We're back in Hebrews again.
We're in chapter 10. I want to bring this out that
we've been considering these passages in Hebrews 10, ever
examining ourselves whether we are in the faith. That's what
this is all about. Am I in the faith? Am I trusting
Christ? Am I putting the works of this
flesh aside? Don't take that wrong. Some folks take that as though
I'm telling you that we don't have to consider the law of God.
Well, folks, I'm telling you that the people of God believe
God's law is good. I just can't keep it. I do everything I possibly can,
and I know that you do as well. But we fail at it. We're not
comparing ourselves to the right thing. The one we need to compare
ourselves is to the perfect one. And I can't compare myself at
all to Him. Thankfully, our Savior has given
us a Lord that we can count on, who is faithful and is able to
save us to the uttermost. I don't know about you, but I
need that. I need someone who can save me.
I was thinking about that this morning. I'm putting a lot of thought
right now into the message that I want to bring when I'm in Madisonville.
And I was thinking about that very thing. What can I say to
these dear folks, these dear brothers and sisters in Madisonville
that their pastor and others have not already said? Nothing.
I can't tell them anything. Anything new. There's nothing
new. John Reeves needs a Redeemer.
John Reeves is a sinner. Saved by grace, but a sinner
still. I need a Redeemer, I need a Justifier,
I need one who can sanctify me before God, and that one is His
Son, the Lord Jesus. I need Christ. We've been considering
these passages here in chapter 10, ever examining ourselves
whether we're in the faith or are we apostate in this battle
between the spirit that desires to fully trust and lean upon
the everlasting arms of Christ and His righteousness in the
flesh. The battle between that and the flesh that continues
in sin. And folks, it'll never get any
better. Those who say, oh, life could be so much more full for
you if you'll just come to Christ. Since I've come to Christ, since
He has drawn me to Him, I see the problems of John Reeves way
bigger than they were ever before. I see things about me that is
sin that I never thought is sin before. But our great and gracious
Lord has given us His word. some reassurance of this last
half, some reassurances in this last half of the chapter, of
chapter 10, and they declare the apostate, and then they finish
with an encouraging assurance. So I wanna read a great section
of scripture. So if you'll join me in your
Bibles, Hebrews chapter 10, and we're gonna begin back at 21
of Hebrews chapter 10. and having an high priest over
the house of God. That's important to introduce
us to what we're going to read to you next. Let us, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We can Draw
near to that one who is our high priest, that one who is making
intercession for us, even though we're sinners today, even though
we still sin in the flesh, we have a high priest over the house
of God, God's people. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. That's
talking about the evil conscience of this flesh. putting that away
and our bodies washed with pure water, the water of His Word,
let us hold fast, grab a hold of it, hold on to it, the profession
of our faith. What is the profession of our
faith? Jesus Christ is Lord. You want to get simple about
things? That's as simple as it gets. Jesus Christ is Lord. And
as Lord, what He did on that cross 2,000 years ago is perfect. And everything He does today
is perfect. Hold fast to this profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful, that is promised.
And let us consider one another to be open to love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the
more as you see the day approaching." Now, we've covered that in about
three different studies. So we've looked at that. But
you've got to set the table for what we're going to see next.
Because what we're going to see next Paul declaring apostate
men and women. Folks, not all people who attend
church services in a gospel-preaching church are God's people. When
the Lord said to the apostles somebody was gonna betray Him,
every one of those apostles stepped up to the plate and said, Lord,
is it I? That's because we don't know for sure what God's will
is next. You don't know what God's will until it's done. Everything
that happened from this very second behind me was God's will,
I can tell you that. Because nothing happens outside
of the will of God, outside of His purpose. But I don't know
what's going to happen next, in the next few minutes. The
Lord could send lightning down and strike this building and
burn it up, just like that. He could send me a heart attack,
just like that. Anything could happen next. We
don't know for sure what the Lord's purposes and wills are
next. Lord, is it I? Is this me for when we sin, verse
26? For if we sin willfully, after
that we have received the knowledge of truth, there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sin. Now, I want to say this again.
If we sin willfully, what does that mean? Folks, every sin you
and I do is a willful sin. We're not like that comedian
who I don't need the devil to make
me do sin. My sin is mine. And God's people
know our sin is ours. What does it mean to willfully
sin after you have received the knowledge of the truth? It means
to turn away from the truth. It means to willfully say that's
not the truth. I'll not accept that as the truth.
That's what that's talking about, willfully sinning, willfully
turning away from God's word, from God's truth. But a certain,
verse 27, but a certain fearful looking for a judgment and a
fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries, he that
despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses,
of how much more sore punishment, suppose he shall be, he shall
he be thought worthy of, thought worthy, who hath trodden under
the foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace. If I don't declare the gospel
to you, then your blood is on me. But God's preachers, those
who are sent of God, preach the gospel. They preach the gospel
of Christ and Him crucified. I recently heard a message that
one of God's children asked me to listen to. And the man spoke
of the five doctrines of grace. And he did a great message on
the doctrines of grace, but he never once brought out in any
detail Christ and Him crucified. He slapped, as far as I'm concerned,
on preaching the gospel. God's ministers don't slap on
that. That's what saves God's people.
I've heard some good messages from men that I would not consider
to be God's preachers because they never preach the truth of
the gospel. They preach some good doctrines of grace. I'm
going to give a name to you. Charles Stanley was a great speaker
on the doctrines of grace, but he had no idea and no experience
of the grace because he never want he very I Want to take that
back. He very rarely ever spoke of
Christ in him crucified. Let's go on Verse 30 for we know
in him that has said vengeance belongeth unto me. I Will he
says recompense sayeth the Lord and again, the Lord shall judge
his people. I It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God, but call to remembrance
the former days in which after ye were illuminated, ye endured
a great fight of afflictions. You see that? That's the child
of God right there. After we had been brought to
knowledge, after it had been illuminated to a new heart, of
what the sovereignty of God was, what the grace of God was, we
endured a great fight of afflictions. Verse 33, partly while she were
made a gazing stock both of reproaches and afflictions, and partly while
she became companions of them that were so used. For ye had
compassion of me in my bonds, writes Paul, and took and took
joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves
that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance." Now
this is Paul giving them praise for what they did and sending
him support. "...cast not away therefore,"
in verse 35, "...your confidence, which hath great recompense of
reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will
of God ye might receive the promise, And he that shall come will come,
and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him." And here's what I want to focus on now. We've read this. Is it me, Lord? Is it I? As we
say those words to what we've just read? As we examine ourselves,
am I in the faith? Is it Christ that I'm trusting
in? Is it Him alone? Verse 39, but we are not of them
who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of our soul. We that believe, we that believe. Paul concludes this chapter with
a comforting, assuring, and a challenging word of admonition. He urges us not to cast away
our confidence, our confidence in Christ. He urges us not to
cast away our confident hope of everlasting salvation in our
Savior. Folks, that's our profession.
That's what we profess. If you go back to Hebrews chapter
3 for just a moment, I want you to look at that with me. Go back
to Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1. Wherefore holy brethren. Now
this is the admonition that Paul is giving to the Hebrews, the
brethren, the Hebrew brethren. Wherefore holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling. That's God's elect. That's those that are vessels
of mercy that God has aforechosen before the world was to receive
His Irresistible call. Brethren, consider the apostle,
the high priest, of what? Of our profession. Who is it
we profess? It's the God-man. We profess
there is nothing in this flesh for us to have any confidence
in. Our only confidence is in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. That's
our profession. Back in our text of Hebrews chapter
10, He's telling us not to take our eyes off of Christ. That's
what Paul is doing here. He's telling us, don't take your
eyes off the cross. We are not of them who draw back
unto perdition, unto destruction. We know people who've done that,
don't we? Roger and I have been talking a little bit about some
of the men that used to be in this church before the big split.
Conferences first started, and Henry Mahan was here for the
first time with a conference. were faithful to the word. They
were faithful to the congregation. They were faithful to the preacher. They worked hard to put the conferences
on. They jumped up and did what needed
to be done. And now they don't attend anywhere. I know, because I worked with
one of them for several years at FedEx. And last I spoke with
him, he didn't attend church anywhere. He didn't attend church
anywhere. There are those. who hear the
word of God and leave it for one reason or another. And that's
not God's people. We don't leave. Why? Because
we are kept by the power of God. Trust me, if he would allow me
to leave, I would leave. If it was God's will to say,
okay, let's see where John goes. He knows where I'm gonna go,
by the way. He knows all things. But if he was just to say that,
For my sake. Let's see where John goes. John
would run. You know who else did that? Jonah.
Paul is comforting us, assuring us, and challenging us with God's
Word. He's urging us to look to Christ
and look to Christ alone. Trials will come upon us. Temptations
will assail us. Satan will roar his ugly roar
against us. And the world And all of its
sparkling, shiny things that go on will try to allure us away
from our Lord and Savior. You think the church is not under
attack today? Oh, I'll tell you, folks. I'll
tell you. There's unrest. I speak with
a lot of folks around the country. And there is unrest in God's
church, in a lot of God's churches around this country. We are,
I can't express to you in words how blessed we are here at Rescue
that we don't have those troubles right now. We have a wonderful,
wonderful, but fragile, as our brother Mike Loveless likes to
put it, a peace in Rescue. And I am so thankful for that.
I'm so thankful that I don't have to deal with the troubles
a lot of our other churches are dealing with. But we are under
assault. God's people are under assault.
There's things of this world that are bursting up in front
of us, things that are in our own church and our own members.
But listen to these words. Those troubles, those trials,
they're certain, but so is this. The sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Isn't that good news? All the
troubles that you and I have right now within this world,
within ourselves, all those troubles aren't even worthy to be compared
to the glory that God has given us in eternity. That's in Romans
8.18 where I read those words from. Yes, there is indeed a
great recompensive reward at the end of our pilgrimage. We
shall be with Christ. We shall be like Christ. We shall
see Him face to face. Our God shall wipe away all of
our tears from our eyes forever. When we have entered into and
taken possession of the glory, which is with Christ, there will
be no more sorrow. I know several of you are sitting
there right now thinking to yourself in your own minds, Lord, bring
it today. Lord, come now. I'm tired of
this world. I'm tired of this flesh. Come
now! There shall be no more sin. Isn't
that wonderful? That's the great, you know, I've
heard Pastor Gene, I've heard Mike Loveless, Roger, I've heard
you, I've heard Polly. I've heard you folks say this,
you know, the thing that excites me most about eternity? I'll
have no more sin. The battle between this flesh
and my spirit will be over. I'll sin no more against my God. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, let
us exercise these words, patience, that after ye have done the will
of God, ye might receive His promise. For here is the promise
by which the Holy Spirit inspires our perseverance for yet a little
while. And He that shall will come and
will not tarry. That's what we just read a moment
ago. Back there in verse 37. Turn over to John chapter 14. Let's read a couple of verses
over there in John 14. When our Lord Jesus comes, He
will put an end to all the suffering and all death and sorrow. John
chapter 14, we read these words, beginning at verse 1. Let not
your heart be troubled. This is the Lord God Almighty,
our Creator, speaking to you and I. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe God, believe also
in me. What was that last verse we read
in our text back in Hebrews 11? But ye are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe. to the saving of the soul. You know, somebody once told
me that I put too much emphasis on believing. Folks, we are saved
by grace, but it's through belief. It's through believing the truth
of who Christ is, what He's done, and where He is right now. Verse
2, in my Father's house are many mansions, it says. If it were
not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."
Go read John 17 when you get a chance to, on how the Lord
speaks of you and I as one with Him. Oh, wonders of gracious
words. Look over at Revelation chapter
21. Turn over to Revelation chapter 21. We'll read a couple verses
over there. Look at verses 4 and 5. Revelation
21, verse 4. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Folks, this is the promise that
God has made to us. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former
things. were passed away. And he that
sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write these
words, write for these words are true and faithful. Ours is
the life of faith. It is written, the just shall
live by faith. So let us exercise the patience
and confidence of faith in our Savior Christ Jesus. You can't
tell me that enough. I need reminding of that over
and over again. Our Lord knew we were stiff-necked
and forgetful. He knew the world around us that
we walked in would be at times greater than our own hearts.
Trying to draw us away from Him We need that reminder. Look to
the Lord Jesus. True believers live by faith,
not by law, not by works, not by merit, not by ceremony, but
by faith. We receive spiritual life by
faith in Christ. That life is sustained and it's
kept by the power of God through faith, through belief. Examine yourselves. Are you in
the faith? It didn't say examine yourselves.
Are you doing the right thing? Are you acting like a Christian? Are you walking the walk? No,
it says in faith. Are you in the faith? In Romans
4, verse 16, we read these words. It is of faith that it might
be by grace to the end of the promise might be sure to all
the seed. works make no contribution to
the life of a true Christian. If any professor of faith draws
back to ceremonialism, or turns away from the simplicity of faith
in Christ, God says these words, he says, my soul shall have no
pleasure in him. But then it says this, But we
are not of them, we are not of them, who draw back unto perdition,
but unto them that believe in the saving of the soul. True
believers cannot, will not, and do not leave Christ, nor will
they take up the weak and beggarly elements of the law as their
support, as their confidence. No, rather they'll say this,
to whom shall we go? Who else is there to go to? Nowhere
else have I heard of the grace that I hear right here in my
Lord's Word. Christ alone is life. Christ alone gives life. Christ alone is He who saved
us and kept us, thus far will keep us to the end and will present
us at last faultless before the presence of His glory. And I
want to look at three sections of Scripture. If you would, first
begin by turning to John 10. And we'll bring this to a close. The first being in John 10. Look
with verses 27-30 with me if you would. John 10, 27-30. My
sheep hear My voice, saith the Lord, and I know them. Now do you catch these next words?
And they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. One more, or two more if you
would. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. These are all familiar verses,
I know that. You know me, I wear these verses
out as much as I can. These are assurance to this poor
soul who stands before you. In Romans chapter 8, beginning
at verse 38, we read these words, For I am persuaded, writes Paul,
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities.
We're talking about those who will not turn away from God. I have confidence, as Paul says
here, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate me, us, from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus. One last one, turn to Jude. He's
talking about being kept. Kept by the power of God. Kept
unto belief in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Look here at verses
24 and 25. Jude 24, Now unto Him that is
able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and
power both now and forever. Amen.