GYC Conference 2022: Break Forth

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The Sabbath

Erhard Gallos

Rest in Hebrews 4:9. What Rest is This?

Good morning, my name is Erhard Gallus as you know, and it is nice to see some of our former students from Andrews and some of our current students.

You should not make a statement like that right now here.

Good, So this seminar talks about the Sabbath and I have been asked to speak about the Sabbath in the context of Hebrews as I announced yesterday evening, last night in the context of Hebrews 4, right?

The text there says there remains a rest for the people of God.

So what I want to do with you today, so just to give you an overview, I want to briefly go over chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3, 4 and then do chapter 10 and see does the Sabbath play somewhere in?

What are the consequences of it, and what does it mean for us today?

Anybody looked over Hebrews 3 or 4 recently?

I see that you are about to say something, sir.

Pose your question right now, and I might address it as I go, or I might address it as I go about yes the nature of Christ okay oh yeah yeah yeah which which pertains to you before right there after after the the rest verses 14 to 16, and then it's picked up again in chapter 5 where Christ was made perfect through suffering.

If I have some time, I'll address that issue as well, no problem.

I mean, we can do a seminar on the book of Hebrews, but then we need a little bit more time.

The person from recent discussions from Manhattan.

The point he made is that it's not mentioned that we have a team in the New Testament.

Reality is, friends, and let's face it, and it's a trist reality that some of our Adventist theologians say we cannot defend the Sabbath from the New Testament, which I think is completely wrong.

Because if we can defend anything from scripture, from the New Testament, but it plays a little bit into what our brother here just said, that we cannot defend the Sabbath from, I mean with other people, right?

Not amongst ourselves, but with other people from the New Testament.

Let's try and see if that is true or not.

All right, so before we do that, let's have a short word of prayer.

We will start and I'll divide it up after I've done with Hebrews 3 and 4 I'll have a session of questions if you guys need something to write down here are pencils come and help yourself or signal me and I throw some pencils out I see somebody comes there and Put your questions down if you think you cannot keep them as long, or raise your hands immediately and I'll take it this way.

But I'll have a break after 3 and 4 and then we'll have the second session on Hebrews chapter 10.

And how does 3 and 4 relate to 10 as well?

So everybody understands what we're going to do, kind of how we break it down and what the purpose of this presentation is, yeah?

So it's basically what I want to do with you today is a little bit of a Bible study.

And I thought, OK, at GYC, it would be appropriate to do Bible studies, right?

Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll go.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for everybody who is here.

You have brought us safely here, and we thank you for that.

In spite of all the transportation issues that we are facing these days, we give you thanks that we are safely here, that we are in an environment where we can open your world.

We give you thanks, Father, for the peace and freedom we are living in.

We realize it has not always been like that and it most likely will not always be like that.

But for the time being we thank you and we ask that you help us make the most out of it.

To prepare for times that are not as good, as not as favorable towards us, towards Sabbath keepers.

Father, we ask that you guide our spirit with the spirit that inspired those words that are written down in the book of Hebrews, the same spirit to guide us today in the understanding of your word.

We thank you that you will be present, that you guide us, that you lead us, that you help us understand your word, so that we can honor you and we can serve you more faithfully.

We ask and thank you in Christ's name we pray, Amen.

All right, so let's open the Book of Hebrews.

So the Book of Hebrews is the first Catholic.

Some students of mine don't like if I say Catholic epistle.

They say, don't say that, it sounds very Catholic, Catholic in the sense of general epistles.

And the general epistles, like the Pauline epistles, are arranged in the New Testament according to size, to volume, right?

Romans the first, then the Pauline epistles all the way to Philemon, and then the general epistles, Hebrews, the longest, all the way down to Jude.

Yeah, So if you skim over Chapter 1, that's quickly so that I'll give a little bit of context before we go into 3.

So I will do this presentation more in a dialogue, because I don't like the lecture to you because you have eaten well and then I don't want the presentation to be a sleeping pill to put you to sleep yeah I want it to be with me yes sir I saw you yeah yeah go ahead It starts off speaking about the Son and His superiority to the angels.

And to which of the angels did God ever say, sit to my right hand?

Because Christ is superior to the angels.

So in chapter 1 Christ is superior to the angels.

Chapter 2 Christ was made lower than the angels for a while.

And right there in chapter 3, He starts with Moses, a comparison with Moses.

Due to time reasons, I'm not going to go there.

And let's pick it up in verse 7 chapter 3 verse 7 and the question that we want to ask in chapter 3 is what is the rest in chapter 3 because obviously the rest in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 are different.

We want to define first of all what the rest in 3 is before we define what the rest in 4 is.

In chapter 3 it says, and I would have read you but because they are recording it I'll try to read so that they don't have too many gaps in the recordings, yeah?

So, therefore as the Holy Spirit says, and then you probably have a quote where does the quote come from?

Psalm of David the first part is an exhortation to come and worship make a joyful noise to the Lord, and then the second part of this Psalm 95 is a warning, do not harden your hearts as those people in the desert.

And that's where the author of Hebrews picks up and quotes here.

Therefore as the Holy Spirit says, verse 7, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion as On the day of testing in the wilderness Where your ancestors put me to the test though they had seen my works for 40 years therefore I was angry with a generation and I said they always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways as In my anger I swore they will not enter my rest end quote new Revised Standard Version for those of you who might wonder what Bible I'm using, New Revised Standard Version.

What is the background to this story, to this Psalm 95?

“Do Not Neglect the Gatherings”

So we are back in Hebrews chapter 4, and we will now transition also to Hebrews chapter 10.

But before we go there, so the presentation is Sabbath observance in the book of Hebrews.

So questions from the first, those of you were with us here in the first session.

So some of you came in the break and talked to me, Maybe somebody else might still have any questions here?

The question is, do I see a rest of justification by faith?

Verse 10, for those who enter God's rest also cease from their works as God did from His.

So they say, ah, you see God rested from His works, So that's why we need to rest from our works.

It's a difference between allusions and quotes.

So what he does, I'm coming to you Aaron.

What our brother does here, he says, we need to define terms.

We should not import, so to sometimes, that's what we sometimes do.

We hear works and what do we think immediately?

Oh, righteousness by works, Romans, right?

And we import concepts into a different context.

And he argues from the context the works are God's works at creation from which he rested.

So that's what he argues from from context.

And I'm coming with the mic, I'm coming closer to you for the reason of recording it.

So yeah, you make a really great point that in Hebrews 4.10, when it says the 1 who enters into God's rest ceases from his works just as God did in creation.

The problem, if you think it's a rest from your works of salvation, right?

A lot of people say, oh, it's resting from salvation by works.

What you're saying is that God had to cease from righteousness by works.

Or he was doing sinful works, which he needed to stop doing.

I hear his argument and I think it's entirely worse.

And the Sabbath is a symbol of justification by faith.

And if we're going to emphasize the Sabbath more fully, the whole evangelical world says they believe in justification by faith.

And we have the 1 symbol that says there is the picture of rest.

But but but but but listen, I agree with you.

If we say God rested from works and he asks us to do just as he did, so we need to rest from our climbing into heaven, we say God climbed into heaven and he needed to stop climbing into heaven.

God is already in heaven he doesn't need to climb to heaven.

So we are blaming God of something God doesn't do.

Now I have nothing against that the Sabbath is a day of rest from our works.

Fine, but we should not import justification by faith and say okay we need to climb into heaven from resting from this climbing into heaven because God climbed.

God is in heaven and he doesn't need to climb to heaven because he's God and he's perfect.

So let's not blame God of something he doesn't do.

Now, The brother here, what is your name again?

John argued from the context in the essays of...

In the context it's creation, 7 days of work...

Versus 1 day of rest from the works he created.

From the stars, the moon, the light and everything else, the animals and human beings.

And Aaron argued from, OK, if we say this is a rest of justification where we need to say God justifies us, God makes us, we blame God of climbing into heaven because we are in the, oh we need to climb into heaven, go up on this chair, we can't, we can't blame God of climbing into heaven, of working his way into heaven by works, we need to be careful, So that's kind of the argument that I'm seeing here.

So that's why we need to stick as closely.

Now look, you have a strong point in Hebrews 4 And in Hebrews 10 with the evangelicals, we'll come to that in the second part of this presentation.

But we should not import, and there's only a few scholars who go this route, and of course they are evangelicals, and that's what they do.

But every other serious scholar says, brother, if you import justification by faith here, you blame God of working his way into heaven, really?

Is that what you, and they whoop, immediately back off.

We should be careful in reading the text and interpreting so that we don't blame God of something because the author says you rest just as God did.

Now if we need to rest from works that make us climb to heaven, then God needed to rest because we are doing just as he did, because he climbed into heaven.

Okay, if nothing, if it comes later on, just tell me.

Now, I told you that in the second half, right now, we still have about what?

We will go from Hebrews 4 into Hebrews chapter 10.

Now, you will say, hey, hey, hey, how do you jump to Hebrews chapter 10?

How do you make this jump and how do you connect here the Sabbath with Hebrews chapter 10?

Because what we are going to do right now, we are going to look into Hebrews 4, how it is connected with Hebrews chapter 10.

And we need to see what are the connections there between these 2 chapters.

Alright, 3 connections that are between chapter 4 and chapter 10.

Both chapters 4, 1 through 16, is an exhortation.

And Hebrews 10, starting with verse 20, 19, 21, is exhortation.

The author of Hebrews alternates between exposition and exhortation.

Moise Ratsara

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down

All right, well, my name is Moise Razzara and I'll be presenting to you the topic of the Sabbath and using the Sabbath to win souls.

And I've entitled this topic, don't let the sun go down.

Well a little bit about myself, I'm a pastor.

I've been in just 1 more day, I will celebrate a decade of ministry.

And over the course of my life, I've always had a passion to reach souls.

That has been my 1 calling in life, but more than that, it has been to teach people as well how to become a soul winner in their life.

Now the reason why I believe this is so important because this is the 1 thing that God wanted his disciples to remember.

Remember God did not give his disciples the great option.

You'll know that you can interact with...

He did not say here is the great option, he says here is the great commission.

And when God calls us to something, he believes that by his grace we can achieve that, right?

So today I would like to share with you testimonies and stories how to use the Sabbath to win souls.

Now they ask me especially how we can use the Sabbath day, our day of worship, and church to win souls.

Over the course of my ministry I've been tremendously blessed by seeing how the Sabbath can be used during church service or whatever it might be to win souls for Christ.

As a matter of fact, at this GYC, there is about, there are about 5 people that are here that have been baptized and that their first point of contact was because of coming to church.

They're here at a GYC, this is their second GYC, and there are countless stories of people who have come to church and as a result given their life to Jesus.

So I'm going to teach you how by God's grace how to do that.

You might say well, I'm not a pastor I'm not a Bible worker But that does not matter if you are breathing and able to walk You can be a soul winner.

You might not even be able to walk You might be somebody who literally you cannot do anything but just talk.

Or you might not even be able to talk, but you can pray and you can win souls.

Today, by God's grace, we're going to learn how to win souls for Christ.

So the title is Don't Let the Sun Go Down.

Let me make sure I get the right presentations here because they were testing something for me and I want to make sure it is good.

All right, Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 to 23 it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is what my friends?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

1 of the first things that is most important when you want to engage in the work of soul winning is that you have to realize that you don't do this work alone.

That this work is done through the power of who?

I cannot tell you how many people said, well I'm going to become a soul winner, I'm going to win souls for Christ, but they try to do it all in their own power.

They might have a limited amount of success, but in the long run you're going to burn out.

And I can't tell you how many people have entered ministry and are no longer in the ministry.

I can't tell you how many pastors have decided, well I want to be a pastor, this is the calling in my life.

They start ministry and now they're out of the church.

1 of the key reasons why is because we are doing the work on our own rather than doing it through the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

You need the Holy Spirit in your life if you want to be able to use the Sabbath, if you want to be able to be a soul winner in your life.

1 of the first things that we have to notice about the fruit of the Spirit is that it starts with what is the main attribute.

It says the fruit of the spirit is what my friends?

The first thing that we need to understand if you want to become a soul winner and change the world for Jesus is that you must learn to pray.

Jesus never taught his disciples, so to speak, specifically how to preach a sermon.

Do you find anything in the Word of God that says, this is how you preach a sermon.

Jesus, the disciples never asked Jesus to say, Lord Jesus, teach us how to give a Bible study.

But what is the 1 thing that the disciples of Christ wanted to know?

All of you here today can think about somebody you want to reach for Christ or maybe you're the 1 who is trying to wonder is Jesus really for me?

It is a spiritual work that we do and we need to learn how to pray.

1 of my favorite authors is a man by the name of E.M.

He says, what the church needs today is not more, what my friends, machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.

The Holy Ghost does not flow through what my friends?

He does not come on machinery but on men.

It is very interesting because today people want new, better programs, they're always about, and those are important.

You know, oh, I want the latest program, oh, the thing that's gonna change my church, what can I find, and I'm gonna plug this in into my church and then we're gonna be revived?

God is not looking for better methods, he's looking for better men.

That is why I believe you can be a soul winner.

It all depends upon if you're willing to become a man of prayer.

Testimonies for the church, volume 1, page 260.

Satan is now seeking to hold God's people in a state of what?

To keep them from acting their part and spreading the truth, that they may at last be weighed down in the balances and found what?

You see, when you pray you cannot be inactive.

When you pray you are wrestling with God, asking for Him to use you.

What happens often is that our prayer lives are weak and when your prayer life is weak, guess what?

The devil would be happy with churches that are full.

He would be content with churches that are full.

The devil would be happy with even, and I love GYC, I was president of GYC, I'm still involved with GYC.

He would be happy if you just went to GYC and said, that was a great conference, and you go back to your own life, and as if nothing happened.

But what the devil would not be happy about is that if there are churches that are filled with people that have a burden for the work, a people that said, I'm not okay with just being here sitting on a pew, I want to work for Jesus Christ.

You see there was a story that was told of a senior pastor with his junior pastor and they were going around Jerusalem and as they were going around Jerusalem The junior pastor was telling the senior pastor, he says, you know what, I think we're much better off than they were in the early church.

After all, you know, we have mega churches, we have big budgets, we have comfortable places.

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Series

The Sabbath

“Do Not Neglect the Gatherings”

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

Rest in Hebrews 4:9. What Rest is This?

53m

“Do Not Neglect the Gatherings”

52m

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down

46m

Sound Doctrine