I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10 as we consider the second exhortation
by the writer to the people of God in Hebrews chapter 10. We
braced ourselves for his exhortation and his warning to the people
of God to make sure that they take their calling and election
serious. We have contemplated our first
examination of this text in Hebrews 10 under the title, Draw Nigh
or Draw Back. Draw near to God is His exhortation
in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 through 22. Draw near to God
is His exhortation and His warning in verse 38 is that we will have
no pleasure in them that draw back. Draw near to God or draw
back and the implication of that statement is that there is no
middle ground That there is no place of suspension there's no
kind of a place of suspended suspended animation where you
can kind of Take a break the reality is is that either we
are moving forward in the cause of Christ and headed towards
glory because the The calling of God in Jesus Christ is a real
work of grace in our life and we are taking our calling as
pilgrims and strangers in this world seriously or we are drifting
back by the natural dynamic and gravity of this world system
which has as its goal to bring you and me down to hell. There is no suspended gravity. There is no void. There is no empty space where
you and I can hover in one place, if you will. We are either pressing
forward toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ,
or we are gradually, maybe even imperceptibly, receding and departing
from the true and the living God. And as we contemplated that
thought last week, I might also say that The only people that
are going to really heed this warning are men and women who
are serious about heaven. All of the warnings in scripture
are given to people who are serious about heaven. Everyone else will
shirk the warnings of scripture. Everyone else will test them,
push the boundaries, stretch the envelope, see if God would
do what God said he would do. That's the only logical answer
I can render to the repeated warnings in scripture where God
tells us he's holy and he's just and he's merciful and he's kind,
but he will not put up with rebellion. I mean, isn't the Bible clear
with repetitive warnings and limitations and stop signs where
he says, hey, don't cross that line. Yeah, I'm a God of love
and all that, but I'll tell you what, there's a side of me that
you don't want to get to know. Is that true? But what I am contemplating
now as I'm getting old in Christ, I am contemplating... Alright,
you older sisters, I understand. They keep admonishing me that
I'm still a baby. I don't feel like one and I don't
think like one. My heart plagues me. Every day
when I think about the hundreds of thousands of people who fall
into hell, my heart plagues me every day when I think about
the multitudes of men and women who have come to the place of
the holy and have departed from that place under the false assumption
that somehow they can make their way to God apart from God's mandate
and method and means. My heart breaks over folks who
somehow think that they can overlook and disregard the warnings of
Scripture that are designed, beloved, specifically for those
whose hearts are tender to the truth of the gospel. So you please
you who are under the hearing of my voice heed the warning
Do not be like the fool in Deuteronomy 29 who plainly says I will do
as I will I will add drunkenness to thirst and I don't care what
God says and I'm gonna still end up in heaven Don't you do
that child of God you take the warnings of God and say Lord.
I thank you for warning me. I Please do that now. Now what I want to do with the
text that's in front of us is help us understand his his Pragmatic
aim at the warning because hebrews 10 is really coupled with hebrews
6 where in hebrews 6 we have been warned about those who were
once enlightened those who have tasted of the Good gift of God
those who were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and saw those
revelatory images and Experiences that belong to God's elect and
yet those things made no eternal impact in their life. You heard
that language, right? for them to turn away or for
them to Abandon the gospel for them to put Christ to an open
shame. There is no more repentance for
certain people those certain people that is a dreadful dreadful
warning and That's a dreadful warning, and I really don't know
how to actually accurately lay that upon our conscience other
than to take up the other side of that warning that's given
to us in our text. But as we make our way there,
let me impress upon you some very practical things, and these
will resonate with you. This will resonate with you.
When you think about the people of God, and God has always had
people. From the beginning of time, God has always had a people
of God. I'm talking about people of God. I'm talking about people who
knew God. I'm talking about people who
walk with God. God has always had a people,
did you know that? He's always had a group of people to whom
He has revealed His glory to them in the person of Christ.
It doesn't matter how small the revelation was, they saw God's
glory and it drew them to the truth of the living God and they
lived on the grounds of that revelation. We do believe that
the Bible is, in its composite whole, a progression of unfolding
revelation that has been given to us from the beginning of time
until the closing of the canon of Scripture. And as a whole,
it was God revealing His glory to His people in the person of
Christ, so that they all walked by what? They all walked by faith. Now the just shall live by what? And the object of our faith is
always a person. Who is that person? Whether he
was revealed in the sacrificial offerings in the days of Abraham,
I'm sorry, Adam and Noah, or whether he was revealed more
fully in the typical language of circumcision and the rainbow
and the cloud, or the tabernacle, or whatever form of revelation
it came, those people lived with that revelation, didn't they?
The revelations abounded from one generation to the next to
where you and I are right now That's what we have a full revelation
of the glory of God in Christ in the written form You know
what? That means you and I are far more culpable than the generations
before us. We are far more culpable The
question is how many of us in this room are really strangers
and pilgrims with God? How many of us are really walking
with God? who have cast all our hope on
the message of redemption and eternal life in Jesus Christ
and are willing to be strangers and pilgrims in this world. How
many of us have, as it were, by the grace of God, abandoned
ourselves to the journey? That's a legitimate proposition.
Because you and I are going one or the other place. You can be
sure of that. And so while we are on our way,
we get to ask several questions. I'm going to lay this on you
as we get ready to work through five points today. All of God's
people throughout every generation have known what God's will was
in a very explicit, very clear, visible, and demonstrative way.
And God's revealed will to them in each generation was that revealed
will by which the people of God collectively manifested their
allegiance to Christ. In every generation, the people
of God knew what God's kingdom plan was for that generation. What would it have been in the
days of Adam and Eve? What would have been the tokens
if Adam and Eve had not fallen in the sin and rebellion? And
they would have done what God had called them to do in the
procreation mandate and produce seed and had children, hundreds
of thousands of children as they ultimately did. But let's say
before the fall, what would have been the kingdom mandate for
the people of God prior to the fall? Well, they would have been
called to till and keep the ground of the garden into which man
was placed to be the vineyard keeper thereof. The people of
God would have been known for that one visible, demonstrative
work of keeping the garden, wouldn't they? And we would have all known
that those were the people of God. Why? Because God had revealed
to them specifically through their fathers what his will was
explicitly. What would have been the manifestation
in the days of Enosh, the sons of Adam after Cain killed Abel
and the sons of God started rising up and the text tells us in Genesis
4, 25 that in those days men began to worship the Lord or
be called by the name of Jehovah. What would have been the demonstrative,
open expression or manifestation of the people of God in that
day? You know what it would have been? Blood sacrifice. the substitutionary
atoning work of Jesus Christ represented in the altar and
the sacrificing of a lamb. They would have been telling
the world that we are sinners and that we need redemption and
we need redemption through someone that is innocent, not like ourselves
to be our substitute. Their worship would have been
centered around the object of atonement in a spotless lamb
who would come one day to redeem them from hell. That would have
been their worship. Everyone would have known that they were
the people of God Let me ask you another question if you were
living in the days of Noah where everybody is doing that which
is right in their own eyes What would have been the kingdom?
Manifestation in that day to which the people of God would
have attacked themselves on a public visible demonstrative level what
would have been the building of the ark of Everyone would
have known that God's kingdom would have been manifested in
that one unique work of building the ark. Is that true? And those
who did not participate in the building of that ark would have
demonstrated themselves to have not been what? Believers. They
would not have believed that judgment was coming. They would
not have believed that they were under the wrath of God. They
would not have believed that the only way of escape was that
one ark. That was in the middle of the
world of which everybody ridiculed and laughed at until they felt
the first raindrop hit them on their forehead. On that day when
the raindrop came down, the difference between God's elect and the non-elect
would have been visibly clear. The elect would have spent their
whole life building the ark in obedience to the gospel. Am I
making some sense? That would have been the public,
demonstrative, collective work of the people of God. They would
not have abandoned that work. It took a hundred years plus
to do. They would have been there every
day, board by board, nail by nail, pitch by pitch, ladder
by ladder, step by step, three stories up, inside and out, laboring
according to the revealed will of God because they believed
the gospel. Are you hearing me? in the days
of brother Abraham. What would have been the demonstrative
evidence that they were the people of God? It would have been them
abiding under the principle of the multiplication of the seed
through the circumcision of their children. They would have already
had the sacrifice as the central means of worship given to the
sons of Adam. They would have understood the
blessing of coming out on the other side of the destruction
of the world because of Noah and his sons. They would have
added to that revelation the promise of Messiah coming and
they would have built upon that through circumcision, right?
They would have understood that in circumcision we are now preaching
the gospel of a pure seed that will come through the line of
Abraham who will be the redeemer of mankind. He would be the only
holy seed. And they would have demonstrably,
openly, and publicly consented to that form of gospel revelation.
Is that true? In the days of Moses, what would
have been the open, public, demonstrative, and collective work of the people
of God as Moses and Aaron led the people of God through the
wilderness into the promised land? Everybody who believed
God, the Jews and the Egyptians. You remember some of the Egyptians
said, I'm going with you. The way I saw God tear up this
world, tear up Egypt, the greatest nation in the world, I know he's
the true and the living God, and I'm going to make myself
a Hebrew with you, and I'm a foot soldier headed to glory land
with you. Do you know what would have been
the clear and demonstrative work that they would have been doing
in the wilderness? Building the tabernacle, learning how to worship
God, being taught to depend upon him, getting prepared for deployment
in the promised land to demolish every idol, every doctrine, every
practice that exalted itself against the knowledge of Christ.
In the wilderness, the people of God would have been known
by the work of building the temple. Let me say the word one more
time, work, so it can get into your system. The work. All of
the children of Israel were made to be partakers of the work.
The women had to sew. They had to make curtains. They
had to make coverings. The men had to make articles
out of wood and out of silver and out of bronze and out of
gold, didn't they? They all were given the grace and the assignment
to do what they were called to do, to build the tabernacle.
Isn't that right? And the priesthood had their labors. Every tribe
had their work. But they were all collectively
working together on one demonstrative public manifestation of the kingdom
of God. It would have been the tabernacle.
For the tabernacle would have been for Moses and Aaron in their
day a revelation of the glory of God in the person of Jesus
Christ, the Word made flesh dwelling among us. And everybody would
have known who the people of God were. The people of God wouldn't
have been wasting time doing this, that and the other. The
people of God wouldn't have been meandering over here and meandering
over there and lost over here and wasting their time over there.
The people of God are known as being part of a collective body
engaged in a unified work because God has always left himself a
witness in this world. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Now, this is critical to the message in which we are
dealing with. When we come to the New Testament, when we come
to the New Testament, if you would have been in the days of
the Lord Jesus or his cousin, that enigmatic prophet John the
Baptist, most of y'all wouldn't have wanted to hang out with
John because he was a little bit bizarre. You know that, right?
And if you're too cool, you wouldn't have hung out with John. But
John was full of the Holy Spirit and God was with him and his
work was on the outside of the temple because of his corruption
and everyone who was called by God met John down by the water. Do you know why they came? Because
they were convinced by the Spirit of God that they were hell bound
sinners. and that the only way to make straight his paths and
prepare ye the way for the Lord was for them to repent and to
be baptized for the remission of their sins and wait on the
coming of Jesus. They would have believed Jesus
was on his way. They would have believed that they were not right
with God. And they would have believed that merely submitting
to these waters as a type of the atoning work of Jesus Christ,
they would have did it. See, in our generation, you got
all kinds of Christians who call themselves Christians, but they
don't submit to any of these ordinances. They don't submit
to any of this. If you were in the days of our
Lord Jesus when he made his excursion through the world for three and
a half years, what was he going about doing? Preaching and teaching.
Preaching and teaching, calling sinners to himself. What would
have been the manifestation of those who actually heard the
gospel and were compelled to respond? They would have joined
him in his work. They would have been part of the work of our
master, wouldn't they? They would have done three and a half years
with him and they would have enjoyed the benefit and blessing
of being near Emmanuel and they would have also accepted the
ridicule and the scorn that came with being near Emmanuel. Because
they would have been persuaded that God has revealed his saving
glory to them in the person of Christ, his darling son, and
they would have been headed to glory. Am I making some sense?
And when was Christ went back to glory and sent his Holy Spirit
into the world in the book of Acts, what would have been the
manifestation of the kingdom of God at that time? It would
have been 12 men that Christ himself handpicked to be the
foundation of the New Testament church who would have laid out
for us clearly the gospel terms and men and women from every
nation, tribe and tongue would have been impacted by that gospel
message brought into the kingdom and they would have taken up
the work of building his church. The last manifestation or the
present manifestation of God's public demonstrative work in
the world is the building of his church. Are you a part of
that work? or are you on the sideline, busy
doing something else other than the Lord's business. See, the
Hebrew people, to whom the writer is writing, are people who are
contemplating leaving, abandoning the work. They are contemplating
going back to where they were. They are contemplating somehow,
because of the throes and the trials that we're about to get
into now as we deal with our point, that somehow this work
to which they were called is really not the work. How does
a person, ladies and gentlemen, Start off hearing the gospel,
being excited about Christ, being committed to the external evidences
of water baptism and the Lord's table to tell everybody I'm a
believer. And then gradually, gradually and slowly, incrementally
depart from a zeal to glorify God in the whole of their body,
in their lives by abandoning that one unique mission to which
he is called. Am I making some sense to you?
Am I making some sense to you? I'm asking you how does that
happen? Well, there's a lot of reasons why it happens and all
of the prophets have warned us as to why it happened. I just
want to go through the text in which the writer is giving us
so we can hear and heed his warning to us because I am persuaded. that if I have in the house some
real heaven-bound sinners, isn't that what I have, Elder Adams?
Is there any sinners in the house? If I've got some real heaven-bound
sinners in the house, this I know, they are committed to the glory
of God and the work for which God has called them. They are
more than privileged to be identified with the church of the living
God. This is what I know. So here's how the Hebrew writer
says it in our first point. We're going to recapitulate just
a few. Let us draw near is that your first point verse 22 in
our text listen to what it says I won't be long on these first
two or three because it's evident that we've developed this last
week Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith
Having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscious in our bodies
washed in pure water. Do you see that? We we we called
to note last week that there are three let us's in our text. Is that true? Verse 22, let us
draw near. Verse 23, let us hold fast. Verse
24, and let us consider one another. In verse 22, let us draw near.
We said drawing near to God comprises two fundamental realities. The
life that you personally have now wherein God has quickened
you by his spirit and brought you into union with him so that
daily you fellowship with God. You are headed to God, child
of God. Are you hearing me? And your
job every day is to grow in communion and in fellowship with God through
Jesus Christ, for whom God has made the way into his presence
so evidentially clear. by a fresh and perpetual sacrifice
of atonement that has so fully put away your sins that you have
no excuse to come to God because he's wiped out every impediment,
every hindrance, every grounds for which you should shrink away
by the blood and righteousness of Christ. So come to God. Come to God and you come to God
not only through the blood, through the blood, but through the blood,
but you come to him through the assurance of faith that God gives
to every believer. And I've told you this before.
God has planted faith in your heart. He's planted faith in
your heart to get you to glory. Do you know what that means?
Every day, He's going to furnish you with tokens and evidences
of His grace and His assurance in your life. He's going to show
you the glories of God in Christ. He's going to reveal His providence
in your life. He's going to show you His presence and power in
your life. Isn't that what He does? He's going to show you
that you are His and He is yours. He's going to build your faith
up through your trials. He's going to show you that your
thoughts are not His thoughts, and your ways are not His ways,
but He's still got your back. He's gonna build your faith up
in such a way that you have no real logical reason not to follow
God He will do things for you because it's not for you But
it's for his glory sake that he will help you understand you
come in my way whether you believe it or not This is what it means
to furnish us with the evidences of faith. He doesn't leave us
with a dry pedantic faith That's not organic and doesn't have
life that faith grows doesn't it? It grows. It grows. And it grows for the purpose
of you drawing near to God. Not staying stagnant. Not being
unintelligent or dumb or ignorant. Not being careless about going
deep in the Word of God to see who God is. the plenary of his
biblical text. God gives you faith so you can
go into the Word of God and see him in his glory and to be bold
enough to see yourself for what you really are. By nature a stinking
wretch. See, you can see yourself for
what you really are when God has covered you in the righteousness
of Christ and has promised you that he has put away all your
sins and by the sacrifice of His Son. See Hebrews 1 through
Hebrews 9 ought to have settled the matter for us. We've been
through those nine chapters, haven't we? And we are clear
that the Son of God offered Himself without spot and blemish to God
the Father through the Spirit of God so that He has purged
our conscience from dead works that we might serve the true
and the living God. Am I making some sense? And faith allows
me to walk in who I am in Christ in spite of who I am in myself.
It allows me to continue my journey towards God. And in fact, it
is a radical kind of faith to be able to turn from myself and
look to God and see myself in Christ. But that's the nature
of saving faith. Along with that, God gives me
my mission like he gives every one of us their mission. You
have a mission. Are you doing what God has called
you to do as he's bringing you to himself? Verse 22 is also
calling us to the sincerity of true worship. Let us, remember
I told you the let us is the first person what? Plural. And
it's in what we call the continuous sense. We are to do something
incessantly and continually without stopping. What is that? Worship
God. Worship God. Worship God. Let me let you in on a secret.
You are knowing, you know that you are growing when you grow
in your desire to worship God. Hear me again now. You know that
you are growing when you are growing in your desire to worship
God. You were made to worship God. The hour is coming when all that
worship God will worship Him in spirit and in truth. For such,
the Father is seeking to worship. This is how Passionate God is
in his own intentionality to have a people for himself. And
is it appropriate for you and I to come into the presence of
the ineffable bliss in worship? You will be no closer to the
angels than when you worship God. He made us to worship. And if you don't find in your
soul a passion to worship God, something is wrong. Something
is wrong. Now we can expand worship of
God and the general assembly to the next proposition. Now
again, remember what I said, let us means that this is a corporate
thing, right? So we want to abolish the extremity
that we often find ourselves inclined in as American and Western
Christians, that somehow I can do my own thing and walk with
God my own way and kind of have my own individual worship of
God. Perish the thought. The worship of God is public. for a reason I'm going to teach
and it is collective. The worship of God is public
and it is collective. You do have your private time.
He saved you personally, but he did not save you secretly
nor privately, but publicly. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This ought to shape for the year 2014 your attitude about worship.
He says, let us draw near to God. Let us draw near to God.
And the next thing that he said for us to do is to what? Let
us hold fast the profession of our faith. Do you see that? In
verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
what? For God is faithful who promised. Is God faithful? So I could spend the rest of
the sermon talking about how faithful God is. when our faith
begins to waver. Doesn't he get a hold of our
faith and buoy it up and stop it from tilting over too far?
See, only God's elect are kept from apostasy. I'm kept from
apostasy. I'm not saying I won't jump into
it if I had the chance, but when I go to jump, something suspends
me in air and brings me back on this side. And I look up and
I'm still in Christ. Because faithful is he that has
called me who also will do it. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So when it says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith,
I told you last week, that means our public lifestyle of being
believers to the world is a visible, demonstrative token to the world
that God bought me with the price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
And I am his lock, stock and barrel. He owns me. And my job
is to live for his glory. My job is to be a worshiper,
to be a witness and to be a worker in his kingdom. So my job is
witnessing. Everywhere I go, I am to be ready
to give an answer to every man. Ready. have my pistol cocked,
ready to go to war for King Jesus, ready to tell men and women about
Christ. How about you? Ready to tell
the world that there's no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ.
Ready to engage men and women in the implausible ideas that
there's another way. There is no other way. There
is but one way to God, one exclusive way, and that way is a person,
and his name is Jesus Christ. You ought to be ready to tell
men and women that, and you ought to be ready to die for it. Because
God has people out there that he's going to bring in through
your readiness. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? And so we were told last week
that this also is a collective thing, where you and I are to
work together to achieve these goals, which brings me to point
number three, where we left off last week, which is what I want
to build now, points three through five. An absolutely fundamental
text. Verses 24 and 25 are one verse
in the Greek. And let us consider one another.
Do you guys see that? You saw how I dealt with that
last week. I'm going to bring that particular
screen up now and deal with it again. The word consider there
is a term that means to carefully observe with regard to knowing
everything about what you are considering. Theoreo is our Greek
term from which we have used the word theory. I've told you
before, when you are entering into a theoretical contemplation,
you are taking the object that you are considering and you are
unpacking that object. You are analyzing that object.
You are deconstructing that object. You are seeking to learn everything
about that object you possibly can. Do you understand what I
mean by theory? And then I share with you the
other very conventional, pragmatic term for theory, and the word
is theator. Theater in a theater. Everybody
has their eyes fixed on one screen and they are watching whatever
is on that screen until it's over with and Everybody is fixed
on it when the Bible says consider one another it means that we
are to deeply care about one another's needs Are you hearing
me? Deeply care about one another's
needs that we are to contemplate where our brothers and sisters
are in their life in every aspect of their life That we ought to
be praying about their situation, whether they are doing well or
not. And then we ought to be so concerned about their situation
as to be ready to do something about it, should we find out
that they are in some kind of trouble, some kind of struggle,
some kind of issue. Am I making some sense? In other
words, as Paul said in the book of Philippians, let each seek
the welfare of others and not their own. Are you committed
to the body of Christ? Remember I told you the revelation
was the apostles. They were disciples at that time.
They viewed our master when he was being crucified. They saw
him crucified. They were fixed on his crucifixion.
They were fixed on his burial. They were fixed on his resurrection.
They saw the whole process. Why? Because they cared about
his body. Are you hearing what I'm saying? They saw the body
of Christ when it was crucified. They saw the body of Christ when
it was buried. They saw the body of Christ when
it rose again from the dead. See, it is I. I am not a spirit. Touch me. Feel me. Flesh and
bone is alive before you this day. They were concerned with
what they saw. And I will transfer the body of Christ to his larger
ecclesia, to which we are to be concerned. Remember in the
book of Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is preaching to his knucklehead
brethren, Telling them that they have resisted the Holy Ghost
back then even as they do now We'll touch on that with our
last point and they began to gnash upon him with their teeth
Remember that run up on him to stone him to death. And do you
know what he said? I see The heavens opened and
the Son of Man Standing at the right hand of God Now ladies
and gentlemen, is that a scene or what? Is that a fixation? Is that a contemplation? Is that
a deep commitment to the object in front of you while you're
being beat down and put to death by all the people? You're being
beat down and your eyes are fixed on a person? Is that concentration
or what? Is that care? Is that commitment? That's exactly what Jesus is
saying that you and I ought to be when it comes to the body
of Christ. That's what it meant by provoke one another or rather
consider one another. You guys got that? We got work
to do, don't we? Because my Western Christian
brethren are very selfish, aren't we? We are consumed with our
own things and we spend little time with the body of Christ.
Little time with the body of Christ. Let's go on. He says
that we are to consider one another and then he uses a very advised
term that we don't like in 21st century Christianity. It's the
word what? Provoke. Because generally the word provoke
connotes a sort of negative aspect. It's like when you push people's
buttons and make them mad at you. But the Holy Spirit is saying
to you and I to push our brothers and sisters buttons and provoke
them to do what's right. Do you understand what that means?
That means that you and I really don't have the prerogative to
watch our brothers and sisters get lazy on God. that it might
be politically correct in the world to watch them as they start
to become lethargic and cold and indifferent and careless
about the things of God. But you and I have an obligation
out of love to poke them, to poke them, to poke them. The Greek term means to poke
as with a sharp stick, to spur them on. It's the rod that was
used for the mule or for the ox when he was made to be encouraged
to continue treading out the corn. Real sharp edge on it with
the stick, boom, boom, boom. And the Greek term has within
it inherit the idea of inciting you, not merely exciting you,
like that goes on with emotional religion, where you excite people
but they don't even know what they're excited about. It becomes
an external excitement that has nothing to do with sound doctrine
penetrating the mind, bringing about a resolve in their volition
to do what's right because of a clear exposition of biblical
truth, where we are moved in obedience because of what we
understand, not merely because of what we feel. But as I've
told you before, do not abandon feelings. Feelings are a gift
from God that assist our volition. in order for us to actually do
what we say. How many of you know the impotency of the will
apart from faith? How many of you know the impotency
of a mental resolve that does nothing other than to say, I'm
going to do it, I'm going to do it, but you never get around
to doing it? Are you hearing what I'm saying? There must be
more than just sit than simply being able to resolve or agree
that a thing ought to be done What's gonna motivate us to actually
get up and go visit someone or call them? I'll go walk over
to someone and sit down with them and engage in a conversation
but conviction You have to be convicted This is what Paul meant
by spurring inciting. I don't know how to do it. I
I don't know how to incite a person to do the will of God. I really
don't. I think I'm stuck like most pastors. Maybe some pastors
know how to do it. I don't spend much time trying
to excite you, but I don't know how to incite you. I don't know
how to incite my children. I don't know how to incite my
own family. I mean, I wish I did. I know I'm called to it. And
it's true for you too. If you have the keys of inciting
somebody to actually talking to them in a way that gets them
up off of their butt and actually doing the will of God, tell me,
okay? Because I want to know how to...
That's a mystery to me. Because most people I know go,
thank you, that message was great. Man, I was moved. And don't do
a thing. Don't do a thing. Fall right
back into the same pattern of life that they were always in.
This is what scares me to death. This is the parable that our
Lord gave about the two boys who was told by his father to
go out and work. The one boy said, I will. But
he didn't go. The other boy said, I ain't going.
Sound like me. But he ended up going. Something
changed his mind. Something got a hold of his will.
Something spurred him on to that good work while the other brother
was just talking. Jesus was talking about the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and the rulers of the church who put on a form
of godliness Because they all of the doctrines right and they
were the leaders in the church But they weren't going out to preach
the gospel to lost sinners And he was talking about them saying
that they would go but they didn't go and then he was talking about
the ones that came in You know what? He said publicans and harlots
and tax collectors and dope fiends and drunks They come into the
kingdom of God before you something incited them to come in They
were the sons who said I ain't going I What they wasn't wanting
to do was go to church, because they were tired of the hypocrites
in the church. And most churches you have to go to today, if you
don't have $100, you're too broke to be part of their church. And
I'd rather get high than to go to church. Am I telling the truth? All right, now, you better settle
down in here, because I'll tell you like it is. And you just
have to deal with it. You just have to deal with it.
You see, when I go out and I talk to my Skid Row brothers and sisters,
all of them, almost to a point, have come to church, gone to
church, been a part of the church. Many of them preachers. Many
of them sung in the choir. Many of them was this and that.
Now they're out there on dope and strung out. But they're not
coming back to church. You know why? There's nothing
there but the same Ponzi scheme that's on Wall Street. Am I making
some sense? And so I'm asking you, how do
we encourage the so-called people of God to do what God is calling
them to do? I'll leave that question for
you to work it through. The writer says, let us consider one another,
let us provoke one another. And he goes on to say to these
two things, love and good works. Do you see that? So you can imagine
what that would feel like if a brother and sister actually
took that seriously. Every time you and them crossed
paths, even if it's just for one minute. You know what they're
going to say to you? How you doing with your walk
with God? How you been doing with your walk with God? What
has God shown you today? What insights has God revealed
to you that might be a blessing to me? We only got a few minutes.
Can you share with me how God is? You know, we can talk for
hours about dumb stuff. Remember, I told you there are
three kinds of minds. Three kinds of minds. The very, very, very,
very strong mind is the mind of people that talk about God.
Not many people do that. Then we have the average mind.
And the average mind talks about what? Things. This, that. Politics, religion, money. Buying
this, buying that. And then the very low-minded
people talk about people. When your mind is jacked up way
in the gutter, And you meet people, all they want to do is talk about
this person, that person, the other person, then you know they're
messed up. They're way down in the pit, right? Strong minds,
above average minds, are ready to talk about God. Because they
spend their time meditating on God. They spend their time in
communion with God. They spend their time studying
God's Word and wanting to be conformed to His image. They
take on the mind of Christ because they actually study God's Word
with a desire and aim for that Word to actually metabolize itself
in them so that Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth can speak,
not to be some just some kind of religious rabbit running off
in a claptrap fashion. Forget all that. I'm talking
about being able to authentically talk to people about God. You
know how when you meet brothers and sisters who really ever walk
with God, they make you uncomfortable. And again, I want to make sure
that we are not affirming the nuts. Because we have nuts, super
self-righteous, hyper-pharisaical righteous nuts who seek to control
people. I'm not talking about that kind
of individual. I'm talking about an individual who is so content
with God in Christ that when they get with you, they are just
naturally expecting a conversation and dialogue about God. So as
soon as you say something that's even remotely theologically sound,
there they go talking about God. You talking about doing your
hair and they get to talk about did you know that he had hair white
as snow And can we contemplate what that
means by way of redemptive significance Did you know that's I was contemplating
that Funny thing you should have said there cuz I was reading
that just yesterday in Revelation 1 8 9 Are you hearing what I'm
saying? But you're going to kick them
out now because you want to talk about things and people. Provoking
one another to love and the good works. With me, how you doing
in your commitment to the word of God? How you doing in your
commitment to the cause of the gospel? Are you committed to
the public manifestation and demonstrative evidence of the
kingdom of God? Are you serving the kingdom?
If you should die today and we do your funeral, How many people
will be able to stand up and say, we knew this sister, we
love this sister, we knew this brother, we love this brother,
they were committed to the cause of Christ in this area, or that?
See what I'm getting at? Do you see what I'm getting at?
Do you understand that this is what Christ meant when he said
to Peter, James, and John in John chapter 21, feed my sheep? Feed my lambs, care for my people. Are you guys hearing me? Care
for my people. Then he goes on to say, because
we need to get to our point here. He says, making sure that we
can provoke one another to love and to good works. And here's
the next verse. Here's the next set of verses,
25 through 29, is what we want to deal with now. Not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together. Do you see that? not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together. He's saying that we are to continue
to draw near to God incessantly, both individually and collectively. We are to continue to make our
calling and election sure and be ready to tell men and women
about Christ Personally and collectively and then we are to continue in
not only provoking one another to love in the good works But
be committed passionately committed to gathering together. You see
the word assemble there. It's our word epic synagogue
Epic synagogue and it means that we are the people who gather
together around Jesus Christ whenever we have an opportunity
to do so the word synagogue is your Greek term for the gathering
of the people and Sin is a preposition of binding It's like the word
con gaga has to do with the people the gathering of the people and
this proposition on the front of it is an intensified preposition
which says we gather around an object on a continual basis with
the very objective of being strengthened in the faith so that we can go
out from our Gathering and be what God has called us to be
when we're in the world That's the reason we gather Listen,
when we gather together under the Word of God, under sound
teaching and preaching, you should go away from this place better. You should go away from this
place more prepared, more committed, more ready to glorify God. Then also, if our gathering is
biblical, and if our gathering is Christ-exalting, and if our
gathering is anointed, you love to gather with the people of
God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? You love the idea. Like
I said last week, the impulse not to gather, the impulse not
to assemble, the impulse to find something else to do all week
long is not from God. It is not from God. The impulse
to do your own thing and stay isolated all week long. Unless you're working and taking
care of your family, all those things God calls it. It's not from God. See if I can help you with this.
When we gather together, there are at least three things happening.
Three things. See, remember before God saved
you? You didn't gather together with us. You circumvented us. You drove, in some cases, you
guys, some of y'all were so demon-possessed, you didn't even drive down the
same city. You drove around a gospel church. I'm telling the truth. You wouldn't
have anything to do with the light. You walked in so much
darkness that even the thought of church, if people were in
your car, they shook you up. You started getting shaky when
they started talking about the church. Can I tell you why? Because you had not been gathered
past tense. The reason you don't gather with
the people of God is because you didn't, you were not gathered.
Let me help you understand something. All of us were in a certain condition
before God saved us. Do you know what that condition
was? Scattered to the four winds. upon the mountains of this dark,
dark, sinful world. Some hither, some yon, over here
and over there, lost in our sin and our rebellion against God.
We were like sheep scattered upon this world, isolated, separated,
stuck in pits, sometimes by ourselves and sometimes with others. Am
I making some sense? We were lost. And the Good Shepherd
in His mercy Ezekiel chapter 34 around verse 16, I, even I,
shall seek out my sheep and I shall gather them to myself. I will
put them on my shoulder and bring them back to the fold. When we
gather together like this on a public level, we are demonstrating
the evangelical power of the gospel to bring sinners to Christ. When we gather together on a
public level like this, we are demonstrating the work of the
Spirit to have baptized us into the body of Christ. When we come
together like this, we are prophesying to the world that the gospel
still saves. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And then when we gather together like this, we are doing something
else as well. We are calling the people of
God to a constant, continuous, unending process of preparation. See, the gathering together is
a preparation. We gather together under the Word of God in preparation.
Do you know what we're preparing for? To meet Him. To meet Him. To meet Him. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 1. You know what Paul says right
before he talks about the apostasy? Right before he talks about the
apostasy. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1, pull it up. Listen
to what he says. He says to the saints at Thessalonica,
Now we beseech you, do you see that? Now we beg you, brethren,
On what premise do we beg you? By the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you see that? Let me ask you
a question. Do you believe He's coming? I believe with all my
heart He's coming. And that ought to be a premise
for gathering together. Now watch this. We beseech you
by the coming of Jesus Christ. See, I know a bunch of people
don't believe He's coming. We got mockers in these last
days who says, where's the promise of His coming? For since the
days of our fathers, everything has continued normally. But we
have news for you. It has not continued normally.
The world has not continued. The world is getting worse and
worse every day. Men and women are being deceived
and waxing more deceived. People are being blinded more
and more. The world is not the same as it was 50 years ago,
let alone 2,000 years ago. Are you kidding? Our grandparents
would be turning over in the grave if they saw our present
generation. Our great-great-grandparents
wouldn't know what to do with this mess that we're in. We beseech
you by the coming of Christ, watch this, and by our gathering
together unto Him. Mark this truth. Are you ready?
Mark this truth. I want you to get this. God taught
me this early on when he saved me. Because I would ask questions
because I was part of this rebel culture of American individualism. I was part of this. I was part
of this in my early days where I thought that I could do Jesus
all by myself. You know what I'm saying? Take a break from everybody and
do Jesus all by myself. Feel flat on my face. Feel flat
on my face trying to do Jesus. I did good for about a month
or two. Studying and praying going into the sort of a monk
mode. I did good for a couple months
and then Fell flat on my face. You know why it wasn't the will
of God It was not the will of God for me to isolate myself
from the people of God for many reasons one of which he was calling
me to preach and to teach but he was also calling me to love
his people and I cannot love you while being separated from
you you cannot love me by being separated from me and We cannot
get to know each other spur us spur each other on to good works
and love while we constantly Separating ourselves while the
preponderance of the hours of our days and weeks Collectively
amount to this I spend almost zilch time with the people of
God. I Spend almost zilch time with
the people of God I get a person here or there who's been coming
to grace for about 10, 12, 15 years. They'll come up to me
and say, Pastor, I don't know all these people coming to grace
now. Who are all these people coming to grace? I'll say, I
know them. How come you don't know them?
I know them. How come you don't know them?
Because you don't spend any time getting to know them. It breaks
my heart that we have members who are so comfortable in their
little pockets that they don't understand the privilege of being
here to be an example to all these new people, to be a witness
and a testimony to them, to pull them aside and to encourage them
and provoke them to love and the good works, to help them
understand doctrine, help them avoid the pits and the snares
that we all been through. Some of us older people have
been through these pits and snares, haven't we? But we're not here
for the younger people. We're not here for the new believers.
We're busy doing our... I'd love to know what you're
doing, More important than getting to know God and helping to build
up the saints. Somebody tell me what you're
doing that's more better than what God has called you to do.
Help me understand that. Can I give you the answer? Nothing.
You are doing nothing of any eternal significance by all that
you're doing to glorify God and build up the saints. You are
doing nothing. You are wasting your time. Wasting your time. and you are
in danger of eternal peril should you sustain a lifelong apathy
and coldness to the cause of Christ first with his body. Can
I tell you why? I love God the Father and I love
God the Son because he is the one who has begotten me to the
Father. but I also love those whom the
Father has begotten through him. That's 1 John chapter 5. It's
one of the evidences I'm born again. I love the Father, I love
the Son, and I love the people that are born of God. Do you?
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Ladies and gentlemen, are you
hearing what I'm saying? And God fully expects us to have
a special love for the saints. A special love for the saints. You cannot be part of the member
of Christ's body and not love his body. That's what the text
is teaching. See, so when it says assemble
together, we are assembling together for several things. Once because
he's called us out. He's called us out. Secondly,
because he's preparing us for his coming. He's coming one day.
And do you know what we're going to do? We're going to gather
together unto him. Now, here's the third point before
I go to my last two points. Every time a gospel church separates
from the world. And gathers together. in a collective
assembly of the saints like we are doing right now. Are you
ready? This is a prophetic indictment against the world. It is a prophetic
indictment against the world. Every time we go out into the
world as salt and light and we seek to share the gospel with
them and then we hear the call. Don't you hear the call? The
call to worship. Most of y'all don't hear it because y'all come
in late. I got to work today. Can I work today? Most of y'all
come in late because you got a problem with God. So you're
supposed to hear the call to worship. Am I making some sense? But see, there's a day when the
call is going to come from heaven and we're going to be gathered
together to him and the world is going to have to see us for
the last time. Every time we gather together in the church,
separating from the world, the world is left to itself. It's
left in its darkness. It's left in its paganism. The
world doesn't have the answer. The people of God do. And when
we gather together, we are saying one day we're going to be out
of here and you're going to be left to nothing but the judgment
and wrath of God. Are you hearing me? But before
we go up to be with him, God's going to shake out all the hypocrites
in Zion. He's going to get rid of all of the tears, all the
folks that's pretending. He's going to shake them out
of Zion so that only his elect will go up. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Only his elect will go up. Don't
play games with God. Moving us to our last couple
of points here. So very important for us to deal
with. Point number four, the grounds for corporate and personal
encouragement. Obviously, the Hebrew writer
is concerned, is he not? Let me show you the context in
which that concern emerges. It's in verses 32 through 39. I'm going to stop at verse 36
because this will affirm what I have been seeking to encourage
you in at the present. Are you ready? Listen to what
he says in verse 32, but call to remembrance. He's talking
to the church of the Hebrew Christians at that time. Call to remembrance
the former days in which after you were illuminated. You know
what that means? When the gospel came in revelatory power and
showed you the finished work of Jesus Christ and showed you
the finality of his crossword and called you to the blessing
of the new covenant wherein he took out that stony heart, put
in a heart of flesh, wherein he quickened you to know him
personally, and then wherein he has shown you that your sins
were forgiven. These are the new covenant terms,
isn't that right? I'll take out the stony heart,
put in a heart of flesh, and they shall all know me from the
least to the greatest. So we have what is called regeneration,
illumination, and then the forgiveness of sins. I will forgive your
sins. What a great proposition from
God. I will forgive all your sins. I'm coming to a God like
that, aren't you? I will forgive all your sins.
I'm coming to a God like that. Forgive all my sins? All of them? I don't even know them all. But
he does. Forgive all my sins? That's too
good to be true. But I gotta lay my hope on somebody. I might as well lay it on God.
Since God is omniscient and he knows all things, thus he must
know all my sins. I can trust him. He's proven
himself faithful to this day. I'm going to cast myself upon
the new covenant blessings and ride this thing out with God.
Does that make sense? And so the Hebrew writer is telling
us to remember the days when you were illuminated. You know
how you were happy about the gospel and then affliction came. You were illuminated and then
you endured a great fight of what? This is the parable of
the sword in the sea. Am I boring you? All right, stay
here, stay here, stay with me on this. See, because every New
Testament author only says in the development and the expansion
of his subject and theme what our master had already plainly
said. Our master gave us a parable of the sower and the seed. And
he gave us four soils. And once you understand the parable
of the sower and the seed, you understand the mysteries of the
kingdom of God. You know what the mystery of the kingdom of
God is? Some are saved and some are not. Simple But some will
be exposed only on the last day and others in process of time
That's why for God's people time is a blessing if you truly say
Time is a blessing because God's gonna prove himself faithful
in your life But if you're not God's people and you're hypocrites
time is your adversary because you're gonna eventually show
your colors That's the danger. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so here's what happened. Your eyes were illuminated to
the gospel, you enjoyed the preaching of the word, Christ was glorious
to you, and then you ended up suffering persecution for the
gospel. Now all of a sudden everything starts to change. See what I'm
saying? Now the gospel is not that great
anymore because you might lose your job. Now the gospel is not
that great anymore because your friends whom you covet with I
don't know what, you just love them like I don't know what,
now they're distancing themselves from you. Now they're questioning
your zeal. They're calling you a Pharisee.
They don't like you because you've changed. You better change. You better change. And now you
are suffering in so many other ways in terms of, once you come
to Christ, what he does in one of the first works he deals with
you in your life is to strip you of all your idols. Human
idols. People idols. Family idols. Family idols. Job idols. and those secret pet idols that
fundamentally circumscribe who you were. See, when God calls
you, He's stripping you for Himself. You're His! Are you hearing me? But He's called you to take up
your cross and follow Him because the message you have to bear,
are you hearing me? The message you have to bear,
the world will not like. What the world hates about our
message is several things. One is the exclusivity of the
claims. See, we are not pluralist. You're
weak spined when you are willing to say, your view is your view,
and his view is his view, and my view is my view, and you know,
everybody got their own views. That's not a Christian position.
Sorry. You can't get off that easy.
Everybody may have their own views, but everybody's views
are not right. Are you ready? His view is right. And his view
is the only right view. And as a consequence of his view
being right, bring what may come. Are you hearing what I'm saying? We don't have to be relativistic. We don't have to become a chameleon
and become different colors in the midst of different folks. Listen, I only know one thing. Christ is all. He's the way, the truth, the
life and no one comes unto the father but by him if you do not
believe that I am he you will die in your sin no other religion
will save you now I know that every way of right every me every
way of man is right in his own eyes I know that but there's
a way that seems good unto a man but the end thereof are the ways
of death this we also know so we stand with the one who loved
us and gave himself for us and we're not trying to save everybody
in the world Did you get that? Uh-uh. So let
me help some of you brand new evangelists. Your job is not
to save everybody. You go and try to save everybody,
watch how quick you abandon your job. Because you're going to
be met with the reality that most people are not interested
in the truth of the gospel. Are you hearing me? So then your
job is the same job as your master. and the same job as his apostles.
Are you ready? I do all things for the elect's
sake. I am all things to all men that
if by any means I might win some. Because this I know. God has
a people who will hear the gospel, believe, and be saved. I know
that. I know that God's not going to save everybody, but I know
he's going to save somebody. And I know that if I am committed
to his glory and he gives me the resources, he's going to
use me as a means by which somebody is going to be saved. And I'm
going to be happy if at the end of all my life, only one person
comes to know Christ. One. Because I will have, by
the grace of God, caused the whole of heaven to shake in utter
joy that a hell-bound sinner was redeemed from iniquity and
made one of the saints of God. I will have been used by God
today. You too. You too. This matter
is serious, isn't it? Grounds already saying is you
were suffering affliction partly while you were made a gauging
stock both by Reproaches and afflictions partly while you
became companions of them that were so used. What is verse 33
talking about? Remember I said that we are to
collectively work out Worshipping God and and building our faith
and helping one another. We also are to collectively suffer
together That's what the text is saying. Do you see it? So
when one brother suffers we all suffer. Do you see that I? Good,
I don't have to develop it, right? You see that, right? So, we hear
about our brothers and sisters suffering over in some particular
place. If I care about them, I'm gonna
enter into their suffering. One way or the other, if we got
brothers and sisters around the world suffering, guess what I'm
gonna do? I'm praying passionately that in the providence and power
of God, He meets their needs. Because I'm gonna consider myself
part of that body suffering with them. If I believe this thing,
if I believe this thing, Because here's what I know, children
of God, here's what I know. You and I in the West, we don't
suffer persecution as of yet. So we don't really have that
kind of pathos and sympathy for the brothers and sisters who
have it as a basic, normal course of life. The problem that you
and I have is seduction. Seduction and temptation of carnality
and worldliness. Seeking to draw us away from
God and dull our senses and keep us from being passionate for
God Am I telling the truth? You and I are being seduced by
the great harlot the whore of Babylon this world system Deluding
your heart in mind thinking that you have time to get it, right?
Telling you it's all about you wasting time wasting time Wasting
time is what we're doing. Hey, you older people, don't
you notice you got more gray hair? Don't you notice a little bit
more creaks and cracks? Don't you notice more lines?
You brothers, don't you notice the muscle is turning into fat?
You lifting, but it's still dripping. Don't you notice that? Do you
know that? See, this is what God said to Israel. You're getting
old and you don't even see it. You know those people who refuse
to admit they old. Don't you know them? Still wearing
those same 60s and 70s clothes. They refuse to get old. Somehow
they have fear they fear what's in front of them But see if you
have a hope you don't have to fear what's in front of you and
when you have a hope Your gray hair is a glory when you have
a hope God is crowning you with years Before he brings you into
his bosom and gives you your eternal reward But we have so
many carnal Christians who are a wall is not am I telling the
truth not even funny. I You and I should be about our
father's business for the sake of our children if no one else.
I can tell you the pattern you leave, your children gonna take
up. The grounds for corporate and personal encouragement is
that the suffering was taking place in that context. And God
had already, Christ had already said, you're going to suffer
for my name. And so Paul is warning them. Look at verse 35. Cast
not away, therefore, your what? Confidence, which hath great
recompense and reward. What is he saying? He's saying
suffer the hits for Christ's name's sake. You're the people
of God. Suffer the hit it has all kinds of present benefits
and then eternal ones verse 36 to move on to my last point for
you have need of patience, right? That after you have done what? What a great assumption What
a great assumption Let me ask you Are you doing the will of
God? Are you doing the will of God?
Do you know what God's will is? Do you know what his public,
demonstrative, collective, corporate will is? And how does his personal
will for your life correspond to it? As I told you earlier,
remember, in every generation, the people of God knew the will
of God, and they were identified with it. Are y'all hearing what
I'm saying? In every generation. It's no different now. I'm going
to leave that question with you. Let me get down to my last two
points. My time is way up. He warns in verse 29 through
32, which I'm inclined to wait and
develop further. Go back with me there. I'm sorry,
I want to start at verse 26 and go through verse 29. He warns
in verse 26 through 29. He says, if we forsake or abandon
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, and
fail to exhort one another as we are doing now, and so much
the more as you see the day approaching. See verse 25? He is assuming
the day is approaching, isn't he? And he's saying that as you
get closer to the day, you should actually do more gathering together. Isn't that what it's saying?
As we get closer to Christ, we should be more committed to the
kind of gospel fellowship that is essential to strengthen us
when we go out into that world every day. We do need it. As we get closer to Christ, Him
getting closer to us, and the more the troubles come, the more
the temptations come, the more the seductions come, shouldn't
we be gathering together more, or at least strategically engaging
in all of these new technologies by which we can edify each other?
Email and Facebook and CDs and MP3s, shouldn't we stay connected? Shouldn't we stay plugged in?
Aren't you so thankful for radio? Don't you think but aren't you
thankful that you can listen every day to the Word of God
every day every day Every day, it's at least it's just sort
of an aid until we get together, right? This is the way God would
have it for his people and then he says these words and I'm actually
gonna touch on this and leave this alone till next week because
it actually Needs to be developed. Listen to this Do not forsake
abandon the gathering together of yourselves for if we sin willfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there
remains no more sacrifice for sin now ladies and gentlemen
in verse 26 particularly for those of you who are new christians
this is not sinning in general this is not just you know sinning
in general whatever this general sins you are into you know what
i'm talking about It's not sinning in general. This is sinning in
specific. Here's the specific sin in which the people of God
are warned is the premise for apostasy and blasphemy of the
Holy Ghost. These are the precursors to some
people being qualified to be being blasphemers of the Holy
Ghost. When you and I can find in our heart the easy ability
to restrain from gathering together with the people of God, your
heart is hardening against the clear revelation of God's word
concerning gathering together. When you can easily know the
people of God are gathering here, they're gathering there, they're
gathering here, and the Spirit of God has reminded you what
time it is, what they're doing, And he's reminded you of these
explicit sermons that you're hearing right now. And you decide,
uh-uh. You are willfully sinning against
the gathering of the people of God that God uses to strengthen
your faith so that you can not only glorify him, but bless other
people in the faith as we have thus considered. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? that I can't, listen, I cannot
understand a man or woman having been saved out of this dark,
wicked world from the companion of fools that we used to be a
part of. Will you hear me? See, I was a part of a companion
of fools. I'm talking about nuts. I'm talking
about clowns. We could waste a day. We could
waste a week. We could waste so much time.
We didn't even know how many days we wasted when we woke up.
I'm talking about clowning. Now, only a few of you know what
I'm talking about. And I pinch myself every day after 35 years
of having been brought out of darkness into his marvelous light
to wake up daily and say, you know what? I can honestly say
that I have not aborted the call to serve God. and to prioritize
His will in my life up to this hour. I don't remember the last
time I desired to go out and act a fool. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? And especially when I think about
the people of God gathering here, and the people of God gathering
there, and the people of God gathering here, and my heart saying, I
don't want to gather. Here's what he's warning about,
and we'll unpack this next week. He's warning that your heart
is hardening. because your heart is divided,
you're double-minded, or you're so cold that you fail to allow
the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of grace, not just the Spirit
of truth, not just the Spirit of the Lord, not just the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of grace to work in your mind as he has been
doing to show you all that Christ is. and all that Christ has done,
and all that Christ is seeking to have accomplished through
His body. For you and I to know that revelation
of His will and purpose in our life, to daily and weekly reject
and push away from that, is the willful sinning that will ultimately
have you telling people, I don't believe God. Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm done here. Tell me how a person goes from
sitting under the gospel, hearing the truth of the gospel, to one
day saying, I don't believe that book. I don't believe Christ
is the only way. I don't believe that the death
of Christ is the only means by which God can forgive sins and
bring men and women into his eternal glory. We've got churches
all over the world who have abandoned the Bible. Abandon the gospel. Abandon the exclusivity of Jesus
Christ all over the world. How did they go from sound doctrine
to heresy? By trotting underfoot the precious
blood of the Son of God and by doing this fight, insulting the
spirit of grace that was giving you all those overtures week
in and week out, month in and month out, the little nudges,
the little touches, the revelations, those providential events where
you heard the word and it touched you a little bit, but because
you loved your iniquity, eventually it drove you to harden your heart.
And you know what was made available to you? A false gospel that corresponded
to your own agenda. And do you know what that results
in? Hating the gospel of sovereign free grace. Amen.