated, I didn't read verse 11, he said, so I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. So God got so angry with them because of their unbelief, their lack of faith, God says, that's it, you're not entering into my rest. Well, yeah, we read, you could read chapters and chapters and chapters of all those stories of everything the Children of Israel did, but like I said, when you look at it from the high level, it's all there teaching another great meaning, and it's still pointing to what's required to be saved, what's required to enter into rest, and what is it that's required? Why didn't they enter into rest? Well, because they didn't believe. As we keep reading here, the Bible says, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some when they had heard did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom swear ye that they should not enter into his rest? But to them that believed not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. They couldn't enter into the rest. They couldn't enter into the promised land. Why? Because they didn't believe. Maybe there's lots of pages, lots of stuff going on in the scripture, but from that high level what's the end result? Oh, you want to go into the promised land, but you don't believe? Can't make it. Isn't that the teaching of the New Testament? Oh, you want to be saved? You want to enter into the New Jerusalem? You want to go into that promised land? Well, if you don't believe, you can't. If you're trusting in yourself to overcome the obstacles in your way to get there, forget it. The arm of flesh will fail you. Let's go over to Hebrews chapter 4. Verse number 1. Hebrews 4 and 1. Let us therefore fear. Let us the promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should come seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Wait, as well as unto who? Children of Israel. So who was the gospel preached to? Not just the New Testament. Hey, gospel was preached unto us as well as unto them. But the word preached to not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we, which had 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. What do you mean, the works were finished? Well, you know, Jesus Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It's always been the plan. That's always been, you know, we have the Old Testament and New Testament, Old Covenant and New Covenant, but the New Covenant was always in the plan. There were definitely two covenants, but it's not like God was testing out, well, let's see if this works. I think this is a good idea. Or like the, you know, the Mormons have all these crazy ideas about, like, Jesus and Satan being brothers and, well, and they're pitching their ideas to Elohim and they're saying, well, I want to do things this way. Satan's like, I want to make everybody just obey and be, you know, ruled over and with a rod of iron. And Jesus is like, no, I think we should let people have their own. This is the Mormon ideology. And, you know, the other gods were deciding, so you know what, we like Jesus' plan. So I go, that's, I don't know where that came from. That's such a bunch of craziness. How did I get off on that? Unbelievable. Crazy things people believe out there. But the Bible says here in verse number three, 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. That's why I was talking about the foundation of the world. He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That was the plan. God knew that. God knew that going back to Adam and Eve. He knew that even before that, like at the creation, the foundation of the world, He knew these things were going to happen. That was the plan, and that's always the way people were saved. But the way that He expressed that to human beings, the way that that was taught to mankind has changed a little bit over the years. Okay, God gave, and if you think about it, it's also, I think, pretty genius the way that the law was given for people to be doing things repetitively. They had songs that talked about this stuff. In the Psalms, they had the offerings and the sacrifices, which you do regularly every year. So that way, as children grew up, it was part of the culture. So even families that might not have anything to do with it, you're still seeing everybody else do it and at least ask the question, well, why is this being done? Why are we doing it? There was a meaning behind everything. So they're not just doing, now obviously a lot of people would just go through motions and not understand it, but the fact that you're even doing it is a great way to perpetuate a teaching, right? So by having these things as part of the law and something you have to do, it forces that perpetuation for generations to come because there's a lot of symbolism involved, and that's what we're seeing here in Hebrews, the explanation of all this symbolism built into God's law. Verse 4, for He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And I'm actually going to cut to this because this is the last piece I really want to focus on is the tie-in with the Sabbath day. Because there's people out there that want to practice the Sabbath day today and say, no, I mean, it's one of the Ten Commandments that we're supposed to keep the Sabbath holy and we're not supposed to do any work and everything else, and some people will say, well, the Sabbath day is on Sunday, so on Sunday we shouldn't do any work, and that's all wrong. The Sabbath day, first of all, is not Sunday because Sabbath means seventh, so the seventh day, and our calendar and our system, Sunday is the first day of the week and Saturday is the seventh day. So the Sabbath literally is Saturday. That's what it is on the calendar. So if you were to observe a Sabbath, if you thought that we had to, it would be on Saturday, because it's the seventh day. You can't just move and say, well, no, I'm going to make it Sunday. I mean, that's the Sabbath, it's Saturday, right? But here's the thing. That aspect of the law was, again, put there for a purpose. It was teaching a greater, just like the sacrifices were, just like the, you know, we've covered that quite a bit tonight, that was foreshadowing the one sacrifice that Jesus Christ was going to make for the whole world, to enter into his peace, enter into his rest. Well, just as those sacrifices were showing a greater truth, the Sabbath day also was showing a greater truth, because even going back to when it was instituted, just as Hebrews 4 is referencing here, it says, for he spake a certain place of seventh day this wise, God did rest the seventh day from all his works. This is why the Bible even says this in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, when it gives the Ten Commandments of keeping the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. Oh, good night. I'm in Leviticus. What am I doing? I'm in Leviticus 20. I'm going like, whoa, I could preach that. I ought to go to Exodus 20, not Leviticus 20. That's a sermon for another day. Exodus 20, the Bible says in verse number 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not do any work. Thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. And it's going to explain why. Now, other parts of the Ten Commandments, they don't all explain why. So it says, you know, not to commit adultery, it doesn't say why. Not to steal, it doesn't say why. But keeping the Sabbath day, it does say why and explains that here. It says for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So the reason why you even have to keep the Sabbath day is because when God made everything, when God made the world, when God made creation, He made the whole world, He made everything that exists, He worked for six days and He rested on the seventh day. Now that alone in itself should make us think and ponder, wait a minute, why does an almighty, all-powerful God even have to rest? That doesn't make any sense. God is all-powerful, how much work was it? I mean, He spake the worlds into existence. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. He wasn't breaking a sweat in the creation like we would break a sweat doing a hard work, because God's all-powerful. God doesn't need the rest like we would need a rest, because God's not a man like we are, right? But He did take the day of rest for a reason, for a purpose, and it wasn't just to institute this in the Ten Commandments either. It was for a greater truth. The reason why this is in the Ten Commandments is because God took that rest, but the reason why God took that rest was to show us a greater truth. The real purpose for the Sabbath, the real purpose for God's rest is explained back in Hebrews, chapter number 4, where we were just reading there, where it brings up the seventh day, God did rest the seventh day from all His works, verse 5, and in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore remain it that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again he limiteth in a certain day, saying unto David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, for if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. So the way, again, the way to enter into that rest is you have to cease from your work. God stopped working on purpose to enter into a day of rest. He instituted that day of rest to get through to the people, hey, work, work, work, work, but you know what, on the day of rest you have no work. No work, and in fact it was so strict that if they found people doing work, they would be put to death. It was a very, very serious commandment that doesn't even make sense unless you understand the meaning behind it, because the meaning was so critical, the meaning has to do with our own very salvation. That salvation is not of works, and God is so serious about that, he says, even just in the observance of the Sabbath day, if anyone's doing work, die. Don't mess with God's plan. No works. Hebrews explains this, I think, perfectly. In order to enter into his rest, we have to stop from our works. Now, what that means is, and again, if you look at the next verse, it says, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. It doesn't mean you literally stop working, because we ought to be always working for the Lord, right? But we're not trusting in those works in order to achieve the rest. We're not trusting in what we do is going to get us to that rest, because we won't have that peace if we're trusting in how good we are in our works, in how well we can do things. We don't make it. We're going to fall short. We're going to enter into hell as we work and work and work and work and try to work away heaven. Nope, sorry. Cease from your work. In the sense of, you're not trusting it. Then you can enter into, and trust in God's work, you can enter into rest with Him. Which again, is what verse 11 says, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Of course, we're going to keep working. Not because we think that's going to save us, not because we think that will get us into the rest, but we're going to keep working to enter into that rest as any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Clearly, works and unbelief are two different things. That's not the same at all, they can't be mixed together, so we need to work because we don't want other people to not believe. Our work is to preach the gospel. Our work is to get people to believe on Christ. We don't want others to fall. So we're going to keep working, working, working. We are entering into that rest. And we're going to work until, hopefully until the day that we do finally enter into that rest. But it's not because of our works. Our works are going to help other people to put their faith in Christ. Final thoughts. Because of the purpose for the Sabbath day, the meaning, why it was instituted, the whole point of it, in addition to other scriptures that talk about why the law was changed, and I'm not going to get into that in a minute, but I'm going to get into that in a minute. Why the law was changed, and I'm not going to get into all of this right now, but in Hebrews 7, the Bible says in verse 11, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron? So this is, of course, after the context of hearing about Melchizedek and everything else in Hebrews 6 and going into Hebrews 7. It's even asking, well, why would we even need this? I mean, hey, if you could be saved by the law of, you know, the Levitical law, then great. But you couldn't be. It says, for the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So some things had to change. You say, well, why don't you observe the Sabbath today? Because some things did change in the law. Now, the law wasn't destroyed. As Jesus said, think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets, I came not to destroy, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He didn't come to destroy, he came to fulfill. And he did fulfill many aspects of the law, but not all of them, because he said, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jotter, one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. There still is more to be fulfilled. There still is a second coming of Christ. There still is more prophecy to be fulfilled. But, and that's why he said then, following that verse, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Right? So he's saying, don't go around now trying to teach people, oh yeah, these laws don't matter, these laws shouldn't, you know, you keep these laws. And if you start telling people they don't have to follow the law, and like it doesn't matter, well, hello Mr. Least in the kingdom of heaven. Right? Now notice it doesn't say anything about them not being saved, because saved people could be confused about this, and thinking, wow, well there is no, look, if there's no law, then there's no sin. If there's no sin, then you don't need a savior. I mean, that's pretty simple logic right there. Of course there's still law, but Jesus, you know, did away with it. No, he said himself he wasn't come to destroy the law. He took care of the consequences of the law, he took care of the curse of the law. And in a sense, when it's talking about the law being abolished, it's because once you're saved, all of your sins are paid for and remitted, so in that sense, well, the law doesn't have that same effect on you anymore, because you can never go to hell, because that payment's been made permanently, so even when we continue to sin, grace abounds. And amen to that. But then finally here, in Hebrews chapter 9, there's a little bit more explanation saying, you know, what were some of the changes made? Verse number 8, we'll start reading the Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as yet the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. These were the things that needed to be done under the Levitical priesthood until the reformation. The reformation comes with the new priest, the high priest Jesus Christ, under the order of Melchizedek, so the way that the meats and the drinks and divers washings and these other things were done needed to be changed. And I say that one of those changes is also the Sabbath, because Christ, when he made that final payment, is the rest that we enter into. It's the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, his death, burial, and resurrection is the final price, that's the work we're trusting in that hadn't come yet in the Old Testament where they're observing the Sabbath, but now is come. We don't need to continue to look for that rest by observing the Sabbath day because he's already here, he's already come. We already can enter into that rest. And we also, just as a side note, in Romans 14 it's not just a side note, this is another supporting argument for not observing the Sabbath day. Romans 14 verse 5, the Bible says, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. So there's two types of people. One is going to say, hey, this day is special over these other days. And another guy just says, they're all the same. Every day is alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord. If you want to take a day and make it special for God, amen. Have at it. I encourage it. I think that's a good thing. It's a great thing. Take a day, honor the Lord with it, dedicate it unto the Lord, great. But if someone else doesn't do what you do, the Bible says, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it. Saying, hey, he's regarding every day alike. You can still serve God every day. And there's nothing wrong with doing that. And when you understand, hey, we already know the rest. Jesus is that rest. He's fulfilled that aspect of the law. We don't need to observe that. It's done. And then he brings up he that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. That's another aspect of the law of the dietary restrictions that the Jews had under the law of Moses. We're not allowed to eat all the unclean animals and beasts, things like that, and which also was lifted. Again, another sermon for another day, but those are various aspects of the law that were changed because they fall under the aspect of the things that were fulfilled in Christ. And thank God, hey, we've got peace through Christ. We could see the purpose for it all and the understanding that when Christ came, did all the work, there's no more work for us to do. I mean, there never was work for us to do to be saved, but he has now completed that. So all the foreshadowing of the events he had to do, it's all been fulfilled. That's why we don't observe all the various feasts, all the sacrifices, or the Sabbath day. Because they all symbolized that death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we don't need those anymore since he's already accomplished it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this great truth that we have in your word. I pray that you would please just help us to continue to learn and grow. And Lord, we love you, we want to honor you. We thank you for providing rest for us. Lord, what a great weight that's lifted off of our shoulders when we come to the realization and understanding that there is forgiveness for our sins and that you separate us as far as the east is from the west from our sins, dear Lord, and that we don't have to worry about carrying that burden and trying to have to pay for it ourselves because you've already paid the price. Thank you for that, Lord. What a great accomplishment. What a great rest. What a great gift. God, please help us to work as we enter into that rest one day. Lord, help us to work so that other people can also enter into your rest. Lord, help us to reach people this day, this week, this month, this year, our whole lives to persuade them to put their trust in Christ. And Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for all that you've done. I pray that you'll please keep everybody safe as we leave and depart this afternoon and go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, brother Peter, please lead us in our last song. All right, church, if you could open up your hymnals to song number 461. Song 461, resting in His promise. On the first all my sins were laid on Jesus on the cross-lined dead He prayed and He cried out, it is finished and He with the tomb was laid resting, sleeping in His resting, sleeping in His promise rest my soul on what He said trusting fully, wholly trusting in the price my Savior paid now there is no condemnation not of blood my record bears for my sins the blood all covers Jesus Christ His robe I wear resting, sleeping in His promise rest my soul on what He said trusting fully, wholly trusting in the price my Savior paid I have taken my eternal I am now a son of God of God nature's now partaker, now no fear of judgment's prime resting, sleeping in His promise rest my soul on what He said trusting fully, wholly trusting in the price my Savior paid on the last I will never leave for safety none can take me from His hand so the Savior promised claiming now I live in new love land resting, sleeping in His promise rest my soul on what He said trusting fully, wholly trusting in the price my Savior paid Amen church, great singing, thank you so much for coming you guys God bless you.