Revelation 7:9 Part 1
We are in the middle of a series right now called Omega. It is a study on the Book of Revelation, and so if you have your Bibles, go ahead and pull those out. Turn with me to Revelation Chapter seven. We’re going to start looking at verse number nine and we’ll cover just one verse today. Revelation Chapter seven Verse number nine Book of Revelation is written by the human author The Apostle John. He’s in exile on the island of Patmos, under harsh persecution from the Roman government for being a follower of Jesus. He is visited by a messenger or an angel, sent with a direct revelation by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he writes the Book of Revelation. Based on that, in addition to turning the revelation seven nine, I’m going to ask you one more time if you would rise and stand in honor of God’s word for our initial and primary reading of it today. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, you may be seated. Much has been made to do about what heaven is like. Entire books have been written about it. If you want to know what heaven is like, all you have to do is meditate on this one verse. This one verse shows us that there are be multitudes of people from every tribe, every tongue, every language that have found salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are there in their white robes, indicating that they are righteous because of the Lord Jesus. Imputing his righteousness to them, they have palm branches in their hand. This symbolizes that this is a celebration. It’s a party. This is not a Super Bowl party. This is not a birthday party. This is not a gender reveal party. It’s not an anniversary party. This is a salvation party. These individuals now know the depth of just how far Jesus had to go to save us. These individuals now know what it feels like to share in the glory of Christ Jesus and share in the glory of heaven. Their vision has been cleared. Everything that used to distort what they could see is now out of the way. They see things for how they really are. They see how bad it was under sin’s domain and now they see how good it is and holiness and God’s domain. These saints, these multitudes, they’re no longer with any sort of pain. They’re no longer with any sort of disease. They no longer have any reason to fear. They no longer have any tears. They are right. They are reigning with Christ eternally. This is the most sacred and amazing reunion of all time, this is the body of Christ come together in unity in heaven. As I was meditating on this verse of myself, I had a thought that welled up deep with inside me, something that I wrestled with that I couldn’t quite let go of. And that was this thought. I want all my friends, all my family, all the people that I know. To be in this multitude someday. I really, really do. I’m careful to say this, but I really felt like the Lord knocked on the door of my heart at that moment and said, Josh, what about your enemies to? And I was like, you know what? Yeah, them to. Even the people that I really don’t like. I want them to be there to. Because if they’re not there, they’re in this place called hell, Sheol this place that has been designed for the wicked, for a punishment for sin, for all eternity. I began to think about this place called hell. Not something that I like to do often, but it’s something that’s necessary. A literal place is not a metaphor, not a metaphorical place. But a literal place reserved for humanity that has sin, which is all of us. But it’s a place that’s escapable by the mercy of God, by putting your faith into Jesus Christ, putting your faith in Jesus. Hell is not a party? It’s not funny. It’s not a joke, it’s not a myth, and it’s not symbolic. It’s real. Matthew Chapter 25, verse 41 Then he will say to those on his left depart for me, you curse the into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So the same place that has been developed for the most heinous creature in the entire world will be the same place that all sinners will go to the find themselves not forgiven by Jesus Christ. Matthew, eight, 12, while the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Such great pain that you will gnash your teeth, the will, the insides of your mouth will explode from the pain. Now, how can a place to be so full of fire and darkness at the same time? Well, may God designed and made fire. Maybe he can make dark fire. Right, revelation, 20 10 in the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of Fire and sulfur, where the Beast and the false prophet were and they were, they will be tormented day and night forever and ever think about this for a second. One of the the almost inconceivable things about this place called hell is that there is no relief. There is no end. There is no part where there is an escape. The revelation 20:15, and if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire. How did you get your name written in the Book of Life? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That’s how you get your name in the Book of Life. The Bible describes Hell is a place where the worm. Now I don’t say this word, right? W o r m worm. There we go. Worm does not die. The flames are unquenchable, the appetite of darkness is never satisfied. Jesus made a few references and comparisons to shows how bad this place really is and the most memorable, and it’s one in the gospel of Mark. This is what he says a mark chapter nine, verse 43 and if your hand causes you to cut it off. It Is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go into hell to the unquenchable fire? That’s not hyperbole. Now he’s not saying go cut your hand off if it causes you to sin. But he is really casting this realistic vision of just how horrible it is to go to hell. And as simple as our anger can become, I’m not sure that anyone, if they truly knew the true revelation of what hell is like. Would wish this upon their greatest enemy. If so, I don’t think we have an accurate enough of a picture of hell, a place that this tournament will never end. I feel so compelled that my sole purpose is to ensure that all of you understand the desperation of the understanding the urgency of this message. I have great concern over the Christian culture right now in the sense that there’s this huge movement of deconstructing, there’s a lot of people that are coming out saying, I am deconstructing reconsidering my faith. Many of them who have already renounced their faith in Christ, at which point in time they thought it was used to be real. I have a great concern over the mass exodus from the church over all this COVID stuff and. I think there is pastors still waiting on people to come back, and I don’t think they’re coming back. What is going on? So what I want to do today is own a branch off revelation chapter seven, verse nine into a parable found in Matthew Chapter 13 it’s going to paint a picture of where we need to go. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and flip over with me to Matthew Chapter 13, we’re going to start reading in verse number three. This is the parable of the sower. Parable of the Sower Matthew Chapter 13, verse three. And he told them many things in parables saying a sewer went out to sow and as he sowed some seeds, fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them, other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up. Since they had no depth of soil, but when the Sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns in the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some 100 fold. Some 60. Some 30. He who has ears, let them hear. Then he goes on with this discourse for a little bit, sort of explaining why he speaks in parables now. Today, unless you’re a farmer by trade or you have any experience in this, this might be hard to sort of conceptualize. But it wouldn’t have been in that day in this time in history would have been easy. And it’s likely, as Jesus often did, it’s likely. But we don’t know for sure that he was actually telling this parable with the scenery of farmland around him, with farmers throwing seed bag over their shoulder and dispersing it on the ground. See, we live in a very industrialized, commercialized world, but a first century often to get from one place to another, you had to travel through farmers’ fields. One farmer would create a path on one side, the farmer on the other side would create a path on his side. The two paths combined would be your walking trail and in order to get from Place A to B to get to the marketplace or get to the well instead of having streets to travel everywhere you went, you took paths, sometimes through these fields. So every now and again, the farmers didn’t mean to because I knew it wouldn’t reap the harvest as they were scattering seeds of the seed would fall onto this path of this trampled, flattened down hard soil. So we’re going to step down to verse 18, this is where he actually explains the parable after his discourse of explaining why he teaches in parables to give you a little bit of context. Most of the crowd has already left. When he spoke in parables, the people got frustrated. They didn’t understand what he was saying, and they turned around and left. And then, he explained, he speaks in parables because those who have rejected the message. They’re going to walk away anyway. And then he begins to explain in verse 18 here, then the parable of the sower when, the parable of the solar. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand that the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and proves and fruitful. As for what is sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case, a 100 fold and another 60 and in another 30. So why is this text important for us to understand what’s important? Because first of all, it’s the word of God, and we need to understand and study and dig into every part of the word of God. It’s all useful for teaching correction and rebuke. But it’s also important because every single one of us falls into one of these four soil categories that’s explained in this parable. Every single one of us now before we dive into what this means, we need to look at the examples and what some of the pieces of the story mean. If we read the parallel accounts of this parable found and the other two, synoptic Gospels, the gospel mark and Luke, they’re called synoptic because they’re all very similar. Matthew, Mark and Luke. If we read the other accounts of this, here’s what we can deduce. The elements of the story are the seed is the word of God that’s been deposited. The planter is either the Lord Jesus himself or it could be an evangelist, it could be not evangelists like Billy Graham, but like an evangelist, as in a believer in Christ, it is preaching or telling someone about Jesus. OK, that’s really all of us should be. OK. It’s either the Lord Jesus or it’s an evangelist, either way doesn’t matter, the seed is being planted. We see in another text that it says that one plans one waters and God is the one that makes it grow, so I’m of the mind that the planter is a disciple of Christ speaking the word of God. The soil is no doubt the condition of the heart of the hearer of the word of God. This being deposited. There’s four different examples of types of soil. Each year, a different response, a different reaction, a different type of harvest, a different type of crop from the planting of the seeds, so I want to cover the first one first. Verse 19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. So the first type of soil is the path that we’re talking about, the same path that we talked about earlier, that’s being trampled and walked upon, some of the seed will be thrown onto the path in this way. This is representative of the unresponsive hearer, the one who hears the word of God and does not respond. Now, in this particular example, it references a person that hears the word of God, the gospel of Jesus, and immediately doesn’t understand it. Now, the lack of understanding here in the text to understand it properly does not mean an intellectual ignorance. It doesn’t mean that they just didn’t get it. It comes from a willful rejection. The word understand in the original language of the New Testament, which is Greek, is seinimei. Seinimei can be rendered as both the word understand and the word consider in modern English terms. So even though the English standard version, which we’re reading reading from today renders it as understand, it could very easily be rendered like this when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not consider it. Now, if you’re a parent or you’ve ever babysat or you have nieces or nephews. You’ve probably been exposed to this phenomenon that occurs in kiddos called willful ignorance. Heck, maybe you’ve talked to an adult that has exhibited these traits. Maybe you work with someone willful ignorance, willful decision to reject something or not even give it consideration to understand it. For whatever preemptive motive is, a motivation supplies the reasoning behind it. There’s plenty of things that can exist in a person’s life to provide them an excuse to reject, willfully reject the gospel on the front end. First one’s doubt. How are you going to believe that Jesus is God, if you don’t actually believe that God is a thing that exists? Prejudice. Preconceived notions can block people from receiving the word of God. You can this can be developed by a lot of different criteria. Maybe they’ve been influenced by secular study. Maybe they’ve witnessed the acts of a person that claimed to be a Christian and rejected God on the basis of human failure. There’s a lot of things that can feed into this. Another possible way that people can reject the gospel on the front end stubbornness. How many of you are stubborn? Of course, you’re not going to raise your hand. You’re stubborn. Okay, I got two. When I called you out procrastination, why do today we can put off till tomorrow? Well, I put all the efforts to try to understand the gospel whenever you’re going to live 80 years and you can do it right before you die, right? Love of the world. Why would a person seek to gain hope beyond the world if they already love where they’re at and what they’re doing? Love of themselves who loves themselves, I just don’t love of sin. Why would I be looking to be forgiven? Why would I believe a story that causes me to repent? If I don’t actually believe that how I’m living, my life is wrong. People who fall into this category are often self-sufficient, self-satisfied and self-righteous. Self-sufficient, self-satisfied, self-righteous. These are some of the most dangerous dispositions and keeping people from receiving the gospel and considering it. Let’s talk about these for a moment. Self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency tells a person I don’t need anyone or anything else. I do me and I get by just fine. Anybody ever heard this, don’t raise your hand if I ever heard this or have said this right? That’s self-sufficiency. If someone doesn’t like the way I do me, they can just move along. They don’t need to be in my way. Self-sufficiency lies to a person makes them believe that their mental toughness and fortitude is all they need to get by in life this of course, works until it doesn’t. Often a person that developed this sort of mindset does so because of a hurt in their past where they were dependent on a relationship where that person failed them. And so they’ve determined that they’re not going to make that same mistake again. I’m going to be self-sufficient. The problem is, is the God designed us to be sufficient dependent upon him. And him being being are all sufficient and dependent on each other. Not any of us are entirely self-sufficient. Let me give you just some practical examples. Sure, I can work and do a job that cuts me a paycheck. Enables me to feed my family, but if my car breaks, I’m going to take it to a guy that knows what a carburetor is and how to spell it. I use spell check to type out carburetor in my sermon. It’s very sad. Well, I’m going to take it to a guy that even knows what a carburetor is. I know it like sits on top of the engine’s got flabby things. I’m not going to try to fix that. I know how to go to the grocery store and buy food, but I can’t butcher a cow and prepared me for safe consumption. You sure I’ll shoot it. I don’t know how to. You see, I’m self-sufficient until I’m not. As you can tell, I know how to put on a pair of pants. You’re welcome. But if you give me some material and some thread and some needle, you don’t want to see what I’m going to create out of that. It’s going to look horrendous. I can’t even iron something successfully. How am I going to make a pair of pants to wear? So see, I’m not. I’m self-sufficient until I’m not. I’m dependent on other people. For a lot of things. Self-sufficiency separates us from the gospel because it says I am all sufficient on my own. Whenever we are dependent upon Christ for really everything, you don’t have breath in your lungs, if it’s not for Christ, the next thing is self-satisfaction. Self-satisfaction is the pursuit of almost every citizen of the United States of America at some point in their lives. To satisfy their unquenchable desire for the pursuit of fame, money, conquests. You can see this in our society’s, draw to the tick tock and the Facebook and the Insta. The behavior modeling that individuals exhibit as they often sometimes unknowingly mimic the self-made famous people on these platforms, if you’ve ever been to a school event or maybe you’re blessed like me to have a teenage daughter and you’ve ever seen this? Just out in the middle of nowhere and you just look over and you think, Oh my gosh. Do you realize what you look like right now? OK? You know that they are being influenced by this with this type of weird gyration is not only fun, but if you get good enough at it, you can record yourself and put it on the tick tock in the Insta and that you’ll get likes and comments and stuff. What’s ironic about pursuing social media feedback, though, is that where there’s 99 percent positive responses, there’s always that risk for that one negative. And guess what, the feedback is that you’re going to pull away from that the most, the one negative. Now you have the perspective of a 13 year old boy who doesn’t wear deodorant every but every day can’t finish a sentence without a cultural reference to a video game, has a fast diet of Taco Bell and peanut butter sandwiches spells every common phrase as an acronym t y l and has slightly more facial hair than a ripe peach. His perspective as he sets as a hero behind the keyboard of his mom’s seven year old borrowed iPhone and punches send and says something mean now affects my daughter for the rest of her life. If. We’re looking to be gratified through those measures sort of forms this digital rat race where everyone is measuring their worth on social media metrics or from other people who are measuring their worth, they’re spending their time satisfying their boredom by entertaining themselves with other people’s recorded actions. I’m not saying social media is bad, I’m just saying how we can use it is very dangerous. The pursuit of self-satisfaction is dangerous in itself to somehow arrive at a place of achievement honor that satisfies this inward need of value and worth, which, by the way, will never truly be satisfied. Let’s say, though, for a moment, you’re actually satisfied. What happens when you get that job that you’ve always worked for, that salary you’ve always wanted? A little bit of complacency settles in and then you realize I’m even not satisfied with this. Celebrities and popular people have been given into drugs and immorality and petty thefts, and at worst sometimes ended their life because the satisfaction that they strived for in this world left them empty because that’s what this world does. Promises you satisfaction in yourself only to deliver darkness and emptiness at the end of that rainbow. Maybe these names will ring a bell. Dwayne The Rock Johnson, I’ve been told that me and him… Look, look a lot alike. So. So. Katy Perry. Michael Phelps. Bruce Springsteen. Johnny Depp. Jim Carrey. Chris Evans. Anne Hathaway. Harrison Ford. Star Wars people. Joseph Gordon, however, you say the lights on LaVette let at Liberty Adele. Famous people, rich people, influential people all have publicly admitted to depression. Some of them have tried to take action on the depression, they’ve ended up in hospitals, attempted suicides. There’s a clinical thing going on sometimes and sometimes it’s just that they’ve reached the end of their satisfaction and they still crave more. Some plum gave up and ran out of hope. Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain, Avicii, many, many more. Let’s not just talk about people in Hollywood, let’s talk about kids in our own backyard. Way too many in the last two, three years. While the world battles to answer our problems with psychology, I have no problem with that. I love good therapy, good psychology measures to help people get healthy. But treatment without Christ being placed is a central hope will leave a person unsatisfied. I am convinced that nothing on Earth will fully satisfy you outside of the love and the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ that he gives to those whom submit to his kingdom and that no matter what rainbow you’re chasing at the end of it, it will leave you empty unless it’s Christ Jesus and you don’t got to chase him, he chases you. Self-righteousness is one of the most dangerous. Probably the most dangerous of the three, most people would say that they’re not a perpetrator of this. This could be easily refuted by just walking around and asking people, do you think you’re going to heaven? Most would say yes, I found a video on YouTube of somebody doing this. This is a secular video. It’s a non-religious video. And so they’re just walking around asking simply for journalistic reasons. If people think they’re going to heaven or not, let’s watch it. That’s honestly a tough question, I think almost every faith has their Heaven. I think that I’m going to heaven because I believe in God, and I believe that Jesus died for our sins. In my opinion, I know it hasn’t been determined for me yet. Just cause I haven’t really lived very long. Yes, I’m a Catholic. I don’t think any of us can actually know until we die. Yes, I do believe I’m going to heaven. I grew up in the church. If you believe that you deserve to go to heaven in a way, if you believe you’re honest and good person, that you should. I do think I’m going to heaven because I believe in God. Well, I was raised Catholic, so I was raised that as long as you accept Jesus into your heart and you practice basically what you preach, then you go to heaven. Oh. Maybe not, because I just used Jesus name in vain. I’ve been saved and I’ve been baptized, and I’m going to try to go to church every week and read my Bible and stuff. I guess I believe in God, and I believe that like after life, he brings us to a better place and you get to be like reunited with your loved ones. I like that idea that it’s almost if God does love everyone, but all his daughters and sons should go to heaven. I can’t determine that. So personally, I don’t know if Heaven exist kind of hope it does. After my decision making lately, I might have some repenting to do, but I definitely think that I’m going to Heaven because I’m an overall good guy, good person, you know, have a good attitude and I believe in God and I go to church every once in a while. I haven’t really been to church in a while, but since I have accepted Jesus and I try to live by the Bible, you know, not sin as much and just spread the word about Jesus, then yes, I do feel like I’m going to heaven. I can’t judge myself in that way, so all I can do is act appropriately and do nice things for other people and try not to be like, perfectly honest. I don’t know if I’m going to heaven. I think maybe if I the rest of my life, I’m a good person. Maybe I don’t think this time of my life. Well, I don’t know. Maybe if I die tomorrow, I feel like it’s more complicated of a topic than people actually think. You know, as I was like, Oh, if you do the good things, you’re going to go to heaven. I don’t think it’s as easy as that. I don’t know. We’ll see. I think I’m doing. I’m pursuing a career in medicine, so I’m hopefully going to be helping others my whole life. So hopefully that that’ll do some good for me. I think that just, you know, doing good deeds and being a good person that, you know, yeah, I’ll probably end up in heaven. Hopefully, hopefully the big guys are watching this one right now, you know? There was only one true right answer. One person gave the right answer. I did the, I went to the trouble of collecting the answers for you out of all of the responses. Five of them were unknown. The comments were I haven’t lived long enough yet, can’t know until death. I’m not sure it exists, but I hope it does. I try my best to do nice things for other people and hope to get there. Maybe I’ll go if I’m a good person very centered around this moralistic thinking. The number of yeses were several. I think we’re up to 13 14. Jesus died for my sins. Well, that’s the one right answer. And the Catholic, I grew up in the church. Those things don’t give you salvation if you believe you deserve to go. That’s definitely not it. I believe in God. Remember, even the demons believe and they shudder. I was raised Catholic. I was. I’ve been saved and baptized. I’d be interested to know from that young man what he means by that. I liked the idea that we go to heaven because God loves everyone who doesn’t like that idea. I’m overall a good guy. I believe in God and go to church. I stopped sinning as much and stuff, and I as I think I’m going to heaven, I’m pursuing a career in medicine and helping others. Hopefully that will help me get in doing good deeds and being a good person. Yeah, hopefully again. And hopefully the big guy is watching this right now. Zero of them said conclusively, no. You ask people, do you think you’re going to heaven and they think they’re going on their merits? Who is the licensing their merits and calling them holy? They are. But God has declared our righteousness as filthy rags. Make no mistake about it, self-righteousness is one of the most dangerous of all sins, because you can’t tell a truly self-righteous person that they need someone to save them because they have already saved them selves. Unless the Holy Spirit softens there, the soil of their heart on the spot, which is the case for many. But it’s not the case for others. So what is God’s judgment for self-sustainable, self-sufficient, self-righteous individuals that reject Christ or the idea that they can earn their way into heaven? Well, Satan gets involved. This is the only soil where Satan gets involved, it says the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. The truth not only has nowhere to grow, but then the seat itself is stolen from the evil one. God’s judgment on the self-sufficient self-sustainable and self-righteous people are false teachers. If they won’t hear the truth, God will send agents under the influence of the evil one to propagate a false gospel or religion. And rather than tearing down as the real gospel does, their self-sustainability, their self-sufficiency and their self-righteousness, the real gospel tear those things down. Rather than tearing those things down, false teachers build those things up in people. Agents that abuse scriptures for the personal gain, all the while garnering and keeping their audience by feeding their insatiable egos. False teachers will slowly shift the mentality of their audience by deceiving them into thinking they’re self-sufficient, self-sustainable and self-righteous, but really, they then become dependent on the false teachers. You have to send me money for your income to go up. You have to send me money for the miracle of your hearing healing. You have to raise your hand and repeat this prayer. Congratulations now buy my book. Listen to our amazing music as we slip our false theology into it, make you feel super good about yourself. See if the truth. Is over here. If the truth is over here. But people outright reject that they are and sinners in need of a savior. And this this demands that we repent of our sin that we acknowledge our sin and repent of it. Then first, teachers. Sorry. I write, like a kindergartner. OK. False teachers will be over here that whenever they come over and they said, No, don’t like that message. Thin, yucky word repentance. Yucky word false teachers will be over here to coddle them. Oh, come on over to me. I will tell you how amazing you are. And I will tell you how to become a better version of yourself. And I will tell you all the things you are. All you have to do is put all of your paycheck into the basket when it passes. And those people there’s people walking out of big buildings and small buildings alike. They have the name church on the side of them, but they’re not a church. They’re walking out of these organizations. Their pockets are empty, their hearts are full. Their hearts are not full of the love and peace of Jesus Christ. Their hearts are full of themselves as they use God as a mechanism in their own personal scheme to feed the undying machine of self-sustainability, self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. And they’ll walk out believing the lie that I just need to become a better version of me. I don’t need to become a better version of me. You know what this world needs. It doesn’t need a better version of Josh, a more moralistic Josh. A better looking Josh. that’d be great, but I the world doesn’t need that. Well, the world needs is for Josh to die, so the Christ can rise up inside, obviously, because Josh can’t save a soul. Only Christ can save, and it’s only when I die to myself and I die to my flesh and I die to my self-sufficiency and I die to my self-righteousness, only then does Christ well up inside of me. The truth is proclaimed and the kingdom advances. That’s what the world needs out of me. They need to see Christ through me. Not a better version of Josh.. And he’s called us to die to ourselves. That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is is that God it being rich and mercy after us sinners rebelled, you understand that our sin was a rebellion to God. He created paradise for us and set us up to succeed and made one rule. And we turned around and said, forget you. I’m doing my own thing. I’m going to listen to the Serpent and I want to be God, too. I want to know the things that God knows. Eat the fruit. All downhill after that. And while we’re walking around thinking, Oh my sin, my sins. Not that big a deal because I don’t kill people and I don’t steal things. And we always have our list of things that we haven’t done that we use to justify. We’re a good person. Right? But the reality is is we’re horrible. Aren’t you glad you come to church this morning? OK? We’re horrible. Every one of the Ten Commandments we broken well I haven’t committed adultery, and Jesus comes along and says, Well, if you’ve looked at a woman of lust in your heart, you have in your heart. Well I haven’t murdered anybody, but if you if you if you have unforgiveness, hate toward your brother, you’ve done it in your heart. Have you lied? Have you blasphemed God, nope, haven’t done that one. Oh, use God’s name to your own benefit or said that he said something that he didn’t really say. I think I broke all of them. That’s the point. We need a savior and God being rich and mercy. He doesn’t say, forget you sinners. He sends his son in human flesh. Christ dies, endures the wrath of God for our punishment. Takes our place on the cross. Not just die in the most heinous deaths of all time, but absorbing the wrath of God that we were due do rises again from the dead and says for free. The ironic thing is, it’ll cost you everything but for free. You believe in me. You make me Lord and Savior. I’ll save you. And there will be an escape route from this place called hell that is due to every sinner. It’s a free gift. It’ll cost you everything. Because now you have to lay down your self-sufficiency. You have to lay down your self-sustainability and your self-righteousness, and you know us. Come on. I know me how many of, y’all. That’s hard stuff to let go of. It’s hard to say. I want to be important, and I want to do it my way. And God comes along and says Kingdom of God is important and you’re now going to do things my way. I want to be good, I want to be a good person. Everybody in this room, you would raise your hand, say, I want to be a good person. God comes along and says, Your righteousness is a filthy rags. But if you’ll die yourself and you’ll let the Holy Spirit reign, then it will produce good fruit, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And then men will see your works and then glorify God. We want to be good why, because we want to walk onto a podium and people parade us, oh, Nobel Peace Prize prize winner Josh, that we want the glory for ourselves. But when you die to yourself, you don’t get any of the credit. You know why? Because you did nothing. Die yourself so that Christ may reign. That’s the glory that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it will cost you everything. If you want to live a life of Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. You pick up. You’re not worthy to be a disciple unless you pick up your cross and follow after him. That’s the truth. That’s the truth. These guys are going to tell you everything you want to hear. They’re going to stop talking about sin. And where society is going this way, they’re going to go with that. I’m telling you, as we get closer and closer to the end times, it’s going to become more and more evident. These guys are going to tell you because they know that if they offend you, you will leave and you’ll take your money and you’re serving and your presence in their chairs that prove their value and worth with them. But the truth will set you free again. Truth will set you free. Let’s pray.