I want to read the first 12 verses
of this chapter, Hebrews chapter 6, and let's begin in verse 1. Therefore leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and
of faith towards God. of the doctrine of baptisms and
of laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead
and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. Now here is where my text begins
this morning that I'm going to deal with. For it is impossible
for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the world to come,
if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they have crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and have
put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh often upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
met for them by whom it is dressed, receive blessings from God. But
that which beareth thorns and brars is rejected, and is nigh
unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward
His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you be not
slothful, sluggish, but imitators, followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. I want to look this
morning, and maybe we could entitle this lesson, The Perseverance
of the Saints. The Perseverance of the Saints. A number of years ago, I'm not
for sure when, I'm not for sure what individual or individuals, this particular doctrine had
its rise, but I think it came mainly from the Baptists. They came up with a doctrine
that they called eternal security. Probably most of us have heard
them emphasize that. And though I, and I trust you,
believe in the eternal security, the security of the child of
God, I believe that, I believe the Scriptures teaches that,
and I think probably most of you believe that as well. But
this particular branch of the Baptist that I used to listen
to, they emphasized the security of the saint above everything
else. They emphasized the security
of the saint at the expense of their following the Lord, at
the expense of perseverance. And I listened to a number of
those for several years, and they had to say the least and
to be charitable, a one-sided view of eternal security and
even a warped view of it. And they would make statements
like so-and-so was saved, but they didn't live
for the Lord. And I have saw the fruit of that
in my wife's family especially. I think some were about the time
that they came up with this view of eternal security. They came
up also with the concept of this easy-believism, that you decide
for Christ, you make a decision for Christ, or mentally you receive
Christ as your Savior, and then you're eternally secured. And
they'd have men who went back to their sins and lived there.
And yet when it came time to die, they would make such statements
at their funerals to say, well, they received Christ when they
were younger, and we believe in the eternal security of all
those who do that. And it's a warped view of the
scriptures. As you and I carefully read,
thoughtfully read, and prayerfully read the scriptures, These two
things that we are sure to see in the Scriptures. One is this,
a true believer, a man who has been born again, who has the
life of Christ, the life of God in his soul, is secure. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand." Now that's plain, isn't it? And
as you read the Scriptures, you find places like this that teach
the true believer does indeed have security. But as you read
the Scriptures also, we read this in it that a true believer
must as well as shall persevere to the end of his life. And these
two things aren't opposed one to another. They're just both
true. The Lord Jesus, who said such
statements like this, I give unto my sheep eternal life and
they shall never perish, also said this, He that endeareth
to the end, the same shall be saved. And He that said, Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest, also said this, Those who will not take up their cross
and follow Me cannot be My disciples. So both of these things are true. Sometimes we stress the security
of the saint, and we find great comfort in that. But sometimes
we stress the perseverance of the saint. And I don't know of
another book in the Bible that stresses the perseverance of
the saints as much as the book of Hebrews does. And I would
say, I don't know how else to say it, but like this, the book
of Hebrews reaches the limit of stress of perseverance. I
mean, it demands it, doesn't it? As we read this book, we
see that. What the Apostle stresses here
to these believers is this. They had begun their race by
putting their confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior.
Now they must hold that confidence until the end of their lives. They had begun by being given
a good hope through grace. Now they must live their lives
being diligent in the exercise of that hope until the end. They
had began their lives by looking unto Jesus and were saved. Look unto Me and be ye saved. And they had. But he is going
to stress in this book that looking is not a one-time deal. As they
have looked to Christ, they must continue looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of their faith. And what he's going
to teach in this book, and does teach, if they cast away this
confidence in Christ, if they lose that hope that they have
in Christ, if they cease to look to Jesus Christ, then they most
certainly will not be saved. Now that's why we call this perseverance
of the saints. if they fall away from that salvation
which God has bestowed upon them. If they have been saved, God
has saved them, and if this salvation will not get them through this
world and hold them up and bring them to heaven, then not only
will they not be saved, but they will be lost forever. Because
there is no other salvation. And if they lose this one, then
they're lost. But not only lost, but there's
no possibility that they could ever be saved again. Now that's
what he's teaching here in these verses. I want to look at these
things that he begins to teach about here in verse 4 and in
verse 5. And let's begin here in verse
4. Look at these people who the
Apostle is speaking about. And look at what they have experienced. Are these truly Christians? Or are they almost Christians?
Are they people who have advanced long in religion and yet don't
have life in their souls? Or are these people who have
truly been born again? Are they people who only have
a mental knowledge of Jesus Christ? Or are they true people who know
Him in a free pardon of sin? Who are these people? And let
me tell you this, you don't have to be in agreement with me here
on this this morning because there's a lot of good men that
won't be. I've never read a passage of Scripture in all my life where
you see so many good men taking different views of this passage.
If you take the view that these in verse 4 and 5 are not really
Christians, they are men and women who have experienced some
things, they have gone a long way in religion but they are
not saved, then you will take this out of men like John Gill,
men like the great, many of the great commentators, John Owen,
John Bunyan in this passage. Or if you take the view that
I'm going to take this morning, that these are true Christians. I can't see how else they would
be anything but true Christians. Then you'd come down on the sides
of a lot of other great men, like Charles Spurgeon and a lot
of other men of his age. But I want you to look at these
with me this morning, and maybe this will help us. I'm not only
here to try to prove a doctrine, that's not my intent, but here
to try to edify us and see why passages like this are even here
to begin with. And I don't want to be so presumptuous
to think that I've got a handle on this, but I want to give you
what I see and believe. First of all then, let's look
at the experience of these people. What's the first thing, what's
the first way that the apostle describes these people? The first
thing he says about them is they were enlightened. They were once
enlightened. The best definition I can see
to this word and find to it is this. One is given light in order
to see. That's what the word enlightened
means. Being given light in order to
see. Now let me read you a couple
of passages of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 4, 5. Let me quote
these and read these to you. And this gives the definition.
The same place this word enlightened is used. Paul said, Judge nothing
before the time come until the Lord Jesus come who will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness. That light is the same
word enlightened. He will bring to light the hidden
things. What does the word enlighten
mean? It means to bring to light the hidden things of the heart. Listen to Ephesians 3.9. Here's
another word, the same word he used to describe enlighten. Paul said, I'm a preacher of
the gospel to make all men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery. That's the word enlighten, to make all men see. Now when you and I think about
our problem, by nature. What is our problem? Our greatest
problem by nature, when we come into this world, we grow up into
our teenage years, into adulthood, spiritually speaking, what is
our problem? Our main problem? We can't see,
can we? We can't understand. We're in
darkness. What do we need? We need enlightenment. We need light. We need to be
able to see. One of the best descriptions,
I think, of our heart can be seen all the way back in Genesis
chapter 1, where the Bible says, In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Now isn't that
our hearts by nature? We're darkened. Our understanding,
we don't understand the awful predicament we're in. We don't
understand the danger that we're in. We're in a perishing condition
and we live like everything is alright. What's wrong with the
world? When we preach and go out into
the world and preach to people and they won't listen to us.
They don't need the Gospel. They don't need mercy. They don't
need salvation. They truly don't. Why? They just
don't understand. What do they need? Here's what
they need. We need the same thing in our
hearts that that void, darkened world needed in the beginning.
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water and God
said, let there be light. And there was light. Light came
into the darkness. These people had experienced
this light. They could see. They could see
their need. The danger that they were in,
they saw the remedy, the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. When the Lord Jesus came into
this world, one of the things that was said about His coming
was this, they that sat in darkness saw a great light. That's it. That's this word,
enlightenment. And Matthew said, there they
sat in darkness. The Old Testament said they walked
in darkness. Matthew said they sat in darkness.
What's the difference? Well, they were trying to walk.
They couldn't see where they were going. Finally, they just
sat down in the darkness until light arose and then they could
see. And that's what they experienced.
That's the first thing, isn't it? That we experience in our
Christian life. Enlightenment. God sends light,
and we see. That's why the Apostle Paul prayed
for the Ephesians, that God would enlighten the eyes of their understanding. That's what we need this morning,
isn't it? Don't you ever pray for that? Oh Lord, give me light,
give me understanding, let me see. Paul, in the 10th chapter of
Hebrews and verse 32, he uses this same word and applies it
to these people here. He asked them to call to remembrance
the former days in which after that you were illuminated, enlightened,
you endured a great fight of affliction. When does your trouble
start? When does your trouble start?
When the Lord gives you light. Ain't that when it started? When
He opens your heart. That's when the warfare within
you starts. And it's the same thing with
Him. A great fight of affliction. Now if the apostle had stopped
here and said, you were once enlightened, and if you fall
away from that, then you can never be renewed unto repentance.
And I'd say, okay, okay, these persons may have been lost indeed.
If all they had was knowledge, just the knowledge, they could
fall away from that. People do. I have seen people
go a long way in knowledge, haven't you? Man, there are people that
are so learned, but you've seen them leave the Gospel. You've
seen them go away. And you realize all they had
was their heads stuffed full of knowledge. But the Apostle
doesn't stop here. Notice what the next thing, the
next way he identifies them. Look here at the progression.
Not only have they once been enlightened, but what was the
next step? They have tasted of the heavenly
gift. When they saw their need, what's
the very next step? They tasted of the heavenly gift. Now some say that they only tasted
and they didn't really eat. But when you read the Scriptures,
they use these words interchangeably. Sometimes they'll say taste and
other times they'll say eat. Remember when Peter went up on
the housetop? He was hungry and he wanted to
eat. That's the word taste. He wanted
to eat. He wanted to taste. It's the
very same word. So, taste is eating. Taste means to perceive the nature
or quality of something. The minute you taste food, what
do you do? You perceive the quality of it,
don't you? You distinguish that food, what it is, to taste it.
Look over here in chapter 2. Back over here to your left.
Paul uses this very same word in chapter 2. And look in verse
9. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9. He uses this word taste. But
we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by
the grace of God, should taste death for every man." What does
that mean to taste death? It means that He partook of it.
When He tasted it, He realized the nature of it. He tasted it. And boy, was it ever bitter to
our Master when He tasted this death. So what did these people
do? They had tasted this heavenly
gift, the nature of it. And brothers and sisters, what
is this heavenly gift? Well, a child could answer that,
couldn't they? It could only be one thing. It could only be
one person, the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace and the salvation
that is by Him. The Lord Jesus said to that Samaritan
woman, if you knew the gift of God, And who He said to you,
give me to drink? You would have asked of Him and
I would have gave you living water. What is this heavenly
gift? It's Christ and those saving
benefits that come by Him. Listen to what He told the Jews
in John 6. Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but My
Father gaveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of
God is he which comes down from heaven, and he gives life unto
the world. My flesh is meat indeed, my blood
is drink indeed, and whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
hath eternal life abiding in them." Now let me ask you a question.
How much of his body do you have to eat to have this life eternal? I tell you, just a taste. Just
a taste. As soon as you taste of His redeeming
body and His shed blood, you have that life within you. And these Hebrews here had advanced
to this point that they had tasted of the heavenly gift, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, taste and see, David said,
that the Lord is good. Have you tasted Christ? I mean,
just a taste of Him. And when you tasted of Him, then
you come to this resolve, oh, how gracious He is. What a Savior
He is. I continued all of my teenage
years trying to save my silly self. I had no idea of the nature
of Jesus Christ as a Savior. I earnestly thought that He had
just come and gave me a bunch of laws and rules to live by.
And by keeping His laws and keeping His rules, I could save myself.
I had no idea what a gracious Savior He was until I tasted
Him. And when I tasted Him in my soul,
oh, that satisfied my cravings. That quenched my thirst for salvation. They tasted of Him. What happens
when you eat food? You become one with it, don't
you? You become partakers with it. Well, look then in chapter
6 again at the third thing that He says about this. First they
were enlightened, then they tasted of Christ, the heavenly gift,
and then they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Partakers of the Holy Ghost.
Now brothers and sisters, if you read this as a child, and
you can lay aside your theological robe, And you just read this
as a child, and you say, a man partakes of the Holy Ghost. Is
that a saved man? How could a man partake of the
Holy Ghost and not be a saved man? I can see how he may give
a man a gift and not be a saved man. I mean, look at Judas. He
gave Judas a gift that he could go out and cast out devils. And
he was a devil himself. Look at poor Balaam. at the gifts
that He gave that man. He saw visions of the coming
of Christ. But we're not speaking of the
gift that the Holy Ghost may give, but we're speaking of the
Holy Ghost Himself. He has come into the heart. One
of the definitions of this word, partakers, it means fellowship with. To become one with. To become
like Him. Listen to a couple of things
here, a participant, a participant. Do we become participants with
the Holy Spirit? We do. And listen how we do that. The Scripture says that God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son unto our hearts, and He is
crying, Father, Father. Now, ain't that amazing? The
Holy Spirit comes into the heart, and what does He cry? Father,
Father. That's the Spirit of God's Son.
And the Bible says when He comes into our hearts, we cry, Father,
Father. We're so joined together in such
participants in this that we cry the same thing He cries. Father, Father. Did you ever
get on your face sometime or maybe you're on your job, maybe
your lady's washing your dishes. And your heart is crying, Father,
Father, my Father. That's all you're saying. My
Father, my Father. You know what? You'll be hard-pressed to discern
whether it's you saying that or the Holy Spirit. Because you're
partakers in that calling, Father, Father. And there's another thing
you participate with Him in. When He comes into the heart,
He brings His fruits with Him. the fruit of love, the fruit
of joy, the fruit of peace, the fruit of faith, the fruit of
longsuffering, the fruit of goodness, the fruit of gentleness. These
are His fruits. And His fruits becomes your very
nature. And you can't separate them,
can you? You become participants with
Him. You're one with the Holy Spirit,
partakers of this with Him. If the Holy Spirit dwells in
your heart, there's everlasting life, because He is the Spirit
of life. And therefore the soul can never
die, because the Spirit that indwells that soul can never
die. Here's the fourth thing. Look
here how they advance even more. Not only have they been enlightened,
not only have they tasted the heavenly gift, they've been made
partakers of the Holy Ghost. And look at this. They have tasted
the good Word of God. They have tasted the good Word
of God. I mean, my wife was talking the
other day, and we was talking about some people that we know,
and some neighbors of ours, and you never see them home. Sort
of a large family, but you never see them home. They're gone in
the morning until pretty late at night. They're just running
everywhere. And I told her, I said, this
is what the world is doing. They got their little gadgets.
And I told my wifey, I said, if you wanted to drive the world,
start raving mad. You would require them to lay
up their gadgets, take the keys out of the car, turn the TV off,
shut down all the sports arena, and sit on your couch and read
your Bible or another spiritual book. And you would fill the
mental institutions full because they'd go mad. Why? They never tasted this good Word
of God. But these people had. What was
the nature of it? It's good. That's the understanding
they came to. You know there are Christians,
especially young Christians, I think this is so. that they
have truly been born of God. They have heard the Gospel. They
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, they have not tasted
for themselves this good Word. And that's why they don't sit
and read it as they ought to. I've seen young Christians, and
they went maybe for a year, and they just listened to the preacher
preach, and they loved the Gospel. But finally, when they began
to read, Oh, it got into their hearts and began to stir them
up. And they say, why haven't I been
reading this all along? It's good. It's like honey to
my taste. It's sweet. Do you feel that
way about the Word of God? Oh, have you tasted and you say,
oh, this is the best thing I ever read in my life. It's good. Well,
these had advanced there. Were they Christians, you think?
Well, if you're here and you don't believe it to start with,
I hope I convince you. I hope I convince you. These
are believers. These are believers. But lastly,
look at this. I mean, this is probably the
apex. This is probably the greatest
advancement you and I will make in this Christian life, in this
world. And have tasted the powers they've experienced, perceived
the powers of the world to come. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Well, it means this. They felt in their souls. They
perceived something in their heart of hearts. The power of
a living hope in their hearts. Paul tells them here in verse
18, he said, you fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before you. Then he tells them in verse 11,
he exhorts them to live in the diligent exercise of the full
assurance of hope. Man, wouldn't that be a place
to live your daily life? In the full assurance of hope. Listen to what Paul says in Romans
15, 13. This is one of my favorite verses. Now the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. abounding in
hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why the Apostle
Paul lived in the confidence that when he left this world,
he was going to be with Christ. I've got a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better, he said. I've finished
my race, I've finished my course, I've fought a good fight, and
there's laid up for me The crown of righteousness. And not to
me only, but all of those who love His appearance. Was that
presumption on his part? No. That was this hope that was
stirred up in him. He felt the power of the world
that's to come. And man, how that affected that
man. There's a lot of young Christians that cannot live. with a degree
of hope that older Christians have. I remember when I was a
young believer, and I was a young believer, but I didn't understand
much about what happens to the believer when he dies, and the
Lord Jesus coming again to change these bodies. And when I thought
of death and His coming again, sometimes I was a little bit
apprehensive about it, until I began to experience more of
the Word of God and the Christian life, and then hope. begin to
abound in me. And I live now with the expectation. How would you live this morning,
dear soul? How would you live your daily life if you live with
this great assurance in your soul that when you took your
last breath, you were going to be with Christ? I mean, you lived
in the full assurance of that. How would that affect the way
you live? Nothing would get you down. You would look upon this
life and its toys as an outhouse with its trimmings. And I know
what an outhouse is. When I was a boy, we had a two-seater
outhouse. I think we had a little ledge
there to put our magazines in. And that's what this world is
to a believer. Because they felt the power of
that world that's to come. When you read this epistle, here
are some things you find in it as you read it next time. Look
for these things. One is faith. Number two is promises. Number three is sufferings. Number
four is patience. Number five is hope. You read
about these things. And when you get all of these
things in the same person, faith, sufferings, patience, Hope. You get those things working
in a man's heart and hope begins to rise to the top. Well, I tell
you what, he's a happy man. He is a happy man. And that's what the Apostle Paul
here is talking about. The powers of the world to come. Okay, that's that. That's the
thing that they've experienced. Now he says in verse 6, let's
look at this right quickly. He says now in verse 6, if they
shall fall away. If after experiencing this, if
they shall fall away. Now, notice here he didn't say
if they fall. My goodness, how many good believers
have failed. You go back through the Bible
and you see men like holy Noah. And there he lays naked. Can
you imagine that holy man building the ark? He was so faithful to
believe God. Then he got into another world,
the world after the flood, and he planted him a vineyard and
got drunk and lay naked. What a fall! How many of God's
children down through time that you can read, they fell. They
backslid. J.C. Philpott said, if a man
doesn't believe in backsliding, he's a heretic. He said, his
own experience tells you that we backslide. And how many times
does the Lord call out to His children, return unto Me, you
backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. And what
do they say? O Lord, unto Thee we come, for
You're the Lord our God. Aren't you glad He keeps calling
us and calling us and calling us? But this is not talking about
a fall, is it? The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and though he fall, he'll not be utterly cast down.
But this says here, if they shall fall away, if they fall away, it's impossible
to renew them. One man said it would be very
difficult. Very difficult indeed. Very difficult. No, it's impossible,
isn't it? It's impossible. What does it mean to fall away?
I don't really know. I don't have a case. I've never
seen a case. I've never seen a case in the
Bible of a true Christian falling away. But let me suppose how
it would be if a man fell away. I suppose it means that the work
of grace that had begun in his heart had ceased totally. And not only had it ceased, all
the work that had been done up to that time was now undone. It would have to mean that that
new creature was now destroyed. He had fallen away. The light that he had was taken
away and now darkness reigns again. It would have to be that.
The Holy Spirit leaves the soul that He had before sealed. The soul passes from life back
unto death. God who began the work now wipes
His hands clean of the whole thing and says, I have saved
you, now I will damage. It would have to be something
like that. Jesus Christ ceases to make intercessions for the
soul. The blood of Jesus Christ ceases to cleanse the soul. The blood of Christ not only
grows cold for the soul, but it utterly fails and ceases to
the soul. Devils return to that soul again
that Christ had once occupied, and He brags that the Son of
God had once been here. but now will never return." I
guess that's what it would mean if he fell away. What's the state
of such a person? One said, well, it would be difficult,
but no, it'd be more than that. It would be impossible, wouldn't
it? Impossible. The little Baptist
church I was raised up in, the Little Free Will Baptist, where
my dad preached, they believed and expressed it often. that
they knew people who had been saved and went back out and was
lost and then was saved again. And some would even tell you
that they knew several people who had been saved and lost and
saved and lost several times. But you can't have it both ways,
can you? There either must be the perseverance of the saints
in which they will hold on their way to the end of their life
Or if they do fall away, if it's possible that they shall fall
away, they can never be saved again. But it has to be one or
the other. But we can't have it both ways,
can we? Why is it impossible then if these should fall away? Because the best has been tried
and it failed. It utterly failed. Is there something
better than God's best? They have been enlightened to
see their need and their remedy. And that light failed them at
last. Is there a greater light? They tasted of the heavenly gift,
and yet finally, in spite of that, they starved to death at
last. Does heaven have a greater gift
that it can send? No, it doesn't. The Holy Ghost
entered their heart. He sealed them. He shed abroad
the love of God in their heart. But now He is withdrawn and withdrawn
forever. Is there a greater Spirit than
the Holy Spirit? If His work failed, then how
could they possibly be saved by another Spirit? That fountain
of Emmanuel's blood that they had washed in has ceased to cleanse
them. Is there another fountain opened
that can cleanse them? that this fountain could not
cleanse them from? The sweet promises of God's Word has failed. Is there a more greater promiser
or more sheer promises? The powers of the world to come
had encouraged the dear child of God for a long way and a long
while, but now these powers have fizzled and failed and ceased,
and the poor soul lies perilous. He's fallen away. God's best
has failed him. And if God's best fails us, then
there's no possible way for us to be saved. Now, let's sum it up with this.
Then why do we have such a passage of Scripture like this? Why did
the Holy Spirit even put it in here? The first reason, I think,
is this, and I'll call your own conscience to bear witness to
this. You and I are still sinners, are we not? We're still in the
flesh. We're still lazy. We're still
neglectful. We still have this tendency to
stray. If you could be convinced that
you could go back out into sins and enjoy it for a season, what
would your flesh think of something like that? Man, that's great,
isn't it? That's sort of like Catholicism, isn't it? I don't
feel good anyway. I think I'll go get drunk Saturday
night and go to Mass Sunday morning. Our flesh is so sinful. We need
something to stir us up. Sometimes we need something to
shake us, don't we? To bring us to ourselves. To
make us watchful, sober, and diligent. That's the first thing. The second thing is this. Passages
like this show us what a dreadful sin it would be if it could be
committed. Man, ain't that something to
think about? If I do commit this sin, I am gone forever. What does that do to you? Well,
that stirs you up a little bit, don't it? And thirdly, think
of this. Such passages like these are
used of God Himself to secure His children from falling away. God uses means. You know this
is the means right here that God uses. This is one of them.
What are you doing here this morning? You felt the need to
come here, didn't you? You felt a need to gather with
God's saints. You need the Gospel. You need
to be comforted. You need to be instructed. Because
you don't trust yourself. You're afraid of yourself. That's
what you're doing here. You love the Lord and you want
to worship Him. God uses means. And one of the
means He uses is this. Warnings. Fears. When I was over in Crow, West
Virginia, walking distance almost from the church. They got this
huge gorge. Shannon's seen it. Man, I'm going
to tell you, we walked out on this, the big rock sticking out
over hundreds and hundreds, thousands of feet goes down and it goes
into this big river coming down. And I don't know if I took some
of my children or my grandchildren there, I don't know if I wouldn't
grab both of them by the backs of their necks and stand and
hold them. But you know one of the first things I would tell
my granddaughters if I took them there? Girls, stand here and
look down over this. If you fall over this, you'll
be dashed to pieces. You will never come up alive. You'll be killed. Now why would
I tell them that? Because I'm going to let them
fall? No! Because I'm using that to awaken them, to show them
what would happen if they did. And I think this is what the
Lord means here. He's showing us the dreadfulness
of this sin. He's not saying you're going
to do it. But He's saying if you did, if you did, this is
what would be the consequences, the result. The covenant blessing
goes something like this, when I will give them a new heart
and a new spirit, and then He said, I will put my fear in their
hearts. I tell you, fear is a good thing.
And there's a godly fear. And a godly fear is this, you're
afraid to leave Him. I'm scared to death. What do
you think when the thought comes to you sometimes, especially
when you're persecuted? Especially when you're in temptation,
and you're in a deep trial, and you're so cold, and your heart's
gotten so hard, and you think about just leaving Him. Isn't
there a fear that grips you? You'd better not leave Him. You'd
better be careful. You'd better be sober. Look what
happens if you leave Him. The fear is good, isn't it? That's
what this Scripture is about. Throughout this passage, he continually
warns them. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you that evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. Let us therefore fear lest the
promise been left us of entering into His rest. Any of you should
come short of it. What do we say when we think
of these Scriptures? Oh, Father, keep me. Don't let
me leave you. Oh, Lord, give me this rest in
my soul. There's one cord of life that
you have, child of God, just one cord that reaches up to heaven
at the right hand of God. And if that cord should break,
you're gone forever. It will never break. It will
never break. You can live with the confidence
of that. But keep your mind on Him. Be sober, be vigilant, diligent. Always look into Jesus. Take
heed and use the means that God has given you. I hope this has helped you. May
the Lord bless it to our hearts. Let us pray.