This morning is going to be a little bit of a hard message. As a preacher, I have a growing sympathy for the prophets. They weren't just tasked with saying nice things or happy things, but saying hard things to people, some of whom were willing to receive it, but also to a lot that didn't care at all what they were saying. And so this is gonna be a hard message this morning, but I also hope for you that it'll also be an encouraging message and a life-giving message. The message is this. If you don't give a damn about God's word when it inconveniences your lifestyle now, God's damnation may be all that's left for you in eternity. And I don't say those words lightly, We don't have time to study the three words for sin in the Old Testament, but just in a nutshell, you have sin, iniquity, and transgression. Transgression is the sin of the high hand, where basically God gives his command and you say, I don't care. And that rebellious attitude is something far greater than one curse word could be to God. So now that you're listening, I want you to hear this. If you don't care about God's word when it inconveniences your lifestyle now. God's damnation may be all that's left for you in eternity. I say may because judgment is God's. That's God's business. And you may have mercy. And while I don't condone intemperate language, As a general rule, I think generally it's far beneath the dignity of a Christian, I speak the language of the world for a moment so that if you are tempted to follow the world, you might hear in language that you understand and that you might hear and turn back to the Lord and repent. This message this morning is a warning for Sabbath breakers And I'm not talking about if you occasionally miss church. I'm not talking about if you're on vacation and you and you need to go somewhere else for church or there's not a church and you have worship as a family on the Lord's Day. I'm talking about if you habitually regularly forsake the assembly of God's people on the day he's appointed for worship. This is a warning to you. This warning may be one of the kindest things I can say to you as a pastor. Let me say that again. This warning may be one of the kindest things I can say to you as a pastor. If you fall into the category of a carnal Christian, that is a carnal Christian is one they look really good on the outside, but they completely miss the heart. They completely miss the greater things of following the Lord, of loving your neighbor, of serving one another, of building up the church, and so forth. If you're merely a carnal Christian who only follows God's word when it's convenient for you, or you selectively follow God's word where you hope you'll do just enough so that you don't go to hell, you need to hear this warning this morning. We all need to hear it, because we all have sinful hearts that can go astray. I didn't say it's the nicest thing to say, but it's the kindness. Niceness damns. Niceness is when you're just trying to get along and not offend anybody. But kindness is the fruit of the spirit and an overflow of the gospel, and I preach for your reclamation. My warning is kind. because the Bible is filled with cautionary tales of the visible community of God, of people in the visible community of God that fall away. God warns people who, if they continue their hard-hearted and stubborn ways, will ultimately fall and have no hope in eternity. The ax is laid low to the root. Depart, I never knew you, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. See that you do not fail to enter that rest. I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter that rest. There is an eternal Sabbath rest to which the earthly Sabbath points. And faithfully and regularly gathering with God's people in a gospel preaching church, or failing to do so is a significant indicator of whether you will enter that heavenly rest. The regular gathering of God's people on the Lord's Day is intimately connected with enduring in the faith as well as with apostasy. Apostasy means falling away from God. Some people fall away from God because they are led astray by false doctrine. Others fall away from God by simply not caring anymore. I pray that there's nobody here this morning that falls into that category of not caring. I preach God's word and share its warning with the hope that you will not ultimately fail to enter God's rest in glory. In this study of the Christian Sabbath, we have seen how the Lord's Day is a principle that stretches from creation all the way to new creation. And we have seen how the Bible commends its blessings to the faithful. but also warns of the curses to the apostate. Recall that in week one, we looked at the Old Testament background to the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath. In week two, we saw how Jesus transforms the Sabbath, and we saw why Christians meet on the first day of the week, on Sunday, rather than on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the Lord's Day. In week three, last week, We looked at biblical principles for the evening service, and we saw a few examples from church history as well. And finally today, we will consider God's warnings to carnal Christians and summarize what we've learned over these four weeks. So let's dive in this morning. Point number one, carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. Number one, carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. Again, what is a carnal Christian? A carnal Christian may look like a Christian, but they're not a Christian. It comes from the Latin of just meaning your flesh. They just outwardly appear to be Christian, but they're really not a Christian. The Bible shows both in the Old and New Testaments that not all people in the visible congregation are actually God's children. That just because you're, in one manner or another, part of the visible church, it doesn't mean that you're actually part of the invisible church. I'm going to show you that from scripture this morning. These are people in the Old and New Testament who were a part of the visible people of God, what we call the visible church, but they were not really part of the church. They're part of the visible church, but they're not really Christian. Carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest, because in truth, they were never really Christian at all. To establish this point, I'll draw from a selection of Bible passages. Begin with Matthew 3, 7 to 10. And you don't have to open all these passages, but you can write them down if you wish. We're going to survey a number of passages. John the Baptist knew the truth about the religious leaders of his day. They were fake. They were phony. They were completely carnal and external. It was all external religion with no inner spiritual substance. Jesus, in turn, called them whitewashed tombs. They looked great on the outside, but they were filled with death on the inside. Jesus says that they are those which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones. and all uncleanness. It was not enough that these leaders said, as John the Baptist will say to them, that they had Abraham as their father. They had to prove it by bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. If there is no fruit that flows from a life of repentance, there is no basis to consider someone a child of God. And so John warns these carnal leaders, saying that every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. These unrepentant leaders will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. They will be thrown into the lake of fire on the day of judgment. How about Matthew 5, verses 19 to 20? In Jesus's opening salvo in the Sermon on the Mount, he doubles down on this point. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. That standard is raised so high that in the end only Jesus can fulfill it. The way of the Pharisees is, in fact, the way of death. But the problem is not that they follow the law too well, but that they deny it by their own man-made standards. They deny God's law by their own self-imposed laws. Elsewhere, Jesus says to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. The Pharisees were not bad because they followed God's commandments. They were bad because they rejected God's commandments for their own. So back to the Sermon on the Mount. This is why Jesus says that those who relax even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Carnal Christians are really good at always finding an excuse for why they can't or why they don't need to follow something that God says in his word. And I can tell you as a pastor, I've met many a carnal Christian who always has a way to scoot out of whatever they don't want to follow in God's word. And we've all done it at times, if we're honest, and we need to repent where we're doing it. Right? Chronal Christians are really good at always finding an excuse for why they can't or don't need to follow God's commandments. Now, you might get lucky. You might get lucky in Judgment Day and get into heaven. Now you're scratching your heads what I'm trying to say here. But if you do, you'll be considered least in the kingdom. That's what Jesus says. The one who doesn't do them and teaches others not to will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But I wouldn't hold my breath at getting in if that's your attitude. And that takes us to Matthew 7. Matthew 7, verses 21 to 23. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pronounces a haunting warning that should make each of us shudder at the thought of being a carnal Christian. Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Who are these people that won't enter? Were they kind of half-hearted, like, casual churchgoers? No, these are people that were apparently doing miracles, even casting out demons. They had some kind of extravagant ministries going on. And on the day of judgment, Jesus will say, I never knew you. Depart from me. So if you're just a casual church goer, yeah, I'm a Christian. Sometimes I read the Bible or sometimes I think about what God says. That's not the kind of people here that Jesus is talking about. He's talking about people that seem to be in some kind of full-blown ministry, doing signs and wonders kinds of things, but denying actually the substance of God's will. And he says, depart. I never knew you. Jesus says, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Here, Jesus shows that you can be a carnal religious person who doesn't follow God's command but is really good at looking religious and looking spiritual. They may even have done some spectacular things like exorcisms. But in the end, Jesus says, I don't even know you, depart from me. Carnal Christians who look legit and believe they are legit will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. How about Romans 8, looking at verses 9 to 11? Well, God's amazing promises are preached and given to the visible people of God who are sitting there reading the letters of Paul, reading the letters of the apostles, hearing it shared as they gather on the Lord's Day for worship. These promises are only good for the true invisible church. So, for example, Jew and Gentile relations were a big problem in Rome. Writing to the church, he qualifies the guarantee that you will receive God's blessing by saying in Romans 8, 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit if if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. So these promises given to us in the Gospel are only guaranteed for those who actually have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, for those who have actually been born again. So Paul is preaching to the visible church here, right? He's writing to the visible church. but making promises that are only good for those who are part of the invisible church, that is, those who have the indwelling spirit. That if in Romans 8-9 is really important. And later in chapter 9, Paul defends God's promises against those who claim he failed because most Jews don't believe in Jesus. He writes, but it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. And God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." So what Paul is showing us here is that it's not enough to be a carnal offspring. Well, I was baptized in the church, so I must be saved, right? That's a damning message that an overly proportional section of the church in this country alone teaches people. That's a damning message. And the preacher is damning you if that's what he's saying. It's not enough that you are a child of Abraham biologically, like a biological Jew. It's not enough that you were born and raised in the church if you don't have faith. And you don't live a life of repentant faith. Paul says, It's not enough to be a carnal offspring. Saying you're a Jew or a Christian, whether by birth or profession, does not automatically make you a Jew or a Christian. You must have the Spirit dwelling in you. How about 1 Corinthians 10? paired with Jude 1 verse 5. The congregation in the Old Testament was a mixed people just as the New Testament churches today. We're a mixed people. That is, we are a collection of believers and unbelievers. So take your faith or take your stubborn unbelief seriously. Paul shows that the cautionary tales of the Old Testament become teaching lessons for us today. He shows, for example, in 1 Corinthians 10, where he recounts the harrowing tale of how God destroyed an entire generation of Israelites because of their unbelief, because of their grumbling, and because of their stubborn disobedience. Paul then turns to Corinth and says, now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. And later he says, these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands Take heed lest he fall. Just because you're sitting in a chair this morning doesn't mean you're automatically guaranteed a seat in God's house in eternity. And the warnings of the New Testament is to take heed lest you fall. Persevere in faith. Don't fall away in unbelief and in stubborn disobedience. And I would be no good to you if I didn't preach this to you as well. Jude, who is Jesus's brother, makes the same point in Jude 1.5 when he says, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, isn't this remarkable, he's talking about his brother, who's also the son of God. Jesus who saved people out of the land of Egypt. Notice he's saying Jesus did it. Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. This is not Jesus meek and mild in a precious moments manger. I don't know if that's a Norwegian thing, that's an American thing. He's not a little doll, a little baby. As the second person of the Trinity who delivered people from Egypt also destroyed them, who did not believe. The message so far is that you're not safe simply because you stand among the number of the visible church. Many in the visible community were destroyed. Many in the visible community did not ultimately enter God's eternal rest because of their stubborn unbelief. Quote 1 John 2 verse 19. Now these aren't the only people who don't make it into heaven. There's going to be others too. Others failed to enter God's rest because they simply thought they knew better. Okay? It is a form of unbelief. Ultimately, all sin is a form of unbelief, of course. But in John's case, he was dealing with people that they didn't like the apostolic message, so they went elsewhere. They followed different teaching. Teaching that better suited their ears. And John writes, In verse John 2 verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. So there is some kind of exodus from one of the churches that John was writing to. because they didn't like the apostolic teaching. And John says, in my own words, well, they looked like us, but they're not really of us. Because if they were, they would still be with us. But because they left, they're not of us. Following his logic, John likes to go around and around and around. That's John's style. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. And sadly, John writes about a familiar experience that we still have today. People leave the church not merely to go to another church, but because they abandon sound New Testament doctrine. And while others simply drift away and go nowhere, they just fall asleep. It's like dying in your sleep. When the honeymoon is over, will you still be faithful to your wife? When sound Bible teaching becomes dull, will you abandon it for human innovation? When the people in the church aren't meeting your needs, will you leave them? Will you abandon the bride of Christ for the worldly whore. We see these things and I see them as a minister. I'm sure you've observed them too. We see these things sadly still happening today. Who do you serve? You know, the world is called the whore of Babylon and the book of Revelation. There's only two masters. You can serve the Lord or you can serve the whore. John concludes in light of this, let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you. And this is the promise that he has made to us. eternal life. So that's the call, brothers and sisters. If you want to enter that eternal Sabbath rest, abide in the word of God, by faith, living a life of repentant faith. There is a horrible eternity ahead for carnal Christians, but an incomprehensible glorious one. for God's children who persevere in faith. That's our hope. So just to summarize this first point, carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. We have seen here from both Testaments that the visible people of God is a mixed community, that not everyone in it will be saved. It is not enough to say you are a Christian. Being a Christian involves the new birth, faith, repentance, and bearing fruit in keeping with that repentance. This fruit includes the life of faith that seeks to know and understand God's commands and strive to keep them. We will never do it perfectly. So hear me right. Even the most faithful Christian will struggle with sin. It's not about living a perfect life, but it's about living the life of repentant faith. Let's move to the second point. Number two, failing to gather regularly endangers your soul. Failing to gather regularly endangers your soul. And of course, we could say, continuing to sin regularly endangers your soul. But we're going to focus on what the scriptures say about gathering regularly. So we're going to focus on this point today. Failing to gather regularly endangers your soul. And at this point we're going to focus on the book of Hebrews. And here I want to connect our study of the Christian Sabbath to the eternal Sabbath rest and our getting in or failing to get into it. OK, so we're going to connect our study on the Christian Sabbath with the eternal Sabbath rest that will come to us in glory. And whether or not you'll get in. And what the Bible has to say about it. In order to bear fruit in the study, we need to distinguish the context of Hebrews really quickly. Hebrews was written to deal with the problem of people that were in the church that were being led to go back to Judaism. And the scholars wrestle with the exact context. But it appears that either they're being led just whole hog to go back to Judaism, or to kind of a Christian, a pseudo-Christian version of Judaism, where we believe in Christ as the Messiah, but we still need to follow the Mosaic Covenant. That's the context of Hebrews. Our context today is slightly different. Now, there are some people who call themselves Christians and believe we still need to follow the Mosaic Covenant. I actually spoke to one a few days ago. But more often than not in the church today, we see people who are feeling the pull and go back to the world. The world is the God that they wish to serve. They were in the church, but they left the church. And so whether the pole is to go back to an old form and reject the substance which is Christ, or to go to the world and reject the substance which is Christ, your fate will be the same either way. And so the principles of Hebrews apply whether or not your pole is to go to Judaism or your pole is to go to the world, okay? So that's the context that we're looking at. And in the midst of this context, as the writer of Hebrews is showing how Christ is supreme over the Mosaic Covenant, the writer points these struggling Christians to Psalm 95, which we read in our scripture reading this morning. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And in this section of Hebrews, the writer says, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. In Hebrews 4.9, so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. But he's showing how just as in Psalm 95, which points to the Israelite wandering and how the Lord destroyed a whole generation in the desert because of their grumbling unbelief. He's saying that principle still applies to you in the church because there's a greater rest than the promised land of the Old Testament. There's a greater country, a heavenly one, that the writer of Hebrews will talk about later in the book. That's the eternal rest we're going to. But he is warning this church that not all of you will enter. That is, if you persist in your hard-hearted unbelief, you will not enter that rest. The writer argues in this section, there is an eternal Sabbath rest for God's people. That day will come when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead and to usher us into the new creation. That rest is in the future, but today, is the language that the writer of Hebrews emphasizes here. But today is the church age when we're exhorted to strive to enter that rest. Hebrews 3.13. And he says in chapter 4, as he continues the argument in 4 verses 9 to 11, so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us strive Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Here, the theme of unbelief, of disobedience, continues. Let us strive to enter. That's what this church age is. That's what our life is now before eternity. It's a striving to enter that rest by faith. This is where the function of gathering as the church is so important. And this really brings us back to our study in this series. Exhortation and accountability. Exhortation and accountability are some of the many reasons why we gather publicly every one day and seven to exhort one another, not just the preacher here from the pulpit, but as we sing to one another, as we meet in fellowship with one another, we're exhorting each other with the gospel. We're calling each other, we're holding each other accountable to fight sin. That's one of the significant reasons why we publicly gather as the church. I'm not going to reiterate the Lord's Day Christian Sabbath principle here. We've already done that in week two. You can go back and listen to that if you would like, if you missed it. But here we will simply note that the perseverance of the saints is intimately linked to publicly gathering as a church. The way we persevere in faith till our dying breath or till the Lord returns intimately connected with gathering publicly as the church. One of the chief ways we help each other fight sin and keep from falling away is by exhorting one another publicly together. The writer says in chapter 3 verses 12 and 13, take care brothers. lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." So not only should we do it once a week. Here he says every day. Exhort one another. that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Gathering, what we do here when we gather, gathering is an act of care for one another. We care for one another's souls as we gather publicly, that we don't fall from the Lord. The Christian life cannot be run alone. Not alone with yourself, not alone with your family. You need the church and the church needs you. You are needed. Look around at one another. You need each other. We need each other. Now, I don't want to state the obvious. But you know that the word church in Greek literally means the assembly, right? The church literally means the assembled body. So you can't be part of the church if you don't actually gather with the church. The church is the gathering of the saints, and you need the saints. You need each other. We need you. I need you. We need one another. God gives us fellow companions for our earthly pilgrimage to the heavenly city. Guys, we're all going on vacation together. We're right now on holiday. Maybe it doesn't feel like a holiday, but we're all traveling together. Maybe it's not a holiday, but we're all traveling somewhere and we're going to one of two destinations. Okay? And I want each one of you to go to the good one. Okay? We need each other. A lone sheep is a dead sheep. You need a flock and you need shepherds. And it's interesting that both of those things are addressed in the book of Hebrews because they had become a problem in the church. Later in chapter 13, as the writer of Hebrews is summarizing his whole argument from the whole book, He gives some closing exhortations, right? And in 13.1, he says, let brotherly love continue. So don't forsake your love for each other. Let love for one another continue. They need to remember to love each other. They also need to remember to listen to their leaders. Hebrews 13, 17, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be no advantage to you. God's sheep need the flock to preserve and protect their souls. God works through these means to protect you. There are no vigilante, lone drifter, I don't need anybody and nobody needs me sheep in Christ Church. Now back to public gatherings. There are many reasons why God commands us to gather on the Lord's Day, as well as other times. But the main one in focus here is endurance, that we would endure in the faith to the end. It's so we can run the race and make it to the heavenly city. We persevere in the faith by exhorting each other to fight sin. So as we gather, there is a heart-softening work that happens when God's true people gather. Our hearts get softened. Of course, there will be others where their hearts actually harden under the same ministry. and I exhort you not to be one of those. The message is do not harden your hearts. In chapter 10, we find that it is a sin to neglect meeting together. In chapter 10, we see that it's a sin to neglect meeting together, and it could damn your soul. The writer says in chapter 10 verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately, and here we see the connection, of not meeting, of not gathering, of forming bad habits, of skipping out from the public assembly. He says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Whether you neglect the public gathering of the church because you are drawn back to Judaism or because you are drawn back to the world, it is a sin that could damn your soul. If we go on sinning deliberately, that's this transgression, the sin of the upper hand. If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth. So this is not you accidentally sinned, you found out about it, you repented. This is deliberate sin when God clearly tells you to do something and you're like, nah. That's doing something far and infinitely worse than cursing. There's the expression, damning someone with faint praise. God's nice, but I'm gonna go do this. That's giving the finger to God. You may look really nice doing it, but that's the heart of it, people. That's the substance. It's the sin of the upper hand, the transgression. That we read of the Old Testament, if we go on sinning deliberately, After receiving the knowledge of the truth, the writer of Hebrews says, this is God's word. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. We've seen so far that carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. We've seen, secondly, and primarily here from Hebrews, that there remains a Sabbath rest to which the earthly Sabbath or Lord's Day points to. And we've seen now how intimately connected getting into that rest is with persevering in the faith by publicly gathering together. Finally then, let's, in brief, just summarize what we've learned from this series so far. And if you've missed some of the messages, I would really encourage you to go back and listen to them. We saw in this series that the Sabbath's origin, number one, the Sabbath's origins in creation reveal a timeless principle. A timeless principle that came before the fall, before sin, of a one in seven rest. Two, we saw that God's law shows that the Sabbath is non-negotiable. Remember that actually the death penalty was required for Sabbath breakers in the Old Testament. I'm not sure how faithfully Israel kept that, because that, as we saw, was the reason they got kicked out of the land, because they were abusing the Sabbath. But that was God's command. Number three, we saw that the prophets proclaimed the Sabbath for the coming age. For example, we saw in Isaiah how he talks about, in the new heavens and the new earth, all flesh will gather from Sabbath to Sabbath to worship the living God. He's pointing forward to that eternal Sabbath rest. When we turn to the New Testament, four, we saw that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and he expands on what the Sabbath means. Five, we saw Jesus and the apostles give first day, Sunday worship, normative force after the resurrection, which is why we call it the Christian Sabbath, the Sunday, the first day of the week, the day he rose from the dead. And you can go back and see how Jesus and the apostles gave that normative force by their own practices after the resurrection. Six, we saw in this series three New Testament texts that appear to revoke the 1 and 7 Sabbath principle if they are read out of context. Seven, we saw that the Old and New Testaments yield important principles for evening worship, including the agape meal and gathering to eat together. Eight, we saw that the early church practiced morning and evening worship, including the agape meal. and that they considered it the Lord's day, not the Lord's hour. They set a day aside for worship and for gathering with God's people. Nine, this morning we saw that carnal Christians will not enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. And then we also saw this morning that failure to gather regularly endangers your soul and it harms others because you're not there to encourage them to fight sin either. If you don't give a damn about God's Word when it's inconvenient to your lifestyle, God's damnation may be all that's left for you in eternity. I think that's the kindest thing I can say to you if you're feeling drawn to the world. The half-hearted Christian life is no Christian life at all. It's an all-or-nothing proposition. Either you're taking up your cross and following Jesus, or you've chucked it into the ditch. It's not somewhere in the middle. There's no mushy middle. It's what Jesus said was the narrow road. It's the narrow gate. The half-hearted Christian life is no Christian life at all. And failure to regularly show up with God's people on the day he's prescribed for worship is a huge tell on who you are and where you're going. Hell is a real place, and it will be filled with people who think they are Christian. This message is a warning to Sabbath breakers. Of course, it could also be a warning to anyone who stubbornly refuses to obey God's commands. The punishment for Sabbath breaking in the Old Testament was death, but how much worse is the everlasting damnation of your soul? But the good news, let's end on some good news. But the good news is that for those who persevere in faith to the end, will spend eternity with God, enjoying the eternal Sabbath rest in the new creation. Everything that this 1 and 7th rest points to will be ours for eternity. But if you don't enjoy it now, I don't think you're going to enjoy it then. If you don't enjoy gathering with God's people now, why would you enjoy doing it in heaven? And if that bothers you, that's a good thing. Take that as the Spirit prompting, speaking to you. If it bothers you, it's a good thing. Check your heart, repent, and enjoy the fellowship and the protection of the saints, because that's God's means to preserve and help you to return to him. So I've not preached nice words today. I've not preached nice words today, but I hope you receive them as kind words. I'll give the closing ones to Ignatius of Antioch, one of the early church martyrs who was led away and slaughtered in Rome, probably, as church tradition goes, was was martyred in the Colosseum, whether he was eaten by beasts or slaughtered by gladiators. Ignatius is a bishop and early church planner, we could call him, who fought and endured to the end. And this is what he said about public gathering. We'll give his words the final point. Let's learn from our brother and heed his charge. Ignatius says, Be zealous, therefore, to assemble more frequently to render thanks and praise to God. For when you meet together frequently, the powers of Satan are destroyed and danger from him is dissolved in the harmony of your faith. Let's pray.