Hebrews chapter 10. We are at
a pivotal point in the study of the book of Hebrews and we
are briskly making our way through. We only have two chapters to
go. That means we will only be here another six months. But
the Hebrew writer himself is very strategic in this letter
that he is pinning by the Spirit of God to the church of his day
that was a church that was so blessed so blessed to have the
history and legacy of the true and the living God in their life.
As God said in the book of Amos, you only out of all the people
of the earth have I known in an intimate covenant away. The
children of Israel were blessed with the promises of God, blessed
with the spirit of adoption, blessed with the fathers, blessed
with the prophets and ultimately blessed with the coming of Messiah
into the world. They were richly blessed with
so much of a spiritual legacy that it behooves the writer to
these Hebrew Christians to warn them sternly about not, as it
were, spurning or taking for granted the privileges of the
gospel given to them. You know sometimes we can take
for granted all that God gives us. We have this strong, strong
inclination in our nature to presume upon God's goodness in
our life. And the most dangerous person
in the world is a person to whom God has given great and precious
promises who have presumed that they can neglect those promises
and, as it were, live in a fashion not regarding the responsibility
that comes with privileges. And that's what's going on with
the Hebrew writer. Now, those of you who know your
Bibles, we have said this back in the sixth chapter, that the
book of Hebrews gives us two real difficult hurdles over which
the Christian has to really labor to come, overcome, if you will,
In that sixth chapter where it warned about those who have tasted
of the good word of God and have been made partakers of the Holy
Ghost and have experienced the powers of the world to come,
having once been enlightened by the Spirit of God in the areas
of redemption and salvation and being brought so close to the
kingdom of God. vividly comprehending what God
has done for them in Christ. For them to turn away, there
is no possibility of repentance to be granted to such a person
who would crucify to themselves Jesus Christ all over again. I don't know about you, but when
I first became saved and I read that portion of scripture, it
caused me to tremble in my boots. Because I understood implicitly
the warning of that text, And that is, it was saying, don't
play with God. You don't play with God. And religious folk play with
God. And that passage caused me to struggle, as it ought to
with every professing Christian, as to whether or not my walk
with God was authentic. Was my walk real? Could it be
that I would be such a person as to have been privileged to
see the things that God reveals to us in his word and to be a
partaker experientially of the power of the kingdom of God in
drawing men to himself and opening their eyes and granting them
repentance unto life? Could it be that I could be ostensibly
a part of this great corporate kingdom and the powers of that
kingdom and yet not actually be saved? Those are critical
questions to ask. And at that strategic point in
the book of Hebrews, we have 13 chapters. We started in the
13th chapter, and then we backed up, if you recall. And then by
the time we get to the sixth chapter, the writer is compelled
to warn the Hebrew writers in that chapter in the same fashion
he's going to warn us today, to make sure that you give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. Don't play church with
God. Take God seriously. And so we
come to that other portion of that book of Hebrews after hearing
so eloquently and so clearly develop the superlative nature
and transcendent nature of the work of our great mediator Jesus
Christ. Isn't Christ something? Isn't
He absolutely magnificent? Isn't the message of salvation
and otherworldly message. Isn't redemption and grace and
mercy and forgiveness just absolutely astonishing propositions to unworthy
sinners like us? See, the gospel in its propositional
form is almost unbelievable. And this is why Paul called it
an unspeakable gift full of glory. It's kind of a treasure that
God gives to a sinner that we realize inherently we don't deserve. But I'm glad to have it. And
so and so sometimes what God does as Elder Angelo kind of
hinted with the analogy of mama coming behind. I thought about
that. I hated that I Hated her to come behind with a rag and
some soap and go to scrubbing in the back of my ears There's
a there's a number of reasons why you hate it. First of all,
we hate Authority imposing itself upon us without asking our permission
Isn't that true And so when they come, even though you know, she
love you, you stop and she go to clean that ear. And then the
other thing is we don't actually like to believe that they know
something that we don't know. You understand what I'm saying?
And then the third thing that we don't particularly care for,
is it being true? We don't like authorities knowing
what, knowing things that we don't know. We don't like authorities
imposing themselves upon us without our permission. And then we don't
like authorities being right. But if you're going to be saved,
there's going to be one authority who imposes himself upon you
whenever, wherever, and however he wants to, to clean the ears
of your soul. And he's not going to tell you
what he's doing necessarily. All he's going to do is accomplish
the work. And you and I ought to be thankful for that. Because
as the Hebrew writer will tell us when we get to the 12th chapter,
he will tell us without holiness, no man will see the Lord. You
will not stand before God on the last day without holiness.
So if we're going to stand before God, God's going to have to help
us. Am I making some sense? If I'm
going to stand before God, he has to help me. Hence the title
of our message because I want us to grasp the urgency and importance
of the Hebrew writer's exhortation. Draw near or draw back. Draw near or draw back. There is actually no two ways
about it. The Hebrew writer understands
that in this Christian pilgrimage, and you're going to hear me talk
about the pilgrimage a little bit more today, in the journey,
the excursion, the walk, the life of the pilgrim, and all
believers are pilgrims. Have you guys been persuaded
of that? That means we are on a journey, right? We are not
standing still. And if we are going where we're
supposed to be going, we're not going backwards. Going backwards
is a problem. But if we are pilgrims, then
we are headed towards the celestial city. Is that true? And on this
journey, this excursion, this travel that the pilgrim is on,
there are lots of things for us to learn. Lots of things for
us to learn. And the Hebrew writer wants us
to understand that it is impossible for you to call yourself a Christian,
me, to call myself a Christian and not be constantly pressing
toward the mark. It is very dangerous to find
yourself, and for me to find myself, in a suspended state
of animation. Or as it were, in a lackadaisical
state, in a state of pausation, in a state of stagnancy, in a
stuck state. Because in reality, the stuck
state is the backsliding state. I want you to hear how the Hebrew
writer exhorts us to come We're going to explain that and then
he warns about having no delight in the person who draws back.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22. Listen to what it says. Let us
what? Draw near with a true heart and
full assurance of faith. Then listen to what he says over
in verse 38. Are you ready? Listen to it. Now the just shall
live by what? But if any man draw back, My
soul shall have no pleasure in him. Do you see the warning? Do you see the warning? See,
when somebody loves you, they'll tell you when you're going the
wrong way. When they care about you, they'll let you know that
you're off the course. See, when you don't care about
people and you see them headed toward the precipice and the
cliff, you won't necessarily say anything. You'll think that
it's proper protocol to mind your own business. But God told
us that we are our brother's keeper. That means I must care
about you and you must care about me. And so as I said, we are
moving towards a very transitional point towards chapter 11 and
chapter 12, which we'll close out wonderfully. And the Hebrew
writer, he's concerned, ladies and gentlemen, he is concerned
that you and I understand the great privilege of God calling
us to himself, calling us to himself when he says, let us
draw near. Let us draw near. They're going to be three distinct
exhortations, which are all what we call correlative exhortations. They're going to relate to each
other. I'm going to show you this in a moment. He's calling us to these things,
and then he's going to give us one signal warning of which I'll
touch on today, and we'll unpack and develop more fully next week.
But in your text, it tells us in verse 3, verse 22, that we
are to draw near And the person to whom we are
to draw near to is God. If you would have noticed all
the hymns we sang, they were devotional hymns. They were devotional
about drawing near to God, near to the heart of God, near to
the heart of God. And our last hymn was strategically
set forth to let you know you've got to pray for that to happen.
Near to the heart of God let us draw near let us draw near
with a true heart and full assurance of faith Then notice what verse
23 says let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering Do you see that then verse 24 and let us consider? One another to provoke unto love
and the good works. So we have three let us verse
22. I Verse 23, verse 24, connected
to verse 25. Verse 23 and 24 are one long
sentence. And then finally we have the
warning in verse 26. For if we sin willfully, after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no
more sacrifice for sin. The person that lives that way
has but one thing to look for. Verse 27, a certain fearful looking
for of what? Judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries. So Paul, the writer of the Hebrews,
is very earnest and very serious that the Hebrew people take the
privileges of God with the utmost earnestness. So let's go to work
a little bit today. and understand what's taking
place. When the Hebrew writer says in verse 22, let us draw
near to God. That's in your first point, rather.
Let us draw near to God. And I want you to hear that in
your soul. Child of God, when you hear the gospel and the message
of grace comes to you and God opens your ears to hear his voice,
he's calling you. He's calling you to himself.
There are three calls in human experience, in human life. The
first call is the call to life. Did you know you were no accident
when you were born? That when you were born, you
were born because God called you into existence? That all
life comes from God and everything that issues out of the womb is
the Lord's reward It's his fruit that no one is born by accident
or no one is born Insignificantly no human being on this planet
of eight billion people is lost to God Every one of them is the
handiwork of a sovereign God. Do you understand that God called
you into the world? And when he called you into this
world, he called you as the highest of all of his creatures created
in his image and his likeness to live for his glory. And because
we are fallen, he has to bring another call after bringing us
into this world. Do you know what that call is?
It's the gospel call. You and I must hear the gospel.
The gospel must come to the center through the preaching of the
gospel, as I am doing now, and catch you at that right time
in that right place under the right circumstances. And God
has to open your ears and open your mind and open your heart
to the truth of his word and cause you to be persuaded that
you need God. And then he has dissent you about
your running after God. And that's how you know God's
after you. That's why the woman in the song
of Solomon said, Lord, enlarge my heart, draw me and I will
run after you. Every redeemed sinner, every
called sinner, every believing sinner realizes the gospel call
is a call to God. That's why he calls us out of
one thing into another. That's why he brings us out of
one place into another. That's why the journey of the
Christian is a pilgrimage because he's calling us. he's calling
us to himself that's why Jesus said in John chapter 5 the hour
is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God and they that hear shall live I remember the
day do you when I could not hear the voice of God I was like and
I've told this story before I was like Charlie Brown sitting in
front of the teacher And the teacher was talking, and remember
that? And the gospel made no sense.
The Word of God didn't penetrate. There was no clarity. That was
like tongues without interpretation. It was foolishness to me. And
then one day, it changed. And the Word of God
was so crystal clear. It was a clear trumpet sound
in my soul. and woke me up to my eternal
condition and spiritual welfare and my enmity towards God. And I realized that I was in
bad shape. I was headed to hell. And my
soul, everything in my soul said, what must I do to get right with
God? There was nothing else more important
in that hour than getting right with God. I didn't want to sleep
that night until I fixed this matter with God. I had a clear
vision of his glory and of his holiness and of his coming. And
I knew if I died that night, I was not ready to meet God.
My soul cried, God have mercy on me. And guess what? He did. He did. And from that day to this one,
I've been drawing nigh to God. Drawing nigh to God. This is
what the Hebrew writer said. And he's actually speaking to
drawing nigh to God under three concepts that I want you to meditate
on. Will you notice what he says in verse 22? Let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. May I assert that the exhortation
to come to God here first starts with us actually being born of
God and brought into fellowship with God through the purging
work of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, which is what the
author is using when he says having our hearts sprinkled from
what? An evil conscious. We've already
learned in chapter 9, around verse 15, that God purges the
conscience of the believer by the blood of Jesus Christ, who
without spot and blemish gave himself to God. Your conscience
and mine is defiled by the guilt of our sin, our rebellion against
God. And we have a ledger that is
as long as this earth is around of rebellion against God. And
the only way that ledger can be cleaned is by the blood of
Jesus Christ. Only the atoning work of Christ
by the Spirit of God can purge our evil conscious from dead
works. And so long as our conscious is evil, we won't draw near to
God. But this is what makes the good
news so absolutely wonderful. The Spirit of God takes the sinner,
washes him in the blood of the Lamb, sprinkles his conscious
clean, washes him with pure water, and tells him to come to God.
And he has every confidence to come now that he's had his ears
cleaned. Am I making some sense? And so
the Hebrew writer goes on to use this language, which we've
talked about in chapter six, come with a true heart and full
assurance of what in full assurance of faith. Now I'll deal with
true hearts at the end of our message, but he says, come in
full assurance of faith. You come in full assurance of
faith. And we deal with this in Hebrews
6. What we teach is this. When God calls you, he furnishes
you with everything necessary to build up and bolster your
faith step by step. This is called the full pleroma
of gifts and resources to strengthen your faith as you walk step by
step towards God. As you move day by day towards
God, He actually gives you what is necessary to walk with Him
by faith. You know how your faith is weak
sometimes. You know how your faith is absent sometimes. You
know how you lose your faith sometimes. What God does in all
of these providential circumstances where our journey is up and down,
He actually enters in to assure us that we are His. He has to
give us those tokens assurance that he has not left us neither
has he forsaken us he has to demonstrate in our life that
he knows what he's doing even when we don't know what he's
doing and he strengthens our heart and our mind but he does
it ladies and gentlemen primarily through the teaching of the Word
of God in that right isn't it amazing how that you and I can
be on a given day so utterly weak in our faith outside of
the context of fellowship with the people of God, living our
everyday life, dealing with the winds that are blowing to and
fro in our world, we can be so diminished and so weak in our
faith. But as soon as we hear the Word of God, as soon as the
Gospel is preached, as soon as the promises of God are laid
down on our soul, our strength, our faith starts to buoy up.
Isn't that right? And we go, look at our God. What
is He doing? He's giving us those proofs.
those necessary evidences of assurance that we are His. And
they fall under the category of teaching and preaching the
gospel of the grace of God in Christ. That's why I want to
learn everything about Jesus I possibly can. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will rest your soul.
And this is how I will do it. I will take that yoke of the
law off of you and I will put a yoke of grace on you and I
will teach you who I am and what I've done and you will find that
my yoke is easy and my burden is light and you will understand
that I am meek and lowly of heart and you will come to understand
what it means to walk by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
That's what God does for us when he's drawing us near to him and
the element of drawing that I'm speaking to right now is the
excursion of your life. See, you and I are on that journey.
And so the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 13, and I want
you to see it over in Hebrews 13, because he tells us in Hebrews
13 that we are on that journey. We are drawing near to God. In the 13th chapter, as he begins
to wrap up this text, he tells us over in verse 13, Well, let
me start at verse 12. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. We'll explain that down the line.
But let us do what? Go forth, therefore, where? Unto him. Let us go forth unto
him, outside of the camp, that is outside of Judaism, bearing
his what? For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to what? Ladies and gentlemen, if you
grasp what's said in verse 13 and 14, what it's saying is we're
on our way to glory land, and we are fully persuaded that this
world is not our home. We are fully persuaded of that.
We are fully persuaded. And you know what that means?
Because we're fully persuaded that this world is not our home,
it's my job to make sure I assess everything that this world is
about appropriately and accurately. so that I am not connected to,
or tied down by, or tripped up by, snared by, distracted from
anything in this world keeping me from glory. My job is to make
sure that I don't settle down in this mess. Get distracted
by this world. Make leagues and covenants with
the system. Build an affinity with the world's
attractions and allurements and aggrandizement and all of its
false and fatal promises. My job is to make sure that I
am not tied down. And the only way I can do that
is to have my eyes fixed on the glory of God. Let me help you
with this. Only the glory of God, comprehended
by the soul's mind, can liberate you, extricate you, free you
from the temptations of this harlot system called Babylon. Only the glory of God is more
wonderful, more surpassingly beautiful, more splendid, more
attractive, more exciting, than this world system which is always
seeking to attract you. Only the glory of God. And the
glory of God is the remedy when I get stuck on Miss Babylon.
Am I making some sense? The glory of Christ is the only
thing that the soul that has been redeemed can have that will
liberate me from those momentary halts. You know what I'm talking
about? Those momentary halts. where
you stop and you listen to the voices of this world system telling
you can have this world and Christ too. But when the gospel comes
in power and reveals Christ's glory all over again, I say away
with this world. I only want Christ. He's still
as beautiful today as he was 35 years ago. Let me ask you
the question, eternity bound sinner, have you seen the glory
of God in Christ? Has Christ made himself known
to your soul? Do you see through Him the fullness
of God's glory and the abundance of eternal life that's inside
of Christ ready to be yours on the last day? Does the concept
or idea of being with Christ for all eternity with all of
the privileges and all of the blessings and all of the promises
that He gives us, is that idea worthy of you suffering in this
world for His namesake? It is the glory of God in Christ.
Hear me now before I go to my next point under this particular
category of thought. Is the glory of God in Christ
worth you saying no to sin? Is the glory of God in Christ
worth you saying no to sin? Because the one thing that will
be glad to hold your hand and take you straight to hell through
the doors of the church is your sin. Is His glory worth it? Is His glory more compelling
than the temptations of the lust of our flesh? Is His glory more
wonderful than all of the possibilities that this world system lays upon
us to enjoy your best life now? Does the glory of Christ obliterate
all of those false glittering images of enjoyment in this life? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is where the Hebrew writer is going. And this is why he
says back in verse 22, as we work this through, I want you
to receive the exhortation because it's critical. He says, let us
draw near with a true heart. Why? Because he says over in
verse 19, having therefore brethren, boldness, to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. He says we have confidence and
we have boldness to enter into the holy of holies. We have boldness
to enter into the holy of holies. Now, saints, the holy of holies
is where God is in his quintessential essence. The essence of God is
the holy of holies. the goal of God's people. Look
at how much God loves a sinner like me. It's to bring me into
the center of the effulgence of His being. That's the holy
place. That's the holiest of all. It's
the place where my forerunner is now. He having appeared in
the presence of God for us. That's where I'm going. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? Is that a place that fixes your
thoughts on the things of God and the confidence of our being
called to go Is the death of Jesus Christ? By the blood of
Jesus. Do you see that? Didn't we didn't
we learn that when you listen to when you hear phrases like
the blood of Jesus don't get caught up in that paganism Don't
think of the physical plasma of the the blood in the body
think of the sufferings of Christ Think of the death of Christ
Think of the atonement of Christ. Think of the justice of God poured
on Christ in your stead. Think of his sacrifice for you.
Think of him taking your place as your substitute. Think of
him as your husband loving you to the death. Think of him trading
places with you. You know I've been preaching
this for 17 years. You know how we preach it from text to text
to text the glories of God in Christ the redeeming work of
God in Christ the blood atoning work of God in Christ the substitutionary
atonement of Jesus Christ the vicarious work of Christ his
Sacrificial love for sinners. That's what we mean by the blood
That's what we mean by the blood. There's another synonym for it.
Do you know what that is the love of God? Oh Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friend. Now, I know I'm
God's friend when he lays down his life for me. And that ought
to compel me to come to God. In fact, nothing else ought to
be necessary to compel me to come to God but the death of
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto
the Father but by me. And the only way you can come
is by faith in Christ, through the shed blood of Christ, which
is calling you to come to the Father with great confidence
and boldness. Why? Because He's made a way
where there was no way for hell-bound sinners like us. Stay with me
now. Listen to what the text says. By a new and living way. Do you see that? By a new and
living way. By a new and living way has God
made it possible for me to come to him. What do you mean by the
new way, pastor? The word new there is actually
one of those Hebrew sacerdotal and religious terms. What it
means is by a fresh sacrifice. That Greek term is technical
and what it means is a fresh sacrifice. It has to do with
that once for all atonement that we have talked about in chapter
9 and chapter 10, by that fresh sacrifice of Christ's death,
that once for all sacrifice of Christ's death, the death of
Christ, so satisfied the justice of God, the holiness of God,
the wrath of God, that you know what God did when Christ said,
it is finished? He took the veil and ripped it
in half. and said the way into the holiest
of all is made possible by the death of the Son of God. That's
what that word new means. It means the one fresh, eternally
fresh, always fresh. His blood never dries up. His
sacrifice never gets old. It never withers. In the eyes
of God the Father, it is an eternal sacrifice that is fresh to God
and fresh to me. Is it fresh to you? After 2,000
years, The death of Jesus Christ is still fresh to me. By a fresh
sacrifice, constituting his death. And by a living way, constituting
his resurrection. See, when Christ died, I died.
And when he rose, I rose. And he said, because he lives,
I shall live also. And the reason I'm coming to
God is because he ever lives to make intercession for me.
This is a new and a living way. It is new and that the sacrifice
was accepted is living in that Christ ever lives to make intercession
for us See you hear what the Hebrew writer is doing. He's
he's demolishing all Arguments against coming to God. How do
you not come to God when he's done all that to get you here?
Can I say something while I go on the ones that don't come God
knew they weren't coming. I I have to because I want you
to understand God's not gonna be disappointed on the last day. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and he that cometh to me I will in no way
cast out and part of the making sure that they are never cast
out is preaching this kind of grace message so that the soul
knows it can come to God just as I am. So he's telling us we come through
the death atoning work of Christ and by his resurrected life and
we come via him through the veil That is to say his human nature.
There's a man in glory This is why he says in verse 21 and having
an high priest over the what house of God now the house can
be understood in two ways and they must and The Hebrew writer
tells us in chapter 8 verse 1 that the Lord Jesus is the true minister,
the high priest of the true tabernacle, of the true sanctuary which the
Lord pitched and not man. That means there has always been
a kind of sanctuary in God's sphere of existence before he
created the world. There has always been a kind
of sanctuary in God's sphere of existence before he created
the world. Are y'all hearing me? There's
been a kind of place of worship, a place of reverence, a place
of reflection upon the glory of God called the temple before
the world began. Did y'all get that? There has
always been in the mind of God this thing called the temple.
That was that which before he created anything, he patterned
the world after it. And so now He's bringing to pass
in these last times what He purposed before the world began. I want
you to grasp that now. The book of Revelation is all
about that. I've been saying it every week. The tabernacle
of God is with men and He shall dwell with them. They shall dwell
with Him. He will be their God. They will
be His people and He will be with them forever. All tears
will be wiped away. All crying will be gone. The
curse will be gone. All there will be is eternal
fellowship with God in the bliss of His effulgence with the Lamb
who are the temple of the living God in that place. God is only
fulfilling in time what He purposed before time. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? But it speaks to a characteristic
of our relationship that we need to deal with. It's a characteristic
of our relationship that you and I need to deal with. He says,
draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. The other house of God that corresponds
to his heavenly house is the church of the living God. The
heavenly house of God that has as its inhabitants God himself. the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, the holy angels, and an innumerable host of believers,
both Old and New Testament. This is the New Jerusalem of
Hebrews chapter 12. This habitation of God, where
all of these saints are, is in heaven in what we call the perfect
state. You and I are down here. In theology,
long ago, this is the way they divided it. Are you ready? That
the church on earth is called the church militant. The church
militant. And the church in heaven is called
the church triumphant. That when you cross over from
death into eternity, you have triumph in Christ. This is the
overcoming doctrine of Revelation 2 and 3 that we will get into
when we deal with the seven churches. He that overcometh shall I give
right to eat of the tree of life. He that overcometh will I give
him my new name and my father's new name. He that overcometh
I will write him down in my father's city, the new Jerusalem. He that
overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. He that
overcometh is the believer who trusts Christ until they die
and leave this world to enter into their inheritance. Are you
guys hearing me? That's God's house in heaven,
but there's a house down here over which Jesus is the High
Priest. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 3. He tells us that we are to
consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.
And here's what he says in verse 3 of Hebrews chapter 3, of which
I want you to see it. This is very important how he
sets this forth. Actually, let me go down to verse
5. But Christ, or verse 6 rather, but Christ as a son over his
own house. Do you see it? But Jesus Christ
as a son over his own house. Whose house, what? Are we. Whose house are we? Do you believe
you're the temple of the living God? Do you believe that you're
the body of Christ? Do you believe that you are the
habitation of God through the Spirit? Now, I'm getting ready
to advance our thoughts, but this is our New Year's theme,
and I want you to get it, child of God. You are the temple of
the living God. Now, that's what we call an indicative
in language. It's something that God states
that we are. It's not something we do, it's
something I am. God has chosen to make me a place
where He dwells. For God, that's a temple. 2 Corinthians
6, 16. That's our theme for this year.
And so what I want you to be able to do is take that theme
and ask yourself, is that me? And what may I derive from the
concept of the temple? The implications, the inferences,
what may I draw from it that would constitute and necessitate
my reflection upon what it means to be the temple of God? That's
a high privilege. Now, if you go around telling
folks you're the temple of God, you better show up. Are you hearing me? Because you
know, there are a whole lot of houses and they are not temples.
So when someone looks at you, they better be able to correspond
a level of consistency between the way you are acting and what
you say you are in Christ, or rather what he says you are.
So we are God's house down here on earth. Christ is our high
priest. He mediates his work down here through us. Do you
believe that? That means I have to actually understand and embrace
all of the implications and meanings of a temple and ask God to make
me what I am so that he can get glory out. Because see, a temple
is designed for people to know that there's a sacred place here.
There's a sacred place here. That means everybody can't traverse
this place. That means everybody can't come
here. You heard our elder say it, who shall ascend to the heel
of the Lord? Who shall enter into his presence
except he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has not
lifted his soul up to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully? See, a
holy place is a consecrated place. It's a sacred place. And when
people come to that place, they got to think before they come.
Like, you know, you don't come to church high. If you do, we
don't know about it. You don't come to church loaded.
You don't come to church drunk. You don't come to church smelling
like marijuana. You don't come to church unprepared.
If you have any sense, you don't. Are you hearing me? If you have
any sense, you don't. Because if you don't have good
sense, you don't understand that the things down here are connected
to the things up there. And the two are going to be conflated
and come together one day. And we're going to have to answer
for what we are doing down here. And so when I say ye are the
temple of the living God, you ought to be able to understand
what that means in all of its full-orbed implications so that
individuals who are attracted to you are attracted to you for
the right reason. And individuals who are detracted
from you and don't like temples, because it's too much light in
the temple, are detracted from you for the right reason. See,
you don't need everybody in your temple. Am I making a little sense? I
mean, you want folk to show up now, but you don't want every
unprincipled, uncouth, every unclean bird and every foul thing
in your temple. That would mean you are a Babylonian
church and not a Jerusalem church. Read it for yourself, Revelation
18. So we don't want every foul, unclean thing in our habitation. We want people who want Christ
in our habitation. And we want to be such as draw
people to Christ through us. This is why he said, you are
the light of the world. You are the house of the living
God, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. And thus we want
to draw men by the light of the gospel, both by our doctrine
and by our lifestyle. Am I making some sense? Can I
keep talking? Well, you ain't got nowhere to
go anyway, so I'm going to keep talking. You act like you got
somewhere to go. You ain't got nowhere to go.
The only place you got to go is to meet God. And he's going
to delay you till I'm through preaching. So our journey is to God, and
our journey to God, ladies and gentlemen, is through worship.
Let me make this plain. God the Father is seeking a people
to worship him in spirit and in truth. Do you hear what I'm
saying? There is a people all over the
world, high, low, rich, poor, black, white, everything in between,
who are worshiping the true and living God. And they're doing
it in spirit and in what? That's where the true heart comes
in at. That's what he said. You draw a knife with a true
heart and full assurance. I'm gonna get to that in the
end. But a true heart is not suggesting or even remotely implying
that you have a perfect heart. But it does mean you have a right
heart. Do you understand the difference? Do you understand
the difference between impeccable, sinless purity and a heart that's
right with God? Based upon God giving you all
the necessary overtures to come to Him just as you are because
He knows how to fix you? This is what we mean by worshipping
God honestly. I told you an honest man, an
honest woman, not going to hell. But I'll show you at the end
of our message four kinds of heart that will not come to God.
that will not come to God. So the writer to the Hebrew tells
us that we ought to draw near to God. And then the second thing
he says, ladies and gentlemen, is let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. Look at it in Hebrews chapter
10, verse 23. So we are called to come to God
by way of our desire to see him face to face one day. Don't you
want to see God face to face one day? And we are called to
do that through the means of worship. That's what he's saying.
Without a doubt, let us draw near to God. with a true heart
and full assurance of faith. And then he says, let us hold
fast the profession of our faith. Do you see that? Now those are
connected, coordinated principles. They are coordinated commands.
These are imperatives. They're actually commands. Let
us draw near. Like in the beginning when God
created the heavens and the earth, And he made everything, and then
in Genesis 1, 26, he said, let us make man in our image and
in our likeness. Those are imperatives. Let us
create the heavens and the earth. Let there be light. That little
let is an imperative. It's a command on God's part.
And so when he says, let us draw nigh, that's a command, not a
suggestion. When he says, let us hold fast to the profession
of our faith, that's a command, not a suggestion. Now the profession
of our faith here is a very difficult term because it's sterile in
terms of 21st century postmodern thinking. What do you mean the
profession of your faith? It basically means a public lifestyle
that is consistent with the doctrine we believe to be true. A profession
of faith is simply a public lifestyle consistent with the doctrines
we believe to be true. your outline it says a public
lifestyle of hope do you see that a public lifestyle of hope
the translators translated it faith but it should have been
translated hope and we'll explain that in a moment the distinction
between faith and hope that's critical but he says let us hold
fast the profession of our faith our hope without what because
he is faithful that promised now what that means is children
of God as you make your way through this world You have declared
with your lips and you have professed with your life that Jesus is
yours and you are Jesus's and you are making your way through
this world as a professing believer as one who confesses the Lordship
of Jesus, right? That means you are now going
to have to deal with the consequences that comes with a public profession
of faith. And the reason why the last line
says for he is faithful that promise is because you're going
to need God. to help you through this journey
because of the kind of battles that you will ensue. That you're
not going to get to the celestial city without some challenges.
And this is why the word hope is a better word than faith in
this context. So that I can go to teaching
a little bit here. Let us hold fast the profession of our hope
without wavering. That's the same word he used
back in Hebrews chapter 6 around verse 14. Look at it, because
I want you to see the distinction between hope and faith for a
moment. There is a distinction between
hope and faith. Now they are kissing cousins,
they are two sides of the same coin, and I want you to know
that. Faith is primarily something
that we hold on to that constitutes a promise that God made in the
past. Faith is something we hold on
to or is a demonstrative response to God based upon a promise that
God made in the past. Like God always gives his people
promises, doesn't he? And he has told us that the just
shall live by what? Now what we are living on is
a past promise. Are we learning this in men's
study and women's study? God the Father gave Abraham a
promise. He received that promise by faith.
But by the time he got 10 years in, hope is the only thing he
had. Because hope is believing what
was said in the past will come to pass in the future, and yet
there's no evidence that there's anything about that past promise
by which I can have any real confidence other than hope. Hope
is when you are looking forward to the reality of something that
was talked about in the past. And when you are walking by hope,
you have absolutely not a string of evidence that that is a reality. And it takes grace to walk in
hope. It takes the grace that produces
faith to walk in hope. Let me help you a little bit.
I've been reading a very good book that you should read. It's
called Pilgrim's Progress. And I've read this book a lot
of times. I suggest every Christian in the world reads it. You say,
Pastor, well, I read it. Read it again. Well, Pastor,
I read it again. Read it again. Well, I've read
it three times. Read it a fourth time. Because
what's in that book describes your life. Now, Pilgrim was an
individual who had heard the gospel and realized that there
was a judgment day coming and the Spirit of God put the burden
of sin on his back. And it drove him from his home,
from his land, from his country to pursue God. And everybody
in his family was saying, you fool, you don't have to go through
all that for God. All you got to do is go to church.
But the pilgrim actually had heard the gospel. And it set
him on his journey to find out what it really means to have
that pack that's on your back taken off. And the evangelist
led him to a hill whereon stood a cross of which Pilgrim said,
when I looked at that cross and I fixed my eyes on that cross,
strangely my heart warmed and I felt the pack that was on my
back fall off. And it started rolling down the
hill in front of me and fell into an open tomb. Hence, I knew
that that tomb was the death of Jesus Christ, where all of
my sins were placed. And from that day, I was set
free. And then he said about his journey. And he's walking
now toward the celestial city, because when he looked back to
where he had been and where he came from, he could smell the
smoke. And he looks and he says, well,
I'm not going in that direction because I see the doom. And he
could hear his wife calling him and he could hear his children
calling him and he could hear his friends calling him. Don't
be so zealous. Don't be so committed. Don't
be so earnest. Don't be so driven. Look at what
you're leaving. And he said, I've got to go.
I can hear him calling me the one who saved my soul. And he's
headed to the celestial city. And as he's headed to the celestial
city, in God's mercy, guess what God does? Gives him companions. Because, see, you need companions
on your journey. See, you can't do this thing
on your own. And even though the Lord is with you by spirit,
he's in heaven, and he must give you some companions to make this
journey. Am I making some sense? And so,
on this journey, as Pilgrim is making his way, he has a friend
who comes alongside of him, a companion, his name is Faithful. So Faithful
joins Pilgrim in his journey and Pilgrim and Faithful are
dealing with the different snares and jins and traps, slew of despond,
pit of despair, the dragon's way, hypocritical city, false
teachers and false prophets, talkative and all of these different
folks who would get them off their course. And Pilgrim loves
him some Faithful because Faithful is the one discerning all these
hypocrites. Faithful is the one looking and seeing all these
pits Faithful is the one helping helping pilgrim stay on the course
even though they get in trouble See faithful is a companion that
God gives us and is called faith It's the grace that helps us
continue to look to Christ when we're going through these trials
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So faithful is walking with pilgrim
and they actually come across a town called Vanity Fair Now
y'all may not know Vanity Fair But Vanity Fair happens to be
the world you live in. The life you used to live. All
of the lights and glitter and glamour of Hollywood. And all
of the lies that tell you that this is where it's at. It's called
Vanity Fair. Only in Vanity Fair, they have
no time for serious pilgrims headed to glory. And as pilgrim
and faithful pass through Vanity Fair, The people of Vanity Fair
got a hold of Faithful and beat him down something. Because the
Bible says all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. And while they smacked Pilgrim
upside his head, it was Faithful they didn't like, because Faithful
knew the Word of God. Faithful knew the Gospel, and
he knew the God of the Gospel. And Faithful pointed out everything
that was going wrong in Vanity Fair. He showed Pilgrim the error
of this way, the error of that way, the falsehood of that way,
the seduction of this. And the townspeople got together
and they said, listen, this Faithful is a mess. Now Pilgrim is walking
with Faithful for a season and then the next thing Pilgrim knows
Faithful is gone. Now why is Faithful gone? Because
they killed him. Now why did they kill him? Because
he was faithful. Did you get that? And so now
can you imagine Pilgrim is like five or ten years in his walk
and his faith has been killed. And what's the next companion
that God gives brother Pilgrim to keep his journey going? Hope. Hope. Hope shows up and gets
on the road with Pilgrim and say, brother, I got you. Let's
keep going because the goal of the Pilgrim is forward. The goal
of the Pilgrim is upward. The goal of the Pilgrim is heavenward. It's not backwards. It's not
looking back. Now our faith back there was
cool, but our faith back there will not keep us going forward
because we are people of hope. And so hope is helping pilgrim
move forward through all of these difficult snares and difficult. Ladies and gentlemen, you know
how it was in that difficult trial where you got brought so
low and your faith disappeared and God in his mercy gave you
a revived hope. and it raised you up so that
you can continue your journey. And now you have what we call
a mature faith. And that mature faith is hope. It's the hope of glory set out
in front of you so you can keep your journey going the way God
wants you to go. See, you're going to be in trouble
if you're always looking backwards. Ooh, that's good. You're going
to be in trouble if you're always looking backwards. So what God
does is strips you of all of your past successes, all of your
past victories, all of your past overcoming. Listen, yesterday's
gone. All we've got is today and tomorrow. And in order to
endure tomorrow, you've got to have hope. So God has given us
a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And again, by that hope, we are setting our eyes on glory. Are
you guys following me so far? We are setting our... But listen
now, if you are a man or woman of hope, Listen, you are not
a person that's boasting in yourself. Because see, by the time hope
shows up in Pilgrim's life, Pilgrim is happy to have a friend because
his life has been so tore up, so persecuted, so maligned, so
broke down. The danger on the road to glory
requires hope. The danger on the road to glory
requires hope, particularly when you are a professing believer.
when you are a professing believer. So the Hebrew writer tells us
in chapter 6, I just want you to see the nature of this concept
of hope again that is so critically important for us. I'm going to
start at verse 10 and go through verse 12 and you'll see it. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have shown towards
His name and that you have ministered unto the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you, every one of you, show
the same diligence to the full assurance of what? Unto what? Do you see it? Now, what I want
you to mark is not only that you would ascertain and embrace
a lifestyle that's depicting of hope. What I want you to mark
is the characteristic of the life of the person that's looking
for glory because this is going to move us to our next point.
Look back at verse 10. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your what? Work and labor of what? What
you have showed toward what? and that you have ministered
to whom? And do what? Do you see it? Go with me to
chapter 10 again. I want you to see what I'm getting
at now. Because there are a whole lot of people who are confident
that they are Christians and they are believers, but do not
demonstrate the marks of a living hope. And the Hebrew writer has
laid it out in front of us what it looks like to draw near to
God. What it looks like to be going to God. What it looks like
to be headed to heaven. What it looks like to embrace
glory. What it looks like is, first of all, a heart that is
committed to God in worship. We worship Him because we love
to worship Him. We want His presence among Him.
As David says, I will worship the Lord with my whole heart.
We desire to be in His presence. We were made for His presence.
He was made for us. And so when we gather together
like this, this is the quintessential expression of who we are until
we enter into glory. There is nothing greater, nothing
more appropriate, nothing more right for the Christians to do
than to worship God. If you have an aversion to worship,
you are not saved. Will you hear me? If you have
an aversion to worship, you are not saved. Because worship is
the prostration of the soul in the presence of his glory. Do
you hear what I'm saying? And he made us for that. He made
us for that. And then our journey is leading
us there. And the characteristics of that
journey fall under the rubric of our profession of faith, our
profession of faith. We live a life. free of the challenges
of this world, free of the distractions of this world. Now, let me make
this very plain so I can go to my next point. What kind of life
do we live? According to our outline, a public
life of hope based upon the future glory promised in Christ, which
compels and drives the believer to live in purity of life. Do you see it? I got to touch
on this briefly before I go to my next point. It is not possible
for us to be headed to glory living like hell. I can take the next 15 minutes
and debate anyone in this room that you cannot read your Bible
from Genesis to Revelation and think that you can live like
this wicked post-modern, liberal, God-hating, Bible-hating religious
culture and actually think you're confident to go to heaven. I
will debate you from Genesis to Revelation that you will never
make it to heaven living like hell. Listen, you will never
meet God in glory if you are still living with the same priorities
and principles and passions and vanity and foolishness and sinfulness
and evil that you did in your unsafe state. I guarantee you,
you will not make glory. And I don't care how many of
these mega churches with all of this compromised religion
that they are pouring upon multitudes telling you that you are alright
when you are not alright at all. You will not stand before God
in the confidence of the hope of glory unless you are actually
authentically born again and are pursuing God with a pure
heart. See, you know what? I'm going to cut it short here,
but let me say this. I have no intention of standing
before God on that last day and be ashamed. Listen, I have no
intention of standing before God on the last day and be ashamed. I have no intentions on standing
before God on the last day and be ashamed and therefore I listen
very carefully to what John said in first John chapter 3 verse
3 every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even
as he is pure I Have no listen I have no intentions on standing
before God on the last day and having all of the Saints who
heard me preach and heard me teach Look at Christ say to me. I never knew you I Depart from
me you worker of iniquity You were a stumbling block to everyone
else and to yourself You didn't come the pilgrim way you came
to wear thieves and robbers You told men and women to live in
rebellion against me and that I have no concern with that.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? so first John chapter 2 verse
28 First John 2 28 listen to what it says. I want y'all to
hear this. This is for us saints and now little children abide
in him That when he shall what is he coming? We may have what
now stay right there see You want confidence, but confidence
is only going to be given where the Word of God is taught truthfully
and accurately. Where God's holiness and character
is exalted accurately according to the Word of God, and you are
told accurately what faith is, what hope is, what trust is,
what grace is, what it means to live for God's glory. You
are taught accurately. You will not have confidence
in your soul. You will not have confidence
in your soul if you're told a bunch of lies about what it means to
live for God. You will have a struggle in your
life while you are living like hell, hoping that all of the
majority religions are right. And then you will die and you
will meet Christ and He will tell you, I never knew you. For
everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord, let him depart
from iniquity. This is the seal of God's elect.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Stay with me now. Stay with me
now. Because this is the point in
which the Hebrew writer wants the people of God to understand
the privilege of drawing nigh. The only reason it's a struggle
to draw nigh to God is because you're contemplating how much
you have to give up. The only reason it's a struggle
coming to God is because you love your sin. All right, let me get a witness.
Somebody give me a witness. Am I telling the truth? See, now you're going to be all
right. You're going to be all right. You're gonna be all right. See
we got blood for that here, but we don't have any room for the
liar all liars and Fornicators and adulterers and idolaters
and everyone that loves and make it the lie Will find their part
in the lake of fire which burneth with fire and brimstone See see
God's not gonna put up with that for a very serious reason He
has given us his blood and he has given us his spirit So let
me go to my next point, develop that and just touch on the blood
and the spirit and close today. So when we say that we are called
by God to walk in a profession of faith, what we are simply
doing is living out our new native nature, and that is I'm headed
to glory. And while I'm headed to glory, all it is is that there
are things that I used to do I'm not doing anymore. See, you
can't do everything in 24 hours. Come on, somebody help me now.
You can't live like hell and then live for Christ in 24 hours. We can barely live for Christ
in 24 hours. You got to sleep, you got to
pay your bills, you got to raise your kids, you got to do a bunch
of stuff. We ain't got but a little room to be able to do something
for Jesus. I don't have any extra time for
the devil. Am I making some sense? See,
and I love it that God has shrunk my time. My 24 hour day is so
small. I need an extra 24 hours just
to do my 24 hours. Anybody understand what I'm talking
about? So stay with me now. So I'm so busy. I'm so busy. I don't have time. I really don't
have time to negotiate hell and heaven too. I just want heaven.
I just want heaven. I just want heaven. So I understand in God's economy
He's shortening the time because some of us are real knuckleheads
because we'll squeeze it all in if we could we would squeeze
it all in And I'm so thankful, you know, this is why when the
Saints be coming in pastor, I'm struggling good Yeah, I'm trying
to pay my bill trying to do that good because if you had all the
time in the world and You'd sin against your maker like I don't
know what. You would take a vacation on
him for about six months out of the year, pretending you will
come back the latter six and serve God. And you will end up
under the wrath of God forever. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? I'm so glad I got a church I can just tell the plain naked
truth to. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. Now stay with me
for a moment. I said, because see, I know lots
of pastors, they talk to me and ask, how can I shape this? And
how can I frame that? And how can I say that? For me,
I get to just say it how I feel it. But you know, if they're
going to take your paycheck and dock your pay and kick you out
of the pulpit, then you got to say it the way you got to say
it, I guess. But the word of God plainly tells me It plainly
tells me I better tell people the truth, the God on his truth.
And if this place empties out, let it empty out. If it empties out, let it empty
out. Because I didn't worship God all by myself. I didn't been
a place where it's just me and God. Am I making some sense? I have felt the fullness of God
in my soul when no one else is around. I feel so sorry for those cats.
I said, man, how do you get yourself in that trouble? Oh, no. I'll
tell you exactly how. You train those people to think
that they have authority over you and you have taught them
how to hate the hard things of God's word. You taught them to
only preach to them smooth things, easy things, kind things. That's
what you did. And you taught them to not endure
sound doctrine, but to heap themselves teachers with itching ears, making
them say what they want you to say. I'm just not built that
way. I'm sorry. I'm scared of God.
I'm scared of God. I'm scared of God. I love him
and I fear him at the same time. If y'all can't get with that,
I'm sorry. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
God. You better read that Pilgrim's Progress because that's your
journey. And some of you are in trouble right now. Some of
you are in trouble right now because you have left off with
that calling that makes your calling in election sure. You're
on a vacation. and you may never get back on
a trend of godliness ever again. And we will see you in the judgment.
See, this is all of your epistles. I'll give you one good signal
why you can know that you're in trouble. I'm gonna give you
one example. One example why you can know you're in trouble.
Okay, can I give you one? You don't read your Bible. You don't read your Bible. See,
you can't be reading your Bible Old Testament, New Testament.
Well, Pastor, I don't like the Old Testament. Well, the Old
Testament and New Testament say the same thing. It's the same
God. See, this is what the Hebrew writer had to let the Hebrews
know in chapter 13. Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, and forevermore. And so, well, I'm going to read
the New Testament. Please read the New Testament. Please read
Paul's epistles. The man that lived most of his
life in the Old Testament under Jehovah God explaining the New.
And he will let you know. that when you are an object of
God's grace, you are walking away from uncleanness. You are
walking away from the vile, dark patterns of this old world system.
You are turning your back on this Babylonian system. You are,
by grace, headed to glory. You are putting off the old man. You are putting on the new man.
You are dying to self and living to Christ. This is the constant
ethic of the New Testament. Am I making some sense? So don't
tell me, you know, your problem is you're not reading the Bible
and letting the Holy Ghost tell you this is what it looks like
for you to grow. Now, I'm not talking to you baby
Christians. You babies, y'all keep coming with me. Keep coming.
I'm talking to you old cats that can put your Bible down and don't
read it at all. Listen, the Holy Ghost is in
that book. He's in that book. He's in that
book. That's why we open this book
four days a week, because we want the Holy Ghost to jump.
You know how folks, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost in this
book, he'll jump out this book and get ahold of you. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? That's why people don't open
this book because they don't want to be holy. Come on now. The Apostle Paul tells us in
Ephesians chapter 5, Colossians chapter 3, 1st Corinthians chapter
6, Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 12, Romans
chapter 15, book of Hebrews, 1st Peter, 2nd Peter, book of
Jew, book of Revelation. He tells us, for these things
sake the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience.
What things sake, pastor? All of this stuff our present
culture is telling you is all right? The wrath of God is on
them because of it. All of it. Every bit of it. The
wrath of God is on him. The wrath of God is on our world. It's on our world. And so he
says, be not deceived. Next point. Listen to what he
says in point number four. So after he tells us, let us
draw near, then he says, let us hold fast. He says, let us
consider. Do you see verse 24? I'm going
to wrap it up here. Verse 24 and 25 because I just
feel I need to do that and we'll come back and unpack the other
part. So he's given us three let us. And I want you to mark
this. It's an imperative. That's a
command. And it's in what we call a continuous
verb form. That means it's something that
we are to continue to do. So we are to continue to draw
near to God. We are to continue to hold fast
our hope for glory. That means fight against everything
that tries to snatch it away. And then we are to continue to
consider. You guys got that? But there's
another little caveat I want you to get. He says, let us. That's called a first person
what? Plural. That's a first person
plural. Stay with me. There's a real
problem. In the professing Christian church.
Of the Western hemisphere. where you really believe that
you can do God's will all by yourself. This, this, this rugged individualism,
this pull yourself up by your bootstrap and just me and God. Have you heard him? Me and God,
just me and God, me and God. You won't find anywhere in the
Bible where God's kingdom was manifested in any form, the patriarchal
form, the theocratic monarchial form, the ecclesiastical form,
which is the form we're in, or the state of glory, where God
hones in on one person. It's always us. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? Us. So for those of you who learned
the Lord's Prayer when the disciples said, teach us how to pray, that's
not a private, personal prayer. That's a communal prayer for
the church. Are you ready? Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us, not me, us,
us this day, our daily bread and forgive us, not me, all of
our trespasses and our sins and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory forever and ever and ever. What am I
saying? There is a great, great error
on the part of many Christians, including some among us, who
think you can distance yourself from the purposes of God, the
will of God, the church of God, the people of God, and that you
can be all right with God. You can't. How many of you know
that this inclination and impulse to distance yourself from the
fellowship has gotten you in trouble? Raise your hand. It's got you in trouble. That
impulse is not from God. Will you hear me? It's not from
God. The impulse to withdraw. So I'm not going to spend any
time in the church. I'm not going to serve God through the church.
I'm going to do my own. That impulse is not from God. You won't find anywhere in the
scriptures where God will tell you to withdraw unless that church
is completely apostate. God always, always, always works
through the body. Am I making some sense? So let
me just touch on this a little bit. Let us consider one another. Isn't that right? Isn't that
what I said? I said, I know I got you now. I can stop right here.
I got you now. You're stuck now. I'm going to
let you go. Let us consider. I'm just going
to deal with this one and come back next week. Let us consider.
See the little word consider? Let us consider one another.
The word means to care for. So just stay with me for a moment.
I know you're full. I know you're hungry. I know
you're ready to go. I'm going to end it here. When he says
draw near to God in worship, in life, and make sure that your
profession of hope is committed to glory so that it becomes the
impetus to cause you to say no to all of the stuff that will
send you to hell through the doors of the church. You say
no, you keep walking with Jesus. The path will get narrow and
there will be few on it. By the time you're walking by
hope, this is what the story of Pilgrim said. There were some
veterans way down the line on the road to glory when they caught
up with Pilgrim and hope. They said, what you guys doing
here? And Pilgrim and Hope said, well,
what do you mean what we're doing here? They said, well, this part
of the road, not many people on this part of the road. Most
of the people start off well, but by the time you get here,
it's only a few people on this road. See, by the time you get
here, you walking by Hope. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
There's only a few people here. And I could tell you so much
more about that story that will be so relevant to you, but I
will not. Some of us who have been in the Lord a long time,
we know it narrows down, doesn't it? We know it narrows down.
We know the pilgrims get narrowed down. We know that we end up
with only one or two on our side. We end up with only one or two
who remember that long journey. See, everybody starts off running
well and then falling off. And so what the Hebrew writer
is saying here is there's a third strategic point of application
critical to making sure we stay on the course. Do you want to
hear it? You and I are to make sure our heart loves what God
loves. You and I are to make sure your
heart love what God loves. And I'm going to tell you what
God loves. His people. God loves his people. Do you
hear me? God loves us. And listen, he
loves his people so much that he has left under shepherds to
watch his flock, whom he had given wisdom and knowledge and
understanding. He has given them his mind and
his heart so that they can speak for him accurately to help the
sheep get to glory. This is how much he loves his
sheep. He loves his sheep to give under shepherds who are
willing to lay down their lives for the sheep. He has given us
under shepherds that will help us understand the mind of God.
And here's the mind of God. Are you ready? The word is theoreo. Theoreo. That's what it means
to consider. Now I want you to understand
how the literal word works. It's broken down in two words. One
word, theory. This is the term theory. We use
it in philosophy. We use it in logic. We use it in analysis,
technology of all kinds. We theorize, right? When you
theorize, you have to fix yourself on a particular topic or subject,
break that subject down, deconstruct it, analyze it, determine the
nature of its components and how it works, right? That's called
theorizing. That means you got to pay attention to it. That
means you have to care for that subject. Is that true? Am I making
some sense? You can't be half-hearted about
an issue and actually Theorize it accurately. The word theoreo
is also the term from which we get the word theater. Now you
know how our folks love to sit up and watch movies. Are you hearing me? You know
how you can sit there and watch a movie for three hours and not
pee? See, God's got his camera on
you. Stay with me. I'm almost done. I'm going to
walk away from you. I'm going to just stop. So you can breathe.
I'm getting ready to stop because I'm going to come back next week.
You can come back if you want, but I'm coming back next week. It's
the idea of being so fixed on the thing as to see it all the
way through. It's the term that God used when
Christ was being crucified in Mary, in Magdalene, Mary Magdalene
and the Mary brother of Lazarus and Martha and Mary, our master's
mother, were observing where they took the body of Christ.
They followed. They followed and they watched.
They theorized. They watched. They watched where
they lay Him. Do you know why they watched
where they lay the body of Christ? Because they cared for the body
of Christ. And then they went back and they
told Peter, Peter, we saw where they lay our master. And do you
know what Peter, James, Peter and John did? They ran. John
20 ran over to where the body was and they looked down in the
cave. They stooped and they watched. And you know what they did? They
looked. Do you know why they looked? Because they cared for
the body of Christ. Do you see it? They cared for
the body of Christ. And when he rose again from the
dead, And the sister says, he is not here, he is risen. The
angels have told us. Peter and James and John looked
to see if it was so. Do you know why they cared about
the body of Christ? And when our master rose again
and caught up with him the third time, and they were in the upper
room. See, that was when they went back to fishing. And Peter
was just tired of the ups and downs. And our master always
comes when we are on our down. And they were out there fishing.
Remember, they're out there fishing, catching nothing. They're going to go
back to their old ways. They were catching nothing. Remember
that? And our Lord was on the shore. He had already cooked
the fried catfish and the biscuits. No, I'm telling you, it was already,
right? So when they came to shore, he was going to feed them because
he knew they had been toiling all night because they were out
of the will of God. You can't catch nothing out of
the will of God. but he loved them enough to meet
them at the shore when they got back. And then did you know what
they did after they sat around and eat? Because our master is
good. He doesn't rush to tell you because he expects you to
work it through. But don't don't don't be fooled
by our master. Just because he's silent doesn't
mean that he agrees with you. So they're sitting around eating
and our master said to Simon Peter, Peter, Yes, master. I just want to ask you one thing,
boy. Do you love me? He says, now, you know, I love
you. He says, then feed my sheep. You got that? And then a little
bit later on after other conversation, Peter, can I ask you, can I ask
you one more time? Do you love me? And Peter said,
Master, you know I love you. I mean, you know everything,
you know. He says, then feed my lambs. See, he went from sheep to lambs. Do you know why? Because Christ
cares for his sheep. And then Peter was just discombobulated
by it. And our master did it one more
time. Because in Hebrew, out of the mouth of two or three
witnesses, every word is established. Peter, I gotta ask you one more
time. And Peter, being grief, said, say, oh, master, do you
love me? Because everyone who professes
to be a believer in Christ is saying they love Christ. Are
you hearing me? We all say we love Christ. But
if we love Christ, we love what Christ loves. And do you know
what he loves? His sheep. He loves his lambs. And this is why the Hebrew writer
says, let us consider. to provoke one another to love
and the good works. And let us forsake not the assembling
of ourselves together, as you see the day approaching, because
many are forsaking the assembling. Isn't that what the text is saying?
Y'all got good sense. So we'll leave it there till
next week. All right, we're going to have the offering at this
time in closing a word of prayer.