back to index2019-09-29 Christ, Our Only Hope
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I'm going to be reading from Hebrews chapter 6, verses 4-8. 00:00:20.360 |
For in case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have 00:00:26.020 |
been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers 00:00:30.740 |
of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, 00:00:36.520 |
since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 00:00:40.900 |
For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful 00:00:46.100 |
to those, for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. 00:00:54.120 |
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it 00:01:01.900 |
Heavenly Father, we pray that Your word would be anointed this morning, that our hearts 00:01:10.260 |
may be softened, that our ears may be opened to You. 00:01:16.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to glean and understand Your intent of this text, that we may not 00:01:22.380 |
turn from it to the left or to the right, that we would not subtract from it or to add 00:01:28.780 |
May Christ, His love, His glory be magnified this morning. 00:01:35.540 |
All right, so the text that we're in, if you've ever studied through the New Testament or 00:01:40.980 |
this passage, if you had a chance to look at it, you know that this is one of the passages 00:01:46.300 |
that is probably the most talked about, or one of the most passages that are talked about. 00:01:50.380 |
In fact, Martin Lowe Jones, if you know who he is, says about this text that this is probably 00:01:54.780 |
one of the most debated texts in the New Testament, not because it's difficult to understand, 00:02:01.080 |
but because of the consequence of the meaning. 00:02:05.440 |
The question that we pose from this text is, can Christians lose their salvation? 00:02:11.700 |
This is a very, very important text for us to understand, because this is where, again, 00:02:16.700 |
there's many other texts that we would look at to try to answer that question, but this 00:02:23.760 |
So depending on how you understand this text, how you interpret it properly, you're going 00:02:31.900 |
Now the reason why this is so crucial is because if you, again, and I'm telling you ahead of 00:02:38.740 |
time my opinion, which I believe is true, and I'm going to try to convince you of that, 00:02:49.900 |
If you were not aware of that, you want to make aware clear today that Christians cannot 00:02:56.580 |
And if you misinterpret passages like this to say that a genuine Christian who was chosen 00:03:02.460 |
and elected by God, that by not living up to what God called them to, making too many 00:03:08.400 |
mistakes in their life, that somehow they're going to be falling from grace and there's 00:03:15.460 |
That false understanding of Scripture can lead you to live in fear, much like the Jehovah 00:03:20.500 |
Witnesses who every Saturday morning are going door to door, and if you ask them, "Do you 00:03:30.860 |
The best that they can do is to work as hard as they can and hope that their good works 00:03:39.060 |
And if you're not careful, a false understanding of our salvation will lead to a life that 00:03:44.660 |
has lived in constant fear, that maybe I made too many mistakes, maybe I've exhausted the 00:03:50.860 |
grace of God, and maybe God gave me a number of times that I'm able to repent, and I've 00:03:55.340 |
exhausted that, so therefore I cannot be saved. 00:03:59.940 |
It is absolutely crucial, it is essential for the foundation of our faith to have assurance 00:04:08.820 |
You cannot pray in confidence, you cannot come to Christ in confidence. 00:04:13.140 |
How can you ever enter the throne of grace with confidence if your assurance of salvation 00:04:23.220 |
But on the other end, if you confess that one saved always saved, that you cannot lose 00:04:29.420 |
your salvation, and a false and superficial and incomplete understanding of God's sovereignty 00:04:35.540 |
leads us to think and apply that since our salvation is not by our works, it doesn't 00:04:43.220 |
It'd be nice if we lived holy lives and bore fruit, but it doesn't matter. 00:04:47.940 |
So the other end is to kind of live a nominal Christian life all their life, and then hold 00:04:53.060 |
on to something that they heard, one saved always saved, salvation by grace alone, so 00:05:01.660 |
And that's what we've been talking about in the book of Hebrews. 00:05:04.220 |
The either end of false understanding or incomplete understanding of our salvation will either 00:05:10.700 |
lead to living in constant fear and questioning our connection with God, or living in licentiousness. 00:05:20.060 |
And there is no distinction between the world and a nominal Christian, other than the fact 00:05:24.660 |
that he may attend church on a regular basis. 00:05:30.340 |
Now I've already told you what I believe, but what I believe doesn't matter, right? 00:05:37.140 |
Because my goal here this morning is to show you through the text that he is not saying 00:05:46.180 |
Now when you're studying the Bible, right, if you're a faithful Berean, what is at the 00:05:52.380 |
core, in interpretation, how important, what is the number one thing that you need to understand 00:06:06.440 |
You can't, if somebody writes you a five page letter, you can't go to page three and take 00:06:11.020 |
a paragraph out and say, "Ah, I understand this letter." 00:06:15.500 |
You have to understand that passage in the context of the rest of the letter. 00:06:25.060 |
And so that paragraph needs to be understood in the context of what he says. 00:06:29.020 |
And so a lot of times people get misquoted because they don't look at the whole context 00:06:34.300 |
You said this, but you don't quote the whole context. 00:06:42.120 |
Absolutely not, because it contradicts the context or the theology of rest of Scripture. 00:06:48.700 |
I can take dozens and dozens, but I'm just going to, for the sake of time, John chapter 00:06:54.720 |
Jesus says, "My sheep, they hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." 00:07:00.640 |
Jesus is saying this before they follow him, right? 00:07:04.560 |
He calls them "my sheep" before they follow him. 00:07:07.200 |
My sheep, when they hear my voice, if they're really my sheep, they will come. 00:07:12.000 |
"And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch 00:07:17.480 |
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them 00:07:21.360 |
out of the Father's hand, and I and the Father are one." 00:07:25.760 |
Now, that text alone is clear enough and strong enough to say that there's no way that a Christian 00:07:32.800 |
can lose his salvation, because that's what Jesus says. 00:07:34.840 |
But again, I could give you countless number of passages. 00:07:37.560 |
First Peter 1, 3-5, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according 00:07:41.600 |
to his great mercy has caused us to be born again." 00:07:45.880 |
He caused us to be born again, "and to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ 00:07:50.600 |
from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade 00:07:59.000 |
Reserved in heaven for you, why is it imperishable, undefiled, and not fade away? 00:08:06.040 |
Verse 5, "Who are protected by the power of God through faith, for a salvation ready to 00:08:14.000 |
In other words, our salvation is securely in his hand. 00:08:16.840 |
Jesus is not simply the author of our salvation. 00:08:22.720 |
He doesn't just begin and call us, he makes sure that we are completed. 00:08:28.080 |
That's exactly what it says in Philippians 1, 6, right? 00:08:30.560 |
"He who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ." 00:08:35.640 |
Again, the last verse I want to quote, Romans 8, 38-39, "For I am convinced that neither 00:08:41.720 |
death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor 00:08:46.760 |
powers nor height nor depth nor any other created things will be able to separate us 00:08:51.720 |
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 00:08:59.840 |
I mean, he goes on and on and on, saying nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. 00:09:05.960 |
Again, I could just probably just spend the rest of the year just talking about our security 00:09:11.540 |
in Christ because our salvation is by God's choice. 00:09:20.840 |
So one, it contradicts the larger theology, right, that our salvation is secure in his 00:09:28.640 |
But it also contradicts the immediate context of what he says. 00:09:32.620 |
Because in verse 6, he describes that he, there's a description of these people in verse 00:09:39.520 |
4 and 5, and it says, "If you have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again 00:09:47.800 |
Now why would somebody who falls away because of his sin not be able to repent? 00:09:55.900 |
That is inconsistent with anything else we see in Scripture. 00:09:59.040 |
The Scripture clearly says in 1 John, "If you confess your sins, he is faithful and 00:10:03.920 |
just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness." 00:10:11.400 |
No, seven times seventy, as long as he repents. 00:10:15.120 |
So why would he say here, if a Christian can lose his salvation, if that's what he's referring 00:10:19.520 |
to, why will he not be forgiven of his sins if he repents again? 00:10:25.080 |
So think about our particular situation without even looking at the text. 00:10:29.320 |
How many of you, how many of you at some point after you became a Christian, lived a period 00:10:36.160 |
of life, whether it was a month, whether it was a week, whether it was for years, that 00:10:48.320 |
Does that mean that if you did that, that you couldn't repent, that God didn't forgive 00:10:53.920 |
So if you've made that mistake and you lived any period of your life fallen away, that 00:11:00.920 |
He could not possibly mean that because that again contradicts the rest of Scripture. 00:11:10.800 |
So if you're half falling asleep, which you're not, I don't see it yet, I'm just saying it 00:11:27.600 |
In verse 8, it ends by saying, "But if it heals," after all of this, after all the benefits 00:11:33.880 |
have been given, "If it heals thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, 00:11:40.000 |
In other words, he's talking about an individual after everything that they've been given, 00:11:48.000 |
How can that be a description of a Christian? 00:11:51.520 |
So this cannot be in reference to a Christian who is falling because it contradicts the 00:11:58.400 |
larger context, it contradicts the immediate context. 00:12:04.480 |
Again, this is why you have to understand this in the context of the rest of Hebrews. 00:12:14.200 |
But the church that he is talking to at one point was fervent in following Christ, but 00:12:19.320 |
because of pressure, because of trials in life, they began to not deny Christ, but began 00:12:30.840 |
And the concern is that if you continue to go down this path, you may find yourself apostate. 00:12:37.800 |
That even though you may have never shaken your fist at God, that your unbelief, if that's 00:12:43.200 |
who you really are, is going to cause you to drift far away. 00:12:46.720 |
And then you're going to find yourself waking up one day that maybe you never believed to 00:12:51.520 |
And so the purpose of Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 through 8 is, one, to get the church to 00:13:04.120 |
So if you, or the readers of Hebrews, have been just kind of drifting along thinking, 00:13:11.040 |
you know what, it's safe for me to have some Judaism and some Christianity, live right 00:13:15.800 |
in the middle, and not avoid as much persecution from the Judaistic world as possible, avoid 00:13:22.000 |
as much discomfort for being a follower of Christ as possible, and kind of, you know, 00:13:30.680 |
Trying to live as comfortable as you can, get as much as you can from the church, get 00:13:34.560 |
as much as you can from the world, and just kind of drift. 00:13:38.400 |
And he's drawing the line very clear that that is not a Christian. 00:13:44.180 |
You cannot be in this middle ground, because Jesus clearly said, you cannot serve God and 00:13:51.160 |
No matter how hard you try, no matter how wise we think we are, it is not possible. 00:13:58.280 |
Either you are with him gathering, or you are against him scattering. 00:14:07.200 |
In case wrong thinking has penetrated into the church to believe that it is possible 00:14:14.360 |
That maybe you think, well, you know, Berean is too serious. 00:14:18.360 |
Maybe if I didn't go to Berean, I would never hear this. 00:14:22.120 |
It's not about being Berean, it's not about what's coming off of my mouth, but what does 00:14:27.600 |
If you're going to argue, don't argue against the church. 00:14:31.160 |
Don't argue against, I don't like this church, or I like that church. 00:14:34.240 |
If you're going to have a debate, make sure it's a biblical debate. 00:14:38.200 |
Because all of our authority is coming from the word of God. 00:14:43.680 |
Now having said all of that, how do we explain this description? 00:14:49.700 |
How do we explain these five, six things that are described that sound a lot like Christians? 00:14:57.120 |
Talking about being enlightened, tasting the heavenly gift, may partakers of the Holy Spirit 00:15:02.800 |
taste the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. 00:15:08.080 |
So what we want to do this morning is examine what he means by these things. 00:15:19.200 |
If after having all of these things and then you reject God, there is no repentance. 00:15:24.320 |
So one, this is a description of somebody who is enlightened. 00:15:28.920 |
Now he's not talking about a born again Christian where his eyes are open, he sees the glory 00:15:37.080 |
When he says enlightened, he's talking about somebody who has been given the truth. 00:15:46.240 |
Just like the demons in the book of James, who says you believe that God is one. 00:15:53.760 |
Even the demons believe that and they shudder. 00:15:56.520 |
So basically, all they're doing is acknowledging facts. 00:16:04.700 |
So these are people who are in the church who can regurgitate the gospel. 00:16:09.960 |
Because they've been taught since they were little kids. 00:16:11.880 |
It's just Sunday school, they memorize scripture. 00:16:14.740 |
And your whole world centers around Christianity. 00:16:17.960 |
So if you want to participate in the community that you belong to, you need to be educated 00:16:27.080 |
And if you're not interested in being educated in the gospel, you probably would have left 00:16:38.280 |
So you will do what is necessary to be a part of the church. 00:16:44.800 |
Someone who is enlightened, information has been given, and somebody who the Bible describes 00:16:50.760 |
as always learning but never able to come to the truth. 00:16:59.800 |
And because you are able to regurgitate information that you have heard, eventually if you stay 00:17:05.280 |
in the church long enough, you can become a teacher. 00:17:15.040 |
Information has been given to you and poured into you. 00:17:22.280 |
I think a good example of this are the 5,000 people who are fed. 00:17:34.720 |
But Jesus saw right through them that their view of Christ was deficient. 00:17:40.400 |
You're coming to me because you want to eat and you want more of it. 00:17:44.240 |
But Jesus is saying, I don't just give bread. 00:17:46.800 |
Only reason why I give you bread is because I want you to know that I am the bread of 00:17:51.560 |
And when he began to speak in those terms, they said, this is too hard. 00:17:59.640 |
And as a result of that, John 6, 66, they all turn away from Christ. 00:18:08.120 |
They were given opportunity to see Jesus and his miracles. 00:18:19.480 |
After presenting the gospel and who he is to the Jews, it says, so Jesus was saying 00:18:34.280 |
If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 00:18:38.120 |
And you will know the truth and truth shall set you free. 00:18:41.920 |
What does Jesus call these Jewish believers here in John 8, 44? 00:18:52.080 |
How can he call Jews who believed in the very next passage in John 8, 44, he says, you don't 00:19:04.840 |
It's because you're from your father, the devil. 00:19:10.280 |
Even though they believed him, there was something deficient. 00:19:17.520 |
There was certain aspect of Christ that they wanted, but they didn't want Christ himself. 00:19:22.960 |
When you get married to somebody, you can't get married and say, you know what? 00:19:25.880 |
I want to be married to this, this, and this. 00:19:30.280 |
I like her personality, but I don't like what she does for a living. 00:19:37.080 |
You can't just pick and choose and say, I'm going to be married to these four qualities, 00:19:40.960 |
and I don't want to be married to these eight qualities. 00:19:44.360 |
When you marry that somebody, you marry all of it. 00:19:46.840 |
So these are people who have been enlightened, who have been shown, but they're kind of picking 00:19:59.520 |
Enlightenment says they have tasted of the heavenly gift. 00:20:05.600 |
Now when Christ offers himself as the living water or as the bread of life, imagine if 00:20:23.400 |
Now when Costco opened up, I forgot how long it was. 00:20:37.080 |
So those of you who are a little bit older, remember. 00:20:40.040 |
So when they first opened up, people flocked to it. 00:20:43.760 |
Obviously the prices were good, but there was a lot of people, including myself, who 00:20:48.900 |
used to love going to Price Club because of the free food, the samples. 00:20:57.480 |
I mean, they give samples now, but at that time, that was kind of like their main marketing 00:21:03.280 |
And so, yeah, I hate shopping, but I love Costco for that purpose. 00:21:08.480 |
And I had, you know, as a college student or, you know, young person, I had no money 00:21:12.920 |
and I had no intention to buy any of this stuff, right? 00:21:22.720 |
So I would go and grab this and pretend like walking around and come back. 00:21:26.440 |
Hopefully they forgot me and then I would eat it again. 00:21:28.960 |
And then I'd go pretend like I'm going to buy some stuff and then come back and eat 00:21:33.660 |
But I never had any intention of purchasing that. 00:21:37.300 |
But the purpose of why they're giving samples is that so you would taste and see that it 00:21:45.920 |
See the description of somebody who have tasted the heavenly gift is somebody who has tasted 00:21:50.520 |
the water, who has tasted the bread, but you have never intended to purchase. 00:22:00.720 |
You've tasted it and you can say, "Yeah, Christ is great. 00:22:09.220 |
You're always just kind of roaming around in the world and you're just nibbling. 00:22:14.560 |
But you don't understand when Christ says, "I have come to give life and to give this 00:22:19.960 |
You don't know what that means because all you've been doing is nibbling. 00:22:25.640 |
So he's talking about somebody on the outside looks a lot like a Christian, but the church 00:22:33.120 |
is something that they have to get out of the way to get to what they really want, BBA, 00:22:44.860 |
So church, Bible study, prayer meetings are things that needs to get done because that's 00:22:50.180 |
the price you need to pay to be a part of this group. 00:22:54.600 |
So you nibble and you serve and you give a little, but that's not where you find Christ. 00:23:02.640 |
So church is where you come to serve, but to find life, you have to go out to the world. 00:23:08.240 |
That's what he's talking about, an individual who has tasted the heavenly gift. 00:23:14.240 |
He didn't drink of it, so he's no longer thirsty. 00:23:16.440 |
He's still thirsty because he's only tasted it. 00:23:19.600 |
He's only nibbled in the bread, so he's still hungry. 00:23:23.520 |
And this hunger is leading him always to something else. 00:23:28.760 |
There's a little thing that I found years ago that I think that describes many people 00:23:38.920 |
I want enough to get a taste to actually have him or to think that I have him, but not so 00:23:46.280 |
I don't want to get distracted from the things that I really want. 00:23:49.480 |
I don't want to be consumed by a huge dose of God. 00:23:53.880 |
I want enough to feel pretty good about myself, enough to make my life respectable and manageable, 00:24:06.600 |
This is the person that he is describing here. 00:24:14.880 |
Somebody who has ultimately never purchased, only been enlightened. 00:24:25.720 |
How can a non-Christian be a partaker of the Holy Spirit? 00:24:31.040 |
You remember in the Old Testament the difference between the Old Testament saints and the New 00:24:36.240 |
He says John the Baptist, of all the men born of a woman, John the Baptist is the greatest 00:24:44.860 |
But he says in the New Kingdom he is the least. 00:24:49.880 |
What was the distinction between the Old Covenant people and the New Covenant people? 00:24:56.100 |
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit never made an indwelling. 00:25:01.120 |
It never made an indwelling because we were sinful. 00:25:04.440 |
Even though Christ was going to come and he was going to cover us by his blood, the Holy 00:25:09.400 |
Spirit would come upon people and then he would leave. 00:25:14.880 |
Although he was a man who was rejected, the Holy Spirit would come upon him and he would 00:25:18.440 |
be able to prophesy and then he would be gone. 00:25:24.160 |
And yet the Holy Spirit was moving with people in the Old Testament. 00:25:28.160 |
The distinction between the Old Testament people and the New Testament people, when 00:25:31.440 |
we come to the New Testament, where is the Holy Spirit indwelling? 00:25:40.240 |
We have this union with Christ that is permanent and eternal. 00:25:45.240 |
That's why 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the 00:25:52.320 |
Our body itself is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God 00:26:00.360 |
In the Bible again, in John chapter 3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "The only way that you 00:26:06.520 |
can be in the kingdom of God is to be born again." 00:26:15.200 |
So the Holy Spirit is the agent in which we are born again and when we are born again, 00:26:25.360 |
We are united with the Holy Spirit and that's what guarantees our salvation because the 00:26:31.160 |
Holy Spirit in us is constantly groaning on our behalf to what? 00:26:38.360 |
And that's why a Christian, a genuine Christian who has the Holy Spirit in him cannot continue 00:26:43.880 |
to live in sin because the Holy Spirit is grieved. 00:26:51.100 |
And that's why an individual who is constantly living in sin, maybe, and I'm not talking 00:27:00.220 |
But somebody who is living in sin and feels perfectly fine and there is no grieving in 00:27:06.240 |
their heart, it may be evidence that the Holy Spirit is not in them. 00:27:11.560 |
And so he's describing it not an individual who has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit 00:27:17.680 |
and the Holy Spirit leaves him because he foresees God, but somebody who is in the church, 00:27:24.160 |
who has tasted the heavenly gift, who has been enlightened, who participates in the 00:27:30.520 |
What's happening in our church, in every church, every genuine church is the work of the Holy 00:27:37.600 |
And so a non-Christian could be in the midst of this, enjoying the benefits of the work 00:27:45.720 |
The work of the Holy Spirit could benefit you because of the sanctification, because 00:27:53.840 |
But he does not have an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 00:27:58.400 |
And the most obvious evidence of that is there is no power. 00:28:03.280 |
Because in Acts 1.8 it says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive what? 00:28:12.600 |
Power and the Holy Spirit go hand in hand, but this is an individual who is just kind 00:28:17.920 |
He's kind of joined himself with other people with power. 00:28:21.760 |
That's why this individual always has testimonies of other people to regurgitate. 00:28:29.840 |
So it sounds like they have power, but it's never about themselves. 00:28:45.580 |
My pastor, my leaders, my friends, the missionaries. 00:28:50.440 |
And there's always a testimony about other people. 00:28:54.520 |
But they've never experienced the power of themselves. 00:28:57.960 |
The transforming power of the Holy Spirit that convicts us, revives us, renews us, and 00:29:08.760 |
So this is somebody who is saturated with a church. 00:29:13.320 |
Maybe it's somebody who was raised in the church, had convinced themselves, even though 00:29:18.200 |
their life looks nothing like what they see in the New Testament, but it looks a lot like 00:29:26.880 |
And so their confidence doesn't come from what they read in the scripture. 00:29:30.080 |
Their confidence comes from whatever community that they have belonged to. 00:29:35.080 |
Fourthly, again, taste it, the good word of God, and the power of the age to come. 00:29:42.080 |
The Greek word for the word here is not logos. 00:29:45.080 |
Typically, when we think about Christ and his manifestation and his very breath that 00:29:50.440 |
he invested in the word, it's the word logos. 00:29:55.640 |
The word logos is almost equated with God himself. 00:30:02.080 |
And the word rhema is oftentimes spoken of the spoken word. 00:30:07.320 |
So this is talking about people who are in the church who is hearing. 00:30:15.640 |
In other words, they're hearing sermons, they're participating in Bible studies, maybe even 00:30:21.600 |
And the word of God is coming to them, but they've only tasted it. 00:30:26.480 |
They've tasted the powers of the age to come. 00:30:28.700 |
They know what it's like, but they themselves do not know. 00:30:33.140 |
In Jeremiah chapter 15, 16, it says, "The words were found and I ate them." 00:30:38.300 |
He didn't just taste them, he said, "I ate them. 00:30:41.940 |
And your words became for me a joy and a delight of my heart, for I have been called by your 00:30:55.740 |
I've been preaching up on a pulpit since I was 19. 00:31:02.060 |
I've been preaching since I was 19, so there was only a stretch of about six months before 00:31:06.140 |
this church was started where I wasn't preaching up on a pulpit. 00:31:09.220 |
So I don't know how many sermons that is, but it's a lot of sermons. 00:31:12.580 |
In some weeks, I preach three or four times, and then I would go to retreat. 00:31:16.020 |
So if you calculate all of that, it probably comes out to thousands of sermons. 00:31:22.460 |
So one thing that I can tell you, and I'm not saying it's accurate, but just from what 00:31:29.180 |
I've observed through the years, I can tell where you are in your walk with God by the 00:31:37.900 |
Now, it's like, "Okay, now I better pay attention," because I see you. 00:31:46.220 |
Before you ever come to me and tell me something's going on in your life, I can tell. 00:31:51.000 |
By the way the Word of God is getting in you. 00:31:53.860 |
And again, you could say, "Well, I mean, maybe I'm just boring." 00:31:57.580 |
That could very well be the case, and I've given flops in the past, so I'm not saying 00:32:05.140 |
But I'm not talking about how you react to me. 00:32:07.980 |
I'm talking about how you react to God's Word, because Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice." 00:32:15.380 |
Even if I do a great job in packaging it or don't do a great job in packaging it, the 00:32:25.380 |
So when I listen to sermons, sometimes the person who does the greatest job packaging 00:32:33.860 |
is more of a distraction to me, because that's not what I want to hear. 00:32:37.980 |
I don't want to hear somebody who is so polished and knows how to give the best illustrations 00:32:42.740 |
and keeps the congregation laughing and crying, and all of that stuff may be easier to listen 00:32:51.500 |
What are you going to have is somebody who's stuttering and his point is not clear, but 00:33:01.180 |
And I get a lot more out of that sermon than I do from the packaging. 00:33:05.060 |
So my point is, after all these years, I can observe and I can testify where you are in 00:33:12.540 |
your walk with God based upon how you listen to the Word of God. 00:33:17.460 |
Again, like I said, it's not me, but to His Word. 00:33:25.300 |
Is there a hungering and thirsting for Him, or is it for the church, or is it for the 00:33:31.140 |
See, this person is an individual who has only tasted the Word of God, but he has no 00:33:39.780 |
In Psalm 1, 1-3, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, 00:33:44.140 |
nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is 00:33:54.460 |
You know, I've been so thankful with Pastor Peter Chung coming back to our church because 00:34:03.540 |
And so I know there's bits and pieces, and we're memorizing one verse for every passage 00:34:07.620 |
that we've been trying to do that, but Pastor Peter Chung just kind of took it to the next 00:34:12.300 |
You know, we say, "Oh, his memory is ridiculous," right? 00:34:17.340 |
But as ridiculous as his memory is, it's not just his memory. 00:34:20.380 |
He devotes that kind of time to the memorization. 00:34:22.620 |
Every time I come to church, he's there early in the morning, and he's got his cards out, 00:34:26.740 |
and he's reading this, and he's memorizing this every single morning, card after card 00:34:32.100 |
So he has a great memory, but he's maximizing the gift that God has given him. 00:34:38.740 |
You cannot do that if you do not love His Word. 00:34:41.980 |
It doesn't matter how great your memory you have. 00:34:44.500 |
It doesn't matter how much grit you have in saying, "I want to do this," if you do not 00:34:51.380 |
It'll last for a little bit, but it will not carry you through. 00:34:55.100 |
It's an individual who's just putting up with Bible study because I really want to hang 00:35:03.740 |
And if that is a constant state of where you are at, this is a warning. 00:35:10.660 |
Because a non-Christian in the church looks a lot like a Christian in the church. 00:35:23.740 |
Jesus has been warning about that from the beginning. 00:35:28.420 |
Hebrews chapter 6, 6, "And then, after having experienced all of these things, have fallen 00:35:35.820 |
It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified to themselves the 00:35:45.980 |
The point that he's trying to make here is you have been enlightened. 00:35:51.860 |
You have tasted the Word and the power to come. 00:35:55.060 |
You have every opportunity that every Christian has, and you choose to say, "He's not enough." 00:36:09.280 |
If every opportunity has been given to you to lead you to the only way of salvation, 00:36:20.780 |
There is no way to bring that person to repentance because repentance is found in Christ and 00:36:28.180 |
In Matthew 12, 31, "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to 00:36:33.180 |
people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven." 00:36:37.140 |
Most commentaries believe that he's talking about rejecting Christ. 00:36:41.260 |
And again, 2 Peter 2, 20, "For after they have escaped the defilement of the world by 00:36:45.820 |
the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and 00:36:51.180 |
The last day has become worse for them than the first. 00:36:54.540 |
For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having 00:36:58.300 |
known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed onto them. 00:37:03.020 |
It has happened to them according to the true Proverbs, 'A dog returns to his own vomit 00:37:07.020 |
and so after a washing returns to wallowing in the mire.'" 00:37:25.340 |
You know, Esther showed me this picture when she was doing VBS and I thought this was really 00:37:30.460 |
This is a picture of the wheat and the tares. 00:37:35.020 |
Now the way that it's pictured here, you would think that you would be able to distinguish 00:37:40.500 |
Remember Jesus gives that parable in Matthew 13, 24-30? 00:37:44.940 |
He gives the parable how the farmer goes out and he plants wheat and then his enemy comes 00:37:52.740 |
Tares basically are weed and it basically sucks up all the nutrients that the wheat 00:38:03.060 |
But he says you cannot pull the tares out because in doing so, you're going to end up 00:38:08.680 |
tearing up the wheat too because it looks too similar. 00:38:12.420 |
Now in this picture, you have a bunch of wheat and then you have a couple of the tares. 00:38:16.940 |
But when you have these two things put together and mixed together, it is almost impossible 00:38:21.700 |
to be able to distinguish because it looks exactly alike until it is full grown. 00:38:30.500 |
If you continue to read that parable, he says until the harvest comes. 00:38:34.940 |
You wait for the harvest, you wait for the wheat to grow and when the wheat begins to 00:38:39.140 |
grow in, it says it begins to bend because of the weight of the wheat. 00:38:45.020 |
The tares, because it does not have wheat, it just keeps going straight up. 00:38:49.940 |
But until you allow it to bear fruit, you can't tell the difference. 00:38:55.640 |
So he says it is impossible to separate them early on. 00:39:01.380 |
You have to allow it to grow and you can tell by their fruit. 00:39:07.020 |
Now when Jesus was telling this parable, every Jew, every listener would have understood 00:39:15.000 |
And so the distinction that he was making is these tares in the church who have no interest 00:39:22.280 |
They're just benefiting from the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:39:35.560 |
And so the things that bother them have nothing to do with Christ. 00:39:41.160 |
He says you can't tear them apart because while you're doing that, you may end up tearing 00:39:49.860 |
You will be able to see what is in their hearts. 00:39:57.220 |
And he's warning the church, don't make your drifting feel safe because the tares are drifting 00:40:06.960 |
Don't go down that path and think, well everybody is going down that path because everybody 00:40:14.720 |
He's warning the Christians in the midst of the tares that this is not for you. 00:40:23.280 |
If you have tasted that the Lord is good, then come all the way to Christ. 00:40:31.120 |
Don't nibble at the world and don't nibble in the table of Christ and think somehow you're 00:40:40.000 |
I will show him that it is possible to serve mammon and God at the same time. 00:40:49.080 |
And so that's why this text is here as a warning, as a wake up call, as he's been preaching 00:40:54.480 |
for the last six chapters to take this warning seriously. 00:41:00.200 |
If you have been drifting and you have been feeling perfectly safe because you're surrounded 00:41:07.380 |
by other friends who are also drifting, wake up. 00:41:14.720 |
Because the only standard he will measure us with is his word, the plumb line of his 00:41:20.900 |
Not by the standard of this church, not by the standard of the pastor, not by the standard 00:41:25.360 |
of your small group leaders or your small group or your group of friends, but by the 00:41:33.760 |
And the point, the end point of all of this, the end point of all of this is that Christ 00:41:55.120 |
Salvation is not found in your education or your theology. 00:41:58.600 |
Salvation is found in Christ and Christ alone. 00:42:17.760 |
You've okayed him, but you never rejected him. 00:42:25.200 |
In Acts 4.12, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under 00:42:29.600 |
heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." 00:42:36.640 |
Again I ask you, because to me, and I believe many pastors will agree with me, this is the 00:42:56.520 |
Church is filled with non-Christians feeling perfectly safe on their way to hell. 00:43:13.860 |
The truth has been muddied by a nominal Christian environment. 00:43:25.600 |
We have made our Christian friends our standard without ever knowing Christ. 00:43:38.700 |
And that's why these trivial things in the church, trivial things in our life matter 00:43:48.760 |
My prayer is that you would know this Christ. 00:43:55.080 |
Know where you stand with God and come to Him all the way. 00:44:07.200 |
In Matthew 13, 44-46, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which 00:44:15.960 |
And from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 00:44:28.200 |
Do you understand that joy of this farmer who found Christ and everything else became 00:44:36.440 |
Verse 45, again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. 00:44:41.280 |
And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought 00:44:50.080 |
Do you understand why he would sell everything to get that pearl? 00:44:54.920 |
Because he's tasted and all he wants now is more of it. 00:45:01.360 |
I pray, I pray that the deception of nominal Christianity would not cause you to be blind. 00:45:12.560 |
Don't compare with the person sitting to your left or to your right, behind you or in front 00:45:19.720 |
Now, I don't want to finish this sermon with just yelling because I want you to understand 00:45:32.400 |
But the reason why he says it so strongly is because he's trying to get the wheat to 00:45:42.400 |
But he says in verse 9, "But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning 00:45:46.800 |
you," and he's talking to the wheat now, "and things that accompany salvation, though we 00:45:52.640 |
For God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward 00:45:56.700 |
his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints." 00:46:09.080 |
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance 00:46:15.440 |
If your assurance is wavering because you've been wavering in your walk with Christ, he 00:46:20.000 |
says make it sure by being diligent, committing to him, so that you will not be sluggish, 00:46:25.320 |
but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 00:46:32.040 |
I told you the whole chapter 6 is kind of like he's taking a break. 00:46:37.520 |
He said, "I want to get to Melchizedek, but before I get to Melchizedek, I need your attention." 00:46:42.720 |
Some of you have drifted and you've become hard of hearing and you're not able to listen, 00:46:47.680 |
Because I'm going to get you to the meat, but in order to get you to the meat, you need 00:46:55.400 |
Well, I'm not going to get to chapter 7 because I'm going on a break, okay? 00:47:02.760 |
But I'm going to finish chapter 6 before I go, okay? 00:47:11.200 |
So we're going to get to chapter 7, but before we get there, before we get there, I'm going 00:47:20.120 |
to share with you a little bit more, hopefully a bit more personally, in the next couple 00:47:42.200 |
I'm not just saying this because I'm a pastor. 00:47:46.840 |
There's a lot of things about being a pastor I still don't like today. 00:47:53.800 |
But when I became a Christian, it was never a decision, like, "Are you going to tell other 00:48:07.240 |
How do you meet the living God and the only way of salvation and believing what He has 00:48:12.960 |
done for me in the world and to struggle with, "Should I tell this to other people?" 00:48:29.160 |
And the only reason why you and I are here is because of what He has done. 00:48:35.960 |
And the only reason why I persevere is because I want you to know this, Christ. 00:48:43.840 |
There's too many people in the church, maybe even in this church, you don't know Jesus. 00:48:57.960 |
And that's why you keep struggling with the same things over and over and over. 00:49:03.500 |
That's why the world is so important to you because you don't know Jesus. 00:49:12.000 |
And you're living under a deception because you've been in the church for so long that 00:49:26.000 |
But unless we're honest with ourselves, you always appreciate Jesus. 00:49:33.780 |
You appreciate Him, but you'll never love Him because you don't know Him. 00:49:40.820 |
So my prayer for all of us, for every single person that I get to preach to every Sunday, 00:49:51.220 |
no matter how good of a job I package or not do a good job packaging, that beyond all of 00:50:13.380 |
Let's go back to the basics, to the fundamentals. 00:50:17.580 |
Whether you've been a Christian for a year or decades, because until you know this Jesus, 00:50:28.980 |
So my plea with you as I invite you to pray, if you've been living a nominal Christian 00:50:39.420 |
life, you've been lukewarm for years, you are not safe. 00:50:52.140 |
And so I pray that that passage would have spoken to you. 00:51:00.300 |
Separate yourself from the tears and know the resurrected Christ. 00:51:08.140 |
That you may be able to confess with your own mouth that he came to give me life and 00:51:27.180 |
I pray for rain and for supernatural bread that we can only drink and eat of in Christ. 00:51:37.860 |
Lord, we are so distracted by trivial things that in the end we'll perish. 00:51:50.160 |
Help us to labor for things that are eternal. 00:51:54.260 |
I pray for myself, that the hungering and thirsting for your righteousness would never 00:52:04.920 |
I pray for my brothers and sisters in the church who loves the world more than loving 00:52:11.940 |
Maybe because they have drifted, I pray that you would call them back to be anchored in 00:52:17.740 |
Christ, to be able to confess with all their hearts, Lord God, that you are all in all. 00:52:24.820 |
And maybe for those, Lord God, who have been living in deception, that because they have 00:52:31.420 |
been in church for so long, that though they do not know you, they've convinced themselves 00:52:39.260 |
I pray that the word that you give will not return until it has accomplished its purpose. 00:52:46.060 |
Lord, the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. 00:52:51.100 |
We beseech you, Lord, to send more workers into the harvest.