Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me, if you would, the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. I'd like to read verses 24 to
27. And then we'll ask our Lord's
blessing. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto 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. For if we sin willfully, After
that we have received the knowledge of the truth. There remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."
Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening as we
come before you by faith in Christ, approaching you, Lord, with liberty,
boldness, drawing near to you with a true and sincere heart. I pray that You would bless the
services tonight. I pray that You would bless the
Word. Lord, I pray that Christ might be honored, that Your people
might be comforted. These things we ask for Christ's
sake. Amen. The truth that we consider this
evening is probably as searching and
trying and revealing as any truth set forth in God's Word. the Word of God. And we would
do well to give heed to God's Word. This is the final word. The Apostle Paul, as we read
just a moment ago, had exhorted the Hebrews that he was talking
to in verse 24, one another to provoke. That is, to stimulate. That's
what the word means. Let us consider one another to
stimulate, to provoke unto love and to good works. And then he
gives the Lord's revelation. He doesn't leave us, thanks be
unto Him, to come up with our own interpretation. of what that
verse means. If we're going to consider one
another to stimulate unto love and to good works, how is that,
Lord? How? I don't want to know. I don't want to know what a man
has to say. Tell me what Almighty God has to say about that Scripture
right there. The next verse, verse 25, 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. The Scriptures set forth that
love for one another is stimulated by the assembling of ourselves
together. Now, when we assemble ourselves
together, we do this, first of all, for the sake of the Lord. This, what we are doing here
tonight, is divinely ordained. This is God's means of feeding
His sheep. This is how we eat of the bread
of life Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ, I am absolutely
convinced, is here this evening. Based upon His Word, where two
or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst
of you. how thankful we are for that.
We assemble ourselves together for the Lord's sake. And we assemble
ourselves together also for our own sake. I need to hear. I need to learn. I need for the Lord to speak
to me. I need for Almighty God to take
this Word and to bless it to my heart and to teach me. I want
to grow in the grace of Almighty God. I want to grow in the knowledge
of our Lord. I want to know Him. That's what
Paul says, O that I may know Him, be found in Him. We assemble ourselves
together. for the sake of our Lord and
for our own sakes. And then thirdly, for the sake
of others as examples. People, believe me, learn by
watching other people. You watch children. Children
watch. They watch you. I was in Mexico a couple of years
ago, and there was a little fellow. Now, I mean, he was little. I
mean, maybe two, three years old. If he wouldn't have been
so little, it would have aggravated me. But he was little, so it
was cute, you know. And I was there, and Brother
Cody was translating for me. And as I would make a gesture,
you know, that little fellow in the back, He'd do the same
thing, mimic. Like I said, if he'd have been
13 years old, I'd have called him down. But he was 2, 3, something
like that. It was cute. They watch. They
watch. We assemble ourselves together
as examples. That's what Paul said to the
church at Thessalonica. You are examples unto the brethren. People see. They learn. They see what's important to
you. And they learn from that. So we assemble ourselves together. We don't forsake the assembling
of ourselves together, but we exhort one another. That's what
he says. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another. I looked that word up today. Exhorting. Well, I know what exhorting means,
I think. I looked it up, and I didn't.
I thought I did. It wasn't exactly what I thought
it was. Somewhat. But it means to call
near for one's good. Come, let me talk to you. Let me tell you. What great things the Lord's
done for me. Why don't you come in here? Why
don't you come for your good? For your good. I got a call a couple of days
ago. And it was a fellow in Franklin,
Tennessee. He called me. It was the nephew
of a man that I knew really well. Many, many years. I'd consider him a friend. He
wasn't a believer. But I had a lot of dealings with
him. And I asked him years ago, numerous times, I said, Gene,
why don't you come to the services? And he was cordial. He was cordial. Finally, one day, he told me,
he said, Marvin, I'm just not interested. I'm just not interested. He said, I appreciate your concern,
but I'd rather you not talk to me about this anymore. I said,
okay. Well, we continued to see each
other. Glenda and I went by one time
when we was there. A couple of times, didn't we?
Go over there to see him, visit with him in his home. We'd go
back. We had a good, you know. Well,
he died. He died Monday. His nephew called
me. And I'm telling you, when he told me that, my heart just...
I was grieved. I was just grieved. Exhorting one another. Draw near. Tell them, Come here. Come sit. I'm convinced that the preaching
of the gospel, God's free grace, sovereign grace, that is the
power of God unto salvation to them that believe. Almighty God
bless it. Exhorting one another and so
much the more as we see the day approaching. What day is that? Well, it could be the day of
judgment. It could be the day of our death. It could be that day of final
apostasy. As you see, the day approaching,
exhorting one another, forsaking the time and place of public
worship. is to actually forsake the means
of God's appointment of true worship. I said a moment ago,
this is an appointed means right here. Why do we meet together? Why? Because this is the way
which God Almighty ordained. He said, I'll send you pastors
after my heart. They'll teach you. This is the
way God teaches. His people. We come together
and we fellowship. The Spirit of God blesses this. I've had people tell me before,
you know, I don't have to go to church to worship. I'll tell you this, if you don't have a heart to
come to hear the gospel of God's grace, you're not worshiping.
I can tell you that right now. I mean, I won't debate your issue,
but I can tell you this, if you have no heart to come and sit
and hear the Gospel, then you're forsaking God's means. God's preaching. We come together. We come together and we sing.
We preach. We pray together. We read God's
Scriptures. This is the means by which don't
forsake. Not forsaking. This is an urgent
necessity. It absolutely matters. It's a fearful thing. It's a
fearful thing to not hear the Gospel. And it's a fearful thing
to hear it and forsake it. The Lord of glory is glorified
in it. His people are blessed by it,
and therefore, He deserves, He's worthy to be worshiped in this
way, in this coming together here. We're members of His body. Lord willing, a week from this
weekend, we'll have our Bible conference. We'll have people
come and want to meet together and hear a couple of fellows
come and preach the gospel. I've got some of my kids coming
in. I'm looking forward to seeing
them. I see them not many times in a year, a few. But to be able to have my family
together, here we are tonight, a family, God's people meeting
together. Speaking of the assembling of
ourselves together under the inspiration of God's Spirit said
in Psalm 84, 1-4, Oh, how amiable! How beloved! How beloved are
thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a
house in the swallow, a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young, even thine altars. O Lord of hosts, my King and
my God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will
still be praising thee. Selah." God's people come together
and they meet together. and they hear the gospel of God's
grace preached and they rejoice in it. But there are times when
this public worship, the assembling of ourselves together,
the Scripture sets forth where it is forsaken. Forsaken. And when I say forsaken, This
is what I mean. The Hebrews that Paul was talking
to had come out of Judaism, and they had heard the gospel
preached. And I do realize this, that there
are some that hear the gospel preached, and the Lord gives
them a heart, and they believe. I know that there are some that
hear the gospel and they give an outward consent. I believe
that, they say. This is what the Lord taught
in the parable of the sower. A sower went forth to sow. And
he sowed the seed and some of it fell by the wayside and it
was plucked up by the ravens, the birds that took it. Some
of it fell on stony ground and it sprung up quickly But when
the sun came out, a picture of the trials and tribulation for
the sake of the gospel, it withered because there was no root there.
Some of it fell, the Scripture says, on thorny ground. And as
I've told you before, that thorny ground is ground that was cleared,
but the roots were still there. That's what it says. Some of
it fell on thorny ground. the roots when it began to come
up, the thorns began to come up. It choked out the Word. And those thorn and thorns were
pictures of the cares of this world. And I know, I know what
it's talking about when it says that there are some and they'll
hear and they'll give a mental assent I believe that. I believe that gospel. They'll
sit there for a while, some longer than others. But then in time, what happens
is the forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together is when
we come for a while and give an outward consent, I believe
that gospel. But then in time, leave and go
somewhere else. Go back. That's not what I thought
it was going to be. That's not what I had in mind. There's an outward abandonment,
which is actually the evidence of an empty heart. any time that
one leaves. Why did they leave? I'll tell
you why they left. The Scripture says they went
out from us because they were not of us. For if they had been
of us, they would have surely remained. God Almighty keeps
His people. I'm telling you, based on this
Scripture right here, I can tell you According to God's Word,
we provoke one another to love and to good works, to consistency,
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. That outward abandonment. As
a general rule, it doesn't happen all at one time. Seldom to men
or women. turn away suddenly. Usually it's
a gradual exiting, so gradual that even those that are doing
it don't realize what's actually happened. It becomes so easy,
so common, so often that men foolishly presume that they're
truly children of God and excuse themselves while they willfully
neglect the assembling of themselves together with God's sheep. And
it becomes easier and easier to go back, to go somewhere else,
to go and sit under a message that honors man and exalts man
in his free will. I'm telling you, the forsaking
of the assembling of ourselves together. is an awful thing. It's awful. The Scripture sets forth for,
verse 26, if we sin willfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. Now what does that mean? Does that mean that if a believer,
a true believer, One converted truly by the grace of God. God
has absolutely converted that man. Does that mean if that man,
after he's received the knowledge of the truth, truthfully received
the knowledge of the truth, that he can be lost? No. You know
it can't mean that or it wouldn't be eternal life. In the context
of this Scripture, here is what's being said. 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. For if we sin willfully, and
he's talking about forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, if we absolutely, say outwardly, inwardly, I'm
going to abandon. I will abandon. I will forsake
it. I will abandon the preaching
of the gospel that I'm hearing in this place. I will not listen
to that any longer. The preaching of God's sovereign,
electing, redeeming, quickening, preserving grace. I can leave
that and go back to where I was before and I will be just fine. No, you won't. No, you won't. No. I can go where I'm not offended. Yeah, you can. But let me tell
you what happens. There is absolutely no other
place to go. Years ago, I grew up in false
free will, man-centered, man-honoring, false religion. And by the grace
of God, my path was crossed with the preacher of the Gospel. And
Almighty God was pleased to bless that Word to my heart. And by the grace of God, God
called me out of darkness and taught me concerning Christ and
God's honor and God's glory. God's sovereignty, that God Almighty
was in control, that man was absolutely helpless, that if Almighty God did not
show a man mercy and grace and compassion and give him a new
heart, if Almighty God left a man to do what he wanted to do, that
man is going to perish. Now, I had a place to go. I could
go somewhere from there out of that false religion. I had a
place that I could go. Where was it? It was to where
the place where God was honored, truly honored, and that Almighty God did as
He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And no man stayed His hand. No man stopped Him. That Satan himself was bound
in spiritual chains of darkness. Unable to stop God Almighty from
calling His own out of darkness. That God Himself in the day of
His power, that His people were willing. He gave them a new heart. He imparted a new heart. It wasn't
anymore that message where Men were trying to appeal to the
old flesh and trying to get the flesh to do something that the
flesh wouldn't do. That which was flesh is flesh.
The flesh is not coming. The flesh is not going to love.
I said, you've still got the same old nature that you were
born with. Same ones. Regeneration is this
new man put there. It's a new life, a new creature,
a new heart. I had a place to go. I could
go out of darkness to light. But I'll tell you this, those
that come and sit and give an outward consent and say, I think
that's right right there. And then in time say, you know
what? No. No, I don't think so. I don't think that's what it
is. I think I'll go back. I think I'll go back to where
I was before. I'll try this. That didn't really
satisfy me. This doesn't satisfy me. I think
I'll go somewhere else. There's no other place to go.
There is no other Savior. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins. To come out of darkness to light,
there's the Sacrificer. There's life. There's the Savior.
But I'm telling you, If we willfully, sin willfully, and it's talking
about leaving the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. I
mean, if you're talking about sin, I don't know many sins. I mean, sins of omission, sins
that I don't realize, yeah, I understand. Maybe I'm not aware of everything
that I do in rebellion, but as a general rule, I can tell you
this. I pretty well do what I do willfully
in rebellion against God. I know what I'm doing. I know
what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. And thanks
be unto God that Almighty God will not charge me, will not
impute that sin to me, that He imputed it, He charged it to
His Son, that His Son was made sin. But what this is talking
about is after a man has come and he sits for a while and he
says, I don't think so. I think I'll leave. That's what
it is. Sinning willfully. If we sin
willfully. There is salvation in no other. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. But here's what we have to look
forward to if we do leave. I'm telling you, this is so serious. I know that men, women will think,
but for the grace of God, you think that the only place that
you have any life is where this Gospel is preached. No, I don't
think that. I know it. I know it. I know it. I'm telling you that
there is no life except where God's sovereign grace is preached. There's no life. There's none. That's what Paul says. If any
man preaches any other gospel than that which we've preached
unto you, let him be accursed. I'm telling you it's the most
serious thing in the world. It's the most serious thing in
the world to hear the gospel and forsake it. Does it matter? Yes, it matters. Yes, it matters. If I didn't
believe this, I'd quit. I'd quit. If it doesn't matter, then why
do we continue week after week after week to preach the gospel?
Because I'm convinced That this is the gospel of God's grace
and power unto salvation. What's going to happen? What's
going to happen for those that forsake the assembling of ourselves
together and go back into false religion, back to Judaism, back
to free will, back to... What's going to happen? Let me
tell you what's going to happen. This is what we have to look
forward to. Verse 27, "...but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment
and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries, knowing that the only thing that
awaits the abandonment of Christ, of His glorious gospel, and I
want to be very, very clear when I say talking about forsaking
the assembling, turning our back on it, forsaking it, quit. I just quit and go back to false
religion. hearing the gospel of God's grace
and walking away. This is what awaits a certain fearful looking. Let me tell
you in closing why. I want you to turn to Ecclesiastes. Chapter 8, Ecclesiastes 8, verse
11. It's been, I know, and Cady is
no different than any other place where the Gospel is preached. In every assembly that I know
of, There were seats where people used to be. I'm not talking about
people that died in the faith. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about people that once sat under the Gospel and then left and went back to
false religion. That's what I'm talking about,
going back into false religion. And let me tell you why. I do know that the Scriptures
promises. And as long as there's breath,
I don't know. I don't know who the Lord's people
are. I mean, there's some good evidence. I mean, for some that
I know, good evidence that they possess of a heart for Christ. But I don't know. I don't know
who the Lord's people are. What I do is I'm going to take
the Scriptures and I'm going to preach line by line, verse
by verse, and set forth in truth the consistency of these Scriptures.
And I'm going to wait on God to bless it. I'll tell you this for a fact.
And I pray that you'll pray for me. But I want to let you know,
Truly, I think of this congregation, and I ask the Lord, Lord, would
You save our kids? Would You save them? Lord, would
You save our husbands and our wives, our moms and dads? Lord, have mercy. Lord, would
You bless the preaching of the gospel here? Bless it. I don't know. I don't know who
the Lord is going to be pleased to bless, but I can tell you
this. I know that He's going to bless and call out His sheep
through this gospel. I know that. And it matters. It matters. But I do know that
there's a false sense of security for many that can leave. And the longer it goes, Since
they left, the easier it gets and the more calloused their
heart is toward the Gospel, toward the place where the Gospel is
preached. And here's the reason why. Ecclesiastes 8.11, Because
sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, Therefore,
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Whenever men and women can willfully
forsake the assembling of their selves together, as the manner
of some is, and they leave and they don't care, It does not take away the grieving
of a believer. I'm telling you, a believer grieves
over this. They grieve over it. My heart absolutely breaks when
I think. Because I know this, there is
a certain fearful looking for. looking for. It's coming. It's
coming. A certain fearful looking for
a judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. But I want to leave you on this
note. Lord, I'm just going verse by
verse. You know that. I'm going verse
by verse in these books when I go. But for those that Almighty
God has given a heart for Christ. Let me leave you with a word
of encouragement. I need it. The last verse of
this chapter, chapter 10, says this. Paul says, But we are not
of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. There is no comfort but God's
comfort. There is no peace but God's peace.
I know this. I am convinced of this. If Almighty God Let me do what
I wanted to do by nature, by my own nature. I'd quit. I'd go back. I know what I'd
do. Because the sitting and the hearing
of the preaching of the gospel grates on the flesh. Grates on
it. It goes against it. But thanks be unto God, and Almighty
God would keep His people to the day of salvation. I'm telling
you, if we're here tonight with a heart that desires to hear
Him, to honor Him, to praise Him, a heart that says as the
Apostle Paul says, all those things that were gained to me
All of those things that I could do. Circumcised on a certain day
and out of this family and all of that. Those things that were
gained to me, I count lost. Dung that I might win Christ. If we're here this evening by
the grace of God, and we have a heart that longs after Him,
I'm telling you, my friend, thank Him again. Lord, thank You. Thank You that You would give
me a heart after You. A heart that loves Christ. A heart that will take His side
against myself. Because I'm telling you, leave
me to myself and I am His adversary. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. What do we do? Pray that Almighty
God, Lord, have Thine own way. Have Thine own way. Not my will,
Lord, but Thine be done. Thank You for keeping me. Thank
You for saving me. And Lord, while I thank You for
saving me, as I said a moment ago, Lord, would You save my
kids? Would You save my grandchildren?
I want the Lord to save my kids. I want the Lord to save my family. I know He can, if He wills. Like that leper said, Lord, if
You will, You can make me clean. Lord, if You will, have mercy
for Christ's sake. Amen.