Welcome back to the Book of Hebrews. For those of you with us in the fall, we spent October and November in the Book of Hebrews, and we took a break in December for Advent. Then in January, we were in the Why series, and now we are back in Hebrews for the next several months. I’m very excited. Yesterday morning, Daniel and I spent about two and a half hours on Zoom and went through the Book of Hebrews and planned out the summer with Hebrews and our Psalm series. So we have our preaching schedule planned through August, and I am very excited. As I was looking ahead in some of the passages in Hebrews, thinking, oh man, I can’t wait to get to that one. Oh, I can’t wait. I want to get to that one. I want to get to that one. Oh man, we’ll get there. We’ll get there.

For those of you who were with us back on October 6th, our very first Sunday gathering together, by the way, that sermon is now available online. We have been in the process of getting our old sermons back. So we have several, not all of them, but several of our sermons are now available online. You can find them on our YouTube channel. Just search Horizon City Church on YouTube or go to our website. Scroll to the bottom, there’s a little YouTube icon. It’ll take you to our page. So the first two sermons of the Hebrew series are now online, and hopefully, we’ll get the rest up in the coming weeks here. 

So in the very first sermon back on October 6th, we looked at the opening verses of Hebrews chapter one. I began that sermon, if you remember those who were there, by quoting the lyrics from that well-known Journey song, Don’t Stop Believing. It’s a great theological resource. You know Journey, the rock band. So those of you who were there, you remember, I opened by quoting the lyrics from the song, and I talked about the overarching encouragement or exhortation from that song is don’t stop believing. That was the sentiment. Journey, the rock band, wants its audience to keep on believing.

Don’t let the belief stop. Well, that’s the writer of Hebrews’ exact same exhortation. The writer of Hebrews, whoever he happens to be. You guys know that I’m Team Luke, but you may not be Team Luke. I know Mike is Team Apollos. That’s fine. Well, we can debate that later. But whoever the writer of Hebrews happens to be, his sentiment is Don’t stop believing. That’s the goal. That’s what he wants. But as I noted back on October 6, the writer of Hebrews does something very different than the writer of the song. 

The rock band Journey, in the song Don’t Stop Believing, they make this incredible error. In the song, they never tell us what they want us to believe in. Don’t stop believing. I want to shout back, Stop believing in what? What is the object of the belief? Well, the writer of Hebrews is not bashful. He makes it very clear what the object of our belief ought to be. He makes it very clear what he wants us to believe in.

Or should I say who he wants us to believe in. Of course, it’s Jesus. The overarching message of the entire book of Hebrews is that Jesus is better, so don’t stop believing in Jesus. That’s it. That’s the exhortation. No matter what you compare Jesus to, Jesus is better than that, so you should keep on believing in him. That’s it. That’s the exhortation. Throughout the course of the early chapters of the Book of Hebrews, when we were traveling through in October, November, we see that in the earliest chapters, the earliest verses of chapter one, the writer of Hebrews makes the case that Jesus is divine, that he is the one through whom all things were created. He is the one who has received a particular privilege, a status from the Father. He’s unique in that way. 

So the writer is telling us, look to him. He is special. He is glorious. More than a dozen times throughout the Book of Hebrews, we are told to look to Jesus. Other times, we’re told to consider Jesus. We’re told to pay close attention to what we’ve heard about Jesus. That’s the message. That’s the focus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. That’s it. That’s the entire point of the book of Hebrews. He wants you to know Jesus is God. He’s the creator. He’s amazing. He is the one who stepped off his throne, became a human being, lived among us, experienced the human experience so that he could make purification for sins. 

After he had done that, after he had done what needed to be done to make purification of sin, namely die in our place and die and rise from the dead. After he had done that, he ascended to heaven, marched back into the throne room of God, and sat at the right hand of majesty. He has a privileged position. He is the Son of God. There is no one like him. He is better.

So don’t stop believing in him. That’s the writer of Hebrews. Throughout the course of the early chapters, he then begins to make specific points about Jesus. He begins to say Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is way better than the angels. There are certain things that God has said to his son Jesus that he never said to the angels. That’s what we see throughout the course of Hebrews chapter one. Then, as we travel into Hebrews chapter two, we see he’s saying that Jesus is the greatest human to have ever lived. 

Jesus takes on flesh and bones. He takes on human emotion. He experienced the array of the human experience, and yet he comes out on the other side having defeated death, sin, and the grave. He is tempted in every way, and yet without sin, he is triumphant. He’s the greatest human ever. He is truly human and truly God. He is the God man. He experiences everything we have experienced, and yet he still says no to sin. 

Then in chapter three, we see the writer of Hebrews begin to compare Jesus to Moses. Moses is loved and revered by the Jewish people, and it makes it clear that we love Moses. Moses is great, but Jesus is better. In chapter three, he makes this allusion. He sort of alludes to the fact that there’s going to be a New Covenant that’s established and that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. Later in Hebrews, he’ll spend a lot more time unpacking that.

As we went through chapter three, we see that the writer of Hebrews then begins to talk about a particular group of people who were a part of Israel’s history. There’s a group of people who were rescued from Egypt. The Jews had been under Egyptian tyranny for several hundreds of years. They were under Egyptian tyranny. God raises Moses up, and he rescues the Jewish people out of Egypt and takes them into the wilderness. They’re wandering around the wilderness, but because of their disobedience, they never enter into the promised land. 

The writer of Hebrews talks about the glory that would have been, and he uses the word rest. He said God had a rest set aside for the people of Israel, for the Jewish nation. They were to enter into the promised land and experience the rest that God has for them. But because of their disobedience and their lack of faith in God, God refuses to allow them to enter into that rest. They wandered around the desert wilderness for 40 years. The older generation die off, and their children grow up, and they would be the ones that God would then allow to go into the promised land.

But the older generation that came out of Egypt, they never entered into God’s rest because of their own disobedience, because of their own lack of faith. The writer of Hebrews is saying, Listen. They did not keep believing. God told them, Don’t stop believing. But they didn’t listen. They stopped believing in Him. They stopped being focused on him. The writer of Hebrews is saying in chapter three and into chapter four, Don’t be like them. God has a rest for us as well. We are in a desert, a wilderness, and God has set us on a trajectory to experience a glorious rest one day. 

The writer of Hebrews is saying, We want you to enter into that rest, so don’t stop believing. That’s the trajectory thus far. The first three and a half chapters of the Book of Hebrews. Like Kenny, that took you eight minutes. Why did you have to preach eight sermons? Then we come to Hebrews, chapter four, verse eleven. In light of all that he has told them, he gives them this exhortation. If you have your Bibles, look with me at Hebrews chapter 4, verse 11. He says this. 

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by some sort of disobedience.”

Because of all that we know about Jesus, let’s strive to enter into the rest that he has for us. Well, there is a glorious rest coming. A moment where we enter his presence and see him in all of his glory. Where we experience the kindness and love and mercy and joy of God in a profound way, far beyond anything that we’ve experienced thus far in this life. That we will experience his glory and his presence and his power in a way far grander than what we’ve seen thus far on this side of eternity. It will be a grand moment when we experience that. And when our souls enter into his presence, our souls will be at rest. I love the language he uses. rest. 

Now, we live in such an anxious world. So much busyness, difficulty. I don’t know about you, man. I know not every culture in the world is like this, but lots of cultures around the world are similar. The United States, we’re not unique in this fashion, but we have such a fast pace. Everyone is busy all the time. Everyone’s anxious. 

I feel like sometimes I talk to people, and the number of unread emails to have is like a badge of honor. So, I got 5,000 emails, I haven’t read. I’m so busy and we’re so anxious. I’m sort of a political junkie and so I used to listen to political talk radio a lot. So from about my early twenties, about 2003 up until about 2011, I listened for about an eight-year stretch. I would listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck and crazy Michael Medved and Michael Savage.

You know, these are these hot take far right wing. They’re not all far right wing necessarily, but I listen to a lot of guys. I just remember how angry I was all the time. I was just angry. It got me anxious. I remember the moment when I just said, I’m just gonna stop watching the news. I went through like a five-year stretch where I was really ignorant of the news. I’ll tell you, I was just way more peaceful. Maybe I was a worse citizen of our country, I don’t know.

I was just way more joyful. Over the last few years, as I’ve kind of reintroduced some political talk radio and things of that nature, I’ve reintroduced some stuff, but I try to limit it in my life. I try to limit how much I listen to because it’s just so anxiety-inducing. It just is. We live in a society that cultivates anxieties and frustrations and worries, the need to keep up. It’s exhausting. 

You add to that our own battles with sin, my battles with sin, daily fighting my own gross desires to sin, my own prideful selfishness, constantly looking in the mirror and realizing I’m not the husband and father and man and pastor and leader and friend and neighbor that I ought to be. I regularly feel this civil war going on inside of me, and it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting. So I look forward to the moment where I step into glory, and we will experience his rest. What a glorious promise. I love that imagery.

The rest that he has waiting for me. So he says, let’s strive in this life to ensure we enter that rest. Let’s do whatever needs to be done to ensure that we keep on believing so that we enter that rest. Now, just in case you’re tempted to ignore his exhortation, just in case you want to, you go, ah, I don’t really want to strive that much, I don’t really want to do all that needs to be done to ensure I enter that rest. Just in case you think, well, Kenny, you’re exaggerating. It’s not going to be, you know, it’s not going to be that great.

I don’t know if you’re, if you’re tempted to think that the writer of Hebrews follows this. He follows up the exhortation with a reason as to why you ought to take the exhortation seriously. So he tells us in verse 11, Strive to enter the rest. Then he says this in verse 12, Here is the reason why we should take this exhortation, this challenge, seriously. He says this in verse 12: 

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” 

Why should you take this challenge seriously, to strive to enter his rest? Why? Because the word of God is living and active. That’s what he says. Now, at first, it may not make sense. Wait a minute. What’s the reason why I should take your challenge seriously? Because the word of God is living and active. At first glance, that might be a little bit confusing. But remember, up to this point in the book of Hebrews, for the first three and a half chapters, he has been utilizing the Old Testament extensively. He quotes over and over again throughout the first three and a half chapters; he’s quoting extensively from the Psalms, but also from some prophets, and from Exodus.

So he’s quoting from the Old Testament, and he’s basically implying that this exhortation I’m giving, this challenge to enter into his rest, to strive. I didn’t come up with this on my own. This wasn’t random, it wasn’t arbitrary. I got this exhortation based on what I’ve seen in the scriptures that I’ve been sharing with you all along. Listen, I’m challenging you to do something that I learned from the Scriptures. So if you’re tempted to ignore the challenge I’m giving you, you’re not ignoring me. 

You’re ignoring the scriptures. They are living and active. So you don’t want to ignore them. That’s the sentiment on display here. Strive to enter his rest. Why would you want to do that? Because the word of God is living and active. He got this idea from the Scriptures. Now, when you study this particular verse in Hebrews chapter 4, in the Greek, when you look at the original Greek text, the structure seems to be what a lot of scholars say is that the main description for the word of God being given here is living and active. 

Then the other clauses we see after that are simply unpacking how the word of God is living and active. So the writer is saying the word of God is living and active. Let me show you in what ways it’s living and active. That’s the rest of what we see in that verse. The description is that it’s a two-edged sword, that it’s piercing between division of soul and spirit, that it divides between joints and marrow, that it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The word that we use there, the phrase in the Greek for the two-edged sword, basically imagine a piece of metal that’s the sharpest metal you’ve ever been in contact with. You know, it’s so razor thin that if you barely touch it, you’ll cut open your finger. That’s the imagery he’s giving there. Also, we think of ‘sword’ like a big army sword or a big warrior sword. That’s actually not the language in the original Greek. It’s more like a dagger or a scalpel. That’s how the word is most often used. In the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. In the Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

In the book of Joshua, this exact Greek word is used, and this is the tool that is used to do circumcisions. So they’re not using swords to do circumcisions. If you think about the tool that would be needed for circumcision, very precise, razor sharp, right? That’s the language there. This word was regularly used in the first century by medical doctors, like maybe a guy named Luke. I don’t know. That’s a different conversation. We can, we’ll come back to that. A different day.

Yesterday, Daniel sent me a text message. He said, hashtag keep Hebrews anonymous again or hashtag make Hebrews anonymous again. Anyway, the idea that the writer of Hebrews is giving us is that the word of God cuts right to the place where it needs to cut. It’s razor sharp, it’s precise, it’s detailed. It’s not random. It’s not really chopping, it goes right to it. It divides between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It is sharp and it goes right to the place where it needs to go.

Then the last phrase he gives us in verse 12, the last part of verse 12, he says this, 

“The word of God it judges the thoughts, intentions of the heart.”

It judges the thoughts and ideas rolling around in your mind. It judges the desires that are cultivated in your heart. Imagine you’re in a courtroom, and you walk into the courtroom, and all of your thoughts and ideas and all of your heart’s desires and intentions and motivations, everything is pulled out on display. The judge stands before you and says, We’re going to judge all of your ideas and intentions by this rubric over here, this standard. 

It’s God’s Word. That’s the standard by which we are measured and judged. So God’s going to take your thoughts, your ideas, and measure them to his thoughts and ideas in His Word. And he’s going to see where they match. Where they don’t match, it’s going to highlight that you are wrong. God’s heart, God’s intentions, and God’s moral inclinations are on display in the Word of God, in the Scriptures. God’s going to take your desires, your inclinations, your intentions, and he’s going to measure them and go, yours don’t match mine. 

Friends, when we don’t match God, it is not God who is wrong. When we disagree with God, it is not God who is in error. The Word of God is the standard by which we will be measured and judged. It is powerful. It is living and active. Listen, here’s how God talks about his own word. The prophet Isaiah says this. Sarah read it to us a little bit ago. Isaiah 55:11 says this, (God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah.),

“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty. It shall accomplish that which I purpose.” 

What a great word. It shall accomplish what God has purposed. One of the doctrines that modern evangelicals hold to dearly is the doctrine of infallibility. That the Word of God is incapable of failing. It does not fail in any way. It will always accomplish that which God has designed for it to accomplish. We believe the Bible is inerrant. We hold to the doctrine of inerrancy, that the Bible is without error, that whatever the Bible seeks to communicate is always accurate, true. We can trust the veracity of the Scriptures, Jesus says this. In Matthew 24, Jesus said this.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” 

Heaven and earth, they’re going to pass away. There’ll be a new heaven and a new earth. But my words, they will never pass away. That is remarkable. I remember when I first came to faith back in 1996. My youth pastor, Rob, would regularly say to us, There are only three things that last forever. God, the word of God, and the souls of men. He would say it all the time. There are only three things that last forever. Live your life accordingly. He would say that to us. The Apostle Paul says this to his protégé. 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. The apostle Paul speaking, 

“All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.” 

All scripture is breathed out from God. Scripture contains the divine exhalings of a Holy God. Scripture, the words of Scripture, are the divine exhalings of a Holy, Almighty God. And then it says, Paul tells Timothy, 

“These scriptures, they are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” 

The Scriptures are useful. The sentiment I’ll display in Hebrews 4, the writer of Hebrews is saying, I’m giving you an exhortation. I got this exhortation from the Scriptures. If you are tempted to ignore this exhortation, you are flirting with something different, dangerous. Because the Scriptures are living and active. When we examine the Scriptures, they have the ability to cut us in a good way. It may hurt. We may feel exposed. We may have our feelings hurt. Or we may be offended.

We may have our modern sensibilities shocked. We may feel dumb because we realize how wrong we’ve been or how stubborn we’ve been. But these are all good things. It is good to be cut by God’s word, to allow that scalpel to cut away the dross, the things that get in the way. This is why we preach every week. This is why preaching from God’s word is powerful. The preaching event is valuable. We live in this weird, egalitarian society where that guy up there, who is he to say he knows anything?

I don’t know anything other than this. This right here. This is all I have to offer you. This is why we get up. We proclaim this each week. Acts, chapter 2, verse 37. Right after the apostle Peter preaches this great sermon on the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 2, verse 37, it says this: 

“Now, when they heard this, (the sermon that Peter preached) Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?”

What a response. They hear the word of God preached, they hear a sermon from Peter, and they are cut to the heart. The response is, What do we do? You’ve cut us now, what do we do? How do we live in light of this? That’s the right response to the preaching of God’s Word. We live in a society, though, where people want to respond to preaching by saying things like, Did God really say that? Is that really what he said? Be careful, if you ever respond to God’s Word with, Is that really what it says? Because it’s exactly what Satan said in the garden. You want to be careful that we don’t respond the way Satan responds to God’s word. Want to be very careful. 

That doesn’t mean there’s not an opportunity to have a conversation. If someone has talked about the Bible and you think maybe they’ve misunderstood it, it’s perfectly appropriate to sit down and have a dialogue about that. It’s totally appropriate. But when we know that God has spoken on something, our response should be, What do we do about it? God, how do I change my life to be in line with you and what you’ve called us to be? I fall back to the last 90 days of my life. Just back to early November. The conversations I’ve had with people questioning things in the Bible. 

In the last 90 days, I’ve had someone say to me, I don’t really know about LGBT issues. Someone questioned me on sexuality. Is it really that bad if two men want to have a relationship? Like, love is love? I had someone say that to me recently. I want to be kind. We want to be loving to those who are wrestling with sexuality. Absolutely. But we want to stand very clearly for what we believe to be true. Yes, we believe that. We believe that God has a particular order for sexuality. Absolutely. I’ve been questioned on the statements I’ve made about abortion. People have said, Is it really that bad? Well, yes, I do think it’s really that bad because of what the scripture says. I’m not making this up. I’m not getting it on my own.

You’re welcome to ignore me, but I would challenge you. Don’t ignore what the scripture says. I was questioned not long ago on the role of the church. Someone on social media said something like, You know, the primary purpose of a church is to do charitable things in a community. Well, charitable things in the community are good. We should do some of those things. Absolutely. That’s not the primary role of a local church. No, it’s not. They’re like, well, how do you know that?

Well, because, like, I’m looking at what the Bible says, and the person was like, well, I don’t know that that book was written 2,000 years ago. We need to get up with the times. No, I don’t need to get up with the times. I trust that this book is inerrant, infallible, and the Word of God sufficient for all times. I had someone question me about excommunication. I can’t believe a church would kick someone out. And I go, well, the Bible. She goes, I can’t imagine any Christian would do that. I said, well, First Corinthians 5 and Matthew 18. There are some things in the Bible. She’s like, that’s not in the Bible. Yes, it is. And she read it. She thought, Oh, wait a minute, that can’t be right. She had an opinion, an idea that churches would never discipline a member.

But the Bible says that’s right and actually, good. Now there’s a wrong way to do it. Certainly. There have certainly been churches that have done it in a way that is abusive or unnecessarily judgmental. Certainly, there’s a wrong way to do it. But just because some churches do it wrong doesn’t mean we ignore the commands of Scripture for us to do it right. 

So sometimes we have these ideas, we have concepts rolling on our minds, we have intentions of our heart, and we want to measure them against what the word of God says. The word of God is a judge, a scalpel, cutting right to the moment, coming right to the part of our heart that needs to be judged. I had someone recently who professes to be a Christian who says they don’t think it’s a big deal for men to look at pornography on the side. You can look, but don’t touch is what he told me.

Are you out of your mind? Let me see what the word of God says. Let me show you what the word of God says. He’s like, I don’t know. Is it really realistic that a guy’s not going to do anything? Well, yeah, it is. I’ve been married for five years. I’ve never done anything outside of my marriage. Yes, it is realistic. I know lots of men for decades who have been faithful to their brides. Absolutely. The word of God demands that of us. The power of God enables us to walk that out. Hey, man, this thing is going to judge you, brother.

So I told him, in every case, when I’m having a conversation with someone, when someone disagrees with me, what I want to do is I want to make it very clear, you’re not disagreeing with me. You’re disagreeing with what the Bible says. I want to come back with what the Word of God says. If there’s an opportunity for interpretation, maybe there’s a passage of scripture where we might not interpret it exactly the same, I want to be honest about that and say, hey, you know what? I want to be careful that I don’t come down too hard and say, thus saith the Lord. If there’s maybe some way to maybe look at this passage. 

But the reality is there are very few passages of scripture where there’s not some clear exhortation that we can say, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. When God says it, I don’t give a rip what anyone says. If you disobey, you are at risk of not entering the rest. So do not disobey. The writer of Hebrews would tell us, Do not disobey. 

Then in verse 13, he follows up with this. Just in case anyone is tempted to think they’re going to escape the judgment of God. He wants to make it very clear, right? So his sentiment is to strive to enter the rest. Why? Because the word of God is living and active. It’s going to bring judgment to you. Just in case you think you’re going to escape judgment, just think you’re going to escape standing before God and being judged. Look what he says in verse 13, 

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

What a great verse. This is not a verse you see on a coffee mug often, right? There is no creature, no, not one person, not one creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, the one to whom we must give account. The Word of God is living and active. It has given us exhortations. I implore you, I challenge you, I encourage you. Obey what he has commanded. Look forward to the rest that he has for you.

Two last quick thoughts. One, I’m going to give you a cliffhanger. The other, I’ll give you all the final thoughts. So, cliffhanger is this: Some people may ask Kenny, Are you saying that we have to obey and earn our way into that rest? Is that what the writer of Hebrews is saying? That’s not what he’s saying. We believe on him, and he empowers us to continue believing and enter into that rest. Later in the Book of Hebrews, he will talk more about that. Sometimes people will argue it’s possible for someone to be a genuine Christian and then choose to disobey God, and then lose their salvation. Some people have used the Book of Hebrews to make that case and say, Are you saying that people can lose their salvation? I promise, three weeks from today, God willing, we will tackle that head-on when we get to Hebrews chapter six.

Spoiler alert. No, I do not believe that Christians can lose their salvation. I do not believe that. I think that’s potentially a misunderstanding. I understand why people say that. I get it. I don’t think that’s what the Bible teaches. I promise that in three weeks, we will get to Hebrews 6 and we will deal with that head-on. I’m excited. I was, like, tempted to skip to it today anyway. But we’ll get there. In three weeks, we’ll get there.

Once we come to faith in Christ. I do believe that if you are a Christian, a genuine believer, you will remain with him forever. I believe that. Okay. But that doesn’t mean we also ignore the exhortations we have in this life. The exhortation to you is, do not disobey. Keep on believing so that you will enter that rest. What we don’t want to do is, well, I already believed once, so I’m fine. No, no, no. I’ve already believed once, and because I believe on Him, I want to obey the command to keep on believing. Because I believe on Him, I want to obey all the things that he has in His Word because I believe on Him. I want him to judge my ideas, my thoughts, my intentions, and I want him to root those things out of me that are not of him, because I believe in Him. I want God’s Word to work in my life. I know that His Word will be the means of him drawing me into that great rest that we will enjoy forever and ever. So we’ll get to Hebrews 6 in a few weeks. 

Last thought this morning, last thought I have for you this: When I think about the Scriptures, God’s revelation to us in His Word, I can’t help but pause and ask myself, Why do the Scriptures exist? Why did God give us the Bible? Why are these words from God? Why did he give us these? There are probably several reasons. We could go around the room, and we could probably come up with a long list of reasons as to why God gave us the Bible, and lots of good reasons. But there’s one reason that, I don’t know if it’s the greatest reason, but it’s my favorite reason of all the reasons. God gave us the Scriptures to tell us that he is knowable, that he wants to be known. 

He wouldn’t have given us this book and invited us to read it, to consume it, to listen to it if he didn’t want us to know Him. The God of the universe, who was far. Who seems far away to so many people, seems unknowable and confusing and mysterious, that God says to you, No, no, you can know me, and I want you to be known. I want to be known by you. The Scriptures exist. The Word of God exists because the very existence of the Word of God shouts to us that intimacy with the Almighty is possible.

That is an unbelievable reality. God, the God of the universe, who is Holy and good, who would have been well within his rights to cast all of us into hell, every single one of us. Because of our sin, we deserve the full wrath of God. He was under no obligation to save us. There’s no cosmic law that says Jesus had to come to Earth to make purification for sins. He chose to do that because he loves us.

Then he gave us His Word, revealed to us in the pages of Scripture. Revealing his ways, revealing himself, revealing his character, his attributes, his thoughts, his intentions, so that we can know him. Revealing to us how we can receive mercy. Mercy. Several months ago, I had a conversation with a woman whom I met at a coffee shop. She said to me, I told her we were launching a new church. She said, maybe, I’ll come and check it out. So she called me on the phone the next day and said, Pastor, I have a question for you. I could hear her voice break.

And she said, 30 years ago, I actually had an abortion. I could hear the heartbreak in her voice. She said, Do you think God really forgives? Do you think God will ever really forgive me for the choice I’ve made? Do you think God will forgive me? And I said to her, You say you’re a believer. Yes, I believe. Can I read to you? From Romans, chapter 8, the verse that Daniel read for us this morning, assurance of pardon. 

“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 

I said yes. The God of the universe will forgive. He forgives. As we sang a moment ago, our sins they are many. His mercy is more. We are great sinners. He is a greater Savior. We would not know that without the Scriptures he reveals to us in the pages of Scripture. The words of God reveal to us, shout to us that the Holy God has made a way, that he has made purification for sins, that he is better than anything else or anyone else, that he is worthy of our love. We are sinners by nature, and by choice, we betrayed him.

We deserve the full wrath of God. But God, who is rich and mercy abounding in steadfast love, intervenes in the human story and makes a way for us to be saved through faith in Jesus. All of that truth is revealed in the pages of Scripture. Without Scripture, we would not know those things. We would have no hope. We would not know. We would know that our sins are many, but we would not know that his mercy is more. We would know that we are great sinners. But we would not know that he is an even greater Savior. 

We would know that we are worthy of condemnation. But we would not know that in Christ there is no longer any condemnation. The very existence of this living and active word shouts to us that he is merciful, that he is knowable, that he invites you to come and to know Him. The Scriptures tell us that Christ has done what needed to be done so that we can be reconciled to God, so that we can enter into his rest forever and ever and ever. 

That’s why each week we take communion. Each week we come to the Lord’s table, we pause, and we take juice, wine, and some bread. We remember what Christ has done on our behalf. If you are here this morning and you are a follower of Jesus, we invite you to take communion with us this morning. If you would say, Kenny, I’m a genuine follower. I’m all in on Jesus. If that’s you, we would love to invite you to come and take communion with us this morning. 

If you are here, though, and you would say, I’m not sure I’m really all in on Jesus. I’m not really sure if I’m really committed to Him. If that’s you, I’m glad you’re here. But I would ask you not to take communion with us this morning. Communion is for believers. The baskets will come. If that’s you. If you’re not a Christian, if you’re not all in on Jesus, when the baskets come, just let the basket pass. But don’t let the moment pass. Instead of taking communion with us this morning, I implore you, look to Christ this morning. Take him on for the first time.

If you have any questions about what that means, what that looks like, I’d love to talk to you about that after the service. I’d love to have a conversation with you. But for those of us who follow Jesus, for those of us who love him, who have placed our faith in him, for those of us who know that he is better, for those of us striving to enter into that rest this morning, I invite you to remember what Christ has done for you in communion with us this morning. 

As a reminder, we have two options. We have juice, gluten-free bread, and we have wine. Real wine. Gluten-free bread. The W is the real wine, the other is juice. Grab whichever one you want as the baskets come. Grab. Which one’s your preference? Hold it. I’ll come back and lead us in a moment. Let’s remember Christ together. Leon and Daniel, Brothers, come. Let’s serve God’s people together.