Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Hebrews 3:7-13 - Faith Without Works is Dead

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Hebrews 3:7-13 - Faith Without Works is Dead · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio, How do their faith listeners, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Explained podcast. On this lovely Thursday morning, We're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be talking about Hebrews chapter three here, verses seven
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  Speaker 1: through thirteen, and this is a wonderful message and a
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  Speaker 1: warning to all Christians. So I'm looking forward to talking
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  Speaker 1: about this with you in just a second. Already, faithful listeners,
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  Speaker 1: As usual, here is a sponsored ad before we get
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  Speaker 1: into today's episode. But I do highly recommend that during
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  Speaker 1: this time you grab your Bible out of the version
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  Speaker 1: that you prefer, and also your cup of coffee or
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  Speaker 1: your cup of tea this morning while the sponsored ad plays.
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  Speaker 1: All right, hopefully you have everything you need. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to be in Hebrews chapter three today, verses seven through thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: As always, I'll be reading from the Web version or
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  Speaker 1: the World English Bible, but I'll also be switching over
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  Speaker 1: to the CSB at one point in time. Le's go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and dive into today's very important topic, probably one
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  Speaker 1: of the most important topics I could talk about after
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  Speaker 1: you become a Christian, Like once you have the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: and you understand it and you become a Christian, that's great.
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  Speaker 1: But now this is a strong warning for any person
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  Speaker 1: that believes in Jesus. So let's read Hebrews three seven
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  Speaker 1: through thirteen together. Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says today,
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  Speaker 1: if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts
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  Speaker 1: as in the rebellion, in the day of the trial
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  Speaker 1: in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried
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  Speaker 1: me and saw my deeds for forty years. Therefore, I
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  Speaker 1: was displeased with that generation, and said, they always err
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  Speaker 1: in their heart, but they didn't know my ways. As
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  Speaker 1: I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into
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  Speaker 1: my rest. Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in
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  Speaker 1: any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
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  Speaker 1: falling away from the Living God. But exhort one another
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  Speaker 1: day by day, so long as it is called today,
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  Speaker 1: lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness
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  Speaker 1: of sin. The first part of this chapter, verses one
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  Speaker 1: through six, discuss how Jesus was greater than Moses because
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is the son of God, whereas Moses was just
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  Speaker 1: a servant of God. And the reason the author mentioned
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  Speaker 1: this was because you know, he was talking to the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people. That's why it's called Hebrews, and the Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: people believed that Moses was basically the greatest prophet, the
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  Speaker 1: greatest man to ever exist, and that is still a
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  Speaker 1: common belief even now in modern day Judaism. So the
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  Speaker 1: author had to make it very clear that Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: even above Moses, above all the angels, above everything, all creation,
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  Speaker 1: because Jesus is in fact the creator, and he's also
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  Speaker 1: the Son of God, the heir to everything. So because
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  Speaker 1: of this revelation of who Jesus is, he says in
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  Speaker 1: verse seven, therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, today,
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  Speaker 1: if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts
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  Speaker 1: as in the rebellion. I remember a couple of years
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  Speaker 1: ago I was leading one of my girls groups for
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  Speaker 1: the youth group, and I mentioned this verse to my
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  Speaker 1: students and I was like, yeah, the Holy Spirit he
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  Speaker 1: does in fact speak. We have a few verses of
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  Speaker 1: him of physically speaking. And I mentioned this verse Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: three seven, where it says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
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  Speaker 1: And one of my students was absolutely blown away by this,
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  Speaker 1: and she told me that recently, like just a couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks ago, she was like, Jen, you blew my
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  Speaker 1: mind when you told me that the Holy Spirit could speak.
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  Speaker 1: And this is one of the verses in scripture where
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  Speaker 1: we see the Holy Spirit speaking. There's only a handful
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  Speaker 1: of times actually that the Holy Spirit physically speaks. Another
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  Speaker 1: time is in Acts chapter eight, verse twenty nine, where
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  Speaker 1: it says the Spirit said to Philip, go near and
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  Speaker 1: join yourself to the chariot. And then another time is
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  Speaker 1: one Timothy four, verse one that says, but the Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit expressly says that in later times some will fall
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  Speaker 1: away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and
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  Speaker 1: doctrines of demons. So, yes, the Holy Spirit speaks, and
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  Speaker 1: that's how we know that he is a person of
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  Speaker 1: the Trinity. You know, a lot of people misunderstand who
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit is, and they kind of think it's
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  Speaker 1: just like God the Father, his power being zapped out
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  Speaker 1: at people. And that's what I believe for a very
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  Speaker 1: very long time as well about the Holy Spirit. But no,
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, he has his own thoughts and he
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  Speaker 1: speaks to people directly, which is what Hebrews three, verse
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  Speaker 1: seven says. So here's what the Holy Spirit says to
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  Speaker 1: us today. If you will hear his voice who's his voice, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is talking about the rebellion in the Wilderness,
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  Speaker 1: which is talked about in Numbers Chapter twenty, verses one
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  Speaker 1: through thirteen. So let's go to that passage and read
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  Speaker 1: that real quick to get some backstories to what the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is talking about here. Starting in verse one
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  Speaker 1: of Numbers twenty, the children of Israel, even the whole congregation,
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  Speaker 1: came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month.
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  Speaker 1: The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was
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  Speaker 1: buried there. There was no water for the congregation, and
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  Speaker 1: they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Erin. The
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  Speaker 1: people quarreled with Moses and spoke saying, we wish that
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  Speaker 1: we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh, Why
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  Speaker 1: have you brought ye always assembly into this wilderness that
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  Speaker 1: we should die there, we and our animals? Why have
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  Speaker 1: you made us to come out of Egypt to bring
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  Speaker 1: us to this evil place? It is no place of
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  Speaker 1: seed or figs, or vines or pomegranates. Neither is there
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  Speaker 1: any water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the
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  Speaker 1: presency assembly to the door of the tene meeting, and
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  Speaker 1: they fell on their faces. Yahway's glory appeared to them.
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  Speaker 1: You always spoke to Moses, saying, take the rod and
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  Speaker 1: assemble the congregation, you and Air and your brother, and
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  Speaker 1: speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour
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  Speaker 1: out its water. You shall bring water to them out
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  Speaker 1: of the rock. So you shall give the congregation and
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  Speaker 1: their live stock drink. Moses took the rod from before
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh as he commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the
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  Speaker 1: assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, here, now,
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  Speaker 1: you rebels, shall we bring water out of this rock
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  Speaker 1: for you. Moses lifted up his hand and struck the
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  Speaker 1: rock with his rod twice, and the water came out abundantly.
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  Speaker 1: The congregation and their livestock drank. You always said to
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  Speaker 1: Moses and Aaron, because you didn't believe in me, to
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  Speaker 1: sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land
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  Speaker 1: which I have given them. These are the waters of Maraba,
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  Speaker 1: because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he
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  Speaker 1: was sanctified in them. So that's a story, a very
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  Speaker 1: sad story of the Israelites again complaining to Moses and
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  Speaker 1: Aaron about God because there is no water in the wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: And this is not the first time that the Israelites
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  Speaker 1: saw no water. There were times before this that God
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  Speaker 1: gave them water in a very similar way by Moses
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  Speaker 1: striking the rock, not to mention the myriad of other
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  Speaker 1: miracles that they saw God do for them during their
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  Speaker 1: time in the wilderness. And yet again they complain to
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  Speaker 1: Moses and Aaron, become violent and complain to God and say,
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  Speaker 1: we wish we never would have left Egypt. We liked
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  Speaker 1: being slaves there. We wish we would have stayed because
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  Speaker 1: everything was simpler there, rather than walking around this wilderness
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  Speaker 1: with nothing to drink and no pomegranates to eat, is
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  Speaker 1: what they say. So God tells Moses and Aaron, He's like,
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  Speaker 1: speak to the rock and give water to the assembly.
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  Speaker 1: And Moses strikes the rock again like he had the
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  Speaker 1: previous time when God gave them water out of the rock.
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  Speaker 1: And God actually became angry at Moses and Aaron for this.
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  Speaker 1: In verse twelve, it says, you always said to Moses
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  Speaker 1: and Aaron because you didn't believe in me. To sanctify
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  Speaker 1: me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: you shall not bring this assembly into the land which
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  Speaker 1: I have given them. So Moses and Aaron also during
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  Speaker 1: this time did not believe in God. Did not believe
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  Speaker 1: that if they just spoke to the rock the way
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  Speaker 1: God told them to do, that it would produce water.
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  Speaker 1: They believed they had to strike the rock like they
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  Speaker 1: did last time. So they also didn't believe in God's power. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: everybody at this point in time had turned their backs
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  Speaker 1: on Yahweh, which is why this place was called Marabah,
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  Speaker 1: which means quarreling, because the children of Israel strove with
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh and he was sanctified in them. So that means
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  Speaker 1: that the people argued with God, but God still blessed them. So,
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  Speaker 1: going back to Hebrews chapter three, the Holy Spirit says,
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  Speaker 1: don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion, and that's
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  Speaker 1: the rebellion that the Holy Spirit is talking about. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: this rebellion is mentioned multiple times in scripture. So the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit gives this warning. He says, today, right now,
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  Speaker 1: now write at this very moment, if you will hear
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  Speaker 1: Jesus's voice don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion
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  Speaker 1: in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where
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  Speaker 1: your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my
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  Speaker 1: deeds for forty years. Now, why would the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: mention Jesus right here? Because if you turn to Jude
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  Speaker 1: chapter one, verse five, here's what this says. And some
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  Speaker 1: of you guys might find this really interesting. I found
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  Speaker 1: this fascinating when I first discovered this Jude one, verse five,
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  Speaker 1: and this is from the CSB version. Now I want
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  Speaker 1: to remind you, although you have come to know all
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  Speaker 1: these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a
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  Speaker 1: people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did
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  Speaker 1: not believe Jesus himself. I find that verse so interesting
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  Speaker 1: and so cool because it shows that the Tryune God
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  Speaker 1: was with the people in the wilderness. Jesus was there
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  Speaker 1: because Jude chapter one says so, the Holy Spirit was
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  Speaker 1: there because Hebrews chapter three says so. And God the
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  Speaker 1: Father was there because the whole Old Testament story talks
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  Speaker 1: about God the Father being there. And the people ultimately
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  Speaker 1: were rejecting the miracles of Jesus in Numbers chapter twenty
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  Speaker 1: when they were constantly complaining and nagging and rebelling. They
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  Speaker 1: were doing all of this to Jesus and to the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit and to God the Father. The Holy Spirit says,
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  Speaker 1: they tested me and tried me in the wilderness, even
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  Speaker 1: though they saw my deeds for forty years verse ten. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: I was displeased with that generation and said they always
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  Speaker 1: err in their heart, but they didn't know my ways.
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  Speaker 1: As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter
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  Speaker 1: into my rest talked about in Numbers chapter fourteen, where
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  Speaker 1: God tells Moses that these people are going to die
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  Speaker 1: in the wilderness. Here's what those verses say. Because all
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  Speaker 1: those men who have seen my glory and my signs
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  Speaker 1: which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet
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  Speaker 1: have tempted me these ten times and have not listened
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  Speaker 1: to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land
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  Speaker 1: which I swore to their fathers. Neither shall any of
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  Speaker 1: those who despised me see it. So because of the
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  Speaker 1: amount of rebellion that took place in the wilderness, the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit says, they will not enter into my rest,
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  Speaker 1: meaning the promised land. And that's what ended up happening.
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  Speaker 1: That entire generation of Israelites died in the wilderness and
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  Speaker 1: only their children ended up going into the Promised Land,
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  Speaker 1: which is also talked about in Numbers chapter fourteen, if
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  Speaker 1: you're interested in looking all that up. So why does
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit give this warning to the church, Well,
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  Speaker 1: because two reasons, I'd say. The first reason is that
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  Speaker 1: we already established earlier in this chapter that Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: greater than Moses. And look at the people in the
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  Speaker 1: wilderness that we're constantly rebelling against God and against Moses.
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  Speaker 1: They were not able to enter into the rest into
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land. So how much worse is it going
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  Speaker 1: to be for the people who directly disobey the words
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus. It's going to be far worse for them,
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  Speaker 1: because Jesus is greater than Moses. So if you will
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  Speaker 1: hear his voice, don't harden your hearts like the people
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  Speaker 1: did in the wilderness. Is what the Holy Spirit is saying.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to Jesus today, is what he says. This is urgent.
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  Speaker 1: You need to do this right now, is what the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is telling us. Because we don't know the
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  Speaker 1: moment of our death, we do not know, we can
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  Speaker 1: assume we're going to live another day, or another minute,
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  Speaker 1: or another five minutes. We can assume that, but we
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  Speaker 1: ultimately don't know what is in store for us. Only
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  Speaker 1: God knows the amount of breath we have left in
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  Speaker 1: our lungs, the amount of days we have left. So
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  Speaker 1: we need to do this right now today. So that's
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  Speaker 1: the first reason the Holy Spirit gives us this warning.
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  Speaker 1: The second reason is that there are many many Christians
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  Speaker 1: that act like the people in the wilderness. They see
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  Speaker 1: God's miracles in their life, they see the truth with
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  Speaker 1: their own eyes. They understand what the Bible says, but
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  Speaker 1: they refuse to truly trust Jesus, just as the people
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  Speaker 1: in the wilderness refused to trust God to provide for them.
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  Speaker 1: That's why it says right here in verse twelve, beware brothers,
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  Speaker 1: lest perhaps there might be in any one of you
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  Speaker 1: an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the
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  Speaker 1: Living God. That verse is taking to Christians. It says,
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  Speaker 1: beware brothers. You know, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: less perhaps there might be in any one of you
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  Speaker 1: an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the
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  Speaker 1: Living God. The people in the wilderness. You know, you
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  Speaker 1: got to think about it. They were God's people, like
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  Speaker 1: God chose them, rescued them, and blessed them. They were
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  Speaker 1: God's people, and yet they had an evil heart of
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  Speaker 1: unbelief during this entire time. This reminds me of a
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  Speaker 1: few verses from James Chapter two, nineteen through twenty six.
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  Speaker 1: James gives a similar warning to his fellow church members.
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  Speaker 1: Starting in verse nineteen, James says, you believe that God
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  Speaker 1: is won. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder,
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  Speaker 1: But do you want to know, vain man, that faith
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  Speaker 1: apart from works is dead. Wasn't Abraham our father, justified
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  Speaker 1: by works in that he offered up eyes Isaac, his
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  Speaker 1: son on the altar. You see that faith worked with
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  Speaker 1: his works, and by works faith was perfected. So the
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  Speaker 1: scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God, and it
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  Speaker 1: was accounted to him as righteousness, and he was called
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  Speaker 1: the friend of God. You see then that by works
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  Speaker 1: a man is justified, and not only by faith. In
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  Speaker 1: the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute, also justified by
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  Speaker 1: works when she received the messengers and sent them out
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  Speaker 1: another way, For as the body apart from the spirit
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  Speaker 1: is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
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  Speaker 1: The reason this passage ties so perfectly in to Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: chapter three is because the people in the wilderness may
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  Speaker 1: have understood that God existed. You know, they did understand
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  Speaker 1: that God existed, because they specifically said, Yahweh is our God.
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh brought us out into this wilderness. Yahweh is here
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  Speaker 1: with us. They always said that, but their faith was
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  Speaker 1: dead because they did not have the works to back
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  Speaker 1: that faith up. And a lot of people might not
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  Speaker 1: understand what that means, because when you hear the word works,
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  Speaker 1: you often think of like a physical charity kind of work,
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  Speaker 1: where you like go out in a soup kitchen and
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  Speaker 1: maybe hand out soup, or you give money to the poor,
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  Speaker 1: or you adopt an orphan or something along those lines.
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  Speaker 1: That's what a lot of people believe that good works is.
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  Speaker 1: But I do not believe that James is specifically talking
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  Speaker 1: about good works in the sense of like giving money
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  Speaker 1: to the poor or something like that. I believe that
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  Speaker 1: James is talking about the work of obedience to God.
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  Speaker 1: That's kind of what he says right here he mentions
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  Speaker 1: Abraham in verse twenty one. He says, wasn't Abraham our
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  Speaker 1: father justified by works. In the fact that he offered
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  Speaker 1: up Isaac, his son on the altar. You see that
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  Speaker 1: faith worked with his works, and by works, faith was perfect.
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  Speaker 1: So the scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed in God,
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  Speaker 1: and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he
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  Speaker 1: was called the friend of God. So, in other words,
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was justified before God, not just because he believed
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  Speaker 1: that God existed, but that he actually backed up his
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  Speaker 1: belief by obeying God to the furthest extent that he
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  Speaker 1: possibly could, by potentially offering his son Isaac as a
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice to God. And I'm not going to go back
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  Speaker 1: into that story for those of you who don't know it.
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  Speaker 1: That's all talked about in Genesis. But the thing that
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  Speaker 1: you need to know is that Abraham obeyed God and
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  Speaker 1: it was counted to him as righteousness. So that's the
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  Speaker 1: work that James is talking about here, this obedience, and
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  Speaker 1: this is backed up actually in Hebrews chapter two. And
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  Speaker 1: we just talked about this last week where Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: perfected through his sufferings. But Hebrews two, verse ten says
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  Speaker 1: this it became him for whom are all things, and
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  Speaker 1: through whom are all things in bringing many children to
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  Speaker 1: glory to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
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  Speaker 1: So Jesus became perfect through these sufferings. And what that
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  Speaker 1: means is that he showed his perfection by becoming obedient
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  Speaker 1: to death, even death on a cross. His obedience is
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  Speaker 1: what proved his perfection. So that's the work that James
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  Speaker 1: is talking about. This obedience we're supposed to have to
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  Speaker 1: God the Father. That's what Jesus actually said to his disciples.
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  Speaker 1: He said, if you love me, then keep my commandments.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just enough to believe in Jesus. James says that, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, even the demons believe in God. Even the
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  Speaker 1: demons know that God exists and they believe in him
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  Speaker 1: and they shudder. But what the demons don't have is
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  Speaker 1: that obedience to God. Because the demons actually fell, they
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  Speaker 1: purposely disobeyed God, however long ago it was, and so
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  Speaker 1: they are not justified before God. That's the same thing
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  Speaker 1: with the people in the wilderness. They believed in God,
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  Speaker 1: but they had no obedience toward him. They had this
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  Speaker 1: heart of rebellion over and over and over again. That's
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  Speaker 1: why Hebrews chapter three warns us, do not have that
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  Speaker 1: heart of rebellion, that heart of unbelief, in falling away
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  Speaker 1: from the Living God. And the scary thing is that
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  Speaker 1: as Christians, we can become like that, We can get
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  Speaker 1: this heart of unbelief, this heart of rebellion where we
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: fall away from the Living God. Which is why the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit warns us so desperately, do not do that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: believe in God, but also have that obedience. That obedience
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: is what proves that you love God, just as Abraham
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: proved that he loved God by obeying him. That is
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: how you and I are truly going to be justified
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: before God, not just by saying a prayer here and
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: there and being like, yeah, God, I believe in you,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: but truly stepping out and doing His will when He
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: calls you to do something in your life. Here's what
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it says in Hebrews three p. Thirteen to conclude, but
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: exhort one another day by day, so as long as
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: it is called today, lest any one of you be
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So don't be hardened
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: by sin while it is still today, meaning while you
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: still have time here on this earth. Do not be
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is disobedience to God.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: You disobey what God wants you to do in your life,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: and so you sin. Do not disobey any longer like
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the people in the wilderness were constantly doing. Now, the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: last thing I want to say here about this passage
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: is that I don't think that this means that you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: can lose your salvation. A lot of people believe that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: this verse right here proves that you can lose salvation.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I do not believe that. I believe that once you
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: are saved, once Jesus has done that work in your life,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: that you cannot be unsaved from that because the work
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of Jesus is too powerful. It actually says elsewhere in
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Hebrews that nobody can pluck you out of God's hand,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: like once He's got you, He's got you forever. So personally,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that this verse in Hebrews means that
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you can lose your salvation. What I do think it
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: means is two things. Firstly, it's warning the lukewarm Christians,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the people who go to church and they say, yeah,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I believe in Jesus, and they check off that box
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: for the week, and then they do nothing else with
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: their lives. They don't really have a true obedience. They're
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: not proving their faith in any specific way. Maybe they're
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: being downright disobedient in some ways, saying yeah, I'm a Christian,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: but then living a lifestyle that is completely opposite to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: what the Bible teaches us to do. But I think
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: this verse could also be warning Christians that constantly doubt
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: God every single time something goes wrong in their life.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: They blame God like the people in the wilderness did.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Every single time they don't understand something God is doing,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: they get frustrated or they just resort to fear and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: anger whenever things don't go their way. And I think
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that's more Christians than people want to admit. You know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I struggle with that where I'm like, God, I don't
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: know what you're doing in my life, and I immediately
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: just get furious that God is like allowing this to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: happen to me, because I'm like, I'm a good person,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Why is this happening to me? Those two groups of
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: people is who this verse is warning. Don't be the
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: people in the worldness that tested God's patience because they
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: refused to obey him because they refused to see all
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of the miracles that he had once done, because they
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: got angry whenever things didn't go their way. They were unthankful.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Don't be that type of person, not because you're going
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to lose your salvation, but because your relationship with God
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: is going to be damaged. Just as the people in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the wilderness, their relationship with God was damaged, and God
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: ended up rightfully punishing them for their extreme disobedience and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a rebellion in constant anger against him. Instead, today put
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: your trust fully in Jesus, not just believing that he exists,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: but believing that his will is good and submitting to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that will, being obedient to his will. The Holy Spirit
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: is warning us to do this today because if we
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: don't do it. Verse eleven says, as I swore in
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: my wrath, they will not enter into my rest. The
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is the great comforter. He comforts people, He
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: gives them peace, he gives them strength, he gives them rest.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, think about all the gifts of the Holy
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Spirit and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, fantastic things
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that we all want in our lives. If we refuse
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: to submit and just have that rebellious nature against God.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: We will not enter into the Holy Spirit's rest, the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: peace that he offers us, the comfort that he gives us.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: And that's why the Holy Spirit warns us not to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: be like the people in the wilderness. And how do
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: we do that? Again? It's believing in him, being obedient
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and submitting to his will. If we do those things,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: we will have the rest from the Holy Spirit. Faithless.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: This was such an impactful episode to me, and I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: hope it was to you guys as well. And we're
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: going to talk more about this subject, actually about the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit's rest, because the author of the Book of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Hebrews really goes into that topic, which is why a
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: lot of people believe that Hebrews says you can lose
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: your salvation. We'll get into more of that topic as
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: well pretty soon here, but faithful listeners, before I close
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: this episode out with a few more points, here is
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: a quick ad break. You know what, There is nothing
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: more frustrating then when you do something nice for somebody
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and it goes completely unnoticed. God did that time and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: time again for his people in the wilderness. He was
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: showing them love and grace and mercy, giving them food.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: It says in scripture that none of their clothes even
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wore out for forty years straight. That God like supernaturally
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: sustained their clothing so that they didn't have to make more.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Even their sandals, with all that walking, never wore out.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Not to mention, God provided water to them on multiple occasions.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: He fed them honey from a rock, is what it says.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: He also gave them food from heaven, the manna that
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: rained down on them. He gave them quail and meat.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Not to mention, think about all the stuff He did
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: in Egypt. He showed the Israelites time and time again
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: that He was there. God. On top of that, the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Israelites left Egypt not just freedmen, but completely wealthy because
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the Egyptians were so terrified of the Israelites that they
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: actually gave them money like they allowed the Israelites to
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: completely plunder them. Is what it says. They gave them
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: food and animals and money and gifts just to make
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: them leave. They wanted the Israelites completely gone out of Egypt,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: because that is how scared they were of the plagues
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that were taking place due to God coming to the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: aid of his people. And yet during all that time,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: all those nice and wonderful and kind things God gave
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: his people, it was never enough for them. They always
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: wanted more. That's why God told them, you're not going
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: to enter into the Promised Land. I was going to
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: give it to you on a silver spoon, and you
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: said it wasn't good enough. You were too scared to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: take what I was going to give you. So now
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: you're going to die in the wilderness because that's ultimately
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: what you said you wanted. That's all talked about in
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Numbers chapter fourteen, by the way, where God's like, all right,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I'll give you exactly what you want. You said that
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: you're going to die in the wilderness, so that's what
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you're going to get. God is so much more patient
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: than you and I are, because you know, if you
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: could if you did that many nice things for somebody
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and they were constantly demanding more and being so rude
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and rebellious and mean to you over and over and
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: over again, how would you respond to that. That is
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: why as Christians we cannot act like that to Jesus.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Jesus gave us the ultimate gift, his own life. We
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: should be thankful for that every single day. Instead of
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: treating him the way the people in the wilderness treated
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the miracles that God gave them. So, Faithful listeners, I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: hope you take that with you through the rest of
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: this weekend. I will see you guys on Monday. If
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I don't see you tomorrow, don't forget. Friday's is for
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the members. If you guys want to become a member
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and tune into the Friday podcast where we're going through
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the psalms, click the link in the description that says
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: kofee and become a Coffee Tier member and you will
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: gain access to the Friday Podcast, which is on a
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: completely different platform and you won't be able to find
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: it unless you become a member. Faithful listeners, have a
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: fantastic and wonderful rest of your day, happy listening, and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: God bless. I just want to take a second to
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.