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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hi, and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, and along with Andrey and Mark. We are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in.
Speaker 2 00:00:23 Hello and welcome to the unveiling with our hosts, me and Andjay today. Andjay, did you give, did you get rid of Mark
Speaker 3 00:00:32 <laugh>? Yeah, I know he is arguing too much nowadays, so we thought it's a good idea. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:00:38 Now, no, our market is taking care of some things that needed to be taken care of. It couldn't be avoided. So we are of course, uh, wishing him the best on all of that. But Andjay, the last time we got together was episode 35, seems like a long time ago, and we started to address the book of Hebrews, and I think that when Mark let us know that he wasn't gonna be able to make it again, you, you and I kind of both jumped on the idea. Well, let's jump back into Hebrews. I don't know if we're trying to, uh, exclude him or just that we don't think he gets it. I don't know. It's gotta be
Speaker 3 00:01:12 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:01:13 It's for us, a little background. Just, I'm not even to go over. If you want to hear episode 35, intro to Hebrews, I think we called it, um, hear what we said the first time. But just a little information before we jump wholeheartedly in here. This book is addressed to Jewish Christians, and quite frankly, we aren't a hundred percent sure who to attribute the authorship of this book too. But its central message is that Jesus Christ is the true and final high priest who has fulfilled the Old Testament law and made a perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, can really be divided into two main thoughts. The first, which focuses on Christ superiority over angels, Moses, the priesthood of Aaron, and the second section emphasizes the need for faith and perseverance. So, aj, I think that when we talked about it this week, we kind said we were gonna be mostly in chapter three for anybody who wants to follow along. We are not gonna read this verse by verse tonight, but, uh, I'm sure that some of the verses will come up in it and as, as you follow along. So, aj, where do we wanna go from here?
Speaker 3 00:02:27 Yeah, thank you, Tim. It's, uh, always nice to see you and we really miss Mark today. We were just joking enough when we, when we commented about him, so we always wish he's also here. Uh, with that, you know, I would like to start with the preface. Uh, I am actually, you know, I went back and listened to the, uh, episode that if I, again, just to for continue his sake. And, uh, in that episode, we concluded this, right. Hebrews is, uh, like you said, you know, it's talking about the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, and, and specifically the superiority of our lodges Christ as a high priest. And we talked about he's a perfect priest and he's also a perfect sacrifice. So in the Old Testament, they needed both the priest and the sacrifice. If one of them is missing, atonement cannot be done.
Speaker 3 00:03:17 So our Christ became both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice, and he removed our sins perfectly, and he removed the old covenant, and he introduced a new covenant, or he inaugurated the new covenant with the blood of our Lord Christed. So that's what happened, right? You know, LA Christ took the old covenant, and then with his precious blood, he brought the new covenant, and which is by faith alone, you know, the new covenant. We cannot enter into the new covenant based on works. It has to be based on faith. But you know, we see that in, uh, Hebrews, you know, some of the Jewish, uh, um, uh, some of the, I think it is written to Jews. It may or may not be written to Jews, Christians, but to Jews in general, because they are, after hearing the gospel, they're rejecting the gospel and then going back to the temple sacrifices.
Speaker 3 00:04:10 And we spent a lot of time in Galatians. And the main difference between Galatians and Hebrews is Galatians were trying to earn their righteousness based on their works. They're like, okay, I'm going to do, uh, uh, try my best to keep the law of Moses to gain my own righteousness. But in Hebrews, it's slightly different. You know, they are rejecting, they know they have sinned, and they know they need a offering, and they need, uh, they know that, you know, uh, blood has to be shed for the forgiveness of sins, but they're rejecting the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're going back to the temple sacrifices. So that's why, you know, uh, uh, the author of Hebrews spent a lot of time in, uh, trying to convince them that the blood of Lord Jesus Christ is much more superior to the blood of bulls and goats. And the priesthood of Lord Jesus Christ is much more superior to the priesthood of the levies.
Speaker 2 00:05:04 So let me ask a question, cuz you, we've said it couple times. He has to be the perfect sacrifice. And I know this goes back to the Old Testament and the sacrifices at the temple, uh, that happened on regular basises, the perfection of the sacrifice. Well, these were beasts. They, you know, lambs and birds and, and sometimes cattle. And, but the idea was you couldn't bring in anything but your best. You had, it had to be, for instance, a lamb had to be completely white, no color, all spotless. It couldn't be the runt, it couldn't have belin, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, it couldn't be crippled. It couldn't, it couldn't have any defects. It had to be whole, and it had to be sound to be a perfect animal sacrifice. Well, Jesus took that and went of course, as he does in so many things. He elevated it. He was perfect in physical form, and he was perfect in his actions from birth to death. No sin never, never sold his soul, so to speak, and was the perfect gift. Now, the old, the, the, the contrast between Old Testament and Jesus is of course, that the old, the blood of lambs and animals would only last for so long. The difference is when Jesus fulfilled the law and made himself the perfect sacrifice, it was once and for all.
Speaker 3 00:06:31 That is Tok. Yes. Uh, in fact, you know, the Bible says, when Bible talks about, um, Lord Jesus Christ, I describes his sinest perfection in three ways. Bible says he knew no sin, he did no sin, and in him was no sin. So his perfect in and out, and like you mentioned, interestingly, you know, he even physically he was perfect. There was no record in the Bible that when he was walking on this earth, he fell sick. We only know that he healed people. There is no record that, you know, he fell sick. So he was perfect, both physically and also mentally and in soul, spirit and body. He was perfect. And only a perfect sacrifice can take away our sins. And we talked about it last time, that the blood of bulls and goats, you know, they were a, um, they were a foreshadow of the things that were to come. And they were only kind of, you know, holding off the judgment or the wrath of God until the actual sacrifice was made. But the blood of Jesus, you know, it does not just cover our sin, it erases our sin. And we talked about it, only the blood of Jesus as a power to erase our sin since completely.
Speaker 2 00:07:50 All right. So I asked, I kind of said, and then asked about the perfect sacrifice part, but also I think it, and it says that he was the, I think you said this earlier, the perfect high priest.
Speaker 3 00:08:02 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:08:03 And can you just describe that a little bit better?
Speaker 3 00:08:07 Yeah, yeah. So, you know, um, in Hebrews chapter seven, I think we went into this last time, but, uh, without going too deep, uh, the priests under the old covenant are, um, human priests, right? So Lord chose the tribe of Levi to be the priest, and Aaron was the first high priest. And the Bible clearly says that when they offer sin, right, they had to offer sin for themselves and then for the sins of the people. And they had to, they had sin in themselves. So they can never really complete or qualified, uh, to be the priest to offer the sacrifice as it ought to be. But, you know, when it comes to a Lord Jesus Christ, like, uh, we said, you know, he is, he has no sin in him. So everything he did is for us. So I think he's a sinest priest. We can go further, I think as we go along in Hebrew chapter seven, eight, and nine, where he talks more about, you know, his eternal priesthood and his perfect priesthood. But I think, uh, one of the key differences is the Old Testament priest, you know, they're sending them, but lords Christ I know sin in in him.
Speaker 2 00:09:13 Excellent. Thank you for just covering those two, just so everyone's kind of on the same page on that. So, um, what, what's next, aj?
Speaker 3 00:09:22 So I thought, you know, we will, uh, go to Hebrews chapter three because it is, uh, a very crucial chapter in terms of understanding our salvation and how, what faith really means. And also, you know, how we are saved and how we are kept. So if we go to Hebrew chapter three, you know, the first thing it says in, you know, therefore, holy brethren, I'm reading from, uh, new King James version, therefore, holy brethren, partake of heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of or confession Christ Jesus. So I want to stop here actually. Uh, so the first thing it's saying is consider, you know, they were actually going back to the temple sacrifices. They were going back to the law. And he says, you know, consider, uh, we have had this discussion about how does you know what is required for someone to be saved?
Speaker 3 00:10:16 What is required, you know, to actually, you know, believe in the gospel? The first thing is consider, you know, many people, unless you know, if we want to know something, right? If we have to stop and consider the possibility of it being true, you know, most of the time, you know, without even hearing, we just rule out things. So what is required for someone to become a believer is simply considering, you know, being open-minded. And the second thing we see that, you know, uh, apostle in the high priest, our confession. So again, you know, we are not saved by confessing our sins. There's a big emphasis on, you know, confessing our sins. Or it doesn't even say, you know, you have to confess Jesus as your Lord. It simply says, you know, apostle and high priest for confession, Lord Jesus Christ. So simply by confessing the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we become, uh, we are saved.
Speaker 2 00:11:08 Well, I'm just gonna add, cuz I'm looking at a different translation, of course, I usually use NIV for these readings and it says, fix your thoughts on Jesus instead of ju consider, consider kind of sounds like, well, maybe this, maybe that, but yeah, no, it's, it's the narrow focused fix your thoughts on Jesus is I think what it, it kind of should be more closely related to.
Speaker 3 00:11:31 Yeah. Yeah. And as you go on to see, right, it, uh, makes a contrast between Moses and, uh, Jesus. You know, Moses was a mere servant of the house of God. So if you have a servant, you know, let's say, um, uh, you, you lease a car versus you own a car, right? When you're leasing a car, or maybe I think we can also think in terms of other terms, but you know, when you own a car, you take care of it, right? When you lease a car, it's not yours. You will do your best, you know, to keep it clean. And you meet the minimum requirements, right? You say, Hey, I lease the car with 10 scratches and I'll do my best <laugh> to return with 10 scratches. You'll never care to actually fix the scratch scratches and return it, right? Because it's not yours.
Speaker 3 00:12:19 But when you own something, you take care of it. Uh, similarly, rental house versus your own house, there's a big difference in how you treat both of those things. So here the contrast is, you know, Moses was a servant in one sense, you know, he was not vested in, uh, in the people of God, whereas our Lord Jesus Christ, it says, you know, as a son over his house, that means he has vested in interest in the house. And then it says, you know, how do we become his house? Right? It's simple, you know, whose house we are if we hold fast, the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm to the end. So we become the house of Christ by placing our confidence in the finished work of our lords Christ are placing our confidence in the gospel.
Speaker 2 00:13:08 Yeah. You know, I take it back to, since it uses the term servant, I'm gonna take it back to that whole servant owner relationship in that, uh, it says Moses was a faithful servant. So he was, he was a good servant. He did, you know, as the Lord asked him and he followed the Lord and all that, and he reaped the reward of that, but Jesus is the person whom he was serving. I mean, that's, that's what it comes down to. God was able to give him the gifts cuz he had them. Moses had to receive them because he had nothing, you know, at least in some senses of those words.
Speaker 3 00:13:47 Yep, yep. Yeah, Tim, you know, if you want to read seven to 11, 7 11 <laugh>. So, uh, we can, uh, we can dwell on it. There is some lot of good truths here.
Speaker 2 00:13:59 Okay? I believe this is taken, uh, from the Old Testament, isn't it?
Speaker 3 00:14:05 Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:14:06 All right. So starting at verse seven, once again, I'm in the NIV v um, 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 wilderness. Were your ancestors tested and tried me though, for 40 years? They saw what I did. This is why I was angry with that generation. I said, their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declare an oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.
Speaker 3 00:14:39 I think you can go forward, Tim, go ahead and re till, uh, uh, 14,
Speaker 2 00:14:44 See two it brothers and sisters 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 called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins. Deceitfulness, we have come to share in Christ. And if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end
Speaker 3 00:15:09 <unk> the words that we hear in Christianity, you know, we need to, this whole message is related to the new covenant. When we enter the new covenant. You know, we do not interpret the terms based on old covenant when we think about sin, right? Immediately we jumped to, oh my God, I did not do something right. I have a secret sin in my life. Oh, I lied. I committed adultery. You know, I did this, I did that. So we interpret like that. But if you, um, if you carefully observe the, uh, this passage and also stay true to the context, see here we see <inaudible> brethren, lest there be any one of you is sinful heart in your version. And it says, an evil heart of unbelief. So the first thing is, there is a definition of evil and sin here, right? And that is unbelief, not believing is evil.
Speaker 3 00:16:07 And the believing or not believing is a decision, or a, is a attitude of the heart. So in fact, in a Bible says, right, if you believe from your heart, uh, that Lord raised Jesus from the dead, you'll be saved, right? So this faith is something that is inward. It actually has to come from our heart. And it's not something, you know, we can force on people. You know, sometimes there's an accusation on Christians, especially in, uh, countries like India or that, you know, people are, uh, bribing them and showing them greed and, uh, convert, converting them to become Christians. You know, it's not possible because this faith is something that relates to the heart. No matter how much you, you, um, you force people, you cannot draw faith out of them. So, and then the faith has to come from our heart. And not having faith, not believing the truth, and specifically not believing the gospel is evil in this context and sinful. It's not, okay, I'm breaking the commandment. The very reason we need Christ is because we have sinned, right? So it doesn't make sense, you know, if sin is breaking the law of Moses, it doesn't make sense because Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners, right? He did not come to save the righteous. Now, if he came to save sinners in the context of this, what is evil? Evil is unbelieving. That is the first thing you know, I wanted to point out, uh, uh, Tim, I'm going to pause here.
Speaker 2 00:17:37 Well, I want to, that's gone. That's great stuff, aj. Um, but I'd like to focus on a little point, uh, in there, and you said that believing is, is not all these other things. And you can't, you can't buy faith, you can't pay for faith. You can't drag it outta somebody. Yeah. What you can do is that you can put on a show, but doing that is not gonna save you. The, the belief is something that literally, like you said, comes from, I'm gonna call it the soul, the heart. Yeah. It doesn't even come from the head. Yeah. You won't be able to internalize the faith by hearing, um, good messages and being able to mentally internalize that, which eventually works its way down into your heart, but it's not something that you can surface. Oh, okay, I'm gonna show everybody I believe in Jesus. I'm going to church a couple times a month or year or whatever it is, and I'm gonna espouse good words here and there. You, you know, in your heart, do you believe or do you don't believe? And if you don't believe, how can we help you believe? Yeah, I mean, how, I can't make you believe, but I can try and show you why I believe I can try and share the what I what we're sharing here. The grace and love of God.
Speaker 3 00:18:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, you know, when we talk about the heart again, it also, it also means, you know, faith also involves our will. You know, we have our mind and we also have our will. Will is something, you know, you consciously, in the end, it comes down to whether you accept or reject, right? You know, when I, uh, offer you a gift, you can say, Hey, I no thank you. Or you can say, Hey, thank you, I I really need it. And I accept it and embrace it. So what happens in faith is, you know, we talked about mind, right? You know, faith comes by hearing, and again, it goes back to fix your eyes or consider the logic Christ. So the gospel in it has a power. You know, God put in the gospel, the power to generate faith in those who are willing to listen to the gospel.
Speaker 3 00:19:33 That's what I family bill believe. You know, that's why the call is, Hey, hear you and here and you'll live. You know, faith comes by hearing. So what happens in the process is you hear the gospel, first of all, you have to be willing to hear the gospel. You'll have to be willing to consider the possibility, Hey, maybe this is true. Maybe I'll give my ear. And then you just consider the gospel. And as you start hearing the gospel right, our mind, it starts making sense to our mind. Okay? You know, some people go and look at all the evidence. Hey, this guy called Jesus is claiming to be, uh, claiming to be reason or claiming to come back to life. He's claiming resurrection from the dead. Then, is that true? Right? They will go and investigate it as you investigate the facts and as you observe life, you know, God gave our minds the ability to do that, to observe creation, to observe the facts, and to think.
Speaker 3 00:20:26 And then at some point, you know, you consider all the evidence and then say, okay, yeah, this appears to be true to me. Right? And at that point we say, okay, now the faith will be generated. And we say, okay, Lord, I'm going to accept this gift of salvation. And I know I cannot see Jesus. Now I did not, I was not there when he was crucified. I was not there when he was raised from the dead. But you know, in my heart and in my mind, I'm convinced of the truth of it. And then I simply say, Lord, okay, I accept the gift and I'm going to put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And even if you are shaky, we can do like that. Um, father of that, uh, sick girl, Lord, I believe, help me by un unbelief. That's enough. You know, you don't have to be a hundred percent sure or anything.
Speaker 3 00:21:10 And then you simply say, okay, Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you know, you died for me and you rose from the dead. I'm willing to put my trust in that, you know, and I'm going to pet my eternity on that. And I don't know whether it's true or not a hundred percent, but I'm willing to bet. And then there's an motion of, you know, of the heart to exercise our will. And when we do that, the Bible says, you know, our heart is cleansed. You know, our hearts are cleansed by faith. At that moment we become born again. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us and we receive a new heart. And uh, and then after that, we actually are much more persuaded of the truth because, you know, Lord opens our eyes to see a lot more in the scriptures. And then we never turn back. You know, in my life, after receiving Christ, I never, not even once doubted, oh, did I do right? You know what, you know, maybe is it right or wrong? I never had that question. You know, the revelation only becomes bigger and bigger because now you have a new, new heart and a Holy Spirit in us interpreting the truth to us. So whatever we believed it is only confirmed in us after that.
Speaker 2 00:22:13 I know Mark likes to parp on this point a lot. So just cuz he is not here physically, I'm gonna bring him in in spirit for moment <laugh>. But you said that, you know, if you go look at the evidence and you, you've, you make a decision based on all of that as to whether something's true or not. And then you say, okay, I believe that's true. That's what true repentance is. It's changing your mind. You go from not believing to believing. It's not about sin and begging forgiveness and beating yourself up and stuff like that. It's changing your mind. And we, how many times have you gone to a church as a, I mean, I I remember being an believer back in the day where you'd go to a church just because someone asked you and you wanted to be polite, and you listened to the message and you went, yeah, yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2 00:23:00 And move along with your life. You weren't open to it, you didn't receive it, you didn't fix your mind on it, you didn't any of that stuff. But, you know, over time, having heard it so many different ways by so many different people used, I started to believe that, okay, maybe this stuff is true. And I turned, I changed my mind. I didn't, I didn't go through the four steps I probably did back in the day. But for me was, uh, in that moment was about, okay, God, I, I believe and I accept that. I believe,
Speaker 3 00:23:33 Yeah. In fact, you know, when I was, uh, before I had this firm assurance, and then, uh, actually I had to make addition to receive the gift of righteousness because I was going back and forth, back and forth because of the law. Because when I look at the law, when I look at the preaching, they tell you, you had to do these 10 things first. And I could never do those. So finally, I ha I ha my eyes are open and I had to convince myself righteousness is a gift. If righteousness is a gift, why do I have to do those 10 things? So I told myself, you know, even if I have to do those 10 things, let me first accept the gift and then I will do those 10 things not before it. So I had to like, it's a, it's a very, very conscious, willful act for me.
Speaker 3 00:24:19 And, uh, I said, you know, Lord, you know, if this is a gift, I'll first receive it and then I receive the gift of righteousness. And, uh, after that everything changed, like, you know, the piece that surpasses all understanding. And uh, and that is a day I would, uh, harken back to <laugh>, to <laugh> to know, you know, okay, this is a day, this is a day. And I still remember. And, uh, I would never trade that for anything in this world. Uh, period. So that is so beautiful, and that is because of the gift of righteousness.
Speaker 2 00:24:48 Yeah. And I will also add back in, uh, verse 10, the reading from earlier. That is why I was angry with that generation. Their hearts were always going astray. And they have not known my ways. It wasn't because they broke this law, they broke that law. Yeah. They just keep their hearts from going astray from their faith.
Speaker 3 00:25:09 Yeah, it's easy, right? You know, it's, uh, interesting. You bring us like, you know, mind informs us, but the faith is a matter of the heart. Like you said, it's not a matter of mind, it's not a matter of, you know, brainwashing ourselves. That's why, you know, we say this, right? There's this term called brainwashing. You could be brainwashed, but that doesn't mean you have faith. You know, faith is a matter of the heart. It happens in the heart. And that's why it's important to make sure, like you said, you know, we, that we don't let our hearts go astray. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:25:38 I was just going, just gonna add an old saying, and that is, uh, it's, you can miss heaven by 18 inches. And if you measure the about how far it is between your brain and your heart, it's about 18 inches. You know? I mean, so it's, it's coming from the heart. You can tell yourself, you can believe in a lot of things. There are people out there still believe in flat earth and they're convinced. But, but you know, I mean, it's, that's the mind, the mind can be fooled, the mind is flesh, but the heart knows.
Speaker 3 00:26:05 I think it also brings out this point, right? I can see you, I can hear your words and I can also, you know, maybe read your, uh, body language, but I can never know what's in our heart. Only God knows what's in our heart. So it is foolishness, you know, most of us actually act as if we know other people's heart and we try to manipulate others in a based on what's on the inside for me, you know, I think it's foolishness. You know, Bible also says, you know, no man knows what's in a person's heart except the man himself. Just like only Holy Spirit knows the heart of God. Nobody else knows.
Speaker 2 00:26:42 I wonder how much of that is projection of what's in your heart on other, right,
Speaker 3 00:26:47 Exactly. Exactly. Because
Speaker 2 00:26:49 What you know, what do you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I know that I was a sinner. I know that I can't be pure on my own. And so yeah, yeah, yeah. I immediately project some of my, uh, my sinfulness and my Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:27:02 Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 00:27:03 Flesh nature on other people where it's not Yeah. Necessarily warranted, like you said, I don't know their hearts.
Speaker 3 00:27:09 So that is so true, Tim. You know, in the end I think we are projecting our behavior on others because Bible also says, you know, the pure to the pure, all things are pure. So we end up interpreting others the way we are and we see ourselves. So the more we see ourselves as righteous and good, I think we tend to see good in others as well. And of course for believers, we always see them as righteous because they are righteous. But, uh, for unbelievers also, you know, whether they're righteous or not, we can give them grace. Like the Lord Jesus was gracious to unbelievers. I want, you know, focus on one more thing. You know, there's so much truth here, right? You know, we are debunking the very, very basic things that people assume about Christianity. Again, our friend and debunking guy is not here <laugh>, but we are doing that <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:27:57 So, uh, so the evil heart of unbelief, right? Uh, we see that in Jeremiah, there is a verse, and it's a well known verse. Heart is desperately wicked, you know, deceitful above all things. And people again think, you know, oh, going and doing some really, really bad things is that it's talking about that. But that's not it. In the context, you see this, right? It says a deceitfulness of sin. You know, what is a deceitfulness here? The deceitfulness is instead of trusting our Lord Jesus Christ, we are deceived to believe in ourselves. And we are deceived to believe in these temple sacrifices, and we are deceived to believe in our ability to keep the law. So that is the deceitfulness of heart. And uh, we can also see that in Jeremiah chapter 17, where this, uh, famous verse appears, you know, heart is deceitful above all things.
Speaker 3 00:28:52 You know, one of the problems with us is we just quote one scripture and we assume stuff about it. But if you read the verses before it, it'll be clear. Uh, I'm going to read from, uh, Jeremiah 17, from verse five to nine, thus is a Lord. Curse is a man who trusts in man and makes fleshy strength whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes shall, but shall inhibit the parts, places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited. And then it goes on to say, blessed is a man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the Lord for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its root by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nar will cease from yielding fruit.
Speaker 3 00:29:50 The heart is deceitful about all things and desperately wicked who can know it. So this is a context of this virus. You know, if you look at just two verses about these two, and it directly relates to what we read in Hebrews chapter three, cursed is a man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. So those who make our ability to keep the law, our own ability to do good, our own ability to become righteous, they're cursed. Because again, it goes back, right? Curse is everyone who does not who is of the line? Galatians, see that curse is everyone who is of the works of the law, right? Because the law says here to keep all of it not. And then in verse seven it says, blessed is a man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. And then in verse nine, it says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately because what it means is the deceitfulness of the heart is instead of trusting God, we tend to trust ourselves. That's what the deceitfulness of the heart, and that's what the evil heart and that's what is a sinful heart. And the Sydney is basically not believing in the gospel.
Speaker 2 00:30:58 And let me tie that back into Hebrews three that we've been talking about. Yeah. Now this the, I'm gonna use the 19th verse, but this little paragraph is about the, uh, the, the Jews that Moses led out of Egypt and who turned away from God. And God said, I'm not gonna let you enter into the new, the promised land, but it says, so we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief, not cuz of their sin, not because of their rebellion, not because of this, that, or the other, but because of their unbelief.
Speaker 3 00:31:34 That's it. You know, the 12 spice went there and they did not believe that God is able to take them to the land of rest. And only two people believed Joshua and Caleb, and they're the ones who entered, and everyone else, they just perished. So same thing is happening here, right? Because the 12 spice did not believe because they looked at their ability and Joshua and Caleb looked at God's ability. And in fact, you know, for us it's even more easier now, I think for them it might be hard because they're physically seeing these giants and they have to actually go and fight and based on faith they have to overcome. But for us, it's even simpler right now the gospel says, you know, Lord Jesus Christ did the work for you. He took your sin, went to the cross, and he died for you. And he was buried and he rose again on the third day. Victoriously, all we needed to do is just believe that we don't learn how to do anything. We don't how to work but believe. But our problem is we think we have to work for our salvation.
Speaker 2 00:32:37 Well, it's hard to overcome those two things that we were pretty much taught since we've grown up. And that is you gotta work hard to earn things and you have to atone for when you mess up. And, and on the, on the physical level in the world, that's pretty true. You do have to work to get money to be able to eat and live and stuff like that. And if you hurt somebody and you wanna repair that relationship, you do have to go with tone and make up for it. But God does away with even those two works on his level with him so that your relationship can always be perfect and never be strained, provided you do The only thing you have to do, which is belief.
Speaker 3 00:33:16 Tim, if you're okay, I want to touch on one more thing and then maybe, you know, we can, uh, <laugh> call it a wrap. But, uh, in the more I look, the more I see. So I want to look at, you know, verse 11. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. You know, the keyword is my, you know, God is inviting us to enter into his rest. It's not, it's not just, you know, we go and rest somewhere else on our own. God's rest is much higher quality, so to speak, for lack of better words than our rest. You know, even you might have all the peace in the world and you may not have any, uh, anxiety or anything, but that does not compare to God's rest. He's inviting us to enter into his rest. Uh, it is so, it is so beautiful. And then the thought continues. I want to kind of go to the next chapter quick, but Tim, I want to see, you know, if you had any thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 00:34:09 Uh, no, I just, you know, it's always funny to me. It's the tiny little words that you sometimes miss in scriptures which make such a big impact. Uh, I read it probably 5, 6, 7 times this week and didn't, you know, never came to the forethought of my brain that yeah, it's his rest. That's an excellent point.
Speaker 3 00:34:28 And then now we will see how we can enter into his rest. And then, you know, maybe we can do a wrap. Uh, and uh, next, uh, okay, let's do 1, 2, 3, then that's
Speaker 2 00:34:38 Good. So Hebrews four, one through three. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest 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
Speaker 3 00:35:03 And was three.
Speaker 2 00:35:05 Now we who have believed enter that rest just as God has said. So I declared an oath on my anger that they shall never enter my rest, and yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:35:20 So Tim, I want to just quickly read chapter four also and then, uh, uh, bring our attention to one point. So for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this place, they shall not enter my rest. So here the, what the author is saying is God finished his work on the seven day and rested, and now works are finished. Uh, and then he entered rest. So what he's saying is, you know, he's inviting us to enter into his rest, you know, in the creation, God actually intended to finish all his work on the seventh day and enter into rest. If the man didn't fall, Adam would've partaken of the rest by eating of the tree of life. But because man fell, God has to again do the work of redemption through his son Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 00:36:11 And now Lord Jesus Christ finished the work and then now he's seated in heaven. He's rushing in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father. So God is inviting us to enter into their rest. I mean like his rest, the rest of his son and the rest of the Father. And we'll see that, you know, how do we do that? Right? So it's simple in, in chapter four, verse one, as you just read in verse two, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. So if you hear the gospel without faith, it'll not profit you. And then it goes on to say, for we who have believed, do enter the trust. So it's again, the same thing, right? It's saying the same thing as if telling the kids, right?
Speaker 3 00:37:04 In the previous chapter we saw they did not enter God fresh because of unbelief <laugh>. So the opposite of it is if you believe you will enter the trust, and what do you have to believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christed, if you believe the gospel, you'll enter the trust and the effect of entering the rest is this in, uh, the same chapter, verse 10, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. So when we enter the rest of God, right, you know, not only we have this eternal salvation, but also we ceased from our works, right? We don't have to now depend on our works or try to do something for God or try to do something to survive. We cease from all our works and we simply enter the rest of God in the rest.
Speaker 3 00:37:56 You know, God will provide for us, God will take care of everything. And the beautiful thing is, you know, it's not that resting in God is not just LA sitting around. We enter we VCs from our works and in, uh, efficient chapter two verses 10, it says, you know, God prepared even before the foundation of the world, he prepared good works for us, that we should walk in him. So VCs from our own works, but we start walking the works that God prepared for us before the foundation of the world. And that walking in those works is, again, by faith. We don't strive hard, but by faith, simply trusting that God has prepared these works for me and then you do it. And when
Speaker 2 00:38:34 We talk about doing God's work, the good work that he prepared for us, it is amazing just how much more effective those good works are than the works that we try to produce. Yeah, the missionary out in Russia for a while, there were times when I'd try to make something happen and it might be okay, it might be fine, but when I, when God was in control, when, you know, in a circumstance or an opportunity came up that I wasn't even aware of, and I just went, yes Lord, well here am I and followed it. It was a bl you know, it bloomed into something wonderful, sometimes even against my will. You know, I've told the story of the two drunk boys before, but, uh, you know, so it's, it's effective. It's uh, it's not work work necessarily. Yeah. Um, it, but it is, it's an non big attitude about how you approach what God wants from you. Yeah. Yep. Well, aj I know you referred to it a few minutes ago. We're running out of time here. And, uh, any, any last thing, anything you'd like to summarize with before we sign on?
Speaker 3 00:39:41 Yeah, I was going to say that, uh, just say something as a follow up to what you said, but I'll make it, uh, the summary. Uh, so, you know, I just again, you know, want, uh, to bring our attention, attention to this. He who entered his rest as himself also sees from his works. So we don't strive in this Christian life. We don't try to make things happen. You know, one of the telltale signs, whether you know it is of me or it is of God, is, you know, there is, um, you are, there is, if there is stress and if you are, uh, sweating over something to make it happen. And there's a lot of strain is probably not of God because I think one of the things I wanted to say is the whole world, they work you order to rest. You know, for them they're working, working and looking for the weekend.
Speaker 3 00:40:30 But for Christians, we actually start with the rest. And then we go on to working even physically. You know, Sunday is our uh, uh, the first day of our week and what do we do on Sunday? We rested, we worship the Lord and then begin the week with rested. And so even in our Christian life, the basis is rushed. No matter how hard we work, there is an inward rushed and there's a confidence and we are not striving and we are not getting buried. Oh my God, I need to get this done. No, no, no. Because Lord has already prepared these works by faith. We simply walk in it and uh, and we see things happen. You know, doors keep on opening and if some door is shut, it's okay. You know, other door will open. And I think, you know, like you said, Tim, we will know, you know, when it is something of our own energy, our own flesh, or whether it is of God.
Speaker 3 00:41:20 In fact, I've seen that, you know, when it is of God physically speaking, we actually labor more than doing it on ourselves. But we do labor more without the stress. We labor with threshed. So that is a, that's got appointed like a beautiful way of living. But uh, again, the way we enter into this kind of life is simply by believing the gospel. That's it. We enter, we cease from our works. We don't try to earn our salvation. We simply believe. And then even this life of rested as a Christian is also by faith. We simply believe in the finished Jesus Christ and walk in the good box. He prepared for us.
Speaker 2 00:41:57 Well thank you very much for that aj. I'm just going to go back to, uh, that last verse of, uh, last verse of chapter three. So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief. That's all that's required of us is belief. Yeah. And once we have that belief, we fix from verse one, we fix our thoughts on Jesus and we're saved, we're sanctified, we're, you know, we're going to go to heaven and be with him. And that's a beautiful, wonderful comforting thought through all this is, I don't have to earn it cuz I can't. He's giving it to me. All I gotta do is accept it.
Speaker 3 00:42:31 Yep. Hey, amen.
Speaker 2 00:42:32 Well, everybody I see, I am pretty sure that we're gonna have Mark back next week. We'll see for sure when the time comes and we'll leave you in suspense until then. And we'd like to thank you for listening today. We hope you've been uplifted and plus 10. We look forward to talking to you again
Speaker 1 00:42:48 The next time.
Speaker 1 00:42:53 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question or comment on our listener line at 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.
