Introduction:
What You Really Say When You Say NO to Jesus? (Hebrews 10:26-39)
- "I prefer Sin over Jesus." (Heb 10:26)
- "I'm Willing to go to hell." (Heb 10:27)
- "Jesus is Nothing to me." (Heb 10:28-29)
- You are Spurning Jesus. (Heb 10:28-29a)
- You are Profaning Jesus' blood. (Heb 10:29b)
- You are Insulting the Holy Spirit. (Heb 10:29c)
- "I'd Rather face God as my Judge than my Savior." (Heb 10:30-31)
Matthew 24:13 - But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
I Don't Think I Really Believe! Now What?
- Look Back: Remember your initial passion. (Heb 10:32-34)
- Look Ahead: There is Reward for the faithful. (Heb 10:35-39)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:51
Open up your Bibles with me please to Hebrews chapter 10.
00:52-00:59
While you're turning there, I don't know if you all know this about me, but did you know I became an accidental chicken farmer?
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Did you know that?
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You're like, how does something like that happen by accident?
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That's a funny story.
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But several years ago, what was it, three years ago, four years ago, something like that, My wife was at the tractor supply.
01:21-01:28
And some guy, I don't know if he was an employee or another customer, some guy was kinda like hitting on her and flirting with her, so she calls me.
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I was at the chiropractor, like down the road across the street, and she goes, "Hey, I'm looking at these chicks, they're 50 cents." And she's just like, "Yeah, I'm on the phone "with my husband." So I didn't, of course I was clueless.
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I show up, I come down to the tractor supply, and I'm like, 50 cents, well, let's buy a dozen.
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And she's like, I called you just to try to get this guy off my back.
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Well, several coops, enclosures, a fence.
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We are on our third flock of chickens.
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And we just wanted the eggs, right?
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We just want the eggs.
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So we don't get the roosters.
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But if you go to like Rural King or you go to Tractor Supply, they're sexed, which means they're all females.
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Because look, I don't want to rooster, I don't know anything about incubating and all of that.
02:27-02:30
I don't, look, I just like scrambled eggs, all right?
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So I don't know how to do all of, I barely understand how the whole thing works with humans, let alone chickens.
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So like, we just want females.
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Well, like I said, we're on our third flock.
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And when you get them, they come as just these little puff balls.
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They're adorable.
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I mean, they're absolutely precious.
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But like humans, they go through a really ugly stage.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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When, you know, their adolescent stage, they look like monsters.
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They're all scraggly and nasty.
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And you're like, are these diseased?
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Like, are they going to make it?
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And then they become chickens.
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Oh, OK, it's beautiful.
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And this group that we have now, since we got them when it was so cold, we kept them in the garage.
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But now they're big enough, we transitioned them to be outside.
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And one of the chicks in our batch stood out.
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this one here because we noticed her comb was a little redder and that thing under her beak, what do you call that?
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Is that the Wadler?
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What do you call that thing?
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That's what I guess what I call it.
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Anyways, it was redder.
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The other ones all looked identical.
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You can't tell them apart, but she was like really standing out just in her appearance.
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And then it was a couple of weekends ago And she was walking around the yard going, "Ahh!
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Ahh!" And I'm like, "Huh, I didn't know hens did that." I thought maybe it got some scratch.
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She got some scratch in her throat.
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But no, no, she wasn't coughing up scratch.
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It happened repeatedly.
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And Erin goes, "I think we got a rooster." Well, last weekend, she reached down to change their water or their food or something, and the rooster pecked her hand.
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And of course, I'm not going to stand for that.
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I'm the king of my castle.
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So I'm like, this insubordination will not be tolerated.
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I'm like, I am doing something.
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I am bringing swift vengeance.
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And Erin said, she said, it was like in a chicken group on Facebook, you know, they group for everything.
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She said, I read what you're supposed to do when a, you know, because roosters get mean, right?
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They get mean.
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I read what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to carry the rooster upside down in front of all the other chicks and chickens.
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And that embarrasses him and kind of puts him in his place.
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I'm like, so it shall be done.
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But let's be honest, I couldn't catch the thing I tried.
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I'm running around the coop.
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Come back, chicken.
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Come back. I couldn't catch the thing.
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So I'm like, "Cade, get the rooster!" So Cade, he's way faster than me, he just walks up, he grabs the thing by the tail and picks it up.
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So he's holding it. And I brought this as a representation.
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This is a representation because they frown on live chickens in this establishment here.
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So Cade's holding the chicken and I'm like, "All right, I'm going to do what Aaron said to do." and I took the rooster from Cade and I hung it upside down, and I walked around the coop.
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I'm like, "I am your champion!
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Everybody look! I'm in charge!" I sounded like some pathetic, washed-up has-been pro wrestler.
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Like, "I'm in charge here! This is my castle!" the whole time just like, "What is he doing?" And I'm like, "You will not be disrespectful to the queen in my house!" And I don't know if that did any good, to be honest with you.
07:17-07:21
But I do know that that rooster lives in Erie now.
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That's a true story, right Brian?
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because Brian's in-laws have chickens and a lot of acreage, and they needed another rooster.
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And we're like, "You can have Jean." She was G-E-A-N, and now he is G-E-N-E.
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So what's the point of this story?
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There's a lot of them.
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But the question is, how in the world did we get a rooster?
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Because at first you can't tell them apart.
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They all kind of look and act the same to be honest with you.
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And you know I thought about that chicken and those chickens and I said you know that's a lot like church.
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church, this church, the church being addressed in the book of Hebrews. In the church there are true born-again followers of Jesus Christ and there are those who are not and like the like the chickens we can't always tell them apart because they're all kind of looking at the same.
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Right?
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This is every church.
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There's people that attend.
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And there's people that are even committed.
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They might even serve in one of the ministries.
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And they're super committed, but not to Christ.
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That's like a superficial commitment, right?
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Full of baby roosters.
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Just haven't started crowing yet.
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Whatever you call that noise they make.
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I believe Jesus described this as wheat and tares, right?
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Why do people come to church if they're not committed to Christ?
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Why would they do that?
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Their family makes them come.
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They got friends here.
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They feel guilty if they don't, or they feel useful if they do.
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I don't know.
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But eventually, eventually for those people who come but are not born again believers, eventually the novelty wears off.
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And eventually the excitement wears off.
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And it gets old and it fades and it's gone.
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And they just walk away.
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And that's really proof, as we've talked about before, it's proof that their faith was never real to begin with.
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So to those in danger of doing this very thing, to those that are attending church, but they're not born again believers, they know all about Jesus, but they don't know Jesus.
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What we have in this passage in Hebrews as a last call.
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It's a final appeal.
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And this passage reminds us that this is deadly serious.
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This is probably the most terrifying passage in Scripture outside of the book of Revelation.
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And here's the sermon. We're going to unpack it.
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The sermon is this.
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God can be the greatest friend you'll ever have.
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or the most terrifying person you will ever face.
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You see, we've been talking about this over and over, but when you come to church, and you're not a believer, and you just keep coming and sitting and hearing the message and knowing the gospel and understanding intellectually, but not embracing by faith, really what you're doing when you do that is you're saying no to Jesus.
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You know you need to receive him by faith.
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You know that you need to turn from your sin and believe in Jesus.
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You know you need to do that.
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And when you don't do that, you are saying no to Jesus.
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And if that was if that was all that I could say about that, that's that's more than plenty.
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But in this passage.
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The Hebrew writer here is telling us what you're really saying.
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When you say no to Jesus, so listen, I know it's like a trillion degrees in here.
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and we are going to fix that and I am so sorry about that.
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It's been an ongoing issue with the HVAC.
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But listen, if you see the person beside you starting to like drift, you grab them and shake them.
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All right?
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Or better yet, grab them by the legs and carry them around and say, "You need to hear this "because you are not in charge.
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"I am the champion." Sorry, it's just good to get the mouse.
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Let's unpack it.
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Here's what he's saying, church.
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Those that are sitting here who haven't believed in Jesus, but you're a good church attender, you're saying no.
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What you really say when you say no to Jesus.
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This is what you're really saying.
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Write this down first of all.
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When you're saying no to Jesus, do you know what you're saying?
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You're saying, "I prefer sin over Jesus." That's what you're saying.
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"I prefer sin over Jesus." Look at verse 26.
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It says, "For if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Okay, now the Greek tense here, sinning deliberately, it's not a single act, okay?
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It's not like the normal stumbling of a Christian who's learning to walk by the Spirit, And that's not what he's talking about.
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Nor is he talking about ignorance.
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It's simply this.
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You know what God's calling you to do.
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And you haven't done it.
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And you know the results of the choice.
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You know it.
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And you haven't done it.
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What he's talking about here is taking a position of resistance.
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It's refusing the command to turn from your sin and believe.
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And by the way, it's a command.
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Okay, sometimes in the American church, we want to package it a little softer.
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You know, invite Jesus into your heart, which the Bible doesn't use that kind of terminology at all.
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Actually, the gospel is a command.
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God is commanding you.
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Turn from your sin and receive my son.
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It's a command.
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But the problem, one of the problems we'll see here, when you say no to Jesus, He's saying, "Here's what you're saying, I'd rather have my sin.
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I'd rather live my life the way I want.
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I'd rather do what I want than what He wants.
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That's what you're saying." He makes a chilling statement.
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He makes a lot of them.
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Here's one.
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He says, "If you do go on sinning deliberately in this way," He says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
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That's chilling.
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You know what that means?
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That means there's no plan B.
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Okay?
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God's not like, "Oh, you don't want my son.
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Oh, okay.
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Let me see what else I can offer you.
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Let me see if there's another means by which we can take care of this rebellious sin problem." There is no plan B.
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There's no other sacrifice for sins.
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Jesus is the last sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice.
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We spent months on this.
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He is the high priest and he is the sacrifice and he accomplished the fulfillment of everything we saw in the law through his death and his resurrection.
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There's no plan B.
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There's nothing else that can take away your sin.
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There's no one else that can take away your sin.
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There is nothing that can make you right before God other than Jesus Christ and the work that He accomplished.
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And that's where we run into a problem, you see, if you're a church attender but not a believer, because the Bible says Jesus takes away your sin, but you would rather keep your sin.
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Do you see the problem?
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And this is truly terrifying, but if you really want your sin, I mean, if you really want your sin, God will let you have it.
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I was like, here, you want sin?
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Tell me though, tell me though, how has, for those of you that would rather have your sin than Jesus, I'm just curious.
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Tell me how your sin has blessed you.
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Do we really have somebody that can stand up here and give testimony?
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to say, "You know what? I have been committed to my sin, and let me tell you all of the ways that it has really just blessed my life and made me a better person." Is there anybody that can give such a testimony?
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That's what you're saying when you say no to Jesus. You're saying, "I prefer sin over Jesus." Secondly, you're saying, "I'm willing to go to hell." Look at verse 27.
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He's like, "There's no longer a sacrifice for sins." Right? If you reject Jesus.
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He says, "But a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." What you're saying when you say no to Jesus is I am willing to go to hell.
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I've heard this so many times in sharing the gospel with people.
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People say something like this, "I don't really mind going to hell because all my buddies will be there." And I'm like, where did you get your concept of hell?
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Like a Tom and Jerry cartoon?
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Is that what you think hell is?
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Because if you really understood what the Bible says about hell, you wouldn't have such a foolish attitude towards it.
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Because if we're going by the Bible, hell is described as outer darkness.
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It's described as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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It's described as a place of constant torment.
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And here again, it's described as a place of fire.
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And also I need to remind you, it's described as eternal.
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And you know, there are people that want to do away with that.
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Eventually you cease to exist, and hell's not really eternal.
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There's a group that even in the evangelical church that would advocate for that, and that's just not true.
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It's just not.
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I'd like to remind you, the words of Jesus, Matthew 25, verse 46, says, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
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In the Greek, the word eternal is the exact same word.
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In other words, Jesus said that hell lasts just as long as heaven.
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I've never met anybody that's like, "I believe heaven's temporary.
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I believe you go there for a while and get rewards for a while, and then you cease to exist." I've never met that guy.
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But people say that about hell.
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Well, you go for a while, you get punished for a while, and then you cease to exist.
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Jesus said hell lasts just as long as heaven.
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eternal. That's why it says it's a fearful expectation. It's a it's a fury of fire that will consume like really that's where you're willing to go. You refuse the best thing that God could give you and you chose to receive the worst thing that God could give you. Not a great plan. But when you say no to Jesus that's really what you're saying. You're saying I'm willing to go to help. Number three, when you say no to Jesus, here's what you're really saying.
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Jesus is nothing to me.
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This is what you're saying in your rejection of Jesus. You know who he is.
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You know what he's done, and still you will not come to him.
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That's the crime of all time.
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That is the crime of all time, to be sitting in church, and we've walked through so many passages of scripture over the years.
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We've gone through John, and this year we've been going through Hebrews, to understand intellectually everything that Jesus is, and everything that he's done for you.
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and to still say, "Well, yeah, I know what he is, but he's nothing to me." "Well, Pastor Jeff, you make it sound like this is a really heinous crime." Well, look what the Bible says.
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Because the Hebrew writer here explains how heinous this crime is.
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Okay, this isn't like saying, "No, thank you, I don't want a donut." This is the gift of eternal life.
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God himself making provision for the sin that you committed against him.
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That's what you're saying no to.
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And he describes how heinous this crime really is.
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First of all, you're spurning Jesus.
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You're spurning Jesus.
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Look at verse 28.
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He says, "Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God?
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Spurned, that's not a word that we use very often.
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Some translations say, "trampled underfoot the Son of God." That's the same concept.
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You see, to God, when you say no to Jesus, to God, you're reacting to Jesus as if you were walking along your kitchen floor and you saw a stink bug.
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And you're just like, "Ugh!
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Ugh!
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I hate those things!" You just refuse to allow Jesus the rightful place, His rightful place, to govern your life.
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Nobody tells me what to do.
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I live my life my way.
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You're spurning Jesus.
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And he says if someone's punished for disregarding laws that were written on stone, what do you think is going to happen?
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How much worse punishment should someone receive when they so disregard the Son of God Himself?
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You're spurning Jesus.
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It's almost like you're disgusted by Him.
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That's what you're saying when you say no to Jesus.
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It's a horrible crime, you're spurning Jesus, let her be.
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Why is it such a horrible crime?
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Because you're profaning Jesus' blood.
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Look at verse 29 again.
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It says, "And has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, that being Jesus, right?
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Jesus was sanctified.
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He was set apart.
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His blood established the new covenant, and he says when you say no to Jesus, you're profaning the blood.
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Again, it's not a word we use very often.
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What does profane mean?
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Profane means to take something that God says is sacred and to treat it as ordinary.
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It's like the ultimate devaluing of something.
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That's what it means to profane.
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You're like, "Well, how do I do that?" The number one way people do that is by insisting that your efforts to serve God ought to be accepted by Him.
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In other words, religion.
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That's how you profane the blood of Christ.
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When God says, "Here, this is the blood that has been shed to take away your sins, to make you right before Me.
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This is the work that has been done.
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And you say, no, I'm going to trust in my religious works.
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I'm going to trust in my merit and in my goodness and what I can do to earn my way.
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We've spent so much time talking about this over the past few months.
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God should accept me based on what I do.
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When you say that, you're saying Jesus is nothing to me His blood really is nothing to me as well.
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And let her see you're insulting the Holy Spirit.
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What a heinous crime this is.
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When you say Jesus is nothing to me, you're spurning Jesus.
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You're profaning His blood.
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You're also insulting the Holy Spirit.
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Look at v. 29.
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It says, "And has outraged the Spirit of grace." That's what He does.
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Through the Word of God, the Spirit is calling you to receive Jesus Christ.
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He's calling you to exalt Him in your life.
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Recognize who He is and what He's done and turn and receive the Holy Spirit.
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That's what He does.
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That's what He does.
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And you're just indifferent towards Him.
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That's the outrage.
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Because you see, indifference is the ultimate form of hate.
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This is like, "Leave me alone.
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I want nothing to do with you.
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You are not a factor in my life at all." That's an insult.
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You see, when the Holy Spirit is saying, "Hey, God loves you with an eternal love.
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He sent His Son to die and to pay the penalty for your sin.
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Come to Jesus Christ.
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"Leave him!" And your response is, "Leave me alone." That's an insult.
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Right?
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What you really say when you say no to Jesus.
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Well, here's one.
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Number four, I'd rather face God as my judge than my Savior.
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He says, "For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.' And again, the Lord will judge His people." He's quoting Deuteronomy 32, verses 35-36.
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And then he says, verse 31, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." You know, by saying all of this, by refusing Christ, I could ask you, is that what you want on your record?
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When you stand before God someday?
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Oh, and you will, you will stand before God someday, by the way.
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You will, as it says here, fall into His hands.
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You realize no one's found a way around that.
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You realize no one's found a way to escape death.
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It's going to happen.
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And he says we know him.
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We know him who said, "I will repay." God will follow through on this.
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And if you don't want to know him now as your Savior, the day's going to come that you're going to stand before him and know Him as your judge.
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God can be the greatest friend you'll ever have, or the most terrifying person you'll ever face.
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So right now, the room is in three categories.
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There are believers right now who are praying that if there are church attenders here who haven't received Christ, there are believers that are praying that they received Jesus.
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That's one category.
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And also right now, there are unbelievers who are indifferent.
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There are people that are like, "What is he blabbing about?
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Is he done?
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Is he going to talk about the stupid chicken again?
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What are we having for lunch?
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Oh, chicken sounds good." Like there's those people that like, "This isn't affecting you at all." There are people that are sitting here or watching this that are going, "Oh my gosh, I think that's me.
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What if that is me?
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Have I done this?
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How do I know I haven't done what he's talking about?
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How do I know that I really believe?" third category of people, that's especially who I want to talk to for a few minutes.
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Because here it is, listen, the ultimate subjective test of faith, the ultimate proof of faith is not church involvement, it's not the day you were baptized, or you know, it's not some bedazzling testimony that you have, that's not the real proof of faith. You know, biblically what the proof of faith is, it's perseverance, it's endurance.
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That's why Jesus said in Matthew 24, 13, "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." Jesus wasn't saying, "Hang in there and hopefully if you cross the finish line, you'll get to go to heaven." He's saying the evidence of true saving faith is the one who endures to the end.
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So you know when someone makes a profession of faith, you know we have this baptism service coming up, and you can have a new believer baptized, and somebody could come to me and say, "Pastor Jeff, do you think he's sincere?
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Do you think he's for real?" It's always the same answer.
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We'll find out.
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We'll find out.
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Because perseverance is the proof.
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As a good friend of mine always used to say, "Truth and time go hand in hand." And saved people show that they're saved, they prove it by enduring.
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So I'm going to close you with this here.
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I don't think I really believe now what.
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That's the group I want to talk to as we close.
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I don't think I really believe now what?
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Two things, first of all, big letter A, he says look back.
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Remember your initial passion.
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Look at verse 32 through 34.
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He says, "But recall the former days, when after you were enlightened," you see that?
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He doesn't say saved, enlightened.
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We talked about this before.
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You learned the facts of the gospel.
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You knew what was going on here, okay?
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you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
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You had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
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He basically, to paraphrase, he goes, "Do you remember when you first came to church and you suffered along with the rest of us?
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Remember when you first came to church and you're like, 'There's something real here.
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There's this spiritual war on God's people, and I'm with this group of people, and I see there's something bigger going on.
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There's something bigger than myself.'" And he says, "You were happy to stand and face it." If you've been in church for a while, you see this all the time.
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People come and they jump in and they're so excited on the front end.
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Like, "I wanna be a part of this.
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"I wanna stand with this family." And that's his implication here.
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Obviously, you're tempted to bail on the church.
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You're tempted to bail on the kingdom.
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You're tempted to bail on the mission because you don't have the supernatural perseverance that Jesus gives all believers because you truly haven't been born again.
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You understand what that means?
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Let's bring it to this church, because there are people here in the same boat.
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This COVID and surrounding issues over the past couple of years have made you realize how corrupt the government is, and how panicked and cowardly and divisive culture has become over many issues.
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You've been watching this bizarre sexual revolution happening.
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You recognize there's an obvious spiritual war.
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You come into a place like this and you're emotionally fired up at first.
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Like, "I want to stand with these people.
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They're bold.
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They stand for something." But through this, you've committed yourself to the church, but not to Christ.
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When that happens, you're going to run out of steam.
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What he's saying here is, first of all, listen, if that's you, if you're a church attender and not a Christian, he goes, you need to recapture that initial enthusiasm and let that bring you to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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The world isn't going to change, but you need to.
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All right?
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So remember that initial passion, and then, letter B, look ahead.
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There's reward for the faithful.
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Look at what, verse 35.
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He says, "Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, "which has a great reward.
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"For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised." He's saying, "Come to Christ. Come to Christ. He's worth it." And, He's promised to reward the faithful.
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Listen, listen. Everybody look up here.
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I promise you right now, there is nobody walking around heaven going, "This is it?
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I thought it'd be bigger." I mean, it's okay, but you know, it seems like I endured a lot of stuff on the earth, and then payoff doesn't seem great.
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That is not happening, okay?
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Every day is just like,
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(yells)
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Every day is like that in heaven.
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Why?
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Because Christ has promised to reward the faithful.
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Look at verse 37.
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He says, "For yet a little while, "and the coming one will come and will not delay, "but my righteous one shall live by faith.
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"And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." That's a quote from Habakkuk chapter two, verses three and four.
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And what he's doing here is just putting a bow on the warning.
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He says, "Listen, Christ is coming back.
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So you need to live by true enduring faith because look, God doesn't delight in people who wuss out.
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Right? That's what he's saying. That doesn't fire God up at all. Like really? You bailed? You didn't think I was worth it?
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You didn't think I could provide the strength and courage that you need to endure? Like you just bailed?
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God doesn't have the time of day for people that wuss out. Because true saving faith doesn't do that.
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And finally, look at verse 39.
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One more call.
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One more.
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One more.
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He says, I love this.
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He says, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
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I love that because it's like this.
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It's like this pep rally at the end.
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He just said some very hard things.
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And he's like, but that's not who we are.
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Like, we're not scared like the world.
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We don't live in fear like the world.
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We don't do that.
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That's just not that's not who we are.
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We are people who believe and are saying that's who we are.
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And again, there it is shrinking back again.
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That's the evidence.
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No man who draws back has saving faith.
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Ultimately, they are destroyed.
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But true, true saving faith endures.
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And he says it preserves the soul.
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And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what is faith?
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"And what does that look like?
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"What's it smell like?
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"And how does it show up in my life?" And how...
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Well, he gets into that in chapter 11.
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So we'll get to that next week.
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Today, churchgoers that are not saved, listen, there's reward for the faithful.
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It's gonna be so worth it.
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I can't even tell you.
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If our worship team would make their way forward.
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A couple weeks ago I saw a meme.
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I'm a bit of an over-thinker sometimes.
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But it said this.
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It said, "If the living knew what the dead knew, the whole world would follow Jesus." If the living knew what the dead knew, the whole world would follow Jesus.
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I thought a lot about that.
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Maybe I'm nitpicking.
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Do you know what I thought?
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You know what I thought, Dan.
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I'm like, "But we do know." Don't we?
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Didn't God write it all down?
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Number one bestseller?
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Put it in the hotel room nightstand drawers.
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I'm like, but we do know.
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So you know what I thought?
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I thought I'm gonna fix that.
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'Cause everybody likes when their grammar's corrected or their meme is corrected, right?
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I said, maybe it should say this instead.
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Maybe it should say experienced.
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If the living experienced what the dead experienced, whole world would follow Jesus. I thought that's better. Imagine this, just imagine this. Imagine I had the power, the ability, I don't, but imagine I had the ability, I could send you to hell for 24 hours. Just 24 hours. And then you come back. And then I can send you to heaven for 24 hours. What do you think that would do to you?
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How do you think that would motivate you?
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Regardless, this is real life.
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And someday you will stand before God.
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And I just want to leave this in your lap.
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What are you going to say to Him on that day?
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Are you going to say, you know what God, I can't lie to you.
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I can't blow smoke.
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You know everything God.
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You know Jesus meant nothing to me.
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Because God, look at my life.
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Can you see that Jesus had zero impact on any decision that I made?
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He had zero impact on any dollar that I spent.
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He had zero impact on my attitudes or the way I love people or the way I forget.
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You can see in my life, God, Jesus had zero impact.
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He meant nothing to me.
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God can be the greatest friend you ever have or the most terrifying person.
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will ever face.
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And the difference is what you do with Jesus Christ.
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You bow your heads with me please.
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Father in heaven, there's really no middle ground is there?
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Your word is very clear that we have a choice that we can know you as a loving father, a provider, a guide, a counselor, a comforter, a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
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Your word has made that so clear, God, that we can know you.
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Have a relationship so intimate that your spirit would live inside us.
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We can know you on that level because of what Jesus accomplished.
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But Father, your word tells us, as we've seen today, that if we refuse this gift, it's a heinous crime.
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It's an insult to the Holy One of the universe.
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And we can't possibly expect anything good to come from that.
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So Father, I just want to pray one thing very specifically.
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That if the churchgoers here right now, watching this stream or sitting in this room, Your Word tells us it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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I pray that You would give them not a minute's rest, not a minute's sleep.
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could enter their hearts or minds except that very thought.
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Until they fall on their face and cry out and receive the gift that you have commanded.
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That these people would not rest until they call me or one of our elders or their small group leader or somebody they know who knows Jesus, but they wouldn't rest.
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Because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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Father, thank you, not only for your awesome love, but thank you for this morning, because some of us need to hear this.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 10:26-39
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How can you tell if someone is a “church-goer” or a true born-again believer? Should you do anything if you think someone is the former?
Reread Hebrews 10:39. What is the evidence that someone is not saved?
What does it mean to “profane the blood of the covenant” (Heb 10:29)? How does someone do this?
Breakout
Pray for those in the church who have not come to Jesus.