When the Bible Says "Today" | 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

Great song service.

Great song service.

If you would turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, and I pray you have a Bible.

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in a few and encourage you to follow along.

It's so much better to read it for yourself and just understand it.

I always say it too.

It makes a message go by faster when you have the Bible and you keep up with it.

So if you would turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, and I'll simply title this when the Bible says today.

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

When the Bible says today, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 1, it says, We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

2 Corinthians 6:1

Then he says, verse 2, for he has saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted.

In the day of salvation have I succored thee.

Behold, now is the accepted time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Let's go to the Lord in word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we just humbly Bible for you.

Again, Lord, just thank you so much for the beautiful day, for the flesh we've had, and the opportunity to come this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth.

And Lord, I do ask you for your preaching grace this morning.

For your will to be done.

And I just pray, Lord, as we received your grace, that uh we grow and become the disciples that you've called us to be.

And we thank you, Lord, for those that are here, and we pray for those that couldn't be here, for sickness and illness and different things.

We just pray, Lord, again, that everything's done and said, just brings you honor and glory and praise.

We do pray for the lost among us.

If there's anyone here today that's lost, we pray today would be the day, Lord, as your word says, that today is the day of salvation, that they would they'd realize their condition, that their their sin conditions, they're separated from you.

And uh, Lord, that they would realize how much they're loved, that realize the message of the cross, that Christ paid that sin debt, and his shedding of his innocent blood, and they would repent and call upon you and be saved.

Or any other decision that needs to be made, we pray, Lord, it'd be made today through the yielding of the Holy Spirit and the encouragement of Him that we would live a life where you again receive the honor, the glory, and the praise.

We love and we praise you.

We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask us all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So as you read this, helped us understand why uh the context of why the Apostle Paul had to write 2 Corinthians.

He wrote 1 Corinthians and he had 2 Corinthians because some false teachers had come into the church after he wrote the first letter and uh said that he they had taught false doctrine and different things, and uh they convinced some people that the apostle Paul wasn't a true apostle, that uh he was the one teaching the wrong doctrine.

And you're like, golly, the devil, he's yeah, he's outside the church, but also he can get inside the church and cause division, discord, and different things, and what's he trying to do?

He tries to negate God's word as being God's word, being the truth.

Uh not only were they attacking the apostle Paul as an apostle and the preacher of the truth, they also attacked his physical stature, uh, as well as just being, well, he's old, he's weak, he's feeble, he's proud, uh, he's not that impressive as a person.

And uh, and so many people would believe in that.

And so he wrote this to kind of defend himself, and it really uh he was a true apostle, born out of due season.

You know, he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and uh he's seen Christ, and Christ saw him and had a work for his life, and he did a lot of different things for the Lord, amazing things for the Lord.

That we're gonna look at some of the things he went through because of his apostleship and uh his love for the Lord.

But you think about uh the names they were calling and the way they were, you know, trying to ruin him.

It sounds a lot like today.

The naysayers of today, you know, he tried to tell people about the truth of God's word, that sin is still sin, and you know, they'll say, Well, you're homophobic, you're Islamophobic, you're racist, you're transphobic, all these different things they'll say because it goes because it goes on and on, you know, because they can't defend the truth, because they they want to try to deny the truth.

And I've heard it said that uh, you know, you talk about you're trying to tell someone the truth, and all they can do is then begin to call you names, is uh nobody ever wins an argument, but they say you've won the argument or proved your point when all they can do is they can't defend a position, all they want to do is attack and call you names.

And that's really where we are today.

Uh they cannot defend all the sinful things that's going on, but so they want to say that we as believers of Christ, well, you're just you're mean-spirited, you're hateful, you're this, this, this, and this, because we are standing upon God's truth, but we are way past name-calling in our society today, uh, even in Paul's time, and you look at Christ.

Uh, but you think about uh we're way past that uh as we try to proclaim to continue to proclaim the truth, and I pray we've never forgotten a guy like Charlie Kirk.

Think about it.

A guy that was really just speaking the truth, wanted an open dialogue to just talk to people.

And what happened?

They killed him.

So don't think that everything's roses and everything like that.

When you try to live for God, the devil is furious and they can't stand it.

And that's what we see here.

The Apostle Paul's writing this letter to convince those that he is proclaiming the truth and to help them understand it.

And so he asks them some very serious questions.

Some very serious questions about their faith, about what they really believe, because there are so many things out there in this world today.

I mean, Sister Tina showed me a couple videos this morning.

About what you can do on your phone with AI, I mean, it is just to me, I'm a simpleton when it comes to technology and everything.

This stuff's just like, way, it's so far from my head.

But the stuff that you can actually do on your phone, it looks so real.

It looks so real.

And uh I'm telling you, when it comes to God's word, I'm asking you and encouraging you to have a hard copy of God's word.

Have a hard copy of God's word and uh study it, meditate on it, share it.

Because that's what the Apostle Paul is going to encourage us to do as we look at this here, because it's it's an ever-changing world and not changing for the good when it comes to all the things that are going on.

Know the truth.

Know the truth.

And so he asks a serious question, and the serious question I'm asking you is do you believe in the Bible?

Do you believe the Bible is the authority, a written authority from God?

That when you read God's word, that you read it as he is speaking to you.

Because it's alive.

Hebrews 4, 12 and 13 tell us it's a it's alive, it's it's it's a it quickens us because it's alive.

It goes to the very core of who we are.

The Bible says in Hebrews there that it goes through the very marrow of our bones.

It reaches a point that no needle or no scalpel can get to.

It goes through the very core of who we are.

Do you believe that?

And I pray that you do, because it's what it is.

It is alive, it's real, it's powerful, and that's what he says.

You know, is it is it uh, but also do you read it as God's speaking to you, but he also read it as it been the lamp unto your feet and the light unto your path, that it guides you.

Psalm 119, 105 says that.

Does it, is it your compass?

Is that your center?

And then you have the Holy Spirit guiding you, teaching you the word, that you you follow what the word of God tells you.

Not just to come to church on Sunday morning, but you give your life that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life.

Not just coming Sunday morning, but your finances, your marriage, the way you raise your kids, the way you, the things you, the way you work, who you remember, who you represent, understanding that.

That's why Paul is challenging them when he says it.

And the second question is, the faith you received, is it growing or is it in vain?

You know, Solomon says that in Ecclesiastes, it is all is vanity under the sun.

If you don't live a life for God, regardless of what you've accumulated, of what you've gained, what praise you've got from man, what awards you've won, if it doesn't do anything for the glory of God, it's nothingness.

It's nothingness.

I remember one of the last interviews Elvis Presley gave.

I mean, Elvis was one of the most famous people in the entire world.

People still go, I guess by the thousands over to Graceland, there's things like that, and they ask him, you know, you had all this, the fame, the fortune, the women, all the different things he had that the world could provide, kind of like Solomon talked about in Ecclesiastes, and he said, Yeah, but I'm not happy.

He was miserable.

His fame had captured him.

Couldn't even leave his house.

All the different things.

So you think about what is it, what is it?

But here's even more seriously, he talks about the grace that we've received.

What are you doing with that grace that God has given you?

Are you growing in it?

Are you growing in that grace?

And so that's what we look at as we see this today.

That's a challenge Apostle Paul is saying to those who still have issues with him.

And so he wrote he writes this to them in verse 1.

He says, We then, as workers together, together with who?

With him, with Christ, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

So what does it mean to receive God's grace in vain?

Well, I think he just explains it in Romans beautifully.

Turn to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Keep your place here, but turn to Romans chapter 6, because all in Romans, he's trying to get the believers to understand that they are not under the law, that we're under God's grace.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

You cannot be good enough.

You cannot have all these traditions and all these rituals and all these different things you do and be good and be saved.

It's all by grace.

It's all by grace.

But what do we do with that grace?

And so so many people want to say, especially as ABA missionary Baptist, we believe in security of the believer.

What does that mean?

Well, once you're saved, if you're saved, if you're truly born again, that you are secure, that you cannot lose your salvation.

So so many people had a guy he's worked with, told me this before.

He said, I believe everything you try to teach about, but that's security of the believer, man.

I struggle with that.

And I said, Why do you struggle with that?

Because you I said you belong to God.

He said, Well, if you if you could just go out and you can lose, if you can be saved forever, and you can just go out and live like the devil and just sin, sin, sin, sin.

I'm like, well, you don't understand what the Holy Spirit does to you.

He will convict you that you don't want to sin.

And are we sinless?

No.

But we should sin less.

And so the Apostle Paul basically tells this in Romans chapter 6 to people that have that kind of attitude.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

That you're just saved by grace alone.

He says this in verse 6.

He said, Why shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Saying, Well, I know I'm saved eternally, I can go out and do whatever, and all I do is ask God to forgive me.

That's not, that's not the right attitude of a Christian that belongs to God.

That's not the right attitude.

Because the Holy Spirit, again, will convict you not to commit that sin.

And you turn from that.

That's what the Apostle Paul says in verse 2, he says, God forbid.

God forbid that some woman have that kind of attitude.

That says they're a child of God.

He said, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

And he says, Know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death.

That is, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like his Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Look what it says.

Even so we also should walk in newness of life.

What's it mean?

We're different.

We're different.

And that's why we I almost say this verse almost every time there's a baptism.

Because that's what it shows.

It's a picture.

It's a picture of the dying with Christ and being raised to walk in newness of life.

And he says in verse 5, For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, this is what he tells us, that our old man is crucified with them, that the body of sin mightn't be destroyed, that henceforth you should not serve sin.

And so that destroys the attitude of that understanding.

Well, I can just go out and live like the devil and God's going to forgive me, and I'm still going to be in fellowship with him.

Not at all.

That's not the right attitude.

That's what he's saying.

You've died.

He says, He that is dead, verse 7, is freed from sin.

He says, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we should also live with him.

And knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.

For that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

And he says, likewise, reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And he says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.

Everybody is still alive, even being born again.

We're still in this flesh, and there's three things, lust of the eye, lust of the eye, lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and lust of the pride of life.

Those three things.

We all struggle with it, if we're honest, because of the flesh.

But we shouldn't yield to that.

We'll be yielding to the Holy Spirit.

That's what he says in verse 5.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

And he says in verse 14, For sin should not have dominion over you.

For he says, You are not in the law, but under what?

Under grace.

And that's what he's trying to remind the people in Corinth, church here in Corinth, that you have received God's grace.

Is it was it just in vain?

Was it just lip service?

Are you truly growing?

Understanding that we are to be growing in our faith.

Then he then he goes back in verse 2 and he says, For he has saith, for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee.

Behold, now is the accepted time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

What's he doing?

He's quoting Isaiah 49.

And that's what the whole Bible says about the most important decision we'll ever make.

It's what?

Being saved.

Placing our faith in Jesus Christ, being born again, accepting Jesus as Savior, and not just being saved, but again, making Jesus Lord of your life.

Remember Thomas, after Christ was resurrected, and he came into Christ showed up with the disciples, and Thomas wasn't there, and they told Thomas, hey, Jesus is here.

He was here.

He said, Well, I won't believe it until I put my hands in his fingers, in his scarred uh fingerprints, nail, nail palm, nail mark's hands or his side.

He said, I will not believe it.

So a few days later, Jesus shows up and he calls Thomas and says, Thomas, come here.

He put his hands there and he just opened his eyes.

He says, What do you say?

It says, My God and my Lord, my Lord and my God.

And that's what God wants, that He be the Lord of our life.

It's so important.

That's the only way we will grow because God will not take second place in your life.

In anything.

He always has to be first place.

And when is that?

Today.

And guess what?

It's tomorrow.

And it's the next day.

It's understanding that we live for Christ.

It's always today.

It's always today.

It's not like the devil will try to deceive us like a sign.

David Jeremiah said he's seen this sign out in California.

It said, big old giant sign.

It said, free gas.

He thought, wow.

Free gas.

Maybe some kind of promotional or something.

And he drove around there and got exit, got a remember by the sign, under the sign, a big old huge sign.

You had to get real close to it.

You can see it.

And it said, tomorrow.

Free gas.

Tomorrow.

Well, God says that we are to live for him today.

Today.

And that's why the apostle Paul is under helping them, wanting them to understand that look at your, remember your salvation.

Remember the grace you have received.

Is it growing?

Are you growing in your faith?

And because and understand that today, we're to live for him today.

If you're lost, be saved today.

If you're out of fellowship with God, renew that fellowship today.

Be walking with him today.

Because, you know, it's the greatest question, really, is will you be saved or will you not?

Will you accept Christ or will you not?

Will you make him Lord of your life or will you not?

It's like the old proverb that says, you know, we should never put off anything for tomorrow that we can get done today.

Why is that so true?

Because we're not promised of tomorrow.

We're not promised of tomorrow.

Get things done today, get all you can get done today, just in a in a secular way, your house, your work, whatever you gotta do, guess what?

You have a lot less stress in your life.

If you're a procrastinator and different things, you try to push things off this, that, and the other, guess what?

You're gonna have stress because of the things you know you need to get done, and you push that off, there's always things that pop up that you don't didn't realize you're gonna have to get done.

So serious things pop up.

I didn't take care of this, this, and this.

Then you take care of those serious things and the things you should have got done, really start widening up.

And then you have all kinds of stress in your life.

That's why we're gonna walk in fellowship daily with God and do the things we know we must do every single day for God.

And so he encourages us.

Look what he says in verse 3 give me no offense in anything that the ministry not be blamed.

What's he saying?

He said he's to live a life that God commands as a Christian.

Not judging each other, what he says, not judging each other as some members were doing the apostle Paul.

So he lists the things that he had to endure to be a blameless follower of Christ.

And he lists those things.

Look what he says in verse 4.

But in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, and afflictions, and necessities, and distresses, in all these things he went through as an apostle, as a disciple of Christ, he said, in stripes, in imprisonment, and tumulants, and labors, and watchings, and fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, in which he means sincere, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown, yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live, as chastened, but not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich.

And look what he says at the very end of this verse as having nothing, but yet possessing all things.

That's really the Christian life in a nutshell.

We don't really have anything.

But if you belong to Christ, you have everything.

To the world, that makes no sense.

But for the us that are born again, it makes complete sense.

Because it we have everything.

We have Christ.

God has given us his very best in his son, and his spirit, and his word.

And it really is an amazing thing to think about.

Uh you know, 1 Timothy 6 6 says, godliness with contentment is great gain.

But really, what the apostle Paul is saying is for our for our walk, it's it's it's deeper than just being content.

It's a willingness to give up anything and everything in your life.

If it hinders your walk with God.

Turn to Philippians chapter three.

Philippians chapter three if you if you look over it.

He gives an account of his life, the Apostle Paul does to the church in Philippi.

He says in verse 4, Philippians chapter 3 and verse 4, though I might also have a confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He's not bragging on himself, he's just talking about his lineage and the tradition and who he is.

And he says, Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

And he says, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and says, touching the law of Pharisee.

He was saying that he was and is a Hebrew, a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin.

He gives his history.

And he was a Pharisee.

That means he he understood the word and he grew in it and he understood it.

And he said, A Hebrew of the Hebrew, a law, touching the law of Pharisee.

And he says, Concerning zeal, people want to say, How zealous are you?

He says, Persecuting the church.

That's how zealous he was to try to do what he thought was right according to the law, according to the word.

He says, Touching the righteousness which is the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, he says, those I count lost for Christ.

He says, Yea, doubtless, I count all things but for lost, that excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

What he's saying, he means everything that he's achieved apart from Christ is nothingness.

It's a nothingness.

And he says, in verse 9, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

That's what he's saying.

That's by faith.

Where is your faith?

Is your faith growing?

Are you still in fellowship with God?

And so he turned back to 2 Corinthians 6, and he speaks directly to them again, speaks to their heart.

And he says in verse 11, Oh you Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

The apostle Paul had such a love for these churches, such a love for these churches to grow and to be to be like Christ, to be the light, to be the example.

And I'm telling you, there's so much in our world today that's going on.

I mention it a lot, probably every Wednesday night.

I talk about the Muslim influence in our nation.

It's growing rapidly.

And we looked at a verse last week on Wednesday night that uh that God would He would use the rogue nations around Israel to humble them because they would get out of fellowship with God.

And so they allowed they would allow them those rogue nations to come in and plunder them, take them into bondage, take them into prison.

And I've been saying it for years, and I pray.

That I'm wrong, but it's looking like I'm going to be right.

That God is going to use that Islam, the Muslim religion, to come in and destroy this country.

If the church doesn't wake up.

It's not going to be a government.

It's not going to be a government.

It's not going to be a military that saves our nation.

It's going to be God.

And who does God use?

He will use the church.

The church is to stand up and to be the salt and be the light.

That's what he, to have a love for God, because God has a love for us.

That's what Paul is saying.

He says, our heart is enlarged.

He says, ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in our bowels.

He says, it's not just basically not, he's not, I'm not just giving you lip service, telling you how much I love you.

I love you.

I've demonstrated all the things I've gone through to show you the truth, to show you how to live for Christ.

He says, now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children.

Be also enlarged.

How much do you love them?

He loves them as if he had children.

And what's he say?

Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

For what shall fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and with communion hath light with darkness.

What he's saying is don't get caught up in the world.

And again, so many people want to have one foot in the world and one foot in the church.

You cannot please God living like that.

But Jesus plainly says you cannot serve two masters.

You've got to be all in or you're all out.

Because God sees the heart.

That's what Paul is saying.

Don't have anything to do with the darkness of this world.

Come out from it and stay in the light.

And he says, and what concord hath hath Christ with Balao?

Or what part hath he believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

And he says, For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

He says, Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.

And he says, And I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

You know, talking about being the temple, the apostle Paul had said that in the first letter.

Turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

He plainly tells us that we, our bodies, are the temple.

There is no temple today, but where is it?

It's our physical bodies.

There will one day be a third temple built.

But today, of course, it's going to be desecrated by the Antichrist and all those different things, but there'll be no more need for a temple because it's for us.

We are the temple of God.

He says in verse 19, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, he says, What?

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own.

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that the Holy Spirit, that the Trinity, the third part of the Trinity, is inside of you?

I pray you do.

I pray you feel him.

I pray you talk to him every day.

I pray that's why you're here today, that the Holy Spirit led you here.

Because he's in you.

And then he says, You are not your own.

Look what he says.

For you are bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

And how do we do that?

Living in today.

Daily walking with God, keeping him first in all things.

What a reminder.

Make a decision to, like the song, our last song says, What?

Trust and obey.

There's no other way to be happy in Jesus and to trust and obey.

That we would truly seek to do the will of the Father.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Basically, the whole theme of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Christ in all things.

Over the angels, over Moses, the high priest, the law, all the different things that people want to get worship and serve.

We ought to be worshiping and serving Christ, believing in Him.

He says, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, today, if you will hear his voice.

And I pray you have today, you have not heard my voice, but you hear the word and you read the word, you're hearing God speaking to you.

Because when I say, Are you in fellowship with God?

It's not Ronnie Fortson wanting to know whether or not you're in fellowship with God.

I don't know if you're in fellowship with God or not.

But when I'm up there preaching for God, he's asking you.

God is asking you, are you in fellowship with God?

Are you in, it's like he's saying, Are you in fellowship with me?

I don't know, but guess what?

The one speaking through me knows whether or not you're in fellowship with me or not.

And so he wants you to make a decision.

If you're not to be, and if you are to be growing.

That's what he says.

Where you hear the, as the Holy Ghost say, today, if you will hear his voice, and I believe everyone here will hear the voice.

Because the Holy Spirit's among us.

The Bible says when two or three are gathered, he'll be in the midst of us.

The Holy Spirit is here.

Yes, inside of each believer, but also outside, talking and whispering to the lost to be saved, and those out of fellowship to be back in fellowship.

And he says what?

The first thing he says in verse 8, what'd you say?

When you hear the word of God, what'd you say?

Harden not your hearts.

When you say, the Holy Spirit says, You need to be saved.

And you automatically say, Well, maybe tomorrow.

Or maybe next week, or maybe when I get this right, or when I get that right.

The Bible is saying, Be saved today.

Be saved today.

And he says, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the days of temptation in the wilderness.

What happened?

He reminds them.

They were in the wilderness.

They're officially going to the promised land.

They'd seen all the miracles, all the different things, said, Here it is.

Go and possess it.

They're like, no, there's giants over there.

We don't want to trust you, we trust in ourselves.

So they wandered for 40 years.

For 40 years, and I believe I may be wrong, but I think it was like a 14-day journey.

They could have been and accepted that promise within 14 days or closer.

But what happened?

They wandered for 40 years and never saw the promise.

How many people do you think come to church their entire life and never receive the promise of Christ?

Think about it.

Of the thousands and thousands and thousands of people all around our nation, all around the world today, he's come to worship God, but have they really and truly received the promise of God?

Because they're not yielding to the Holy Spirit.

They don't have the Holy Spirit inside of them.

That's what he says.

When your father has tempted me, approved me, and saw my works forty years.

It's a choice.

It's a choice to believe and to follow.

To believe and to follow.

But to reject is dangerous.

To think that you have tomorrow or next week or two days or what it might be, what happens because you harden our hearts.

You harden your hearts towards God, and that small still voice gets even lighter.

And the real pressing conviction, you begin to sproad your shoulders out and say, I can handle this.

I can handle it.

And so eventually, eventually you feel no pressure.

We talked about on one Wednesday night when talking about the Exodus.

And he said, because God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

A lot of people say, well, how why would God harden Pharaoh's heart?

Well, because Pharaoh hardened his heart first.

He had rejected God first.

And so all through that, because of his rejection, God would use it, it would harden his heart.

And so that's the danger of hardening your heart against the Holy Spirit.

You become less sensitive, less sensitive to things.

I mean, just think about how the world works.

I mean, when all this homosexual thing just exploded in the last, say, 10, 15 years, you see something on TV or commercial, two men or two women, you just like, ugh, you just turn the channel.

Because he's like, golly, it's so offensive, it's so disgusting.

But now you just see it all the time.

You kind of get numbed to it.

I pray we never are, but you see it.

That's what it does.

It's bombarded with it.

And so many people harden their heart when it comes to seeing the goodness of God.

The same type of way.

It doesn't have, it doesn't affect them.

And he says, Wherefore I was grieved with a generation that said, they do always err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.

I pray that you belong to God and you know his ways.

He says, So I swear in my wrath that they should not enter my rest.

What is that?

It's a judgment of God.

He says, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God.

What's he say?

But exhort one another daily while he is called what?

Today.

You have an opportunity today to be saved?

You have an opportunity today to be an example of Christ.

And he says, Today, lest any of you harden, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

And you think, well, I'm not that bad.

Well, if you have pride, pride in your heart is sinful.

You are to turn it all over to God.

And he says, For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

Well it just said, today, there it is, it says it again, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.

For some, when they had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

But when whom he was greed forty years, was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom swear that he should not enter into his rest, but to them that should believe not?

What does it say in verse 19?

So we see that they cannot enter in because of unbelief.

So the question is, what do you believe?

What will you do when the Bible says today?

Would please stand?

Brother Matt, come forward.

Really think about your life.

Think about today.

What is your plan for today?

To live a life for God?

To give your life to God, to be a witness for Him.

And that's between you and Him.

But I pray if you're not saved, be saved today.

Look at the cross.

Realize how much you're loved.

That sin, your sin debt, my sin debt's all been paid through the blood of Christ.

And you would repent of your sin.

Tell God, I'm sorry for my sin.

But I believe in Jesus.

I believe he died for my sin.

I believe he rose the third day, and I believe he's alive today, waiting to come back.

And Lord, I don't want to spend eternity in hell.

I want to be saved.

And however you word that, God will save you.

But he doesn't want to just save you.

He wants you to become a disciple.

And how do we do that?

We continue to grow and understand the first step of obedience is to be baptized, to show the world what's already happened on the inside, to be a to be an example, and to serve him through the church, as we sing.