The Gospel of Our Great High Priest - March 1st, 2026

Father, we are very thankful that we're gathered here this morning to just hear the proclamation of your truths. Your word is indeed living and active. It cuts deeply, it divides all the way to our motivations and our intentions. And though it may not always leave us feeling good, it fills us, it satisfies us, and it points us to Christ. So we thank you. So as we hear your words, give us hearts that are tender, minds that are fully engaged and alert, and Lord, um hands that are eager to apply and to build your church and to serve and to minister to the lost that need to hear that you are a good God. So we pray for your help, that this time would be a time of much edification, where your name is lifted up, high and exalted and mighty, and we pray for just your blessings and provision and protection over our time together.

We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. So in our day, there's um a bit of confusion about the word gospel. So what is the gospel? And a definition like the following may be kind of coming together in your heads. It is the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. But what makes the retelling of the entrance of a man into the world news that is good? What makes the gospel truly good news and not just religious information? What is the gospel? If it remains just religious information, it doesn't change us, right? And we see a lot of uh people living outside of the power of the gospel because it isn't good news. So what is the gospel? And that is a very important question upon which everything hinges.

Many movements have come and gone in the church over the years, and about 20 years ago, there was a movement called the gospel-centered movement, and it sounds great. And in the movement, there was a popular Christian phrase spoken and heard uh often just among church people preach the gospel to yourself every day. And it was catchy, and many around me were saying it. Preach the gospel to yourself every day, and it sounds nice, and it sounds correct, and it was catchy enough to become a cliche. And many preachers and many churches at that time they ran with this cliche. Now, in the simple hearing of it, I did not disagree with this cliche. If anything, I wholeheartedly would endorse this cliche, but it did beg the question what would be the content of that gospel that people will be preaching to themselves?

Was there an objective standard gospel? Or was it kind of to each his own? Was a Christian free to preach whatever gospel made him happiest and left him feeling the most comforted and encouraged? So is the gospel the good news that no matter what evil you do, God would accept you? So you should never live with guilt? Is it news that since Christ has done away with sin on the cross, there is now no longer any need for keeping of any of his laws? So now there is freedom to do whatever you want. There is no Pharisaic law or command. Does a gospel mean that there is no longer any need for self-denial or any pursuit of holiness? Because Christ has accomplished everything on the cross. Is the gospel news that God has a wonderful plan for your life, for your success, for your good health, for worldly luxury, and simply to access more of this gospel blessing, you just need to have more faith.

Is the gospel a simple tapping into the power of positive thinking? So that's an important question, right? What is the gospel? What is the gospel that I should preach to myself every day? And at that time, in the beginning of the movement, it felt like the gospel that people were preaching to themselves really was dangerously to each his own. And in that gospel-centered movement, there was also a push towards more gospel-centered preaching. And I remember many people during that time growing quite critical and vocal about pastors' sermons. They were judging everybody's sermons. And many in the pews would judge a preacher or a sermon by how much gospel the message contained. Many demanded that all sermons be gospel-centered.

Amen.

Preach only about what Christ has done. And then in any message that left a person feeling guilty over their sins was immediately dismissed and rejected as legalism. So the underlying heartbeat of the gospel-centered movement was that the gospel preaching should leave a person feeling unjudged, very loved, and accepted. So there was a pressure on pastors to include the formulaic message of the gospel proper in every sermon. So even if they weren't preaching from a text that wasn't necessarily directed to the gospel proper.

Exodus 17 is a descriptive passage, not a prescriptive one, and the stone did not represent Jesus. It was literally a stone. If there had been a chair or a log nearby, Aaron and her would have brought Moses a log. Right? So there was a lot of hermeneutical gymnastics going on during that time to get that gospel proper to fit into every text that was being preached, no matter what. Now I totally agree that we should preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

But again, here's that all-important question on which everything hinges. What is the gospel? And what makes a sermon gospel-centered? And then what is the content that I should preach to me every day to stay focused on Christ? There's only one gospel. Amen. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not four different gospels, they are four different accounts of the one gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's why the formal title of each of those books is the gospel according to Matthew, or the gospel according to Mark. And of course, there are many approaches in the presentation of the gospel, but how many gospels is there? Just one. So it's absolutely imperative that we get the gospel right. And there are eternal consequences of getting it wrong.

There's a whole book of the Bible that warns against getting the gospel wrong. Anybody guess what that is? Galatians. The epistle to the churches of Galatia is all about why you better not get this wrong. So in the first chapter of Galatians, the apostle Paul says this.

Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be damned. Strong word. Let him be anathema, accursed. And as we have said before, so I say again now. If any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. Am I now seeking the favor of God or of men? Am I now striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ. So what the apostle Paul is saying here is if anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, that person is accursed.

So there are grave consequences to getting the gospel wrong for both the preacher and the hearer. You guys are tracking so far, right? So I want to give you a simple definition of the gospel. I would define the gospel as the good news that sinful man be reconciled to holy God. Sinful man can have access to holy God, his creator. Now, you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. That is the purpose of our having been created. Amen. And remember, sin, if you sum it up, it's a rebellion and a hostility towards that original purpose. So we've been created to enjoy God. But sin had corrupted and had destroyed that enjoyment.

And we've all sinned. And as a result, left to ourselves, we are all objects of wrath, destined for wrath, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 3. But the gospel is the good news that God has made the restoration of that enjoyment possible. God has drawn near to man, and he has reconciled man to himself by satisfying his wrath towards man's sins by putting it fully on Christ his son. And so for every person who would accept this invitation by faith, his sins are put on Christ. They've been imputed to Christ, and Christ's righteousness is now credited or imputed to him. And the gospel celebrates what we call double imputation. Repeat after me, double imputation. Okay, repeat after me. Glorious exchange.

Those are the words that describe this strange and mysterious transaction that had been made. Christ's sins, oh, Christ's righteousness on me, my sins on him. Double imputation, glorious exchange. And so the result is that man now can be righteous before God because Christ became sin in the place of man. And that's totally not fair. But it's good news.

So then, or I'll just read verse 21. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Amen. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, is a summary definition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay. 21 is the summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So sinful man can be reconciled to the holy God. And the preaching of the gospel is the exhorting and pleading with man to accept that free gift, that invitation to be reconciled to God. So in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, it's actually a verse that ought to be memorized by every Christian, right? You really should memorize that verse. And not just the first half, but the so that part, where we become the righteousness of God in Christ, because that will help us remember what the gospel is and clearly discern what it is not.

Amen. Every true sharing of the gospel begins with the holy God and results in a holy people. Is that clear? A holy God restores and transforms a holy people. That's a gospel. So those who have accepted the gospel are holy, not just in standing, but also in conduct. So we have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and the gospel makes it so that now we've been restored to joyfully fulfill that purpose. Jesus has changed everything. That's the gospel. Jesus changes everything. Amen. Yes, he does. He changes everything. But somehow, for many, the gospel has become understood as Jesus excuses everything.

Do you understand the difference? And many today cling to what has ruinously evolved into a false gospel, Galatians 1.8. So here is something supremely important for every child of God to remember.

Amen. And the good news is that in Christ, we have a great high priest who advocates for us in the presence of God, satisfies his wrath. That is good news.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. So therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is one of the most beautiful passages in all the scriptures. It's central to the letter to the Hebrews.

The letter to Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians around 65 AD. What year? 65 AD. That's a period where a lot of persecutions were starting to ramp up. And the Jewish Christians were very unfortunate because they were doubly persecuted. The Gentiles persecuted them as insurrectionists. But the fiercer persecution came from the Jews, their blood brothers. People who are being arrested and being killed. So because of this hardship, members of the Jewish Christian community were drifting away from Christ out of fear. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1. And they were drifting back towards the Levitical priesthood, the Levitical law, to the sacrificial system, to cultural Judaism. Because they were afraid of the consequence of the gospel.

So something happened to where the gospel that they had received and believed no longer was good news to them. And so they wanted to put themselves back in Egypt under the yoke of the law. So the Jewish Christians were in danger of apostasy and a delayed rejection of the gospel of Christ, because if you reject the gospel of Christ, you have no hope. Right? So Hebrews 4.14 is the powerful argument that there is nowhere to go outside of Christ. It's a nice verse, but it's the end of a warning. There is nowhere to go outside of Christ. And Hebrews 4 14 is where the letter actually shifts because from chapter 1 to chapter 4, verse 13, there's warning after warning after warning after warning. Don't stop, stop, don't go there.

What are you doing? There is no other hope outside of Jesus. So the first few chapters of Hebrews contain very, very stern admonitions. You cannot enter into God's rest apart from Christ. There is no other way. What are you guys thinking? You know that the Levitical system did not fix the problem and the offense of your sins. They were just a shadow of the real things to come. Those were not the real things. They were all just copies of the Yom Kippur Lamb. What are you guys thinking? Stay the Course. And so there's therefore, therefore, therefore, therefore, and they start pouring out in rapid success succession. Chapters three and four. Therefore, therefore, therefore, therefore. And then in chapter four alone, he actually says, therefore, five times.

So the author is pretty worked up. And he's almost pleading with them for an appropriate application. Because the good news of Jesus had become less and less good to them over time, and so they wanted out. So how does that happen? How does the gospel not always feel like good news? That's an important question, right? Because many leave the church. Part of the problem is not, or is in not properly understanding what exactly Jesus came into the world to do. Okay? Jesus changes everything for the believer. Amen. But Jesus did not come into the world to change circumstances. He primarily came to change the heart. You guys acknowledge that, right? Before he came to earth, life had been filled with trouble.

In John 16, 33, Jesus pretty much says that even after he ascends back into heaven, the lies of his disciples will still be what? Filled with trouble. So he did not come to deliver you from circumstantial trouble. Amen. Jesus did not come to deliver you from circumstantial trouble because your greatest problem is not found in your circumstances.

So circumstances are never the problem.

We have need of a great physician.

Amen. We're sick. So Christ was the fulfillment and the means of the promise in Ezekiel 36. And this is what it says. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness, from all your idols or idolatry. Moreover, I will give you a new heart, put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, give you a heart of flesh, I will put my spirit within you, which is a bizarre thought at that time, and force you, cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to do my judgments. So why does the good news not always feel like good news? The answer to this question is the reason why the gospel centered move it gathered so much momentum.

Man's expectations and man's pride. Man's default setting is in the desire for the blessings of the created things rather than the blessings of a relationship with the creator. That's man's default setting. Would you guys agree with that? I want the stuff. I don't need the stuff giver. Okay. And man's default setting also is pride. Man is at the center of his own world. So man wants a God fashioned in his own image to do his bidding. Man wants to feel worthy of God's service. So the default setting of all human beings is idolatry and then self-exaltation. That's the default setting. So what Jesus came to do was to save man from this default setting, because if we're left in that default setting, those things merit the wrath of holy and jealous God.

So naturally, a false gospel promises blessed changes in circumstance and enjoyment and purpose and fulfillment through a pseudo-exaltation of man. A false gospel will promise you just great circumstantial blessing. And a false gospel lures you with God loves you so much. You are so precious.

Christ must increase, I must decrease.

Count me in.

How dare I be disappointed with him? And the residual pride in our hearts makes it so that we do not like feeling guilty or feeling like failures or feeling like we've fallen short. We don't like the feeling of beating ourselves up again and again and again over our weaknesses because it's humiliating. It's difficult to cope with feelings of discouragement that comes with the ongoing struggle of with sin and temptation. I want to feel good. And I would, I'm assuming you're you're the same. I want to feel victorious. We want to tangibly feel the joys of heaven while we are sojourning here still on earth. We want to feel the truths of the victory that we have in Christ. But a lot of times, the preaching of a truly gospel-centered sermon leaves us feeling bad about ourselves.

And that's difficult for our pride to still feel indebted to God's grace after we've become a Christian. Yes, I became a Christian, I repented. You still need to keep repenting, because there is so much dirt in you. And when we feel badly about ourselves, and when we find ourselves feeling a disappointment with God, we harden our hearts to the only truth that can truly save us and give us freedom, and that causes us to drift. So his sheep hear his voice. Amen. But sometimes even his sheep will find his voice to be uncomfortable and jarring. It's like, Amen. Ouch! I don't like what you just said. I can't deny it. So when the message of God's word is unpleasant to the ears, there's a temptation to turn a deaf ear to the shepherd's voice, and that had proven to be disastrous to the Hebrew nation over the years.

So again, the first four chapters, especially from uh chapter 3, verse 7 of Hebrews, it's just jarring, full of warning not to harden their hearts toward the Holy Spirit's teaching. And the warning to these Christians is don't provoke God to anger. That doesn't sound like the gospel. But this is to New Testament, Christians don't provoke God to anger. So Hebrews 3, verse 7 to 9, I'll just read this for you. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me and saw my works for 40 years. So today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

And we're not gonna harden our hearts to nice things. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Amen. My heart feels so tender. We're hardening our hearts to things we don't like. Do not depart from Christ, your great and only truly qualified high priest in search of another way of entering into God's rest. There is no other way. And this is what the Holy Spirit of God has been proclaiming to the Jewish people through the pages of Genesis to Malachi in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no other way.

And by God's grace, the light of Christ had shined painfully onto and into their darkness to actually bring these old Hebrews to saving faith. And the word of God was continuing to cut them deeply into their hearts, Acts 2.37, Ephesians 6.17. But the recipients of the epistle to the Hebrews, even though they've been cut deeply, even though they were warned through the word, even though they were feeling weak and horrible, they were saved. But they wanted to depart. So I'm gonna walk you through a very like a slightly lengthy but very important passage. So you're gonna have to pay attention, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 7 to 13, because if you understand Hebrews chapter 4, verse 7 to 13, it'll help you understand our passage today.

Okay, and it reads. Quick. He again determines a certain day today, saying through David, after so long a time, just has been said before. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest in Canaan, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there still 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 did from his. So true Sabbath rest is coming. Amen. It is not for this life. True Canaan is coming for you and for me and for the saints of old. So do not harden your hearts, stay the course. That's what he's saying. And then verse 11. Therefore, let us work hard to enter that rest.

Huh? That doesn't fit my theology. No, we're to be diligent to enter into heaven, lest anyone fall into the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing as far as a division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have to give an account. Verse 12 should be very familiar to many of us. Not your heads if you're familiar with that verse. It's a well-known verse. And whenever we talk about bibliology or the importance of scripture, Hebrews 4 12 is always quoted.

You guys know this, right? And when we read it, we usually read it in the positive. Wow, the word of God is living and active, and he speaks to his people today powerfully through his word. Praise God. So in isolation, verse 12 is a powerful verse, and it's super encouraging. But in its specific context, this verse is packaged in the middle of a warning. Do you guys notice that? Everything is judged. Everything is judged. Everything is judged by the word of God. So God's holy word prepares his people, qualifies his people to enter into rest. His word breaks the heart of his people, it humbles the heart of his people, it cuts up the hearts of the people, and he's been preparing the hearts of his people through the proclamation of his word from the beginning of Genesis.

So we need to pay attention to what? His word.

And they need then and we need to be diligent in the application of what? His word to prepare ourselves to enter his rest. So Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 comes in the form of a warning to diligently stay the course as prescribed in his word.

Why do we need to stay the course? Let me read verse 13. There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we have to give an account.

There's a judge. Okay. So they need to pay attention to his painfully sharp word of the whole uh sword of the spirit because it because of the word, everything will be laid bare and be judged. Now, the word therefore in English is pretty important, right? What's the next verse? Therefore. So remember what was just said. Therefore. This, this therefore, of Hebrews 4 14 is bridging an argument that had begun back in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7. All of it had been a warning, but all of a sudden in verse 14, it shifts. God's word is cutting us up. He's exposing and bringing things to light, even the hidden intentions of the heart. And yes, you're gonna feel discomfort and you're gonna feel a lot of judgment.

But what's this therefore, therefore? It's connecting what has just been said to the expected application. So the only thing that we can do in light of this piercing word of holy, holy, holy God, is take a hold of our confession. We confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, Romans 10 9. And we cleave ourselves to the great high priest. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us grab onto for dear life our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. We're weak, we're prone to stray. We're tempted all the time. We will fail, according to God's holy standard.

So we need to grab on to Christ, who can sympathize with our weaknesses, who has been tempted in all things exactly like we are, yet without what? Sin. He qualifies as our great high priest. He qualifies as the atonement lamb. And it goes, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive and find grace, mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need. Why is the true gospel good news? It is actually earth-shattering and glorious news. Christ is the gospel, how so? First, the great high priest has passed through the heavens. Is he standing or is he seated? It's not in this text, but in your knowledge of the Bible, is the great high priest still standing or is he seated?

Seated. You know what that means? He's done.

The only seat that was there was a mercy seat, and you don't dare sit on the mercy seat where the blood is sprinkled. The high priest had to do his job and get out. But our great high priest sat down. What that means is there is nothing left to be done in terms of the payment of sin. On the cross, Christ said, It is what? It is finished. Sin is done. And then he ascended into heaven. Do you guys see the plural? Now what does that mean? Heaven in this is in the plural and it's very significant. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 2, Paul describes there are three heavens. Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 2, if you want to look it up. There's an atmospheric heaven, right? And then there is the heaven of the greater universe.

Psalm 19:1. The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the expanse is proclaiming the work of his hands. So the heaven, what we see, and the heaven, which is the universe, and then there is a third heaven, which is in the dwelling place in the presence of God. You understand? Jesus passed through all of it into the very presence of God, into the holy of holies, and he did what? Sat, he's awesome. No. It means ideal, perfect. No other qualifications. Or there's no one else who qualifies. He is the perfect high priest who finished the job. Every human high priest, year after year after year after year. You know what they had to do first before they made the entrance into the holy of holies and made an offering for the people's sins.

You know what they had to wash themselves because they were sinners, Hebrews 9 7. And then the guy, they put a bell on him so that if he were to die, and the bell stopped going dinging ding, they could pull him out. So he would rush in there, do his like sacrificial uh ceremony to appease the wrath of God for his people for that year, and then he would pop out. But Christ completed it and he sat down. So what this means for you and me is there is no payment that you will ever have to make for your sins. There is no punishment that you have to pay off for your sins. Amen. You are debt-free. There is nothing you're obligated to pay back. Now, earthly consequences to your mistakes, of course. But whatever sin you committed and violated before holy, oh holy or holy, holy, holy God, you don't have to cover any of it.

It's done. And you will never pay off any sin. So you don't have to think, why is God punishing me? That is the question of a non-believer. Because a believer says, all of the punishment that I deserve is put on Jesus. If a hardship comes into my life, I'm gonna count it all joy. Because he's either using it for good or he's using it for my good, for his glory and for my joy. I don't ever have to go, is he not giving me children because I've sinned? Is he holding marriage from me because I've sinned? Is he making me unemployed, making me lose my job, not being able to find a job because of my sin? That's the mark of a superstitious non-Christian. The Christian says, I have no payment, I need to make for my sin.

So whatever is happening in my life, even if World War III happens and it looks like it could happen, I'm good. And that's good news, especially if you know you're pretty bad. Second, it's good news because then this permanently means you are no longer an enemy of God. Amen. Let that sink in a little bit. I am not on the enemy of God territory. You are no longer an enemy of God, and you cannot become an enemy of God ever again. He has labeled you friend, son, co-heir with Christ forever. It's a relationship that's restored and it cannot be undone. So that's been promised. Hard to believe, but that's what's been promised.

So we take hold of this promise, we take hold of our confession, and then we wait for God to appear so that we see him face to face and in full, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 3, where we can gaze upon the beauty of the face of the Lord and not die permanently and forever. The Levitical priesthood is gone. Here's a question Do the Jews still make sacrifices today? They do not. No one knows what happened. But after AD 70, sacrificial ceremonies of the Levitical priesthood were terminated completely at AD 70 because the temple was destroyed. I think my guess is God wanted to make this so permanently visible that he removed the animal sacrifices for sins completely so that never can be done again.

Isn't that interesting? It's gone. The Jews of today don't have priests. You guys follow? But they don't know why. I mean, for us, it's not hard to understand. God did away with it. Because Christ is the eternal great high priest who eternally stands between us and God, so that we stand before God, righteous, justified, and qualified. And that is good news. If you understand who God is.

I don't have it up here. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25 to 28. And this is about Christ, our great high priest. Therefore, he is able also to save permanently forever. Those who draw near to God through him, since he permanently always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself.

They didn't go and get slaughtered. Right? He offered up himself. Verse 28 the law appoints men as high priests who are weak. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. So we have a great high priest who is made in the likeness of our weaknesses in every way, Hebrews 2.17, just without sin. Jesus was tempted in every way, we are tempted, but we are actually never tempted the way he was tempted. Think about this. Every way that we are tempted, Jesus has been tempted, but he is, we don't ever have his temptation. Because for us, when we're tempted, some of us quicker than others, we fall, right? If we're tempted hardly or harshly, we succumb.

Hebrews 12 4 says, You have not resisted sin to the point of shedding blood. Do you know who has Jesus? Do you know why the detail of the Garden of Gethsemane is in there when he's praying so hard that drops of blood are coming out like sweat? That is a temptation he faced because Satan unleashed all the fury of every creative temptation he ever had on Christ, and he is without sin. We fall eternally before we ever get there. So if Christ has been tempted in all of those things and he understands weakness, when he's praying for you, he's praying with empathy and sympathy and with a knowledge of what it feels like to be separated from God. He knows what it feels like to be separated from God.

So when he's interceding on our behalf, he's doing it with a great heart of affection and love because he's been there, just no sin. So the reason this is good news is one, it's done. We're we're we have nothing left we need to do except believe and hold on for the right. We have been reconciled to Christ if we have put our faith in Him. That's it. So preach the gospel to yourself every day, is my application. Amen. Make sure it's the right gospel. Which begins with a holy God, ends with a holy people. Don't preach a gospel to yourself that God is going to grant you circumstantial success, because that is not always what happens. Do not preach a gospel to yourself that you can commit that sin and God will be okay with it.

Do not preach a gospel to yourself saying, tomorrow I will apply what God is telling me today. Because today, if you hear his voice, today, if you hear his voice, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 3 7 and on. Right. So do not preach a gospel that says, I am saved because I put my hand up when I was 15 and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but I don't really need to take him seriously until I'm 70. So that when I've lived my life, I've had fun, I still have the get out of hell free card. I have the gospel, and I can just live my life however I want, but right before I die, I'll repent. That is not the gospel. But the funny thing is, you know, there are a majority of church people living under these false gospels.

Nod your heads if you kind of understand. And at times we fall into believing a weird, distorted gospel as well. But may we preach to ourselves every day the true gospel that begins with a holy God and ends with a holy people and with an exalted Christ, whether we're well fed or hungry, whether we're sick or we're healthy, whether we're being persecuted or we're comfortable, whether the world falls apart because of what's happening in the Middle East, or we enjoy a relative comfort for the next 50 to 100 years, no matter what, preach a gospel because the Sabbath rest is not here, it's coming. That's good news because you have been invited and you have your ticket. Why? Faith. Through grace, not of works.

I can't boast. I served as a pastor, that's why I go to heaven. I've memorized the book of the Bible. I go to heaven. Nothing. We have no boast. Just our weakness and our belief that Christ's death is enough. His resurrection is the promise that we will be united with him and be raised up again ourselves. Preach the gospel to yourself every day. And pray that I will preach that gospel every week through every worship service that we have. Let's pray together. Father, the gospel is so sweet. But when we forget how depraved our condition, how far short we fall to your standards. We forget that the gospel is good news and we treat it like just religious information that we hold as an insurance policy.

Lord, forgive us for this. Remind us afresh of who you are and who we aren't, but remind us afresh of who we've become because of the sacrifice of our great high priest. We thank you, Lord, for this message, and we pray that you would saturate our hearts deeply for the through the words of truth. We pray all this in Jesus' name.