back to index2020-8-23 Call to Action
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Hebrews 10.5 - 19.5 (Verse 25) (Hebrews 10.5 - 19.5) 00:00:29.980 |
Reading out of the NASB, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy 00:00:34.080 |
place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through 00:00:38.720 |
the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 00:00:43.940 |
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 00:00:48.780 |
clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 00:00:53.740 |
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 00:00:58.340 |
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our 00:01:02.140 |
own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all 00:01:12.580 |
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness. 00:01:14.260 |
We thank You for the privilege that we have to come and draw near to the throne of grace 00:01:20.940 |
I pray that Your word would have its effect on us. 00:01:24.160 |
May it not return until it has accomplished the purpose that You have ordained. 00:01:32.180 |
You know, today, if somebody says that they're Christian, the word Christian has been diluted 00:01:39.420 |
to the point where you have to ask further questions. 00:01:46.140 |
Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? 00:01:50.940 |
And you have to clarify that because more than 70% of the United States identify with 00:01:57.840 |
So people say that they're Christian because they were born into a Christian home. 00:02:01.820 |
People say that they're Christian because they admire Jesus as a great man. 00:02:06.340 |
People will say that they're Christians simply because they're surrounded by other Christians. 00:02:12.380 |
And so for whatever the reason, the term Christian itself isn't what it used to be. 00:02:18.260 |
So you have to figure out, like, what specifically do they believe? 00:02:21.320 |
And we find out that, you know, the majority of people who claim to be Christians are not 00:02:25.080 |
biblical Christians, meaning the way that the Bible describes what a Christian is. 00:02:31.900 |
When the term Christian was first given to Christians, it was to identify clearly those 00:02:39.780 |
And the word Christian literally just meant those, the little Christ. 00:02:44.340 |
And so it was identifying people who are followers of Jesus. 00:02:47.300 |
Now prior to that, obviously you had people who said that they were Jews and they were, 00:02:57.580 |
And so they had all these different distinctions of people who are theists, right? 00:03:01.420 |
Now, well, you believe in many gods and I worship this god or that god. 00:03:04.940 |
And so when they started calling Christians Christian, that term Christian identified 00:03:10.140 |
everybody, no matter what background you came from, whether you were formerly an idol worshiper, 00:03:15.620 |
whether you are a Jew and you worship the God of the Old Testament, but you had different 00:03:21.560 |
So when they say he's a Christian, it was clear identity with the death and resurrection 00:03:25.780 |
of Jesus Christ and that they were actually following him, that they were new creation. 00:03:34.680 |
So the biblical understanding of a Christian is a Christian who's made a decision to be 00:03:41.040 |
a follower of Jesus Christ, not simply an admirer, not simply somebody who says, you 00:03:47.000 |
know what, I agree with these set of doctrines. 00:03:55.820 |
And because they know who Jesus is, they shudder, they fear. 00:03:59.520 |
They fear God more than average theists in our generation because they know who he is. 00:04:06.960 |
But in the book of James, it says that just identifying and say, well, we believe, we 00:04:14.200 |
Even the demons believe that and they shudder. 00:04:16.160 |
So the biblical understanding of a Christian is someone who not only embraces the doctrine, 00:04:22.280 |
but has identified as a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:04:25.200 |
Follow meaning that you have to go where he goes, you have to do what he does, and you 00:04:32.640 |
All that the author of Hebrews has been teaching about Christology, all of it is really to 00:04:38.480 |
bring us to this point so that the readers of Hebrews would change their behavior. 00:04:45.380 |
Remember that what they were doing to cause him to drift. 00:04:48.520 |
It wasn't simply because the author of Hebrews was concerned. 00:04:51.560 |
So, you know what, they took a test and they just didn't know how to answer these questions. 00:04:56.480 |
You know, they didn't know how to answer Christology and about the identity of Jesus and how he 00:05:02.080 |
And so the point of this of the letter to Hebrews wasn't simply to get the doctrine 00:05:08.560 |
They needed to get the doctrine right so that they can change their behavior. 00:05:12.520 |
And if you read the New Testament, all of the letters are written in that format. 00:05:23.120 |
Therefore, this is how you ought to apply this. 00:05:26.400 |
So you guys, you know, we just finished the study of the book of Ephesians chapter one, 00:05:30.920 |
two, three, basically is Christology about salvation. 00:05:34.000 |
Chapter four, five, six was the application of that, right? 00:05:38.800 |
We finished a while back, chapter one through eleven is about soteriology, about, you know, 00:05:45.160 |
And then chapter twelve and on is the application of that, right? 00:05:49.400 |
And so book of Hebrews has heavily emphasized and in between it would give us these, these 00:05:58.000 |
But we're at a, we're at a point where he's beginning to move away and maybe at the end 00:06:03.440 |
And then we're going to get into chapter eleven as examples of people who are living by faith. 00:06:07.640 |
And then chapter twelve and on, he's going to, he's going to just heavily emphasize what 00:06:12.640 |
So we can say that this section, the text that we're looking at now, is the beginning 00:06:19.040 |
Is the beginning part of introduction to the imperative. 00:06:21.720 |
Now that you have all the doctrines of Jesus, superiority of Christ, what does that mean 00:06:32.000 |
So there are three things that he, three imperatives that you'll see. 00:06:36.520 |
So in verse twenty-two, the first imperative is, "Let us draw near with sincere hearts." 00:06:47.000 |
Our response first and foremost is to reach up. 00:06:49.440 |
Twenty-three, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope." 00:06:59.440 |
And then verse twenty-four, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another." 00:07:06.680 |
So this, these three imperatives really is the outline of every imperative in the New 00:07:16.000 |
So every preaching of the gospel leads to a challenge to reach up, reach in, and to 00:07:24.960 |
So every imperative you see in the New Testament will fall into one of these three categories. 00:07:29.720 |
Draw near to God, persevere in your faith, right? 00:07:33.640 |
And be sanctified, and then to reach out to other believers and to the world. 00:07:39.720 |
So that's the outline of the sermon for today. 00:07:42.400 |
I'm going to just get into the first two imperatives, and then the third one, the verse twenty-four 00:07:50.400 |
We're going to spend most of our time with the first imperative, and then we're going 00:07:53.840 |
to spend some time in the second one, and then again, third one, we'll get into next 00:08:01.120 |
"Therefore," he says, "since we have confidence," and again, he's reminding us, this is something 00:08:07.040 |
that he's been saying all along, "since we have confidence to enter the holy place by 00:08:11.320 |
the blood of Jesus," in other words, since now the door has been opened, where it wasn't 00:08:16.320 |
opened before, "by the new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil," 00:08:22.480 |
that is his flesh, and again, "since we have a great high priest over the house of God," 00:08:26.760 |
since all of these things that I've been saying is true, then our proper response, first and 00:08:32.280 |
most important response is, "Let us draw near." 00:08:37.640 |
Now, like I said, the first and most important response of every person who hears the gospel 00:08:48.360 |
Now how many of you have ever heard the term "inclusio"? 00:08:56.080 |
It's basically a literary form of the New Testament where it begins a thought at one 00:09:01.280 |
part of the letter, and then that thought kind of is concluded at another part of the 00:09:05.280 |
letter, and usually the inclusio could be a very short text, but sometimes it could 00:09:10.960 |
And usually the reason, how you know that that's the case is that you'll see almost 00:09:16.800 |
verbatim the same words, the same phrase, same idea that started in one text, and then 00:09:22.680 |
almost exact repeating of that happens at another text, which means the main point was 00:09:27.960 |
introduced and then they gave the argument, and then they're giving the conclusion. 00:09:33.480 |
So this text is the end part of that inclusio. 00:09:36.980 |
The first beginning part of that happened in Hebrews chapter 4, 14 to 16. 00:09:43.880 |
And let me read it for you, and it's going to sound exactly like this text, because this 00:09:49.640 |
It says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, 00:09:53.520 |
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 00:09:57.600 |
For we do not have the high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who 00:10:01.520 |
has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. 00:10:04.880 |
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive 00:10:09.020 |
mercy and find grace to help in time of need." 00:10:12.740 |
So it almost, it almost is verbatim of what he is saying in this text, and so this idea 00:10:18.360 |
is introduced to us in chapter 4, and so in other words, this is kind of like a conclusion 00:10:24.400 |
of the point that he was trying to make, and then he's going to go into the imperatives 00:10:28.440 |
and saying that this is how we ought to live. 00:10:31.880 |
So just so that you know the structure of what's going on. 00:10:35.520 |
And it helps us to understand the importance of what he is saying in this text, because 00:10:39.640 |
it is the conclusion of everything that he's been saying. 00:10:43.240 |
And the most important part of this conclusion of all his argument was to draw near. 00:10:58.960 |
In fact, that imperative to draw near is not unique to this text. 00:11:03.520 |
He repeats it over and over again in chapter 4, 16, chapter 7, 19, chapter 7, 25, chapter 00:11:09.840 |
10, verse 1, chapter 10, 22, chapter 11, verse 6, chapter 12, verse 23. 00:11:15.640 |
Over and over again, as he is teaching Christology, he will conclude, or he will begin by saying, 00:11:27.040 |
He's saying this in particular in this context because the people were drifting. 00:11:34.660 |
So every little thing that he says, every Christology he gives, he says, we need to 00:11:41.580 |
Remember, the very first things that he said to his disciples, he said to come. 00:11:47.900 |
Come to me and I will make you fishers of men. 00:11:51.480 |
When he invited the sinners, first and foremost, before he sent them out, he said to come. 00:11:57.420 |
You know, typically when we think of Jesus' ministry, we think of at the end part of it, 00:12:02.140 |
he has a great commission, he says to go, right? 00:12:08.820 |
And so we have a lot of people who are like geared up to go. 00:12:17.660 |
But remember, the very last thing that Jesus says to his disciples before he leaves in 00:12:25.820 |
The last of the seven I am statements, he says, I am the true vine. 00:12:30.580 |
And you cannot bear fruit unless you remain with me. 00:12:35.020 |
And that word remain basically means to stay. 00:12:38.420 |
That as I called you to myself, you cannot bear fruit unless you remain with me. 00:12:45.660 |
So his last imperative that he gave his disciples before he gave the commandment to go is to 00:12:50.900 |
remain, to continue to draw near to him, to be connected to him. 00:12:57.420 |
If you remember, he says, go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing 00:13:01.140 |
them in the father, son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded 00:13:19.040 |
So the most important imperative for any sinner or any believer of Christ is to continue to 00:13:30.980 |
We can act, we can perform, we can work hard, but unless we are near Christ, we cannot bear 00:13:48.940 |
I mean, it's one thing to just draw near to the throne of God, but it's just to come with 00:13:57.340 |
And he mentions that same term all over Hebrews, but again, in the beginning of Inclusio, he 00:14:08.700 |
And then chapter 10, he begins, "Therefore, since we have confidence to draw near." 00:14:13.620 |
So in both Inclusios, it says not only to draw near, but to draw near with confidence. 00:14:21.380 |
Now, since we have this confidence, that this is what we ought to do. 00:14:26.220 |
Why do you think he emphasizes to be able to come with confidence? 00:14:31.620 |
Imagine as a Jew, every part of the tabernacle in the Old Testament law, the old covenant, 00:14:40.500 |
In fact, remember when God was given the covenant at Mount Sinai, remember what he told Moses? 00:14:46.500 |
Tell these people not to come to the mountain. 00:14:49.080 |
If they come and touch even the outskirts of the mountain, they or even an animal touches 00:14:59.540 |
Every part of the tabernacle was to teach them to not to casually come in. 00:15:06.580 |
In fact, remember after he sets up the tabernacle, the very first offering wasn't given correctly, 00:15:12.040 |
and they were consumed with God's fire, with judgment. 00:15:15.980 |
So a Jew would have naturally thought, how can I possibly just enter in? 00:15:23.460 |
That's what a Jew would have asked, you know, first question would have been asked. 00:15:29.560 |
And that's why he's telling them, no, you're able to come in with confidence. 00:15:41.060 |
Even non-Christians have this confidence based upon whatever it is that they heard about 00:15:47.260 |
God, whatever it is that they heard about the gospel, for whatever the reason, confidence 00:15:56.880 |
You see rappers and movie stars and living in licentious sins, and they have no fear 00:16:08.380 |
And so their relationship with God is just so casual. 00:16:13.980 |
And they have no idea what the scripture says that in their natural state, in as much as 00:16:19.060 |
it is appointed for all men to die once, after this comes judgment, but they have no idea 00:16:25.180 |
So entering into the presence of God is just assumed in this generation. 00:16:28.900 |
And I think that's the fault of the gospel preachers. 00:16:33.020 |
There's no fear of God and the gospel was preached without any kind of warning. 00:16:39.700 |
And so we have a generation of people who don't understand the holiness of God. 00:16:45.580 |
Of course, you know, we entered the presence of God. 00:16:51.220 |
And when I die, I'm going to enter, you know, so when I, when I see Jesus and I'm going 00:16:54.220 |
to have dinner with him and I'm going to just, you know, have a conversation and, you know, 00:16:59.700 |
you know, I'm going to, I'm going to do this with him. 00:17:01.420 |
It's just so casual because our understanding of who God is, isn't coming from scripture. 00:17:09.380 |
There's a reason why their author is telling them and reminding them and encouraging, encouraging 00:17:14.860 |
these Jews that you're able to come with confidence. 00:17:19.500 |
But this confidence wasn't coming from just, just again, their experience or their background. 00:17:27.420 |
In Romans chapter 10, one through two, Paul describes a nation of Israel this way. 00:17:32.180 |
Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 00:17:36.900 |
He's talking to Paul's talking about the Jews. 00:17:39.180 |
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God. 00:17:46.300 |
And I, I'm pretty sure that Paul's describing himself here. 00:17:54.380 |
And to the point of where he was, he was willing to kill people, right? 00:17:57.780 |
And be killed, thinking that he was doing what was righteous in God's eyes. 00:18:01.980 |
He said, they have zeal like I did, but not in accordance with knowledge. 00:18:08.020 |
They had this confidence, but it wasn't correct because they had the wrong knowledge. 00:18:13.460 |
See, this confidence isn't just, just boldness, or it's not just our personality, or it's 00:18:22.100 |
He says this confidence comes from correct knowledge of who God is. 00:18:26.020 |
And that's why he starts by saying, he opened the door. 00:18:32.540 |
And so because of all of this that he has done, this knowledge gives us confidence to 00:18:40.420 |
It is lack of knowledge or lack of conviction over this knowledge that causes us to be timid. 00:18:50.940 |
Years ago, when I was 19, when I first went to school, college, I thought I was going 00:19:01.140 |
And so I had a friend who was a peer, but he was into business. 00:19:10.700 |
And his dad actually owned a plastic bag printing company. 00:19:15.320 |
So he would supply those plastic bags with the Ralph logo and Lucky's. 00:19:20.860 |
But he would have these contracts and they would print on the plastic bags. 00:19:25.300 |
So every once in a while, the dad would print something and it would be off. 00:19:34.260 |
So him and I would take these plastic bags that he couldn't give to them. 00:19:38.180 |
And we would load it up in our vans or his van. 00:19:44.820 |
And we spent a lot of time in South Central because that's where all the mom and pop shops 00:19:50.620 |
So these personally owned stores would buy it. 00:19:53.360 |
So every time we sell, we would make about five, six bucks. 00:19:59.320 |
So we would walk around from store to store and then we would try to sell some. 00:20:04.360 |
And I thought, you know, I was decent at sales. 00:20:08.600 |
But I remember walking into this one particular Mexican market. 00:20:14.940 |
But the probably size of it was probably like the size of our sanctuary. 00:20:19.060 |
We went in there and my friend started talking. 00:20:21.620 |
He was using his broken Spanish and he was trying to sell these plastic bags. 00:20:25.740 |
And we could tell immediately they were hostile. 00:20:30.260 |
You know, and he said, "Nah, you gotta buy this. 00:20:34.780 |
And you could tell they're getting irritated. 00:20:35.780 |
And we were probably there about 15, 20 minutes. 00:20:38.540 |
And I kept on telling my friend, "Hey, let's get out of here. 00:20:41.260 |
Well, the manager got so ticked off, he literally picked up a broom and he chased us out of 00:20:55.420 |
We spend the next few hours walking around different stores. 00:21:00.020 |
And to get back to our car, we had to pass by this store. 00:21:25.660 |
They're yelling at him, "I told you to get out. 00:21:32.580 |
And interesting enough, five minutes into it, the owner, I guess the owner opens up 00:21:39.460 |
the window from the top and he's looking down, trying to chase us down. 00:21:42.760 |
And you could tell his demeanor changes all of a sudden. 00:21:52.940 |
You know, we're gonna throw you out," to, "How much?" 00:22:01.060 |
I'm gonna make sure I'm friends with him for a long time. 00:22:04.500 |
This guy, I mean, he became a very successful businessman. 00:22:08.600 |
But he ended up unloading everything that we didn't sell that day. 00:22:12.220 |
And so because it was a big market, he bought everything that we had and we made more money 00:22:16.760 |
on that one sale than we did all day, walking up and down. 00:22:20.420 |
So I was like thoroughly impressed with this guy. 00:22:28.780 |
How did you know that this guy was going to buy it? 00:22:31.100 |
He said, "Well, I didn't know, but I've been in this store before. 00:22:46.140 |
I mean, and from his personal experience, he says, "Sometimes you could tell if they're 00:22:50.780 |
really serious or sometimes they just, you're just annoying. 00:22:56.120 |
And wanted to see like if you're really serious about this sale. 00:22:58.020 |
And so he was able to distinguish between the two. 00:23:00.540 |
And that was the difference between him and I. 00:23:11.300 |
And the difference between his boldness and my timidness was his knowledge. 00:23:19.140 |
Our confidence to enter the throne of grace is directly linked to our personal confidence 00:23:28.340 |
If our confession is simply a verbal confession, it's just, we just admire him from a distance. 00:23:42.380 |
They're constantly concerned about what other people are going to think. 00:23:45.140 |
And a lot of that is directly linked to a lack of conviction, lack of confidence that 00:23:50.980 |
He says the confidence is based upon the blood of Christ. 00:23:53.700 |
The confidence is based on the new and living way. 00:23:56.300 |
The confidence is based on the fact that we have a great high priest. 00:24:00.820 |
And our personal conviction and boldness is directly linked to having a deep personal 00:24:09.820 |
In fact, remember in Acts chapter 4, verse 13, the apostles are preaching with boldness 00:24:15.340 |
in front of the same people who crucified Jesus. 00:24:19.140 |
These are the same disciples when Jesus is going to the cross, they were in fear and 00:24:23.700 |
hiding and locked the doors and they disappeared because they were confused. 00:24:34.340 |
But now after the resurrection, they recognize who he is, that even in death, they cannot 00:24:43.100 |
And all of a sudden they're preaching the gospel with boldness. 00:24:45.980 |
And the people who are watching this and hearing this, this is what they say in observation, 00:24:53.580 |
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, again, the confidence of Peter and 00:24:58.440 |
John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began 00:25:10.620 |
Their boldness didn't come because of their education, their boldness didn't come because 00:25:16.740 |
And even the non-Christians recognized that their boldness came from being with Christ. 00:25:24.620 |
It's our approaching Christ, it's our nearness to Christ, it's our strong near to Christ 00:25:29.580 |
is what gives us conviction, what gives us confidence. 00:25:33.460 |
So the first and foremost, the most important call of any sinner is to draw near to Christ. 00:25:42.700 |
The most important call of any Christian, before you make disciples, before you go overseas, 00:25:49.620 |
before you feed the poor, before you march for justice, first and foremost thing that 00:25:54.500 |
God demands and calls us to apply is to draw near to him. 00:26:05.720 |
We are of no use, we cannot bear fruit according to scripture if we are not remaining in Christ. 00:26:11.300 |
Doesn't matter how hard you work, doesn't matter how much you give, it doesn't matter 00:26:16.300 |
what your experience is, it just doesn't matter. 00:26:21.900 |
He says we are to draw near with sincere hearts, to draw near in full assurance with the hearts 00:26:30.060 |
sprinkled and bodies washed by the blood of Christ. 00:26:33.740 |
And all of this is simply to say, without hypocrisy, not pretending, not pretending 00:26:40.500 |
on the outside and inwardly have nothing to do with Christ, that we have a reputation 00:26:45.180 |
of godliness and you have no power in your life. 00:26:49.700 |
Because all of our connection with Christ is public. 00:26:53.020 |
That all of our righteousness is for other people to see. 00:26:56.540 |
But when the cameras are not on, when people are not looking, you have no personal relationship 00:27:03.840 |
With a sincere heart, with full assurance of faith, with our hearts, inner persons and 00:27:09.620 |
our bodies, internally and externally, washed in the blood of Christ. 00:27:15.260 |
You see in Isaiah 29 verse 13, God says to the nation of Israel, "Then the Lord said, 00:27:19.820 |
Because this people draw near with their words, they honor me with their lip service, but 00:27:26.940 |
they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition 00:27:42.040 |
You see, when the Bible says and commands us to seek God with all our heart, it is not 00:27:52.060 |
If you really understand what it is that you're seeking, if you really understand who it is 00:27:56.500 |
that you're asking, either you seek him with all your heart or you're not seeking him at 00:28:02.780 |
See, in Psalm 119 verse 10, "With all my heart I have sought you, do not let me wander from 00:28:09.780 |
Jeremiah 29 verse 13, "You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your 00:28:17.740 |
When we draw near to God and seek God, we're not asking for lunch. 00:28:22.820 |
We're not asking for, you know, we have a hard relationship and can you fix that for 00:28:27.260 |
You know, like we're not asking for a better job. 00:28:30.060 |
I mean, again, not that he doesn't care about all of that stuff, but there's no urgency 00:28:34.540 |
in any of that because, you know, if you have financial issues, get a job. 00:28:44.460 |
If you have relational issues, stop being selfish. 00:28:50.540 |
There's like so many things that we can do and say, well, you know, there's things that 00:28:54.860 |
And so whenever we seek God, we seek God in things that we can do ourselves and then we 00:29:02.140 |
In the beginning and at the end and God, can you make this better? 00:29:06.260 |
But we seek God for things that only he can give us. 00:29:14.380 |
And so when we seek Christ, we seek him for life and nobody seeks God casually for life. 00:29:24.660 |
If he recognizes the urgency of his situation, the desperateness of his situation, he doesn't 00:29:30.780 |
simply ask, he doesn't simply ask for the rescuers to come and say, hey, hey, I'm drowning. 00:29:37.340 |
If you don't come in the next five minutes, I'm going to drown and die. 00:29:40.940 |
You will never see somebody who's drowning asking for help in that kind of manner because 00:29:50.800 |
So you will, if somebody is drowning, he recognizes that he will be, he will be yelling and screaming. 00:29:55.820 |
He will do anything that he needs to do to get their attention because it is life or 00:30:03.700 |
To watch your life and doctrine carefully and if you do so, you will save yourself and 00:30:13.020 |
It is not possible to seek God out and draw near to him casually. 00:30:17.500 |
If you are seeking him casually, it's because you do not recognize what it is that you are 00:30:21.660 |
asking and you do not know who it is that you're asking of. 00:30:27.060 |
By nature, drawing near to God is, requires urgency. 00:30:32.580 |
Not because God commands it, but that's the truth. 00:30:37.860 |
That's why in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15, Joshua says to the nation of Israel, if it 00:30:44.020 |
is disagreeable in your side to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you 00:30:50.100 |
Whether the gods which your father served with, which were beyond the river or the gods 00:30:56.100 |
of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but ask for me and my house, we will serve 00:31:02.740 |
See, Joshua was tired of the Israelites who are going back and forth to serving the idols 00:31:10.780 |
when it was convenient for them and then coming back to God when it was convenient for them. 00:31:16.020 |
So what Joshua is saying is you need to make up your mind. 00:31:22.420 |
See, I think one of the biggest challenges that we have in our modern day church, we 00:31:28.140 |
have churches filled with people who never made up their mind. 00:31:35.220 |
They've decided to maybe sign on the dotted line. 00:31:39.380 |
They've decided to be identified as Christian. 00:31:41.700 |
They are admirers of Christ, but they're not followers of Jesus. 00:31:51.100 |
You can admire him from a distance, identify as a Christian, stand before the throne of 00:31:56.660 |
God, and God says, "That had nothing to do with me. 00:32:03.040 |
You used me as some vending machine to help you with your sorrow because you are lonely, 00:32:08.620 |
because you were having a difficult time, because you were sick, because you were having 00:32:13.280 |
You wanted me to help you with your life, but you never surrendered your life to me. 00:32:28.300 |
Is the only relationship that you have with Jesus is a corporate relationship? 00:32:32.820 |
You know him in the context of a community, and so that gives you some sort of assurance 00:32:41.300 |
Well, that is not the Bible, the God of the Scriptures. 00:32:46.020 |
The God of the Scriptures demand that if this is what we believe, the door was not open 00:32:54.140 |
The way to the Holy of Holies was not open so that we can say, "That door is huge!" 00:33:04.100 |
So maybe sometime in the future, if I want to visit, stick my feet in, go check it around, 00:33:11.060 |
check to see, kind of like we're tourists wanting to see what it looks like, but we 00:33:24.220 |
All we are are admirers, but we're not followers of Christ. 00:33:28.820 |
See the first and most important imperative that every Christian needs to embrace and 00:33:32.960 |
decide for ourselves is, "Am I following Jesus?" 00:33:37.240 |
And again, I may sound like a broken record, the question is not, "Are you coming to church?" 00:33:41.860 |
The question is not, "Are you a member of a community church?" 00:33:48.740 |
Is Jesus, his voice, his teaching, do you believe this? 00:33:55.580 |
And let me get to the second one, and the second one is not going to be as long. 00:33:59.900 |
If that is your case, we draw near, and as we draw near, he says, "Let us hold fast the 00:34:05.740 |
He says, "Unswervingly, unbending, if this is what you believe, that we are to persevere." 00:34:10.980 |
Hebrews 2, 1, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, 00:34:28.880 |
If you're not clinging to Christ and actively drawing near to Christ, you're drifting, you 00:34:42.800 |
Get a job, wake up early, go to work, get paid, and with that money, pay your bills, 00:34:49.420 |
and with some of that money, enjoy yourselves. 00:34:52.340 |
Come to church, serve a little bit, have fellowship, attend Bible study, take a little trip, donate 00:35:01.700 |
a little money here and there, and then just casually walk along in life. 00:35:13.660 |
If we're not actively pursuing Christ, you're already drifting. 00:35:20.860 |
That's why he says to hold fast, do not bend. 00:35:25.660 |
We cannot fight for our opinion and so easily compromise with the truth. 00:35:34.460 |
You know, we're willing to march, we're willing to stand up, we're willing to protest, because 00:35:41.380 |
But when it comes to the truth of the gospel, where it's literally life and death, eternal, 00:35:53.280 |
What he's saying is, with the truth, we should be bold. 00:36:00.740 |
With truth, we should be willing to sacrifice. 00:36:12.180 |
With our opinions, we should not be fighting. 00:36:16.820 |
But with the truth, he says to hold fast, do not bend, do not compromise. 00:36:21.340 |
1 Timothy 4, 2, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, 00:36:25.980 |
exhort with great patience and instruction, do not turn from the word. 00:36:31.140 |
Do not compromise, do not cut the sharp corners, do not only give them what's palatable, give 00:36:36.340 |
them the truth, even if they don't like it, even if they get offended, even if you lose 00:36:42.980 |
He said, do not turn from the word to the left or to the right, because true life is 00:36:49.380 |
That's what he means by hold fast, no matter what the consequence, because God is faithful. 00:36:57.700 |
Because again, because of our cultural baggage, our false understanding of Christ, whenever 00:37:02.260 |
we hear God is faithful, we automatically think God is merciful. 00:37:15.540 |
So a judge who is faithful will judge faithfully. 00:37:22.100 |
A police officer who is faithful isn't a police officer who just lets you off the ticket, 00:37:33.020 |
So faithfulness simply means he is consistent. 00:37:38.740 |
That's why he says we ought to take this seriously, hold fast this confession, because God is 00:37:43.620 |
faithful and then he reminds us of his faithfulness in the very next section in chapter 10, verse 00:37:52.020 |
The harshest and the most severe warning in the New Testament is found in the very next 00:37:57.580 |
text after he says we ought to hold fast because he is faithful. 00:38:03.300 |
And then he describes his faithfulness in verse 26 of chapter 10. 00:38:07.620 |
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer 00:38:12.220 |
remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a 00:38:20.580 |
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimonies of two 00:38:30.360 |
He is faithful to repentant sinners to forgive us our sins. 00:38:35.340 |
He is also faithful to judge us of all our unrighteousness who are unrepentant. 00:38:40.660 |
The word glory, literal meaning of the word glory means to be weighty, to be serious. 00:38:48.060 |
That our worship before God, our presence to be able to draw near to him is never meant 00:39:01.460 |
If we hear it and we're kind of, you know, like I'll deal with it later. 00:39:09.180 |
And that's why he says we ought to hold fast for dear life. 00:39:13.700 |
We ought to anchor with Christ for dear life, to watch our life and our doctrine closely 00:39:19.380 |
because if you do so you will save yourself and your hearers because our life depends 00:39:27.740 |
He will reward the repentant sinners and he will judge the unrepentant. 00:39:34.100 |
So there is a greater need in this world than social justice. 00:39:45.060 |
We can make this world a better place with no prejudice, no poor, no sex trafficking. 00:39:52.900 |
We can make this a better place with better politics, better economy. 00:39:57.020 |
And at the end of all of that, all our effort and to create a great society for our children, 00:40:07.380 |
But the Bible says that the end of all of that is judgment. 00:40:24.120 |
We ought to stand up for those who don't have voices. 00:40:29.100 |
It is the character of a Christian to be gracious and merciful. 00:40:38.180 |
That in our priorities that we try to save a leg while the person is dying. 00:40:43.580 |
Our priority is the gospel and it will always be the gospel. 00:40:47.660 |
Until they come to Christ and they know Christ, this faithful God will carry out his mercy 00:40:56.240 |
So as Christians who believe this, we need to first and foremost draw near. 00:41:01.660 |
We need to hold fast and we need to be the light in this world. 00:41:07.040 |
So my prayer again, with all the stuff that's going on around us, cling to the word of God, 00:41:13.520 |
cling to the gospel, cling to Christ, that even though they may not understand that we 00:41:21.720 |
The wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness. 00:41:24.560 |
The only hope for the wrath of God is the blood of Jesus. 00:41:28.680 |
And I pray that we may be so deeply convicted that we would not drift.