would open your Bible to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Let's begin
reading in verse 1. for the law having a shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image of the thing,
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comer thereunto perfect. For if that could have
made someone perfect, for then they would not have ceased to
be offered. because that the worshippers
once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance again made of sin every year. For it is not
possible. Now, you remember that. It is
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins. Wherefore, when he, the Lord
Jesus Christ, cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice an
offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.
And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book that is written
of me to do thy will, O God. Again, when he saith, sacrifice
an offering, and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest
not, neither had his pleasure therein, which are offered by
the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every high priest standeth
daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand
of God. Why did he sit down? It's finished. No more sacrifices for sin. It's
finished. It's all done. From henceforth,
expecting to his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Wherefore,
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us, for after that he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of sins is, now where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. Now verse 19, having therefore,
because of everything that I just read, because that he has put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, having therefore, brethren,
speaking to believers, having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God." Notice that thing in verse 22, the first
statement. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Now verse
23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for he is faithful that's promised. Now verse 24, let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and 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. Here in the book of Hebrews, many were still believing in
keeping the law. still believe in the Old Testament
sacraments, and the high priest, and all those things. They just
couldn't turn them loose. And they were trying to get believers
that were looking to Christ. They were trying to draw them
back up under the law. Do you not hear the law, you
that desire to be under the law? And that's why I went back and
began reading in verse 1. Those sacrifices can never take
away sin. If they could put away, they
were just a shadow. They were just pictures of the
one that come and he made one sacrifice for sin and that was
enough. And it put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. I thought about when you read
there in Ruth. Ruth and Orpha and Naomi. Why didn't Orpha go back? They're
both had something in common. They're all three widows. Her
and Ruth had both lost their husbands. They both lived in
Moab, that idolatrous country. And she goes away. And she's
very affectionate for Naomi, kisses Naomi. But she goes back
to her gods. It's almost like Naomi said,
why don't you girls just go on back? I don't have any more sons.
But not Ruth. What made the difference? There's
nothing back there. She's going by faith because
of what Naomi has told her. She said, your God will be my
God. Your people's going to be my people. And where you die,
I'll die. What made the difference? One was grace. One believed. One persevered. One did not. One did not. You couldn't turn
her back. And how's she walking? She's
walking by faith. How do you walk by faith? She's
just going on what a woman has told her about her God, and she
said, our God's visited his people and given them bread, and we're
going to Bethlehem. And never been, and she wanted to go, and
she went. But not Orpha. If they ever go
back, they never believed. Simple and plain as that. In
Hebrews, it says they would not enter in because of unbelief.
Nothing is more dangerous than a false faith. Orphan, she pretended
to believe for a while, but she turned back. You know why? That's
where her heart was at. I'm going to ask you a question. Are you truly a believer? Are
you resting in the Lord Jesus Christ and his perfect righteousness?
Or are you trusting in something you do? When you try to make
something you do, it still comes out works. It still come out
law. It's death in the pot. That's
what it is. We're saved by grace, through faith, and not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. Or have we
just deceived ourselves? You know, this book of Hebrews
is very, very plain, but it gives us a lot of warnings. The Holy
Spirit of God gives us warnings. Here's one back in chapter 3,
if you want to turn back to chapter 3, verse 12. Take heed, brethren, so we know
He's speaking to us. lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort
one another daily, why it's called today, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to
the end. Now chapter four, verse one,
let us therefore fear. lest the promise being left us
of entering into rest, any of you should seem to come short
of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them."
You know what he's saying here? Moses, God preached the gospel
to those people in the Old Testament. He preached the gospel to them
in the wilderness. Now I know he preached to them
in pictures and types and prophecies. He preached to those. They heard
the gospel just like you've heard the gospel. Curing the gospel
is not salvation. Believing in Christ is salvation.
Believing the doctrines of grace is not salvation. Christ is salvation. And we can deceive ourselves.
And this is what he's saying. But the word preached didn't
profit them. Not being mixed with faith and
then they heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. Do you know how many that came
out of Egypt went into Canaan, the land of rest, Jacob, and
Caleb, and everybody 20 years old and younger? What happened
to the rest of them? Died in the wilderness. Why wouldn't
they enter in? They didn't believe God. That's
so simple, isn't it? You know what's going to send
you to hell? You just don't believe God. Just
don't believe him. Willful. Unbelief. That's what
he's saying. He said, I've sworn in my wrath that they shall enter
into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Don't you listen to me. God has given us warnings,
and I've just read to you some warnings, lest we, even as believers,
presume. But he's given us faith and assurance,
lest we despair. Because if we're not careful,
we can catch ourselves just living in despair. But is there not
any joy? Yes. Is there not any peace? I would not, by God's grace,
ever take anything away from the Lord's people and their assurance.
Someone said it's like a pendulum on a clock. You ever seen a clock? Old clocks that had a pendulum,
didn't run by electricity? It goes from one extreme to the
other. Over here, you've got presumption.
Over here you've got despair, but somewhere in here you'll
find peace. Somewhere between presumption
and despair is hope. Newton said, amazing grace, how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Also said, tis a point
I long to know. Often it brings me anxious thought,
am I his or am I not? Do I really believe or do I not? Someone said, I read, that if
you ever doubt, you're damned. Others say, if you don't ever
doubt, you're damned. Here's what Mr. Fortner said. It helped me. He
said, I'd rather go to heaven doubting the sincerity and the
truthfulness of my faith in Christ than go to hell presuming. It's my faith. If you're already there, turn
back to Hebrews 4 verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
But he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
And because of that, because he is able to be felt with the
feelings of our infirmities, I may have said it last night,
and if I did, I'll say it again. He knows what you're going through. He knows you. He knows you better
than you know you. Let us. Because of that, let
us. Now, who are the us? I said sometime
that's an acronym for useless sinners. If you're a useless
sinner, that's speaking to it, let us, useless sinners, therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. What does that mean,
boldly? It just simply means we have
the right to come. We have the right, yep. He bought
the right. He gave it to us. And we can
come boldly. Faith in Christ is not some passive,
indifferent thing. It is living and active. James
said, faith without works is dead. How do we know Ruth believed? She left Moab. In her faith,
you could see it. It was active. It wasn't just
empty words. But she did say, she said, your
God's my God. And she left. Faith without works
is dead. Our perseverance, and we will,
all God's elect, all his children, are preserved and they will persevere,
every one of them, until the end. Why? How do you know that? What's the assurance? Because
of who we believe. He died. He put away sin. If
he ever loses a one, as I said, he's a failure, and he's a fake,
and you can't trust him. But your perseverance is our
responsibility. God won't believe for you. He
gives us faith, but you have to believe him. Naomi couldn't believe for Ruth,
and she couldn't believe for Arthur. She had to believe. I
believe. Explain it. I just can't explain
it. Can you explain how you believe? I can. Just one day, when it
please God, I believe. Now our faith is mixed with doubts
and fears, but I believe. I believe. We must hold fast the profession
of our faith. We must not be moved away from
the hope of the gospel. All this, these that God requires,
it can only be done by the strength that God gives. What I want us to see is we have
such great privileges as children of God. You know, it's just a
privilege to be here. It's a privilege to be with the
Lord's people. It's a privilege. to know we come from different
backgrounds but we have something in common. What a privilege.
We can talk about our Lord and we just enjoy it. We can spend
hours talking about him. What a privilege. The world has
no idea. They don't have that privilege.
I have the privilege. I can go to my father anytime. That's a privilege. I was going
to save this for later. I'm going to put it in now. Years
ago, when I used to live in North Carolina, my study was in the
basement. And I only had one little granddaughter then, and
she was probably three or four years old. She knew where Grandpappy's
study was at. I remember one Sunday morning,
I was downstairs in the study, and I always kept the door unlocked.
And I heard her coming down the steps. I knew it was her. I could tell by the way she walked.
She comes. She didn't knock on the door.
She pushed the door open. She'd run around the desk, and
she didn't say, Pawpaw, can I get in your lap? She'd jump right
up in my lap. You know what? She had the right. She had the privilege. Pawpaw
didn't say, no, I don't have time for you. That was a privilege. It was
my privilege to hold her, and I still have the privilege to
remember it. You know what our Lord says, He said His people
are precious. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. Oh, that our Lord would give
us the grace to enjoy, enjoy the privileges that we have as
children of God. And today I want us to look at
our responsibilities because of these privileges. First of
all, is they relate to ourselves. Then is how they relate to our
God, and then how they relate to one another. In verse 22,
let us draw near. How do we draw near? We do it
freely. And we draw near by faith. We don't have to go to some priest.
We don't have to come to some front of a church. We can do
it riding down the road. We can do it laying in our bed.
We can draw near to God. Because we have the right into
the holiest of all. In the Old Testament, not everybody
can draw near to God. Only one man, the great high
priest, on one day of the year, and not without blood. There
was a sign, an invisible sign on that veil that said, now you
need to stay out. There was a man, took it upon
himself one day, named Uriah, I mean, Uzziah the king. Now
he's a king, but he's not a priest. There's only one prophet, priest,
and king, and that's Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Uzziah said, I'm
going to go in there, and I'm going to make an offering. And
they come in there, and they said, you don't have any right
to be in here. You can't draw near to God. And
God smote him with leprosy. So how can I and how can you
draw nigh to God? He is my high priest. He is my
mediator. His blood has been offered, and
he says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Do you know there's no reason
why we should hesitate to draw near unto our Father? We have perfect freedom. That's hard for us. It is for
me. How in the world can I draw near?
Well, maybe if I've read enough. Maybe if I've prayed enough.
Isn't that how we think? That's how my mind thinks. Well,
then I would just be able and fit to come. No, that would make
me unfit. With his fitness on, let us draw
near. Draw near. Under the law, they were afraid to draw near.
I heard Bruce Crabtree say one time, he said, I lived for years,
and all I could see was the bad side of God. But he was talking
about Mount Sinai and the wrath that said, you stay out. Are
you perfect? Stay out. You're not perfect.
The sacrifice has to be perfect to be received. The law made nothing perfect,
Hebrews 7 verse 19. It made nothing perfect. But
you listen to this, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw near nigh unto
God. How are we to draw near with
a true heart and full assurance? Well, how
can I make an old heart? Isn't it not this organ in here
that beats? How can I have a true heart?
Only one way. He must give you a new heart.
What's this word new heart means? It means that which is opposed
to doubt doubting, distrustful, and a hypocritical heart. Our
Lord had said in Matthew 15 verse 8, they draw nigh unto me with
their lips, but their heart is far from. That's how you draw
near, with a true heart. That's the only way you can draw
near, a heart. that longs for Christ. As the
heart pants after the water brook, our souls pant after Him. This is what it says in James
chapter 4 verse 8. Listen. Draw nigh to God and
He'll draw nigh to you. Now then notice this next statement. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
Our hands are filthy. And if you could see it, everything
I touch My hands are filthy. His hands
are clean. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. A double-minded man is unstable
in all of his ways. That's us. Come with a true heart
in full assurance. Do you have assurance? If you
have a Christ, you do. You say, well, I don't see it.
You're not going to have assurance by looking for it. If you look
for it and find it, it's not assurance. It's Christ. What is my? It's Christ. Full
assurance of faith. Lord, give me that. Give me that
true heart to believe you. and come to you through Christ
as an empty-handed beggar. That's how we draw nigh. How
did you first draw nigh? By grace through faith. How do
we keep coming? Same way. You don't invent a
new way. Our Lord has sprinkled Our evil
consciences and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Look there in Hebrews 9 verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered. Who entered? He did. I know, but who entered? God
entered and a man entered. You think about that. My representative,
the God-man mediator, my surety, he entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Redeemed,
how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. For
if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh
under the Old Testament covenant, how much more Shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience. What is it to purge something?
It's to cleanse it. To purge your conscience. What
does he purge our conscience from? Dead works to serve the
living. And true God, that's what he
purges it from. Them old, dead words. It's your conscience. What do
you mean by conscience? You're born with a conscience knowledge
of good and evil. A conscience. You sin against
your conscience enough, God'll turn it over to a reprobate mind.
God'll sear your conscience. He'll give you a conscience.
Pure conscience, sprinkled. Here's how it works. We're trying
to ease our conscience. That conscience that screams
you're a guilty, vile, and godly sinner. That's who you are. That
conscience demands perfection. And God sprinkles the blood of
his grace. And you know what the conscience
says? That's enough. He no longer screams. Nothing else can stop that conscience.
Nothing you do. That's what men are trying to
do under the law. Because there was a remembrance
made every year of those sins. If you're a timid child, don't
be afraid to draw near to your God. Here's what Mr. Pink said. He
said, if you are so fearful that you don't possess a true heart,
or have full assurance of faith. If you cannot come with these
things, come to the throne of grace for this. So let us draw near. Now verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. without wavering. We have faith
and we have hope. Hold fast the confession of our
faith because Christ has consecrated
a way for us. Without doubting, we have a responsibility
to believe God. We have a blessed hope And our
hope is in Christ. He says, let us hold fast. What
does that mean to hold fast? It means to continue. It means
to do so with great difficulty and danger. The kingdom of God
suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. You know what Jacob said? I will
not let you go till you bless me. He's holding fast. Remember, I think it's there
in Luke 24, when they're walking on the road to Emmaus. And they've
been walking a while, and our Lord's talking to them, and they
don't recognize Him. And they come to a fork in the
road. And they're going to go this way, and our Lord, He acts
like He's just going to go on down the road. And you know what
it said they did? You think about this. He's the
Son of God. It said they constrained Him.
They held him fast. They said, would you come to
our house? No, I'll just go, no, would you come to our house?
And they constrained him. And he came into their house
and he ate with them and he opened up the scriptures and their hearts
did burn within them. But what I want you to see, they
held fast to him. As he, like Jacob, the angel
could have defeated Jacob any time. The angel didn't just come
to wrestle with Jacob. He wanted Jacob to wrestle with
him, and he did. And what he did, he blessed him.
He held fast. I want you to illustrate this.
I want you to turn back to Acts chapter 27. I want you to see
this. Acts 27. Now the context here is, remember
Paul's on this ship with some other men. And there's a great storm that
comes up, kind of ironic as we looked at last night. It says
in verse 17, and when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding
the ship in fear unless they should fall into the quicksand,
they straked sail and so were driven. And we being exceedingly
tossed with the tempest, and the next day they lightened the
ship. What they didn't need, they just got rid of it. And
third day we cast out with our own hands even the tacklings
of the ship, the things that the ship needed even to survive.
We're getting rid of everything we can think of. I want you to
see verse 20. And when neither sun nor stars
in many days appeared, And when no small tempest lay on us, all
hope that we should be saved was taken away. Boy, that illustrates
Lestat's message, didn't it? When all hope was taken away. Now down to verse, let's see,
verse 22. Paul said, now I exhort you to
be of good cheer. Be of good cheer, for there shall
be no loss of any man's life among you. Every one of us are
going to be saved, but only of the ship. For therefore stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve,
saying, fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given them all that sail with thee. Verse 37. and they were in all the ship
200, 3 score and 16 souls. You know how many that is? 276. Why didn't he give us the
exact number? Well he knows how many there are. How many is going
to be saved? 276. Well won't you see how they're
going to be saved? The ship's going to wreck. It's like they let her, they
said they pulled up the anchors and let her drive and she just
drove right into the sand. And the front end stuck into
it and the back end, it just broke it off. And you know what
they said? If anybody can swim, you swim
to the shore. What about if you can't swim? Find you a piece of the ship.
Find you an old board. It had to have been me. You wouldn't
have turned it loose for your life. And they all made it. Hold fast. Hold fast. Hebrews 3.6, but if Christ has
a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast
the confidence and rejoice hope firm until the end. If you knew
that board, you turn loose, you're dying. I can't swim. I know what that's about. I had
to drown when I was a young boy. I'm terrified of it. You imagine
being on it. How am I going to survive? I have one thing. I'm not turning him loose. It's said in Hebrews 3.6, Christ
is a son over his own house, whose house we are if... Let
me read to you a statement that Brother Rupert Dravenbark said
many years ago. Now you get this. If all the ifs in the Bible hang
on Christ, the believer can claim them all as promises. Since we've held fast, since
we hold fast, that's it. You're going to make it. You will make it. That's a privilege. I can see, can't you just see
them all washed up on the shore and said, Paul, I think we're
all here. One day we'll get the glory and
the son's going to say, Father, they're all here. They're all here. The people that Hebrews was written
to were suffering and they were being persecuted, being criticized. It's crucial that we hold fast.
our profession. The Bible says if we deny the
faith, we're worse than an infidel. Peter said, chapter 2, verse
20, for if after you've escaped the pollutions of the world through
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and you're
again entangled therein and overcome the latter end, it's worse for
them than the beginning. It'd been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it
to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. It's one thing to just make a
confession of faith. It's quite another to hold on. But the apostles, they didn't
believe in some mechanical salvation. It says in Acts 11.23, whom when
he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted
them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto
the Lord. Don't let anybody turn you away,
because they'll sure try to. Acts 14.22, confirming the souls
of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith.
1 Peter 4, 18, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, well, that
doesn't mean that they're just going to be saved by the skin
of their teeth. That means with difficulty. If the righteous
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? It's going to be a divine miracle
if you make it. That's it. You've got so much
inside of you, so much outside of you, so much to try to hinder,
but you're making it. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. This is it. For he is faithful who promised And all the promises are in him
are yea and amen. Over in chapter 11, verse 13,
how did they all die? In faith. Marvin, how old was
your mama? 90. 90 years old. And he said last night, as far
as he knew, she was the only one out of that whole family
that believed. She died in faith. 90 years, you're going to see
a whole lot of trouble. You're going to go through a
whole lot of things. Why did she hold on? Because he held
her. These all died in faith. Now
watch this. Not having received the promise, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and
they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the
earth. Hope, hope that is seen is not hope. How did they see it? With the
eye of faith. Promise. You know, we could spend
all morning just standing up here just reading the promises
of God, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. When my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. So the last one, verse 24, we should consider ourselves,
we should consider our Lord, and we should consider one another. Let's consider one another to
provoke and to love and to good works. What does it mean to consider
something? It means to thoroughly weigh
a matter so as to come to a full knowledge of the matter. What
are we to consider? We're all sinners. I'm a sinner, and when I consider
you, you're a sinner. Hebrews 3 verse 1, Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. You consider him. Consider him,
over in verse 12, who endures such great contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest you be weary and fain in your minds. You've not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. You just consider that for a
minute. Consider what he suffered. Consider what others have suffered.
Just consider it. Let us consider one another.
If we're not careful, we can just get wrapped up in our own
little world. Let me consider you. You know, I want you to
wonder how many of those people in Ukraine are believers. You
know, you'd hope some of them were. Do you ever take time to
consider them? Lord, if that was us and you
lost your whole family, lost your children, you know, it'd
be different. You look at things differently
when you consider it. It means a conscientious care
over the spiritual welfare of other believers. Consider not
only their relationship to us and our Lord, but also their
circumstances, their trials, their temptations, and their
needs. It says in Hebrews 12, 12, 4, 4,
lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees. wonder what he's going through,
wonder what he's facing. As I thought about this, let
us consider one and one another, kind of everything about Barnabas,
the son of consolation. People, you know, they've heard
that God's converted him, but you know, that's a lot of people
just don't believe it, you know. Well, there's nothing to that. He's just an old scoundrel. And
they come to Jerusalem. And they're just staying off
from him just a little bit. Paul said, you need to consider
something. Barnaby said, you need to consider something. I've
heard this man preach. And they said, didn't they give
him the right hand to pelish? Consider him. The good Samaritan considered,
the one laying there beside the street. Consider one another
seeking to encourage each other. Lord, give us grace to consider
each other. Let us all consider, just for
a minute, that we're all just sinners, and we're all just dust. And at our best state, we're
all together vanity. But notice when Hellas first
reads, let us consider one another. Now it's not just consider them. You can consider somebody and
never help them. You know, you can consider them
and it just be empty thoughts. You know, like James said, okay,
you have a needs, just, you know, I hope you have a good day, hope
things get better for you, you know. To provoke unto love and
good works. But most of the time, when you
think about the word provoke, it's like a bad connotation to
it. Provoking somebody? Provoking
me? But you know what the word provoke
means? It means to stir up. Like stirring
up a fire. I know most of you is older,
a little older than me. I know you've been around a wood
stove before and you've built a fire and eventually the fire
is going to go real low. And you know what you do? You open the door and you stir
it up. You put a few dry pieces of wood
on it, shut the door and open the dampers. In a few minutes,
that little spark is going to be a great flame. And what you
did, you just provoked it. You stirred it up. You know what
it's like? Here's how I always thought about it. Smoking flax he won't quench. It's just an offensive smoke. There's not much flame, but there's
flame there. And here's how he does. He stirs it up. You ever wondered why when our
Lord sent out preachers, he sent them two at a time? To encourage the other one. Man,
it's just rough. It's just hard. Paul and Barnabas
went together. You remember one time they took
John Mark, and it was just, there's more than he can take. He goes
back home. And then when they're going to
go again, Barnabas said, I think we all take him. Paul said, I
ain't taking him. But Barnabas considered him. Somebody stirred up that fire.
You know why? Well, I know he wrote the book
of Mark. So we just want somebody to encourage
us. God help us to stir somebody else's fire. You know what that fire is? That's life. Let me give you
an illustration. I've already mentioned Brother
Rupert one time, but I'd say he was to me one of my closer
friends. I always considered him as my
pastor because, you know, I was not raised, as some of you were
fortunate enough, in a grace church. I was raised in an Armenian
church, exposed to the doctrines of grace, and then the Lord allowed
me to meet Brother Henry and Brother Rupert. And we started a little church
back in 1995, meeting in my garage, trying to preach what little
bit we knew. And it was the next spring, because it was this conference
that Scott had every year, or this church did every year, ever,
Easter weekend. And he's going back home. He's
going down Interstate 77. And I'm sitting at the house
by myself. I think my wife and kids, they
were over, you know, doing something on Easter. And the phone rings. And Rupert called and he said,
this is Rupert. He said, do you have church tonight?
And I said, no, we don't have any church tonight. I said, I'm
just sitting here by myself. He said, would you mind if we
come by? I said, no, I'd be fine. He said, you need to come to
the house? He said, let's go get something
to eat. Let's see, that's 25, 26 or 27
years ago. Why didn't he come by? It was
out of his way. He didn't need to come by. He provoked. It means to inflame the affections. How are we to provoke by unselfish
acts of kindness? Now listen, the word means to
express excitement. It means that Christians should
endeavor to excite each other. I know more men are afraid of
excitement. But there is no danger that Christians
will ever be excited to love each other too much. You get excited about a lot of
other things. behind my granddaughter when I see them, I get excited.
And there'd be something wrong with me if I didn't get excited. I know there's a lot of tomfoolery
and stuff going on, but I'll tell you right now. Our Lord is King. And that ought to excite you. I think Ruth was excited about
seeing Bethlehem. Who's that man riding that big,
quiet horse? She's out there gleaning in the
barley field. Oh, you don't know who that is? That's Boaz. Well, who is he? He owns the
field. And then she finds out he's your kinsman redeemer. Boy, I'd like to know him. Why should we stir each other
up? Our hearts can become hard. Know that when the Holy Spirit
of God blows upon our hard hearts, We know we've passed from death
into life because we love the brethren. We're to watch over one another.
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Peter said, and listen to what he said. He said, 2 Peter 1 verse 13,
I think it meet or important that as long as I am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. You
know it's not trying to stir up your old flesh. Well how did he stir him up?
By way of remembrance. Why do we need to be reminded?
Because we forget. You know what preaching the gospel
is? We're just rehearsing. We're telling everybody again
and again and again who He is and what He's done and who you
are. I'm going to stir you up by way of remembrance. If you
know Him, the Spirit of God, like the water, like the heart
thirsting after the water brook, your soul thirsts after Him. Tell something on Sandy, she
raises a few goats. There's nothing wrong with that,
I think it's funny. But what's so funny is we had a bunch of
little ones, we probably got five small ones, but when you've
got the small ones and the big ones, now we've got about a whole
dozen. And she feeds them every evening. And they love her to
death, you know why? They love that feed. But you
know what, when they hear her, they can be out somewhere picking
off in the briars. If they hear her, then they get
excited. And they come running. What did our
scripture say? Let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. and so much
to more, and exhorting one another and so much to more as you see
the day approaching. When you get hungry, you'll act
just like a little goat. You will run to where the food
is. Remember faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is
love. Let us draw near to our Lord, let us hold fast our profession,
and let us consider one another. Well, why's my brother not at
church today? I wonder if he's having some trouble
or something. You know, one of the first steps,
and I've seen it happen, one of the first steps of people
apostatizing and leaving, you know, one of the first things
is they miss the worship service. And I want to say this, and you
take it with love. We can watch videos. We can watch
online. But let me tell you this. Let
me encourage you. You consider this. There is no
substitute for us meeting together in God's house and worshiping
Him. And what He will do is try to get you so busy doing something
else to keep you from coming here. And we need to consider
each other. Come on, brother. Maybe the Lord will speak to
us tonight. If He's going to speak to us, it's going to be
in His house. Amen. May God bless you.