Sermon for Lord's Day June 12, 2022 Luke 14: 25-35 "How serious is the matter of Rejecting the Gospel?"

Here I Stand Theology

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These are the words of the living God. Now great crowds accompanied him and he turned and he said to them,

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If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

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Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

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Otherwise when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying,

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This man began to build and was not able to finish. For what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

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And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

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So therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

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Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

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It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.

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It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word this morning. Let's go to the

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Lord in prayer. God as we come before your throne this morning, we stand in need of your presence, of your power.

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Lord, we need to see you in the text today. Our prayer is that you would be exalted, that you would be glorified, that you would be glorified in and through the preaching of your word today.

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Convict the sinner of your holiness and of our sinfulness.

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Bring conviction, please Lord, please bring conviction as well as encouragement to the saints of God in this place today.

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And as we look at your word, we see your will that we might know your way in order that we might worship you rightfully and in godly reverence this morning, for it is in the name of Jesus Christ I humbly pray and I ask these things.

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Be glorified in the church, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. When we left off last week, you'll remember we read the ridiculous excuses that had been made by those invited to the great banquet.

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Again, Christ is the banquet, Christ is the feast, Christ is the end,

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Christ is the goal, Christ is to be proclaimed in every sermon preached.

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For if Christ, Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself, and so our aim is to exalt the

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Lord Jesus Christ. When we left off, we read those ridiculous excuses that had been made to those that had been invited to the great banquet, and really and truly last week we did not focus on any of those excuses.

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We kind of gave them a glancing blow and moved through them, but in our introductory comments this morning,

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I want to say just a little bit about those because it's very important that we not just skim by those, but we're going to take a moment, just a moment here to examine the absolute absurdity of these excuses.

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Now, in verse 18, Jesus said that they all alike began to make excuses.

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David Gusick, in his commentary on that verse there, he said this, he said, excuses are made, they are fashioned for convenience, and are clung to in desperation.

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So excuses are made, they're fashioned for convenience, they are clung to in desperation, and then

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Gusick said this, hope doesn't begin until excuses end. Now Gusick is a living modern day commentator, but Spurgeon, Spurgeon said this concerning excuses, excuses are curses, and when you have no excuses left, there will be hope for you.

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And this is the truth today, as long as you, man, woman, boy, and girl, make excuses for your sin, there is no hope for you.

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But when you cast aside the excuses and you look unto Jesus Christ, the one who became a curse for us, in our place, and he hung and he died on the cross, then let me say this with the utmost confidence today, there is hope for you, if you are willing to cast away those excuses.

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Now the excuses that we read about, they had to do with two things, material possessions and familial relations.

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The first two excuses that were made were made in light of material possessions, and the last excuse that was made was made in relation to familial relationships.

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So the first two excuses, right? I bought a piece of land and I had to go look at it, and the second excuse,

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I bought five yoke of oxen and I have to go try them out to try to test these things.

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But I want to ask a question, a reasonable question, ask you to consider this question, why would anyone buy land, why would anyone buy farm equipment without first going to look at it, without first going to test it?

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Do you see these excuses truly carried no weight? These excuses are almost as lame as the excuse that you get if you've got an only child.

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For those of you that have more than one child, you're probably not going to get this that much.

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But if you've got an only child and you find something broken in your house, right?

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And you go to that only child and you say to that child, how in the world did this get broken?

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What does the child begin to do? Begins to make excuse. I don't know how that happened and I don't know who did this, but I'll tell you what, it wasn't me.

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That's lame, right? There's no weight in that excuse making, right? But there was no weight in these excuses that were given.

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And the next excuse that was given was in relation to familial relationships, right?

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The man said, I've just married a wife and so I can't come to the banquet. Now this, if any, truly carried a little bit of weight because under the

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Old Testament law, under the Old Testament law in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and verse 5, the scripture states, when a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any public duty.

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He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife who he has taken.

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And by the way, if you've got bifocals and your bifocals play tricks on you, my bifocals just played a trick on me because I read that looking through the very bottom of my bifocals by saying, to be happy with his wife who is taken.

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So be sure of what you're reading. So if any of these excuses carried weight, this excuse itself likely carried weight.

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But the bottom line is that none of those who were invited wanted to come.

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That's the bottom line. None of those who were invited wanted to come. The Puritan John Owen said this concerning those who reject the call to salvation.

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As a matter of fact, this is the quote that's up. Let them pretend what they please. The true reason why any despise the new birth is because they hate a new life.

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And we could expand on that and say this, the reason that anybody rejects Jesus Christ is because they love their own sin more than they love

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Jesus Christ. This is the bottom line. Now very quickly, looking at verse 21 and 23 before we enter into our text, this is all contextual here, but verse 21 and 23, we see two terms used, bring in and compel.

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The servant was commanded to go out and to bring in, the hawk, the maimed, the lame and the blind, in verse 21.

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In verse 23, we hear a stronger term used, the word used there for compel, bring them in for there is still room.

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We see these two words used. Now, the word used for bring in there in verse 21 is used only 11 times in the

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New Testament. Just a few examples of its usage can be found in Luke chapter 2.

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If you go back to early Luke, Luke chapter 2 verse 27, and we read when he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child

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Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, we're talking about Zacharias there,

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Zacharias, right? He came in the spirit into the temple and then the parents brought in, that's the term used for bring in, they brought in the child

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Jesus. It was a physical action that was carried out. In Luke chapter 22 verse 54, the scripture says, concerning crucifixion, then they seized him and they led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house and Peter was following at a distance, but that term bringing in, meaning that was under physical compulsion.

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In Acts chapter 9, another usage of that word to bring in there from verse 21,

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Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

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So they led him by the hand. We see how they led, how did they led him?

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They led him by the hand, they physically had him taken by the hand and they brought him.

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We see this activity taking place. Now the term for compel in verse 23 is an even stronger term that's used.

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Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

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He made the disciples get into the boat. That's the term for compel there. And again in Acts chapter 26 verse 11, we read where Saul, Paul is giving his testimony,

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I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme and in a raging fury against them,

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I persecuted them even to foreign cities. It was an act of force that was taking place.

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So this term, that bring in, this term compel that is used here in this parable that Jesus is giving, they are very, very strong terms.

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So and note this, that Jesus also said the master commanded them, right?

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To go and bring in, to compel them, he told them to go to the highways and to the hedges and compel them to come into my house.

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Not just going out and saying, hey, if y 'all want to, he said, go and compel them. It's a very, very strong term.

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Now the highway was the much traveled road, the much traveled road and the hedges were the areas where walls and fences were put up to protect and keep out the unwanted.

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So in essence, Jesus was saying to go to both the well -traveled way and go to the areas which are normally fenced off.

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Go to the well -traveled way and even to the fenced off areas. Where is the gospel to be proclaimed?

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Everywhere. Everywhere. It's to be, it's to be proclaimed in the marketplace.

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It's to be proclaimed on our jobs. It's to be proclaimed in our houses. We are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere we go.

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And again, keep in our mind, this banquet, Jesus Christ himself is the banquet to which folks are invited to feast upon.

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For Jesus, Jesus is the one, that term hedge that's used here in Luke as well.

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That term hedge that's used. Jesus is the one that brought down that hedge. Jesus is the one who broke down that dividing wall that stood between us and God.

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Jesus is the one that has accomplished that. We find this truth exemplified in Ephesians chapter 2.

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If you turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and we read verse 13 through 22, this is the word of the living

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God. The apostle Paul states, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has both made us one, and if this, has broken down the middle wall of partition and the

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King James had broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall in the

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ESV, the dividing wall of hostility. That is the term used there for hedge.

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How has he done that? By abolishing the law of commandments that were expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, and so making peace, and he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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And he came, Jesus, he came and he preached peace to you who were far off,

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Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, the Jew. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the

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Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

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You're being built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being that cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows up into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him, you also are being built together for a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. So Jesus said in verse 23, compel them to come in that my house may be full.

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Few more comments or quotes on this because it's so very, very important. Some Christians have gotten the idea that if they erect a beautiful building, if they put up a sign, if they place an ad in the newspaper, that the unsaved will flock to the church.

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Friends, if folks are coming to the church for those reasons, they are not coming for the right reasons.

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The right reason is singular. It is Jesus Christ and that he has died for my sin and that I have been made a new creature in Christ Jesus.

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So putting up a sign, erecting a beautiful building, placing an ad in the newspaper, having the right placements on Instagram and Facebook, those are not the normal means of grace.

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There's an impelling goal in the gospel that makes us responsible to tell our friends and our neighbors the gospel itself.

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The church is singularly responsible for the proclamation of the gospel.

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The world cannot proclaim the gospel. The world cannot tell you how that you can be right in the sight of God.

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They will tell you a way, but it is not the way. There is only one way and that is by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that was shed as an atonement for your sins and for mine.

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We, the church, must reach out to lost sinners and we must bring them in.

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In D .L. Moody's day, it was common practice for people to rent a church pew.

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Now, what does that mean? Church members would mark off pews which they were dedicated to say, and I'm going to fill this pew on this

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Sunday. Churches used to do that years ago. It was called Pack a Pew Sunday, where you'd try to fill up a pew.

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We're not going to rent them out. We're not going to say $50 a pew. We're saying pick a pew, fill it up, basically is what was going on there.

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So in D .L. Moody's day, as a 19 -year -old young man, Moody marched down the aisle with a motley crew of society's outcasts trailing behind him.

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He had rented four pews and was determined to fill them with those who were spiritually needy.

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And having taken the Savior's go personally from the Great Commission, he literally went out into the highways and gathered together both the good and the bad.

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Now, don't make the mistake of believing that Jesus' command to go only applies to missionaries in faraway places.

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All of God's children are to share the good news of salvation. Amen. All of God's children are required to share the good news of God's salvation.

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What a tragedy it would be if our own neighbors never heard the gospel because we never told them.

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It could very well be that, like myself, I heard the gospel in a evangelistic type meeting.

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I heard the gospel there and I got born again that day in March 1987. It could be, though, that some of you maybe just had the gospel shared with you by a brother or sister in Christ and the gospel still did its saving work in you.

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And it is that that we must keep in the forefront of our mind that we have a responsibility to be proclaimers of the gospel.

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There is a frightening silence and a coldness to the idea of evangelism in some

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Christian circles. May it not be said of us, may it never be said of us at Reverend Marta Baptist Church that we are not evangelistic.

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We are called to be a glory of God centered, Bible saturated, missions focused,

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Holy Spirit empowered body of believers. Men, women, boys and girls alike who will go out and share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those that we come in contact with.

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So we must go to sinners if we expect sinners to come to the Savior.

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How is a person saved? By hearing of the gospel, right? By the hearing of the gospel.

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Now, in 1805, William Carey, who, by the way, was known as the father of modern missions, wrote these words.

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He said this, we are sure that only those ordained to eternal life will believe and that God alone can add to the church such as shall be saved.

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Might I add, William Carey was thoroughly reformed, thoroughly Calvinistic in his doctrine, and he still understood the necessity of the proclamation of the gospel to this world.

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This is beautiful. He said this, nevertheless, we cannot but observe with admiration that Paul, the great champion for the doctrines of free and sovereign grace, was most conspicuous for his personal zeal in the work of persuading men to be reconciled to God.

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Carey went on to say we should expect great things from God and we should attempt great things for God.

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Now, concerning this salvation, again, very, very important.

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We're looking at a lot this morning, I know, but it's so very, very important because we want to have a right understanding.

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We want to have a right view of what it is and why it is that we as the church are in this world, number one, to bring glory to God above all else.

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Unto him be glory in the church. The apostle Paul writes this, but it's also very, very important that we have a right understanding of the work of salvation itself.

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How salvation is accomplished. We know who accomplishes salvation, Jesus Christ, right?

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That's not a hard one there. There are times though, when it comes to the order of salvation, there's a

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Latin term called the ordo salutis, the order of salvation. Sometimes this gets turned around and from our view, the biblical view teaches this, if you want to write this down, concerning the order of salvation.

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Nine individual points in the order of salvation. Number one, we have election and predestination in Christ.

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We see that we get this from Romans chapter eight, by the way. Number one, election and predestination in Christ first.

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Number two, atonement, which is the work of Christ. Number three, we have the gospel call.

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This is the proclamation of the gospel by any and all who proclaim it. That is also known as the outward call.

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Number four, in the order of salvation, we see the inward call. That is the work of God in the heart of man, regenerating him.

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Number five, we have regeneration. Again, that's God's work.

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God's regenerating the individual, man, woman, boy, and girl. Then we have what's normally referred to as faith and repentance, right?

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Faith and repentance, or conversion. Faith and repentance, or in parentheses, conversion.

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Then of course, number seven, eight, and nine, we have justification. We have sanctification, and number nine, glorification.

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So with all of that being said, and we're not going to go any further on that, but I want you to have that order of salvation in your minds, in your notes.

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With all of that being said, I feel compelled to have us consider in brief just how the work of God is accomplished in salvation.

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Giles Fairman, one of the lesser known of the Puritans, writes these words concerning God's work of salvation in the sinner, and he makes this so clear.

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Giles Fairman said this, Illumination must in order of nature go before conviction, and conviction before compunction.

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Now just to give you a little bit of definition, that word compunction, it means to feel guilt and remorse such that we are moved, right?

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So, but he said this, but in order of time, they may go together. The Spirit of God, at the same time, lets in a clear light, that's the proclamation, he convinces and he strikes the heart with fears, sorrows, and et cetera.

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It is not thus that the soul is, it's not that he says, he's saying this, it's not necessarily the case that the soul is necessarily one week under, one week or one day under the work of illumination, and then another week you'll come under conviction, then a third week you'll come under compunction.

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He said this, I know there may be light and conviction for many weeks and even years when there is no compunction, but it is not so when the

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Spirit of covenant is at work. How often men have come home from one sermon with these works wrought.

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So he's talking about the order of salvation, the work of God. It may very well be that God convicts and converts or convicts the hearts of a sinful man, woman, boy, or girl for years and years.

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We would like for them to be regenerated in an instant, but there are times when

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God works on his own timetable. He does not work according to our schedule, but we do have it within the scriptures that these things happen so and in such a way.

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And so that being said, so Jesus continues to point out that those who were invited back to the text here, those who were invited, namely the

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Jewish people of the years gone by that they would have no place at his banquet because they rejected and they rebelled against him.

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We can be certain, we can be sure of this, that God's judgment is just as certain as his salvation is.

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J .C. Ryle put it this way. He said, if some people will not receive the truth, he will have others invited in their place.

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This idea of saying, Oh, Jesus wants you and needs you so badly.

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That is an unbiblical plea that is made. Jesus does not need you and he does not need me.

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He loves us. Amen. But he does not need us.

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Ryle went on to say this. If some people will not receive the truth, he will have others invited in their place.

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His pity of the lost is no imaginary thing. He is infinitely willing to save souls.

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And above all the words justify every preacher and teacher of the gospel to use all possible means to wake up sinners and to turn them from their sins.

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This is why we are to be proclaimers of the gospel, because it is the gospel light that will wake up sinful men and women.

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It is the gospel light that will wake up sinful boys and sinful girls. Yes, boys and girls are sinful just as much as men and women, adult people are.

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You need the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ryle said, if they will not come to us in public, we must visit them in private.

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We must preach the word as Paul told Timothy in season and out of season.

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Remember the words of this parable again, where Jesus said in verse 23, compel them, make them come in to my house.

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So notice here that it truly was great crowds that followed Jesus in verse 25.

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Right? Verse 25, now great crowds accompanied him. Truly there were great crowds that followed

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Jesus. And if this were in our day and time, when the church seeks only to be pragmatic in our approaches to reach the masses, if Jesus had been like the church today,

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Jesus would most likely have made it easy for the crowd to follow him. Well, we're just happy that people are coming.

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Not so. Not so. Right? So if it had been, if Jesus had taken the same approach that the modern day pragmatic methods of the church nowadays takes, it might've sounded something like this.

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Jesus might've said this, I know people are generally good hearted and that most people would like to have everyone like them.

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So just come and follow me and all your dreams will come true. Does that sound ridiculous?

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Sadly, that's a reality in a lot of churches. It's a reality in a lot of groups.

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It's a reality in the big majority of the public face of Christianity.

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We are not called to come to Christ. So our dreams will come true. If Jesus were the secret sensitive type, he would have just said, just speak your dreams and decree that you are blessed and highly favored for in the only way that you can be considered blessed.

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The only way that you can be considered highly favored is not because you decree and declare it, but because God decrees it and God declares it by setting his love, his mercy and his grace on you as a sinner.

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Now the gospel sounds very strange. There was a meme. I don't have the author for this, but I'll give credit for it because it's the quote from a meme this week.

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The gospel sounds very strange to a generation that has been told that they are perfect, that loving themselves is virtuous, that their heart is always right and nothing is more important than being happy.

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The gospel sounds very strange to those people that are told that and taught that at all times.

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But what we see in the text is quite contrary to that. The first thing that Jesus said here in verse 26 is one of the hardest passages to exegete.

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It's one of the hardest verses to discuss and to exposit and to talk about.

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In this 26 verse, we read Jesus making illusion, making a reference to what he had previously addressed in the parable of the great banquet.

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This is why it's so important as we read the text, as we look and try to understand the meaning of the text, that we never forget the context.

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The larger details that are laid out both before and after. Jesus is referring back to this in this.

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Each of the excuses that had been made was made because they loved the world more than they wanted salvation.

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And it is no different in our day. It's no different in our time. People love themselves more than they love salvation, more than they love and they want salvation.

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So my question to you is this, do you love Jesus more than you love your sin?

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And notice that I'm not asking this. Do you love Jesus more than so -and -so sitting next to you?

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As husbands and wives, y 'all know each other better than anybody knows each other.

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We're not asking you, do you love Jesus better than your husband loves Jesus? I'm asking you, do you love

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Jesus more than you love your own sin? Consider carefully. For if anyone,

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Jesus said this, if anyone wants to be Christ's disciple, then Christ must come first on the list of priorities.

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He must come first in relation to marital possessions and he must come first or material possessions and first in familial relationships.

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Matthew Henry put it this way, a man cannot be Christ's disciple, but he must hate father and mother as the scripture states, and more than in his own life, unless he loved

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Christ better than anything in this world and be willing to part with that which he may and must leave either as a sacrifice when

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Christ made be glorified by our parting with it, or as a temptation when by our parting with it, we are put into a better capacity of serving

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Christ. Thus Abraham parted with his own country.

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Moses with Pharaoh's court, he parted. Mention is not made here of houses and lands.

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Philosophy will teach a man to look upon these with contempt, but Christianity, which is, we are

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Christian men and women, Christianity carries it higher. Of course every good man loves his relations and yet if he be a disciple of Christ, he must comparatively hate them, meaning he must love them less than Christ.

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As Leah said to be hated when Rachel was better loved than her, not that their persons must be in any degree hated, but our comfort and our satisfaction in them must be lost and must be swallowed up in our love for Christ.

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Secondly, what happens here is Jesus sets forth the fact that if we are not willing to follow after Christ, that a person may not be considered his disciple.

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Strong language that he was using here. As I was thinking about this, you know, you don't realize that you're getting old until you stop and you look back.

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On your life. When I was a teenager, I wrote a speech for speakers tournament. The subject that I chose to write on then, which was by the way, back in,

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I feel like wanting to sound like an older person back in 1989. Some of you younger kids, that's what it sounds like when you hear that number thrown out, right?

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Back in 1989, back in 1989, I wrote a speech for speakers tournament.

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It had to be five minutes long, believe it or not. I was able to do that, but the title of that speech was too many believers and too few disciples.

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It was true then, and it's still true today. There are plenty of folks who will say that they believe in Jesus, but the problem is that it's not the

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Jesus of the Bible. The Christ of the scriptures does not divide the call of salvation into just believe on me now and make me

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Lord of your life. Later down the road, the gospel call has always been to forsake your sin and yourself and believe on Jesus Christ.

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The gospel was and is still today to deny yourself, to take up your cross and to follow

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Jesus concerning verses 28 through 32. As we move right along here,

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John Gill wrote this. He said, taking up a profession of Christ and his gospel is like building a tower set forth in the scripture, which as a tower must be laid on good foundation and not on carnal descent or parentage, nor on a sober and religious education, nor on a civil moral life and conversation, nor on a bare knowledge of gospel truths and a flash affection for them and the people of God.

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But it must be built upon Christ, the sure foundation and on the principles of grace formed by God's spirit, formed by God's spirit in their hearts.

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And this like a tower is carried very high, not by professing high things, but by living on high amidst a profession by having the affection set on things above and by looking down with contempt on things below and by looking to and pressing after the prize of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

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He went on to say the profession of some persons is very low. It arises from low principles and it proceeds on low views.

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Its aims and its ends are low, but where it is right and where it is well founded, it is like a tower that is firm and steady and is a fortress and a bulwark against apostasy and concerning that what

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Jesus said where the man was not able to finish. It was all noise and it was all talk and nothing else, which is a lot of what is professed in the modern day church today.

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It is nothing but noise and it is nothing but talk. Just because you have said,

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I believe in Jesus Christ does not mean that you have been regenerated by the spirit of God.

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There will necessarily follow the work of the spirit in your life to the degree such that you on a daily basis will be sanctified because of the

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Holy Spirit. So working in your heart and in your life. In the apostle

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Peter's second epistle, we read these words concerning and considering the importance of making our calling and election sure, which is so important for us today.

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Make your calling and your election sure. Make it certain today.

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So in other words, we should recognize that after having had considered the cost, what

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Jesus commands them to do, that there will be, will be

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W I L L all caps, will be demonstrative evidences of the fact that we have been born again.

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You can unequivocally be certain of your salvation.

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Yeah. You found your faith so upon Jesus and him alone when it has nothing to do with your goodness, when it has nothing to do with your works, when it has nothing to do with your efforts, but it is all the work of Jesus Christ in the heart of the sinner who regenerates, convicts, converts and makes you a new creature.

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You can be certain today. The apostle Peter wrote this second Peter, chapter one,

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Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our

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God and savior may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our

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Lord. And then Peter makes this statement, confirm your calling and election may your calling and election.

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Sure. His divine power, speaking of God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness how through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and his excellence, by which he has granted to us precious and very great promises that through them, through the promises given to us by God in his word, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.

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Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

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Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self -control and self -control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love for these qualities are yours and are increasing.

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They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind.

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Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and savior Jesus Christ. So we, we in whirlwind fashion, we discussed and talked about the parable that Jesus gives the importance of considering the cost of what

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Christ first said that right. If any man wants to be my disciple, he must take up his cross and follow me, consider the cost and then in verse 34 and 35 as we close here, verse 34 and 35 and almost again, if we take it apart from everything that said, it's very hard to consider what he's saying here.

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He said, salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall it saltiness be restored?

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What a, what a clear statement in the light of the context of what's being said though, when we understand it in full context, who is he speaking to?

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He's speaking to those who rejected the good news, who rejected the invitation to the banquet, those who refuse to consider the cost of salvation.

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And he says this, basically this, what Christ states here in this statement, salt is good, but if it's lost its taste, how shall it saltiness be restored?

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It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Very big statement there. But what Christ is saying there in short is this, what Christ does, he states this finality of rejection of him.

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When salt loses its flavor, there's no coming back.

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My friend, if you die lost where tree falls, there shall it lie.

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There's no coming back. There are no second chances. When Christ bids the sinner come, the sinner should run to Christ and it may very well be that the sinner shall be that some of you or whoever hears this message may likely, as we discussed earlier, maybe you've been under conviction for years and years and you're miserable.

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You're miserable. You get harder and more hateful that you still have.

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And it's because that you should not hesitate that you should not delay because the price has already been paid in full.

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Jesus said it is finished, but when the salt loses its savor, it's gone.

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It's done. It's not good or anything any more.

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Don't please. I beseech you today. Don't be found in that number to reject