Wrath Or Rest - [Hebrews 3:7ff]

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My children are always joking around that I like to break down words into their meanings.
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It's kind of the, what was that, the Big Fat Greek Wedding show, they were doing that. Etymology, you know, confidence, fide, con, confide, with trust, that's what confidence means.
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Or I was telling the kids in the car the other day, question, what's the root word of question?
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Quest, you're on a quest for the answer, right? The German word for question is fraga, it's a fragment that needs the rest of the piece so you get the whole.
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Or even if I was thinking about the Spanish word preguntas, question, it's pregnant with the answer, isn't it?
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The Spanish speakers just looked at me. Haley laughed the loudest. Well, if I were to ask you to break down this word, how would you break it down?
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Procrastinate, procrastinate, Latin pro is forward, crassus means tomorrow.
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What you need to do today, you put off, you postpone.
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When you add the suffix to it, crassinus, it means till the next day. Procrastination.
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I have a question for you this morning, are you a procrastinator? I think all of us to some degree procrastinate, put things off.
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I was reading online something very fascinating. These are the coping responses for procrastinators.
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Number one, avoidance. We're just going to avoid what we think we need to do and we'll put it off a day.
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Secondly, denial. It's just not really a problem. I'm just going to act like it doesn't exist.
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Thirdly, distraction. Let's do something. Let's get online. Let's get on social media.
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Let's go see a movie. Let's go do something else but distract us. Fourthly, according to this website, descending counterfactuality.
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In other words, well, I might be procrastinating but other people procrastinate more. Why don't they just say it that way?
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If you had to break down the word counterfactuality, how would you break it down? And lastly, blaming.
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Blaming other people. And I thought, you know what, when it comes to spiritual things, the unbeliever does the exact same things.
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The unbeliever is warned, one day you will die and stand before God and your own righteousness isn't righteousness, it's unrighteousness or it's self -righteousness and you have to give an account.
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Today is the day you should believe there's an urgency. I've set before you, as Moses says, life and death, choose life.
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But what does the unbeliever do? He or she does this list. Listen to it again.
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Avoidance. I don't want to go to church where they talk about sin and hell. I'm not going to read my Bible, there's going to be too much talk about meeting
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God. Denial. Oh, it can't be true or maybe I'll just trivialize it. It just cannot be true.
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My God's a loving God. Distraction. Do you know what, I'm just going to get so involved with everything else in this life and even some good things too with family and kids and school and everything else,
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I won't have to think about it. Descending counterfactuality. I may be a sinner, but I know there's a lot of other people who are worse sinners.
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And then blaming. Well, God, you made me like this. Or the church has really hurt me.
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Or these other people who say they're Christians, they don't really live like that, like they're supposed to.
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It's fascinating to see the comparisons of the two. Now, the website says to overcome procrastination, you need to do all kinds of things.
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There's a huge list. Modify your environment. Discipline yourself. Motivate yourself.
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Tackle issues in small blocks of time. Evaluate your goals. Seek help.
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But I could just push all those, compress all those into some kind of zip drive file that says believe, repent.
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If you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews 3, that is the focus of this section of the book of Hebrews.
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It is a call to, it is a summons, it is an appeal to don't procrastinate any longer if you're an unbeliever.
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Believe. And it also helps believers, too, because they see how bad it is to procrastinate when it comes to faith and not believing.
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And they'll be reminded, I don't want to fall into that trap. I need to keep my eyes, just as Pastor Harry said today, at the end of the hallway,
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Hebrews chapter 12, fix my eyes completely on Jesus. Isaiah 55 says,
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Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. The most urgent question in your life if you're an unbeliever is not, how can
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I keep this job? How can I stay healthy? How can
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I have a nice family? It is, what must
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I do to be saved? How am I right before God? I read this week, in the world, 55 million people die each year.
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That's too big for me to get my arms around, so let's make it a little smaller. Every day, 151 ,600 people die.
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Each hour, that is 6 ,316 people every hour die across the world. 106 people die every minute.
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Every second, 1 .8 humans die. One, two, three, four, and the list goes on.
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It is not an exaggeration to say you are one breath away from eternity. It's true.
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Remember the rich fool in Luke chapter 12? He had plans for many, many years of life and hoarding.
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But that day, his soul was required of him. Job 7, it says,
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Our days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Does not James chapter 4 say, our lives are like a vapor, a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes away?
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Jesus said in John 8, Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am
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He, you will die in your sins. I think it's fair to say, although I might be pushing it here, when
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I, on December 12th, got the phone call and the doctor said, You have cancer. Now, looking back at it,
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I almost wish every one of you could get that phone call. And one day, you will get that phone call, most likely, unless there's an accident.
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Something's wrong. And you have to just sit back and take inventory again. What is important in life?
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And if you don't get the call, you have cancer, well, you have a different virus. It's the
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S -I -N virus. And you are affected by sin. Adam's sin, consequently your sins, and you have to stand before this thrice holy
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God. And the important issue for this preacher, the preacher in the book of Hebrews, is that while he was trying to encourage people, believers,
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Yes, Jesus is this great God. He purges sins. He sets down. He's the ultimate, final ending for all the sacrificial system in the
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Old Testament. The Messiah you're looking for has come, and He's a sin bearer, and you can have your sins forgiven.
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Don't go back to Judaism. The temple was still up. Don't go back. He knew there were people who weren't believers, and He addresses them.
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There are five warning passages in Hebrews, and those warning passages, yes, help the believer to stay on target, but they're delivered to people in a congregation, and He knows there are unbelievers there.
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Maybe you would tell me I'm an unbeliever, but some of you are unbelievers, but you wouldn't tell me that because you have a false faith.
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And so this message today from the pulpit and from Hebrews is to try to stress to you the urgency of belief in Christ Jesus today.
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And can you not see that in chapter 3, verse 7? Therefore, as the
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Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion.
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On the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years, therefore
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I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways.
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As I swore in my wrath, God said, they shall not enter my rest.
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Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
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That's what unbelief is. It's evil. Not taking God at His word. Leading you to fall away or apostatize from not the dead
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God, but the living God, the one you'll stand and face. That in Hebrews chapter 10 it says, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living
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God. It wouldn't be a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a dead God. That'd be easy. So what does the body of Christ need to do?
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Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
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We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence, our trust, firm to the end.
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As it is said, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion.
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For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all who left Egypt led by Moses?
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And with whom was He provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
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And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest? But to those who are disobedient. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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My purpose is very simple today as we look at Hebrews 3, verse 7 and following. If you're a believer,
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I exhort you to keep believing. I exhort you to look at what happens to those who don't believe.
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And I also exhort you in a way, if you think about evangelism, from this passage, that would be a good thing.
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It would be a good thing to say to your unbelieving friends, with this kind of urgency, your soul is going to be required one day.
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But my ultimate purpose is the purpose of the text. And that is, if there's someone here today, maybe you're a pastor's kid, maybe you're an
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Awana leader, maybe you're a member and you haven't trusted in the
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Lord Jesus, today is the day. There's nothing more urgent than to be able to stand before God.
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Now, when you read a psalm, they don't give you the music. You just get the words, you just get the lyrics.
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And when you read Hebrews, you can't tell if the preacher is raising his voice, pausing.
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But the language shows urgency. The language reminds me of Elijah on top of Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal.
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How long will you waver between two opinions? If God is God, choose Him. There's something about men who preach when they know eternal matters are on the line.
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And it's solemn and it's urgent. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out,
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Listen to Micah chapter 1.
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Like waters pour down a steep place. There's an urgency there.
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That's the kind of urgency that the writer has, that you can sense just by reading it in Hebrews.
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Today, today, today, today, today. Five times in these short two chapters, today.
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John Chrysostom was a great preacher. People didn't have last names back in those days, and so why is his name
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Chrysostom? It means, well, if you take a look at the root word, Chrysalis, and gold, stone, mouth, we think of stomach, but it's what gets you to your stomach is your mouth.
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Golden mouth, John, that was his name. Here's what he said regarding urgency in preaching.
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Here's what was said of him. As Chrysostom advanced from exposition to illustration, from scripture to practical appeals, his delivery became gradually more rapid, his countenance more animated, his voice more vivid and intense.
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The people would hold their breath. They felt as if drawn forward toward the pulpit by sort of a magnetic influence.
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Some who were sitting rose from their seats. By the time the discourse came to an end, the great mass of that spellbound audience could only hold their head and weep with tears.
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This writer was urgent. People criticized
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George Whitefield when he was preaching both here and in America. He was too much the dramatist.
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And he said, you blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves?
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Your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction, and for aught you know, you are hearing your last sermon and may never more have the opportunity to have
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Christ offered to you. I'm not a savant,
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I'm not a prophet, but I'm positive there are people here today who don't heed the warning and who aren't believers in the
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Lord Jesus. Now as we look at the book of Hebrews, especially this section,
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I want you just to make sure so your interpretation is correct that you're not thinking physical, you're thinking spiritual.
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That is to say, when you think of promised land that he's referring to in Psalm 95, you ought not to think
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Cana. You ought to think eternal promised land, heaven. When you see the word rest in this section, you ought not to think just of a
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Sabbath rest, and a rest, we made it from Egypt to Israel, but you should be thinking rest, eternal rest.
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I was a slave to sin, and now there's rest. You ought not to be thinking Israelites were slaves to Egypt, and now they're free in Canaan.
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You ought to be thinking we were slaves to sin, and now we're free in Christ to rest and not have to work for our salvation.
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And the fascinating part about this passage, if you look at chapter 3, verse 7 again, the
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Spirit of God says, today if you hear His voice. It's like He's preaching to you.
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He's not saying back in those days they needed to hear the voice. No, today.
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And that leads me to the first question from Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 through 19 for our outline.
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A series of questions designed to remind you to keep believing if you're a believer and to believe if you're an unbeliever.
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A series of questions. A series of questions designed to get you to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, I have I think 7 or 8 of these, and we'll probably just get to this one today.
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It's the first, so if you're really the note taker, this is question number 1 out of 7 -ish. We're only getting to the 1.
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Question 1. Is there anything more important in your life than your relationship with God? In other words, the most important issue in your life is to believe in the
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Messiah Jesus that's been described in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and specifically in Hebrews chapter 1 and 2 as the eternal
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God, man. Rabbi Eliezer said, repent one day before you die.
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Oh, if we only knew! When you see this today, the way
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I think about it is it's a transchronological today. When the preachers back in the
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Elijah days were preaching, today you must repent, it was today for them. And now people have come and gone, and when you have
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Spurgeon preach, today is the day of your salvation, it was today for them. It was that day. And here, the book of Hebrews, preaching today, it was true for them.
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And it's true for you today. Solemn. Pressing eternity on you.
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Now, this is a quote from Psalm 95 as we saw last week, but what does it say in verse 7 as the Holy Spirit says?
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Isn't that wonderful? The language here is, the Scriptures are from the
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Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are written by the Spirit of God, inspired by the
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Spirit. And God speaking through His Word to people not just then, but today.
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And by the way, today, both in your English text and in the Greek, is pushed in an order to give it emphasis.
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Today. It's like 2 Corinthians 6, verse 2. For He says, in a favorable time
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I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time.
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Behold, now is the day of salvation. It would be wrong for you to sit as an unbeliever and think,
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I'll just wait until later. I have my life to live, I need to go off to college, and I need to do this, and I need to do that, and I know there's some sins
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I'd like to do that I can't do if I'm a Christian, and I'm just going to wait until later, and then believe.
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That's the kind of presumption that this sermon won't let you up from. And I don't mean my sermon, although that could be true, but this sermon in Hebrews 3.
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How are you going to stand and be righteous in God's eyes? Today is the day you need to believe in Jesus, the righteous one.
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Now, I could look through the Bible, and I could find Ezekiel when he preached, urgent message. Jeremiah when he preached, urgent message.
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Paul when he preached, urgent message. Peter when he preached, it was an urgent message. Do you think John the
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Baptist, when he was preaching to unbelievers, there was that sense of urgency, and the answer is yes. But I'd like you to turn and listen to Jesus and His preaching in Matthew 7.
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Let's go there first, and see the urgency of Jesus' preaching at the end of the Sermon on the
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Mount. Say, well, I really don't care what John Chrysostom did. I don't care about what Whitefield did.
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I don't care about all these other people. Let's see the Prince of Preachers as he's preaching with urgency, with an earnestness.
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And by the way, this translates if you're a believer, into evangelism all the way. But if you're an unbeliever, what a great day to see and to hear the testimonies of those being baptized.
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What a great day to hear the Word of God in Galatians 1. There's only one Gospel, and it comes revealed from God, not by man.
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And it's about Jesus Christ, who can bear sins, your sins, and be raised from the dead. What a great day to hear that testimony from Scripture.
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I want it to be like a long Nathan -like finger on your sternum. Today is the day to believe.
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Matthew 7. You sense the same type of urgency in Hebrews as you do here in Matthew 7 on what we call the
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Sermon on the Mount. Does Jesus sound earnest?
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Verse 13 of chapter 7. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction.
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And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life.
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And those who find it are few. He's talking about salvation.
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He's talking about you standing before God with your own righteousness or with someone else's righteousness.
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Did you notice He didn't say, well, by the way, if your righteousness isn't good enough, there's a third way. There's a purgatory.
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No purgatory here. It's either -or. Narrow way, broad way. He doesn't say, you know what, you're going to get just destroyed anyway and be annihilated somehow and just be evaporated.
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Don't worry about it. He doesn't say that. It's either heaven or hell. It's either bliss or torment. It's either everlasting life or everlasting death.
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Well, you know, maybe at my reincarnation I'll make it the next time. It is appointed for man once to die and after this comes the what?
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Judgment. No second chances. No do -overs. I can't see what
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Jesus' face is like, but this is an earnest message. This is an urgent message.
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And to compound the problem with this, if this is so earnest, so urgent, so important, the most important, do you think
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Satan is just going to let sleeping dogs lie, as it were? Do you think he's just going to go, okay, whatever? The tempter, the deceiver, the blasphemer, the adversary, the slander is going to make it difficult.
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Verse 15, and Jesus then says, well, as long as they say they believe in God, just go along with it.
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Many ways get to heaven. Many religions all end the same way. By the way, all religions do end in the same place.
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They all end up in the throne of God's judgment. That's where they end. And everybody does have a personal relationship with Jesus.
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If you're not a Christian, He's your archenemy. And He takes your sin very personally.
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And Jesus says, beware of the false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing. They're on TBN.
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They're on the radio. They're on TV with big smiles. But inwardly, they're ravenous wolves.
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And if you had to describe a false teacher, how would you describe the false teacher? Well, in context here, here's how you would describe it.
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If Jesus says, there's one way, it's a narrow way, and there are few only that go there, and there's a broad way, and it's a wide way, and many go here, what do you think the false teachers are going to say?
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Why does Jesus now say, beware? Because the false teachers switch it.
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Lots of ways to heaven. Lots of people go to heaven. That's what
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Jesus is after. Beware of those people who say, there's no narrow gate. It's not believe in Jesus exclusively alone.
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I'm the way, the truth, and the life. It's the false teachers that say, well, you know what? They love each other.
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It's a holy union. Everything's fine. And the list goes on and on and on and on. And what's worse, there's not just false teachers on the outside who tell us, you know what?
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It's not that big a deal. Our own hearts do it. Verse 21.
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Go down to verse 21. Self -deception is real. I don't know what the most frightening thing that's ever happened to you is.
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Maybe near death. But this is the most frightening scene.
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Verse 21. Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me,
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Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.
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Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?
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But then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
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It doesn't matter what they said. It doesn't matter how they said it. It doesn't matter how much earnestness they said it with.
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It doesn't matter how sincere they are. Those on the broad gate end up in hell.
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The religious person who says, I'm not going to trust in Jesus as righteousness alone, ends up in hell.
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Every Mormon trusting in Mormonism ends up in hell. Every Islamic person who believes in Muhammad ends up in hell.
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And every person in this church who's not trusting in Jesus Christ ends up in hell. That's the earnestness found in Hebrews and here.
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Can you imagine on judgment day, God looks at your entire life and he says, you've been weighed according to my scales and you're found wanted.
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Matter of fact, there's nothing for me to even do with you. And so no wonder we get the picture of hell as the fire garbage dump place down away from Israel.
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Because what do you do with something that's good for nothing? With garbage, you just throw it away and burn it.
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Jesus is saying, false teachers try to persuade you and your own heart.
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You have to be careful. There's a faith that's not a real faith.
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There's a faith that's knowledge only and not a true trust. There's a faith that says, well, I ascend to these things, but I'm not trusting in Christ Jesus with my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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No wonder Tozer said, this is how I feel Hebrews, the preacher is preaching.
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We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish goodwill between Christ and the world.
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We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, or the world of sports, or modern entertainments.
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Listen, we are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
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Well, I came to church today because I wanted five easy steps to make my life better. If that's your attitude, then your number one preacher in the world isn't
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Jesus because that's not how Jesus preaches. And you should even be thinking, yes,
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I'm right with God because I have believed, but there are other people maybe sitting next to me who aren't, and how do people get saved?
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Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ Jesus. In the
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Bible, there are false gods. There's a calf down at the bottom of Sinai. There are false prophets that Jesus talks about here in Matthew 7.
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He talks in Matthew 24. There are false antichrists. Did we not hear in Galatians 1, read by Elder Scott, there's another gospel.
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There are false teachers, false apostles, and false faiths. Well, you know what?
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Probably only a few people will be deceived. What does verse 22 say? Many. Self -delusion, deception.
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Many. Not just a few. Not just a couple. Not just a handful.
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Many. Satan knows how to deceive, and we know how to deceive our own heart.
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R. Kent Hughes said, sadly, it is really quite easy to be a court of the status of an evangelical Christian without being born again.
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J. Vernon McGee was a preacher, and he was on the radio quite often, and he said this.
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He talked about a devil and the demons had a little meeting on how to get people to believe that God wasn't real.
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Quote, since the demons themselves believed in his existence, they just wondered just how to do it. One demon suggested that they tell people
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Jesus never really existed, and that men should not believe such fiction. Another demon suggested that they persuade men that death ends all, and there's no need to worry about life after death.
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Finally, the most intelligent demon suggested that they tell everyone there is a
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God. His name is Jesus Christ, and that believing in Him saves, but that you can get into Heaven by simply professing faith and then go on living in sin as you used to.
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A false faith. An intellectual faith only. John 2, many believed in His name, but Jesus did not commit
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Himself to them. John chapter 12, many believed on Him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess
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Him. It can happen. There are unbelievers here. You might have heard of the famous preacher and writer and civic leader
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Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper became a pastor in Europe hundreds of years ago, and there was a grandma sitting there and she said, the
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Parson's not a Christian. I'd like to meet with you. Now, over the years,
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I've had lots of people meet with me and they'll say, we'd like to have an appointment and we'd like to meet with you and I've had people say, we're concerned about you,
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Mike. Yes, tell me your concerns. You don't believe in evangelism. Oh, really?
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Why would you say that? Well, you don't do altar calls. I've had all kinds of meetings like that. I wonder what
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Kuyper was thinking when the lady said, you're not trusting in Jesus Christ alone. And by the way, in light of that encounter, he gets converted.
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Proverbs 30. There are those who are pure in their own eyes and yet not cleansed of their filth.
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Can you imagine how many nominal professing Christians there are in just the United States alone? In just Georgia alone?
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Maybe in this church building alone. Everything's fine, yet the wrath of God abides on you.
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I mean, it would be something. We were singing that last song that Charlie was leading us, about 10 ,000 reasons, and on that final day, and I'm thinking about my mom 10 years ago and the morphine drip, and I'm talking to her about heaven.
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I'm reading her Revelation 21 and 22 and the glories of heaven and the Shekinah glory and Jesus, the righteous one, who's there waiting for her and who secured this for her.
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And can you imagine, she closes her eyes and I'm just waiting for that last breath, you know, the breath of death, and it's a long inhale and you're waiting for the exhale, and then it's 30 seconds to exhale, then it's a minute to exhale, then it's two minutes to exhale, then there's no exhale.
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And on that final no exhale, can you imagine heaven? Can you imagine no
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IVs? Can you imagine God's faithful to bring this to pass to get her to heaven?
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I'm telling her, Mom, you're almost there. Jesus awaits for you. You can be rest assured that it's
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His blood and His righteousness. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. It's there.
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It's for you. He secured it. And then the person who says,
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You know what? I'm not really born again and I've been tricking myself, and I'm just going to live the way
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I want, and yeah, I'll have Him as Savior, but this whole Lord thing, and I'm not going to believe in Him as I should, and you're waiting on your deathbed, you're thinking you're almost there, and then you fall into the trap where people go,
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Oh, He's in a better place. May He rest in peace. Friends, it would be one thing to think,
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You know what? I'm a Satanist. I'm an atheist. And I'm dying to go to hell, party with my friends. But these people in Matthew 7,
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Lord, Lord, Lord! We did all these things. And what makes it scarier?
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These people have died and they're not in the lake of fire yet, and now they're standing there in the great white throne judgment.
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Get me out of here! Lord, Lord! I've done all these things. And you see in verse 22 of Matthew 7, on that day, on that day, that judgment day, the last day,
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Spurgeon said, the terrible day, the day by which all other days must be measured and judged.
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On that day, and Jesus should know because John chapter 5, it says Jesus is the judge, for not even the Father judges anyone,
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Jesus said, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the
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Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly,
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I say to you, the judge says this, and I say it to you, He who hears
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My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment.
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Why? Because Jesus is going to be judged in your place, but is passed out of death into life.
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And that life is secure because Jesus has been raised from the dead. 2
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Thessalonians is just as awful. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
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Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day.
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These people just have lip service. Do you notice verse 21 and 22? Lord, Lord. Verse 22,
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Lord, Lord. In Matthew, you see people saying,
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Lord, Lord, when they want divine help, when they want divine assistance, Lord, we need help.
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But they've had the wrong Jesus they're believing in. And here's what
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I love about the book of Hebrews. And here's what I love about the preaching of Jesus. And here's what I love about the preaching of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and John the
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Baptist and even John the Apostle. They preach in such a way that they're trying to make sure you're not deceived.
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They're trying to undeceive you. Arthur Pink, quote,
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The tragic thing is that in most places there's nothing in the preaching which is at all calculated to undeceive them.
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Instead, there's only that which bolsters them in their delusion. There's a large class in Christendom today who are satisfied with a bare profession.
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Are you? But I have sincerity.
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I have emotions. Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. Friends, even the demons believe in shudder.
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And by the way, it's very fascinating if you look at verse 21. Everyone who says to me, not everyone who says to me, many will say to me, but the first one is present tense.
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They keep on saying, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. You can have as much sincerity as you want.
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If you're not believing in the right object and you're not believing with knowledge, assent, and trust, I would imagine they have lots of fervency because they've been in hell.
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Some for a long time. Now they get sent to the lake of fire. And maybe this
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Lord, Lord is even a surprise. Hey, we did all these Christian things. I was a wanna leader. I moved the chairs.
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I changed the diapers. I did the VBS. I did this, that, and the other. It's like,
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I'm kind of surprised I'm here. But there's a false claim.
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It's an insufficient claim because it's not in the object of Jesus. And strictly speaking, there's something more important than knowing
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Jesus. What is that? Verse 23, And then
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I will declare to them, I never knew you. What is more important than knowing Jesus is
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Him knowing you. An intimate knowledge, a personal knowledge, and that is through faith and faith alone.
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Since Jesus didn't know them, since they weren't true believers, it didn't matter what they did.
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They can cast out demons. They can speak in tongues. They can do anything. And if you don't know Jesus, it doesn't matter what you do.
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Here's what God says. This is My beloved Son. You can think about even the transfiguration.
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This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. The way you honor the Father is to honor the
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Son and to believe in His work. That means you have to turn from your own sin, from your own self -righteousness, from your own unrighteousness for the way you think about how you save yourself, and trust only what
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Jesus did. Why would the Father send His Son to die on the cross if you could get to heaven by your own goodness?
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You can't be good enough. And then we say, our sinful hearts say, the unbelieving heart says,
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Well, you know what? I know I'm supposed to trust in Jesus, but I'll just do a bunch of religious stuff. That will pacify God.
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No, that will anger God. I never knew you. Those four words in English, I never knew you.
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If you don't trust in Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible, those are probably the last four words you'll ever hear on judgment.
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I never knew you. And by the way, that word declare, it's a formal word.
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It's a solemn word. It's a courtroom word. It's a judgment word.
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It is used in Psalm 6 verse 8, Depart from me, all you who do iniquity.
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So the question today is this, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? It is urgent.
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It is mandatory. There's nothing more important than belief in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't ask you if you've been baptized.
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I didn't ask you if you've been catechized. I didn't ask you if you've been confirmed. I didn't ask you if you regularly attend. I didn't ask you if you've been a member.
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What must we do to be saved? And the response was believe under the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
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Elizabeth Needham wrote a song and it was called
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I Never Knew You. When the king in his beauty shall come to his throne and all around him are gathered his loved ones, his own, there will be some who will knock at his fair palace door to be answered within there is mercy no more.
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The refrain, the haunting refrain, I have never known you. I have never known you.
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I have never, I have never, I have never known. The great missionary
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Adoniram Judson grew up in a Christian family but he wasn't a Christian. He had a false profession and he goes to Brown University and he becomes friends with a man named
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Jacob Ames. This man was a Unitarian. He was a deist. He was a philosopher.
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He was smart and since Adoniram Judson wasn't a believer anyway, his false faith easily crumbled in front of a smart man like Jacob.
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He finally, Judson, had enough courage to tell his dad on his 20th birthday that he was no longer a
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Christian. He had been valedictorian at Brown but he's leaving Christianity and he's going to be in drama in New York City to work for theater, to be a writer.
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Later Judson said he lived a life of reckless vagabond life, finding lodgings where he could and bilking the landlord when he found opportunity.
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In the providence of God he met a young man who he called a pious young man and Judson was so stunned by this man what he said and how he acted he began to think about Christianity again.
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The very next night he travels into a village and spends the night at a local inn but he was warned by the innkeeper.
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I have one room open and it's next to a man who's very ill. I'll take the room.
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He could not sleep, Judson, because of the moaning, because of the groaning of this man next door.
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Was that man going to die? asked Judson. How sick was he? Judson then said,
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Am I prepared for death? What matters now? He would argue with himself because the philosopher in me, the
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Ames in me says, It's just an empty pit. It's a door into nothingness, death is.
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Don't worry about it. And he can hear his friend, James Imes, mocking him. Really, Judson?
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You're this weak? Are you really the valedictorian of Brown University, spooked by a little superstitious religion?
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But those groans kept going all night. Late into the night, the groans stopped.
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Judson woke up and thought, How shameful is it that I stoop to Christianity's thoughts.
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I'm a deist. Given into such weakness, believing such child's play like Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
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He checks out and he says to the man at the front, Was the man okay?
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The simple reply from the innkeeper was, He's dead. Judson said with politeness,
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Do you know who he was? Oh yes, it's a young man from college in Providence. His name was Ames, Jacob Ames.
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Judson couldn't leave. Judson couldn't move. He couldn't leave the inn for hours and later reflected on that moment.
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Lost. In death, Jacob Ames was lost. Utterly, irrevocably lost.
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Lost to his friends, to the world, to the future. Lost as a puff of smoke is lost in the infinity of air.
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If Ames' own views were true, neither his life nor his death had any meaning. But suppose
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Ames had been mistaken. Suppose the Scriptures were literally true and personal
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God was real. For that hell should be open in that country inn and snatch
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Jacob Ames, my dearest friend and guide, from the next bed. This could not, simply could not, be coincidence.
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And God used that to save Adoniram Judson. Are you born again?
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for these solemn words and for the
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Christian. That dread, that Damocles of judgment is completely gone.
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We are not slaves. We are sons and daughters adopted into the family. But I and many of the
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Christians here with me, we have concerns about our loved ones, the people that attend here.
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They don't have a real faith. They're not really trusting in you. And I pray that you would do whatever it takes in their life, whatever, to wake them up to the fact that they might believe in the