And we are continuing to look
here in Hebrews. I want to begin reading there
in chapter 10 in verse 23. We'll begin reading there. It
says, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For he is faithful that promised.
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 ye 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. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know
him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,
saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. But call to remembrance the former days in which after
ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly whilst ye were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
ye became companions of them who were so used. For ye had
compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye
have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God,
ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just
shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Now as we've been looking through
this book of Hebrews and we understand that the purpose of the writer
writing this book is to reassure, to remind these Hebrew Christians
of what the center and substance of their faith is. As we have said, if you had grown
up in the Jewish religion, the Jewish faith, if you want to
call it such, then you would have been, from a young child,
taught all of the ordinances and practices that were set forth
under the Law of Moses. And you would have considered
that these things were a place of refuge unto you, and you would
have relied upon them as many of the Jews do today as they
still go through these rituals and they have in their own mind
what the purpose of the giving of the law is and that is the
mindset of the Jews. Now we can also make an application
of that to what happens in the religious world in which we live
in. Generally people grow up in a
particular sort of religious tradition and they become accustomed
to various practices. What often occurs is that people
become so accustomed to that that they assume in their mind
that these ways and these practices are what the sum total of what
God is doing in the earth, how it is manifested. And they think
that what they're doing and how they think about things is how
the way of God is. Now, religion is a powerful force
among men in general. I mean, you know, I remember
Ralph Barnard saying one time that, you know, you could get
by with preaching anything as long as you don't kill somebody's
God. But when you start killing people's
gods, then they're going to get mad. He said they're going to
try to kill you. you know, if you start killing
their gods. Now, of course, we live in a
day and an age when there are gods of many in the minds of
people, because generally every little sect and every little
congregation or whatever, they believe God is like they think
He is. And they do not necessarily go
to the Bible to get everything they think about what God is.
It is not that they would say they do not believe the Bible.
But they do not always believe what the Scripture says exactly
about who God is. Now God has never been ashamed
about saying who He was from the very beginning. And when
he appeared to Moses and he said, I am. Now, to understand what
he said there is an amazing revelation. If we ever come to the place
where you understand what he said was, I am the one who exists. I am the one who exists. I am. Now, that means, dear brethren,
that all that exists must exist as a result of Him. And He is an absolute God. Now,
we live... You know, the basic philosophy
of man is that Man is a pretty important thing. I mean, wouldn't
you say that most people believe that man is just the most important
thing? I mean, here's the world. We've
got to save the world and we've got to do all these things because
man is so important. I mean, that's why most people
preach, isn't it? Because man is so important,
we want to get him saved. I mean, man is the central thing
here. I mean, here's man. Think about
how the nobility of men. So if somebody comes along and
they say, well, man's not a noble creature. That wouldn't be politically
correct, would it? Can you imagine one of these politicians getting
up in front of a bunch of people and telling them that they were
all sinners? that they were not worthy of one blessing that God
ever gave to anybody? No. See, people don't, by nature,
we don't want to hear that. We want to hear how good we are.
We want to hear what we've done and what we can do. But what
the Scripture indicates is that that which he would bring his
people to know and understand is what he will do. Now, dear
brethren, I'm not totally disinterested in what you're going to do, but
I'd a whole lot rather cast my hope and care upon one whom I
know is in control of all things, absolute God, then I had to trust
for one moment in anything that you could do. It's not that I
don't have respect to you, but I know what you are because we're
all made from the same cloth. We all came from the same dust
and we're all going to go back to it. And the one who has life
in himself is the one who said to Moses, I am. And if we shall have life, it's
going to be because He gives it to us, whether it be natural
life or whether it be spiritual life. A man can't make himself
spiritual. You can't grasp or gain one thing
spiritual. You know, I hear a lot of times
people talk about, well, I'm very spiritually minded. I heard a
guy talking the other day. He says, I'm not religious, but
I'm very spiritual. Well, what in the world does
that mean? What does that mean? I mean, a man can't be spiritual. Your hand is not spiritual. You're
not spiritual. Now, you might think of what
some religious philosophy or whatever you might call that
spirituality, but that's not spirituality. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Now, what spirit
are they talking about? If somebody is spiritual, what
spirit are they of? You see, the Spirit of God is
the one who teaches the truth of God because He is the embodiment
of truth revealed to us in Jesus Christ. And so we are not interested,
I am not interested in being spiritual, but I do desire by
the grace of God that He might grant unto me His Spirit. that I might see and know and
understand things that are spiritual, because only in that fashion
can a man ever gain the truth of God. It is as he gives those
things that are true. Now, so having said all of that,
And we speak about, as this letter is written to these Hebrew Christians,
as they held on to those ideas that they thought were spiritual
in the same sense in which man thinks his religion is spiritual.
They held on to these things. Paul, and I refer to Paul as
the writer of Hebrews. I believe he was. It doesn't
really tell us anywhere that he was. But as he writes to these
Hebrews, he's indicating to them that the sum and substance of
that which they have left Judaism for is Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ does not exist
in Judaism. But he is the one who transcends
Judaism. He is that one who is the faith
of God's elect. We don't say, well, here's our
faith and Christ is in it. No, Christ is our faith. He is
the sum and substance of our faith. And that is the point
that he is seeking and setting forth this book to show them
that the faith of Christ is the faith of God's people. There
is no other faith that a man can be standing in and be found
among the Lord's people than the faith of Christ. The faith
of Christ in that it comes from Christ. It is the faith of Christ
in that He demonstrated faith as He came to do the Father's
will And it is of Christ as it is applied unto us. It comes from Him, He is the
embodiment of it, and He would manifest that to us. It is the
faith of Christ. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loves me. and gave himself for me." Now,
dear brethren, that is what the gospel is. That is the profession
of the faith of God's people. It is that He is the sum total. Now, it says here, let us hold
fast the profession of our faith. Now, that is the profession of
our faith, is it not, that Jesus Christ is the eternal God, that
He is the salvation that's manifested from the eternal God. He's not
some lesser light. He's not some separate thing. Well, we'll have our little religion
over here and we'll perform this. Oh yes, and we'll also believe
in Christ. Because you see, that's what
some of these Jews were being encouraged to do. Well, now you
know you were raised in this. And I can just hear some of these
people, you know, their families, drawing them back, saying, look,
man, you need to come back. It's okay, you can believe in
Jesus. It's okay, but you need to get
back over here and get involved in this practice here. But you see, the problem with
that is that Christ plays no second fiddle. There's no such
thing as believing in some other religion, whatever it may be,
however spiritual a man might think it is, if Christ be not
the all in all. Now, if Christ is all in all,
there's no room for anything else, is there? I mean, if Christ
is all, where are you going to put this other stuff? Where is
it going to be? And so that's what he says right
here. He said let's hold fast the profession
of our faith. What is it? Christ Jesus the
Lord is the sacrifice for sin. Now that's what he's been saying
here. He said of this is the sum. We have such a high priest
as has entered in once into the holy place in our behalf. He
said that is our profession. Let's hold it fast. Without wavering. Without wavering. Not being wishy-washy. Not saying, well, maybe it's
true, but just to be on the safe side. See, that's kind of what
the Jews were doing. They said, well, we believe that's
true. We believe Christ died for sin. But just to be on the
safe side, let's be circumcised. Just to be on the safe side.
You know, it's not that we don't believe it, but it might be that
we need to do this. Dear brethren, the sum total of our faith is
that which Jesus Christ has performed. Paul said the Jews go about to
what? Establish their own righteousness. Now whatever religious practice
or ritual or thought process or whatever that a man might
have in his mind that is necessity for him going side by side with
that which Christ has done is too much. And it is to deny the
faith of Christ if it is not to rely totally
upon Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Now that is the end of the story. There's nothing else that has
to be said. That's it. It's Christ and Christ alone. He's faithful that promised.
Now, He is faithful that promised because, you see, our hope is
built on the promise of God. It's not built on what we did.
Now for a long time in my life, I kept trying to figure out what
it was that I did that got me into the faith. You know, I was
told, Brother, you need to walk down here and you need to confess
Christ and here it is now, you've done it. You've believed, you
can sign the card, go put it in somewhere and keep it, and
you're in. And so for many years I thought
that's the way it was. But dear brethren, it's not what
I did. It's not what I professed or
what I confessed or whatever. It's what Christ did. Now that's
my confession. My confession is not what I did.
See, some people say, well, have you made your profession of faith?
Have you ever heard anybody say that? Or they'll say, well, you've
made a profession of faith. Well, he made a profession of
faith. Well, so what? A profession of faith is not
worth a plug nickel in itself. He said, let us hold fast the
profession of our faith. Not let's make a profession of
faith. See, the emphasis in a lot of
preaching today is you need to make a profession of faith. Well,
dear brethren, Paul says here you need to keep your profession
of faith. You see, it's not what we do,
but it is rather what we have, which is a profession of faith
in Christ. Now, where does faith come from?
Faith is the gift of God. Not of words, lest any man should
boast. How can a man boast of having
faith? Because it's a gift. Why do we
believe? Because of the mercy of God. And how can we not believe if
we've been given faith? How can a man not believe? If
God gives a man faith, how can he not believe? He can't not
believe. Now, he can start convincing
himself. You see, the flesh is always working to undermine the
work of the Spirit. It's speaking to. The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. And the flesh
would always be coming into the minds of God's people and causing
them to doubt that the thing wherein they stand upon is sufficient. It will bring those things into
question in your mind. But you see, we hold fast. as
he says here, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love
and good works. And we went over this last week.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is. Now that has to do surely with
an assembly like we've got here. We're assembling ourselves together.
We're not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. We're
not just saying, well, it doesn't make any difference. You know,
we can worship the Lord all by ourselves just as easy as we
can in the midst of the brethren. Well, that's not true according
to what the Word of God says because the Lord said where two
or more of you are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst
of you. Now, there is something about
the gathering together of God's people that is of value to the
people of God. And he has been pleased to bless
the assembling of his people. Now this is not limited, however,
to the gathering together of the saints in such a gathering
as what we have here. But it has reference to the coming
together of God's people in fellowship one with the other. Don't forsake
that. Don't think you're an island
unto yourself. We need one another. We are our
brother's keepers. We are to bear one another's
burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, to esteem one another
above ourselves, to love one another with a pure heart fervently.
That is that which the Lord has called us to, not forsaking but
rather exhorting one another and so much the more as you see
the day approaching. Now we talked a little bit about
that, what the day approaching is. And it's mentioned again
here. Let me see where it is. It's in 37. For yet a little
while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Now that's, of course, taken from the book of Habakkuk. that
particular passage there. But the day is approaching. Now, I believe there are three
ways in which we might approach that. When he said, the day is
approaching, or when he that shall come will come and will
not tarry, I believe he is primarily speaking to these Hebrews concerning
the fact that there were prophecies that the Lord Jesus spoke of
in Matthew 20 through 24 that I believe in measure came to
pass during the days of the destruction of Israel. He told them these
things would come to pass. He said, Look, when you see these
things happen and know that the end is near. He did predict that
those things would happen and the temple would be destroyed
and all of those things that the Jews held on to would be
done away with. And so he has specific reference,
I believe, to that when he says, as you see the day approaching.
But now there are other ways in which that can be looked at.
Number two is that there is a day approaching for every one of
us, that the older that you get, the closer that day comes, and
the more that you can see that day approaching. And that is
that these lives are finite. And we are indeed coming to an
end. How much more important Is it,
as we draw nigh unto the day of our departure from this world,
that we be mindful of these things, holding fast and provoking one
another to love and to good works? You see, the common practice
among men in religion is that they become
active in religion when they're raising their family, and then
as they get, their family gets raised, they just kind of then
say, well, I'm going to leave it to the young people. I'm going
to, you know, kind of move back. I'm going to just kind of be
freelance. I'm on my own here. I'm going
to just, you know, I don't have any responsibilities, don't want
any more, whatever. And in the flesh, that's the
way men move back. But dear brethren, what more
time is it important for those who have a profession of faith
and believe the things that we say that we do, that we encourage
one another as we see that day approaching? Because it was a
sure thing. that that day is approaching
for every one of us. For it is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this the judgment. And so there is that
day approaching. Now there is also a day approaching
which could have some reference to. There is a day when Christ
shall come bodily into this world to receive that which He has
redeemed. And every eye shall see him.
He is coming back in that fashion. And that day is approaching.
And how much the more should we encourage one another as we
see that day approaching. Because happy is that man, blessed
is that man who when his Lord comes, he finds him about doing
the things that he taught him to do. Now, you see, I believe
that the people of God desire to be found faithful. When the
Lord comes, I mean, when the Lord comes, do you want to be
found unfaithful? You know, when your daddy sent
you out to do a task out in to maybe clean the fence row or
clean out the barn or do something, did you want to be playing over
here? doing something that you wouldn't
do when he drove up? And he said, What are you doing?
No. Now, you might have been playing
all the time, but you know, if you heard the truck coming, you
got back busy. Because when your Lord came,
you wanted to be found faithful. Now, dear brethren, there is
a measure of that that is given to the people of God. We are
those who do desire to be found faithful. in those things God
has called us to do. And we are to encourage one another
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. Now we talked a little bit about
that last week. Willful sin. Now, if you take
that verse out of its context, that is a very terrifying verse. And I would dare say that there's
not a person in this room that would have any hope whatsoever
if you take that verse out of its context. Because you see,
every sin is a willful sin. Don't be going around talking
about, well, I didn't willingly do that. Yeah, you did. Now,
after you've thought about it and you look back on it, you
say, I wish I hadn't have done that. But at the time you do
the things you do, you do them because you want to do them.
That's the way it is. That's the way you are. That's
the way I am. That's the way all of us are.
And so what this means from a willful sin, that anybody that willfully
commits any sin, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. Well,
brother, you've had it. So it could not mean that, or
at least I hope it doesn't mean that. Now, I know it doesn't
mean that because the context of the passage will not allow
it to mean that, and we know that none of us have any hope,
which we know that we do have hope in Christ, after if we sin
willfully. Now, he's going to describe what
the willful sin is, He goes on down here. He says, in comparison
to the fact that those who were condemned under Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the
Spirit of grace. Now that's what the willful sin
is. It is to come to a place where
we confess and profess that Jesus Christ is our hope, and then
to turn back from that and say, no, we're going to add something
else to it, or we're going to go just in case. You know, we
want to cover all the bases and be sure. No, because you see,
whenever you deny what Christ has done, then you're left with
nothing. If you deny what Christ has done,
then you don't have anything. Now, He's not trying to get them
to do something. He's pointing something out to
them. He's saying because, listen, he's not talking to those who
have no profession of faith. He's talking to those that have
a profession of faith. He's talking to those who have
walked in the way of Christ. But he's saying to them, perhaps
in a measure we could say it's a hypothetical situation to drive
home the point. Because you see, there was great
pressure among these Jews to depart from the faith. Things
didn't work out like they perhaps thought it would. The kingdom
of God didn't come. Rather than things getting better,
things got worse. Now, that's often the way it
is, is it not, when a man comes to begin to walk with Jesus Christ,
as He told, out of darkness into the light? Sometimes things get
worse rather than better. Now, if you listen to most of
these radio preachers and TV preachers and stuff, they just
tell you everything is just going to be great. You've just got
to have faith. Well, that was my whole problem
to start with. I didn't have any faith. But by the gift of God, He's
given me a profession of faith that Christ is my sole hope. I still don't have any faith
like these guys are talking about. Get up the faith, buddy. You've
got to just get it. I mean, just reach down there
by your bootstraps and pull yourself up. I mean, get the faith, brother.
No. Our faith is Christ. And so it
is that to deny. that which we have confessed. If we've confessed that we believe
Jesus Christ is the payment for our sin, and then we turn around
tomorrow and say, well, I don't believe He is what's left, what
are you going to do then? That's exactly what he's saying
right here. And how much stronger punishment, if Moses' law condemned
those that disobeyed it, How much sorer punishment shall he
be thought worthy who would come to the place of confessing that
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world and then turn around and say he doesn't believe? He'd be worse, wouldn't he? Absolutely
would. For we know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the
Lord, and the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. The Scripture in
more than one place says it's time for judgment to begin at
the house of God because you see there is a judgment among
the people of God. We are not waiting for a fiery
judgment, but we are standing before the judgment seat of Christ
even at the present time, dear brethren. And it is a needful
thing that we examine ourselves to see that we be in the faith,
to examine our actions to see that they line up with what it
is that Christ has taught us to do. Now that is part of the
faith which the Lord has given to His people and the work which
the Spirit of God does within His people is to cause them to
look at themselves and to see what they are. We were talking
about this earlier. You know, our mind normally and naturally
goes to looking out at everybody else. We wonder, well, old brother
so-and-so, he don't act like he's saved. You know, he don't
act like he has any faith. Why look at him over there? Well,
you don't need to be concerned about old brother so-and-so over
there. And I'm not meaning you don't need to be concerned about
him in the sense that we're concerned for one another. But what I mean
is your primary concern needs to be who? You, you know, that's the one
you need to be concerned about. The Lord didn't say, examine
your brother. He said, examine yourselves.
Now, dear brethren, that's where our examination needs to be placed. And that's what He's talking
about here. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. It's a scary thing, dear brethren. If it's a scary
thing for those whom the Lord loves, to be put into His hands
and fear the judgment of God, how much more is it for that
man who is outside of Christ? It is a fearful thing, dear brethren.
Our God is a consuming fire. He is the God who judges. You see, He looks on the heart.
You can fool me. But you can't fool the Lord.
You see, He looks in the heart. He knows what you did. He knows
where you're going. He knows what you're thinking
because He made you just according to as He would have you to be.
And He causes His people to examine themselves. And judgment must
begin at the house of God. He says then in a way of encouragement
to them, Now he kind of raked them over the coals in a way,
but now he encourages them. Listen. But call to remembrance,
he said, the former days in which after you were illuminated, ye
endured with a great flight of afflictions. He said, think back. Don't be listening to those that
would turn you aside, but think back to when you were illuminated. That is, when the Spirit of God
came upon you and you saw Christ clearly. He said, let your mind
be cast there. Let your thought process be reminded
of that. In which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great fight of afflictions. You were persecuted
for Christ's sake. And now you're going to turn
back? I mean, you shed blood. You were beaten. You were hated
of all men for my sake, and now you're going to turn back and
walk in some other way? You're going to say that we're
going to go back to the religion of our fathers? You endured a
great fight of afflictions partly whilst you were made a gazing
stock, both by the reproaches and afflictions. That is, you
were put on display. You were brought to trial. You
were said to be outcast. You were thrown out of the synagogues. You were on the outside looking
in. He said, partly whilst you were
made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and
partly whilst you became companions of them that were so used. Now
here again, here he's bringing them right back to the part about
assembling themselves together and showing them the advantage
and purpose of it. He said not only were you subjected
to a great tide of afflictions, but he said those who were your
brethren were also the same way and you were companions one of
another in this affliction. Are you going to look on these
things and say, we don't want to follow Christ? Is that what
you would do, he says? Now is he trying to get them
to do that? Of course not. He's just pointing
out to them that which God has brought them through. Now sometimes,
you know, in the midst of the great trials that we face in
life is we begin to question whether or not the things that
we believe are true. You do that. Don't you? Or am I the only one? Huh? Oh,
sometimes you do begin to doubt the things. Well, I wonder if
you know if these things are true. Well, wait a minute, Paul
says. Remember! Remember that place where you
were. Remember what it was that Christ
did. Remember the camaraderie and
the companionship and the bearing of one another's burdens in Christ
that you enjoyed. Remember that. You see, the exhortations
of God's people is to remind them of what they are, not to
try to get them to become something they're not. Now, you know, a
lot of people spend a lot of time trying to get people to
be what they're not. You need to do this and you need
to do that. And they've got all these different
lists of things if you do that. And somebody pretty soon they
burn out. Why? Because that's not what they
are. Dear brethren, what Paul is saying
here to the Hebrews is, Be what you are. What are you? Those who confess that Jesus
Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
Now if you are that, If you are that, then stand firm in it without
wavering. Don't be a wimp. Don't be moved
about with every whim of doctrine. Don't be turned aside by those
that would seek to destroy your faith. Stand firm! Christ is
our hope. Now, brethren, that's an exhortation
that is true in those days. It's an exhortation that's given
to the people of God in these days. You see, we believe in
the perseverance of the saints. That is, that the saint shall
persevere. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. But by the grace of God, we also
believe in the preservation of the saints, that He which hath
called you will also do it. Faithful is He. You see, He will
preserve that which is His unto the day. of judgment. If it belongs to him, he'll keep
it. And so the exhortation that's
given to these Hebrews is, stand fast. You've been called. You've confessed it. You know
it's true in the depths of your soul. You can't be shaken by
it. Don't turn from it, but go headlong following in that way. Why would you do otherwise?