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[0:00] Well, hello everybody and welcome to this pre-recorded meeting for Calvary Church here in Brighton, for the 23rd of August 2020. We're still meeting in this way, as you can see, and we pray that soon, in a safe and responsible way, we'll be able to do more to meet together. For those of you who are just dropping in, let me say that we are a church of people who live in the area of Brighton, Sussex, south of England. We are believers in Jesus Christ, and there are usually about 70 or 80 of us meeting together on a Sunday morning in what we dimly remember now as normal times. We are just ordinary people from different nations and different backgrounds, and we have come together because Jesus Christ has loved us, died for us, and brought us to himself so that we may serve him and live for him in this world. We're going to try and do our best to express our relationship with Jesus Christ and our gratitude to him and his grandeur and glory in our time together, including our music and our singing. And incidentally, just a reminder that a number of these songs that we've sung have been put up on YouTube so that you can listen to them while you're doing the ironing or washing the car or whatever. My name's Philip Wells. I'm one of a team of elders here at Calvary. I'm leading this morning, and other notices will be as intimated in email or whatever. So let me click to what's happening today. And that's the plan. We're going to do the things that Christians usually do. We're going to read the Bible and sing songs and pray prayers and hear God's Word opened up to us in the usual way.

[2:08] Our series this morning is continuing, looking at what we call the Letter to the Hebrews, or just Hebrews for short, one of the most important books in the New Testament of the Bible.

[2:20] And I hope that it will be helpful to everybody. I'll try and make it as accessible as I possibly can. Let's begin with a prayer. Lord, again we ask that whoever we are and wherever we are, at this time we may draw near to you and that you would draw near to us. We pray for genuine, true spiritual relationship with you, the living God, that we may be in contact with you by your word and spirit and through our Saviour Jesus Christ. May we genuinely hear your voice and truly respond in our hearts. Amen.

[3:03] We're going to sing Psalm 95. Let me read it to you, or some of it.

[3:14] Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

[3:54] Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. As you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, there are people whose hearts go astray, for they have not known my ways. So I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest. A psalm of praise with a sobering warning at the end.

[4:31] Do not harden our hearts. So let's sing Psalm 95. Come with all joy to sing to God, a saving rock, the living Lord. In glad thanksgiving, God bless you.

[5:35] Almighty King, Almighty King, and is the glory that we sing.

[5:46] The earth is his from east to west, from ocean floor to mountain crest.

[6:02] He made the sea and formed the lands. He shaped the islands by his hands.

[6:18] Come near to worship, come with faith. Bow down to God, who gives us breath. God is our shepherd. God alone. We are his people, all his own.

[6:47] But if you hear his voice today, do not reject what he will say.

[7:02] When Israel wandered from God's path, they suffered forty years of wrath.

[7:18] That generation went astray. They did not want to know his way.

[7:33] They put their Saviour to the test. They put their Saviour to the test. And saw his power, but lost their rest.

[7:49] Having sung about our great God, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.

[8:00] Let's turn that adoration into words of prayer. Let us pray. Lord our God, this morning we bow before you in your greatness and lift our hearts to ascribe to you glory and grandeur and majesty and holiness and wisdom and power.

[8:22] Truly you are the great God, the great King above all gods. Truly the whole cosmos belongs to you and you are greater than this huge cosmos that you have made.

[8:36] You are even bigger and greater and grander. And we thank you that you have come towards us in grace. That you have decided to reveal yourself to us as creatures amazingly made in your image.

[8:53] Made for fellowship with you. So we come to thank you, to praise you, to lift your name on high. We come also to acknowledge before you our own sin in thought, word and deed, by commission and omission.

[9:12] We acknowledge that sin that dwells within us, by which we rebel and neglect and go wrong, even deep in our secret thoughts and inner motivations. Hear our confession.

[9:23] Look upon us with mercy and grant us forgiveness and repentance through Jesus Christ by the power of his cross and the power of his risen life.

[9:36] We thank you for your care of us each day. Your patience and mercy over these last seven days. And we commit our lives to you.

[9:48] We commit our lives to you afresh, that every part of us might be pleasing to you. We pray that you would root out sin and take it away from us and enable us to live for you in a holy way.

[10:03] Let no part of us be unresponsive to your spirit and your ways. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're going to sing another song now about Jesus, our great high priest.

[10:19] Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man.

[10:31] Obediently the path he trod, his Father's perfect plan. He came to make God known. He died to draw death's sting. He lives, the Lamb upon the throne, our prophet, priest and king.

[10:45] In Colossians, we're told by Paul to let the word of Christ dwell within us richly as we teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.

[10:58] And as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with grace in our hearts to the Lord. So this is a grand song to be able to teach and admonish one another because it has a very, very full description of the true glory, benefit, roles of Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

[11:16] So let's sing 306. Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man. Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man.

[11:41] Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man.

[12:11] Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man.

[12:41] Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man.

[13:11] Jesus, eternal God, became the Son of Man. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin.

[13:21] He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. He died to종 of sin. No more He lives appointed Now to be God's son In risen power His kingdom Has no end To come Yet present now And all As rebel Or as threat One day to him We'll bow A prophet, priest And king He meets our Every need To him your Lives and praises Bring this man His God indeed To speak To save, to reign He came To us in grace And When at last He comes Again

[14:21] We'll see Him Face to face We're now going to Have a prayer of intercession And I'm going to Click us through To having The Lord's Prayer On the screen So that As we come to the end Of this prayer of intercession Which I'll lead We can all say together The Lord's Prayer Which is up on the screen Just by my head Let us pray Lord, you are the God Who hears prayer And it's not an empty Or pointless thing To pray But you Are Powerful To hear Prayer And to act In this world It pleases you To do so Through the prayer Of your dear people So it is We who pray For our world That you will show mercy And bring many people

[15:22] To know that you are God And to turn in repentance Towards you And we pray this With particular Meaningfulness In this time Of the coronavirus May we Hear the The Warning And the wake up call Of that coronavirus And at the same time Lord Equip and send Your church Your people All across the world To be witnesses To you And use that witness We pray We pray for our government And we pray for governments Across the world And as we have been praying For Some time We pray that our government Might be given wisdom And that all governments Would be given wisdom And humility To acknowledge That there's something here That is greater than Human power And by which We need the help of God In heaven Please Help The scientists

[16:22] The politicians The healthcare professionals All across this world Who Are Doing their best To Save life And to alleviate suffering And to do good And we particularly Remember Medical professionals In our own congregation Those working In Childbirth Those working In radiography And And all those Who are Helping In that way We pray for those Who are in particular Need At this time We pray for those Who struggle With the past And the hurts And wounds Of the past And we pray That they would be Helped Moment by moment And day by day We thank you That in Christ We are rescued From the chains Of perpetual sin And rescued From the inevitability Of failure But we know

[17:23] That there's a fight To be fought And we join in That fight In prayer We pray for those Who are vulnerable By age Underlying medical condition Reduced immune system Keep them safe Keep them looking to you And give each and every one The mental ability To cope With To cope And to have peace In their hearts We pray for those Struggling with sin And temptation In all its forms Reach down from heaven Great high priest And send help So that your church Is not defeated By the world The flesh The devil You've defeated Each of those May we not be defeated By them We pray for the power Of the gospel To be made known In our city Particularly the east part That we are Where our church building Is situated We pray for you To be sending Fresh gospel workers And fresh leaders For the next generation And we name before you

[18:25] Our friends At New Life Moolescombe Ebenezer Reformed Baptist Church Archil Evangelical Church Ourselves at Calvary And David Scull And the Grace Baptist Initiative We pray for those Who have taken Or are taking A break over the summer We pray For refreshment But we also pray For the ability To get back Back down to the routine We pray that People would Be able to do good And not faint But be refreshed And we pray For the health And safety Of all those Moving within Our country And internationally At this time Where quarantines Get imposed And people can be Very frustrated We pray that Your purposes Would not be Frustrated Hear our prayers For these Various people And various matters In the name of Jesus We pray Amen

[19:26] And let's say together The Lord's Prayer Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth as it is in Heaven Give us today Our daily bread And forgive us Our sins As we forgive Those who sin Against us And lead us Not into temptation But deliver us From evil For yours Is the kingdom The power And the glory Forever And ever Amen Amen We're going to have Two readings From Hebrews Chapter 3 And Hebrews Chapter 4 There might be A little bit Of an overlap So Christopher Is going to read And then Julia Will follow on So thank you Christopher and Julia For these readings Hebrews chapter 3 Therefore holy brothers

[20:28] Who share in the heavenly calling Fix your thoughts on Jesus The apostle And high priest Whom we confess He was faithful To the one Who appointed him Just as Moses Was faithful In all God's house Jesus has been found Worthy of greater honour Than Moses Just as the builder Of a house Has greater honour Than the house itself For every house Is built by someone But God is the builder Of everything Moses was faithful As a servant In all God's house Testifying to what Would be said In the future But Christ is faithful As a son Over God's house And we are his house If we hold on to Our courage And the hope Of which we boast So as the Holy Spirit Says Today if you hear His voice Do not harden Your hearts As you did In the rebellion During the time Of testing In the desert Where your fathers Tested and tried me And for 40 years

[21:29] Saw what I did That is why I was angry With that generation And I said The hearts Are always going astray And they have not Known my ways So I declared On oath In my anger They shall never Enter my rest See to it brothers That none of you Has a sinful Unbelieving heart That turns away From the living God But encourage one another Daily as long as It's called today So that none of you May be hardened By sin's deceitfulness We have come to share In Christ If we hold firmly To the end The confidence We had at first As has just been said Today If you hear his voice Do not harden your hearts As you did in the rebellion Who were they Who heard and rebelled Were not Were they not All those Moses led out of Egypt And with whom He was angry For 40 years Was it not those Who sinned

[22:29] Whose bodies Fell in the desert And to whom Did God swear That they would Never enter his rest If not To those Who disobeyed So we see that They were not able To enter Because of their unbelief Therefore Since the promise Of entering his rest Still stands Let us be careful That none of you Be found to have Fallen short of it For we also Have had the good news Proclaimed to us Just as they did But the message They heard Was of no value To them Because they did not Share the faith Of those who Obeyed Now we who have Believed Enter that rest Just as God Has said So I declared On oath In my anger They shall never Enter my rest And yet His works Have been finished Since the creation Of the world For somewhere He has spoken About the seventh day In these words On the seventh day God rested From all his works

[23:30] And again In the passage above He says They shall never Enter my rest Therefore Since it still Remains for some To enter that rest And since those Who formerly Had the good news Proclaimed to them Did not go in Because of their Disobedience God again Set a certain day Calling it Today This he did When a long time Later He spoke through David As in the passage Already quoted Today If you hear His voice Do not Harden your hearts For if Joshua Had given them rest God would not Have spoken later About another day There remains Then a Sabbath rest For the people Of God For anyone Who enters God's rest Also rests From their works Just as God Did from his Let us therefore Make every effort To enter that rest So that no one Will perish By following Their example Of disobedience

[24:31] For the word Of God Is alive And active Sharper than Any double edged Sword It penetrates Even to dividing Soul and spirit Joints and marrow It judges The thoughts And attitudes Of the heart Nothing in all Creation Is hidden From God's sight Everything Is uncovered And laid bare Before the eyes Of him To whom We must Give account Therefore Since we have A great high priest Who has ascended Into heaven Jesus The son of God Let us hold Firmly to the faith We profess For we do not Have a high priest Who is unable To empathise With our weaknesses But we have one Who has been tempted In every way Just as we are Yet he did not sin Let us then Approach God's throne Of grace With confidence So that we may Receive mercy And find grace To help us In our time Of need

[25:31] Readings tell us About the power Of God's word To discern Deep into our lives And the Reliability of God's word And we're going to sing Christopher Idle's song Another living Hymn writer How sure the scriptures are God's vital Urgent word As true as steel And far more sharp Than any sword So deep and fine At his control They pierce Where soul And spirit join So we're going to sing 548 How sure the scriptures are God's vital Urgent word As true as steel

[26:33] And far more sharp Than any sword So deep and fine At his control They pierce Where soul And spirit Join They test Each human thought Refining Like a fire They measure What we ought To do And to desire For God knows all Exposed It lies Before his eyes To whom

[27:35] We call We call Let those who hear His voice Confronting them Today Reject the tempting choice Of doubting Or delay For God Speak still His word is clear So let us hear And do His will Well having sung About the scriptures We're now going to Think together About the scriptures And let's pray For our hearing Of God's word O Lord

[28:37] We thank you For this letter To the Hebrews In its richness And depth We thank you For the one Of whom it speaks And to whom it points Jesus our saviour And we ask That we might Consider him And that we might Live for him We pray That as we hear Your word We will not be Hardened by sin In its deceitfulness But rather Be changed Inwardly And outwardly To be better servants To be more thankful To long for The things of God More intensely To be more devoted To your service And more heartfelt In our love for you And to put that Into practice Day by day So bless us Bless speaker And hearer alike As we come To your word In the name Of Jesus Christ

[29:37] Our saviour Amen Well we've prayed And now we're going To think about This letter To the Hebrews Today If you hear His voice Do not harden Your hearts As you did In the rebellion In the time Of testing In the desert Today If you hear His voice Here's the introduction There's one of the Christians To whom The writer Is writing Under pressure But being encouraged To hold on And keep on And to run the race And that's the Sort of constant Theme of this letter As we shall see As we go through There is a path To heaven There is a way To follow But at every point There is an alternative Beckoning A sinister alternative Just like In the Hobbit The fictional book By Tolkien The hobbits

[30:38] Were on their way Through The dangerous Mirkwood But Gandalf The wizard Said to them You'll be safe If you stick To the path You'll be safe If you stick To the path Don't leave The path Bilbo Of course The book Is all about The dangers That they ran into When they left The path We're looking At the letter To the Hebrews And I'll just Run through Some background Information Some of you Will remember All this But I'll just Try and do it Quickly So that we Know where we Are It was written To professing Christians From a Jewish Background They had believed In Jesus Back in the Early days 1032 And had suffered For their faith 1033 But now They are somehow Losing their way So you get Vocabulary like Drift Do not drift And becoming Lazy and sluggish Don't become Lazy and sluggish

[31:39] So the letter Is notable For its promises And its warnings We find it a little Bit difficult To get our head Around the warnings Here's a comment From Professor Presumably Richard Gaffin Of Wisman's Theological Seminary The certainty Of the outcome Does not Invalidate The means In other words The fact that All God's people Will get to heaven Doesn't mean That they shouldn't Be warned Of the alternative If they stray The certainty Of outcome Does not invalidate The means A little bit like As he points out The certainty Of the salvation Of the elect Does not remove The need to preach The gospel To everybody The certainty Of the outcome Does not invalidate The means So the letter Contains exhortations In fact at the end He says It's a brief Message of exhortation Now exhortation Can have a positive And a negative So positively

[32:41] Encouragements Come on It's good To draw near To the Lord It's good To consider Jesus Christ There's negatives To Negative exhortations Look what will happen If you don't It's a really Bad alternative And Frightening Exhortations Let us fear He says And Well Let's fear If we don't know How to fear If we don't know How to tremble At the awfulness Of the possibility Then we really Have got hard So chapter 2 Verse 1 Says We must pay More careful Attention To what we have Heard So that we do Not drift away Fix your thoughts On Jesus The apostle And high priest To whom you confess So you get these Positives And negatives So just a brief Reminder of what We've seen so far In these last days In these last days We'll come back to that At a future point But we'll just say it

[33:41] Quickly at this point In these last days God has spoken to us In his son So we thought then About the divine son In creation and providence And the redemption Accomplished And the future Of the world In redemption To come And that's a little picture Of Psalm 8 Which we'll come to In a moment The angels Through whom the law Of Moses came Are very different From the son And he spends time Saying about that And then in Psalm 8 Jesus was made For a little while Lower than the angels He's now crowned With glory and honour But we don't yet See all things Under his feet Sit at my right hand Until I put all your enemies Under your feet And we thought about His true humanity We had a wonderful Breathtaking view Of his divinity And we had a moving account Of his humanity Human enough to suffer death

[34:42] Human enough to understand The temptations That we go through And therefore able To be a faithful High priest We thought about These verses At the beginning Of chapter 3 About this one house The one house Being the saved people Of the Old Testament And the saved people Of the New Testament They gave you the example Of Downton Abbey There's a high clear house A house could mean The building And it can mean The people So they've got The fictional people Servants and nobility In Downton Abbey And the writer says That Moses was in that house As a servant Like Carson And Jesus is over the house As a son Like Lord Grantham The inheritor And possessor of the house And it also says The builder of the house The builder of all things Is God Jesus has more honour Than the house

[35:43] With a very strong hint Of the divinity Of the saviour As the builder And we saw Last time Two or three weeks ago This letter This word If We are his house If We hold On to our courage And the hope Of which we boast And the whole of that letter You could almost say Is poured Through The word If If We hold on That word If And we've got an if Here haven't we We are his house If The stick to the path And in this study Today If You hear his voice There's an if And it's Based on This part of The letter Is based on Psalm 95 It's verse 7 That a part of it If you hear his voice Do not harden your hearts And it puts that huge weight

[36:44] On Today If You hear his voice So I've Timetabled Two Sunday Sessions To look at This So We'll look at it In this study And the next study And This time This This morning We'll look at Seven days Ha ha But Actually there's only Six of them So See if you can find out Why it's seven days But there's actually Six of them So let's look at Day one Today If you hear his voice And this day Is the day Of Moses So we're going back To The entry Into the promised land I've done a little picture Of the promised land Of course it didn't have a city And it didn't have a temple Though it would have And Deuteronomy Chapter 1 Verses 23 to 29 Describes That Today Back then

[37:45] Deuteronomy 1 23 to 29 When They were at the border Of the promised land And They Agreed to send in Spies To take a look At the promised land The spies Came back I selected Twelve of you One man from each tribe They left And went up Into the hill country And came to the valley Of Eshcol And explored it Taking with them Some of the fruit Of the land They brought it down To us And reported It is a good Land That the Lord Our God Is giving us So they brought back That report They came to the border And they were That's what they wanted To do To go in But there was A mixture of this That the spies Reported some of the Negatives And perhaps Exaggerating them In fact But you were unwilling To go up You rebelled Against the command Of the Lord Your God You grumbled

[38:46] In your tents And you said The Lord Hates us So he has brought us Out of Egypt To deliver us Into the hands Of the Amorites To destroy us Where can we go Our brothers Have made us Lose heart They say The people are Stronger and taller Than we are The cities are large With walls Up to the sky Slight exaggeration We even saw The Anarchites there Well did you really Are you letting Your fears Get the better of you And I said to them Do not be terrified Do not be afraid Of them The Lord your God Who is going before you Will fight for you As he did for you In Egypt Before your very eyes And in the desert There you saw How the Lord your God Carried you As a father Carries his son All the way You went Until you reach This place In spite of this You did not Trust In spite of this You did not trust In the Lord your God

[39:46] Who went ahead of you On your journey In fire by night And in cloud by day To search out places For you to camp And to show you The way you should go You didn't trust him So they didn't go in The people It says were unwilling It says they were grumbling It says they were fearful And it says they didn't Trust the Lord In other words They underestimated God That seems to be The root of it They didn't think God was as generous As he really is They didn't think He was as good As he really is They didn't think He was as capable As he really is And because of that Unbelief That small view Of the goodness Of God They weren't prepared To venture out In faith There they are They went To venture out In faith And they didn't do it So they were Condemned as it were To 70 years Wandering in the desert That's in chapter 2

[40:47] Verse 7 And here As they come In Deuteronomy After having Had those 40 years of wandering They come A second time To the borders Of the promised land And are reminded That in those 40 years God Although one generation Died off It was also A time to Demonstrate Conclusively God's Patience His care His dependability The way he looked After them The Lord your God Has been with you You have not Lacked anything So they had A promise They had As it were An invitation An offer They had all The assurances Of God And yet They didn't Enter And Hebrews Chapter 4 Verse 2 Speaks about them It says They had the gospel Preached to them They had a good News promise

[41:47] Made to them But they weren't Prepared to combine It with faith And they didn't Enter Well That's Day 1 The day of Moses And that day According to Hebrews They hardened Their hearts And we're to learn That lesson The lesson We'll just see it Again and again Today If you hear His voice Don't harden Your heart Don't underestimate God Don't make the Same mistake That they did Don't be like Them Let's look Then at day 2 A second Today Referred to So this day Is in The desert In numbers 20 So another Fluttering of Pages While I Find numbers 20 This is This is The place Meribah Which we learn Means quarrelling So here They are In the desert And they're

[42:49] Going round and Round in the Desert They're not Entering the Promised land At this point We're looking Back over those Years The distant The promised land Is a distant Feature at the Moment And in this Part of their Wandering They are There is no Water Chapter 20 Verse 2 There was no Water for the Community And the people Gathered in Opposition to Moses and Aaron They quarrelled With Moses And said If only we Had died When our Brothers fell Dead before The Lord Why did you Bring the Lord's Community Into this Desert That we And our Livestock Should die Here Why did you Bring us Up out of Egypt To this Terrible Place It has No grain Or figs Grapebines Or pomegranates And there Is no Water To drink Well Pointing out The obvious If I had Been in the Desert Without water I'm sure I'd be Feeling it But the Thing is It's not Um

[43:50] It's an Obvious Thing You need Water To survive It's a Necessity They're Pointing this Out to Moses As if he Didn't Know And in The sense They're Pointing out To God As if he Didn't Know Well The Lord Knows What we Need And if It isn't There at The moment It isn't Because the Lord doesn't Know we Need it There must Be some Other reason And if We need It The Lord Will provide It And in This Interim While God Hasn't yet Provided What they Need We find Them Grumbling They grumble About Moses And Aaron They're human Leaders In the days Of Jesus People Grumbled About him And I Suppose Grumbling Is something That we Will have A Capacity For If we're Not Carefully Trusting The Lord In the Heat Of the Situation Moses

[44:52] And Aaron Go And ask The Lord Verses 6 7 8 And the Lord Says Take Your Staff Gather The Assembly Speak To that Rock Before Their Eyes And it Will Pour Out Its Water You Will Bring Water Out Of The Rock For The Community So That They And their Livestock Can drink And the Lord Will Provide And here's The way That he Provides It They're Said To Speak Sorry They're Told To speak To the Rock Now Such Now Such Now Such Is The Pressure!

[45:23] And the! Sort of Combined Influence Of The Sin Of The People That Moses Is Off Balance With This And Says In Frustration Verse 10 He And Aaron Gathered The Assembly Together In Front Of The Rock And Moses Said To Them Listen You Rebels Must We Bring Water Out Of This Rock Then Moses Raised His Arm And Struck The Rock Twice With His Staff Water Gushed Out And The Community And Their Livestock Drank Well He Was Told To Speak The Lord Was Faithful But Sadly Moses Has Not Done What He Was Told To Do Even Moses Has His Limits The Best Of Men Are Men At Best Somebody Said And The Lord Rebukes Him Because You Did Not Trust

[46:24] In Me Enough To Honor Me As Holy In The Sight Of The Israelites You Will Not Bring This Community Into The Land I Give Them So That's Meribah The Day When They Didn't Trust The Lord Even Moses Got Caught Up In It They Didn't Honor Him As Holy And It Was A Trying Testing They Put The Lord To The Test They Provoked Him To Anger They Provoked Moses To Anger But The Lord Had Been Faithful All The Time So Here Is A Hardness And A Perversity And We're Told Today Do Not Harden Your Heart It Seems To Me That The Year If Think Of Academic Years The Year That We're Heading Into As Church We're Going To Find Many Pressures On Us And What With Covid Continuing What With Uncertainties About Various People's

[47:24] Health Including My Dear Fellow Elder Chris And The Pressing Need For Future Leadership Not Only In Our Church But Other Churches In The City It's Going To Be A Year Of Test And Let's Be Sure That We Don't Dishonor The Lord By Underestimating His Goodness By Biting And devouring Each Other But Today If you Hear His Voice Do Not Harden Your Hearts Like They Did In Meribah Let's Not Underestimate The Goodness Of God So Here's Now A Third Day Today The Day That Joshua Brought Them Into The Land So I'm Turning Up Joshua Verses 13

[48:25] To 15 Where Now Under The Leadership Of Joshua Rather Than Moses They Again Stand On The Borders Of The Promised Land And It Says Joshua Said Remember The Command That Moses The Servant Of The Lord Gave You The Lord Your God Is Giving You Rest And Has Granted You This Land And One Segment Of The People Is Going To Cross Over The Land They Had Their Bit Is Going To Cross Over The River To Help Their Brothers Fight For The Rest!

[48:59] It And You Are To Help Your Brothers Verse 14 Until The Lord Gives Them Rest As He Has Done For You And They Too Have Taken Possession Of The Land That The Lord Your God Is Giving Them After That You May Go Back And Occupy Your Own Land Which Moses The Servant Of The Lord Gave You East Of The Jordan Towards!

[49:29] Temple Which Wasn't There Yet But It Would Be And Here This Rest Is Being Described The Lord Has Given You Rest And Has Granted You This Land And Possession Of It And Here This Rest Is A Place It's A Place Of Security It's A Place Of Being Settled It's A Place They Can Call Home Today If You Hear His Voice Do Not Harden Your Hearts Forty Years I Was Angry With That Generation I Said There Are People Whose Hearts Go Astray Do Not Harden Your Hearts As You Did At Meribah When Your Fathers Tested And Tried Me Although They'd Seen What I Did I Said There Are People Whose Hearts Go Astray They Have Not Known My Ways So I Declared On Oath In My Anger They Shall Never Enter My Rest Well It Seems Like Joshua's Crew Did Enter The Rest And

[50:29] Found A Place Of Security And Settledness And Home But In Fact As We Shall See Although They Entered The Land That Promise Of Rest Was Not Fully Fulfilled And We Too Need To Retain This Long View Of Hope I Would Like To Say More About This Perhaps Next Time But Faith The Essence Of Faith For Them And For Us Does Not Root Itself In This World And What God Has For Us In This World It Is Dissatisfied With That And It Roots Itself In The World To Come In God In Christ In The Future And That's What Our Faith Must Do We Mustn't Get Tied Into This World We Must Have That Sense That We Are Not At Home In This World We Don't Get Our Final Fulfillment And Satisfaction In This World And

[51:30] We Must Defer That Until The Day He Calls Us To Himself Or The Day Christ Returns That Is Of The Essence Of Faith If It Were Not So Then The Book Of Joshua Would Be The Last Book In The Bible Wouldn't It Because They Would Have Found Their Rest End Of Story But No The End Is Not Yet The Best Is Yet To Come Let's Go Forward Now To The Day Of David Day Four In My List In And I'm Thinking Of The Writing Of Psalm 95 Which Is Located In The Day Of David Come Let Us Sing For Joy To The Lord Let Us Shout Loud To The Rock Of Our Salvation!

[52:14] Today If You Hear His Voice Do Not Harden Your Hearts As You Did At Meribah So There In The Time Of David Well There Is A City There Might Not Be A Temple Yet But There Will Be But The Psalm Addresses Those Those People In That Day Under The Leadership Of David There Were Times Even When There Was Rest!

[52:40] From Enemies But They Did Not Possess The Promises That Had Been Given To Abraham Those Promises That Were There In The Old Testament The Promises Made To The To Israel And To Those Old Testament People Has More In It Than Just Land And Just Security From Enemies!

[53:32] God Would Not Have Spoken Later Of Another Day There Remains A Rest There Is Still A Rest Which Brings Us On In A Moment When You Hear Do Not Harden Your Heart Today Because There Is A Rest!

[53:51] To Obtain So Let's Go To The Fifth! Day And This Is Our Day This Is Today Today As I Speak This Very Moment Today And We're Looking Beyond The Land We're Looking Not Backwards To The Land We're Looking Further Forwards To A City Which Is Yet To Come In A Sense We're There But Also In A Sense It Is Still To Come Abraham Looked Forward To A City Whose Builder And Maker Was God And We're Still Looking The Land Was A Genuine Rest But It Was Not The Full Rest And As He Says In Hebrews 4 Verse 9 There Remains Then A Rest For The People Of God Let Us Make Every Effort To Enter

[54:51] That Rest So That No One Will Fall By Following Their Example Of Disobedience There Remains A Rest There Is Still A Day For Us As The People Of God There Is Faith To Be Exercised Today There Is A View Of God's Generosity To Be Exercised Today There Are Things To Do Things To Think Things To Desire Things Not To Think Things Not To Desire Things Not To Rest In Things To Aim For Because There Is A Rest That Remains For The People Of God And We And It Is Still Today So A Call For Us Not To Mistrust As They Did And Therefore Not To Rebel As They Did And Not To Fear As They Did A Very Strong Call To Us Let Hear That Call And Let's Be Fearful Of Not Doing So Let's Be Very Very

[55:51] Diligent To Go Forward In Faith Unlike Those People So What Is The Amazing Identity Of This Promised Rest Well The Writer Introduces In Verse Chapter 4 Verse 4 God's Rest Somewhere He Has Spoken About The Seventh Day In These Words And On The Seventh Day God Rested From All His Work So I Put Up There The Six Days Of Creation God's Six Days And The Seventh Day The Unending Sabbath The Seventh Day Of Rest On Which God Rested And In As The Writers Of The Hebrews Is Seeing It God Worked For Those Six Days With A View Of The Blessedness The Purpose The Fulfillment

[56:52] Of The Unending Seventh Day That's The Whole Of History In A Nutshell If You Like Those Six Days Six Days And The Unending Seventh Shabbat It Was The Final Goal Of Creation And Here Is The Wonder Of It That As The Writers Of The Hebrews Makes This Really Astonishing Link Between The Shabbat The Seventh Day Of Creation And The Rest That Is Still Available Still Available For The People Of God Still Available To Sinners And He Says That The Goal Of Creation Is There For Us To Enter As The Fulfillment Of Redemption And He Goes So Far As To Imply That The Words In Genesis And Exodus About God's Rest Actually Function As

[57:52] An Invitation There Is A Rest So Let Us Enter It A Rest A Promise Of Rest Still Stands So Let's Be Careful That None Of Us Fall Short Of It God's Rest Is A Summons To Us To Be Part Of It So There We Are The Promised Rest!

[58:14] We've Looked At Five Days And Then I Jumped To The Seventh Day The Shabbat The Final Rest Of God Because That's The Rest To Which We Are Summoned To Which We Are Called Which We Must Not Lose The Path To So We Have These Exhortations In In Verse Six No Let It's Actually Yeah Three Verse Six Let's Hold On To Our Courage And The Hope Of Which We Boast We Must Do That Hold On To Our Courage And The Hope Of Which We Boast And It Says In Verse Twelve See To It Brothers That None Of You Has A Sinful Unbelieving Heart That Turns Away From The Living God But Encourage One Another Daily As Long As It Is It Is Called Today So That None Of You May Be Hard By Sin's Deceitfulness Let's Encourage!

[59:10] One Another Daily You See The Value Of Christian Fellowship Christian Encouragement Whether It Be As We All Gather Together As We Do It One To One Which Is Perhaps More Available To Us In These Days But It's A One Another Thing Let Us Encourage One Another Without Giving Encouragement In Some Shape Or Form Or Indeed Receiving Encouragement Because That We Jolly Well Need It And To Look Out As It Says For The Corroding Effect Of Sin It Needs Constant Attention Doesn't It Look Out For Hardness Caused By The Deceitfulness Of Sin Chapter 4 Verse 1 Therefore Be Careful That None Of You Fool Short 4 Verse 11 Let Us Make Every Effort To Enter That Rest

[60:11] That None Of Us Fall By The Same Example Of Disobedience So There We Are Gandalf Gave Good Advice To Bilbo Don't Leave The Path And We Encourage One Another Every Day As This Scripture Encourages Us Don't Leave The Path Don't Leave His Ways Today If You Hear His Voice Do Not Harden Your Hearts And We'll Continue That Next Time So We've Heard God's Word And We Are Urged To Keep On To Press On To Fight On And In A Sense To Do So A Day At A Time So In A Moment We'll Play Out With This Song Fight The Good Fight It Says Fight The Good Fight Run The Straight Race Keep On Trusting And We need To Encourage

[61:11] One Another Every Day To Be Doing Exactly That So I Want to Encourage You To Fight On To run The race To Keep On And I Hope You Will Encourage Me Also To Fight On And Keep On And Run The Race Because We Need To Encourage One Another To Do Exactly That So In A Moment That Will Be The Song 8 8 3 Fight The Good Fight But Now Let Me Close With This Benediction From Hebrews May The God Of Peace Who Through The Blood Back From The Dead Our Lord Jesus That Great Shepherd Of The Sheep Equip You With Everything Good For Doing His Will And May He Work In Us What Is Pleasing To Him Through Jesus Christ To Whom Be Glory Forever And Ever Amen Amen

[62:14] And God Bless Each And Every One Of Us And Until We Meet Again Face To Face It's Goodbye From Me Just Now Bye Bye Family!

[62:26] Family The End The End

[63:27] The End The End The End The End Ain't not no fear His arms are near He does not change And you are dear Only believe And Christ shall be You're all in all

[64:29]  Eternally You're all in all