Hebrews Chapter 6 - Assured of Your Salvation

00:00 - Speaker 1 God wants you to be at rest. He wants you to know that you are saved. John wrote these things I write unto you that you may know, not that you would hope. So I don't have hope. So salvation, I have no, so salvation. He says these things I write to you that you would know that you have eternal life. I know that I have salvation. Well, how do you know? Because Jesus said so. 00:26 - Speaker 2 Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightNYCcom. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you that he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:09 - Speaker 1 Praise God. See, that's where everybody was. They were waiting to come to the second service and we went somewhere in worship. When you have a chunk of people, you got to have a cluster. You got to, I know Jesus said we're two or three and that's nice. That's like the minimum, though, but in the upper room there wasn't two or three, there was a cluster, and the wine is in the clusters when you got a good cluster. We're missing a few folk this morning because we got robbed of an hour right. And so here you are, now in second service. Isn't it amazing how you can go to bed four or five hours after your regular bedtime, wake up the next day, typically totally fine, but daylight savings time we're all wiped out because they took it from us. See, if I go to bed four hours after my bedtime, that's my choice. My mind and body are prepared. But now what happened? I love that song. I love that song. 02:13 We were stuck in St Andrews. Many of you don't know we have that second location just around the corner that we still keep Life, groups meet there and we do other things there, but we were stuck there and we couldn't, we couldn't. We were already wall-to-wall people. The reason we were stuck is because spaces in New York City they're not a dime a dozen, they're not plentiful, and I was looking for spaces. One day, mauricio and I, we went out and we just drove around all of Astoria looking for spaces and saw an old gym. Nothing fit. You know, any space that's large enough to hold hundreds of people. They have pillars and columns, and it was kind of a defeating time. We went back into my car and I turned on my car and this song came on. It's exactly how we were feeling walking around these walls over and over again. I thought they'd never fall. It's like, lord, you're growing our church, you're blessing us, but we're in a little house on the prairie church with one bathroom, no air conditioning. Please provide something. Within five seconds, we were roaring, laughing in the car. I was laugh, crying, cry, laughing, the anointing all over me. And that was 2017, early, I just know. Several months later, the door opened up for this place Amen. And then and then, you know, we were too small for this place, and then the Lord filled it up and now I'm at that place where I'm going again. Lord, I'm walking around these walls In my emotions. I thought they'd never fall. But you, oh God, you're faithful, faithful always. Hallelujah, welcome to those of you joining us online. 04:04 I want to jump in with a bit of a different kind of message this morning, different but very important. I think of myself as an encourager and a teacher. But you know Paul, he echoed this sentiment several times very clearly and specifically in Colossians 1. He said teaching every man and warning every man. So within teaching, within encouraging, there has to be some warning, salt and pepper there. Amen. 04:36 The Bible says if a father doesn't correct or train his child, he actually despises and hates this child. And if I, as a pastor, never, ever warned anyone, I would be held guilty, amen, I'd be liable. I need to biblically, I mean some preachers there's a whole part of them. They only rely on warnings. Everything is you better? Not, but there is a healthy warning, amen. 05:02 I had to announce that because, with my opening scripture, you're going to wonder where are we going with this today. Mark, chapter 3, verses 28 to 30. Truly, I say to you this is Jesus speaking. All sins will be forgiven, the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter. That's good news, isn't it? And that's the gospel, that all of our sins, no matter how bad, how heinous they've been taken away by the finished work of Jesus. It's good to remind ourselves of that. Even when you read your Bible right, you look at it and then you think a bunch of these authors the Bible is 66 books, over 40 different authors A bunch of them had committed murder, some more than once, From Moses to David. Just off the top of my head, paul was a serial Christian killer and yet totally forgiven, totally redeemed. So nobody's beyond the blood of Jesus, nobody's beyond forgiveness. And that's beyond the blood of Jesus, nobody's beyond forgiveness. And that's the gospel Good news. 06:09 In order for you to appreciate the good news, you got to know the bad news. The bad news is we've all been born under sin. We've all been born into this earth. No matter what we do, there's a verdict of guilty over our heads and the Bible says we are in our hearts at enmity, we are at war with God and the wrath of God abides on us because we're all born into sin. We like to compare ourselves to the worst person we know and kind of make ourselves feel better. God doesn't do that. He compares us to the best person he knows himself. And we always fall short. This is all the bad news, and we always fall short. This is all the bad news. 06:46 The good news is is that God, he knew you were in a bind, so he came as a savior and he came from heaven to earth. God was made flesh. He went to the cross. All of our sins, every single one, past, present and future that was placed upon Jesus, and then the just wrath of God was hammered out. Holy justice was served, yet not for us. It was on Jesus. He took it in our place. He was our great substitute. This is the good news, right? So sin has been taken out of the way. 07:19 Yet we find Jesus saying in the next verse but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty, and this is a very scary term of an eternal sin. Terrifying, right, terrifying that there could be a sin, and here it's blaspheming the Holy Spirit that you can never, ever get forgiveness from. It's over Done. And I want to address this because the enemy, he actually loves this verse also because he twists it, probably his favorite Bible verse. He twists it. He twists it to torture Christians. And I've just seen something in years of ministry that there are actually a lot of Christians who are tortured by this verse, like too many, and the one doing the torturing is Satan whispering to them that they've committed the unpardonable sin, that they're beyond redemption. 08:33 When I first became a Christian, for the first like 10 years, I did a lot of homeless ministry, partly because I'm a very, very compassionate person, but mainly because no one else would listen to me and I had a captive audience, me and my friends. We'd get sandwich bags, little juice, things and at least I got five minutes with you. You owe me that, buddy, let's talk. And here's what I found over the years that a ridiculous amount, an insane amount, a disproportionate amount of people I would encounter thought that they were guilty of the unpardonable sin. And as I was seeing that, I read the story Another minister. He was writing and he said in mental asylums there's actually a disproportionate amount of people who believe they've committed this sin Because all of your sins have been forgiven. 09:28 Right, but if you don't understand this verse, it leaves the door open. Ah, but there's one. And Satan does not like you free from guilt and shame and condemnation. He likes that condemnation hanging over you and when you have faith in the blood of Jesus and you realize all your sins are gone, but Satan can still say, oh, what about this? Maybe you did it on accident, maybe you did it in your mind, maybe you did it and you don't remember you did it. But to your surprise, you're gonna show up to heaven and God, the judge, is gonna say, uh-uh, what a terrible thing, right? So let's go into Hebrews, chapter 6. 10:07 Amen, salvation is the most important thing to me. Jesus is the most important person to me. Salvation is the most important thing. I believe we should treasure it and we should understand it right. If it's the most important thing and it is we should know the parameters. We should know the rules of engagement. We should know, for example, can I do anything to mess it up? Can I lose my salvation? If I can, how do I lose my salvation? Because I really don't want to lose my salvation. Hallelujah, I just use what want to lose my salvation, hallelujah. I just what I sense in my spirit some people are gonna get saved today. Just what I said in the first 30 seconds. 10:55 It's the first time you're hearing things like this, let me assure you, and what most, most people in the Western world believed most up until about five minutes ago was there is a God, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. Yeah, and I tell you the same don't trust me, but trust the Lord, who said it over and over again If there's no hell, why did Jesus come? He was bored, he needed some activities. No, he came as a savior to save you from hell, from your sins ie and the consequences of your sins, from your sins ie and the consequences of your sins eternal punishment. So in Hebrews 6, oh wait, before I get into Hebrews 6, let me just say, let me tell you what I believe, what this church believes, and you decide for yourself. 11:48 When it comes to salvation, you are saved not by what you do it's what the Bible calls works but you're saved by faith. So what that means is no amount of good activity can undo your past sins. Right, if you sold everything right now, went to the poorest place in earth, served the poor there, if you did that for the rest of your life but didn't trust in Jesus for your righteousness, you're hell bound. You can't do good things to earn salvation, but if you receive by faith and say Lord, I can't do it on my own, but I trust you. You've taken away all my sins. I believe in the finished work of the cross. All of your sins are taken away and you have eternal life, amen. So if you can get saved by faith and you can you can get saved by works. You can't lose your salvation by works. You can lose your salvation by unfaith, by rejecting Jesus and stopping to believe. That's what I believe. 12:48 You wrestle with the scripture yourself and I understand there's a centuries-long argument about this, a debate. There's been a tension, if you will, for centuries and centuries. Different groups have argued. This is what the word, to me, is very clear about To me. I know preachers love to say the Bible clearly says, and you're like well, it's not that clear. We've been like in that particular one that you're saying it's the Bible's clear in a lot of things, but when you say the Bible is clear. 13:17 Anyway, here we have Hebrews, chapter 6. It is a warning letter, because the Hebrew Christians were the most persecuted Christians and they were beat up, they were busted, they were destitute. They were tired of being persecuted and they were on the verge of rejecting Jesus and rejecting their faith and going back to Judaism, rejecting Christ. And so the book, the letter of Hebrews, it's an appeal to them to not forsake the Lord and come back. Okay, let's begin. You know, I was in the middle of the book of Hebrews. Then, I think, thanksgiving came, and then Christmas came, and now here we are in March and I'm still not sure if I'm going to continue it, but I wanted to do Hebrews 6 because of this very, very important topic that shows up in Hebrews, chapter 6. All right, hebrews, chapter six. All right. 14:12 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands. He's saying you guys really need to like up your game, and I don't want to lay the basics for you. In fact, i'm't want to lay the basics for you. In fact, I'm not going to lay the basics for you. The way I'm going to challenge you is I'm going to, instead of milk, I'm going to be giving you meat, and you're going to come up Something to learn from that Of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. 14:51 Now, to these people who are on the verge of not like, just getting a little lukewarm for a while, getting distracted. For a while They've been lukewarm, they've been distracted. Now they want to drop away from the faith. He says it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. So this is connected somehow to what Jesus was saying. There is this sin that you can never, ever get forgiveness from If they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. 15:53 Terrifying, terrifying. Not someone who was in the first service. All right, holy Spirit's watching. Can someone just shout out what is this sin? What is the sin? That there's Quiet? He's got the right answer, but give the others a chance at least to bake a little bit. Mr Acacia Wood or whatever, what was that? Once I asked about the wood in Noah's Ark, he was the first one to call out the correct wood in the building of noah's ark. You're, you're barred from calling out anymore. Chris, just give others a chance. This guy will tell you how many gemstones were in the high priest's outfit. 16:48 Someone shouted out blasphemy against the holy. Yes, but what kind of blasphemy. It is specifically rejecting Jesus. The reason there is no forgiveness is because when you reject Jesus, what can you do after you've rejected him? There's no more space for you to do anything else. Now to clarify this, just because it's important for all of us to be on the same page here, because there are people who are tortured about this. They're tortured. You may meet them. You yourself may be one, and I know there are some here. I know I've been doing this a while. I know I've seen people that when you give an altar call, they keep answering the altar call over and over. Christians answering the altar call over and over. That is not God's best for you to keep. 17:33 Quote unquote getting saved on a Sunday, that's actually a torturous state to be in. God wants you to be at rest. He wants you to know that you are saved. John wrote these things. I write unto you that you may know, not that you would hope. So I don't have hope. So salvation, I have no. So salvation. He says. I write to you that you would know that you have eternal life. I know that I'm holding a microphone in my hand, I know that I'm leaning on a table right now. How do I know? I know, I know that I have salvation. Well, how do you know? Because Jesus said so. 18:12 The Bible says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Oh, I did that. I know I have salvation. Amen, and I will not allow devils of doubt and unbelief to torment me. So if that's you, we're going to break the back of that thing today and you can enjoy the rest of God, the peace of God. That's when Christianity actually works, when you're resting in Jesus and you know that, even though you're not experientially perfect, but he has perfected you. Hallelujah, you know what? Before we go to Hebrews, please let's just go to that one verse in Colossians Colossians 1, because it sets up Hebrews 6 better. 19:00 It's important to stay in the faith and not forsake Jesus. Colossians 1, 21,. And you who were once alienated that's all of us, by the way. We never like to think of ourselves that way, but we were alienated from God and enemies of God in our mind by wicked works. Yet now he has reconciled. Here's some good, encouraging news. He's reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present you, oh yeah, holy. That's you and some of you it's about to be you. You're going to get saved by the end of this service. Hey, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach, above shame in his sight. Isn't that good news? And then, though, this conditional if, if you continue to go to church, if you pray two hours a day no, thank God, it's not that, thank God, your relationship with the Lord you work out right. There isn't these legalistic works related stipulations, but you have to stay in the faith. You got to keep believing. 20:19 What is staying in the faith? The best I can liken it to is holding onto Jesus' hand. I have experienced a lot. I'm going to be 50 years old next year. I got some mileage on me now, right, I've experienced a lot in my life. There are times pastoring nearly a quarter of a century. There are times in my life I got so hit as a pastor, so hit, so discouraged, so hurt, that all I could do and I still had to get up and praise the Lord. I was not very satisfied with my Christian walk, my Christian life, let alone what my walk in life should be like as a minister in these dry, tough seasons. What did I do? At least I just kept holding his hand, and even that was like. You know, dads, when your kid just throws you their hand up and you kind of do all the heavy lifting. At least I did that, and that's all he asks. 21:08 Continue in the faith. Sometimes life slaps you upside the head, all right, fine, but keep holding his hand, the good hand of the wonderful shepherd, amen. If you continue, that's important. You got to continue. That's, by the way, why I believe. Yeah, we're going to get to losing your salvation, but it's not something that just happens and it's not something that's easy to do. And it's not something that just happens and it's not something that's easy to do, and it's. If you're wondering, have I lost my salvation? You probably haven't. 21:43 People who commit apostasy, they don't care anymore. Lucifer isn't going around pacing the skies as the prince of the powers of the air, wondering, I wonder if I can, you know, say sorry to God and we can patch this whole thing up. When you've committed apostasy, when you've rejected Jesus after having known him, you become deranged, completely reprobate. You don't even want to go back. I hope this is helping somebody. All right For the three people. The rest you're just going to have to tag along For the three people that this is for. No, it's helping you If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, which I, paul, became a minister. Amen, amen. So you have to just continue in the faith. 22:39 You know that term fallen from grace Whenever a minister falls newspapers, media outlets that's the first oh, so-and-so fell from grace, so-and-so fell from grace. That's the only context I've actually ever heard it used in, except when I went to guatemala. You know we go often for the last 15 years, our missions project in nabag, guatemala, and the missionary there, mike mccomb. There's a lot of drunkenness there. The direct descendants of the maya. They shield people just genetically. They can't handle their liquor, they don't have an enzyme to uh, to metabolize it Right, and so you'll see drunken people just sleeping in the mud in the streets, like everywhere. You know, you just walk five minutes, oh, there's somebody, and Mike McComb, the missionary there, said you know, if they're Christian, the Christians there will just go. Oh, he's fallen from grace, that term fallen from grace. 23:30 How many of you heard that term All right, that term fallen from grace? How many of you heard that term All right? When you look into the Bible, which I highly encourage, right, get your theology, get your worldview from the Bible, not from what people say. That phrase is used only once fallen from grace. And Paul actually uses it for the Galatians when they took their eyes off of the finished cross and started trusting in their own works. He says you are fallen from grace, not when you go fall back into sin. I'm not belittling sin, but I do want to bring scriptural accuracy. That drunk guy in the mud is not fallen from grace. He's still just a breath away from Jesus. He didn't fall from grace. All he has to do is look to Jesus. Jesus hasn't left him. Jesus is still with him. He doesn't have to get re-saved. He needs to just put his eyes on the Lord and walk with him and yield and surrender, and you know what. He may fall again, and then you get back up, what he may fall again, and then you get back up again. He may fall again. Get back up again, amen, hallelujah. All right, let's get back to Hebrews 6. I think we're Go back one verse Kenneth Hagen. Just keep it on that verse, please, because this is frightening. 25:01 Kenneth Hagen tells the story of Jesus coming to him giving him a vision. If you've been coming 10 plus years, how many times have I preached another minister's vision? Exactly zero times, except this one by Kenneth Hagan. I preach from the word of God. This is a man I love, this is a man I respect and, frankly, this is a man whose ministry birthed more international ministries than any other modern figure in the last 300 years that I know. And so I trust this. And it's not just that I trust it, it's that it aligns with the word of God. And he says the Lord Jesus appeared to him. He was a prophet, a real prophet of God, not a Facebook prophet, not a parking lot prophet, but a real prophet with the goods to back it up. Jesus took him into a vision and he saw a couple, a couple he had met only once before husband and wife couple and they were both together in ministry. 25:54 And he says in that vision he saw a demon, like a little imp-like creature, land on the woman's shoulder and whisper to her you are so beautiful, you are so talented, you have been cheated in this life and she immediately recognized that as the voice of the enemy. And you know, a lot of people say Satan is tempting me, but sometimes they mean literally Satan, like, literally Satan, like the Satan, beelzebub, lord of the Flies. No, no, that term the enemy or Satan, just means yeah, satan and his kingdom and his hordes. And you know, for most of us Satan doesn't have to come, he just sends a little two-foot little imp in his place. It's enough of a challenge. 26:47 Lands on her shoulder, lands on her shoulder, tempts her. She immediately recognizes it as the voice of the enemy and she says I rebuke you in Jesus' name. This demon falls from her shoulder, tempts her. She immediately recognizes it as the voice of the enemy and she says I rebuke you in jesus name. This demon falls from her shoulder and in the vision he acted, the vision he actually says I saw the devil squeal and run out of the church. Then in the vision, a little time passes, she's brushing her hair in the mirror. Same demon lands on her shoulder and says you're so beautiful, you're so talented, and just starts provoking her, irritating her. You've been cheated in this life. She rebukes the enemy again, immediately the enemy is silenced for a while you know, when satan tempted jesus, it says that the devil left him for a season. Then leave him forever for a season. 27:40 Vision fast forwards just a few days into the future. Same evil spirit comes upon her shoulder, says you're so beautiful, you're so talented, you've been cheated in this life. This time she doesn't rebuke it, she just entertains the thought a little bit like, yeah, life didn't turn out how I wanted, how I hoped, and I kind of do feel like I've been cheated and I am very beautiful and talented. He said in that moment, in the vision he saw her like a glass mannequin vision. He saw her like a glass mannequin and a dark black dot appear inside her skull about the size of a quarter. And now Jesus is explaining the vision. 28:29 He said she was oppressed with these, this harassing temptation. She was doing fine Until there was a part of her that she just wanted to be tempted a little bit. She liked it. I know you can't relate to that, but there are people sometimes they just like they don't tell themselves they're ever going to act on the temptation. But you just kind of want to let your mind wander a little bit and you kind of like the temptation and you think about it. When she partnered with that temptation, when she allowed it in all of a sudden it's not that she was oppressed from the outside in now that dark circle formed inside of her mind and she became obsessed. Before, possession, after, oppression is is obsession, people get obsessed. She was obsessed now with this and she kept thinking about it over and over again. Well, what you think about, you bring about. And as she received this thought, she divorced her husband, left him, ended up chasing the world for her fame and her fortune and slept with many men In the. 29:37 The vision fast forwards a little bit more and Kenneth Hagin says he's standing outside of a hotel and sees a well-renowned minister come out of a car and head into the hotel room and he was on a mission to bring this woman back to the Lord. News had spread about because both her and her husband were in ministry. News had spread how she had left him and he wanted to give her another chance and confront her and draw her back to Jesus, he says in the vision he sees him take the elevator, go up, knock on the door. The door opens and on the other side is this scantily clad woman and the minister begins to appeal to her Come back to Jesus. He's still here waiting for you. He's forgiven you everything already. Come back to him. And she looked at him and said I don't want to have anything to do with you or your damn Jesus. And she slammed the door. At that moment, everything changed In the vision, that dark dot that symbolized the obsession. It now went down into her spirit and she had committed the unpardonable sin she had renounced Jesus. 30:50 In 1 John he says there is a sin that leads to death. He says there is a sin that leads to death when someone is in this kind of sin. He says I don't even say that you should pray for them. That's in the Bible. Don't even pray for them. That's a good question. What is the sin that leads to death where the Bible says don't even pray for them? Well, it's this sin, because you can't pray for somebody who they can't even come back to the Lord. Now, this is good news Happy Sunday. Everything's going to be all right. We're going to get somewhere with this. 31:28 There are qualifications to be able to commit this sin. Rewind, I think, to verse 4. So that you can see that you have not. I mean, if you're here right now, you're not. You haven't. If you're wondering, have I ever committed their sin? Just ask yourself is Satan going wondering have I ever hurt God's feelings? Have I ever offended him? Maybe I wasn't aware. I mean, how was I supposed to know Stealing some of his glory? He'd have a problem with that. Maybe I wasn't aware. I mean, how was I supposed to know Stealing some of his glory? He'd have a problem with that. I don't know. No, he doesn't think like that. 32:12 By the way, that story of the minister who said there's a disproportionate amount of people in mental institutions who think that they've committed the unpardonable sin. Those are two categories of people. One, sincere Christians, but they have a legalistic religious spirit and they allow themselves to be tortured. They never did commit the unpardonable sin, but they think they have and it drove them crazy. That's some of them. And there's category number two people who actually have committed the unpardonable sin. And what's left of a Christian after that? Nothing, just a hole, a void. They're not in their right mind ever again, For it is impossible. So here he lists the criteria for people to commit the unpardonable sin. 32:55 As I'm preaching this, I realize this is not a normal Sunday morning message we used to have Friday nights where I would preach the weird stuff. But I need you all to get this. Some of you need to get peace and assurance of salvation and you need to know the rules. You need to know how this whole thing works. Amen, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened. So here are the categories. 33:18 Number one we're talking about Christians who were enlightened. What does enlightened mean? That your eyes were opened to your need for a savior, that you were convicted of your sin and you realize I have sin and I can't do a thing about it myself. I need a savior, I need Jesus. That's enlightenment. And have tasted the heavenly gift. What is the heavenly gift? In the vision, jesus himself said I am the heavenly gift, salvation. So your eyes were opened and you were saved, all right. 33:49 Three, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. That means you were, according to Acts, chapter two, baptized in the Holy Spirit. That means you are, according to Acts, chapter 2, baptized in the Holy Spirit. Are you seeing that this is not a newbie to the faith? This is not an immature believer, immature, emotional newbie. Believers have screamed at God, screamed at the Holy Spirit, said terrible things to the Holy Spirit and then wonder can I ever be forgiven of it? Yes, because the Lord knows you were temporarily very, very stupid and he's going to cut you some slack. And have tasted the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit. So, number one your eyes were opened, you saw your need for a Savior. Then you got saved. Number two, number two, number three you were baptized in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God. That means that you are not biblically illiterate. You know the scriptures, you know the word. And then number five and the powers not verse five, point five and the powers of the age to come. What are the powers of the age to come? The gifts of the Holy Spirit Discernment, discerning of spirits, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, working miracles, the gift of faith. 35:08 So it paints the picture of somebody who's been serving the Lord intimately a long time and really, really like that woman in the story. She was in ministry with her husband and in that vision the Lord said if she would have slept with a hundred men, and then he said with hundreds and hundreds of men I would have forgiven her everything. But it was when she rejected me that now she was too far gone. And it's not just that she can't come back to the Lord. The real problem is she doesn't want to. She made it that she doesn't want to and she never will want to. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter 10. I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up Hebrews chapter 10. 36:08 So I'm preaching this this morning for several reasons. One, I believe I've helped some people who, secretly or at times you've thought Anybody want to be bold and say I thought I committed a sin. Wow, yeah, let me see your hands. Look at that. Thank you, raise your hands if you thought you committed the sin of black All across the room. That's wonderful. First of all, I commend you on your honesty. I'll ask a survey like hey, how many of you are going to be a part of a life group? Nobody raised their hand. Then life groups are full. I ask like this most intimate personal question and people are like, yeah, that was me. Church is funny. Well, I'm glad that you know now that you have not. You haven't. 37:02 Blasphemy against the holy spirit is being a mature christian and then consciously, intentionally rejecting jesus. It's not an easy thing to do. Most of us, we won't even be tempted with that. But I preach this also because I don't know what the future holds. 10, 15 years from now, it could be illegal to be a Christian. We don't know. And then we have. We need to have a deeper resolve that we'll never, ever, forsake the faith and at the end of the day, we don't have power to keep ourselves. 37:32 You'll never see me prancing up here and going. I'll never deny him. I will never. You know who did that, peter, lord, I'll never deny you. And then did it the same night three times. So I'm not going to Lord. You know me, mr Faithful. I'm going to say Lord, you know too much emphasis on me. I'm going to botch it up. Lord, I trust in you for your saving power and your keeping power. You're going to keep me uncompromised, you're going to keep me strong. You're going to keep me on the straight and narrow. 38:02 And here's what he says Anyone who has rejected Moses's law dies without mercy, on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just showing you that there is this place. Someone can lose their salvation, but it's uncommon and it's not something anybody should be thinking about too much. Rather, think about Jesus and his forgiveness and the glorious life he's working out in you right now. When his kingdom come to earth, of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy? Who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace? He's warning the Hebrews and he's telling them what happens when you reject Jesus. Number one. 38:49 I want to give people an opportunity today to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We're having baptisms coming up May the 3rd. I believe it's going to be one of our biggest, most anointed, best baptismal services. I feel it in my spirit. I'd like every head bowed, every eye closed. 39:08 If you're here, you're under the sound of my voice and you're not 100% certain that you're saved, that your sins are forgiven, that you're not 100% certain that you're saved, that your sins are forgiven, that you're heaven bound. I want to say a prayer with you and for you. I'm not going to ask you to get up out of your seat, but I'm going to ask that you lift up your hand and acknowledge your need for a savior On the count of three. If you were to die tonight, god forbid, but if you were, do you know for certain that you'd spend eternity with heaven. You can know, and I want to help you get there with a prayer on the count of three. You lift your hand up. One, two in Jesus name. Three, let me see your hands. 39:48 If you need Jesus, if you need forgiveness, thank you. Keep it up, head bowed, eyes closed, every hand up. Thank you, thank you, thank, thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep those hands up. Thank you, jesus. Over 20 hands up, thank you, lord. Thank you, lord, for glorious Sunday of harvest. 40:08 All right, now I want you to put your hands down, look up at me. We're gonna say a prayer together. We're all gonna pray it out loud, but, those who raised your hands, I want you to be extra loud, because often when I do this, the other Christians are saying it out loud and the person who raised their hands who really needs to say it. It's kind of like muttering it. We're not saying it. Say it with your whole chest, you ready, we're all going to say it, dear Lord Jesus, it Say it with your whole chest, you ready, we're all going to say it, dear Lord Jesus, I believe in you. 40:40 I believe you died on the cross in my place. I repent of my sins I receive eternal life. I believe in the finished work of the cross. Thank you, jesus. By faith, I believe I've been born again, I am sin free, I'm a friend of God and I'll spend eternity with you in heaven. In Jesus name, amen. Yeah, let's rejoice. Yeah, let's rejoice. 41:17 Oh yeah, those of you who raised your hands, you don't have to do this alone. We got life groups, we got a great staff. We've got everything to help you in your walk with the Lord. Take that connection card. Did I even talk about connection cards? I didn't. Can I see one of those? Thank you, hon. 41:41 I was excited to preach about the unforgivable sin, so much that I forgot. If you're a guest, fill these out, but this is the number one way to communicate with us. If you want to get baptized, if you want to be a part of a life group, if you want a guest, fill these out, but this is the number one way to communicate with us. If you want to get baptized, if you want to be a part of a life group, if you want to serve, if you have questions you need answered, whatever you need, this is step one, and so, if you just got saved, fill one of these out. Grab a couple of those booklets. 42:13 In the foyer you say I'm not going to tell you the title because you'll forget anyway. Just go to the front and say give me the booklets and then make a decision to get baptized. And then the best advice I can give you is talk to God every day. That's what helped me in the beginning, the guy who led me to the Lord. He wasn't a minister, but he said it's like picking up the phone and talking to your best friend. Do it for a few minutes every day Best advice I got. I haven't stopped talking to him on the phone. Read the gospel of Mark. It's only 16 chapters long. If you read two chapters a day, it takes about 7-8 minutes. You read two chapters a day. In 8 days you'll be done with a whole gospel and you'll actually be in the top 1% of the world as far as Bible reading. Having read one gospel puts you ahead, unfortunately, but that's what it is. 42:59 - Speaker 2 This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.