back to index2019-10-06 Conviction of Assurance of Salvation
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So the Women's Ministry is hosting a film-worship event, not this Saturday, but next Saturday. 00:00:11.680 |
And we are going to be watching a documentary on Corrie ten Boom. 00:00:15.840 |
And it's just such a powerful story of God's sovereignty through difficulties, risks that 00:00:25.880 |
So we're going to have time in small groups to get to discuss the film and also get to 00:00:32.600 |
So everyone's welcome, college, singles, people that are married, and it would actually be 00:00:38.440 |
a great opportunity to invite your unbelieving friends and family. 00:00:42.360 |
So the deadline is being extended until tomorrow, so please sign up. 00:00:49.560 |
Also, as an important sign up, please sign up for our all-church picnic that's taking 00:00:57.240 |
So today is the last day to sign up where we can guarantee T-shirts and different supplies 00:01:05.000 |
There's going to be a booth outside where you can sign up there or just go ahead and 00:01:09.600 |
use the link that's provided for you on your app and on the program. 00:01:12.400 |
And again, it's just $10 for the whole day, which includes the lunch, the shirt, and all 00:01:18.600 |
And we hope to come together as church sister really fellowship together that day. 00:01:22.960 |
Also on October 19th, Saturday, there is an evangelism event that's taking place. 00:01:28.040 |
And what that means is we're going to be gathering together just individuals near Huntington 00:01:32.160 |
Beach to do open air teaching and sharing of the gospel. 00:01:36.520 |
So if you'd like to participate, it's being coordinated by the family ministry, but it's 00:01:40.920 |
Please be sure to email June Yim directly and the email is there on the program for 00:01:45.920 |
Just want to highlight one more thing, which is that for our band ministry, we have a car 00:01:51.720 |
Our band ministry is our young adults ministry, and this is just an opportunity for us to 00:02:00.200 |
At this time, I'll invite Pastor Peter to come deliver the word of God. 00:02:08.280 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter six, verses nine through 12. 00:02:25.600 |
Reading out of the NASV, "But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning 00:02:29.360 |
you and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 00:02:33.640 |
For God is not unjust, so ask to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward 00:02:38.160 |
his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 00:02:42.340 |
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance 00:02:46.600 |
of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through 00:02:59.640 |
Gracious Father, we have come corporately as a body, Lord God, to join our voices, join 00:03:08.080 |
our time, our energy, Lord, to focus our attention on you and your word. 00:03:13.280 |
We pray, Father, for your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us. 00:03:22.440 |
I pray that you would change us, Father God, according to your word, that we may be more 00:03:25.800 |
than just hearers, but be doers of your word. 00:03:30.640 |
May our vision for his glory be specified, that our love for you may grow as a result. 00:03:41.680 |
All right, as you know, the previous week's passage was probably one of the harshest and 00:03:47.920 |
the most clearest rebukes to the early church. 00:03:52.400 |
And I say it's one of them because it is not the most. 00:03:56.920 |
I would say most people would argue that this is the second most clear and second strongest 00:04:03.200 |
But the greater one is actually coming in chapter 10. 00:04:10.120 |
So if you've heard last week's sermon and you were kind of bothered by it, it's like, 00:04:16.040 |
That's to get you ready for what he's about to say in chapter 10. 00:04:19.560 |
Chapter 10, some of you guys may already know, is a text where Jonathan Edwards preaches 00:04:23.600 |
this sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and it's based on the text in Hebrews 00:04:29.880 |
But the purpose of this rebuke wasn't simply to get them to question their salvation. 00:04:35.600 |
It is to make sure that the hope that they have in Christ is not based upon wishful thinking. 00:04:42.360 |
We have a tendency, if we're not careful, that we can just kind of drift along and to 00:04:48.840 |
just kind of, again, because of where we are in our generation, where Christianity is, 00:04:54.480 |
where we live, that a lot of people come into the church and stay in the church, and yet 00:05:01.600 |
they've never had a covenant relationship with Christ. 00:05:05.360 |
You know, those of you who are dating, or maybe a lot of you who've dated in the past, 00:05:10.960 |
you know, we would all say that there are certain things that are deal breakers. 00:05:16.920 |
If you go on a first date and they show up with sweatpants, that's a deal breaker. 00:05:22.640 |
They're not taking this seriously, or they wore slippers, or maybe he went out to eat, 00:05:25.720 |
and if your lady, saying if he's unwilling to pay for the check, maybe that's a deal 00:05:31.840 |
So, there are certain things that you say, you know, he doesn't have a sense of humor, 00:05:38.440 |
You would look at that and say, these are deal breakers. 00:05:42.280 |
But you can't bring in the deal breakers into a covenant relationship. 00:05:47.720 |
You can't say, you know what, I'm married to my wife or husband, but here's my deal 00:05:51.720 |
She burns my food too many times, or you know what I mean, or isn't sensitive to me, you 00:05:59.120 |
So, covenant relationship basically means, no matter what it is, it's meant to be permanent. 00:06:04.600 |
But the challenge that we have in the church, when it is mixed with wheat and the tares, 00:06:11.080 |
is that people enter into this covenant relationship with the same type of mentality. 00:06:21.560 |
Is there anything that can happen in your life where if this happened, or if God doesn't 00:06:26.600 |
provide this, or if I was in this kind of circumstance, or if I was tempted by this, 00:06:31.560 |
I don't know if I would persevere in my faith. 00:06:35.400 |
Is there anything that you can think of that you say, this would be really difficult in 00:06:42.840 |
Well, if you put anything in that box, if you answer that with anything, that contradicts 00:06:54.360 |
Some people have entered into the church because they were born into it. 00:06:58.280 |
Your parents were Christian, maybe your grandparents were Christian, and so you just naturally 00:07:03.720 |
So, if you happened to be born in a Buddhist family, you probably would have gone to the 00:07:07.760 |
If you were born in an atheist family, maybe you would have been an atheist. 00:07:11.040 |
So naturally, because you were born in a Christian home, you were raised in the church, the easiest 00:07:15.220 |
path for you to go was to continue in your faith. 00:07:19.640 |
Even though the scripture says, broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow is the 00:07:22.860 |
way that leads to eternal life, and very few would be found on it, but for you, the easiest 00:07:28.880 |
path for you was to just continue down the path that you were on. 00:07:32.560 |
So being in the church for those people was the easy path. 00:07:39.840 |
And many are on that, not because they are genuinely following Christ, but because that 00:07:45.720 |
Some have come to Christ because they were desperate at some point. 00:07:48.320 |
There was some tragedy that happened, maybe you were sick and you cried out to God and 00:07:51.920 |
you felt like God was there, or there were some Christians that came into your life that 00:07:57.760 |
I'm really so thankful for these Christians." 00:08:00.000 |
And so in desperation, you cried out to God, and for that moment, you gave your life to 00:08:05.080 |
Christ, but now the crisis is no longer there. 00:08:11.800 |
So as a result, only when you have emergency, only when you are desperate do you need Christ. 00:08:17.520 |
In every other period of your life, whether he's there or not, whether you pray or not, 00:08:21.760 |
whether you live in obedience or not, it's just not that important. 00:08:25.440 |
And so you may find yourself drifting, but because there's nothing desperate in your 00:08:29.640 |
life, you don't see an urgency to take heed of these warnings. 00:08:34.120 |
Some came to Christ because they were enamored with the church community. 00:08:39.640 |
These people, they're such good people, especially in our society where community is breaking 00:08:45.640 |
down, even the family structure, even at work. 00:08:50.200 |
Everybody's just working in their cubicles, come home, they're on their phone. 00:08:54.440 |
And so you find a community of people that you really click with, similar interests and 00:09:00.200 |
And so maybe you came into church for those reasons. 00:09:03.080 |
You were in college, you were lost, you found some campus ministry that you felt like you 00:09:06.960 |
belonged to, and then that just continued on until some of these relationships begin 00:09:12.560 |
to break down and people disappoint you, and then all of a sudden, you find yourself drifting 00:09:16.360 |
away from God because your connection to Christ was all about connection to other friends. 00:09:23.360 |
And then there's some people who came into the church just to give it a try. 00:09:29.200 |
You get to come to church filled with nice people. 00:09:31.320 |
My kids get taught good morals, VBS, and they just gave it a try. 00:09:42.320 |
And as a result of that, you'll jump through the minimum requirement that that community 00:09:47.280 |
requires, but because there's no genuine faith, it never moves beyond the minimum. 00:09:52.320 |
As long as my children are taken care of, my friendships are going well, and I feel 00:10:01.680 |
When the Bible talks about picking up your cross, it's a foreign concept. 00:10:05.480 |
It's just certain things that apostles, maybe pastors, maybe some missionaries do, and we 00:10:14.160 |
And you never think that that applies to you directly, because the application of that 00:10:19.640 |
just doesn't make sense to you, because you just wanted to give it a try. 00:10:27.600 |
What makes a church challenging in our generation is we have churches that are filled with people 00:10:33.280 |
who have just kind of come in through optimism, through family. 00:10:37.160 |
We have people who are desperate at one point, but no longer desperate today. 00:10:41.100 |
We have some people who came in because they love the friends that they're hanging out 00:10:44.360 |
with, and then just people who are just kind of sampling, tasting, hearing that, but they've 00:10:51.400 |
And so the warning that was given in chapter 6, verse 4 through 8, is to make sure that 00:11:00.200 |
That the tares, when they hear these warnings, it's irrelevant to them, because they don't 00:11:08.040 |
So whether it's promises of hope in Christ, or whether it's warning of condemnation, it 00:11:13.840 |
is not relevant to them, because it's not real. 00:11:18.160 |
So the only difference is how long is this guy's sermon going to last? 00:11:22.660 |
How much time do I need to put in to get to what I want? 00:11:26.140 |
But the actual content of the message and what it says is irrelevant to them, because 00:11:32.340 |
And those are the tares in the church, because the tares only care about the byproduct, and 00:11:42.040 |
But for those who are wheat, sometimes we get mixed in with the tares, the warning is 00:11:49.240 |
The warning is for them to take heed and make sure that we do not just simply drift into 00:11:56.340 |
That the consequence of just falling asleep is too dangerous for us not to be paying attention. 00:12:02.160 |
And so in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, Apostle Paul says the same thing to the Corinthian church. 00:12:06.960 |
Test yourself to see if you are in the faith. 00:12:10.920 |
Now when he says test yourself to see if you're in the faith, is he saying look inside and 00:12:18.400 |
It's like when you sit and close your eyes, do you believe? 00:12:30.400 |
He says test yourself to see if you are in the faith, meaning a community of believers. 00:12:35.640 |
Is your life consistent with the things that you profess? 00:12:41.120 |
Examine yourself or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you 00:12:47.200 |
The reason why he's writing to this Corinthian church is because they were beginning to act 00:12:58.960 |
And if Apostle Paul says anything that he didn't like, they didn't like, they would 00:13:05.720 |
Even though he was speaking directly the words of Christ. 00:13:09.840 |
And so the warning is given in order for the drifting church to pay attention and to be 00:13:18.320 |
And you could clearly see that, that that was his intent. 00:13:23.240 |
His intent was to make sure that their assurance of salvation is founded upon truth and not 00:13:29.680 |
wishful thinking, not false narratives that our generation has created. 00:13:37.680 |
That as long as my faith is better, as long as I'm acting as soon as, as long as I'm not 00:13:41.320 |
doing these bad things, but is it founded upon truth? 00:13:44.840 |
In Hebrews chapter 6, 9, Paul, or I say Paul because I think it's Paul who wrote it, but 00:13:50.600 |
the author of the book of Hebrews, right, makes what it seems like a U-turn. 00:13:58.200 |
Because if you look at verse 8, it ends by saying, "But after everything has been given 00:14:02.680 |
to you, if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, 00:14:13.160 |
If a tree does not bear any fruit, the axe is being laid to be cut down and to be burned. 00:14:18.540 |
And basically he's saying the condemnation is waiting. 00:14:21.160 |
In other words, if there is, if your faith is not real, right? 00:14:26.260 |
So he ends this very difficult passage to the church with a stark warning that if your 00:14:37.100 |
And if you recognize there's no fruit, right, there is no salvation. 00:14:43.880 |
But then after he says that in verse 9, "But, beloved, we are convinced of better things 00:14:50.680 |
It almost sounds like he's doing a U-turn, right? 00:14:54.060 |
After saying like, "You don't bear any fruit, there's only thorns and thistles, you're going 00:14:58.360 |
to be burned up and judged, but of you particularly, we are confident that this is not you." 00:15:07.640 |
And the things that accompany salvation, things we are speaking in this way, that we have 00:15:14.920 |
Now, he describes this more in detail in chapter 10. 00:15:19.120 |
How they were being persecuted and how their other Christians were being dragged into jail 00:15:27.240 |
And so he says, "At one point in your walk with God, there was genuine evidence. 00:15:34.120 |
There was genuine evidence of your faith in the way that you walk." 00:15:38.440 |
So the point of what he's trying to say is, "I've seen some of this." 00:15:44.000 |
And so the reason why I'm telling you all of this is so that you would recognize that 00:15:51.720 |
And so when you recognize that you really are in the faith, that you would begin to 00:15:55.200 |
catch yourself from drifting and be anchored back to Christ. 00:16:02.280 |
But again, the point of this is so that their assurance may be founded upon truth and not 00:16:10.520 |
Again, in 1 John 5, 13, John does the exact same thing. 00:16:14.040 |
He spends all four and a half, five chapters telling the recipients of that letter that 00:16:19.440 |
if you say that you have fellowship with God and you live in darkness, you fool yourself. 00:16:29.960 |
I don't care how many things that you've experienced. 00:16:32.000 |
I don't care how much money you paid to the church. 00:16:37.200 |
If you are living in darkness, you have no fellowship with God because God is light and 00:16:44.460 |
And so he spends four chapters basically just like a surgeon going in and he's dividing 00:16:53.020 |
But at the end conclusion of that, he says, "These things I have written to you who believe 00:16:57.400 |
in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." 00:17:00.600 |
In other words, if you find yourself, if you genuinely have this faith, this is what genuine 00:17:08.960 |
faith, these are the fruits of genuine faith. 00:17:16.520 |
And so for those of you who genuinely have this faith so that you may be certain that 00:17:22.360 |
So the point of this is not to get them to question their salvation, but to be assured 00:17:30.600 |
And that's why he begins to turn his table, "Now that I've said everything that I've said 00:17:35.000 |
to you, I want you to leave with this assurance." 00:17:40.000 |
But again, this assurance is based upon something concrete. 00:17:44.240 |
And he mentions three things here in this passage. 00:17:49.800 |
They've already shown the greatest evidence of salvation is in the way that they practice 00:17:55.880 |
Secondly, he says, he encourages them, he challenges them that because you've had that, 00:18:04.500 |
Not only did you have this evidence, but that you need to persevere in this evidence of 00:18:10.180 |
And then he finishes it with a third evidence, which is faith. 00:18:14.040 |
Where he tells them, "Now you have this evidence of love. 00:18:21.060 |
And then third, you need to look upon the people who have faith that have gone before 00:18:24.560 |
you and to practice the faith that they practice so that you may endure to the end." 00:18:30.160 |
So love, hope, and faith are the three things that he says are the evidence of genuine salvation. 00:18:38.320 |
So let's look at the first one that he says, love. 00:18:42.440 |
Love is the first evidence that he mentions in Hebrews 6.10. 00:18:45.120 |
"For God is not unjust, so as to forget your works and the love which you have shown toward 00:18:50.120 |
his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints." 00:18:54.400 |
You notice here that the first thing that he mentions here is love, but love for who? 00:19:14.520 |
And so love for God overflows to the love for the brothers. 00:19:18.520 |
But here he mentions, he says, "The first evidence of someone being genuinely saved." 00:19:23.800 |
His covenant relationship with God is that that love that God showed him is evidence 00:19:29.680 |
in the way that he interacts with other people. 00:19:32.800 |
And that's why if you look at Jesus restoring Peter, after he denies him three times, before 00:19:39.280 |
he ascends, remember he asked Peter, "Peter, do you genuinely love me?" 00:19:47.040 |
And when he confirms that love, what does Jesus say to him? 00:20:20.800 |
You know, you can love people without loving God. 00:20:29.440 |
Because everybody, as far as I know, practices some kind of love. 00:20:37.720 |
You don't have to be a Christian to love your children. 00:20:40.000 |
Husband loves their wives, and wives love their husbands. 00:20:41.600 |
You don't have to be a Christian to love your wives and husbands. 00:20:44.940 |
You can love your friends, your brothers, co-workers. 00:20:48.200 |
You can practice all those kinds of love without being a Christian. 00:20:53.560 |
The love that Jesus is referring to is a covenant love, agape love, where he calls us to practice 00:21:01.780 |
And he said, "If you love one another as I have loved you, then the world will know that 00:21:09.380 |
But the love that he is referring to as a standard is his love toward us. 00:21:13.960 |
And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 00:21:16.700 |
Loving people that are difficult to love, loving people that you would not naturally 00:21:26.200 |
To turn the other cheek, to love people that are our enemies, that we consider enemies, 00:21:33.560 |
And that's why he says, "The evidence that you've been loved by an alien love, that is 00:21:40.040 |
not something that you experienced with your mom or dad. 00:21:42.440 |
You didn't experience that with your friends because they loved you because you were their 00:21:49.240 |
They loved you because you were their friends. 00:21:51.740 |
But this agape love from God toward us is an alien love. 00:21:56.200 |
And so the evidence that this alien love, that you are a recipient of this alien love, 00:22:06.040 |
That's why he says in 1 John 4, 19, "We love because he first loved us." 00:22:12.720 |
You can practice store gate love, family love. 00:22:14.840 |
You can practice heiress love, romantic love. 00:22:18.040 |
You can practice filial love, friendship love. 00:22:21.720 |
But you cannot practice agape love until you've been loved by Christ in that way. 00:22:28.040 |
And that's why he says that's the greatest evidence. 00:22:31.340 |
I think many of you saw this week, if you haven't, I don't know where you've been, the 00:22:36.960 |
video of this young man who's 18 years old, whose older brother was shot by a police officer. 00:22:46.240 |
His name is Brant Jean, and his older brother, Botham Jeans, is the older man, his older 00:22:51.160 |
brother who got shot by this off-duty police officer who was living in the same apartment 00:22:56.920 |
She lived in the fourth floor, and she got off the wrong floor in the elevator, and she 00:23:00.880 |
went into her apartment, or she thought, on the third floor, and just door happened to 00:23:07.240 |
There was a tall, young black man, and she got threatened. 00:23:10.860 |
She pulled out her gun and shot him to death. 00:23:13.840 |
And so the trial went out, and she was indicted as guilty of second-degree murder. 00:23:24.800 |
Now, after the sentencing, the tradition is they would give one of the family members 00:23:30.280 |
an opportunity to speak out, and basically, usually in those scenes, one of the family 00:23:35.440 |
members, a mother, father, or brother would go on the stand and basically rebuke the killer 00:23:41.080 |
"You took my brother's life, and so now I'm glad that they're taking your life." 00:23:45.920 |
And in fact, the Bible has a very detailed description of this particular scene, and 00:23:52.320 |
the whole reason why the cities of refuge were built. 00:23:55.920 |
If somebody kills somebody by accident, the closest relative who is assigned to take vengeance 00:24:03.540 |
upon the perpetrator is called the avenger of blood. 00:24:09.840 |
That's the actual name for that person, because they know that in order for that person's 00:24:14.280 |
blood to be satisfied, the avenger of blood would come after them. 00:24:18.080 |
But if it was an accident, the perpetrator would be given an opportunity to run to the 00:24:23.560 |
city of refuge, and the cities of refuge, the mayor or the ruler of the six cities of 00:24:30.600 |
refuge that was built in Israel, was basically run by the high priest. 00:24:35.040 |
So under the protection of the high priest, that person, after hearing their story and 00:24:39.280 |
what is deemed to be an accident, they're brought in to protect them from the avenger 00:24:46.800 |
This young man, 18-year-old, according to scripture, would have been that person, would 00:24:50.520 |
have been the avenger of blood, and would have been rightfully been in a position to 00:25:01.500 |
They will come and say, "You took my brother. 00:25:05.200 |
I hope you rot in hell that they never bring you out of jail." 00:25:10.220 |
But instead, he got on the stand, and he began to share the love of Christ. 00:25:20.840 |
And if you're genuinely asking for forgiveness, our God will forgive you. 00:25:25.360 |
And if after all of this, if you would just give your life to Christ." 00:25:29.120 |
And then after that, he asked if he can hug her, and he came off the stand and did something 00:25:46.240 |
Not simply because of this young man, but because of the picture. 00:25:50.480 |
And I think his witness was so much more powerful than any sermon that I can possibly give. 00:25:58.160 |
Because we saw a living illustration of the power of the love of Christ. 00:26:03.520 |
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.14, the love of Christ controls us. 00:26:07.520 |
In the NIV, it says, "It compels us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore 00:26:14.720 |
What that young man did is not something that you and I can muster up. 00:26:19.800 |
It's not something that he had special blood in him. 00:26:22.800 |
There's something different about that young man's genetics that is more forgiving than 00:26:30.380 |
Only a person who has been deeply affected by the love of Christ, agape love of Christ, 00:26:34.720 |
can overflow to share that love to other people. 00:26:37.720 |
And that's why Jesus says, "The greatest mark of a Christian is the practice of the love 00:26:46.120 |
So that young man was compelled by the love of Christ to love that individual. 00:26:52.920 |
First John 3.14 says, "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love 00:27:03.480 |
That after he did that and hugged, afterwards, the judge came off of where she was and in 00:27:12.760 |
tears, there's a picture of the judge and the officer who was about to go to jail hugging, 00:27:19.900 |
She walked into her private chambers, grabbed her Bible and gave it to her. 00:27:23.520 |
And as she was giving it to the officer going to jail, the judge said, "Ma'am, it's not 00:27:37.140 |
Because of that young man's love and demonstrating that agape love for somebody that he had every 00:27:43.080 |
right to take vengeance, that judge had the courage to be able to do what she did. 00:27:52.680 |
And I bet that I'm not the only one talking about that event today. 00:27:57.720 |
I'll bet all throughout the Christian world that what that young man did was being talked 00:28:09.280 |
It wasn't just some theory that we talk about on Sunday. 00:28:12.540 |
We saw a live example of what the love of Christ does to people. 00:28:17.400 |
And so that's why he says, "Even though I say all of these things, I am convinced that 00:28:24.600 |
that's not you because I saw your love in the beginning. 00:28:34.480 |
In fact, one of the most powerful witnesses of the early church was love. 00:28:40.720 |
It wasn't the courage, "I'm going to die for Jesus. 00:28:44.600 |
It wasn't because well-educated high officials came to Christ. 00:28:49.440 |
The early church was made up of people who at one point were enemies. 00:28:54.200 |
Jews and Gentiles sitting together worshiping God. 00:28:57.280 |
You had runaway slaves who could have been executed for running away, sitting with their 00:29:01.680 |
former masters, calling each other brothers and sisters. 00:29:05.240 |
We had Pharisees sitting and listening and being taught by a tax collector that they 00:29:11.900 |
So no matter how much the sociologists and historians try to explain away the beginning 00:29:17.500 |
of Christianity, the church just doesn't make sense. 00:29:22.400 |
So that's why they believe even the people who are antagonistic to the Christian faith, 00:29:29.420 |
They refuse to acknowledge the resurrection of Christ, but they can't explain the early 00:29:36.020 |
So their explanation is they must have believed, but they must have been deceived that Jesus 00:29:40.780 |
didn't really resurrect, that he swooned and he fainted for a while, was a mass hypnotist, 00:29:45.820 |
he had a twin brother, because that's the closest that they can explain why these enemies 00:29:51.040 |
all of a sudden came into the same church and started calling each other brothers and 00:29:58.020 |
He says that the first evidence, the reason why he has confidence is because he says, 00:30:06.140 |
It's not just love, but the second point that he's trying to get to is for them to continue 00:30:11.420 |
In Hebrews chapter 11, chapter 6, 11, "And we desire that each one of you show the same 00:30:15.660 |
diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end." 00:30:20.660 |
What you had in the beginning that you don't just rely on and say, "You know what? 00:30:26.100 |
So many Christians live the rest of their lives on what they experienced when they were 00:30:45.460 |
And we have all kinds of excuses, and everything that we talked about is what it was like in 00:30:52.420 |
But every intent and purposes, we have drifted. 00:30:59.500 |
We're no longer practicing the things that we profess to believe. 00:31:03.440 |
So he says, "In hope, persevering in hope to show the same diligence as first." 00:31:09.440 |
That's why he says to the church of Ephesus, "You have all these great things, but you 00:31:16.320 |
Remember the height from which you had fallen. 00:31:23.300 |
Remember the height from which you had fallen, and then repent." 00:31:27.440 |
Repentance basically is to acknowledge where we are is not where we should be. 00:31:37.480 |
What you and I experience in Christianity here is not normal. 00:31:41.460 |
If somebody who wasn't a Christian, who wasn't raised in the church, read the Bible and saw 00:31:46.020 |
the church, would they recognize this as the same thing? 00:31:50.460 |
We think what's happening in India, what's happening in North Korea, what's happening 00:31:55.820 |
But that's normal because that's what's described in the Scripture. 00:32:02.700 |
So remember the height from which we had fallen, and then repent, recognize that this is not 00:32:11.120 |
And then redo the things that we did at first. 00:32:12.900 |
And that's exactly what he is saying here, to show the same diligence, realizing the 00:32:19.900 |
In other words, that you have to have this assurance. 00:32:26.940 |
In chapter 10, verse 36, "For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the 00:32:31.380 |
will of God, you may receive what was promised." 00:32:35.100 |
And that's why he's writing this, to persevere. 00:32:38.580 |
Don't just start well, you need to finish well. 00:32:42.100 |
I remember, there's a lot of things that my dad said that I heard, but I didn't really 00:32:50.700 |
Because he was a pastor, so he knew the path that I was heading into better than anybody 00:32:54.860 |
else in my life, because he knew me, and he was my dad. 00:33:01.660 |
I got saved at a parachurch, happened to be a lot more charismatic, and so I couldn't 00:33:12.700 |
I grew up in a Presbyterian church, and they sang hymns and liturgical, and my dad would 00:33:16.780 |
wear robes when he would preach, and it all sounded kind of legalistic to me. 00:33:22.300 |
The older I get, the more I remember things that he said, sometimes in passing. 00:33:27.300 |
And I remember one of the things that he said to me that stuck with me, even though I didn't 00:33:30.340 |
hear it, he told me, and I said, "Oh, okay, okay, okay." 00:33:34.860 |
And one of the things that I remember him telling me was, "It's more important how you 00:33:42.740 |
You probably heard it many times before, too. 00:33:45.780 |
And I heard it like that, "It's more important how you finish than how you start." 00:33:50.260 |
Of course it's more important how you finish than how you start. 00:33:53.460 |
But the longer I live, the more that begins to weigh, is weightiness. 00:34:00.340 |
Because it's easy to start, but it's much harder to finish. 00:34:05.420 |
It's easy to get excited about things in the beginning, in the marriage, even in church 00:34:13.940 |
We're planting a church, we're organizing things, we're doing things, but after about 00:34:17.260 |
five years, ten years, you're not church planting anymore. 00:34:23.940 |
It's passionate when you're in college, when you have the whole life ahead of you, but 00:34:27.300 |
now that you're with children and you're tied up and you got a job and you got a schedule, 00:34:31.540 |
you got to wake up, no matter how passionate you are, on Sunday you still have to wake 00:34:37.860 |
It's more important how you finish than how you start. 00:34:49.540 |
Hebrews chapter 12, "To fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for 00:34:54.220 |
the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the 00:35:08.860 |
Because there was hope of joy on the other side. 00:35:12.580 |
The reason why we persevere through what we persevere is because the hope that we have 00:35:21.420 |
In fact, loving people that are hard to love, I mean, it forces you to be sanctified. 00:35:36.040 |
And so he says to persevere in hope, you have love, but you need to continue in hope. 00:35:42.020 |
Galatians 6, 7, "Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if 00:35:49.660 |
Paul writes to the second Timothy, chapter 4, verse 8, and he's sitting in prison writing 00:35:55.820 |
that letter too, just like many of us are studying through and some of you guys are 00:36:02.300 |
He's sitting in prison and in Philippians, the first time he's in jail, he's writing 00:36:06.980 |
this letter of joy in the midst of suffering. 00:36:11.580 |
I've learned the secret of being content in every and all situation. 00:36:14.740 |
He's the one sitting in prison, chained to a Roman guard, encouraging the people sitting 00:36:24.580 |
But by the time he writes second Timothy, there's a different tone because even in the 00:36:32.900 |
After only about 10 years, 10 to 12 years since Philippians and second Timothy is 00:36:38.660 |
being written, after second Timothy, he doesn't come out, he gets beheaded, and that's the 00:36:45.900 |
And in this last letter, we can see that the fatigue has come into the church and many 00:36:51.820 |
of the prominent leaders, we're not talking about churchgoers, prominent leaders were 00:37:00.100 |
Second Timothy 4a, "For Demas, having loved the present world, has deserted me and gone 00:37:07.860 |
Trescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia." 00:37:12.220 |
Now there's a debate as to whether Titus is one of the people he's mentioning that's 00:37:17.660 |
And most commentaries are unwilling to say that Titus backslid because Titus is such 00:37:25.580 |
But there is no good argument that I've seen in the commentaries that maybe Titus also 00:37:33.840 |
But what we do know is that the early church leaders, many of these prominent men who are 00:37:39.020 |
risking their lives sharing the gospel in the beginning of Paul's ministry, by the time 00:37:43.260 |
Paul's sitting in prison, is abandoning their faith and going back home. 00:37:48.160 |
And so by the time he writes Second Timothy, the tone is very different than Philippians. 00:37:56.720 |
Main theme in Second Timothy is, "Timothy, don't let this happen to you." 00:38:04.440 |
That's the last thing that he says before he dies. 00:38:17.120 |
Can you imagine how disappointed he must have been that after everything? 00:38:22.960 |
We typically think, you know, we put the hard work in the beginning and glory and then we 00:38:35.080 |
I mean, we have his letter, so now we talk about all of his ministry. 00:38:38.760 |
But if you were sitting where he was, he was probably very discouraged. 00:38:45.280 |
People were going and saying, "Timothy, don't let this happen to you." 00:38:49.720 |
According to church history, Church of Ephesus is where Paul spent the most time. 00:38:54.400 |
He had the most affection probably for this church because he had connection. 00:38:58.880 |
Even before he went to prison in Rome, he spent all night talking with the elders of 00:39:02.880 |
Ephesus, warning them about false teachers that are coming. 00:39:05.760 |
The very last letter that he writes to Timothy is to prepare him to go back to Ephesus to 00:39:13.480 |
But according to church history, Church of Ephesus actually falls. 00:39:17.200 |
The Judaizers come in, they overtake this church, and they actually disappear early 00:39:35.280 |
Not only do we have love, but this love must continue based upon this hope. 00:39:42.200 |
If you're driving, I'm assuming most of you are driving, right? 00:39:48.840 |
If you catch yourself falling asleep, at what point would you pull over? 00:39:53.840 |
And some of you guys, you're like, "No, I'm going to fight this." 00:39:59.440 |
Some of you guys who are younger, and you don't really realize how dangerous that is. 00:40:07.960 |
Because all you need to do is fall asleep one time. 00:40:13.560 |
If you actually fall asleep one time, it could mean death. 00:40:18.720 |
Your car could just flip over, it could go to the side, you could crash into somebody. 00:40:23.800 |
This is not something that you want to mess around with. 00:40:25.960 |
I've fallen asleep enough when I was young, I don't mess with that. 00:40:30.360 |
Drinking Coke and talking to myself doesn't work. 00:40:36.120 |
I just pull over, even if it's a five-minute nap, I'll take a nap when I recalibrate my 00:40:43.900 |
And every year of my life, that distance that I can travel without falling asleep is shortening. 00:40:49.520 |
If I go to LA, I know at some point I might have to pull over. 00:40:55.000 |
But you can't, because if you fall asleep, you're going to die. 00:40:59.720 |
You're not going to get a flat tire, you're not going to get a ticket, you're going to 00:41:02.680 |
See, he's talking to people who at one point were passionate for God, but they've been 00:41:10.640 |
drifting back, and they're not denying Christ, they just wanted to stay somewhere between 00:41:16.800 |
So they wouldn't be persecuted by their people, nor do they want to reject Christ. 00:41:24.040 |
And so the author is saying, "You can't do that. 00:41:27.840 |
Either you are with Christ-gathering, or you are against Christ-gathering. 00:41:35.920 |
1 John 3, 2-3, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what 00:41:43.520 |
But know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as 00:41:48.840 |
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure." 00:41:53.840 |
Third and finally, "Faith in Christ," Hebrews 6-12, "so that you will not be sluggish, but 00:42:02.600 |
imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." 00:42:09.160 |
Through faith and patience inherit the promises. 00:42:14.280 |
If you know Hebrews chapter 11, we call that the chapter of what? 00:42:23.160 |
You know, if there's one chapter that I believe as a whole that is misapplied in all of the 00:42:35.440 |
Because typically I hear people quoting Hebrews chapter 11 saying, "It's by faith, not by 00:42:43.840 |
But you know, if you see it in the context of the point of chapter 11 is, for 10 chapters 00:42:51.360 |
the author is arguing, you claim to have faith, but you keep drifting back to your old life. 00:42:59.320 |
If you have genuine faith, anchor yourself to Christ. 00:43:03.560 |
And then chapter 11, he says, "By faith Abel did this. 00:43:15.120 |
So basically what he's saying is, true faith is the foundation upon the courage that they 00:43:22.640 |
The reason why they were able to abandon all of this past is because they believed in God 00:43:30.400 |
Even though they wandered in the desert and they died and they never entered into the 00:43:33.720 |
physical promised land, they believed that there was a spiritual promised land that was 00:43:39.680 |
If they were looking for rest, they could have just easily have gone home, but it is 00:43:43.040 |
because of this faith that caused them to live in courage. 00:43:46.920 |
So the way that a lot of people quote chapter 11 is completely the opposite of the meaning 00:43:54.160 |
Chapter 11 is to challenge the wheat that have been drifting to make sure that your 00:44:05.360 |
That's exactly what it says in John chapter 15, 4-5. 00:44:09.080 |
As Jesus is leaving the disciples, he says, "Abide in me and I in you, as a branch cannot 00:44:14.800 |
bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. 00:44:21.820 |
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." 00:44:29.040 |
The word abide here is just another word for anchor. 00:44:35.480 |
The word abide here is another word that Hebrews uses for anchor. 00:44:40.200 |
If you're not anchored in Christ, you cannot bear fruit. 00:44:44.640 |
It doesn't matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter how much experience you have, it doesn't 00:44:49.400 |
matter your past experiences, your giftedness, it doesn't matter how much money you can give. 00:45:01.200 |
This word abide is not just a word that we should just kind of pass by, because in the 00:45:09.120 |
New Testament, there are certain words that you can't translate with one word. 00:45:16.520 |
I love my pet, I love my children, I love boba, I love soccer, I love driving, I love 00:45:26.440 |
So it's important that we understand the specific nuance of this word in the New Testament. 00:45:34.880 |
Well this word abide, basically what Christ is saying is your whole Christian life is 00:45:40.620 |
contingent upon this word abide, because if you don't abide, you can't bear fruit. 00:45:45.640 |
So if you're not abiding, you can evangelize, you will not bear fruit. 00:45:52.740 |
You can work hard and give, you cannot bear fruit. 00:45:55.120 |
You can be trained in seminary, you cannot bear fruit. 00:45:57.460 |
You can have a PhD in theology, you cannot bear fruit. 00:46:01.120 |
You can be the smartest guy, most talented guy, you cannot bear fruit. 00:46:05.160 |
And bearing fruit isn't just talking about sanctification. 00:46:09.680 |
He says if you do not bear fruit, what happens? 00:46:11.680 |
Axe is laid on the ground, chopped to be burned. 00:46:14.080 |
In other words, there is no salvation without abiding. 00:46:17.880 |
So abiding is the key that links us to justification, sanctification, and glorification. 00:46:29.840 |
That's why the word in Greek, "meno," in your different translations is translated differently. 00:46:43.120 |
And it uses different word because all of those words, the meaning is contained in that one word. 00:46:52.800 |
It has to be understood comprehensively because it's a very important word. 00:46:56.960 |
So let me just summarize the meaning of this word because the word anchor here in Hebrews 00:47:06.300 |
Like if you're not anchored in Christ, you may lead to apostasy. 00:47:14.680 |
So this word, "meno," let me summarize in three ways. 00:47:30.840 |
And that's exactly what the author of Hebrews has been trying to convey to them. 00:47:36.040 |
Hebrews chapter 2, 1, "Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have 00:47:49.880 |
Our rest is not founded upon our works but upon the completed work of Christ. 00:47:54.520 |
Hebrews 4, 1, "Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us 00:47:58.320 |
fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it." 00:48:06.080 |
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive 00:48:10.440 |
mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 00:48:22.600 |
Not that I'm going anywhere, but I'm taking a break. 00:48:27.440 |
And I've been thinking about, you know, if next Sunday was my last sermon that I ever 00:48:35.400 |
Don't get me wrong, that's not the intention, right? 00:48:40.080 |
But you know, as a preacher, we get taught that all the time from previous generation 00:48:45.440 |
and generation that's gone before us, you know, preach every sermon like it's your last 00:48:50.080 |
It sounds good on paper, but it's hard to do because I got to come back next week. 00:48:55.000 |
You know, if I pour my heart out today, what am I going to do? 00:49:00.840 |
But since I'm going to be taking a break for a while, I've been thinking like, "What would 00:49:04.520 |
I want to convey to the church if it was my last sermon?" 00:49:15.680 |
But to be honest, I don't know if it would be any different than what he's saying here. 00:49:21.880 |
I don't know if it's any different because our primary problem in where you and I are 00:49:32.380 |
We don't have the government knocking down the door, you know, scaring us with guns and 00:49:40.600 |
Our children are in nice air-conditioned rooms with being fed donuts with people that love 00:50:02.280 |
And so, when the Bible tells us that we're in spiritual warfare, the spiritual warfare 00:50:08.240 |
that you and I are in is realizing that we're in spiritual warfare, that we can just drift 00:50:16.640 |
because we were raised in the church and at one point we made a commitment and because 00:50:22.960 |
my friends are all here and because out of habit and just drift like this until the day 00:50:29.520 |
we die and then the reality hits us when we meet Christ. 00:50:37.120 |
So when I pray for our church, and I've been praying this since the beginning of our church, 00:50:43.840 |
and it's the same prayer that I pray even now every day when I pray for our church, 00:50:49.920 |
that God would open our eyes, that we would see the reality of where you and I are. 00:51:00.840 |
Because the path to hell in Orange County Christianity is a luxury boat. 00:51:33.500 |
Every time I go out of the country, I come back. 00:51:41.400 |
And it's not an oppression of fighting and darkness. 00:51:49.560 |
People who are drifting and not realizing the danger that they're in. 00:51:56.360 |
My prayer is that we would gear up for the next stage of our church. 00:52:06.560 |
You and I have been given more opportunities and more access to God than any Christian 00:52:13.840 |
could have possibly imagined in their wildest dreams. 00:52:18.040 |
To wake up in the middle of the night and hear the best sermons online. 00:52:24.960 |
I mean, there were periods in church history where just by translating into our language, 00:52:31.480 |
Now we're wrestling with which version of this translation that we should be using. 00:52:39.760 |
The problem that we have is people not being interested in the Bible. 00:52:45.320 |
Where all throughout history, the greatest problem was access to the Bible. 00:52:50.080 |
Now we have this access, unthinkable access to the Bible, and we're not interested. 00:52:57.920 |
But can you imagine with all the resources that God has given you and me, our youth, 00:53:05.440 |
our finances, just the fact that you speak English, you can travel the world and communicate 00:53:12.160 |
with more than half the world just because you speak English. 00:53:15.720 |
And if you speak Chinese on top of English, that's another 30% to add to that. 00:53:22.120 |
So 70% of the world will speak either Mandarin or English. 00:53:36.320 |
But the privilege that we have, U.S. citizenship, because of our passport, the access that we 00:53:41.920 |
have to majority of the world that we can get into. 00:53:47.600 |
Our problem in our generation is not access, is not finance, is not talent, is not opportunity, 00:53:57.520 |
is not training, because we have more of that than any Christian human being has ever had 00:54:05.960 |
in history, every single one of us in this room. 00:54:14.280 |
We're so distracted with trivial things in our lives that there is no room for God. 00:54:22.280 |
We say we do on Sunday, but when you have a bucket and 95% of that is filled with things 00:54:29.340 |
that don't matter in eternity and we bring a tiny little cup to God on Sunday and wondering 00:54:35.080 |
why we're not overflowing in his spirit, that's our greatest challenge. 00:54:42.560 |
So my prayer is, the purpose of the sabbatical is so that I can gear up for that for the 00:54:51.800 |
My hope is that we would do the same, that God has given us resources that we've never 00:54:59.380 |
We have people that are coming, people who are already here, and to really be good stewards 00:55:11.100 |
Every hardship that you've experienced as a Christian is a tool that God sanctified 00:55:18.540 |
you, that God can use for whatever else that he has in store. 00:55:24.740 |
Whatever training you've gotten, whatever sermons you've heard, whatever mission work 00:55:28.320 |
you've had, whatever paycheck that you're getting, if you're in health, whatever situation 00:55:33.460 |
that you're in, every single one of those things, if we can imagine if we can mobilize 00:55:38.380 |
all of that and then if God gives us a heart for the world, what we can do. 00:55:49.840 |
Hopefully that we can restore that and gear up for the next stage of our church. 00:55:55.780 |
And my prayer is that every single one of us in this room would experience what it feels 00:56:04.780 |
like to be a non-Christian who doesn't know Christ, who doesn't have hope, that you would 00:56:13.380 |
remember what it was like before you met Christ, so that you can live your life as an ambassador 00:56:24.060 |
We have someone who's interceding for us for eternity. 00:56:29.740 |
So we need to intercede for those who do not have Christ. 00:56:40.120 |
So let's stop making excuses of our busyness, of our tiredness, of our hurt, whatever situation 00:56:54.100 |
Let's take some time to take a step back, mobilize ourselves, encourage, consider how 00:57:02.020 |
to stimulate one another toward loving good deeds, and let's make an impact in our generation. 00:57:09.580 |
And my hope and prayer is that we can bring as many people to Christ before our generation 00:58:06.300 |
Let your glory be so evident in us and through us and around us that non-Christian family 00:58:17.100 |
members, friends, strangers will at least know that we believe in this hope in Jesus 00:58:31.660 |
I pray that for our inheritance that you would give us the lost. 00:58:53.980 |
Strengthen us, Lord God, that we may honor and glorify you with our lives. 00:59:00.100 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.