Apostasy or Reality: Where Are You? – Part 2 (Hebrews 10:26-31)

Consider the urgency of choosing whether you will believe, as there is no second chance once judgment comes. Surrender your life to the one who paid the price for your sins and rose in victory – He offers salvation and transformation for all who come to Him.

Well, church for time’s sake, I’m gonna read. Uh, let’s stand, though, in honor of god’s word.
I’ll read, uh, the passage that we’re in tonight, this context of scripture, out of the book of Hebrews, we are looking at chapter 10.
And, uh, we are in our second installment on this, and we’re being challenged by what he has to say, the author, apostasy, our reality.
Where are you? It’s a call to self examination.
Chapter 10, verse 26, he says, for if we sin willfully after we’ve received the knowledge of the truth, there is no there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses’s law dies without mercy on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses.
Of how much worse punishment do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy?
Who has trampled the son of god under foot?
Counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace.
For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the lord.
And again, the lord will judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god.
Father, we pray and ask of you to be our teacher tonight that we might understand you more and more every day.
And your name, we pray and all God’s people said? Amen. Amen.
Amen, we’re looking at this message series titled apostasy, meaning departure from the faith, or reality, And the argument is this, reality being that if you just use your mind, your heart, and if you don’t mind me saying so, throw in your entire self toward god to find out who he is and to discover his word from Genesis to Revelation, that you just might find a great blessing in discovering that this is the one who has announced to us that he has provided so great a salvation.
Think about all of the religions of all of mankind throughout history Whatever they may be, they have some form of redemption as bizarre as some of those religions or cults might be.
All the way up to the Judeo Christian Bible.
But apostasy is something that the Bible tells us about in the last days, and this portion of scripture is a grave warning that goes out to us.
Now remember, uh, it’s my opinion that there’s many scholars that have the same opinion.
Uh, but we can’t prove it.
But this book written to the Hebrews in the new testament It’s written to those who took listen, took their their Judaism and their traditions.
And when they heard the gospel preached, They actually did what you’re supposed to do with it.
They took the Old Testament and applied it to what was being preached this new testament and found out, hey.
This is the answer to what was promised in the past.
What was announced by Moses and the prophets, this is the record of the fulfillment of all that.
The old testament gives the promise the new testament records the fulfillment, and there still remains some things to be fulfilled.
But what has been fulfilled, as we’ve often said, those things have been fulfilled literally according to the Bible.
So when we look at this, church, you remember that as we dove into this last time together, that, um, we saw in verses 26 to 27 that we were challenged to look around ourselves.
Do you remember that? We’re we’re on that one point that it begins to open up for if we send willfully, notice what this is in context of.
After we’ve received the knowledge of the truth.
If you know the gospel, if you know that the Bible says that god would send his son, And again, remember, that’s an old testament doctrine.
Proverbs chapter 30 verse 4. Isaiah chapter 7, Isaiah chapter 9, Micah chapter 5, that god would send us Genesis 3 verse 15, that god would send his son as the Messiah of the world.
The Bible says, if you come to the knowledge of that, that you can recite it back, if you tonight can tell me Yeah.
Yeah. I know what you mean. I know what you’re saying.
And you can say it, then you’re in a dangerous place if you do not believe in him.
If you don’t rest in him, you can recite. Look.
You can get an a in the seminary test in college, but that’s not enough.
If you know the truth and yet you go about willfully sinning after that, In other words, there’s no change.
In theology, it’s called Antinomianism. It means that I believe in god and I say all the things that are written there, but I live my life, no change.
And then at the right time, I will ask god to forgive me, and then I’ll go right back out there and do it again.
And that is antinomianism. It’s also known as sins of the high end.
In the old testament, the Bible says that god will not forgive that sin. It will not be forgiving.
Why? Cause it’s not being repented. You understand that everybody. It’s not not being repented of and, uh, repent methanoya.
That Greek word means to turn away from it.
And one of the greatest powers revealed in scripture of a man turning away from his horrific sins is the man David.
Some somebody got upset at me because, uh, I I made mention of someone, uh, running for office and that that person had committed adultery in their past.
Well, I wasn’t sure. Were they talking about King David?
Is it Samson?
Listen, people, we’re looking to Christ Jesus to be our salvation and our messiah.
And the one who died on the cross for our sins, we’re not looking to man.
But put the verse back up on the screen as we look at this together.
When you’ve received the knowledge of the truth, they’re they’re, uh, no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
What are you gonna do about that?
If if if according to the Bible that it’s god who paid the price for our sins, he sent the lamb of god Jesus Christ into the world for our sins, If you reject that offering, the Bible says right here, there’s nothing that remains.
There’s not something else coming. The best was given.
2000 years ago on that hill in Jerusalem on Mount Mariah.
But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Notice that god considers those who sin willfully, but know the knowledge of the truth as adversaries.
By the way, I don’t know if you do or not, but you certainly have to put up with it.
You’re trying to walk with god.
You’re trying to be a good witness and love the lord, and all that stuff.
And then notice that there are people that don’t like you because they’re associating some situation they had with somebody, and they’ve labeled all Christians the same.
And that’s unfortunate, but that’s the way human nature is. But you know what?
We’re only responsible for those in which we come in contact with.
To love on them and to show them the lord. And so this is vitally, vitally important.
You know, before we go any deeper into this, Romans chapter 6, uh, I want to make sure you guys write this down.
Romans chapter 6 verse 1 says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound.
You know, there’s people that talk like that. This is not just a two thousand year old problem back then.
There are people who say, hey, If if god is glorified by me, uh, by him forgiving my sins, then why don’t we just sin so god can be glorified?
Isn’t that weird? I mean, that’s like that’s like modern day thinking now.
That’s like something you’d expect from a progressive type of a thing. You know? It’s weird.
And, anyway, certainly not, Paul says, how shall we who died to send Livany longer in it?
Or do you not know that as many of us ever baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death?
What a tremendous statement. This is not about water baptism.
This is about coming to faith in Christ as Messiah.
And so church, we looked at this and we didn’t get very far last time. It was right here.
And that is, uh, argument or really the support of point number 1 is what do you see happening with you?
We wanna self examine ourselves. We wanna take a good look at ourselves.
And there’s a fail safe in this for us, Christ’s followers, Messiah followers, and it comes at an invitation, and it’s this.
It’s that invitation of us inviting him into our lives, uh, to not only examine us by the power of the spirit, but you and I examine ourselves before the power of the word.
And so when we talk about what what do you see happening with you?
Remember, there’s a call out for you and I to examine ourselves as to whether or not we are truly walking in faith.
Are we really a people that live the life that god’s called us to live?
And what’s tough, you know, is that it’s a personal thing.
And we’re we’re not to be pointing, as I mentioned last time, pointing them out, send sniffers and fault finders.
We’re not to be doing that. We’re to be looking at ourselves.
Listen, you’re responsible for you committing yourself to Christ and following hard with a hot heart after god.
And no one’s gonna answer for you in the end, and you don’t have to answer for anybody else in the end, for yourself, before god.
And this is a very powerful truth.
A few things to get us baptized into this reality song chapter 26.
We’re gonna run through these Psalm 26 verse 2.
Examant me, oh lord, and prove me, try my mind in my heart.
That’s a great prayer offered up by David. Lord, look at this. 3 things. Exam examine me.
That’s a wise thing to do.
Are you a listen, don’t answer out loud, but are you a follower of Christ? Do you wanna know god?
Do you know god? Yes, I do.
Then listen, the prayer that naturally comes from you is in alignment with Psalm 26 verse 2. Examamine me, lord.
Have you ever prayed that prayer?
If there’s anything god that’s keeping you and I from getting closer together, let me know.
By the way, when we want to hear god’s voice, we wanna get direct and maybe it’s about a job or about somebody or something.
Have you noticed he’s really quiet and you have to wait and listen and wait and listen and wait and strain your ears sometime.
Days go by. Have you noticed the moment you do something wrong? He shouts.
I mean, he doesn’t shout, but he shouts.
And when you say lord examine me, get out of notepad because he’s gonna start speaking.
Oh, lord, and prove me.
If you were to pour acid on this metal, would it withstand the test is it really gold?
Try my mind and my hearts. What a beautiful thing that is? God listen.
God is absolutely 100%. Listen. If you’re more or less today, tonight. If you’re a legalist, listen up.
God is more interested in what’s going on inside of your mind Listen, hear hear me all the way out.
He’s more interested about what’s going on on the inside of you than what happens on the outside.
Now if you’re a moralist, you just you 100% disagree with me, but I gotcha.
Here’s the reason why.
Your mind can be a thousand miles away from a god, and you can conduct yourself rightly on the outside You look great.
Jesus said, you’re you’re look like white washed seplickers.
You’re all clean and beautiful on the outside, but inside, your mind and your life and your heart is filthy.
You’re full of Jesus said you’re full of dead men’s bones. Listen to the Jewish thinking, that’s corruption, man.
You don’t touch dead men’s bones. And you can be religious on the outside.
So that’s why I’m telling you right now. You could deceive or trick anybody on the outside.
God knows what’s on the inside. So we’re called to examine. The next verse is this. Lamentations.
Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the lord.
Let us lift our hearts and hands to god in heaven.
What a great challenge. Number 3, 1st Corinthians, 11 verse 28, but let a man examine himself.
That’s what we’re to do as believers.
All this in light of defending ourselves, protecting ourselves against the apostasy, which we gave definition to or that is to give up on faith, to stop moving forward in faith, friends.
Remember, whenever hardships come, when when things hit you, your face being tested. That’s called a fiery test.
It’s a trial. It’s not a temptation. Remember that temptation comes from Satan, my flesh, and this world.
God doesn’t send temptation. He sends trials One you’re supposed to run from and the other one you’re supposed to hang on.
He says hang on. You’re gonna come through this.
And when you come through it on the other side, You’re gonna be as it were refined.
Like gold is refined in the furnace. Oh, pastor Jack.
This thing’s going on in my life and it hurts so bad. Hang on.
It’s a it’s a trial.
And and, listen, god will not allow you to be tested beyond that which you are able.
He’s good and faithful. The next verse is this.
2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5 says examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.
Man, that’s reality, is it? That’s a that’s powerful stuff. A apostasy or reality? This is reality.
See, an apostate will never examine themselves. They’ll make excuses for themselves. They’ll hide it. They’ll shift it.
They’ll blame somebody else about it. No. The Bible says test yourselves.
Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified? Wow.
Is it possible that your life could be examined to such a degree?
That you turn out to be a fraud, spiritually speaking. You’re not real.
Do you sense god’s shaking the earth almost? You know? Shaking people’s lives? I do.
This this has to happen.
In fact, I’m reminded right now, again, as we prayed, with what Israel’s going through, and you look at Israel throughout history of World War 2 and way back with pharaoh and the Assyrians and all of that, that treatment that they experienced always, always happened after their disobedience to god.
And god said this would be the deal. If you walk with me, you’ll be blessed.
If you run away from me, if you do your own thing, you’re out from underneath the umbrella, you’re on your own.
And that’s true for all of us, even as gentiles.
God doesn’t change, but it’s remarkable to me that when god starts to shake your life, I had a young lady tell me tonight that her family has just experienced 3 deaths in their family.
And they were not they were not necessarily expected, but they just happened in just close order together.
And yet she said god is using it. Family members are questioned into thinking.
That’s a good thing. Because we’re talking about eternity.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 4, Galatians 6 4, says, let each one examine his own work And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.
This is so important. Be you know what this means? I’ll I’ll paraphrase it this way. God has no grandkids.
He has no grandchildren. He only has children. So what do you mean by that?
Right here, listen. You’re not gonna be going into heaven based on some other person’s good works.
Well, my mom used to serve at the church. Good for your mom.
Well, my dad was a pastor, or my Good for them?
What about you? God has no grandkids. Only kids.
And the Bible tells us very clearly right here that we’re to examine ourselves to determine if the works of god are coming out of our lives in reality.
Confirming. The Bible tells us in 1st John chapter 2 verse 18, 1st John 218, says, little children, I’d love that.
This is the Bible talking to you who believe. The Bible calls you little children.
It is the last hour John doesn’t mess around. The other apostles called it the last days.
John says, forget that. I’m going for the last hour. I love this guy.
It’s the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, the imposter, the imposter Christ, the fake Christ, Even now many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour verse 19.
They went out from us. Isn’t that interesting? They used to go to church with us.
He’s saying they used to hang out with us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us, but you have an anointing from the holy one and you know all things.
That doesn’t mean you’re smart and brilliant. That doesn’t mean I’m smart or brilliant.
It means the anointing one, the Holy Spirit gives you everything you need to know.
He’ll be your teacher. He’ll be your instructor.
And, of course, he’ll use the powerful word of god.
The apostate in this argument, this first point continues because this is where we lift off.
It’s right here. And this is powerful stuff. See, Jack, why are we talking about this in Hebrews?
Because the book of Hebrews at this chapter point is is making it clear right now.
The author is laying it down on the line. I think it’s Paul.
I can’t prove it, but I think it’s Paul. He is laying it down and he’s saying, listen.
Here’s the deal. You have you know all of the old testament scriptures, and you know the message about Christ And we’ve been showing you chapter and verse of the Old Testament.
For you to give up and to go back, you there’s nothing for you to go back to.
And remember, this book was written 3 years before the temple was brought down by the 5th Roman legion by Titus Vespasian in 70 AD.
So they’re thinking maybe I can go back temple.
I can go grab an animal, and the warning is animal blood can’t do it.
There’s a great warning. But there were those that were teaching, oh, you know what?
That didn’t work for me. Why don’t you come with me? Enticing people over.
Next verse here to look at Matthew. Matthew’s gospel. Serious stuff, everybody. Matthew 15, are you guys okay? Alright.
Matthew 15. Jesus, so mild, hypocrites, The word means 2 faced.
You guys have 2 faces. Well did Isaiah prophecy about you?
Saying these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. That’s that hurts.
Do you know what that is? Teaching as commandments traditions that men make up.
Think about that. Maybe you came from a particular religious group.
That the traditions of the elders for centuries is the rule.
Well, the Bible says this. Yeah. But our leaders say this. Oh, boy.
Watch out. Verse 10, when he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear and understand Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a man.
Then his disciples came and said to him, do you know that the pharisees were offended when you when they heard this same?
But he answered and said to them, every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted.
Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.
This is the words of Christ. Strong. Right? Yes. Why would he say and talk like this?
Because your soul’s on the line. And there’s deceivers out there that lead you away from god.
I hope you’ve been coming here long enough to know.
I’ve never asked you to sign up or pay up or do anything here.
Because it can’t better you in any way. Right. Well, do you keep the lights on?
God’s people, they They know what they’re doing. They pray, and they give as god directs.
But it’s not required of you.
Don’t let anything somehow pad your life of sin because you wrote a check to the church.
Or to the goodwill or to I don’t know. Salvation army.
That’s a bad part of our human nature.
We’ll just give so we can indulge. Watch out. Yeah. Matthew’s gospel again.
Matthew chapter, uh, 13 verse 24 begins.
Another parable he, Jesus, put forth to them, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who’s so good seed in his field.
But while men slept, his enemy came and so tears. Tears are fake wheat. They look just like wheat.
You can’t tell it apart. And, but it’s fake.
Not only is it fake, but have you got go ahead and make this on the screen.
I’m gonna digress for a second.
Um, I remember being uh, a little kid on my grandfather’s farm in South Dakota, and he had wheat and Milo growing.
And my dad taught us that you can grab wheat and, um, you rub it, rub it in your hands, and you can blow the chaff away.
And the the wheat will be right here in your hand.
And you put it in your mouth and start chewing it, it becomes a gum. You can chew it.
It’s pretty cool, actually. It’s pretty pretty pretty cool. But you know what?
You know what happens when you do a tear, if there’s tears, you do all of that the same.
You put it in your mouth, but there’s bitterness to it and there’s a toxicity to it.
It looks real, but it’s toxic. It’s not gonna kill you, but it’s not good for you. Why?
Cause it’s fake. Jesus is talking about this. There’s the true, and there’s the fake.
They look exactly the same. Verse 26, but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tears also appeared.
So the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, Did you not so good seed in your field?
How then does it have tears? And you said to them, So listen. This is as though, right?
This is a parable. So it’d be like, god said to them. An enemy has done this.
The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up?
But he said, no. List you gather up the tears, you also uproot the wheat with them.
See how much they look alike? Wow. Let both grow together until the harvest.
And at the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tears and bind them in bundles to burn them.
But gather the wheat into my barn. Incredible statement. Right? This is sobering stuff.
But if you take heat of this tonight, you can ward yourself off from ever going down that path of apostasy.
Staying true in reality with god. Matthew chapter 24 verse 9.
Matt, are you guys okay? We’re giving you a lot of Bible. You’re you’re exceptionally quiet tonight.
I think I should go I think I should move to a Pentecostal church.
I’m getting more Pentecostal, I think, in my old age. Anyway, that’s okay.
Now I I had to ask for it, so it that’s no fun.
It doesn’t mean anything if you have to ask for it.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, speaking about his kids.
They be in the world.
And you will be hated by all nations for my namesake, and then many will be offended Oh my goodness.
Does that sound like Yes. 2024? You offended me.
When are we not offended? Are we not always offended? We’re always offended.
They gave me too much food. They didn’t give me enough food.
This is too big. This is too small. It’s called life.
And you need to roll with it. You’re not gonna die. It’s okay.
But I didn’t get the I didn’t get the front I didn’t get the front seats.
Just I’m sorry. They got the bigger cut of the pie.
I I wanted that you’re you’re gonna live. You know, I remember it.
The us oldies remember when America used to be able to laugh at itself There used to be something called comedy.
Do you remember those days? Amazing.
Anyway, They will betray one another and will hate one another, then many false prophets will arise and deceive many.
The word in Greek is not a fuel.
False profits will arise and deceive not a fuel. That means a whole lot.
Pretty powerful. This is a again, Jesus speaking.
Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1, 2nd Thessalonians 21.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our lord Jesus Christ and are gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirits or by word or by letter as if from us, because there were impostors propagating false teaching, as though the day of Christ had come, Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away, the apostasia comes first.
And the man of sin is revealed, the son of Pradition.
That’s another name for the Antichrist that we read about earlier.
There’s gonna be a grand departure from people walking in faith. They’re gonna give up and quit.
And notice it’s one of the indicators that at the last days, the advent of the antichrist will come, and they’ll turn right around and go after him.
They’ll depart from Christ because they were never belonging to Christ.
They they had a prostacy in their hearts. They believed for a while, but they never had faith.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 18.
For many walk of whom I’ve told you often, and now tell you even weeping. Precious Paul. Wow.
That they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.
So relevant to our world today, I was asked today in a, uh, Milwaukee radio uh, interview about the the the interviewer asked me, what’s going on with the church today?
And I said, well, it depends on depends on what you’re asking, or I can tell you what’s going on in our church today.
But are you if you’re talking about what’s going on in the church today in America, I said, I think I can answer that.
And it’s a departure from the word of god. It’s a departure from the Bible.
People do not know what it is that they believe.
They said they believe this and then you asked them, can you explain that? No, I cannot.
Then the conclusion is if you’ve had a course in logic, The conclusion is you don’t know what it is that you claim to believe.
Thus, you cannot believe it. You know that?
If you can’t explain what it is that you believe in, then the result or the answer is you don’t believe it because you don’t know it.
This is a very, very sly subtle trick of the enemy to give you just a little bit of an inoculation, you know, vaccine thing?
You know, did everybody did anybody ever stop to realize that you’re doing just fine?
And then you went and got vaxxed. And you know what you got vaxxed with?
It wasn’t listen, it wasn’t jelly beans. You they didn’t give you a shot of snickers bar.
You know what they gave you. Right? They gave you COVID.
Just like have you haven’t you had your polio vaccine? I did.
We did want a bunch of we all got that stuff when we were kids, right, and all that other stuff.
What did they give us? They gave us a little bit of the real thing. You know that?
Some people some young people are saying, I don’t think that’s what a vaccine is. Yeah. It is.
Say, what does it have to do with anything?
You can get vaccinated against Jesus with a little bit of religion.
Just enough. Hey, Satan’s okay with you having religion?
Just don’t get Jesus. Think about it.
Subtleties, the enemy, working.
So we’re to examine ourselves Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 says, therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost.
Isn’t that beautiful? Those who come to god through him.
Since he always lives to make intercession for them.
So there’s the there’s those slipping into apostasy.
Now here’s the tough thing about this is a Wednesday night.
Now it doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from becoming lazy in your faith or that you’re exempt from apostasy.
I pray none of you depart from the faith.
But the probability, think about it, of a of a Sunday service, because Sunday’s a wild card, man, So Sunday’s a wild card.
You don’t know who’s coming. Sometimes Satan shows up, I think.
Have you ever seen some people driving into the parking lot? You’re looking for the horns on the head.
It’s like, what is that? But then we have to love them because they might be coming to church for the first time or or what, or they think it’s Costco they’re coming to.
I don’t know. But Wednesday’s a wild card. I mean, I mean, Sundays are wild card.
Wednesdays are stable. It’s you. You know, you’re the Wednesday nighters. You gave up you gave up something to come.
And I met a couple tonight that drive from Seal Beach on a Wednesday.
That’s a long beach? Yeah. That’s a that’s a that’s a drive.
Okay. That’s enough. We got Long Beach and Seal Beach.
I heard Huntington Beach Beach, but listen, what’s with the beach?
I know god’s calling us to open up churches, right, in Seal Beach, huntington, and I’m joking.
That’s just the truth. One’s enough. One’s enough. But it’s an amazing thing.
Secondly, under this point, if you would, is the argument that, uh, the Bible tells us in Galatians chapter 3, Galatians 3.
This is powerful. Oh my goodness. The church at Galatia, listen to this.
With a broken heart, you can almost hear him crying.
Foolish galatians, Paul says to them, who’s bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth?
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among US crucified.
In other words, for those of you who don’t know, Paul would have preached to them 2000 years ago, Psalm 22 in the Old Testament.
The Messiah of Israel has let’s Listen. Write it down.
If you don’t know this, the Messiah of Israel has to be pierced through his hands and his feet.
SOME 22 says. It’s a Psalm of David.
This is powerful because we’re not making this up.
Well, that’s just the new testament. This is Old Testament doctrine.
Christ was preached to you Galatians clearly as one who had been crucified.
They would have thought, even though they were gentiles in Galatia, they would have thought, or they would have known, wow.
That that’s an alignment with Psalm 22. This only I wanna learn from you.
Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law? Or by the hearing of faith. Powerful.
Right? Because the Bible tells us that the law was given to convict us of our sins.
You do know this.
If you know your old testament, you know that the law never said it can save you.
Moses never said, I’m gonna give you this law, and it’s gonna save you from your sins, and it’s gonna get you into heaven.
Did you know Moses never said that? Moses said there’s one coming like me, him. He’s greater.
Him you will hear. He’s the one you’re gonna listen to. Moses said that. Why?
Because the law can’t save you. The law, it’s granite for a reason or it’s stoned for a reason.
It can’t feel. It can’t hug you. It can’t love you. The law can’t forgive you.
It’s it’s stone. The 10 commandments are holy. They’re pure. They’re awesome. But they are listen.
The Greek word is pedagogy. They are the pedagogy. You say, what is that?
We use the English term Schoolmaster. A school master. You know what a school master is?
I mean, the forget the word teacher. A teacher’s like, oh, a teacher. What are you?
I’m a teacher. Schoolmaster. It’s like right.
The pedagogy is the school master to drive you kind of a, you know, kernel clink kind of a thing where it’s hard, and it’s pointing out What you did wrong?
And that school master, the law is to drive us to the arms of their forgiving savior.
Yeah. The one who paid the price for us on the cross all prophesied by god.
So he says to them, are you verse 3? Are you so foolish?
Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Oh, they’re starting to apostasy Have you suffered so many things in vain?
If indeed it was in vain, he’s saying to them, man, I hope that you get your head screwed back on real quick.
Because you’re messing around.
You’re walking away from the grace of god that was bought and purchased by god as a free gift to you and you’re dabbling back in legalism?
Dangerous. Next, we look at verse 27, and it’s this.
This very serious challenged to us in verse 27.
And by the way, thankfully, uh, that you’re no longer in jeopardy, you and I as believers.
Be, uh, but a certain it says scripture here, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation.
That’s not good. And I’m gonna say I gotta say something about this, which will devour the adversaries, church family, Uh, there are great scholars who believe that this is being spoken of about true believers.
I don’t believe that. I just can’t believe that. I think it’s what it’s talking about.
I think that this is what he’s warning that there are those who who when they if they depart from the only salvation available.
Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, as we said on Sunday.
No man comes to the father, but through me.
If you turn if you turn away and walk away from that, there’s nothing left for you, but the default and the default is a fiery indignation.
That’s strong stuff. Right? Well, why would god do this to me? He didn’t.
You and I did it to us.
God says, I created hell for the devil and his fallen angels.
And then man, like, puts on his bathing suit and wants to dive into it. What’s wrong with us?
God says you’re not supposed to go there. I didn’t make that for you to go there.
So listen, if if you don’t accept him, if you don’t get him as your life raft, your life preserver, your new life, asking him to forgive you of all of your sins.
Then the default, mankind is in default.
And that default is a fiery indignation. Not good.
Listen to listen to god’s heart. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10.
Ephesians 1 10 says that in the dispensation, that is the prescribed time.
In the dispensation, of the fullness of times, he might gather together 1 in 1, all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.
He wants you to know him. The believer should never fear, jeopardy anymore.
God saves. Listen. God saves you. You don’t save yourself. But you turned to him.
Isaiah said, look unto him and be saved all yeins of the earth.
Man, he’s good.
I’m gonna read another passage, and then we’ll end with, with a word from CS Lewis who would be good for us.
In 2nd Peter, chapter 2, verse 4, second Peter 2, 4, the Bible tells us, 4, if god did not spared the angels who sinned.
Wow. You know, the Bible talks about this.
In the Old Testament, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness.
Wow. Really? That’s amazing. So between the hammer blows or maybe it was just Noah’s Witness.
He was a preacher of righteousness. Wow.
And by the way, anybody remember how long it took Noah to build that arc?
120 years of preaching and building. Imagine his neighbors. See that guy?
See what that guy’s building in his front yard? Who is that guy? It’s Noah doing that.
He must have told them, what are you doing, Noah?
There’s a flood coming because the world is full of sin.
You should repent and get inside this thing when it’s done.
Wow.
Bringing in the flood on the whole, uh, on the world of the ungodly verse 6 and turning the cities of autumn and go more into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward, that’s us, would live ungodly and delivered righteous lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked.
For that righteous man, wow, when you read about what’s, uh, That’s amazing that the Bible says he was a righteous man.
God saw his heart, but, uh, I don’t know.
It’s a good thing God saw his heart because I don’t know if I wanted to hang out with a lot.
Anyway, dwelling among them tormented as righteous soul from day to day.
It’s like those of us living in California.
Our souls are tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.
Then the lord knows, look look at this.
Then the lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.
This is what the Bible says. He said, that’s I don’t like that old testament. That’s the new testament.
This is the time of grace. This is the time of choosing.
This is the time of making a decision to escape.
I want you to hear just, in fact, I’m gonna have Gia come on out.
Guys, can we dim the lights?
Kinda like you had it at the at that end of the worship set.
I want you guys to listen and and see this. So there we go. Okay.
Now listen. This is CS Lewis from mere Christianity.
Now remember, in his day, he was one of the, if not the most famous atheist of his day, and his life struggles and difficulties brought him to the knowledge of Jesus.
Okay? Listen because he’s he’s in the but he’s a genius. So listen carefully.
And, um, the challenge is this. You need to choose tonight, friend.
You need to make a choice. You have no guarantee that you’ll live the next hour.
You’ll have no none of us have a guarantee. You’ll see the Sunrise tomorrow.
And where were you going to eternity? According to the Bible, there’s no second chances.
The Bible says it’s appointed unto everyone wants to die and then comes the judgment.
And that judgment listen.
You can stand in that judgment because Christ will be your sacrifice. Christ will be your atonement.
He’ll be your passover, your propitiation. Think about it.
Isn’t it amazing that god told Moses, tell the children of Israel, get a little lamb and sacrifice that lamb after a week of having that lamb in your home and take its innocent blood and put it in the door post of your house.
And when the death angel comes by, he’ll see the he’ll see the what? He’ll see the family?
He’ll see the blood. Which, yeah, I heard that word. You’re right.
When you put the blood on the door post and length of your house, it’s the shape of a cross.
And you have to choose The Bible Sisters come in today when god will separate the sheep from the goats and the great judgment of the nations when Christ returns.
In the valley of jehosaphat. The Bible says he will judge the nations of the earth.
And the scripture says, for those nations that chose to support and love on Israel, he calls them my brethren, He will say to them, enter into the millennial kingdom, enter into the joy of the lord.
But to those who refused him, he says they’ll be taken away.
Decisions matter, friends, and eternities for real. Yeah.
And all the stuff that you’re seeing going on in our world, Our Bible has anticipated all of it.
God loves you. He died in the cross for your sins just as he said he would.
And he rose again from the dead just as he said he would.
It’s a time to choose.
Let’s listen to CS Lewis’s challenge to us tonight.
God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask god to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when he does.
When that happens, it is the end of the world.
When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade all right.
But what is the good of saying you are on his side then when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else?
Something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in.
Something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left.
For this time, it will be god without disguise, something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.
It will be too late then to choose your side.
There is no use saying you could choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.
That will not be the time for choosing.
It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not.
Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side.
God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever.
We must take it or leave it.
And so father, we’ve come tonight In the stillness lord of this moment, I pray, father, that you would stir hearts Your word has gone out many passages of scripture tonight, eternal truths.
And father that tonight, for those of us who know you, lord, we reaffirm our commitment to you.
We love you. And lord, we believe your gospel message, that for god’s soul of the world that he gifted his only begotten son that whosoever would believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life.
We thank you father for doing for us what we could have never have done, a price that we could have never have paid.
You came into this world and took upon yourself, human skin, and you lived, and you suffered, and you felt, and you experienced everything yet without sin.
Met the demands of the law, satisfied its righteousness, and then went to the cross and took upon yourself our sin in our place.
Now is the time for choosing. And Lewis is correct.
If you’re unable to stand up, for you to make the choice not to stand is as foolish as man made religion.
But if tonight, you would say, I believe this message this word, his gift.
Friend, you don’t have to understand it all.
But you know enough that we’re all now responsible for what we know.
You’ve heard the gospel three times tonight. And you can recite it back to me.
Somebody might ask you to my tonight or tomorrow. What did he say?
Oh, he said this that for god’s soul of the world that he gave his begotten his only begotten son that whosoever would believe on him would not perish, but have everlasting life, that’s number 4.
But is that your decision? Is that your choice tonight?
I’m gonna ask you right where you’re at.
No fanfare, no pump, no nothing. Just remain right where you’re at. God sees your heart.
God knows you. He’s listening. But Jesus said, if you’ll come to me, I will not turn you away.
Friend, here’s what you need to do. You need to come to him. Go to him.
No. I’m not sending you on some remote journey.
You don’t have to walk a thousand miles. You don’t have to climb a hill.
Go to him right now.
In your heart, your spirit, your soul, who you really are, You’re not who you are on the outside.
That’s all of disguise. God sees the inside of you.
As we sing this song, right where you’re at, Just tell them in your own words.
I’m coming to you, Christ. I’m coming to you. I don’t understand this.
I’ve heard enough, though, to know that it cannot walk away. Without making a decision.
I will either reject you tonight or I’ll accept you tonight. But there’s no gray area.
There’s no shadow to hide in.
She is gonna sing just a moment of the song, and then I’m gonna give you an opportunity to pray.
Friend, right where you’re at sit sitting right where you’re at. Maybe you’re watching right now.
Wherever you’re at.
You can say to him these words, lord Jesus, I give you my sins.
I ask you to cleanse me of my guilt and shame.
I need you.
I want a new life, and I’m coming to you.
And I surrender the authority of my life into your hands.
I believe tonight that you died on the cross for me.
I understand that now and that you rose again from the dead because you are pure and holy.
And you are that one whom god said, who has ascended into heaven or descended?
Who has held the seas and the hull of his hands and the wind and the folded robes of his garment What is my name and what is the name of my son if you can tell me?
Solomon said that. 3000 years ago.
It is god who ascended, and it is god who descended.
And you’re saying tonight, lord, take control of my life. I don’t want religion.
I don’t want church. I don’t want anything. I want Jesus. Do with me, as you will.
Forgive me of my sins. Take my life and let it be.
Consecrated lord unto thee.