The Danger of the ‘Educated Choice’: Why Salvation is God’s Work Alone

• Divine Revelation and Decision Making [00:01:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a TV show preview to explain that God gives sufficient but not total information, allowing believers to make an informed decision to trust Him without needing to know everything.
• The Cloud of Witnesses [00:02:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > Referencing Hebrews 12, the pastor explains that the testimonies of past believers motivate, inspire, and hold current believers accountable to remove weights and sin.
• Divine Discipline as Love [00:04:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor corrects the cultural misunderstanding of discipline, asserting that God only disciplines those He loves to bring them back on track, contrasting it with the idea that discipline implies God is mad or indifferent.
• Mount Sinai vs. Mount Zion [00:05:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Old Covenant (Mount Sinai), characterized by terrifying law and truth without grace that separates and condemns, with the New Covenant approach, using the fear of judgment to explain why sinners avoid church.
• The Unbearable Nature of Truth Without Grace [00:10:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God's holiness and truth, when experienced without the buffer of grace, are terrifying and unbearable, leading to rebellion and avoidance of correction, similar to the Israelites' reaction at Sinai.
• Rebellion and Unbelief [00:12:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the Israelites' rebellion at Sinai and in the wilderness was rooted in unbelief and a refusal to accept correction, rather than just disobedience.
• Faith vs. Control [00:18:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > He contrasts the human desire to control outcomes with the nature of faith, which requires admitting one is not in control and trusting God's provision.
• Mount Sinai vs. Mount Zion [00:21:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > He juxtaposes Mount Sinai (fear, judgment, truth without grace) with Mount Zion (joy, grace, heavenly Jerusalem) to illustrate the two spiritual destinations.
• Jesus as Mediator [00:24:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > He explains that Jesus is the necessary mediator who bridges the gap between condemned humanity and a holy God, offering salvation through his blood.
• Mount Sinai vs. Mount Zion [00:25:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the condemnation and fear of Mount Sinai with the warmth, invitation, and grace of Mount Zion, establishing Jesus as the mediator between the two.
• The Two Thieves on the Cross [00:26:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analysis of the two thieves crucified with Jesus, highlighting how one chose stubborn unbelief despite having the same information as the other, who chose faith.
• Grace vs. Justice [00:33:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Abel's blood cries out for justice (truth without grace), while Jesus' blood speaks words of grace, mercy, and hope.
• Resurrection and Hope [00:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The resurrection is presented as a 'preview' demonstrating that Jesus defeated death, providing believers with an anchor of hope for their own eternal life.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor compares God's revelation to a preview of the TV show Survivor, where fans vote on challenges for host Jeff Probst. Just as a preview gives enough info to decide if you want to watch the show, God gives enough 'preview' to decide to trust Him.
• Sermon Illustration [00:08:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor draws a parallel between the terrifying, fiery, and stormy scene of Mount Sinai in the Old Testament and the modern feeling of dread or judgment one might feel when attending church while living in overt sin.
• Sermon Illustration [00:11:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates the 'unbearable' nature of God's law by describing how people in rebellion create excuses to avoid church (e.g., claiming tiredness or busy schedules) just as the Israelites begged Moses not to speak to them anymore because the experience was too fearful.
• Sermon Illustration [00:13:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of the Israelites leaving Egypt, being pursued by Pharaoh, and panicking at the Red Sea despite witnessing the ten plagues, illustrating their lack of faith. He also uses the analogy of a legal mediator/lawyer to explain Jesus' role as a go-between who represents believers before God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses a rhetorical 'multiple choice test' involving the two thieves on the cross to illustrate the different responses to Christ, noting that one thief rejected Christ despite having the same visual evidence as the other.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of 'charcuterie' and 'wine' to describe the inviting nature of Mount Zion compared to the sternness of Mount Sinai.
• Sermon Illustration [00:27:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > He compares the stubborn thief's refusal to believe to stubborn children who refuse to accept punishment even when they know they are wrong.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > He describes the physical agony of crucifixion, explaining how victims had to push up on the beam to breathe, using this to illustrate the thief's stubbornness in his final moments.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > He contrasts the blood of Abel, which cries out from the ground for justice after being murdered by Cain, with the blood of Jesus, which speaks words of grace and mercy.

• Pastoral Charge [00:02:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make an informed decision to trust in God.
• Pastoral Charge [00:02:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make God number one in their life.
• Pastoral Charge [00:05:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Adjust their perspective on God's discipline to see it as love.
• Pastoral Charge [00:25:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > To call upon the name of the Lord for salvation.
• Pastoral Charge [00:35:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > Call upon the name of Jesus for grace, mercy, and hope, and turn to Jesus immediately regardless of how late in life one is.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] To the place called Mount Zion. In setting it up for you today, though, I wanted to show you this image. And in the Bourne household and extended Bourne family, we are Survivor fans. And there was a preview. And if you don't know what's going on this season in Survivor, they allowed the fans to vote. And so the fans are getting to pick random things that Jeff Probst, the host, has to do during the series. And the
[00:00:30] teaser uh for this week the preview was jeff participating in one of the challenges which if you're not a survivor fan you don't know anything that's fine he's never done this before so this would be if you will unprecedented okay you can take that image off now i wanted you to
[00:00:47] just notice that anytime you see a preview do you know the whole story when you watch the preview No, the preview is to give you enough information to make an informed decision about do you want to continue?
[00:01:06] Is there enough information to say, oh yes, I'd like to know more about that or I have decided I want to participate, I want to watch that, I want to go to that thing.
[00:01:15] And so I would suggest to you that we could extrapolate that into a theological position and that God is constantly giving us previews.
[00:01:25] Now, it doesn't mean that we know everything, right? None of us in here know everything. Even if you think you know everything about the Bible, there's a lot of stuff that God leaves out, right? And he like just doesn't tell us and we'll find out one day. But I don't have to know everything because I've seen the preview. And I've seen enough of the preview that I have a pretty good idea that I want to see the rest of this show.
[00:01:48] And so as we go through these stories, one about Mount Sinai, one about Mount Zion, I hope that you would decide that God for all time has given people enough information and that if you have enough information today, that you can make an informed decision that
[00:02:07] you can trust in God.
[00:02:08] And once you make God number one in your life, you can fulfill what this whole series has been about.
[00:02:14] been about. So in Hebrews 12, verse one, it says, seeing as we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, right? And he's saying all these people of all time that followed after God, they all witnessed something and they testified. They testified that God is good. They testified
[00:02:33] that God is just. They testified that God is mighty, that God does the miraculous, that God is capable of anything and all things, and that he's worthy of even giving my life if required. And that's how faithful
[00:02:46] they were. And it says even in Hebrews chapter 11, that the world was not even worthy of these people, man, to live in such a way that the world would not be worthy. That would be the
[00:02:57] aspiration of all believers. And so it says, when we're surrounded by these cloud of witnesses, we are motivated by their testimony. We are inspired by their testimony, and we are even held accountable by their testimony. And what should it make us want to do? We want to get rid of the weight,
[00:03:18] the weights that are holding us down, the weights that are holding us back.
[00:03:22] And then we want to get rid of the sin that so easily entangles us, which Mount Zion, on our Mount Sinai is going to correlate to the sin that so easily entangles us in just a moment.
[00:03:35] If we had verse two up there, it would say, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame.
[00:03:46] It says, man, take notice of him. And whenever you take notice of him and what he endured, it says that you won't grow weary and want to quit. So today as we are starting up this second
[00:04:00] phase of the Surrounded series and as we're going to talk we're going to talk a little bit of heady theology stuff but it's going to have a practical application on why you feel certain ways when you
[00:04:11] go to church. He goes through the book of or the chapter 12 in the book of Hebrews and it says basically the context of the the paragraph we're going to cover it says that he was talking about
[00:04:23] discipline and people have a in today's culture i would say we have a we have a miss uh what's the word i'm looking for here we have a misunderstanding of what discipline does we have we have changed discipline to be an act of someone who doesn't like you which
[00:04:46] you can be disciplined by someone who doesn't like you. But when it comes from God, the Bible says that he doesn't discipline people he doesn't love. He only disciplines people that he does love.
[00:04:57] So we should take his discipline as an act of love because he's only trying to get the best out of us as he possibly can. As a matter of fact, you could even say that he made it. He knows what
[00:05:10] it's supposed to do. He knows what it's supposed to be. Therefore, when we get off track and he applies pressure to our lives to get us back on track. He's only doing that because he loves us. Sometimes we take discipline as
[00:05:22] a form of God is mad at me. And so I think you need to maybe adjust how you look at discipline from God. If he didn't love you, he'd just let you continue off into nothing
[00:05:34] and not feel any conviction. Ultimately, you'd be separated from him for eternity. So he does love you. So look at this mountain, this first mountain that we'll talk about is going to be Mount Sinai. Everybody say
[00:05:46] Mount Sinai on three, one, two, three. There you go. That is where Moses was given the law in the Old Testament. And it was a pretty scary scene that day on the side of a mountain. Now, Paul is
[00:06:02] referencing this mountain in the New Testament. So does everybody understand where we're at here?
[00:06:07] A New Testament, look back, and then there's going to be a comparison to the New Testament covenant. So the old Testament way was the law truth without grace. All right, here we go. 18 for you have not come to what could be touched to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm.
[00:06:28] This is what happens when God's presence descended upon this mountain. This is the exact scene that happened. There was a darkness, there was a storm, there was fire that was coming from this. The mountain was on fire. Verse 19, to the blast of a trumpet, to the sound of words, those who heard
[00:06:48] it begged that not another word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was commanded.
[00:06:56] If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. So we have to understand that the Mount Sinai is where we all start. Okay. Because of sin, when we come to this age of knowledge of when we understand
[00:07:16] like right, wrong, I shouldn't do that. And we do it. The Bible says that we're all become guilty under this sin. And so we don't have to like wonder like where we start. So the question
[00:07:28] will eventually be, how do we get to the other side? So when we look at truth in the Old Testament under the old covenant, before grace was introduced in the new covenant, it's not that God didn't have
[00:07:41] grace. He was just demonstrating this side of his personality. He was just, he was holy, he was righteous. So truth without grace, what they found, it separates them. Truth without grace separates them. So if I only have the law, then I am separated from God. It, it measures me and it
[00:08:01] concludes that I am not good enough. And so whenever I get into this position, there's a lot of condemnation, right? And have you ever, let's, let's see if we can make a modern day similarity
[00:08:15] are parallel. Um, have you ever felt like you didn't want to go to church because the people up there at the church are going to look down on you? Have you ever had that feeling? You ever had
[00:08:29] that feeling? Like, like all the, all those people that sit up there, they just like judge people.
[00:08:33] They're just judging, judging, judging. You know, like that's, that's the way whenever you are on live on Mount Sinai, it says that they, they can't come near without perishing because God's presence is so holy that if we come into his presence with sin, so therefore it's, it's a
[00:08:52] fearful experience. I don't want to, I don't want to be in God's presence. I don't want to go to where God's presence is. Have you ever noticed that when you were in overt sin in your life,
[00:09:03] your desire to come to church is directly proportionate to the level of sin that's in your life. Have you ever noticed that? Because like when you're right with God coming to church, it's like a celebration, right? It's exciting. You're like, whoa, let's go. Let's go. Let's
[00:09:17] worship. Let's sing. And that new song, man, it's always been about the blood. That's what is able to save us. That's what we talked about our whole first series of this year, that the blood of the
[00:09:26] lamb, that the sacrifice was able to save. The sacrifice was sufficient. So today when we sing that song and I saw the sermon, I'm like, oh, this is going to be so good. I wish we were so
[00:09:36] genius that we just figured this out, but I just trust our worship pastors that they're connected to the same God I am. And then it just works. It's awesome. But anyway, when it comes to the
[00:09:47] truth without grace, it separates us. And I hope that no one here is under the misunderstanding that by your own goodness, you can be saved. I hope that you would not think that. I hope that
[00:09:59] you would not think that it's like a brand thing. Like if you're a good Baptist, you'll go to heaven. Like if you're a good Catholic, you'll go to heaven. If you're a good church of Christ,
[00:10:10] which, which some of those dominations, they actually believe that they're the only ones.
[00:10:14] So they'll be shocked that you're there. You know, they'll be like, I mean, what? They didn't go through the right steps. They didn't, you know, and do all these things, you know? So, so think
[00:10:24] about that for a moment. He says that the truth, when it's apart from grace, it separates us from the presence of God. And then secondly, truth without grace is unbearable. Did you notice he said, they said not another word, please don't let another word be spoken. Can you imagine?
[00:10:46] We think of the word of God and we're like, give me more, give me more. Can I read some more? Can I hear some more? But they heard the word of God. Again, think about God's truth, his righteousness,
[00:10:59] his holiness without the grace it would be scary because you would feel like at any moment he's going to strike you down and he would be just in doing so because you're a sinner and so whenever
[00:11:14] we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it leaves us in this place where his truth without grace is unbearable think about this for a moment in the same kind of parallelism
[00:11:27] do you do you want to hear a message or do you start trying to figure out ways to not come to church whenever you're not right with god do you ever like say like ah you know we're tired oh we
[00:11:41] got a lot going on hey why don't we sleep in today hey you know what we can catch it online later and you started like saying to your kids you're like oh you had that game yesterday are you feeling
[00:11:51] a little tired you know maybe you maybe you need to sleep you know you start you start doing these things because they said it was unbearable. They wanted to get out from under God's word. Have you ever noticed that when
[00:12:07] you're rebellious towards his word, you have a hard time receiving correction? Have you ever noticed that? Has anyone ever tried to correct you? And did you receive that? Did you were like, oh, thank you. You know, I was, I was thinking I
[00:12:25] needed some correction and you are just the person? Maybe it's your spouse. Have you asked your spouse recently, like if you said, hey, you haven't corrected me in a while and I've been needing some more of that. I don't think we naturally want that, right? Isn't it amazing
[00:12:47] that even God himself has a hard time correcting his people. They don't want to receive it.
[00:12:55] And so today I want you to know that that's a picture of Mount Sinai. They were like, no, we don't, we don't want any more of this. We can't take it. And then we're going to find out
[00:13:08] there's a reason why it's because if you know the pattern, whenever these people were wandering through the wilderness, would you say that there was a strong pattern of rebellion? Do you guys remember this story? They got set free out of Egypt. God didn't just set them free. The Egyptian
[00:13:28] and said, please take all of our gold, take all of our silver, take all of our jewelry, take all of our cattle, please just take it all. And so they went out richer than how they came in. And
[00:13:41] then Pharaoh changed his mind and he went out and he pursued them. And then God took them to a dead end. Now, here is where we see the juxtaposition of our perspective. The Israelites who just had
[00:13:57] 10 plagues, all right? All the things, right? The frogs, the angel of death, all the things.
[00:14:03] They just saw the power of God and they just got sent out with their own parade. And then at the first sign of difficulty, at the first roadblock where they had to exercise their faith, what
[00:14:18] happened? Were they like, Moses, we know God can do it. You're our leader. Go do it. Were they like that? Does anybody know? Or was it the opposite? Was it the opposite? What have you done? What have
[00:14:33] you done to us? A little bit of freak out, right? Like the Egyptians are going to kill us. They're going to take us back. It was better. It was better when we were in Egypt. It was better when we were
[00:14:42] slaves. Every time you want to go back, you know, that's what you sound like to God. Every time you go back to your past, every time you go back to that thing, that's what you sound like. Wasn't it
[00:14:57] better when I was an addict? Wasn't it better when I was sleeping around? Wasn't it better?
[00:15:01] Wasn't it better? No, it was not better. I started thinking about that and I, and I said to myself, did God not give them a big enough preview? Because the 10 plagues seems like it would
[00:15:20] have been enough as a preview of what was to come. But at the Red Sea, you'd have to say at that juncture, right? Like it couldn't get any bigger than like Moses, hold up your rod. And as Moses
[00:15:36] holds up his rod, let's just imagine this is the sea right here. And 14 miles was the town that it says the water stood up and rolled back 14 miles. And there were walls of water on each side. Now,
[00:15:50] do they know that Jesus is going to be born in Bethlehem from the seed of David and that he's going to rise up and he's going to go on a cross do they know any of that at this particular moment
[00:16:03] no but do they know enough to say God can set us free from 440 years of generational bondage and that he can roll up the waters and then when they cross how'd they cross tell me how they cross
[00:16:18] Tell me how they cross. Oh, he's dry ground good. Are you saying that like, he's like, oh, I'm not even going to get your feet muddy. No, no, no. I'm just going to, that's dry. That's
[00:16:28] a dry ground right there. Like God is the God of the details. Would you agree? Would you not say that that's a preview? That's a preview. That if he can make a way when there's no way, then has
[00:16:40] he given you enough information so that you could say, yes, yes, I will trust in that God. Yes, I will transfer my trust to him and I will quit resorting to the gods of my past.
[00:16:52] Hebrews 3, 19. So we see that they were unable to enter because of their, what does it say?
[00:17:03] Say it again. Unable because of unbelief. You see the rebellion, the disloyalty, the engagement of the golden calf, the idolatry, that wasn't the main problem. Those were symptoms of the main problem. The main problem was unbelief, unbelief. You see, whenever you
[00:17:36] stay on Sinai, just like the Israelites, you don't want the word in your life because the truth of the matter is that your heart is in unbelief. Because if you believed you'd have to change.
[00:17:50] If you believed, you'd have to surrender. If you believed, you'd have to submit.
[00:17:54] And you're saying, well, I really want to go to the other mountain, but I don't want to have to give up the things that I'm living in over here in this mountain. It could just be that you like
[00:18:06] to control. The Israelites love to try to control the narrative, control the outcome. Some of you, the thought of giving up control is truly paralyzing. But how would you ever have faith and have control? Tell me how that works. It seems like faith is admitting that you're not in control
[00:18:31] and that you need something outside of yourself. So today it's not a matter of information, is it?
[00:18:42] See, some people say, well, I need to know more information. I need to know. I got to study more.
[00:18:46] I need to go. I need to read. And there's nothing wrong with all those things. But are you telling me that God hasn't given you enough information? Are you saying that he hasn't done enough?
[00:19:00] If you read the word, if you know the basics of the story, in the beginning, God created that God sent his son. We'll get into that in just a moment. But I don't think it's an
[00:19:10] information issue. I think it's a desire issue, a belief issue, a faith issue. And so today, hey, if we want to move from the mountain that fears God to the mountain that has faith in God,
[00:19:23] if we want to move from the mountain where God demonstrates his justice to the place that we get justified and made perfect and holy, then at some point we have to believe.
[00:19:35] Understand what I say, believe.
[00:19:37] I don't mean that you say, oh, I was raised in church.
[00:19:40] Yeah, my mom and dad, they're really strong.
[00:19:42] My grandma, she used to take me to church all the time.
[00:19:45] Oh, I was baptized.
[00:19:47] Yeah, as a matter of fact, I took communion.
[00:19:49] As a matter of fact, I took up the offering.
[00:19:51] As a matter of fact, I served in the children's ministry.
[00:19:53] I think those are the gold stars, by the way, heaven.
[00:19:59] He doesn't say that, does he?
[00:20:01] It's not about doing those things.
[00:20:02] It's about knowing who God is, truly having a relationship with him.
[00:20:06] There won't be a Catholic corner in heaven.
[00:20:09] There won't be a Baptist corner in heaven.
[00:20:10] There won't be a Church of Christ corner in heaven.
[00:20:13] It says in the book of Galatians, there's neither male nor female, right?
[00:20:17] There's neither Jew nor Greek.
[00:20:18] There's neither slave nor free.
[00:20:19] It doesn't matter what your socioeconomic status is here on earth, in heaven, it's all equal at the cross. So that brings us to the second mountain. He says, instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels,
[00:20:41] a festive gathering. Now, a little bit of conjecture here. Jesus said that the angels rejoice rejoice when one sinner repents. So we might have some insight here. It doesn't say that's why they're rejoicing right there, but angels rejoicing, the only time we have that clear picture is when
[00:21:02] sinners are being saved. And then the next verse gives us some context. So there's a festive gathering of myriads of angels. It says, verse 23, to the assembly of the firstborn, whose names have been written in heaven. That's us. That's all the saved of all time. That's the ones whose names
[00:21:19] have been written in the Lamb's book of life. To a judge who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect. So here we see the juxtaposition, the two mountains. Put it up there.
[00:21:31] I made a lovely graphic for you, and I hope that you enjoy my art. It's very complex.
[00:21:38] so we all start over there and truth without grace condemns us and separates us God says I have an alternative and it's called Mount Zion this is the heavenly place this is the heavenly Jerusalem so the earthly Jerusalem was modeled after the heavenly Jerusalem the
[00:21:59] temple system it says that we had a shadow of the actual true thing that is in heaven and so he says I want you to be able to move from there to over here. And this is the place where rejoicing has
[00:22:13] happened. This is the place where partying has happened. This is the place where we get to lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus for all time and worship him as the king that he is. This is an
[00:22:24] exciting place to be. So we have to ask ourselves a question. Why would people ever want to stay over here. When, when that's offered, this looks, when you stand before God, just like it looked to
[00:22:48] those people that day, it will not be a fun feeling. It would be a fearful feeling to stand exposed by the truth of God in your sin without any grace to cover you, to help you. That mountain
[00:23:08] was on fire. And the Bible says, our God is a consuming fire and everything that is not covered by grace in the end is consumed. So all of the logical people in here, it doesn't take much
[00:23:24] reasoning, does it? It doesn't take much more information. You would never want Sinai. You don't want that. You want Zion. You want heaven. So here's the problem. You can't go from there to there. There's no natural path. There's not a road. There's not a bridge. There's not a ladder.
[00:23:46] There's not a church brand. There's not a church tradition. There is no ceremony that allows you to get from that place to that place. You say, well, Tim, I'd like to know because I want to
[00:24:01] know the answer to the test. I'm so glad you want to know. Let's see what God said. Hebrews 12, 24, the very next verse, it says, the other thing that is in Zion is Jesus. And he's the mediator
[00:24:14] of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
[00:24:24] Now I want you to think about that for just a moment. It says that Jesus is our mediator. And I think we have another pretty, yes.
[00:24:34] Okay, now, unless you've needed a lawyer, you probably don't fully appreciate the word mediator, okay?
[00:24:43] But a mediator is someone that represents you and is supposed to know the things that you don't know.
[00:24:50] And it's supposed to be able to provide a service for you so that your argument gets made.
[00:24:56] And if it's a criminal issue, then they're defending you.
[00:24:59] if it's a prosecutorial issue then it's them trying to assess justice if it's a lawsuit issue you're going to have a mediator on your behalf and they're going to have a mediator on their behalf
[00:25:12] and you want your mediator to be better than their mediator otherwise you're going to have to pay does everybody understand that okay well God said that we all start over there truth without grace that convicts us, condemns us and ultimately separates us. He said, but I got a second option
[00:25:30] and I want everyone to know about it. I want, here's heaven. Here's everything. Angels rejoicing all the firstborn, all the ones whose names were written down. He goes, that is possible and is available to every single person that ever walks the earth. No matter what Jesus said,
[00:25:48] whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Right? So, so whenever we think of Jesus as our mediator, he was our go-between because we couldn't overcome Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai condemned us. And so God had to do something in order to save us. And when we read those words
[00:26:06] about Mount Zion, it sounds so much different. It sounds warm. It sounds inviting. It sounds like there might be some charcuterie, maybe even a glass of wine. I don't know, but it sounds like, it's going to be a good time. And it sounds very inviting, right? And so when we go from Sinai to
[00:26:24] Zion, the only way that we can get there is through this guy and his name is Jesus. And so interestingly enough, it says that at the cross, we can see the three individuals represented gives us the three places that we have options. So like, if you think of three choices,
[00:26:44] So I'm going to give you a multiple choice test. Okay. So we'll put that up there and we can think of the thief that rejected Christ. Do you guys remember, remember there was one thief that
[00:26:53] rejected Christ. Now, now think about that for just a moment. He had the same amount of information as the guy on the left, right? He, he was right there. Like we, we, we would even say he's 10,
[00:27:09] maybe 15 feet from the savior of the world and yet he remains in his unbelief he even he even mocks that guy even mocks jesus while he's dying on the cross he still has the gumption i don't
[00:27:29] know if any of y'all have stubborn children do y'all have any of those stubborn children like like even when they're when they're being punished they have some like okay but i don't agree still Like they, they like have their last gasp of like, I'm going to say the last word, even though
[00:27:46] like, it's just like, you're, you're just like, can't fathom it. Right. It's like, just take the punishment and go away. Don't whimper in your room. But this guy, do you understand how the crosses worked there? They have to push on the beam that's nailed to
[00:28:06] their feet to get a breath because all this weight is put on your chest and you actually asphyxiate you actually drown in your blood that's how you die on the cross and so he's pushing up
[00:28:17] and in his stubbornness his pride his last moments he's like why doesn't he do something if he's god can you imagine someone sitting in here this morning and has that attitude that you're still saying like i need more information i need more god if you're really god why don't you show me
[00:28:41] your God. He's like, I did. I did show you. I gave you the same amount of information. This guy over here, this guy over here, he has a change of heart. He actually started on that side theologically.
[00:28:59] He began the day doing exactly what that guy was doing, but something changed. As he watched Jesus on the cross, something in his heart changed. He said, this man has done nothing wrong.
[00:29:15] We are getting exactly what we deserve. Truth without grace. He said, we're getting what we deserve. That's what that gets. You get exactly what you deserve. That's justice. And then he looked at Jesus and it would seem unimaginable. He said, well, you remember me when you come into
[00:29:36] your kingdom. It's the beauty of this side. That's the beauty of this side. Think about this for a moment. Did he come down off the cross and get baptized? Did he come down off the cross and take
[00:29:50] communion? Did he come down off the cross and join a church? Did he come down with the cross and do a foot washing? There was no time. He only had time for one thing. And that was a confession.
[00:30:09] Jesus, I acknowledge you as a king. Will you remember me when you come into your kingdom?
[00:30:16] Now think about that. They had the same information, same information, same opportunity.
[00:30:26] One chose unbelief and because of his unbelief, he was unable to enter heaven.
[00:30:40] The other one, a criminal, terrible person. So for any of you in here that talk down to yourself and say, I can never be good enough for God to love me.
[00:30:51] I can never overcome these things that I've done.
[00:30:53] I'll never measure up to, I got good news for you.
[00:30:58] None of us can.
[00:31:01] These people that look better than you, that you think have never done anything wrong, if you only knew half of the things that they thought this week, they wouldn't even be in here, they'd be so embarrassed.
[00:31:14] We don't get to this side and become good.
[00:31:18] We get to this side because he was good.
[00:31:23] His grace covers us, and that's what makes us good.
[00:31:28] So we don't get to this side and stand up here on a mountaintop looking down at all the lowly sinners below.
[00:31:34] No, because it's his grace that saves us.
[00:31:37] It causes me to have gratitude to lift him up on a pedestal and say, but for the grace of God, I would have died with truth and no grace, but God came down and made a way. And it said,
[00:31:52] what does it say? Jesus blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now, everything I've preached up into now, all my good theologians and Christians, lifelong Christians, you've been like, yeah, I already knew that Tim, nothing impressive here. Okay. Well watch this. I bet you don't know
[00:32:10] this. It says that his blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. What's that about? Cain slew Abel, murdered Abel. And it said that his blood cries out from the ground for justice. Put my picture back up there. So whenever we think
[00:32:39] about this side, that's justice, the justice of God. Truth without grace separates us. So it says that whenever tragedy happens, whenever terrible things happen, whenever crimes happen, whenever people are murdered, whenever there's rape, whenever there's atrocities, all those things, that it cries out for God's justice. This side,
[00:33:07] the Old Testament side, it cries out for it. And it has to be satisfied. It says, but Jesus, his blood speaks a different word it says that his blood speaks words like grace mercy mercy is not getting what you deserve grace is getting what you don't deserve and then it
[00:33:31] speaks the word hope listen to this verse says in hebrews chapter 6 verse 19 we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters into the inner sanctuary behind the
[00:33:47] curtain. In other words, when we anchor ourselves in belief to Jesus Christ, it becomes our hope that no matter what we're going through here on this earth, that we have this hope that is in
[00:33:59] Christ and that anchor is drawing us into Mount Zion. So today you have a choice. God gave us a preview, he didn't stop at the cross. It says on the third day, Jesus got out of the grave.
[00:34:15] What did it demonstrate? It demonstrated that dead things can come back to life. It demonstrated that our greatest mortal enemy is death. And Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave. Now, I don't know how it all works. I don't know that when one day the trumpet shall sound and this mortal
[00:34:35] shall put on immortality and, and then she'll be brought to pass the saying, oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God that our victory is in Christ Jesus.
[00:34:45] How that's going to work. I don't know. Like, boom, he's going to snap and like, I don't know, zoom. And we go, I don't know how that all, I don't know how it works. Do you know how,
[00:34:52] you don't know how that works? That this more like you're going to be transformed like, like that.
[00:34:57] You don't know how that works. I don't need to know everything because I saw the preview. And if that dead man can get out of the grave, then I too can know that this dead man one day is going
[00:35:09] to get out of the grave and I'm going to be raised unto eternal life, not because I'm good, but because the man in the middle made it possible that his blood speaks a better word. Today, if
[00:35:24] you need that word, grace, you call upon the name of Jesus. If you need mercy, call upon the name.
[00:35:35] of Jesus. If you need hope, call upon the name of Jesus. Don't be like the thief that wasted his last moments sitting in what he had always been. When you have this opportunity, no matter how late
[00:35:55] in the game it is, it's never too late to turn to Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we ask in the name of Jesus. God, help us today to choose you. You've given us all the information we need to make an
[00:36:13] educated choice that we want to see the rest of the story. We want to commit to living this life.
[00:36:20] We want to run the race that is marked out for us. We want to thank you, Jesus, for being the man in the middle that made it all possible. And that every day, every breath, we want to honor
[00:36:33] you. God, we pray that we could bring this worship to your name as an expression of our gratitude that God in this house, it's not about the brand. It's not about the ceremony. It's not
[00:36:51] about our circumstance, but it's about the blood. Would you stand and worship with us?