Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The FOMO In The Gospel

3/13/2022 Jeff Schwarzentraub 44 min read

How can you be sure that you're actually saved? How can you know for sure that if you were to die today, that you'd be in the presence of the Lord? How is it that you can know for sure that Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit, is really resonant on the inside of you? I hear non-believers ask that question all the time and think it's somewhat arrogant to think that Christians can know for sure, one way or another, whether they're Christians or not. But you know what, even being a pastor in the church, there's many people in the church who are asking the question, "I don't know that I'm sure," Or, "How can I be sure?" Or, "Can I really, really know?"

"Some days, I feel like I'm sure and some days I feel like I'm just not so sure. And I really want to know that I know that I know that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and savior." What does that look like? And I will tell you this, there's no greater question that you can ask, because God has set eternity in the heart of man, which means whether you're a man, woman, boy, or a girl, you will live somewhere forever. The Bible makes it clear that if you're in a relationship with God, you'll live with him forever. And the Bible makes it clear if you're not, you'll experience hell forever, but you will live forever.

You know that in your heart, that's why you ask those questions. And sometimes there's this fear, this fear of, "Did I get it right?" Or, "Am I missing something?" Or, "Am I missing out?" I think millennials have coined the term FOMO, F-O-M-O, fear of missing out. I call today's message the FOMO in the gospel for you millennials because I love you.

We love you.

Thank you. Because there's a fear inside of us that says, "Am I really missing out? Do I really get this? Do I really understand this? How can I know for sure?" And if you've ever wondered, if you've ever been asking yourself the question, "Am I truly saved?" Today, God has a word for you. And if you were to say today, "I'm 100% sure I'm saved, there's no doubt. There's nothing you can teach me," I promise you today will be great assurance for your soul. And I promise you God brought you here so you can be praying for some others in our service that don't know the Lord just yet.

But I'm going to do this today by taking a look at the book of Hebrews chapter four. And as you turn to chapter four, we're going to be in the first 13 verses today. And as you know, we've been talking in this book about how Jesus is the greatest. He is the greatest of all time. He's greater than any other one who's ever pretended to be God, he's the king of kings, he's the Lord of Lords. He's greater than the angels. He's greater than the prophets. He's greater than anyone who's ever lived.

And last, week we took a look at what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ and what unbelief does when we don't know him. And today, as you hear chapter four being read, take a look at these scriptures and then we'll take a look at five reasons that you need to ask the question, "How can I be sure if I'm saved?" Five reasons that you might need to have the fear in the gospel? He says this, "Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard."

"For we who have believed enter that rest just as he has said, 'As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.' Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again this passage, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preach to them failed to enter because of disobedience, he again fixes a certain day, today, saying through David after so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, for if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that."

"So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God from his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joint and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

And here in this text, this author highlights not only is Jesus the greatest, but why we should have a healthy fear of what it means to miss out on the truth of the gospel. Why it is that we ask questions like, "Am I sure I'm saved? And I don't know if I'm saved. It terrifies me to not understand totally what happens when I die." So I thought before I even started this message, I would spell out the gospel for you. The gospel is this, gospel means good news. I have good news for you today.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." God loved you so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to the world for you. Jesus Christ has always existed as the second person of the Trinity, but nearly 2,000 years ago, he put on flesh, was born of a virgin, he came to this earth, he fulfilled the law, and he did what you could never do. He kept it perfectly. The Bible says that of you, there is no one good, no not one. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible says that you are dead in your transgressions and sins.

It means this, from the time that you're born, you were born with this condition of sin and then you spent your life playing that sin condition out in some way. Sin means this, from the time you're born, your life has been centered around you. And because God is good, and because God is perfect, and because God is holy, he can only welcome that which is good, perfect, and holy, and it's not you, and it's not me. And so God, the father sent his son to do what you could never do, and that's pay for your sins. So Jesus Christ came on purpose to die for you.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." So Jesus Christ came on purpose to do what you couldn't do, and that was die for your sin. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, it was not only a loving act, it was a righteous act as God the father poured out his wrath on his own son that all of us deserved. And he took the wrath of his dad because as the perfect sacrifice, he satisfied the wrath of God. He died.

But I have good news for you. Three days later, he rose from the dead, demonstrating that he was indeed God's one and only son, and began to offer life to everyone who had turn from their sin and turn to him as their personal Lord and savior. That's what the gospel is. That's good news. Good news means you're dead in your sin. Good news means there's punishment for your sin in hell for all eternity, but God made a way. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one, but no one comes to the father except through him. That's the good news.

So no matter where you would preach or no matter where you would go or no matter what nationality or anything that you're speaking, that's true of all people everywhere, that all of us are born into sin, and yet God's desire is to save us. Sometimes when people hear about hell, they think of God as this mean God, he takes delight in people dying and going to hell, he doesn't. Ezekiel 18:23 says that God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. There's never been someone who dies where God has said, "Yeah, I'm going to show them."

God created us in his image. In the image of God, he created us, male and female. We're the crown of his creation. He has an incredible love for us, but because of his perfection and his goodness and his holiness, he cannot welcome us, apart from the sacrificial penalty that was paid by his son. God loves you. You say, "Well, how do you know God wants me to be saved?" Because the Bible tells me that he does. 1 Timothy 2:4 says, "He desires all men, that's men and women, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." That's you. 2 Peter 3 says, "The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance."

What's repentance? Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of behavior. Repentance is, "I was living for myself, but now Jesus Christ is my Lord and I'm living for him." Romans 2:4 says, "It's the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance." 2 Corinthians 7:10 says that it's the... I'm going to read it to you. I hit my head months ago. It says, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death." It means that God is so kind to you that he gives his Holy Spirit to you so that you'll understand that you're a sinner, so that you'll understand that you're dead, so that you'll understand that there's a penalty.

But he's also so merciful and gracious to you to show you in that moment that there's a way out, that there's a narrow road, that there's a narrow gate, and it's Jesus. And if you come to him, you can be completely forgiven of all of your sins and all of the penalty can be completely washed away because of the great love that he has for you. It's not about cleaning yourself up, it's not about getting yourself right, it's about the fact that God loves you enough, that he would provide a way for you to get to him. And when you come to the end of yourself and realize, "I don't want to be steeped in my sin. I don't want this in me anymore. I don't even know how to get rid of it." That you can take that and take it to the cross and put it on Jesus and he'll exchange all of your sin for all of his righteousness.

That's the good news of the gospel. That's who Jesus Christ is. Now, as you understand that from the outset, that it's clear that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, then let's get into the text, because there's five reasons you should fear missing out. Most of you hearing me this morning that are not new to BRAVE are saying, "I already got that." I don't think this is going to be a great message, but I promise you, it will. Notice what he says, "Some people should fear missing out because some people lack saving faith. Some people lack saving faith."

Notice what he says, "Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of enter his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it." In other words, if there's a promise of the good news, but there's this seemingmess in your heart like, "I don't know that I'm measured up. I don't know that I've totally accepted that. I don't know that I've totally given allegiance to Jesus as Lord. I don't know." If that happens, and let's soon for the sake of an argument that it has, then you should live in fear. God's given the promise of his only son, but that doesn't mean that you've trusted in the promise of his only son. When I say some people lack saving faith, it means there's some people that agree to the reality of the good news, but they lack the faith to back it up.

In other words, there's a lot of people that go to church. There's some people that go to church, that if I were to say, "Jesus Christ is Lord," they would say, "I know." "And he died on the cross for your sins." They would say, "I know. "And he rose from the dead." They would say, "I know." "And he's the only way." They would say, "I know." But that doesn't make someone a Christian. Placing your faith and trust in the Lord is what makes you a Christian, that you can know all the facts, but if it's not accompanied by faith, you don't have a relationship with the living God. It's by faith that you need to come to Christ.

Notice what he says in verse two, "For indeed, we have had good news preach to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them." It means they heard the same message we did, but it was no benefit to them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. Faith is essential for salvation. It's not knowing facts. It's not even agreeing mentally that, "Yep, that's probably true." It's this, when did Jesus Christ become the Lord of your life? If you are born and you are the Lord of your life or some other person is the Lord of your life or some other thing is the Lord of your life, when did that get knocked off the throne and Jesus Christ became Lord of your life?

And there are many people that attend church that know all the facts, that have raised a hand, that have stood after a service, that have walked in the isle, that have even gotten baptized, that think they're saved, but they're not saved because they've never placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have a feeling like this. They've heard this false gospel. "Yeah, I'm ready for Jesus to be my savior. I'll believe that. If I can pray this magic prayer and get to heaven, but I'm not ready to make him Lord yet."

Friends I've read through the Bible, I don't know how many times, I've yet to find that gospel anywhere, if Jesus Christ is not who is your Lord, then he hasn't saved you. There's no gospel that says, "Well, I want him to be my savior, I just don't want him to be my Lord yet." Exhibit A, the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. And what does he say? What must I do to inherit eternal life? What does Jesus tell him? What does the scripture say? He begins to list all the ways he's a good person. He begins to list all the ways he's kept all the commandments from the time he was a kid, which he hadn't, but he thought he had.

And he began to go through his whole opportunity to tell the Lord why he was a good person. Jesus looks at him, says, "One thing you still lack, go sell everything you have, give it all to the poor, come back with me, and then your treasure will be great in heaven." What was he saying? He's saying, "You're not willing to make me the Lord of your life, you have other things that are more important to you than me. So go your own way until you're ready to make me the Lord of your life." And what happens? As Jesus looks at him and loves him, the man walks away sad. And what happens next? Does Jesus say, "Man, I'm being too harsh. I got to stop this harsh talk"?

Does Jesus call him back and say, "Man, I know you're wealthy and we're getting ready to buy a building. Can you come back and maybe donate some more"? No, here's what he says. While the man's walking away, he said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Truly I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven." And the disciples are looking at each other at this guy who's a good guy, who's a moral guy, who's a religious guy, and says, "Then who can be saved?"

And Jesus says, "With man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are possible." Jesus Christ is Lord. It's the Lord who saves. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you made him the Lord of your life? He is the Lord, but have you made him the Lord of your life? See, there's a lot of people that come to church that don't have saving faith. They agree to all the doctrinal truths and they don't argue with them, but when it comes to personally trusting Jesus to be the Lord, here's what they say," I don't want him to be in control of my life. I don't want to have a God like that. I want to live for me in my way. But if he's willing to save me too, I'll take that."

There's no gospel like that anywhere. You either give all your sin to Jesus and get all of his righteousness, or you live by yourself apart from Christ. And there are some of you here today who think that you're saved and you're not saved because Jesus is not the Lord of your life. That's just a fact. That's why Jesus said to people that were following him, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do as I say? Giving lip service to Jesus as Lord is different than making him the Lord of your life.

Fast forward a couple chapters after the rich young ruler and you come across this white collar criminal name Zacchaeus, a shrimpy guy that had to climb a tree to see Jesus coming by. And when Jesus sees him and says, "Zacchaeus, come down, I must stay at your house today." What's Zacchaeus do? He doesn't say, "Ah, but I'm a good person." He says, "Lord, here and now, I give half my possessions to the poor. And if I've cheated anybody, I'll give him four times as much. I don't care about my money anymore, I care that I have a relationship with you and you're my Lord. And if you're willing to take someone like me, I'll take you at the exception of anything else I could ever have."

What does Jesus say? "Today, I tell you the truth, salvation's come to this house." Jesus will take anybody that wants him, but it's on his terms. You bring all your sin to him and you let Jesus be the Lord of your life. That's the gospel, that's the good news. You don't get to hunker down with your sin and live completely for yourself and mouth the words that Jesus is the Lord when he is actually not the Lord. And there's a lot of people that go to church and they haven't changed at all over time, ever, but they think that they're saved.

So let me just clear up a couple testimonies for you. Because I hear this at BRAVE Church, I've heard it for 12 years, I hear it all the time. Let me help you, because I heard it a couple weeks ago too. I'm not giving you names and I'm changing some of the stories, but the testimony goes something like this, "Pastor Jeff, I got saved for the first time when I was about seven years old, but I didn't really know what it meant. I got baptized and I went into water, but I did that more for my dad because he was in the church and was a deacon. So I went through with it. And I went to youth group, but it really didn't mean a whole lot to me."

"And then when I got to high school, I back slid a little bit. And then I got right. But when I went out to college, I back slid again for the second time for like six years. And then I was just so desperate. There was one time I just made my way into BRAVE Church and everything's changed. My heart's different and I no longer smoke weed and I no longer want to do what's wrong, and I want to do what's right. And I've rededicated my life to Jesus." I say, "Uh, uh, uh, you got saved at BRAVE Church." There's no backsliding in the Bible. Where do you get this here that, "I'm a Christian, but I'm backslidden"? "For how long?" "For like 25 years, I was kind of backslidden."

What? Think about it like this. I've heard this analogy. I've used this in preaching before, but imagine you were on I-25 today crossing the highway, walking. And as you did that, a semi going 75 miles an hour hit you. You would you know that you were hit by that semi? Of course you would. It would alter your entire life. It would alter your entire being. It would alter your entire world. You wouldn't have to wonder, "Was I hit by the semi or not?" Unless you were brain dead or something like that.

So here's my question, what is more powerful, a semi traveling at 75 miles an hour or the third person to the Trinity, the Holy Spirit who came in to take over and let Jesus Christ be of your life? So then here's the question, how is it the Holy Spirit can come into your life whose job it is to glorify the resurrected Christ, who always accomplishes what he sets out to do, and nothing's changed in you? The reason is because you don't have the Holy Spirit because Jesus Christ is not the Lord of your life. You've been playing religion. And there's some of you here that are still playing religion. You don't have saving faith. You don't want Jesus to be the Lord of your life. You feel like he's a hard, cruel master. And you think to yourself, "I don't want that."

Friends, if you don't want that, you don't want the gospel. And you don't realize how desperate you are, because there's a lot of people that know all the facts that go to hell every single day. What would be the point of that? It tears my heart up. And you see it all over the Old and New Testament, especially the New Testament. You see it in The Parable of the Soils. When the word of God gets placed in good soil, what happens? It produces a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100%. What do you see in John's gospel when he talks about the vine and the branches?" "If you abide in me and I abide in you, ask whatever you wish it will be done for you, for this is my father's glory that you bear much fruit."

If you are a Christian, you will bear fruit. If you are a Christian, you will produce a harvest. And it's not because of what you do, it's because of what God's doing in and through you. There will be a change. You can't allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life and see no change in your life. You'll have a greater love for God. You'll have a greater for people. I remember when I got saved, I remember being at a Bible study about six months after I got saved, sitting around with a group of guys, and this thought went off in my head, and it was this, "If I wasn't saved, I don't think I would've ever talked to these guys, and now they're my friends."

You see, when I wasn't saved and I went to church, I thought those crazy, hyperspiritual people were weird. They weren't crazy, hyperspiritual people, they were Christians. I was lost. When I got saved, some of those crazy, hyperspiritual people seemed normal to me, and I became one of them because my heart was transformed. Did I change overnight? Did every bad behavior immediately go away? Did I clean myself up to get right with God? No, I came to God just as I was. His grace drew me and showed me that I was dead and that I needed a savior and a Lord who could do something, and I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's the question, do you have saving faith? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord? And if you say yes, here's my question. When did he become the Lord of your life? When? Now, you may not remember the exact day, you may not remember the exact hour, you may not even remember the exact month if you're a little bit older, but there would be a transforming time in your life where you used to live like this and now you live like this. And it's not because of your effort, and, "I'm going to become a better person," it's because Jesus Christ came in your life as Lord.

And here's what he's saying. He's saying, "There's some who hear the word and by faith they believe, and that changes everything. And there's others who hear the same word, but they don't appropriate it by faith, and so they're upset at the gospel." Notice verse three, "For we who have believed entered that rest just as he has said, 'As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.' Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world or from the creation of the world." Friends, when you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, you cease trying to work for your salvation. It's a new day.

It means this, your works don't count when it comes to salvation, your works don't count in getting you saved. There's nobody in heaven that's going to play a reel or a film of their life that shows, "Hey, look at how good I was before I got saved. Look at what I was doing to get right with God," nobody, not one. Everybody will say, "I was dead, I was a sinner, and Christ made himself known to me. And I came flying to the cross because I didn't want my sin anymore and I wanted Jesus." That's what he was saying. That's why he goes back and he keeps talking about this, understanding that there's rest. Do you have rest when it comes to your salvation?

Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Not, does your mom say that Jesus Christ says the Lord of your life, not, does your pastor say that, not does your grandparents say that? Do you say that? Do you know that you know Jesus is the Lord of your life? See, some people not only lack saving faith, but you should fear missing out because some people strive in vain. See, if the first group agrees to the reality of the gospel, but they lack saving faith. In other words, yeah, I agree with all that. I'm just not going to make Jesus the Lord of my life. If that's the first group, the second group knows about the truth of the gospel that Jesus needs to be Lord, but they would rather strive in vain to create their own religion than allow him to be that.

In other words, you don't have a problem with point number one in the sense that, "Yeah, I know that's true, but not only do I know that's true, I don't want that." And so you create your own religious thing that you think works for you. For some of you, it's religion, and for some of you, it's something other than religion, but you think that because you're a pretty good person or you think because you compare yourself to other people, it'll be okay, it'll all play out in the end. And I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word, it won't, it will not. God wants you to be rightly related to him through Jesus Christ, and he's the only way you can be rightly related.

Some people are naive enough to believe, "I don't need to make him Lord." Other people know they need to make him Lord, but live in a pattern of disobedience. Notice what he says in verse four, "For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.'" I loved teaching through the book of Genesis a couple years ago. You remember we got to Genesis 2:2? It says, "By the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done." How about Exodus 20:11, "For in six days, the Lord made the heavens in the earth, the sea in all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Or how about Exodus 31:17, "It is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day, he ceased from labor and was refreshed. Now, what does this mean? Well, first of all, it means that the world, the universe was created in six literal days. That's what it means. That's clear teaching from all of scripture. Secondly, what it means is when God was done, he had completed his work. It means God was putting his feet up as a model to show us what we should do, that we don't need to work all that time and be stressed out all the time. It's also a model of salvation that when we come to know Christ, that God set it up from the foundation of the world that we can enter rest with God.

And when you truly repent of your sins and trust Jesus, there's rest in that. I know that. I know that I know that I know that if I were to die today, I'd be in the presence of Jesus, because of everything that the word of God tells me. I know I've turned from my sin, I know I've turned to Jesus, I know it has nothing to do with what I've done, but it has everything to do with what Christ did for me. And some people say, "Well, I don't want that. I know that's what I need to do, but I like living my life my own way and I don't know that I want that." Notice what he says again and again in this passage, "They shall not enter my rest."

Psalm 95 is being quoted all over the place in chapters three and four. "Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, disobedience." Disobedience is when what God requires and you choose to do the opposite. You know what God wants, and you're like, "Yeah, but I don't want to do it that way." You say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, you just got done explaining to us the gospel's not about works." Here's what I would say. You are not saved by your works, but if you are saved, you are saved for good works.

If you're truly saved, something will change in your life where you will say, "I want to do it God's way. I want to honor the Lord. I want to do it the way he wants me to do it. I want to know what the word says. I want to know what God's saying. I want to make sure I'm aligned with him." Some of you're here today say, "I didn't come to church for that reason. I came to get my marriage right, and it's a mess. Why don't you just do a good TED Talk about marriage?" Because this is way better than the TED Talk. Because if you're surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, he will change your attitudes and behaviors as to who you need to be in your marriage, which is way better than anything a talk will do for you.

Jesus Christ will come in and change who you are. He'll change the way you relate to your employer or your employees or people at church or your neighbors, Christians, non-Christians, he'll change your whole life and demeanor. That's what he does. But some people don't think that works have anything to do with salvation, they don't have anything to do with you getting in, but they have everything to do with you demonstrating that you've truly been saved. Because at funerals, we're great at saying stuff like this, "Oh, I know he was a Christian." 50 years ago, when he was at youth camp, he stood to his feet and trusted Christ."

But there's been no fruit in his life for 50 years, and he's a drunk, and he beats his wife, and he hates his kids. And everybody at work thinks it's better that he's dead. "Oh, but he's going to heaven because he prayed a magic prayer." No, he's not. I hate to tell you this, that some of you have been bought into a false gospel, which says, "Hey, believe whatever you want to believe about Jesus and you'll just go to heaven because he is a good guy." That's false. The truth of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord. And when you say, "I no longer want my sin and I want him to rule and reign in my life," you're saved.

And when he's truly in charge, everything in you will begin to change. Overnight? No, not everything, but it'll start. There should be a fear in your life if you lack saving faith. There should be fear in your life if you strive in vain. That's why people have a hard time with stories like the thief on the cross. Because people say, "Well, look at the thief on the cross, what did he ever do?" Well, let's look at the thief on the cross. Let's look at what God did to the thief on the cross. You remember the day that Jesus was crucified, he was crucified between two thieves.

And in the morning when he was being crucified and everybody's hurling insults at Jesus for that six hours, in the morning, both of those thieves were mocking him as well. Do you remember that? They were saying all sorts of evil things about Jesus. But for one, things begin to change at some point in time during the day. And the one thief began to look at the other thief as Jesus was being mocked and he's like, "Wait, he's done nothing wrong. We deserve this because of our sin, he didn't do anything wrong." He was starting to silence the other thief because a change was going off in his heart.

And then, do you remember what he prayed? Remember what he said out loud, "Lord," not savior, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." What was he doing? He's saying, "I deserve this because of my sin. I deserve to die. But because this man is who he says he is, I want him to be the Lord of my life. Whether I've got three minutes left or three hours, he needs to be the Lord." And when he called on Jesus as Lord, what did he say? "Truly, truly I say to you, today, you'll be with me in paradise." You'll see the played out all throughout the Bible. It doesn't matter who people are.

Now, non-Christians hate that story. "Well, he got away scot free because his whole life he lived like hell and at the last minute he can just pray that way and go to heaven?" Yes, it's called the gospel. It means anybody at any time in any place that calls upon the name of the Lord can be saved and saved to the full, that's good news. You say, "I don't know if I like that gospel." Oh yes you do, because it means you can get saved too. It means God loves you because people that don't like that gospel think that the thief on the cross is worse than them. People that don't like the gospel compare the world and think that there's, "Oh, those criminals over there. Oh, those pedophiles over there, Oh, those sexual immoral over there, they're horrible people. But people like me, I'm better than that."

You miss the gospel, you're dead, you're blind. You're going to hell and you need Jesus Christ to rescue you. That's the message of the gospel. And he's willing to save you. But some people lack saving faith and some people strive in vain. But let me tell you about a third group of people, you should fear missing out because some people live with the hardness of heart. Some people live with the hardness of heart. This takes it one step further. If the first group of people, they agree to the realities of who Jesus is, they just don't want him to be the Lord of their life. And the second group says, "I know he needs to be the Lord of my life, but I don't want that either, I'm just going to live my life and come up with my own sense of spirituality or religion and just hope it all works out in the end."

This third group is this. They hear the gospel and they reject it. They hear it and say, "No way, Jesus Christ is Lord. I don't want to hear another word about it." Here's what the scripture says, that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those of us who are being saved, it's become the power of God." I'll tell you this, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and then also the Gentile. These are people who hear about the gospel and they reject it. And because of the passivity of acting by faith, their heart begins to harden, as we talked about last week.

So they don't care what they hear, they will not believe it. They don't care about it. They're not going to respond to it. They have passivity in their hearts when it comes to responding to the gospel. Some of these people have heard the gospel over and over to a point they've hardened their hearts, "Don't talk to me about that garbage anymore." And this is what he says, verse seven, "He again fixes a certain day." What day is God going to fix? What day do we need to get right with God? When do I need to get right with him? I don't know when he is going to come back, so when? He tells us, today.

"Well, I'll be thinking about your message this week, Pastor Jeff." Don't think about it, get right today. In this very moment, get right with God today. Make today the day of salvation. Saying through David, he's going to quote Psalm 95. In Hebrew 3:7, he said, "Through the Holy Spirit." So we see the dual authorship of the scriptures. "After so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." Isn't that the third time we've heard that. Do you think there's truth in repeating something over and over and over again?

When you hear this, don't harden your hearts. You say, "Well, what does that mean?" It means this, listen, because you're hearing this message today, you're accountable to this message. Whether you're listening in person, online, in the radio, at Westminster, it doesn't matter. You're accountable to this message. And if you don't respond properly to this message, you'll still be hearing this message 10 billion years from now in hell. It's true. I love you enough to tell you the truth. "Pastor Jeff, is this one of those fire and brimstone messages?" No, it's a message of truth and grace, that God loves you so much he doesn't want you to endure that.

He loves you enough, he sent his own son to be slaughtered in your place. And he's saying, "Wake up and come to me and quit hardening your heart. Quit suppressing it. Quit pushing it down. Quit saying, 'Hey, one day, Pastor Jeff, when I'm old like you, I'll think about these realities." You may not have a chance to grow old like me. Today may be the day. Today may be the last opportunity. We falsely believe we can come to Christ anytime we want, we'll just choose. No, the more you reject him, the harder your heart gets, and there'll come a time when you can't even hear his voice. So if you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts.

And notice what he says in verse eight, "For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that." In other words, when we're looking at the Old Testament, Joshua didn't provide rest for the people. Even when they got into promise line, they didn't have total rest. And through Psalm 95, which came after that time of the book of Joshua, he was saying, "There's a future rest coming." Friends, there's a day coming for those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ where there'll be no more fatigue or hardship or oppression or suffering or persecution or affliction or distress or falling off a bicycle and hitting your head and not remembering it. Those days are gone. They'll be gone.

There's a day of rest coming. But presently, we can experience his rest in this world. Presently, we can experience the fact we don't have to strive to get God to love us. God already demonstrated how much he loved us when he sent has only begotten son for you. You don't have to strive anymore. If you receive him as your personal Lord and savior, you can cease striving and you can know that he's God. And no matter what comes in your life, you can have that inner rest knowing no matter what happens circumstantially, all the things I can't control, all the things I was hoping I could control, I can still have rest on the inside. And one day I'm going to have an eternal rest.

Friends, there's a utopia coming for those of us who believe that's unlike anything we've ever experienced and more than we could ever dream about. We think we can have it here. We think if we vote for the right political leaders or we have the right school board chairman, or we have all these different things, that everything's going to be perfect. And I'm like, "No way, it's never going to happen." We do need to get involved in that process, we do need to push back the darkness, we do need to preserve it, for one reason and one reason only, because friends, this world is like the Titanic, it's going down, and we're preserving it for more time so that we can share a hope of Jesus Christ with more and more people. Amen.

That's the purpose of the gospel. And that's what God wants. God wants us to understand that some live with this hardness of heart. Some of you have heard the gospel at BRAVE Church, but you've waited and you've waited and you've waited and you've waited. And, "Hey, when it's just right, I'll get... " Make today your day, quit waiting. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Now, listen to this. Some people have lack of saving faith, some people strive in vain, some people live with the hardness of heart. But notice this other reason that you should fear missing out in the gospel. It's because some people actually pursue the Lord Jesus Christ zealously.

Here's a positive one. Some people actually believe what I'm saying that Jesus Christ is Lord and pursue him with everything they have. Notice what he says in verse nine. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." There's coming a day where we're going to be able to enjoy the Sabbath. Now, I don't know about you, but when I grew up, I thought Sabbath was you just kind to take off the whole day and do absolutely nothing and sit around and are bored, and then God gets happy with you. No, Sabbath is a day where you take one day a week to celebrate all the good things God's been doing in your life.

It's to worship him, it's to refresh, it's to thank him for the world that he gave us. It's to honor him. It's to do things that you enjoy, to let the Lord know, "Lord, you provided all this and you're so good." And there's coming a day of Sabbath rest where all day long, every single day, we'll be able to tell the Lord personally to his face just how wonderful he is. Verse 10 says, "For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his, just as on the seventh day, God rested from his works and created a world so that we could be rightly related to him in every possible way."

When you're rightly related to God, through the person of Jesus Christ, when you've turned from your sin and turned to Jesus Christ as Lord, guess what? You can rest from your works as well, you can rest from your striving. See, some of you have heard me wrong today and said, "Well, no, you just talked about works. That seems like a lot. Because if I come to Christ, I got to do all this stuff." I'm not telling you to do anything, I'm telling you, if you turn from your sin and come to Christ, he'll live in you and he'll do all these things through you, you just bear the fruit. You're just the house for his seed to grow.

Friends, I'm not stressed out about my works. I don't sit down on Monday morning after I preach a message and say, "Oh, I got to preach one more time. I know I'll do it. Lord, I'll do it for you because you're making me preach." This is not a have to, this is a want-to. When God gets a hold of your heart, there'll be want-tos. Because of love for God, there'll be a want to in some way with somebody else. I want to encourage them, I want to share the gospel with them, I want to show them comfort and compassion, I want to be there when they need somebody to cry. And I want to because I love God and I know God loves them. That's the change that happens. That's the work that happens.

And some of us are pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ zealously. Notice what he says in verse 11, "Therefore, let us be diligent." That word means eager, or make haste, quickly, with great devotion. "Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall." That means to experience somewhat suddenly what is bad through following the same example of disobedience. Don't follow an example of those who aren't following Jesus Christ as Lord. That's what he's saying. See, some are pursuing the Lord. And here's the reality when you pursue the Lord.

Did you know when you pursue the Lord, you are his witness, even when you're, "not witnessing"? You can't not be a witness if you love the Lord. In 2 Corinthians chapter two, here's what he says about us. as believers. He says, "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." Some of you have air freshers in your car, some of you have air freshers in your house. If you have teenage boys, you have air fresheners in their room. Air fresher is a way of changing the scent in the environment that you're in.

We become the aroma of Christ, both to those who are saved and those who are not saved. Do you realize that? That everywhere you go, when you're pursuing Christ, you're an aroma, you're an air freshener for everybody? Now, what are you and an air freshener like? Verse 16 says, "To the one in aroma, from death to death, and to another in aroma from life to life and who is adequate for these things." Friends, with some people you get around, you're the aroma of life. People see things in you and God uses it to draw them to himself.

People see you. And they say, "If that's what it means to be a Christian, I want what you got. Let me have what you have. How do I get that?" And for others, being the exact same person, you're an aroma of death to them, you're a stench in their nostrils. Because of the hardness of their heart and they want nothing to do with Christ, just you being around them irritates them and aggravates them. You know that's true in our world. There's some people you could be your normal loving kind, sweet, gentle self. And guess what? They'll still reject you no matter what, because you're one of those.

And then there's other people where you're just your normal gentle kind, loving self, and people seek Christ in you and say, "How can I have what you have?" You're an air freshener everywhere you go. And that's what he's saying, "Some of you should fear when you're around Christians if you don't like them, because you're not a Christian." I'm going to say it again, if you're a Christian, you love the people of God, you don't have another choice. If God loves the world and he loves everybody in it and you're a believer, then who should you love? Everybody, especially those in the household of God, especially those in the household of God.

Yeah, but Christians are weird. Yes you are. We're all weird. There's nobody perfect, we serve the perfect one. None of us is perfect. All of us have flaws and all of us have weirdness to our personality, and all of us are just a little bit out of sorts. I'm not trying to draw people to me, I'm trying to let people know about the God who saved me. And we should love the people of God. If it bothers you to be around Christians, that should be an alarm bell that goes off and you say, "Am I really one of them?" Because I listen to people say, "Well, I'm a Christian, I just don't go to church because you know what they're all like." Yeah, they're Christian, and you don't like them. And Jesus died for them. And so what's that say about you?

You hear this message? Are you sure that you're sure that you're sure that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life? That's the question. Some here lack saving faith. Some here are still trying to strive on their own to get right with God. Some people here today are living with a hardness of heart where they're bothered by this message. And some people who are here pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ zealously are demonstrating that Jesus Christ is exactly who he says that he is. And it bothers some of you. If that bothers you that Christians are going after God and you've always got to make judgment calls about every single Christian, there should be alarm bells going off in your heart this morning saying, "Why am I bothered by the people Jesus Christ loves the most? Why?"

There are pastors that do things differently than I do, there are churches that do things differently than we do. If they're Christian, I love them. I love them. I'm for them. Isn't that what we should all have in our hearts. That's the Holy Spirit of God inside of us. And let me give you a final one of why you should fear missing out in the truth of the gospel. If you think this is a hard message so far, it only is going to get harder, and it's because of this. We've talked about some people, some people lack saving faith, some people are striving. We've talked about the fact that some people have hardness of hearts and some people are pursuing the Lord.

But here's the truth. Let me tell you something about all people, that's you. All people will be completely exposed by the word of God. Everything I'm telling you is entirely true and you will be exposed by this truth one day. He says in verses 12 and 13, he tells us to be diligent to enter the rest so no one will fall through following the disobedience. Why? For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of both soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

What's the word of God like? It's like a sword. The sword it's talking about now is not one of those big, long swords, it's like a six-inch dagger. When the word of God is read, studied, proclaimed faithfully, heralded, and taught, it's as if a dagger is coming forth. And what does this dagger have the ability to do? This dagger is alive. This dagger is living. That's why this Bible is not just any ordinary book. It's unlike any book you could ever read. You know why? Because this book is alive and it will read you. This book will speak to you. This book will talk to you.

It doesn't have pictures, but it's got a living voice. It's living. It's active. Active means it's powerful. This book is powerful. You say, "Well, how powerful is it?" Well, it's sharper than a two-edged sword. It's sharper this morning than if I was holding a dagger one inch away from your heart and starting to move it around. And what does it have the ability to do? It has the ability to pierce as far as the division of both soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. If you had heart problems and you went to a cardiologist or a thoracic cardio surgeon and they opened you up to do a heart transplant, that'd be a pretty big deal. That's a pretty important job.

The word of God says, "I do heart surgery all the time." Talk about your mind. Somebody's going to open up your head and a neurosurgeon was going to go in and do some things on your brain, that's a pretty big deal. Jesus said, "This dagger is able to do scalpel work on your brain. It can divide both soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It can judge the attitudes and intentions of your heart." Jesus knows why you're here today. He knows the motivation you came with. You can fake everybody else out, but Jesus knows. You can fake everybody out at work or at school saying, "Here's why I'm doing this." And you can lie about it or pretend, Jesus knows.

He knows every single thing about you. It's why if you're under the faithful preaching of the word, it's imperative for a believer. I've heard people in the last 12 years tell me, "I've already read the Bible, I don't need to go to church." Yes you do. You need preaching in your life if it's faithful preaching of the word. You don't need stories, you don't need to go hear cleverly told tales, you don't need that, but you do need the word of God being heralded in your life. Because if you hear the word of God heralded in your life, there will be times where God says to you, "You need to stop that. You need to change that. You need to start doing that differently. Hey, I'm talking to you, are you listening to me?"

That's what the word of God does in your mind, in your heart, in your soul, at the deepest recesses of who you are. I've had people bring friends to BRAVE Church and it's the first time they've ever been in a church, and they leave the church and they'll say to the friend, "Did you tell that pastor about me? Because he was like telling me everything about me that only you knew." No, that's the word of God. That's the Holy Spirit. That's where he comes in and he convicts us. That's why the word of God is so powerful. It makes judgments on how we're living.

And notice verse 13, maybe the scariest verse in the entire New Testament or certainly a contender, "And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, or with the eyes of him of whom we're going to give an account." So no creature, not you, not me. No creature is hidden. What does that mean? You can't hide from God. Do you remember when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, what they tried to do? They tried to play the first game of hide and go seek, and it didn't go very well. Friends, you cannot hide from God. You can be sure your sin will find you out.

God not only knows everything you've done, he knows all the motivations with why you've done it. He knows your true heart, he knows your true self. He knows everything about you. And notice what it says, "All things are open and laid bare." Open literally means naked. Some of us don't like going to the doctor or the hospital because they make you wear that gown that doesn't even cover yourself up and it's embarrassing. And it's like, you put yourself under the covers, because in case you have guests, you don't want to be seen. What is it going to be like when you're laid naked before the Lord, so to speak, metaphorically, when all of your sin and all of your life is completely known by him? That's what it means to be open before the Lord.

And you know what laid bare means? It means this. I was doing a study on this word and it terrified me this week. It's a wrestling term. It means to take by the throat. Have you ever seen a wrestler get somebody up under the neck like that. That's what it to be laid bare. Can you imagine being naked and laid bare like that? Another definition said it's to have the neck of a sacrificial victim twisted and thus exposed for slaughter. It means to have one's neck bent back so that the throat gapes when cut. You'll be totally exposed. Now, some of you don't have the right picture of Jesus. You picture Jesus as this meek and mild little guy that walked around and kissed babies and did all that.

You need to read the book of Revelation, Revelation one, Revelation 19. Here's Jesus, eyes of fire, sword coming out of his mouth, all tatted up, king of kings, Lord of Lords coming in full authority to take the world that is going to be open and laid bare before him. It's this picture of him taking you by the throat and holding your neck up before almighty God saying, "He never believed in me. She never trusted in me. I came for them and they rejected me." That's the picture we see here. You say, "Well, why is this a big deal?" Because the truth of this message that I'm preaching to you will echo in your ears for all eternity.

If you're a believer and you know Jesus is Lord, here's what you're thinking in your heart, "This is awesome. I'm so glad there's a church that actually preaches the truth." Amen? But if you're not a believer, you probably golf clapped on that. Just to say, "I don't like this message. I don't like what I'm hearing. This message requires me to turn from my sin and turn to Jesus, and I don't know that I'm ready for that. Friend, you are ready for that. And here's the deal, when you come running to Jesus, he'll meet you because he'll come running towards you. He wants to forgive you of all of your sin. He wants to be the Lord of your life.

And he's a good Lord, and he's a good master, and he's the one who designed you with everything in you. And he's the one that can fulfill your deepest desires and hopes and dreams. And he's the one who can usher you into eternity with him forever and ever. He's the one that can give you that rest, that rest for your soul that you're just craving. It's in him and him alone. So I'm going back to my first question. Are you sure that you're saved? Because if you're not, one day you will stand before him. And as he has you by the throat, for those of you who don't believe, and you start going through your rehearsed speech about what you tried to do on this earth or how you weren't ready to make him Lord or how you were rejecting his Lordship and how that sounded really harsh.

He'll say, "Silence. Depart from me, you worker of inequity. I never knew you. Get out of here. You had your chance. I gave you the message. You wanted nothing to do with it." That's why I'm here to tell you today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Do not harden your heart. Make today the day of salvation. Now, here's why that's hard to do in church. Do you know why it's hard to do in church? Because there's some of you here who aren't saved, that you're afraid to respond to the gospel, because you'll say things like this in your head, "You need to get out of here right now because if you stand and respond, your mom's going to think you weren't saved all along, your spouse is going to realize you weren't saved, your coworker is going to realize you weren't saved."

To which I say, so what? You'll be so saved now. How awesome is it to know that God wants to save your soul? Some of you, God's been working on your heart this entire time, and you realize that whether out of ignorance or out of defiance, you don't have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Inglewood, what we put on the board, Jesus Christ is Lord. Is he your Lord? Is he your Lord? I'm giving you an opportunity today before we take communion to respond to him. He's been talking to you for about 50 minutes. There's some of you need to respond to him right now.

And I'm just going to ask you in all boldness right here right now, if today is the day of salvation for you and you want Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life and you're done playing games, would you just stand to your feet and recognize that God's been talking to you? Thank you. Thank you. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Now, as you're standing, just remain standing on both campuses or if you're in front of your television set, remain standing. If you're listening on radio, don't stand, if you're in your car, But here's what I want you to know, for those of you who heard of the Lord today and trusted him as your personal Lord and savior, don't ever let this moment get robbed from you.

Because for some of you, you'll leave this building or you'll leave Westminster and the enemy will say to you, "You've always believed that. It's never worked for you before." Now, today's different. Today, you heard the Lord and he's coming into your life, and he's going to be the Lord of your life from now and forever more. Amen? Amen. Thank you for standing. You may have a seat here.

Today, we're going to end by taking communion. If you're at home, you can begin to gather elements. Here, we have the elements in our hands. I want you, as you hear the song sung over here today, to think about all the Lord's forgiven in your life. For those of you've been a Christian for five minutes, for those who've been a Christian for 50 years, it's the same gospel, it's the same truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen? And he wants to do a work in you. So after the singing of this song, I'm going to come forward here and Pastor Justin's going to come in Westminster. We're going to take the elements together. And then we're going to have a little time of worship, just a short little time.

For those of you that stood today, I'd love to meet you. We'll have some of our elders and pastors down here just to pray over you. If there other needs that you want prayed for, we want to pray for you because we love you. God's doing a special work here. And I just want to tell you this, the Bible says there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 that do not need to. And I'm telling you right now, there's not only a celebration going on here, there's a celebration going on in heaven for your soul. And what the Bible says is, when you belong to Christ, no one can snatch you out of his hands, you're his. The decision that you made today by faith is going to echo in your ears for all eternity. Amen?

father in heaven, as we hear this song sung over us today, Lord, remind us of who we are in you. Lord, we thank you for the truth of your gospel. We thank you for your body and blood that was shed on Calvary. And Lord, right now we pray that you would do a work in our hearts as we hear this song sung. Father, I glorify your son, I glorify your name. We give you all the praise in Jesus. name. Amen and men. Can we get God just a little more praise this morning for what he's doing.