back to index2020-07-26 From Death to Life
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews 9.11-14. 00:00:11.000 |
Reading out of the NASB, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest to the good things 00:00:25.640 |
to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 00:00:32.840 |
And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood He entered the holy 00:00:36.800 |
place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 00:00:40.460 |
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a high fir sprinkling those who have 00:00:44.440 |
been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of 00:00:48.880 |
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your 00:00:53.240 |
conscience from dead works to serve the living God." 00:00:59.160 |
Christian loving Father, we pray that Your Word would go forth, will not return until 00:01:03.140 |
You have accomplished what You have ordained for it. 00:01:06.960 |
I pray that You would soften our hearts, open our ears, Lord God, that we may hear from 00:01:14.420 |
May Your Word have its impact that You've desired from us and let it be ordained according 00:01:22.540 |
If you've been watching the news at all, and I highly encourage you to follow the international 00:01:28.720 |
news and what's going on with especially in the Christian community. 00:01:32.680 |
I think in the last two to three years, the uptick in persecution, whether it is in the 00:01:38.580 |
Middle East or India or China, I think most people who've been paying attention, have 00:01:43.520 |
been Christian for a while, will agree that persecution has been increasing exponentially 00:01:50.620 |
But this is not just what's going on internationally, it's happening locally. 00:01:54.820 |
And so all the more we need to be paying attention, because there's going to come a time, if not 00:02:02.420 |
pretty soon, where nominal Christianity is not going to be an option. 00:02:07.620 |
Just like in China now, they made an official edict that in the churches they have to hang 00:02:13.580 |
a picture of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping, and to acknowledge them as their ultimate authority 00:02:20.080 |
or else they're not going to get social help from the government. 00:02:25.740 |
And so they made that clear, and again the persecution has been increasing there, but 00:02:29.620 |
more and more we see signs of that beginning to happen in the United States. 00:02:34.520 |
So this casual church attendance, I think at some point, is going to go out the door. 00:02:40.540 |
People who just grew up in the church and happen to go to church will be forced to make 00:02:47.820 |
And nominal Christianity will not, I think, when persecution comes, is not going to be 00:02:55.160 |
One of the benefits of persecution causes Christians, whether nominal or true, to ask 00:03:01.800 |
the question, "Where do I stand with Christ?" 00:03:07.800 |
Again, you and I live in a generation where the churches have worked extra hard to make 00:03:12.680 |
it as easy as possible for as many people to come to church. 00:03:17.760 |
And as a result of that, the gospel has been watered down. 00:03:21.560 |
Anything offensive, anything that doesn't sit right, anything that goes against our 00:03:25.240 |
culture has been, the sharp edges have been taken out. 00:03:30.040 |
So we have masses of people who are attending churches and have never really asked the question, 00:03:38.880 |
And when the Bible tells us to count the cost, we have churches filled with people who have 00:03:47.480 |
And so the benefit of persecution, persecution forces us to take a step back and take a hard 00:03:53.480 |
look at what it is that we believe, what are the consequences of our belief, and causes 00:04:04.520 |
The reason why I say all of this is because the book of Hebrews is written in that same 00:04:09.920 |
The first generation of Christians, they didn't know what Christianity was and all they knew 00:04:15.400 |
was there's something new swept the land and all of a sudden there's this hope of eternal 00:04:20.040 |
life and if you believe in Jesus Christ, you're going to have eternity secure. 00:04:24.700 |
So there was some pushback from the secular world, there was some pushback from the Jewish 00:04:28.400 |
community, but for the most part, it was just something new and novel. 00:04:33.940 |
And so this church that the author is writing to, initially was excited. 00:04:40.360 |
Initially they participated in this growth, but now about 20 to 30 years removed from 00:04:45.680 |
that, Nero's persecution most likely is in full swing and some of the leaders are being 00:04:54.240 |
People are being dragged into the Colosseum and in the midst of that, some of them were 00:05:06.840 |
They didn't say, "You know, we don't believe this." 00:05:09.400 |
They were trying to synchrotize their past with the new things that they were learning. 00:05:13.840 |
And so the whole point of what he says about Jesus being superior to angels, to Moses, 00:05:19.680 |
to the sacrificial system, he's the greatest high priest, he has better sacrifice, better 00:05:23.960 |
tabernacle, all of it is to really ask the question, "Are you going to follow Christ? 00:05:34.860 |
The text that we're looking at, even though it is not stated in the form of a question, 00:05:41.800 |
Now that there are serious consequences for being a Christian, is Jesus better than whatever 00:05:50.720 |
So there's three things that I want to highlight in what he says today. 00:05:55.040 |
Verses 11 and 12, he's really asking that question in a statement form. 00:05:59.800 |
He's asking the question, "Is Jesus better than anything that you have?" 00:06:03.880 |
Number two, Jesus is better because he delivers us from empty works, from dead works. 00:06:10.820 |
And then verse 14, Jesus frees us to serve the living God. 00:06:14.800 |
Those are the three things that we want to be looking at this morning. 00:06:17.500 |
So the first thing that he says in verse 11 and 12, that Jesus is better high priest. 00:06:22.880 |
He's the better sacrifice in a better tabernacle. 00:06:31.180 |
We're not from the Jewish community, so we may look at that and say, "Well, that's good 00:06:34.840 |
to know, but I don't know if there's any practical application here because we never struggled 00:06:44.540 |
But if you understand why the tabernacle was created in the beginning, the whole purpose 00:06:49.140 |
of the tabernacle and the sacrificial system was to do two things. 00:06:57.480 |
So that we would know that God is holy and that we would know how sinful we are. 00:07:06.220 |
And then two, to point to the only solution to our sins is the atonement of Jesus Christ. 00:07:14.700 |
To teach us who we are and who God is, and then to give us a solution in Jesus Christ. 00:07:20.560 |
But by the time that this is being written, the tabernacle became nothing more than religion. 00:07:27.100 |
Now at the core of every community, if you go back and if you travel anywhere in the 00:07:31.700 |
world, if you go back 30, 40, 50 years, and it may be in some cultures even to this day, 00:07:38.500 |
you'll see what religion means to most people. 00:07:41.100 |
I remember the first time I went to China, I think it was in 1991. 00:07:49.420 |
I went and we were traveling the Silk Road for about 30 days and almost every single 00:07:57.820 |
We were on a train to go to the western side, to the southern side, the northern side, and 00:08:03.780 |
outside of the major cities like Beijing or to Shanghai, we would go to these obscure 00:08:13.360 |
And every city that we went to, we would eventually end up at some Buddhist temple. 00:08:19.220 |
And by the time we were about 15 days into it, I was so sick of it. 00:08:22.940 |
We would travel miles and sometimes we would be on a train for 20, 30 hours and we'd get 00:08:28.260 |
to the end and we'd walk up this hill and it said, "This is called 100 Buddha Temple." 00:08:41.900 |
And then we would go to another train and we'd get to the other side of China and then 00:08:47.980 |
This is called a 1000 Buddha Mountain because they carved a 1000 Buddhas up on this mountain. 00:08:54.300 |
Then we go to another city and we hike up to the highest hill and we get up way up in 00:09:00.160 |
This is called the Buddha's Highest Heaven Temple. 00:09:03.940 |
So about 15 days of this, I got so sick of this. 00:09:07.180 |
And I started to think, "Why was this so important?" 00:09:10.380 |
Like everything that they did centered around Buddha because it was a Buddhist culture. 00:09:16.140 |
If you traveled in any amount, most cultures, if you go back in history, whether it is a 00:09:25.420 |
Buddhist culture, whether it is an Islamic culture, whether it is a Hindu culture, religion 00:09:37.380 |
It affects what they wear, where they live, what they hope for, everything that they do. 00:09:43.420 |
And at the core of religion is if we appease this God, we can get his blessing so that 00:09:49.740 |
our farm will grow, we would have more children, that we would be healthy, wealthy, and that 00:09:55.340 |
we could progress and we can get ahead in life. 00:09:58.220 |
So no matter what religion it is, it was their avenue to be successful in this world. 00:10:06.140 |
Now whether that's Buddha or Islam or whatever religion, at the base of it is, if your goodness 00:10:12.260 |
outweighs your badness, you're going to get good things. 00:10:17.300 |
By the time of Christ, the temple and the tabernacle became nothing more than an avenue 00:10:24.160 |
for them to tap into this God so that they can have God's blessing. 00:10:28.920 |
So when they were saying "Shalom" to one another, "Peace," they were saying, "Well, if we obeyed 00:10:33.340 |
the law and if we went to the temple and gave enough sacrifice, and if our goodness outweigh 00:10:46.340 |
Now we can hear now, you know, say, "You know, we don't live in a necessarily a religious 00:10:52.500 |
You know, at best we live in a post-Christian culture. 00:10:57.660 |
But it's not a religious culture, it's a secular culture. 00:11:00.780 |
But in a secular culture, our avenue to get what we want has changed. 00:11:06.300 |
We may not go to Buddha and light incense, or we may not be Hindus, but the avenue in 00:11:13.700 |
A lot of people come to church for the same reason. 00:11:16.700 |
That if I do enough right things, that maybe God will bless my business, my life, my children. 00:11:23.020 |
Or we may think that maybe if we get the right president, maybe if we change the culture, 00:11:27.660 |
maybe if we change this and change that, my life would be better. 00:11:32.520 |
So we may not have physical idols, but whatever it is that we are pursuing, that through that 00:11:41.580 |
We may not have a specific name for that, other than secularism or materialism, the 00:11:46.980 |
idol is still the same, because the idol is worshipped for the purpose of getting something 00:11:53.820 |
See, the tabernacle became nothing more than religion to these Jews. 00:11:58.180 |
And so they were beginning to drift back because now it seemed like if they continued to follow 00:12:02.940 |
Christ, they would actually forfeit something meaningful. 00:12:08.180 |
And as a result of that, they were kind of drifting back and they weren't denying Christ. 00:12:13.580 |
Maybe a part of Judaism where they came from, and then to retain some of the gospel that 00:12:19.420 |
And it is in the middle of that, and this is the reason why he keeps saying over and 00:12:23.880 |
over again, "Jesus is better than the angels. 00:12:31.060 |
And at the end of the day, he's asking the same question over and over and over and over 00:12:45.440 |
Is Jesus better than whatever it is that brings joy in your life? 00:12:55.100 |
Because anything that we place between us and God is an idol. 00:13:00.620 |
And that's why he says, "Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come." 00:13:05.580 |
He doesn't promise that if you follow Christ, that if you sacrifice now, if you do good 00:13:10.020 |
things now, great things are going to happen to your children. 00:13:14.020 |
That if you come to church and serve and give enough, that if you started a business, that 00:13:20.100 |
That whatever struggles that you have, if you appease this holy God, that you're going 00:13:23.860 |
to have a better education, find a better job, find a better husband, find a better 00:13:30.460 |
In fact, some of the most godliest people live miserable lives following Christ. 00:13:37.500 |
You may be the most faithful Christian and get cancer and die the next day because our 00:13:46.660 |
You can pursue God, be the most faithful Christian, give the most, serve the most, sacrifice the 00:13:51.540 |
most, and in the eyes of the world, live a tragic life and die. 00:13:58.100 |
He said, "Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come." 00:14:02.100 |
And the good things he's talking about is not necessarily this life. 00:14:06.300 |
They're godly people who are beheaded because they follow Christ. 00:14:16.300 |
And as a result of following Christ, he became a tent maker. 00:14:19.780 |
Every city that he went, he was driven out, went to prison, then ultimately beheaded. 00:14:26.660 |
His life was miserable because he followed Christ. 00:14:32.980 |
If a good life here is not promised in the Gospel, why would anybody follow Christ? 00:14:39.260 |
Only people who would genuinely follow the Christ of the Bible is a person who believes 00:14:49.720 |
If the payoff is here, then it's nothing more than religion. 00:14:53.620 |
Nothing more than how the Jews view the tabernacle. 00:14:55.420 |
It is nothing more than the Buddhists who are building 100 temples because the more 00:14:59.940 |
that they go there, they're going to get blessing from God. 00:15:05.020 |
You may call him Jesus, but Jesus has become another idol to get what we want. 00:15:10.020 |
And it is in that context, he says he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, 00:15:19.440 |
He entered the holy place once for all and obtained eternal redemption. 00:15:24.240 |
He says this term over and over again, once for all. 00:15:34.280 |
Because our temptation to continue to drift back into our idols is constant. 00:15:41.460 |
You may commit one day and then be tempted the next day. 00:15:45.340 |
And we are constantly in need or wanting and tempted and coveting something else. 00:15:50.160 |
And that's why every time we hear about Jesus's atonement, it emphasizes it is done once for 00:15:56.460 |
It is not through Jesus you are looking for something else. 00:15:59.420 |
Jesus is not strengthening us so that we can get something else. 00:16:02.340 |
But when you have come to Christ, you have come to the end of the road. 00:16:11.700 |
You know, years ago, I think it's been about 12 years, we were doing our membership class 00:16:19.300 |
And we had a Hindu lady who came to church and started attending this class. 00:16:24.020 |
And we teach doctrines about God, Christ, Holy Spirit, about the inerrancy of scripture. 00:16:28.900 |
And so we're going through these doctrines and she sat through all of it. 00:16:32.340 |
And then, you know, we were hearing that she wanted to become a member. 00:16:36.420 |
So we got excited, you know, that a Hindu lady was committed Hindu all her life and 00:16:40.560 |
all of a sudden she wants to give her life to Christ. 00:16:43.500 |
And so we were trying to interview and talk to her. 00:16:47.900 |
And in the process of talking to her, we realized that she wasn't converting at all. 00:16:52.580 |
You know, so initially we asked this, oh, so you want to follow Jesus Christ? 00:16:56.380 |
Oh, so you're going to denounce your Hindu faith? 00:17:02.700 |
I said, well, you know, I, you know, like it's very intriguing and all I like Christians. 00:17:08.580 |
Christians are very friendly, you know, and then when I come to church and everybody's 00:17:16.920 |
So in her mind, she was basically adding Christ to all the other idols so that she can have 00:17:24.120 |
all the other things that all the other idols promise and then to have what the Christians 00:17:31.520 |
So all she did was add Christ to the idols that she was already following. 00:17:39.400 |
Sad to say Christianity looks very similar to that in many circles, in many Christians. 00:17:53.000 |
That maybe if I add Christ, you know, all these other things that I can do to live a 00:17:57.240 |
And then I want assurance that if I die, I'm not going to hell. 00:18:01.140 |
And it's nothing more than adding Christ as an idol to the existing idols they follow. 00:18:06.600 |
And again, it is in this where he says over and over and over again, is Christ better? 00:18:17.640 |
Is he better than whatever it is that you're shooting for or hoping for? 00:18:21.840 |
If your life turns miserable and you have Christ, will it be enough? 00:18:28.700 |
Whatever it is that you're pursuing, you don't get it. 00:18:32.040 |
And at the end of your life, you live a difficult, hard life, and yet you have Christ. 00:18:42.760 |
I know this is something that we ask up in the pulpit. 00:18:47.880 |
Is this something that you only hear up in the pulpit once a week or at Bible study? 00:18:53.400 |
Or is this something that you ask yourself in your daily life? 00:18:59.500 |
Do you ask yourself, am I genuinely following Christ? 00:19:06.460 |
Because he who drinks of the water that the world gives, he says he will thirst again. 00:19:13.180 |
If you eat of the bread that this world gives, you will hunger again. 00:19:19.020 |
He who drinks of the water and eats of the bread that only Christ can give, he will no 00:19:30.300 |
He may not phrase it in those words, but basically that's what he's saying repeatedly over and 00:19:34.100 |
over in every single chapter, at every conclusion, of every Christology that he's stating in 00:19:39.780 |
the book of Hebrews, he's asking the same question. 00:20:00.020 |
At the end and conclusion, which is a question that every Christian needs to be able to answer. 00:20:06.800 |
Because especially now, if we're not anchored in Christ, the tides are pushing us away. 00:20:13.580 |
And if we're drifting or we're just thinking like we're just going to casually just kind 00:20:16.940 |
of sit on our boat, the tide is violently taking us away from Christ. 00:20:23.500 |
We need to anchor in Christ and to be able to answer this question with an emphatic yes. 00:20:32.780 |
People snickering and not liking you, that's not persecution. 00:20:39.900 |
When persecution comes, if you are not anchored, you will not stay in place. 00:20:46.220 |
Secondly, he is better because he delivers us from dead works. 00:20:51.980 |
In verse 13, it says, "For if the blood of goats and bulls and ashes of high for sprinkling 00:20:56.380 |
those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh." 00:21:02.620 |
What they were doing had some value because it allowed them to enter into the tabernacle. 00:21:08.380 |
And they were able to come and give sacrifices because they cleansed themselves and went 00:21:13.980 |
But outside of that, he says, it does nothing. 00:21:19.180 |
Because the whole point of the tabernacle was to demonstrate to them that they are not 00:21:27.500 |
In Hebrews chapter 6, 1-2, he says, "Therefore, leaving the elementary teachings about Christ, 00:21:32.780 |
let us press on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. 00:21:39.620 |
And the faith toward God, of instruction about washing and laying down of hands and the resurrection 00:21:45.620 |
In other words, this religious activity of thinking that if we serve enough, if we give 00:21:53.420 |
enough, if we sacrifice enough, is that all of these things of the old covenant, it's 00:22:02.460 |
Just like if you've been driving a car, you know, if you drove it for 10 years, I mean, 00:22:09.540 |
Nobody buys, you know, pays money to buy a car that has 400,000 miles on it. 00:22:16.220 |
But if you say, if you have 400,000 miles on it, it's like, wow! 00:22:22.700 |
You don't expect it to go to another 400,000 miles, right? 00:22:26.420 |
I know somebody after service is going to come up and say, oh, I have a car that's 500,000 00:22:34.020 |
You don't buy because you know it's about to die. 00:22:37.940 |
So what he's saying is the tabernacle was given in order to show who God is and ultimately 00:22:47.380 |
That all that you were doing in the tabernacle, it is passed away. 00:22:54.020 |
God allowed it to be destroyed because it had no use for it anymore. 00:22:58.740 |
And in the same way, now that Christ has come and has redeemed us, he says the dead works 00:23:08.140 |
Now, we can say, you know, I've never been to the tabernacle. 00:23:10.780 |
I've never given sacrifices, so this is not relevant to me. 00:23:15.380 |
At the core of who we are, at the core of who we are, because we are born in this world, 00:23:22.640 |
we have a works-based righteousness embedded deeply inside of us. 00:23:29.600 |
Because ever since you are born, you are taught to be independent. 00:23:35.660 |
So if you have a child and you're raising it, we have markers, right? 00:23:39.740 |
By the time they're one, those of you who raise children, by the time they're one, what 00:23:52.140 |
Usually around one is when the kids start walking. 00:23:56.620 |
Some kids walk at 10 months, some kids walk a little bit later than that, but around one, 00:24:00.300 |
they say, oh, that's when they start walking. 00:24:02.180 |
And by the time they're about two is when they're starting to formulate words. 00:24:07.020 |
They'll put two words, three words together, or some of them are a little bit faster, some 00:24:10.820 |
of them are a little bit slower, but there's these markers. 00:24:14.220 |
They get to a certain point, they start wiping their own butt. 00:24:20.200 |
They get a little bit behind that and they start tying their own shoes. 00:24:25.580 |
They come and they compare your kids to the other kids. 00:24:35.460 |
After a certain point, they wake up and they pour their own cereal and then they can make 00:24:38.780 |
their own breakfast and then they go start taking their own showers. 00:24:46.660 |
You know, they become independent, walk to school by themselves, or come back and forth. 00:24:50.140 |
And then eventually they become mature enough, independent enough where they get a job, they 00:24:56.920 |
And so we have these maturing marks where because they've worked hard, because they 00:25:02.860 |
put in the work in from the parents and the kids, they become more independent. 00:25:13.940 |
And at the core of who we are, works-based righteousness or reward makes sense. 00:25:23.680 |
So imagine if you weren't a Christian and you heard for the first time, here's this 00:25:29.700 |
criminal who lived all his life selling drugs and doing no good things. 00:25:38.140 |
So he comes out and he's going to go to heaven for eternity. 00:25:41.600 |
And here's this person who paid his taxes, was a good citizen, was kind to his neighbors, 00:25:47.880 |
and was generous, a good citizen, and because he didn't believe in Jesus Christ, he's going 00:26:04.480 |
Because everything inside of us says that's wrong. 00:26:09.340 |
The guy who worked his tail off, he should get the greater reward, not that guy. 00:26:21.080 |
Even as I shared that illustration to you, my guess is most of you are agreeing with 00:26:34.240 |
We tell other people about it, not realizing what that sounds like to non-Christians. 00:26:41.800 |
Unless, unless you realize that we are all dead in our trespasses. 00:26:51.560 |
That this was not a race between the fast and the slow. 00:26:55.600 |
That some people worked hard, got faster, some people who didn't work as hard, didn't 00:27:01.420 |
The Bible says we are dead in our trespasses. 00:27:05.020 |
And that was the whole purpose of the law, is to tell us that there is no hope. 00:27:12.260 |
Whether you are rich or whether you are moral and you lived all your life to be a good person 00:27:17.420 |
versus somebody who lived all his life to do no good. 00:27:21.060 |
That in the presence of a holy God, there is no hope. 00:27:28.120 |
And that was the purpose of the law, to break, to break this concept of, if I'm good enough, 00:27:35.000 |
if I work hard enough, that somehow I can appease this holy God. 00:27:43.120 |
And that's why religion is a shaking of fists toward this holy God and saying, "I will. 00:28:04.400 |
A religious philosophy, a religious living is nothing more than shaking his fist at a 00:28:10.240 |
holy God and saying, "I'm going to bridge this gap." 00:28:13.800 |
See the whole purpose of the law came to tell us that we are dead in our trespasses. 00:28:20.240 |
In Romans 3, 19-20, it says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those 00:28:27.120 |
who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed." 00:28:34.360 |
The purpose of the law came to basically to shut us up. 00:28:42.120 |
Whether you are Nicodemus or whether you are the Samaritan woman, all have sinned and fall 00:28:50.320 |
That we are all humbled before this holy God. 00:28:53.000 |
There's no one who can stand before a holy God. 00:28:55.560 |
No sinner can ever stand before a holy God and demand justice. 00:29:01.280 |
Because justice requires condemnation for eternity, even to the most moralist of person. 00:29:13.560 |
It is useless in bridging this gap between us and God. 00:29:18.440 |
And all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law, no flesh 00:29:24.600 |
For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 00:29:34.880 |
Any Christian man who becomes more and more proud because of his learning, because of 00:29:40.960 |
his experience, because of his fruit, has completely missed the mark. 00:29:46.680 |
The more mature we become, the more humble we become. 00:29:51.420 |
Because the more we recognize the distance between us and him without Christ. 00:29:55.960 |
Galatians 2.16, "Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the 00:30:04.000 |
Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by the faith in Christ 00:30:07.720 |
and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified." 00:30:14.560 |
You see, when we repent, when we repent, we're not coming to God and saying, "I'm sorry, 00:30:27.280 |
Repentance is coming before God and saying, "I am unable." 00:30:34.920 |
Give me another chance so that I'll do it again." 00:30:38.840 |
True repentance is recognizing that we are unable and surrendering to this God. 00:30:44.320 |
See, the blood of Christ frees us from dead works. 00:30:49.960 |
Until a man rests in Christ, he will never be able to labor in Christ. 00:30:56.720 |
Because human experience by his own works, like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, "It's nothing 00:31:08.520 |
All this time raising godly children, vanity." 00:31:14.280 |
If we work hard enough, we'll raise good children. 00:31:20.720 |
Settle down and be able to live a nice, comfortable life according to Solomon, according to the 00:31:26.040 |
wisdom of the world, according to the gospel. 00:31:34.240 |
Ecclesiastes 2, 22-23, "For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with 00:31:41.060 |
Because all his days, his task is painful and grievous. 00:31:52.160 |
Until every human being, every person in this room learns to find rest in the atonement 00:31:59.240 |
of Christ, we become useless in the kingdom of God. 00:32:11.040 |
And then when we're not doing well, we have low self-esteem. 00:32:18.840 |
So either pride or self-loathing is a result of a righteousness based on our work. 00:32:29.200 |
The atonement of Christ frees us from the bondage of dead works. 00:32:34.480 |
And only an individual who has been freed from the bondage of dead works can be useful, 00:32:46.720 |
The word for serve here is the same word that he uses in verse one. 00:32:50.640 |
Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. 00:32:56.440 |
But in this passage in verse 14, the same word, same root word is used to describe to 00:33:05.620 |
The word proskuneo means a position of surrender. 00:33:12.700 |
And that's the word that is used most prominently in the New Testament. 00:33:16.720 |
But this word lechu'o is describing a physical action. 00:33:22.840 |
In this context, talking about the tabernacle, the priests are going and giving sacrifices 00:33:26.240 |
and everything that they were doing, it was an act of worship. 00:33:29.540 |
So to apply that to today, when he says that only a man who has been freed from his dead 00:33:34.620 |
works, that he is free to serve the living God, to worship the living God. 00:33:41.900 |
Worship is not simply what happens in this room from 1030 to 12. 00:33:48.620 |
By nature of the word worship, it means to love something, to adore something, to find 00:33:56.820 |
Just like if you get too carried away with sports, your friends will say, "Man, you worship 00:34:07.320 |
Or maybe you fell in love with your girlfriend or husband or wife or whatever and you just 00:34:13.260 |
like all you're thinking about is this person. 00:34:19.520 |
It means that you find so much joy in this, that's all you think about. 00:34:26.340 |
Some people get so carried away and just love Lakers to the point where they know where 00:34:36.120 |
If I asked you how much the Spalding basketball weighs, I bet you some of you guys know. 00:34:42.580 |
I bet you you know where the leather is made. 00:34:45.620 |
It used to be made in this country, but because of the weather condition and the political 00:34:49.100 |
climate, the leather was cheaper out in China and then the political situation, so they 00:34:54.560 |
Starting from next year, they're going to bring another ball, but the weight is too 00:34:59.980 |
And then next year, the eastern side is going to use this basketball, but the western side 00:35:05.480 |
But after two months, they're going to try it out and they're going to see what's going 00:35:14.340 |
No one's paying you to do that, but because you love it that much. 00:35:21.460 |
You get so much enjoyment out of it that you give yourself fully to that. 00:35:31.520 |
So when the Bible tells us to worship God in spirit and in truth, He's not simply talking 00:35:36.640 |
about going through the regulation of coming to church and singing songs and giving and 00:35:45.640 |
He's talking about seeing God's glory and becoming a worshiper of God. 00:35:52.740 |
That we become obsessed with Him because there's nothing better than Him. 00:36:00.960 |
I remember when I first became a Christian, asking the Bible study leader if I can come 00:36:07.560 |
I was living in Burbank in the middle of baseball tryouts and I spent eight months preparing 00:36:12.440 |
for this baseball tryout and I became a Christian in the middle of winter break and I just lost 00:36:21.760 |
And as a young believer, I didn't know that you were allowed to come to Bible study. 00:36:33.040 |
So not only do they want me to come, they said, "I'll pick you up." 00:36:36.480 |
So I had one of the Bible study leaders come from LA and pick me up in Burbank every Friday 00:36:44.120 |
But I remember thinking, "Wow, this is so awesome." 00:36:50.260 |
And they had a prayer meeting at 10 o'clock and I was like, "Can I come to this prayer 00:37:00.160 |
Let me stay sometimes two, three in the morning. 00:37:03.760 |
And then we would just sleep at the church, wake up the next day and they would take me 00:37:07.360 |
I don't know if my parents were worried or not. 00:37:17.060 |
When they first become a Christian and first become a worshiper of Christ, they're like, 00:37:25.000 |
I'm trying to get people to sit more in the front. 00:37:30.120 |
And I've had people ask me, "Can I dress this way? 00:37:42.200 |
Usually you have a group of people who are eager to serve and it's like, "Oh, can I serve? 00:37:48.800 |
And then you have the other half that's like, "Do I have to serve? 00:37:57.600 |
That's the difference between worshiping and religion. 00:38:02.380 |
People who are going through the motion and checking off the things that you're supposed 00:38:05.800 |
to do versus somebody who's seen the glory of Christ and fell in love. 00:38:12.600 |
That's why he describes the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your 00:38:20.000 |
Is to restore the worship that we lost because we've fallen from his glory. 00:38:34.020 |
It showed us the beauty of the God that created us so that we may come back to worship him, 00:38:53.440 |
Because I find greater life here than anywhere else. 00:38:59.000 |
That when we recognize who he is, that he's better than anything else that we can possibly 00:39:04.640 |
pursue in this world, and he delivers us from the dead works that continue to bind us, then 00:39:12.200 |
he frees us so that we can serve and worship this living God. 00:39:17.900 |
That's the whole point of what he's trying to get. 00:39:21.200 |
He's not telling people who are drifting, he's like, "Hey, you better come back." 00:39:24.920 |
He said, "Do you not recognize what you are drifting from? 00:39:31.280 |
You're drifting from where the greatest joy and greatest life is found." 00:39:38.800 |
I pray that, especially now, again, you and I live in a generation where Christianity, 00:39:50.480 |
Because the gospel has been watered down so much. 00:39:53.400 |
We've been worried so much about losing numbers in the church that we've just, as long as 00:40:05.960 |
He said he's looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. 00:40:11.120 |
The greatest witness that you and I can be in this world is to love God with all your 00:40:19.600 |
And this world that doesn't know God will look at your life and say, "What is it about 00:40:34.200 |
Then we can say it's because of what Christ has done. 00:40:38.720 |
So my prayer is, especially now, as the turmoil and the tide violently is pushing our culture 00:40:47.240 |
away from Christ, that we absolutely must be anchored in Christ. 00:40:54.520 |
That we ask ourselves, not just this morning, not just today, but ask ourselves, "Is Christ 00:41:03.720 |
And if he is not, there's nothing else more important than to deal with that question. 00:41:15.400 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness, your goodness, your mercy. 00:41:23.400 |
I pray, Father God, that as you open our eyes to see the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory 00:41:30.440 |
of who you are, that cause us to be born again. 00:41:35.200 |
If we've drifted from that and been tempted and coveting things, Lord God, that are worthless, 00:41:40.640 |
help us, Lord God, to be re-anchored in Christ and Christ alone. 00:41:45.440 |
Help us to be a witness in this dark world that we may be the light. 00:41:50.420 |
Help us to have opportunities, Lord God, to be able to share the gospel, to be ready in 00:41:55.320 |
season and out of season to preach your word. 00:41:59.560 |
Help us, Lord God, as a church to stimulate, to provoke one another on toward loving good 00:42:04.680 |
deeds that in our community that Christ may be exalted, that joy and worship may flourish, 00:42:13.760 |
that the world may know that we worship the living God.