Thank you, Joy. Good morning.
Let's open our Bibles together to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah
45. In another place, Isaiah asks,
to whom is the hand of the Lord revealed. If you and I are going
to know God, we are completely dependent upon him to reveal
himself to us. And he does that for his children,
for his elect. He makes himself known through
the preaching of the gospel. He opens the eyes of their understanding.
He unstops their ears. He causes them to believe. Look
at verse 15 of Isaiah chapter 45. Verily, thou art a God that
hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. If God hides himself
from you, you're not going to find him. Truth is, a natural man will
not seek after him anyway. No man seeketh after God at any
time. Verse 16, they shall be ashamed
and also confounded all of them that go down to confusion together
that are makers of idols. You came into this world just
like I came into this world an idolater. That's just what we
are by nature. We fashion in our own imagination
a God that does not exist. The Lord has to deliver us from
our idolatry. And he does that when he reveals
himself for who he really is. When he reveals himself, then
all idols are burned. I know that God's revealed himself
to a man when he's turned his back on all the idols of his
past religious experiences. Come out from among them and
be separate, saith the Lord. That's just what God does, isn't
it? All right, we'll read some more
from that in a moment. Tom's going to come and lead
us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. We'll repeat the last line in
each verse. You can always tell a goat is
when they hear the truth, particularly if they're a religious goat,
they respond by saying, well, yeah, but. Goats are always butting,
aren't they? And when man butts, it's to the
destruction of his own soul. But when God butts, it's a word
of hope. Look at the next verse. We were
there in Isaiah chapter 45. Look at verse 17. But Israel, the elect of God, the true Israelites,
the ones whom God chose in the covenant of grace before the
world ever had its beginning. God chose Israel and they shall
be saved. No question about it. In the
Lord with an everlasting salvation this this gospel is an everlasting
gospel it never had a beginning and it never has an end is established
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Alpha and the Omega the beginning
and the end he's the one who established the covenant of grace
he's the one that will bring it to its complete fruition you shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, world without end. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made
it. He hath established it, he created it, not in vain. He formed
it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. I have not spoken in secret.
in a dark place of the earth, I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right. When I told Jacob to seek me,
I gave him the grace to seek me. And seek me is what he did. Assemble yourselves and come. draw near together ye that escaped
of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save." A lot of that going on. A lot of folks praying unto a
God that is unable to save. Tell ye and bring them near Yea,
let them take counsel together who have declared this from ancient
time, who have told it from that time. Have not I the Lord, and
there is no God else beside me, a just God, a just God. I cannot allow one single sin
to go unpunished. Not one, I'm a just God, but
I'm also a Savior. so I placed in my son as your
sin bearer who hung on Calvary's cross all the guilt and all the
shame and every single sin of all of God's elect and I punished
their sin in Christ I'm a just God and I'm a Savior look unto
me Look to Christ, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.
For I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth
in righteousness, and shall not return. It will accomplish that
for which I sent it. It won't return unto me void.
And when the Lord Jesus Christ returned back to the Father in
glory, He did not return empty-handed. He returned to the right hand
of the majesty on high with the names of those for whom he lived
and died so that all the blessings of God are right now in Christ
in the heavenlies for all of God's elect. What a blessed gospel
this is. You see, it doesn't depend on
you to do anything. It's been done. It's finished.
It's finished. The law's been satisfied. Justice
has been fulfilled. I'm God. You're not. I have sworn
by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men
come and all that are incensed against him all that deny Christ
his glory in salvation shall be ashamed so the elect are happy
to confess in Christ is all my righteousness and all the hope
of my salvation And all my strength, my strength to pray, my strength
to believe, my strength to come to Christ, my strength to obey,
it's all in Him. Why? Because I have no strength.
I have no strength. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong. Why? Because His strength is
made perfect in my weakness verse 25 in the Lord in the Lord
in Christ shall all the seed of Israel be justified justified The only way, we go
around justifying ourselves all the time, don't we? We defend
ourselves and just somebody makes an accusation against us, we're
quick to justify ourselves, aren't we? How are we gonna be justified
before God? How are we gonna be without any
guilt before God? Only to be found in Christ, in
Him. not having my own righteousness
which is of the law but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's the only way to be justified
before God. God sees it all. He sees it all. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified. You know what else? In the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel glory. We're glad that it's that
way. The seed of Israel is glad that
Christ gets all the glory for our salvation. They're happy
that it's that way. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we've come
to this place because in Thy divine providence You've caused
it to be. You've put it into the hearts
of your children to worship you in spirit. You've caused us to
acknowledge our inability to save ourselves. You've shined the light of the
gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ by your word into
the hearts of your children and they glory and rejoice in him. Father, we pray that you would
enable us once again to do just that. That our worship would
be done in the spirit and according to the truth. Lord, that you
would be glorified in it. We thank you that we have an
advocate, a savior, and that He is God, a just God and a Savior. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Will you open your Bibles with
me to the sixth chapter of Hebrews? Hebrews chapter 6. I want you to know that I bear
the burden of wanting to be a comfort to you. It's what God's called me to
do. comfort you. Sinners need to know that there
is a place of hope and comfort. I'm not interested in shaming or harming the sheep
in any way. I want them to be encouraged. I want them to be exhorted. I want them to know that they
are saved I want you to have assurance of your salvation if
that's to be then the Lord himself is going to have to make the
Lord Jesus Christ himself the anchor of our soul now many have
read Hebrews chapter 6 and not been comforted They have found
Hebrews chapter 6 to be a source of great discomfort and a source
of great fear. And the reason why they've done
that is because they've misunderstood it. In fact, properly understood,
it is a great word of encouragement and comfort
to the people of God. It is not a threat to God's people,
it is a word of encouragement, a word of consolation. Notice with me in verse 18 of
that chapter that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation. Now that's the title of this
message, a strong consolation. I want you to have a strong consolation. I don't want you to have a weak
consolation. I don't want you to be fearful about whether or
not the Lord has saved you. I want you to know that He has.
And Hebrews chapter 6 is written to us to that end. To encourage
us to believe the promises of God. he says by two immutable
things God made a promise and then he confirmed that promise
by an oath and because he could promise by no greater than himself
his word is immutable you know I've made this point before but
God's the only thing that that word can be applied to only the
only thing everything else that we know anything of mutates. Everything does. Everything is
in the process of changing. Everything is going from order
to disorder. Everything is decaying. Nothing
is the same from one moment to the next. It's all in the process
of moving and changing. God himself is the only one that
we can say is immutable in another place he says I am God and I
change not therefore therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed
Because I have established a covenant according to my own immutable
nature. I've chosen a people in this
everlasting salvation before the world began and I'm going
to see to it that what I determined is going to be fulfilled in its
perfect completeness. Why? Because I can't change.
I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. I am immutable and
therein is the believer's hope. That's our hope. We're always
changing, aren't we? We're so fickled. We're up one
day, down the next day. We're fearful one day. We're
happy the next day. We're sad the next day. We're
just that way, aren't we? We're always mutating. We're
always changing. And our circumstances have such
an influence on all of that, don't they? And God says, buy
two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie.
He's made a promise, that's the first thing, and then he confirmed
it by an oath, that's the second thing, and therein is your hope. Look what he says in the rest
of that verse 18, that we might have a strong consolation who
have fled for refuge. In the Old Testament, God designed
cities of refuge so that those who were guilty of manslaughter,
now if you were guilty of murder, the law took place and it was
an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. But if you were guilty
of manslaughter, then the law provided an opportunity for the
next of kin, the avenger of blood to take your life for the life
that you took unless you could get to one of those cities of
refuge. And if you could get to a city of refuge and hide
out in that city, you were protected in that city of refuge. It was
the means that God gave those who killed accidentally to be
able to have a safe place to live out their lives without
the law avenging or exacting its penalty against them. And the Lord gave those cities
of refuge as he gave all the Old Testament types and pictures
as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we are. Manslayers. We did it in ignorance. Paul said, I was a blasphemer. I was an injurious man. I was
an idolater. But I did it in ignorance. I
didn't know. until the law came and then I died and God revealed
to me my sin and what did I do? What did I do? I fled to the
city of refuge and I found in the Lord Jesus Christ a safe
place. If you were in the city of refuge,
you didn't stick your head out the window. I mean, you didn't
put your hand out the gate. You stayed inside the city. Why? Because the avenger of blood
was always there on the outside, prepared to take revenge against
you. So the Lord says, I've made a
promise. I've confirmed it with an oath.
It's an everlasting covenant. I've chosen a people. I've ratified
that covenant through making everything necessary and fulfilling
that covenant accomplished in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's ordered in all things and
it is sure. And it can't be changed. God's
not adding to His church. When I went to religious school,
one of the majors was church growth. And that's a big thing
in religion today, how to build a bigger church. That passage
that we've already looked at this morning in the previous
hour, and I quoted from David's last words, the last phrase in
that verse, David said, although my house be not so with God,
Although the tabernacle of this flesh be not as it ought to be,
although my home be not as it ought to be, yet God has made
with me an everlasting covenant. That's what he's talking about
here. This is our sure consolation. He's ordered it in all things.
He's made it sure. This is all my salvation, all
my desire. And you know what the last phrase is? Though he
make it not to grow. He make it not to grow. Church isn't
growing. Church is exactly the same size
today as it was before Adam was created and the church is exactly
the same size, will be exactly the same size in eternity as
it is now or ever has been. That's just... Why? Because the
promises of God are immutable. He's not changing. He's not adding
to. He's not... Now that means that
you can't get lost out of the church. You can't get lost out
of the church. Church isn't, God's not, He doesn't
have a plan B. He's already established it.
It's ordered. In all things. And it's sure. And it's not growing. We pray
that we would be blessed with the opportunity to see one of
God's lost sheep come to Christ we pray for our children we hope
and pray but we know that that's already determined by God it's
already been determined this is our strong consolation
we have fled for refuge We have fled as a guilty manslayer
into the city of refuge in order to escape the avenger of blood. The law has no more claim on
us. Why? Because we're hid in Christ. He's that city. He is our strong
consolation. He's our hope. and upon the hope set before
us now the scripture says that Christ
in you is your hope of glory the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ people ask me what do you believe
in the doctrine of predestination I believe that God is sovereign
and that he has determined before the foundation of the world,
according to his predestined purpose, a people. My hope is
not in a doctrine, my hope is in a God. You believe in limited
atonement. I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ was successful in accomplishing the salvation of His people,
that He put away their sins once and for all, that He satisfied
the demands of God's justice through His perfect righteousness.
No, I don't believe in a doctrine, I believe in a God. That doctrine
expresses who He is, but my hope is in a person. That's what He's
saying here. My hope is in a person. The person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the meat. He's the meat. Doctrine is the milk. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the meat. The doctrine is a means to an
end. Christ himself is the perfect one. Paul said in Philippians chapter
3, he said, I'm not yet apprehended. That which has apprehended me.
But this one thing I do. forgetting those things which
are behind I press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus that I might know Him Him Oh Lord make yourself known to me
don't let me be deceived by just thinking because I've I you know
there's a there's a resurgence in America right now. I mentioned
this to you a few weeks ago the New York Times December the second,
January the second of this year had a big article on New Calvinism. There's a huge resurgence in
religion on Calvinism and if you talk to these folks they're
not talking about Christ they're talking about a doctrine and
they pride themselves, well Calvinism just makes sense, it's just make,
it doesn't, Arminianism is foolishness, it doesn't even, it doesn't even
compute. But don't fool yourself into
thinking, well because I've intellectually adhered to some doctrine that
is true, that, no, that's what he's saying, the consolation
that I have, the hope is that I fled to my refuge which is
Christ. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can't have Christ and have
your doctrine right. Wrong. You can't have Christ
and have wrong doctrine. You can have right doctrine and
not have Christ. So our strong consolation, our
hope, is in Christ. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our hope. He's been set before us. You
see that in verse 18? He's been set before us in the
preaching of the gospel. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ has been set before us. We've already set Him before
us this morning, haven't we? In that He is God and there is
none other. He is immutable. He has succeeded
in accomplishing everything that He set out to do in the salvation
of His people. It's who He is. The Scriptures
reveal Him. Who shall the hand of the Lord
be revealed to? Those whom He's pleased to open
their eyes and show Himself forth through His Word. The Scriptures
are written, These are they which testify of Me. We don't read the Bible to learn
history. We don't read the Bible to learn
doctrine. We read the Bible because God
has given us a heart's desire to know Christ, to seek Him with
all of our hearts. Don't settle for anything less. Ask Him, Lord, show Yourself
to me. Lord, speak to me. Give to me
a hope, a strong consolation. Enable me to find my refuge and
my hope in You." Which hope we have? You see that
in verse 19? Which hope we have? Do you have
this hope? Do you have Christ Jesus the
Lord, the Son of God, as your only hope? Have you fled to Him for refuge? Do you need a place of refuge? Are you guilty before God? Does
the law have a right to slay you if it finds you outside of
Christ? Does it? Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul an anchor of the soul. I've been
on boats before where the anchors didn't hold. You know, the currents
and the storms were such that the anchors just didn't hold.
It just gave way. Well, this anchor is sure and
steadfast. And you don't have to plumb the
depths of the sea to find it. No, you have to look up to find
it. This anchor is seated in his throne at the right hand
of the majesty on high. And he's not moving. Why? Because
he's immutable. He's God. He's the anchor of
my soul. The hope that I have acceptance
before God Almighty is in the person of my advocate. the righteous
one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who succeeded in my salvation and
is seated at the right hand of God. He's the anchor of my soul. I've got no other refuge. I've
got no other place to go. I've got no other hope. It's
Christ and Christ alone. He's entered in. Oh, on that fateful moment when
our Lord bowed His mighty head on Calvary's cross and said,
it is finished. I mean finished. What do you
mean by that? No, it means finished. It means
it's done. There's nothing left to do. Religion
is all about you doing something in order to secure what Christ
did for yourself. And the only difference between
one form of religion and another is what sets of rules and regulations
one might have over another. And in fact there's no difference
between Islam and Catholicism and any other thing. It's all
the same. It's all the same. Buddhism,
it's all the same. It's just a different set of
rules and regulations, isn't it? A different set of do's and
don'ts. What's the difference in the Gospel? N.E. N-E is the difference in the
gospel. Religion is all about D-O and
the gospel is all about D-O-N-E. It's just that simple. It's done. It's finished. And when our Lord
bowed his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, it's
done, there's nothing more left for you to do. Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit and the scripture says that that
veil which separated the holies of holies. Only the high priest
could go into that place where the tabernacle, I mean, where
the Ark of the Covenant was, the mercy seat. God said, here
I'll meet with you, right here. And for 1,500 years, the Jews
every year went in on the Day of Atonement and made a sacrifice
and put blood on the mercy seat. And God overlooked their sin
for another year until the Lord Jesus Christ the one to whom
that mercy seat pictured, the one that the tabernacle pictured,
the one that the holies of holies pictured, the one that the veil
pictured. For when that veil, when our
Lord's bless was rent, so was that veil. And miraculously,
God took it and tore it from top to bottom and said, no longer,
no longer is it necessary. for you to bring a blood sacrifice
in here. For the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has once
and for all put away all the sins of all of God's people.
We have an advocate with the Father. This is our strong consolation. Our strong consolation. The anchor
for our soul. The hope that we have set before
us. The one that went into the Holies
of Holies Himself and put His blood on that mercy seat. He is our strong consolation. He is the hope of our salvation. He's the forerunner. He entered
into glory. He went before us. He seated
before God. He ever lives, as Paul goes on
to say in Hebrews, to make intercession for us. He's our intercessor. He's our advocate with the Father. He's our sin bearer. He's everything
for us. He's our forerunner. Even Jesus. He was made by God. by an oath to be our priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Now, chapter 7 tells us all about
Melchizedek. We won't go into that this morning.
But there's our hope. There's our sure, strong consolation. There's the anchor of our soul. We've got... What else? And he is immutable. So what
he's accomplished, you can't change it. You can't send yourself
out of the kingdom of God. And you can't work your way into
it. You just can't do it. say preacher you be careful now
you're gonna lead people into licentious life. I'm not worried about that. I'm
really not worried about that. Not with God's people. Not for
those who are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the
author and the finisher of their faith. I'm not worried about
that. He's not gonna let them. They've been given a new heart.
They love Christ. The reason they love Him is because
He first loved them. And it's the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ in their hearts that continues to break them
and humble them and restrain them and keep them. There is a group that I fear
for. And they're spoken of in this
chapter. And these verses are the verses
that have been misunderstood and misapplied. Let me make absolutely clear. The Lord said in Philippians
chapter 1 verse 6, But being confident of this very thing,
that He which began a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. What God starts, He always finishes. God's not trying to save anybody.
I know that's what you hear in religion. Oh, God wants to save
you. Won't you let Him have His way? God never tried to do anything.
He is an immutable God, and He is an omnipotent God, and what
He sets out to do, He accomplishes. I'm so glad for that. One thing for sure that this
passage of Scripture is not saying, and that is that it's impossible
for a believer... You cannot lose your salvation.
It's not saying that. It would be contrary to the whole
of Scripture to make that conclusion. The Lord made it clear that He
would not lose one of His sheep. He knows where they all are.
He's going to bring them to Himself. And when they wander away, He
will leave the ninety and nine and He'll go get them and bring
them back. He's a good shepherd and he's
a faithful shepherd. The Lord said, no man can pluck
you out of my hand. You can't pluck yourself out
of God's hand. If God gives you faith to believe
Christ, to trust Christ as the anchor of your soul, if you fled
to Christ for refuge, if you found him to be your all and
the all, you can't change that. You may have times when you wish
you weren't confronted. You just, you can't not believe. Not if God's taught you. If another
man's taught you something, then yeah, if all you've learned is
doctrine, then somebody else can talk you out of it. But if
you've been taught of God, and the Lord said, they shall be
all taught of me. If you've been taught of God,
then you can't be untaught. Just not gonna happen. the scripture
says what he opens no man can shut when the Spirit of God is
pleased to make one of God's elect willing in the day of his
power according to Psalm 110 verse 4 verse 3 he makes them
willing he opens that door no man can shut it no man can shut
it we are kept by the power of God
He presents all of his children faultless before the throne of
grace with great joy. God's people in their pilgrimage
can fall into grievous sins, but they cannot sin themselves
out of the family of God. They can't do it. The Lord won't
let them. If the Lord did not keep them,
they would. If you know anything about yourself,
you know you would depart if you could, but you can't. He's
so faithful, and I'm so thankful for that. Now, in those times of carelessness,
in those times of recklessness, in those times of indulgence,
there comes great doubt of salvation. If the Lord has allowed you to
fall into a pattern of disobedience, you won't have assurance of your
salvation. You just won't have it. There's a direct relationship
and correlation between one's disobedience and the lack of
assurance of salvation. No question about it. But I want you to be sure. I
want to be sure. I want you to have a strong consolation. I don't want it to be weak. I
want you to have an anchor for your soul. I want the Lord Jesus
Christ himself to be real, alive, living, loving in our hearts. And that is the strong meat. Look back with me to chapter
5, because in order for us to understand the rest of Hebrews
chapter 6, we need to understand it in light of chapter 5. Verse
11 says, Paul says, seeing you are dull of hearing, I have many
things to say to you about Melchizedek and about the Lord Jesus Christ,
but you're not able to receive them. Why? Because you're babes,
you're drinking milk. I want you to, I want you to
be meat eaters. You're still getting, you're
still getting hung up on, on doctrine. You're still just, Christ has made himself known
to you, but doctrine has become the, this thing of, the laying on of, laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works in chapter 6
verse 1 and faith towards God and the doctrine of baptism,
laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
This will do with God, but move on. Seek Christ as your hope. Know that your hope is in the
living person of the Lord Jesus Christ. These precious and powerful
doctrines are a means to an end. Christ himself is the end. It's his meat, it's his body
that's our meat. He is the perfect one. You see that in Verse 13 of chapter 5, everyone
that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them
that are full age, and those who are by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Go on, verse
1 of chapter 6, go on unto perfection. Christ is the perfect one. Seek Him. Rejoice in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in your flesh. So, what does verse 4 through
verse 10 mean? Verse 4, for it is impossible
It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew
them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame. For the earth
which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth
forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives
blessings from God. Now the rain that comes down
is the message of the gospel. It's the word of God. And the
earth that takes it in and receives it, it produces fruit to the
glory of God. And the fruit of its lips is
the confession of who Christ is and what he's accomplished.
It's the gospel work in the heart of God's children. But that which
beareth thorns and briars is, and that word rejected is the
word reprobate. We looked at that last Sunday.
It's the word reprobate. rejected by God, and is nigh
unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak." Some have read this passage of
scripture and said, well it's a theoretical impossibility for
anyone to fall away. That's what God's saying. It's
part of the strong consolation. It's impossible once you've tasted
of the heavenly gift and heard the word of God and been partners
in the spirit of God. That's what the word partaker
there is, is the word partners. It's impossible to fall away. And that's true. That is true. And if that's what
this passage of scripture means, that's a strong consolation. I just think that the consolation
it gives, in fact, is stronger than that. It's stronger than
that. For the word fall away in this
passage, and that's the key word to understanding this passage
of scripture, the word fall away is only used here in all of the
Word of God and the only other place in the scripture where
it's root is used is in Acts chapter 22 when Pilate calls
for a basin of water now the Spirit of God has given Pilate's
wife a dream the night before And she warned him, in the power
of God's Spirit, through an unbeliever, to not have anything to do with
that man. Pilate was confronted with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
the Son of God, face to face. He heard Him speak. He heard
Him declare Himself to be the truth. Pilate said, I find no fault
in Him. But, in the end, what did Pilate
do? He called for a basin of water,
and the scripture says, he washed his hands. It's the same word
as falling away. He washed his hands of Christ,
and he sentenced him to the death of the cross. And he put the
Lord Jesus Christ to open shame. What this scripture is teaching is that there are some who are
stony ground hearers. There are some who will hear
the gospel and they will show an immediate rejoicing over what
they hear. They will process the doctrine. They will hear the difference.
They will follow Christ in baptism. They will become a part of the
church. They'll be in the place where the gospel is taught. And there are some that will turn from that gospel
and deny it, wash their hands of it completely, put the Lord
Jesus Christ to open shame by crucifying Christ to themselves
in essence saying He's dead to me. He's dead to me. I've seen it happen. I've seen people who showed every
evidence of being believers become professing atheists. I've seen people who say they
believe the gospel of God's free grace go back to free will Arminianism
and deny the gospel and crucify the Christ who is to themselves
saying he's dead to me. He's dead to me. In 1st Timothy chapter 1, well
in Acts chapter 19 when Paul was preaching in Ephesus a riot
broke out over his preaching and a brother or a seemingly
brother by the name of Alexander stood up before the crowd, stood
with the Apostle Paul and silenced the crowd and tried to support
what Paul was preaching. And in 1st Timothy chapter 1,
Paul identifies that Alexander as one who has become a blasphemer. He says, I have turned over,
the last verse of 1st Timothy chapter 1, I have turned both
Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan to teach them not to
blaspheme, that they blaspheme the things of God. What does this passage of scripture
say? that a person can be where the Spirit of God teaches the
gospel, a person can make a profession of faith, a person can acquire
some knowledge, but if they wash their hands of Christ, if they
crucify the Lord Jesus Christ to themselves, in essence saying,
He is dead to me, I have no more interest in Him, if they profess
a gospel against Him, or a belief against him, putting him to open
shame, they have proven themselves that they were never of God.
And there's no more room for repentance. Now here's your hope,
child of God. You'll never do that. God might allow you to fall into
grievous sins, but that's not what this passage of Scripture
teaches. God may allow some of his children
to do all sorts of things, but that's not crucifying to yourself
the Lord Jesus Christ. If God's taught you the gospel,
if the Lord Jesus Christ himself has become the anchor of your
soul, if you have fled to him for refuge, that confession that
God has put into your heart will be with you until the day you
die. You won't crucify him afresh
to yourself. You won't declare him to be dead
to you. You won't wash your hands of him. You can't. You just can't
do it. The point of this passage is
the fact that, you know, we look at ourselves and we think, well,
could I be a believer? Do I have a strong refuge? Sin
seems so strong to me and there is so much unbelief still in
my flesh. Lord, am I really yours or am
I not? The passage is teaching that
the fact that you can't not believe is your strong refuge. The fact that you can't give
up on Christ. The fact that you can't wash
your hands of Him. The fact that you can't crucify
Him to yourself and say, He's dead to me. The fact that you
can't walk away from the Gospel. You can't stop believing. That's
your strong refuge. Faith is the confidence that
we have. It's the hope. It's not... See,
what God is teaching in this passage of Scripture is that
it's His faithfulness, it's His promise, it's His immutability,
it's His finished work. It's not yours. And the only
way that you could be lost after having confessed Christ is for
you to be able to wash your hands of this truth. and put Christ to open shame
by saying, He's dead to me. I'm going to save my own skin. Being a stony ground here, showing
some life, and yet when the heat of the sun comes, the persecution
comes, you deny Him. You walk away from Him. If you do that, And men have
done it. Women have done it. I've seen
it in my own life. I see it in scripture. Then,
it's a fearful thing. That's a sin unto death. That's
a sin we don't pray for people for. That's a sin that's just,
there's no more room for repentance. But beloved, we are persuaded
of better things of you." It's not going to happen to you. It's
not going to happen to you. Why? Because your faith is not
just some... You've not just adhered to a
doctrine. You're not just... No. The Lord
Jesus Christ Himself has made Himself known to you. You can't
deny Him. You can't deny Him. He is the
anchor of your soul. He's your strong consolation.
He's your comfort. He is the hope of your salvation.
No one else. And you love it that way and
you don't want it to be any other way. Don't look for hope any
place else. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you will not allow us to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ
unto ourselves. to declare him to be dead unto
us, to wash our hands of him, to put him to open shame, to
deny him and his gospel. Lord, the strong consolation
that we have is thy immutable grace and mercy. the hope that has been set before
us in the finished work and glorious person of your dear son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in His name that we
pray. Amen. Number 42 in the softback tent,
now let's stand together. you