The Willful Sin, Part 2 (Hebrews 10:26-27) - Worship Service | Adult Sunday School

Okay, well since everybody quieted down and made their way in here without me having to say anything I guess we'll go ahead and get started So if you're on the four -year, please come into adult

Sunday school class and join us if you plan on doing that All right, let's open with the word of prayer and then

I will introduce our guests this morning. Let's pray Father is by your grace that we are able to gather here

We thank you that you have given us this place together and that you've called us to your son We thank you for the mercy and grace of salvation and the fact that you continue to spread your gospel around the world

We pray that you'd help us by your grace to appreciate what you are doing and help us to see your hand of providence

Working in our lives and the lives of others and we ask that you would be honored and glorified through this time in Christ's name

Amen All right. Well, we do have the blessing today of having with us Marty and Jeanette Wendell How many of you have listened to the missionary interviews that we posted online with the windows?

Okay a few not many Marty and Jeanette I've known them

As long as I've been a believer for sure, they were have been supported by Kootenai Community Church since the 1980s

All right 1984 and we continue to support them They are on our list of missionaries that we are pleased to support and I've said before in some of our annual meetings and to anybody who asks that the missionaries that this church supports are some of the finest people that you will ever meet fantastic doctrinally sound

Faithful servants of Christ every one of them and so Marty and Jeanette have been on the mission field since or at least supported by Us since 1984 which makes him far older than he looks

Actually, and it and I have known him all of these years knew him as a teenager and have been delighted to be able to Spend time with him.

So you're gonna get the privilege today of seeing what the Lord is doing So here's how the Sunday school is going to work I'm gonna turn it over to Marty Marty is gonna stand up and say a few words and Then Jeanette who is his wife is gonna stand up and she's going to take us through a slideshow presentation of some of the work of BCM and then

Marty is going to come up afterwards and he is going to He's gonna do a Q &A and I have a few questions that I want to ask him and so be thinking about questions that you

Want to ask Marty at the end of this? so that's how this is gonna go down and I I Say that so that you understand it is with my blessing with the blessing of the elders that we've asked them as a couple to do the presentation and Jeanette is going to be up here speaking, but that is not she's not teaching scripture to adults in church setting.

So that is a necessary needed clarification. Okay, then the next step is not to do a

Rick Warren and and Ordained three women pastors next week. That's not where this is going.

So And she wouldn't accept good. She's not gonna be here next week. So that's all right. Okay with that Marty.

Good morning It is a pleasure to be here again. I Remembered the beginnings of the church when they were meeting

I don't remember the location down around Hope somewhere and then they were meeting in the little church over here and When we drove by this morning,

I pointed that out to my wife and we used to think that was a big church But guess what?

when I drove up to the Tabernacle here. We were so astounded to see what

God has done here when I heard how many people are coming here To hear the Word of God spoken every

Sunday This is a great praise because we think of 1984 we've seen a lot of churches come and go and The church that we've seen that have come and have stayed strong and have grown have three things in common

They preach the word They're pro missions and they have a pastor who's committed for the long term

Now I like the pilot the polished job that I'm not supposed to use the word pastor

But the word pastor Jim said when he said I looked younger than I am

Don't believe that when he first knew me. I Had all of my hair and it was the right color he still got all of his hair and he still

Looks pretty young to me. So I can't believe it's been 25 years when pastor

Soon 25 years praise the Lord So I told you those three things missions

Preach the word and a good committed pastor. So let me just give you a couple of Verses that I have been meditating on as we travel and then

I'm gonna let Jeanette come and talk a little bit about our ministry Before I do that for those who haven't met me

I'm Marty Wendell. I have been in missions with Jeanette now since 1984 and my sweetheart

Jeanette is We work together in ministry, but she also does a lot of editing

So you'll see we have a display in the back where she has some of her publications.

They are We get this right international Missy illogical fiction and nonfiction books.

So there's some great nonfiction there. Oh Well, no, that's that's the books that she's written and then she edits

I don't even know how to idea how many clients she's got. But God has blessed her with the gift of Writing and it helps me look much better as well

So the verse of scriptures I'd like to read you're in the book of John Where Jesus is talking to someone and he says

Jesus replied anyone who loves me will keep my commandments

John 14 Will keep or obey my teaching my father will love them and I am my father will come and make a home with them

Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching these words you hear are not my own

They belong to the father who sent me All this I was spoken while still with you

But the advocate the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of all the things

That I have said Do not peace I leave with you my peace.

I give to you do not give as the world I do not give as the world gives do not let your heart be troubled.

Do not be afraid The last 18 months have been probably some of the most difficult

Global ministry challenges that we have seen in some time We've seen local challenges we deal regularly with natural disasters with persecution

I was just mentioning to brother Rick a Persecution that we had in Orissa where we lost 41 churches in one night

So we know what it is to deal with disaster, but I've never seen globally so many people so afraid of Something that they cannot see

So when I read these verses it promises me first of all Jesus says if you love me you will keep my teachings

We have a standard for daily life that doesn't change Regardless of what happens in the world around us

We have a promise of community true fellowship where the Trinity comes and makes himself

Present with us the father and I will come and make our home with you The sending of the

Holy Spirit and then we have peace peace not like the world gives But peace that Christ gave us the legacy of peace and that ongoing energized

Peace that resolves issues from day to day You see peace is not the absence of conflict.

It's the presence of Christ and the ability to manage it. That's John chapter 14 23 and following Before I had

Jeanette to come let me just read one of our liaisons who works in the

Philippines BCM has a hundred and twenty churches in the Philippines in a couple of camps and That country is economy and their social structure has been devastated by this

Pandemic that we have all heard about let me just read her response She talked about how the church saw the crisis

But did what Christ would have done in drawing everyone together to make a spiritual impact

With the rising death toll widespread unemployment mental health issues suicide feelings of isolation challenges of online education and dozens of other unpleasant stories all attributed to this

Kovat virus it is easy to question if there remains any beauty hope or life in today's world

But there is a better way to look at our circums. Is there a better way to look at our circumstances as This issue sweeps our planet the answer is yes as Believers we can look at this situation through the eyes of faith because we know that beyond this pandemic

God isn't surprised God is almighty He's powerful and he brings everything even though we don't understand it to glorify his name

Here in the Philippines. We are seeing the beauty of God's love expressed in the unity of the body of Christ Within our

BCM Bible centered ministries family Pastors are readily supporting each other's ministry instead of just focusing on their own little church situation

Local churches are cheerfully extending help to believers from other local congregations

Young people are reaching out to share God's live and minister to their friends individuals and families are

Generously giving financially to assist and words of comfort to pastors and individuals

Who have contract contracted this disease and to our families who have lost loved ones?

You see we as believers Have the

Word of God tells us how to live regardless of what happens around us Whether it be death sickness or anything else.

We as believers have community with God the Father God the Son And God the

Holy Spirit we have his peace and we're not to be afraid We are to look at the world we live in it's always been a damaged nasty sick world

Filled with death and darkness and find a way to spread the light Jeanette's gonna come and share about some of the things we do to spread that light and then we'll have a

Q &A I Put them to sleep dear now you get to wake them up A microphone for you

Thank you, I'm gonna just stand a little bit so I can see the screen myself and am

I blocking anyone's view For those of you to whom

BCM is new a BCM was founded in 1936 as the Bible Club movement inventors of flannel graph

Genesis through Revelation But BCM over the last 50 years Especially if you're going to start

Bible clubs and children's ministries in parts of the world without churches churches grow into or Getting this right

Okay, where exactly am I supposed to point this? Sorry about this.

You've got to have the tech. Yes. I'm going up instead of down At today

BCM has 880 missionaries and almost 10 ,000 volunteers in over 40 countries on or in of over 40 nationalities in 60 plus countries on five continents

We still reach 1 .5 million children a year But we have also seen the planting of over 5 ,000 churches in the last 30 years, especially in Asia More than 200 ,000 baptized in that same time period and We have a

BCM camping program that reaches. This is actually outdated about 35 ,000 children a year your

Katie Kinney from this church Was counselor in one of our camps in Ireland and we would just people still ask when is she coming back?

Then came 2020 and we all know what has happened. And of course for BCM like ministries around the world

Everything came to a crashing close So, what do you do?

Well, we old people wondered what we were going to do around the world our millennial generation

Literally stepped forward and we learned all about how much you can do with zoom

FaceTime YouTube live -streaming and many other areas in the

Philippines Jerilyn de Jesus Is the one who's quote Marty read as mentioned?

We have over a hundred churches and when everything shut down they got organized the

Philippines is known for its tech So what they decided to do is they brought all 120 plus churches together for a single live streaming

System and so over the past year different church different pastors would teach different Sundays Sunday school youth group home churches

They basically took every church as it was broke it down into groups of 25 Which was the maximum the government would allow and created an entire home church network

Here's what you can see and they decided if we're going to have families stuck together for months of quarantine

Why not have an emphasis on the family so they got together and they literally created in all

Philippines wide teaching Sunday school church on the family and how to have a godly family so you can see a bit of this here

Again on tech. There's one of the small groups up there one of the youth groups here you can actually see the

Mother's Day pan Philippines Children's Choir doing their special number for the streaming service and it has been really exciting again 120 churches together there is now a fellowship between those churches that are scattered across 2 ,000 miles that was not there before Kovac Peru Peru is another of our fields where we're reaching tens of thousands of children through our

Bible Institute Volunteers camps, etc. And again everything shut down So our directors

Jonathan and Chantal Odisio Thankfully Millennials who know tech they turned one of their guest bedrooms into a studio and their

Incredibly talented young people began creating programming So today they began an online

Sunday school that was streaming across six countries Children's Bible clubs, etc.

And here you can see just some of the programs they have produced It was so exciting. They that people were watching who would never have set foot in Sunday school at the height

We've had currently six thousand families every Sunday morning tuning in in six countries

And one of the major television programs in northern Peru said, you know, we've got all these kids at home

We don't have enough children's programming. Can we stream your program? So this is now being streamed across northern

Peru by television If you wonder how kids in these countries could possibly be seen high -tech

Well, this is Peru and it's shows how the world has changed in 30 years

These are still often very poor people But you'll see here watching on a screen here

The entire family is literally gathered around the smartphone which everybody has no matter how poor and then over here

I'm watching on a laptop Children's ministry we through either virtual printing out or most of it for download they provide

Homework material and Bible studies and everything that the kids can also do at home And then especially in Peru well around the world

This is a time of crisis tiempo de crisis. And so they created a program that's also a streaming but on Facebook and all kinds of social media where parents can come and they just Do a series of tips of how to work with your children at home and what to do, you know in this crisis time

Brazil Brazil is actually currently in a crisis of COVID because they did not close down But what they did do is they closed all of the schools everything that's public in We reach approximately 10 ,000 children a week in recife,

Brazil And what that created was simply pushing all those children into the streets and homes of the slums

No social distancings. No maskings. No medical care nothing So instead of being helpful, it just made matters a whole lot worse all the

Bible clubs, of course were canceled So what they did is they started a program with their teams and they've got several hundred

Teams that work with these 10 ,000 plus kids and they started just doing home visits

And you can just see some of the things they did here. They started tutoring programs Cooking classes

As long as you did it inside a home It didn't matter how many people are in the home and what you do

And so they have really basically been able to take their outside Bible Club Program and simply move it inside of houses and do the same thing

India or a Ireland Castle Daly Manor, that's where Katie Kinney Served with us but again, everything shut down and of course in Europe even stricter than in a lot of the other countries and so once again our

Millennials got creative This is our annual Easter cookery virtual camp

It was of course canceled the regular camp And so you they just decided to do it online if you see how the tech is working.

That's a smartphone They ended up having from the usual hundred kids they have at the these camps

They ended up with over 800 because they were sitting at home with nothing to do They created what's called and this is actually in many of our camps across Europe and around the world

They simply created online Streaming combined with zoom programs to reach the kids.

So this is some of our camp activities there you can see the virtual clubs

Northern Ireland in this case a one one missionary just took her

Smartphone her car and created a little quiz and she would go to each home outside the home.

She'd call They'd take a picture of it and then inside they do the little Bible study with their mom

Phone the answers to the questions and then she'd do like a five -minute Bible club on the phone with them

In Scotland again, they created an entire virtual Bible clubs and Sunday school

The exciting thing is these are all online So instead of just being used locally they ended up being used across the

English -speaking world we had a ministry leader here in the States that wrote the office and said

We really appreciate those those programs you have that are online that we can use

But you really need to talk to the producers. They need to learn how to speak English properly if they're going to be

Sharing material with the rest of the world and we're thinking you do realize it's Scotland You're listening to their programming, you know, but anyway if you guys are interested and have kids it's still all online and available

Canada as well Online camps one of the ministries just one small example of ingenuity is that one of our missionaries?

created a ministry to older people who don't have computers and can't stream or anything and It's called dial -a -service and they would call in she would take the pastor's message

She'd play the songs with them sing with them They do a little Bible study and then she'd do a summary of the pastor's message over the phone

In Italy again this particular men's conference was Already on the books when when everything shut down and they just everything is virtual a year later

This all seems normal. We all know zoom virtual etc a year ago, this was innovative for our ministries

Virtual Bible clubs and all over the world to be able to see how they've been able to create these virtual Bible clubs and keep

Going this one in Nigeria this one in Myanmar. I Think 30 years ago.

We would never have had the tech, you know God's timing is perfect if he gave us a timeout

He gave us the text so we can continue sharing his word and that's been really exciting because 30 years ago

There would have been no way to keep in contact with all these people In step with the master teacher is our ministry leadership training program

BCM believes in multiplication You can reach children You can teach a church how to reach children or you can teach area leaders how to teach their own churches

How to reach children and BCM his program which is now in over 40 countries

It was created about 15 years ago with the distillation of 70 years on five continents of ministry with children and Again, we had conferences scheduled all over the world in India.

We are in Africa We have a partnership with the Evangelical Association of Churches of the

Congo 60 million members In Nigeria, we we work with the

SIM Church six million members and all of a sudden Everything is closed.

Now if you wonder why this is so important This is one Sunday school class in Nigeria 100 plus children in the five through eight year olds one teacher and If you go across Africa and Asia, it is common to have these huge churches with multiple choirs

Hundreds of people and maybe half a dozen people involved in children's ministry so that has that multiplication has been a good part of our ministry and again our

Field director for Africa for children's ministry Pat Govinder created a locking down.

That's what they called it and they just simply moved everything online and across They found out to their excitement.

They were used to people coming to a conference Being taught and going home and like they said the creation of doing everything through zoom and virtual All of a sudden they're maintaining contacts across Thousands of miles and they actually a week or so ago.

She wrote and she says, you know Everything's opening back up, but they were good things. We learned about this.

We want to keep including that ability to communicate So we graduated train the trainer are the the top layer where they're training they're capable of training an entire region and Then under them is the in step with the master teacher and we ended up with training across 11 countries

Camps just very quickly Camps did open up this summer a Big Sky Bible camp in Big Fork, Montana is one of our biggest and this but a lot of the camps again had to be virtual and It's was interesting the innovation.

This is just one of our camps. They kind of shared their ideas So this was literally happening around the planet where they had their news programs

Worship streaming online Bible teaching streaming online and then they're meeting Individually with their counselors just as though they were at camp

But through zoom and then the most incredibly innovative outdoor activities where the kids are on their smartphones

Streaming and doing all kinds of things like this competition here. So Home activities

How did they do that? They would be created camp in a box. So every camper got a box

Delivered to them with their camp t -shirt and a package for each day and each day they would open that package and it would have their activities and everything perhaps and they would just do it, you know through the through the internet

And that's a camp virtual camp Italy handicamps as well can't promise here in Montana and around the world

This is actually the virtual every Friday night at every camp we have around the world is the final campfire and This was the virtual final campfire of handicap camp 2020 at big sky

Bible camp in Montana Yeah, oh yes, that was the

Canada one And then can't promise in Bigfork, Montana And again, it's a delight to see a bunch of the camps opening back up we're hoping this summer pretty well

Everything will be back to normal That said just to finish off This is

God has done great things despite Kovac and sharing his word But at the same time there is a lot of suffering in need and in India Especially India is our largest field one -third of our ministry.

This was just the last Summary before Kovac hit for the for one year, which would have been 2019

Half a million reached with the gospel 168 plus children 20 almost 28 ,000 youth or 28 ,000 received

Christ 4 ,000 plus baptized Well again then came

Kovac and one of the hardest things and this is a picture if you following the news

India has now just gone wild. They've got almost half a million cases a day This picture here is just one of the crematoriums where they're they're not dealing with all the bodies

And you can see this lady on the street with her oxygen now there isn't even oxygen to be on the street with so with BCM we have 240 plus church planting missionary families many with very young kids and Plus our other ministries, so it's been very very difficult and we have done aid

Ministry outreaches for them. This is just some these are just some of the pastors in the different areas receiving their their aid

That picture up at the top you can see that somebody donated an entire truckload of coconuts So those are going out as aid as well as well as to widows and needy people

In Myanmar or in Madagascar as well with the children are just dying in the street because all of a sudden there's no work.

There's no No social services, and so we've done a fair amount of feeding programs as well as far as we can dip go in Bolivia Another place that's been a hotspot we have missionary a couple that are doctors and they have an actual

Christian clinic that they founded and Once kovat came and people started dying and if you follow that's one of the countries

That they're just stacking up in the streets now They created a mobile clinic with oxygen and everything else and pastors would be calling and we lost 40 pastors in One week in that in their city

Beyond church members and everybody else just 40 pastors in one week And so they work

By phone and by driving around and helping the churches and the pastors who have no access to medical care

Me and Mara it will start stop with our end with this if you have been following the news as well me and more had a coup on February 1st and Of course it has been 50 years of military dictatorship 10 years of democracy and then the coup where they

Arrested the newly elected president and all of her people so we have 18 church planting families a

Bible Institute in orphanage and Jacob among our leader is also the main Christian publisher in the country

Just some pictures here. I don't know if you've heard of the Hunger Games but The Hunger Games, I guess it's kind of global and there's a symbol of defiance where they lift up the three fingers and that means freedom and You will see that all of these protests mostly young Ten years ago people were scared to death

They're marching in the streets now the new generation holding up their fingers in the the Hunger Games signal

A signal saying we are not going back to that.

We want democracy So in the meantime our people Everything's on lockdown.

The Bible Institute could not send the kids home. And so we have ended up with 54 orphans 34

Bible Institute students 9 BCM children's workers and then the 18 church planting families needing fed all locked down in a compound so We have been able to get aid and bless them.

They managed to graduate their latest class in the middle of all of this But that's an ongoing prayer request so pray for India pray for our people around the world

Who are dealing with these situations pray for me and more and praise God for what God is doing despite The setback of this last year.

So with that I'll hand it back to Marty and How much time?

Sorry Jim needs that back. Okay questions and answers

No apago iso I'm sorry. Do I turn this off?

Got it wrong language I'm just a couple of prayer requests

Jeanette did ask about prayer for Indian stuff for those of you who have Canadian connections

BCM Canada Initiated a class -action suit against the government of Canada for civil rights of the believers to practice their religion without Great we seal whatever that is in English To freely practice those rights so that case it's being presented we are the we are the people that are

Presenting the case against the government was defended by the associate

Christian Association for civil rights in Canada out of Calgary that went to court on the 14th of April and the judge has

Said he's going to make a ruling on that by the end of May so be praying for that What's happening is we're having our camps shut down because of some of the funding that we used to get for college kids because of the

LGBTQ people Working behind the scenes to marginalize all

Christian activities and organizations So be praying for that, especially of those who are Canadian.

This will affect a lot of missions and churches in the future there Right Q &A pastor.

Excuse me, Jim. Yes, we do

Okay, we deal you are correct.

We deal with permanently 50 countries We have another 15 countries that we deal with on an itinerant basis.

Many of those are closed In fact, we have several closed countries that That we don't talk about at all if this wasn't going online

We'd talk about one country that begins with a C where we're involved there Now the end in Canada On a scale of 1 to 10 from 10 being the most hostile

I would place Canada at about a 2 or 3 We still don't have any bloodshed

Yet and hopefully you never will because of the stability of the Canadian society but Be praying for that our

Canadian ministries What shut them down was a lot of the Department of Health would shut them down This last year because of the code thing.

So we found a way around that we've done the virtual camps the camp in the box was a Canadian idea and And Everybody who had done traditional camp said it'll never work

But it was sort of exciting because not only did you deliver the boxes by hand when you deliver to them

You got to make an initial contact with the parents who usually don't show up at camp Anyways, so we had an evangelistic thing there

We don't know what's going to happen in the future We've had problems for some years getting into schools now, especially in Ontario to do the release time project

So you can be praying for that. It is on there is a trend there for it to become more difficult in Canada But that's not unusual.

We see that trend in pretty much all of the countries we deal with Including this one

Africa is probably the most open continent now for the ability for us to come and do ministries

As you know Africa was colonized in years gone by by English speakers francophones, that would be

French and Portuguese the

Portuguese ones especially and some of the English ones are Well, actually all of them you either had

Protestant the English speakers were more Protestant the French speakers were Catholic in the

Portuguese so in those countries that have that background of Catholicism or Traditional Christianity such as South Africa is a lot of Reformed Church people

Those countries are opening up rapidly and we can get in there and do ministries We're having troubles in the northern part of Africa where it is

Islam that'd be Muslims and We are doing some active ministry there.

We do itinerant work in those countries Just to give you an example

Christmas of this last year my main guy who works in Africa got a phone call from a village in Africa in Niger and The brother that he'd taught with taught when he was there before Said pray for us.

The terrorists are in our village. They're going from hut to hut they're killing some people and dismembering others with machetes and You could hear the gunfire and the screaming in the background on that phone call and that the brother just he didn't ask for Deliverance.

He asked for prayer that they would remain strong so when I look at that kind of closed persecution when we complain a little bit about some of the minor

Inconveniences that the walking dead place on us We still have a ways to go to defend our faith so All right.

Another question Yes, sir Okay, is it more prolific in the

East and Canada regarding difficulty? We would find Yes, I would say that answer is correct.

We find Alberta Where we have had work, we don't have work now. We're trying to expand back into the western provinces

Alberta especially where those Bible school belts were at So you had all those Bible schools for years that did make an impact on society

Even though society refuses to recognize that especially as far as values go The most difficult place we find right now is is

Ontario It's interesting for those of you that are Canadians, you know exactly how people from Quebec think they're not part of Canada and Everybody will speak

French if they're true Canadians So we have ministry happening in the streets of Montreal and that's growing quickly

The amount of international people that show up in a large urban area with no connections and no anchors

Will readily listen to you and debate with you and in many cases they will come to the

Lord So that's sort of a bright spot in Quebec where evangelism and discipleship is happening

It stopped for a little bit this last year not due to Canada or Due to the

COVID but our evangelist Tony Chapman His wife is Polish. So they moved to Poland for a year

He learned Polish and he was out doing street evangelism for a year, but now he's back in Quebec.

So he's back into French So that is an exciting piece Nova Scotia. We had a camp

Canada shut all overnight camping down For the year

Nova Scotia we had a camp so we transitioned to day camps but the donors in the churches in Nova Scotia saw the lack of Revenue to help with the funding of the camp and all of the churches stepped up on their donations

So our camp in Nova Scotia was fully funded and was able to do other ministry, even though they didn't have camp scholarships

So, yeah, we find that the more conservative provinces are more open to Overt Christianity.

Okay. Another question. I'm sorry

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe, there's a lot of lockdowns there.

The problem we've had with several countries including Eastern Europe is that the The Ability to deal with a

COVID situation has caused the collapse in the health Systems we had that in Mexico.

We've had that in In the Ukraine where we lost our national director a man of 51 years old caught that virus and he was dead within six days

We've got some major Spreads for whole churches and communities are now sick and many of them dying

Russia We don't we do that's one of our closed countries so maybe we should just say the country that begins with our and we have one missionary there and She caught the virus.

There were no medical doctors. So one of her cousins came and started giving her Whatever IVs they had when she got better It was her job to help the people in the church because the pastor and all of the people in the church got the same

Thing so the infrastructure is much more difficult there. We do have a growing ministry, especially like the

Ukraine We have a ministry camps to deaf kids to handicapped kids and to regular church planting and orphans

Russia we have some stuff going we need desperately need missionaries for hungry.

I've got Two missionaries now aged ladies who were sent by BCM Germany who are starting to timeout

We have a camp there We desperately need especially men and couples to demonstrate

Christ in Hungary If you decide to go to Hungary you better learn to like Paprika Because it was in everything and their national dish is catfish soup made with paprika.

I'm not a big catfish fan Thankfully, I do like paprika though So we have great need in Hungary we are doing some itinerant ministry in some of the other

Eastern European countries We aren't in the it stands yet Kyrgyzstan bunch of those but we're doing itinerant training in some of those countries and we do that undercover online through zoom

So if you know one of those languages, especially I'm happy to talk Talking about opportunities.

We do have a internationalist Academy of Suriname in Paramount Suriname Suriname is a comprised of 1 3rd

Chinese 1 3rd Hindu and 1 3rd Dutch so you

Yes, oh Okay. Thank you.

I thought I messed something up on my tea Okay, and 1 3rd Dutch so you hear all three of those languages in the street

Chinese Hindi and Dutch, but English overlays everything So we have a what used to be a missionary children's school that when all the missions pulled out went

Independent and now we have helped to bring that back to a Christian basis. So we have about 60 to 100 students depending these are all international students many of them their parents are from the

Embassies or from large oil companies and Approximately 15 % of our student body is believers

So what we're doing there is we're doing evangelism and discipleship tied to education and I have a list out there

We need two or three more teachers for this coming year. We want someone who's committed To talking about Jesus Christ in the classroom

It is an ACSI school for those of you who are Accommodations Internationally and this particular

School will pay for you to come and teach So you get room and board a stipend and they will pay for you to get there and get back

So if you're qualified, I want to teach in English. I want a way to do evangelism and discipleship.

I Don't remember who's on the list now, but we currently almost always need a chaplain

Need a Bible teacher a Bible is one of the certified courses So you have to be a certified teacher to teach that and any of the teachers need to learn their

Bible Also the ones I recruit all have to become BCM missionaries So I've had every individual that goes there so we have quality control on the gospel being shared there

Right question in where?

Philadelphia Oh Chili, I'm sorry BCM presence in Chile No, we don't have anything going there yet But my

Latin America director has he's trying to make contact so we can expand into Chile We have lots in Peru, yeah currently in Peru Mexico What's that Not Ecuador yet it's coming up Bolivia Brazil Peru and Mexico but don't tell

Mexico that they're in Latin or Central America because Mexico believes they're part of the North American continent

So be very careful about yeah, my wife who was raised in Colombia says they are We are working on connections in Argentina, we already have a contact there we're working on connections in Ecuador We have missionaries that want to come in.

We have history historically had a camp that's functioned for 50 to 60 years roughly in Cuba We actually survived the revolutions in Cuba that camp still going but we're trying to start a new ministry in Cuba this year through Bible clubs and teacher training for Spanish speakers

Canadians can get into Cuba Americans. It's still very difficult and Then Costa Rica we're working on connections there

So we expect to expand into five more countries four or five in Latin America in the next 18 months

Chile is still not on the list So to answer the question if you have someone that you're interested in becoming involved in children's ministry and Bible teaching

In Chile, we are all eyes and ears Okay Any other questions?

Yes, ma 'am Nicaragua no tenemo nada en Nicaragua todavia Por que no hay contactos

I'm doing this in the wrong language We don't have anyone in Nicaragua yet because we don't have contacts, but we are more than open to something happening there.

Yes Nicaragua Right pastor. Excuse me,

Jim Am I I think I'm out of time All right. So what happens next is that a response to the power of the prayer

I close with or All right, let's close in prayer our gracious God and Heavenly Father.

I thank you for you because you are you I Thank you that you give us structure for life through the teachings of Jesus Christ I thank you that you give us true community because of our

Relationship vertically with the Trinity and how that expresses itself is horizontally with mankind

Especially those in the body of Christ. I thank you for your peace That you give us and that we are not to be afraid or troubled

But to have a spirit of power Love and a sound mind now I just pray for us today as we go through our worship time together that it would be an expression of what we believe in and whom we serve and be a

Visible expression of what happens all during the week We pray all these things in the name of the

Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen Thank you This game

And you Exerting your promise

That you may be That you may be

The repro

For your I could behold a priest

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon that your way may be known on your saving parishes let the peasants be glad and sing for you judge the peoples with equity and nation let the peoples praise you, praise you, praise you the earth has yielded its increase

God our God shall bless us, God shall bless us let all the ends of the earth feel your peoples praise you

Lord you have searched me and known me you know when

I sit down and when you discern my thoughts from afar you search out my path and my light down and are acquainted with all and are acquainted with all even before it's on my tongue behold oh

Lord you know it all together you heal me in behind and before and lay your hand upon such knowledge as to one it is high,

I cannot attain it it is high,

I cannot attain it where shall

I go from your spirit where shall

I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there if I make my bed in Sheol you are there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall if I say surely the darkness shall come and the light about me the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the day for darkness is light with you where shall

I go from your spirit where shall

I flee from your presence if I ascend to you upon my inward you knitted me together and my most was not hidden from you when

I was being made in secret intricately woven in the devil's substance in your book words were formed for me as yet you, how precious to me are your thoughts how vast is the sum if I would count them they are more than the sin

I awaken I am still with you that you would slay the wicked they speak against you with malicious intent your enemies take your name in vain do

I not hear and see if there be preserve me

O God for in you I take refuge I say to the

Lord you are my Lord I have a part as for the saints in the land they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight the sorrows of those who run after another

God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood

I will not pour out or take their names on my lips the

Lord is my chosen portion and my cup you hold my lot the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed

I have beautiful inheritance bless the

Lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me

I have set the Lord always before me because He is in my right hand

I shall not be shaken therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices my flesh also dwells secure for you will not abandon my soul does she hope

O let your only one see corruption have been our dwelling place a rock amidst the waves for a thing around us shakes your truth will still remain our anchor forever you will never change you will never change from everlasting you are

God your law endure your promises are sure to everlasting you are

God a passing dream a thought that soon is gone with all our strength we cling to you a rock steadfast and true our refuge forever you will never change you will never change from everlasting you are

God your promises are sure to everlasting you are

God deep trust to long and teary years for eternity will always be you will never change

Good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Church.

Would you please stand as we sing this morning My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. piano plays

My faith has found a resting place not indivisible nor free

I trust the everliving what his words for me

I need no other argument I need no other plea

It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me

Enough for me that Jesus saves this ends my fear and doubt a sinful soul

I come to him he'll never cast me out I need no other argument

I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me

My heart is leaning on the word the written word of God Salvation by my

Savior's name Salvation through his blood I need no other argument

I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me

Praise to the

Lord the almighty He the king of creation

O my soul praise him for he is thy help and salvation

All ye who hear now to his temple draw near Praise him in glad adoration

Praise to the Lord who o 'er all things so wondrously reigneth

Shelters we under his wings yea so gently sustaineth

Hast thou not seen how thy desires there have been granted in what he ordaineth

Praise to the Lord who doth prosper thy work and defend thee

Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee

Ponder adieu what the almighty can do

If with his love he be friendly Praise to the

Lord O let all that is in me adore him

Well now with fragment breath come now Praises give for him

Let the amen sound from his people again

Gladly forever adore him

We were rude we were guilty and undone

When your love reached down with sovereign hands and beckoned us to come

You sought out the wanderers

May the prodigals come home With a lavish feast you welcomed us

For you made us your own You have loved us like you loved your son

We are his with Christ Bought by his blood

O how great the love that we've been shown

We're your children now You made us your own

We are strangers to the world But no strangers to your throne

We draw near you now with confidence

For all our fears are gone And when

Christ our King returns We'll meet saints we've never known

And forever we will be amazed

That you made us your own You have loved us like you loved your son

We are his with Christ Bought by his blood

O how great the love that we've been shown

We're your children now

You made us your own You have loved us like you loved your son

We are his with Christ Bought by his blood

O how great the love that we've been shown

We're your children now You made us your own

We're your children now You've made us your own

Good morning.

There we go. It's not my job to push the button. That's somebody else's job to do that. All right. A couple of announcements.

We have a men's fellowship tomorrow evening at 6 .30 p .m. So if you want to be part of that, make sure you are here tomorrow night at 6 .30.

And then last week, I mentioned a New Families Night on June 18th. We had to change the date of that to June 25th because one of our elders was a bit slower in answering his email, so we weren't able to get the correct date down, and we will reveal who that is at the

New Families meeting on June 25th. So that is for the purpose, if you are here for the last six to eight months or so, and you're kind of new to Kootenai Community Church, this is going to give you an opportunity to meet the elders, meet the deacons, and get to know us and ask questions, and we can get to know you.

And you can ask doctrinal questions, theological questions, philosophical questions about philosophy of ministry and how we approach who we are, what makes us what we are, the history of the church.

It's your opportunity to kind of learn all of that. And we'll have some ice -breaking games, too, where you're going to get to know each other, you share your height and your weight and social security number, things like that.

So that is June 25th, and we'll start that at 6 p .m. And then also in this coming week is a

Zoom meeting for those who are interested in the Israel trip in February, so if that's something that interests you, please contact me to make sure that we can get you a link before Tuesday night so you can join that meeting.

It's going to be not just with me, but also with the tour guide himself who's going to be leading the tour answering questions like, are we going to Ashkelon where the bombs are dropping?

Are we going to Tel Aviv? Where are we going to be at? How dangerous will it be? And will I survive the trip? And all kinds of other questions like that.

So you might want to be part of that meeting if you are interested in that trip. My last announcement, at least for this set of announcements, is

I would like to introduce a missionary family that we have here. For most of you here, this missionary family is new. They have been associated with Kootenai Community Church longer than I have been associated with Kootenai Community Church.

Our support of them and their ministries go back to 1984. That's when we first started supporting them.

And we have done so every year since 1984, and we've watched them move from one mission field to the next.

And now they're on mission fields all over the world. And that is Marty and Jeannette Wendell. And Marty, back when

I was a teenager here, is when I first met Marty and Jeannette Wendell. And they have, he was actually part of, he was actually associated with Kootenai Community Church before Kootenai Community Church met at the old

Kootenai Community Church. And so he has a perspective as an outsider and as an older gentleman, a seasoned gentleman, that many of you do not have.

Some of you don't even remember when Kootenai Community Church was in any place other than this facility. And Marty was in,

Marty came and visited us when we were at the gymnasium at Kootenai Elementary School. And then Jeannette, did you ever come at a time when we were at the school?

I don't think so. So that puts Jeannette's last time with us when we were in the old church building.

I think we might have had a midweek service when we were meeting at the school. We might have had a midweek potluck or something with you. You guys came and then

Marty was here, us, more than three years ago now. So with that, Marty's gonna take two or three minutes, three to five minutes.

Sorry, I promised you three to five and just give you an update on what is going on so you have a chance to see him.

And he'll introduce everything else that I have not yet mentioned. So Marty. Thank you,

Pastor Jim. Thank you, Jim. Also thank you for the promise of 35 minutes.

My name is Marty Wendell and my wife's name is Jeannette. We work with the Bible Centered Ministries, which used to be the

Bible Club movement. For those of you who have been in Sunday School for lots of years, you may remember

Flannelgraph. We are the Flannelgraph inventors. We do have competition, but we call them colleagues because we're both after the same thing, bringing children to Jesus Christ.

I am the president of BCM International. We work in 50 countries permanently and another 15 itinerant.

We have 872 missionaries at the moment and I have another 25 who would like to come in as soon as we can get to their countries and do the training.

Some of those countries are open. Some of those are closed. But either way, we get in and we do ministry.

We focus on the way the Bible changes people's lives. We are Bible Centered Ministries.

So for children, we try to create opportunities for them to meet Jesus. With older people, we do that as well.

But 8 out of 10 of everyone who ever comes to Christ does so before they reach the age of 14.

So if you are here and you don't know the Lord and you're over 14, your odds are running out.

You need to talk to Pastor Jim immediately. If you're under 14,

I'm excited to see you too. You know that a lot of the people who go to the mission field decide that God wants them to be a missionary at the ages of 12 or 13, right in that age period.

I do want to mention we have a display at the back with some of our information. If you'd like to be on our prayer letter list and get updates electronically, you're welcome to do that.

One of the ministries that we do besides BCM, but closely related to, is

Jeanette has, God has gifted her with the ability to write. So she has 24 published titles.

And a bunch of other articles and stuff that she's done as a journalist. Her titles are all award winning and they classify those as international, missiological, fiction, and non -fiction because her

Afghanistan books are non -fiction. So if you're interested in those books or you know someone that's interested, we've had a lot of, especially men who are non -believers, read the books and accept

Jesus Christ. So they're also evangelistic with a biblical message. All of the proceeds from those books go right to BCM and back into ministry.

So we're hooked to ministry no matter how that works. And yes, I've been here since,

I've known the church since 1984. When Jeanette and I drove up, it was a big, big praise because I had not seen the new building.

But I did see the old sign. So I knew it was the right place. You have a gracious blessing of the

Heavenly Father on your building. You have an even greater blessing because He's filled it with people who love

Jesus. So thank you for supporting us for all these years. Feel free to stop by and get more information or if you want to support missions and give a book to someone who needs to know the

Lord, there's plenty of those back there too. Pastor, I think my 35 minutes are up.

There was a much fuller, I need to remember what I was going to say, there was a much fuller presentation of Marty and Jeanette's ministry in Sunday School this morning.

If you weren't here for that, you can catch that on the YouTube channel or the podcast and there was a video is available there as well if you want to see more of what the

Lord is doing. One other announcement is that we have the conference coming up this next week with Phil Johnson on the life and legacy of Charles Spurgeon.

So that is next, that starts on Friday night and if you already registered for that, then of course you know that.

If you're registered and you're not able to make it, please let me know because we have people on a waiting list who would like to come to that and we'd like to open it up to those who are on the waiting list.

I think we have about 20 people on a waiting list that did not make the registration deadline and that means that we're going to need to take down the chairs again today so when we're done with our service, if you could help us please stack the chairs as you just leave them here in the middle of the room and we'll wheel them out and set them up later.

We need to set up tables in here sometime this week and next weekend for Adult Sunday School class,

I'm expecting that Phil Johnson is going to be teaching Adult Sunday School class so I think that Dave's class is going to be meeting in here and then

Phil Johnson will be preaching as well at next week's service and that is going to be a special delight. So will you turn now in your

Bibles to the book of Hebrews to chapter 3 for our scripture reading. Since we're going through the warning passage in chapter 10, we're going to be doing some scripture readings before our exposition from some of the other warning passages so we're going to look now at the second warning passage beginning at chapter 3 verse 12 and we'll just read through that.

Hebrews chapter 3 and beginning at verse 12 Take care brethren that there not be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living

God but encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end while it is said today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me for who provoked him when they had heard indeed did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses and with whom was he angry for forty years was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief therefore let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest any one of you may seem to come short of it for indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard for we who have believed enter that rest just as he has said as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although his works were finished from the foundation of the world he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this passage they shall not enter my rest therefore since it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience he again fixes a certain day today saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken of another day after that so there remains a

Sabbath rest for the people of God for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that none will fall through following the same example of disobedience for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart and there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens

Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need will you stand with me as we pray let's bow our heads our father we rejoice in the rest and the provision of rest that is in Jesus Christ we thank you that you have taken all of our sins away because of what

Christ has done and that you have perfectly paid the price of our salvation in him we have a better high priest we are the recipients of a better covenant better blood has been shed to give us better promises and better hope and we thank you that our sacrifice the lord

Jesus Christ has borne all of our iniquity and taken away our sin that we may have life in him and so we rest in him and we pray for any who are here who have remained until now disobedient we pray that they may hear the voice of the shepherd and come today and be not disobedient but obedient and enter into that rest we thank you for your grace and for your goodness to us and for the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ as we lift our hearts and our voices in praise and adoration today we ask that you would be honored and glorified through all that we sing and all that we say and all that we think this morning in our time together bless our fellowship our union in Jesus Christ our affections for one another we pray that you would inflame our hearts with affection and love for Christ and for the truth and for your church we pray that you would be honored here as we bow our hearts and minds to you and to your word in Christ's name amen

I once was lost

But now I'm found Was blind but now

I see Was grace that taught

My heart to fear And grace my fears relieved

I once was lost And grace my fears relieved I once was lost But now I'm found How precious did

That grace appear The hour

I first believed My chains are gone

I've been set free My God, my

Savior Has ransomed me

And like a child His mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace.

Has promised good to His Word, my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures.

My chains are gone, I've been set free.

My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.

And like a flood, His mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace.

My chains are gone, I've been set free.

My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.

And like a flood, His mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow.

The sun forbear to shine. But God who called me here below Will be forever.

In Colossians chapter 2, it says,

And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us.

He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Before the throne of God above,

I have a strong hand, perfectly. A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on His hands. My name is written on His heart.

I know that while in heaven He stands, no tongue can ever misdepart.

No tongue can bid me lose deep love. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward

I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pray.

Look on Him and pray.

Hallelujah! Praise the one risen

Son of God. Him there, the risen man, my perfect spotless righteousness, the great unchangeable

I am, the King of glory and of grace, one with Himself I cannot die.

My soul is purchased with His blood. My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my

Savior and my God. With Christ my Savior and my

God. Hallelujah! Praise the one risen

Son of God. I bow before the cross of Christ and marvel at His love divine.

God's perfect Son was sacrificed to make me righteous in God's eyes.

This river's depths I cannot know, but I can glory in its flood.

The Lord most high has bowed down low and poured on me

His grueless love, and poured on me His grueless love.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Praise the one risen Son of God.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the one risen

Son of God.

You may be seated. Also in the book of Hebrews, will you please turn to chapter 10, and let's pray before we begin our study.

Father, it is with great joy that we are able to come to You and before You, and it is with great joy that we are able to open

Your Word, because in it we find all the treasures of life and wisdom in Jesus Christ. We find

Your revelation of Your redemptive plan and Your purposes, warnings and encouragements, and truths to strengthen our hearts, and we are grateful that You accomplish all of these things through Your Word, and we pray that You would accomplish them in our hearts this morning.

We love You, and we have sung Your praises, and we have spoken to You, and now we pray that You would speak to us through and in Your Word, by helping us to come to a right and proper understanding of this

Word and its context, and to apply it to our lives. And we pray that You would be glorified through this time, and that You would help us in understanding this text, in Jesus' name.

Well, in Sunday school this morning, Marty talked about closed countries, countries where Christians are persecuted, and what some of the believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, endure around the world.

And there is an upside to persecution, the upside being, and we see this in the book of Acts, that when the church is persecuted, in the early church, it resulted in a purer church and a powerful church.

Because when things are good and when it is fashionable and chic to do so, make -believers and fake -believers and unbelievers tend to attach themselves to the people of God, because it's the happening thing, it's the easy thing to do.

But then when persecution hits the church, those people who are make -believers find a way of not paying the cost of being disciples of Christ.

Words are cheap, but persecution is not. And when there is a price to be paid for being a

Christian, make -believers and pretenders tend to leave the church, because they are not willing to pay a steep price for something that they really don't find all that valuable to themselves to begin with.

And so one of the results of persecution is a purer church and a more powerful church. And we should not expect, we should not, we should expect that among the wheat that there would be tares, we should expect that among the sheep that there would be goats and wolves and people who pretend to be sheep, when things are easy and when it costs people nothing to be part of the church.

And then when they leave, when they depart the faith during difficult times or when they are tempted to do so because of the lust of their flesh, it shouldn't shock us that they leave.

In fact, the departure of fake believers from the Christian church should remind us of just how easy self -deception is in the realm of spiritual things.

How easy it is for people to deceive themselves into thinking that they are part of God's people. And it should remind us that being part of the people of God is not just a matter of giving an external allegiance or an external pledge to some body of truth or making verbal or mental affirmation to a body of doctrine.

And being part of the people of God is not just raising your hand and walking an aisle and making a profession and signing a card.

That being part of the church of Christ begins first with God's choice and it results from God drawing

His people to themselves and giving them a new nature and redeeming them by and through His word in the power of the

Holy Spirit. So it is not we who make ourselves disciples of Christ by simply attaching ourselves to a church body and giving verbal affirmation to a body of truth.

We are made believers in Jesus Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit in redeeming us and regenerating us by the truth in His word.

That is how people become believers. And so you can have people who make mental, verbal, and outward affirmations of truth and doctrine who are not actually part of the people of God because being a

Christian is not just a matter of saying yeah, I think that those things are true and yes, I went to that church and felt a warming in my heart and a stirring and a religious sentiment and I felt sort of a fire amongst the people.

That's not what makes you a Christian. Regeneration makes you a Christian. And that is the work of the

Holy Spirit that is through His word and it is the work of God who is sovereign. He does that work.

He does it through the truth but somebody can make a mental affirmation of the truth without ever being regenerated and born again.

Well, when those phonies and those fakes leave the body of Christ that is exactly what is being described in the warning passages in the book of Hebrews.

There are five of them and we are studying the fourth one that we are here in Hebrews chapter 10 and so we are in verse 26 and we looked at this warning passage last week, the last two weeks actually.

We've been looking at this warning passage. We kind of gave an introduction to it and then last week we looked at the first of these three very important questions that we have to answer from verses 26 and 27.

The first question is what is this willful sin? That's an important question because it sets the context for everything that is to follow and helps us understand who it is that's being described in the passage and who it is that the author is addressing with the very stern warning that follows in verses 26 through 31.

What is the willful sin described in verse 26? Let's read verse 26 and 27 again.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

So the three questions what is the willful sin and the other two we are answering today why is there no sacrifice for it?

What does the author mean by that? And what is the judgment that is being described in verse 27?

This fiery fury that will consume the adversaries. So what is the willful sin? Last week we saw that the willful sin is not a sin that you commit in a moment of weakness or from a state of ignorance but rather that it is a deliberate willful thought out well considered intentional act of sinning against the truth and that what the author has in mind is a turning away from what you know to be truth and a rejecting entirely of the gospel itself.

And an embracing of being an enemy with God. It is an apostasy that is being described not

Christians who are losing their salvation. It is an act of sinning in spite of or we might even say against the truth.

They do this having received the knowledge of the truth. They understand what is true. There is nothing else to be said to them.

There is no other piece of information that they need to know. They have heard the gospel they have seen the gospel lived out they have seen the fruit of the gospel they have been close enough with the

Christian community so as that they can even enjoy the blessings of God to fall upon that community because they are in and amongst those people.

And their enjoyment of those blessings are external they are superficial and on a superficial level but they are enjoyment of those new covenant blessings nonetheless.

And so they have received fully a knowledge of the truth. They know exactly what it is that they are rejecting and turning away from and yet they turn away willfully deliberately and considering what it is that they are sacrificing and what it is that they are losing.

It is in fact a refusal this act of apostasy it is a refusal to heed the last three exhortations that we looked at previously.

To draw near to hold fast and to gather with the people of God. We are commanded to draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The apostate doesn't do that doesn't draw near. We are commanded to hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.

The apostate doesn't. He compromises the truth. We are commanded to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The apostate doesn't obey that either.

He forsakes the assembly of the Christians. So we are commanded to draw near to hold fast and to encourage others to do the same by not forsaking ourselves.

The apostate disobeys all three of those. Rather than drawing near he walks away. Rather than holding fast he lets go and denies and compromises the truth and rather than not forsaking the assembly he forsakes the assembly of the church.

We are commanded to gather together and he departs from the church. Apostasy is not just a matter of physically getting up and walking away from the body of Christ.

It also has to do with your attitude and your response to the truth. We've seen a form of apostasy this last week.

This last week I don't know if you caught the news or not but this last week Saddleback Church in California and Rick Warren ordained for the first time in their church's history three women as pastors at Saddleback Community Church to the applause of the entire congregation.

To the applause of the congregation. Now when I preached through the warning passage and talked about apostasy back in chapter six right after that Joshua Harris did his thing and apostatized and soon after him

Marty Sampson. Now I'm preaching in Hebrews chapter 10 and we see a real life example of doctrinal theological apostasy happening on a national stage in our own country.

So one of two things is true. Either I have some magical ability to create apostates by preaching on apostasy passages that is possible or number two we are living in such a time that no matter when

I decided to talk about apostates we would have a ready and relevant and recent example right at our fingertips to point to.

I think it is the latter. They say if you believe that women should be pastors does that mean you're going to hell?

No. Not necessarily. You can be ignorant of that. But listen if all of the leadership at Saddleback Community Church is ignorant of that they need to get up and run because that means there is nobody in leadership who is qualified to handle the word of God which means it's not a church.

If they aren't ignorant of it and they know it and they've done it intentionally that means everybody in that church should get up and run because every last leader is a wolf.

So they're either ignorant or they're wolves. There are no other options. There is no third option.

Either way it is not a church and it is real life theological apostasy unfolding on a national scale around us and within a month and these sermons are not intended none of this is in my notes but these sermons are not intended to be like apostasy update for the week type of a thing but within a month the

Southern Baptist denomination is going to meet and you know what they're going to have conversations about? Whether they should be ordaining women to ministry.

There's not an exception to this rule. The minute a church or a denomination begins to ordain women into positions of ministry as pastors and recognize that the very next step is guess what?

Should we consider ordaining homosexuals every single time? There are no exceptions.

There are no exceptions to that. Because once you start down that slope and down that compromise it is a logical progression that takes you right into full blown apostasy and denial of the truth.

We're seeing it unfold. So that's your good news update for today. Now we need to look at the second question and the third question.

The second question is why is there no sacrifice for it? He says if we go on sinning willfully deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.

What does the author mean by that? That there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. Understanding the willful sin what it is that he's describing there helps us to understand why there's no sacrifice for it.

And I'll tie all of this together in a moment. But we have to back up just a little bit and remind ourselves of the context. This is not the first time that the author has spoken of a sacrifice in the book of Hebrews is it?

No it's not. He's been talking about sacrifices for a number of chapters now. In fact we can go all the way back into chapter 2 and 3 and look at passages that deal with the sacrifice but even most recently to our context here beginning in chapter 7 he started talking about a new priesthood.

He started talking about a priesthood and a new priest and why a new priesthood was necessary because the old priesthood was unable to perfect the worshiper.

And it was just a symbol and a sign a type of the priesthood that was to come. So because the Old Testament priesthood was unable to perfect the worshiper a new priest had to be ordained and not a priest according to the order of Aaron but according to the order of Melchizedek.

A brand new priesthood and this priest would be one who lives forever and who is perfect. And this priest would offer a better sacrifice offering better blood his own sacrifice securing for us a better hope initiating a better covenant built on better promises and provide for us a better hope and a better future than anything that was anticipated or expected as a result of the

Old Testament the old covenant in the Old Testament. So now we have a better priesthood and a better sacrifice and a better covenant he describes this in chapter 7 verses 18 and 19 for on the one hand there is the setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness for the law made nothing perfect and on the other hand there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

So he has been talking about sacrifices and specifically he has been talking about the glories and the majesty and the purity and the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in comparing that sacrifice and all that it has attained and all that it has provided with the sacrifices that were given and offered under the old covenant.

And so we have seen as the result of Christ coming and doing his work he has done what the old covenant could never do.

So he has offered a better sacrifice giving us a better standing providing for us the fulfillment of better promises.

This is all summarized in chapter 10 and now we are talking about here our immediate context beginning in verse 10

And by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet for by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

That is the zenith that is the climax that is the mountain peak of theology that we get to in verse 14.

And from there he goes on to describe the implications of that great truth that Christ has done this he has fulfilled all of the

Old Testament sacrifices he has perfected those for whom he has made the sacrifice he has perfected the ones for whom he has died and he has perfected them forever.

That is all the security of the believer that is described in that passage that I just read to you. And so in view of the fact that the author has been saying that the sacrifice of Christ is a fulfilling sacrifice that has fulfilled all of the

Old Testament types and shadows that has fulfilled all of the Old Testament sacrifices and so those are no longer needed and those are no longer in play at all and the author has made the case that the sacrifice of Christ was a perfect sacrifice because he was an obedient son and the pure spotless perfect Lamb of God because he was sinless he was able to offer himself morally without blemish in any way as a sacrifice to God on behalf of those who were morally blemished that's you and I so he is a fulfilling sacrifice and a perfect sacrifice and he is a sufficient sacrifice.

In Jesus Christ God accomplished the redemption of his people so that in Christ all of the sin of all of God's people who have ever believed and ever will believe was laid upon the son and all of their guilt and all of their sin was expiated satisfied taken out of the way propitiated and atoned for so that that price was paid and there is therefore now nothing more that is needed to pay a price there's no more price to be paid there's no more atonement to be purchased there's nothing else to be secured or perfected he has perfected for all time those for whom he has died the work has been entirely done and all of the price has been paid because it is a fulfilling a perfect and a successful sacrifice and it is also the final sacrifice so that in Christ that one offering has replaced all of the

Old Testament offerings and it has done what none of them could ever do and therefore there is no more sacrifice to be made this is what the author means in verse 18 when he says now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin if forgiveness has been acquired and achieved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ then no further sacrifice after that is necessary so having accomplished all the redemption of God's people no further work is needed no further sacrifice can be given there is no development in the plan of God for a future payment for sins we're not waiting for any kind of atonement or payment for our sin at any point in the future it has all been done this is the knowledge of the truth that they had received and that they were considering turning away from everything

I've just laid out for you that's the case that the author has been making since chapter 7 a fulfilling sacrifice a sufficient sacrifice a perfect sacrifice a final sacrifice there is no more sacrifice that is ever going to be offered or ever needs to be offered and so you notice the language in verse 18 is similar to the language in verse 26 now there where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer an offering for sin look at verse 26 if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin notice the phrasing is similar no longer an offering for sin no longer remains a sacrifice for sin that connects verse 18 and verse 26 because here's what the point of the author is since the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is perfect no other sacrifice is necessary now listen if the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is rejected no other sacrifice is available since his sacrifice is perfect no other sacrifice is necessary if his sacrifice is rejected no other sacrifice is available so what is the point of verse 18 the point of verse 18 is that Christ because his sacrifice is perfect no other sacrifices are necessary there no longer remains any more offering for sin nothing else is necessary what's the point of verse 26 if you reject that sacrifice no other sacrifice is available to you you're going to turn from that and you're going to turn to what to turn away from that knowledge of the truth which you have just heard me explain to you to know all of that and to walk away from it it's like it would be as if it would be as if you were a man who walked into a doctor's office and you knew that you had some sort of a disease something was wrong with you and the doctor ran all of these tests and did some scans and x -rays and blood work and everything and you came back in for your consultation and the doctor would sit down and explain to you look you've got this disease and here's the pictures of what we took the scans you can see the blotches here the dark areas this is what's plaguing you you're going to die from this and here's the blood work and all the results he shows you the blood work and then he shows you all the other test results and everything else that they've done and you did it your chances of surviving this are zero you are going to die and he tells you what the disease is and you have heard of this disease before and you know other people who have died from this disease in fact everybody that's been diagnosed with this that you know of has died from this disease but then the doctor says to you but there is a cure this cure is 100 % effective and everyone who takes this cure is cured of the disease if you do not take this cure you will die everybody who does not take this cure dies but if you take this cure you will live it's 100 % effective if you take the cure you live if you do not take the cure you died and then you think about it and you think you know

I know people who have been diagnosed with the same disease who have refused to take a cure and all of them have died and I know other people who have taken this cure for this disease and been diagnosed with this disease and they take the cure and all of them have lived and I have seen them go on living even having taken the cure for this disease and you go through all of this in your mind and you consider all of this you know the truth you see it you see your disease you see the cure the cure is 100 % effective don't take the cure you are certain to die then you turn around you walk away and reject the cure what is the disease?

it's sin everybody is diagnosed with it if you die with it you die you will die from it and if you die without taking the cure which is

Jesus Christ you will go on dying forever if you receive Jesus Christ you will live now the one who sees that from amongst the people of God he sits among us and he sees people who have taken the cure and they live and he sees the fruit of that living he knows that they are alive spiritually he sees it it is demonstrated to him he knows that other people who reject that cure they die in their sin and they perish everlastingly he understands all of that and then turns and walks away from the cure never to take the cure if you reject that cure there no longer remains a cure for your disease there is no other cure this is it the doctor says this is 100 % effective reject it and perish you need to walk away from that what else is the doctor going to give you?

vitamin C vitamin D placebo a shot of this an injection of that what else do you have?

if you reject that cure there no longer remains any other cure for that disease that's the point of verse 26 since the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is perfect no other sacrifice is necessary if the sacrifice of Christ is rejected there no longer remains any other sacrifice for sin there is nothing in the past if you turn away from this willfully there is nothing in the past that you can turn to that will remove your sin there is no other present remedy that will expiate your guilt and there is no future sacrifice or program that can take away your eternal damnation this is the only cure it was provided it is the cure today it will always be the cure there is nothing else to come if you reject it there remains no other sacrifice there remains no other cure for your disease this sacrifice being accepted by God being perfect in its nature being more excellent than anything else being a fulfilling sacrifice a sufficient sacrifice a perfect sacrifice and a final sacrifice if you reject that there is no other sacrifice for sins where else will you turn?

and this was the question that the author is placing before the audience of his day they had having left the old covenant forms and features and the tabernacle and the sacrifices and they had come into this been part of this community at least externally though not saved and now these people are considering turning away from that and going back to the previous sacrifices going back to the previous provision and the author is saying

Christ has fulfilled all of that it's all obsolete it's all done away with and now if you turn away from this one sacrifice this one cure there is no other sacrifice no animal no lamb no ox nothing can atone for your sin there is nothing you can give that will supplement this sacrifice or replace this sacrifice if you walk away from that there remains no other sacrifice for sin and what the author has been trying to show them is that every other sacrifice is ineffective

Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 and 2 the law since it is only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of the things can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near Hebrews 10 verse 4 it's impossible for the blood of goats and bulls and goats to take away sin

Hebrews 10 verse 11 every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices that can never take away sins and then he says this sacrifice has done that work having perfected forever all those for whom it was made and if you turn from this sacrifice you are turning from the cure there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin this is the only place you can turn to so walking away from that sacrifice to go back to bulls and goats and a tabernacle and a temple and a defunct priesthood and an obsolete covenant to abandon all of that is to trample underfoot the son of God to regard as nothing the blood of his covenant by which he was sanctified and it is to insult the spirit of grace the rest of the passage says so if you do all of that that is a high handed act of treachery and you say hey

Jim but I'm not in danger of sacrificing all of that I'm not in danger of walking away and going and offering bulls and goats this afternoon

I'm not putting my hope in another priesthood but your act of apostasy if you walk away from this truth is even worse than the first century

Christians act of apostasy and here's why they were going to turn back to a system that God himself had ordained and that had been part of their system and part of their covenant and part of their culture for 15 centuries they had something that was mediated through angels and given to them by Moses and all of that truth that they had enjoyed they were turning back to that and God says that's a high handed act of treachery if you go on sinning and you turn back to that receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains any sacrifice for sin but you just have judgment to look forward to how much more the person who doesn't turn back to something that God had at one time used and ordained but how much more the person who says no

I don't think I need any atonement for my sin I'm fine to stand before God on the last day dressed in the robes of my own self righteousness who doesn't even turn back to something else but turns to nothing and just says he's comfortable with that how much worse is the person who having received all of this knowledge and that truth turns away from God well that is that's a high handed act of treachery against the truth isn't it it's one thing to turn back to something that God had used for 15 centuries and ordained for 15 centuries it's quite another thing to turn back to nothing and to just say no

I'm fine by myself I don't need any sacrifice for my sin I'm fine with my own righteousness if they went back to that dead system they deserve judgment if you turn back to nothing then you deserve judgment since his sacrifice is perfect no other sacrifice is necessary if his sacrifice is rejected no other sacrifice is available now what is the judgment that's being described here you didn't think we were going to get to the second question today but we are what is the judgment that is being described in verse 27 when he says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but here's the here's the description a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries now we've noted that this language is stern language and it is very stern it's very serious some of the fact that some of the harshest language that we find anywhere in scripture not coming from the mouth of Jesus himself you want to read harsh language turn to Matthew chapter 23 and read his denunciation of the

Pharisees and the scribes you want to read harsh language you can turn to some passages in the book of John where he excoriates those who rejected him and turned away from him and denied the truth calling them sons of Satan but outside of the words of Jesus this is some of the harshest judgment language that we can find anywhere in scripture in this warning passage and this is the harshest language to be found in any of the five warning passages in Hebrews all of the warning passages have some warning of judgment in them either implicit or explicit and here it is not only explicit but the author is emphasizing the judgment that is described here he is camping on this you see it in verse 27 he speaks of the terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries in verse 28 he describes those who die without mercy verse 29 a severer punishment verse 30 vengeance is mine

I will repay and verse 31 terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God this warning passage is stacked with some warnings about judgment but what is the judgment that is being described here you will notice that there are three in our broader passage from verse 26 through 31 you will notice that there are three quotations from the

Old Testament verse 27 has the quotation there at the end of it the fury of a fire then we find in verse 30 two more quotations from the

Old Testament vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people this judgment motif obviously comes from the

Old Covenant from the Old Testament and the author is quoting their passages that describe the wrath of God and God's righteous indignation against sin and he is doing this because the author sees a continuity between the

Old Testament and the New Testament in terms of God's judgment all of the illustrations of God's judgment and the

Old Testament are there for us to learn from and to see and to appreciate and so when we get to the

New Testament we don't suddenly have a break where we say the Old Testament was a God of wrath and anger and he was judgmental and he was always having a bad day but then we get to the

New Testament Jesus is all about love and mercy and he really came to correct the description of God from the

Old Covenant no the Jesus of the New Covenant is the God of the Old Covenant and the Jesus of the

New Testament is the God who spoke these very warning passages in the Old Covenant into existence these passages that he has quoted here are the words of God himself which

Jesus was the second person of the Trinity God in human flesh these are Jesus' words so there is a continuity between the

Old Testament and the New Testament in terms of the judgment of God against sin and all of those examples of judgment in the

Old Testament were intended to show us what a God of wrath and a holy and righteous God would do against sinners who did not repent and believe and avail themselves of the provision of salvation and atonement in Jesus Christ all those examples of judgment in the

Old Testament are there for us to learn from now notice that the author does not in any way shy away from the subject of hell or judgment it's embarrassing for us isn't it to talk to people sometimes when we present the gospel or we talk about hell we do so almost with an apologetic stance or an apologetic tone and somebody might ask what happens to people who don't repent and believe and trust

Christ for salvation well I don't know man it's it's got talks about hell fire stuff bad bad lots of pain and I don't know how long does it go on for I don't know a long time we kind of we want to shy away from that and sort of soft pedal it notice that the author does not do that at all

Jesus never did Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven hell is for reals hell is for real just as heaven is for real

I don't need a four year old to tell me that or to write a book about it, but hell is a real place and there are people who are there right now suffering for their crimes against God and there are more people who will go there in the future and there are more people who will enter there today and suffer for their crimes against God.

Hell is a real place. The Bible does not apologize for it. God does not apologize for it. Jesus did not apologize for it.

In fact, in hell, the justice of God is vindicated and his glory is revealed in that he delivered an untold multitude of people from that eternal damnation and delivered them into his eternal kingdom and his justice is poured out on those who deserve that justice and so God is glorified even there in the presence of hell.

And so if God makes no apology for the biblical doctrine of hell, which is conscious eternal torment for all who will not repent and believe, you and I should not make any apology for the biblical doctrine of hell and we should be honest about it and tell sinners about it and say if you turn from this, imagine how much more severe your punishment will be having received this truth and rejected it than if you had never heard this truth to begin with.

There is therefore an expectation, the verse 27 says, a terrifying expectation of judgment.

It's almost as if the author is saying what else would you expect but eternal damnation if you turn away from this truth?

You have no offering for sin and if there is no offering for sin and your sin has not been paid for, what do you have to expect?

What else would you expect? Do you expect God to pervert eternal justice by turning his eye away from your sin?

Do you expect God to compromise his eternal standards and his holiness and his righteousness by simply letting guilty people go free?

That is not good, that is not loving, righteous, holy, or just. What else should you expect except the terrifying expectation of judgment?

And, the verse says, a fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. That is a quotation, you say, this is the first of the three quotations from the

Old Testament. Where does that come from? It comes from Isaiah, chapter 26, verse 11. Here's how it reads. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, yet they do not see it.

They see your zeal for the people and are put to shame. Indeed, fire will devour your enemies. That's the passage that the author is quoting from there.

Indeed, fire will devour your enemies. There are other Old Testament passages that describe the wrath of God in similar language.

Zephaniah 1, verse 18, neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, indeed, a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Zephaniah 3, verse 8, therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when I rise up as a witness, indeed, my decision is to gather the nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them my indignation, all my burning anger, for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal.

Isaiah 64, verse 2, as fire kindles the brushwood and fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble at your presence.

Notice how the judgment of God and his indignation is likened to fire and to a burning. In fact,

Jesus himself, when he spoke about hell, he borrowed some of the Old Testament imagery. So for instance, in Mark 9, verse 46 and verse 48, when

Jesus described hell as the place where their worm will not die and the fire is not quenched, he was quoting

Isaiah 66, verse 24. Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.

That describes eternal damnation. Hell is a place where the best analogy you can give is you are being consumed by worms, but you are never consumed.

A body that is being eaten by worms, the worms are never full, the worms never stop consuming, and yet what they are consuming is never fully consumed.

It goes on forever and ever. Or a body that is being burnt, being consumed by flames, but the flames are never satisfied, and the body is never destroyed, but it goes on forever and ever.

Where the worm does not die, but it consumes forever, and where the fire burns and never goes out, and what is eaten and what is burned is never consumed or destroyed.

That is eternal damnation. That is the eternal state. That is what apostates deserve.

Why? Because in their act of apostasy, they reveal that they themselves are the adversaries of God.

An apostate can walk right up and see the truth, read the truth, understand the truth, experience the truth, see it lived out amongst them, knows that he is diseased and dying, sees what the cure is, sees other people healed by that cure, fellowships with them, is close to them, and then turns and walks away from that.

The only way you can describe such a person is that they are an adversary of the truth, an adversary of the very

God who made that provision in Jesus Christ for their sin. And that fury of a fire will consume the adversaries.

The one who turns away reveals his enmity against God because he turns away from the brightness and the fullness of glorious truth in Jesus Christ.

In Scripture, judgment for eternity is always connected to the amount of light that is rejected.

You say, why is this, and this is not the last of the stern language that is used here, why is this warning so stern and so serious and such brutal language used?

It is used because the apostate is one who departs from the truth and his judgment, he is somebody who puts himself in a place where he is absolutely without any excuse.

There's nothing else for him to hear. There's nothing else for him to know. There's no other information that will change his mind.

He sees it all, he understands it all, and he refuses to bow the knee. He has received all of that light.

And the biblical principle is this, that greater light brings greater responsibility. Greater light brings greater accountability and thus greater judgment.

Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 10. He says, whoever does not receive you or heed your words as you go out of that house or city, shake the dust off your feet.

Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

There will be degrees of punishment in hell because there have been degrees of sinfulness and degrees of light rejected.

And Jesus said it would be more tolerable for Sodom than for the city that you enter into who rejects your teaching.

Why? Because Sodom did not have the king of kings to come and hear from. Sodom did not have the preaching of the apostles in it.

It didn't have any of that. Capernaum and all of those other cities had received more light. So their judgment for rejecting that light would be more severe than cities who had turned away and rejected lesser light.

So Jesus said again in Matthew chapter 11, and you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you?

No, you will descend to Hades. For if the miracles which had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.

Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Why? Because Capernaum had the preaching of the apostles and Capernaum saw the miracles of Jesus.

Capernaum was Jesus's hometown on the Sea of Galilee where he did most of his miracles and spent most of his time when he wasn't traveling throughout the land of Israel.

Talk about light rejected. And that whole city turned their back upon him. And Jesus said, it'll be easier for Sodom in hell than it will be for those residents in the city of Capernaum.

Why? Because of the amount of light that they had rejected. Now you understand why the author says in verse 29, how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve?

Who having seen all of that light, tramples underfoot the Son of God, regards as unclean the blood that he shed to secure that covenant and insults the spirit of grace.

More severe punishment. If Capernaum's punishment, if Capernaum's punishment was worse than Sodom, because Capernaum received all of that light and Sodom did not.

If Capernaum's punishment is gonna be worse than Sodom, how much more punishment do you think that the apostate would deserve who has more revelation than Capernaum received?

Because we have in scripture, the miracles of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, plus the teaching of his apostles and the

New Testament revelation. How much more severe do you think an apostate's punishment will be than Capernaum's punishment?

Now you're sitting here and you're saying, Jim, I don't even know what to do with this. I would just appeal to you, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you've never repented of your sin and trusted him, today is the day of salvation.

Do not harden your heart. Repent and believe and respond to the message of God's gracious offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.

You're a sinner who deserves judgment. You deserve the fiery fury of a fire that will consume the adversaries.

Why? Because you were born in sin, born in your trespasses and sins, born an enemy of God. And you're an enemy against him in your mind through wicked works and you violated his law and you have rebelled against him and you have failed to honor him as you should and you deserve the wrath of God.

It would be a good and right and just thing for God to do to punish you for your sin. But he has provided for you a savior in the person of Jesus Christ, who has made that sacrifice and paid the price for the sin of all who will trust in him.

Come to him, flee to him, ask God to save you, turn from your sin and believe upon the son and you will be born again, you will be adopted into God's family and all of your sin is paid for.

Reject that knowledge, reject that truth and your expectation is in verse 27, a terrifying expectation of judgment and a fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Die an adversary of God and you will suffer eternal damnation justly. Die a child of the

Lord Jesus Christ by repentance and faith, having your sins forgiven and you enjoy the blessings and the glories of eternal life in him forevermore.

Those are the two options. The apostate receives a severe judgment because they turn away from that great message of salvation and instead trust in the filthy robes of their own self -righteousness on the last day when they will stand before that holy

God. Let's pray. Father, we praise you for the provision of salvation in Jesus Christ.

You have been merciful to us beyond what we deserve. You have given to us the salvation from our sins and from that fury and that fire which will consume your adversaries.

And so as those among us here who have been redeemed by that sacrifice and know of our salvation, we praise you that you have delivered us from that wrath and that you have chosen by your grace to glorify yourself by giving us redemption and forgiveness and eternal life.

We pray for any who are here or listening to this who have not yet trusted Jesus Christ for salvation.

We pray that you would show them their need for a savior and bring them to repentance and faith. May they call out to you for your mercy for they will find it.

They will find a savior who will gladly welcome them and has promised to keep them and to raise them up on the last day.

We thank you that salvation from eternal death is given to us in a savior and that that savior has offered a sacrifice sufficient, perfect, and final for the redemption of all who will believe.

May all of us who are here find deliverance and safe harbor in your son, that we may rejoice in glory in you everlastingly.

We pray in Christ's name. Please stand.

♪ Marvelous grace of our loving Lord ♪ ♪

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt ♪ ♪

Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured ♪ ♪

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪

That is greater than all our sin ♪ ♪ This infinite matchless grace ♪ ♪

Freely bestowed on all who believe ♪ ♪

You that are longing to see His face ♪ ♪

Will you this moment His grace receive? ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪ Grace that will pardon and cleanse within ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪

Grace that is greater than all our sin ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪

That will pardon and cleanse within ♪ ♪

Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪

Grace that is greater than all our sin ♪

Have a great week. ♪ Engages our heart,

Jesus Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Yes, not for ourselves, but for your renown ♪ ♪

The cross has saved us, so we pray ♪ ♪

Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪

Your will be done, so that everyone might know you ♪ ♪

Let your song be heard everywhere ♪ ♪

Until your song is done, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪

Bless your strength, oh God, encourage to speak ♪ ♪

In your wondrous deeds, through those who are weak ♪ ♪

Lord, use us as you want, whatever the test ♪ ♪

By grace we'll preach your gospel till our dying breath ♪ ♪

Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪

So that everyone might know you ♪ ♪

Your will be done, so that everyone might know you ♪ ♪

Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪

Your will be done, so that everyone might know you ♪ ♪

Let your song be heard everywhere ♪ I had no hope or tune, no.

If you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still.

But as I ran my hell -bound race, indifferent to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state and led me to God's love display.

You suffered in my place, reserved for me.

Now all is

Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Jesus is my life. And live so all might see the strength to follow your commands could never come from me.

Oh, Father, use my ransomed life in any way.

My song forever. Jesus is my life.

Jesus is Christ.

Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Lord, you're calling me to come and behold the wondrous cross to explore the depths of grace that came to me at such a cost.

Where your boundless love conquered my boundless sin.

And mercy's arms were open wide. My heart is filled with a thousand songs proclaiming the glories of Calvary.

With every breath, Lord, how I long to sing of Jesus who died for me.

Lord, take me deeper into the glories of Calvary.

Sinners find eternal joy in the triumph of the wounds by our

Savior's crimson flow. Holy wrath has been removed.

And your saints below join with your saints above.

Rejoicing in the risen lamb. My heart is filled with a thousand songs proclaiming the glories of Calvary.

With every breath to sing of Jesus who died for me.

Oh, my heart is filled with a thousand songs proclaiming the glories of Calvary.

With every breath, Lord, how I long to sing of Jesus who died for me.

Lord, take me deeper into the glories of Calvary.

We will sing worthy. Our God has set us free.

We'll sing the glories of Calvary for all eternity.

We will sing of His love forever. We'll sing the glories of Calvary.

Wisdom once devised a plan where all our sin and pride was placed upon the perfect lamb who suffered, bled, and died.

The wisdom of a sovereign God whose greatness will be shown.

When those who crucified your son rejoice around your throne.

And, Lord, that you send your

Son for us, I gladly count my life as lost.

And I might come to know the glory of the glories.

Righteousness was there revealed that sets the guilty free.

That justifies ungodly men and calls the filthy clean.

A righteousness that proved to all that justice has been amassed.

And holy wrath is satisfied through one atoning death.