A God Sent Message of Warning - Tim Conway

lord we know that there's lots of false religion lots of hypocrisy Lord there-there are true children of God there are those you have saved we pray Lord as your name depends on it keep these your sheep keep them hold them father I pray for these men that were baptized today I pray that they would hold the course all the way to the end Father we desire to see people well saved we've seen the cheap thing we've seen the imitation Lord we want the real thing men and women growing into the likeness of Christ living in the power of the Spirit being sanctified hungry for righteousness hungry and thirsting growing in holiness growing in a faith growing in in a determination to cling to Christ growing in a love to him growing in likeness to him growing in appreciation and intimacy a desire to be with him Lord we pray to you we ask you help us Lord to hold the road father I pray I pray to you I pray in the name of Jesus Christ the one who told us to pray using his name he's given us such authority is to pray in the name that is above every name to boldly approach before the throne of grace because we do have such a high priest one who has entered into the veil for us gone before us so we come in Lord we come into your very presence and by faith we believe that we're there by faith we believe you are here by faith we believe but that there is a presence that it's unseen to our physical eye father we believe it you are here you are here we pray that we would we would regard that with fear and trembling and you have spoken to us in times past through the prophets but in these days you have spoken through your son and I pray Lord that we would take it for all the seriousness that it's meant to be taken when it was said we don't want what to lightly despise what has been spoken by the son of God himself these truths Lord I pray for salvation I pray Lord that we would have to baptize seven more very soon Lord dropped down from above in power make your word powerful lord I pray for it I pray that you're upholding sustaining hand would be with our brother and sister in China uphold them Lord uphold in and the three girls that work with Rebecca uphold them Lord John and Judy and the girls we pray for them may may you give them clear direction clear path open up a place for us to start this orphanage Lord I pray for the Flass Polar's Lord uphold them may they be bright and burning and shining lights there in Peru Lord I want to pray for Trevor he and Teresa uphold them Lord me they might not weaken may you get encourage them may the power of God be real a lot of mongols natives lord please come here come to this place we pray for outpourings of the Living God on the east side of San Antonio please lord help us No may your word be real may it be alott me it all happened in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior amen would you please turn to the book of Hebrews and actually you can turn to Hebrews chapter 10 for those of you that may be visiting this morning I'll just bring everybody up to speed very quickly I just started the book of Hebrews last week and my intention is not to preach through the book verse by verse specifically but rather to try to give us an overview constantly looking at the book from the big perspective we will dive in and look at some of the details but I want everybody to hold firm to the big picture of this book and last week I primarily wanted us to look at who the book was being addressed to what not whether or not they were actually Jews or Hebrews but what characterized these people whose the book being written to in the sense of what are they like spiritually and what we found there it can anybody remember what we found what did they look like they were weak they were they had hands that hang down they were drooping anybody remember anything else feeble knees feet that were wandering out of the way dull it says Hebrews five also immature not ready for meat meats for immature and they weren't ready for me made to be fed with milk can you remember anything else there were people that had been subjected to persecution there were people that were needing definitive warnings not to drift not to stray there were people that were missing the meetings right we saw that don't forsake the assembling together of yourselves which is the habit of some it began to happen to some of them I mean these are the kind of people that we were looking at well today again I wanted I want to do one of these overviews because I want you to get it feel again for the book as a whole I've entitled my message this morning Hebrews a god-sent book of warning now we all know what a warning is right I had a father who smoked cigarettes when I was growing up and so as I'm thinking about warnings the first thing I thought was warning the Surgeon General now that was like that was back in the 70s and 80s and so I couldn't remember exactly what it said or what it says today because I haven't I haven't seen a pack of cigarettes in a long time and so I just typed that up so I googled Surgeon General and cigarettes brethren that's a warning that's when you see that on a pack of cigarettes that's a warning do you know in the in the UK they just have on the side of their pack of cigarettes today smoking kills I mean it used to be in my day the Surgeon General warns that cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health or something like that I remember when my dad smoked right now in the UK just smoking kills in in New Zealand they actually have a foot that's decane covered with gangrene and it says smoking causes gangrene with a picture on every pack of cigarettes that's a warning I remember I remember close to by where I grew up in Michigan there was there was a sign that warned of a sharp curve ahead sticker under the hood you guys ever lifted up a sticker and you've seen somewhere around there there's a sticker that shows a picture of the serpentine belt with a hand and the fingers are coming off that's a warning or how about this yeah my children and I would go to the Y over here on the east side and swim laps I there's a there the picture on the side of the pool that shows somebody diving into the shallow end smashing their head on the bottom of the pool you ever seen that sign something similar to that especially in the shallow ends brethren warnings just recently after the Denton conference Ruby and I stayed another day up there so that we could spend some time with the lighters and the clouds got dark and ominous and suddenly there was a siren earng house outside there was a was a tornado warning well I mean we actually evacuated our room went looking for a safe place these are warnings the very fact there are warnings is directly due to the fact that there's what danger absolutely there are things all around us that threaten to harm us and warnings let us know about that danger so that we can avoid the danger I mean that's that's the reality and what happens when the signs are disregarded you know the sign I told you about right there before the curve there was a friend that I went to my senior year in high school with and then we went to the same college together we both had motorcycles we both rode together and this guy comes flying into that corner disregarded that sign and right off that corner he couldn't hold he couldn't hold it he crashed why he disregarded the sign I mean here was my dad smoking those cigarettes all those years of his life warning warning warning and he died 59 years old of cancer brethren when we disregard the warning signs warnings are meant to make us aware of the danger that we might fear that danger in order to turn us back from that danger and to miss that sign or ignore that sign is to put yourself in great peril bottom line and you know what the greater the danger that the warning sign warns us about the greater the peril if you ignore that warning sign right I mean brethren it's one thing you know we have a we have a sign over there close by where we live that says you know speed bumps ahead well you know what if it's dark and I happen to be going along about 35 miles an hour and I'm looking over here and I've totally forget those things are there and I slam into those speed bumps at 35 mile an hour I mean what what's the worst that happens I put some undue stress on my shocks maybe punish the people that are riding in the van a little bit but brethren I'll tell you this it's altogether another matter if we ignore the warnings God gives us in the book of Hebrews you hit the speed bump it's one thing the warnings in the book of Hebrews they warn us listen this applies to you my friend the book of Hebrews warns us about the greatest danger of all I want you to see this if you're there in Hebrews chapter 10 turn your eyes to verse 31 it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God I'll tell you what the greatest danger of all is is God himself you better believe that you fall into the hands of the Living God but think with me the hands of the Living God haven't we always been told haven't we been taught didn't jesus himself say no man is able to pluck you out of my father's hands haven't we come to nobles hands as a place of unshakeable security and refuge and yet those very same hands and the one who possesses them is your greatest danger of all and it is a fearful thing to fall into those hands having drifted Oh brethren don't you see the danger I'm telling you this those hands that can be so precious so protective can become your worst nightmare listen God is a holy terror if we are not right in the way we fall into his hands if we are right if we come into those hands in a certain way they are rock solid stable protecting secure but if you come into those hands in the wrong shape in the wrong form the one whose hands those are is a holy terror and you have everything to fear it is absolutely fearful to have fall into the hands of the Living God this is the danger presented in Hebrews and it's God himself and I want you all to feel this this literally hits us in the book of Hebrews there is no book in the New Testament that gives us such descriptive repetitive warnings it is a book of warning there are other warnings no doubt and there are other places that speak strong even severe but not this this is an entire book given to a people who remember what I told you remember the reason the writer says concerning Abraham and his descendants if they had desired it they could have gone back to the country they came from it's because brethren you can go back if you want and that's where these Hebrews were Christ didn't seem all that great anymore and the thought was there and brethren I'm telling you this isn't just this isn't becoming an atheist this is just like it says just drift you just drift oh you might still claim twice but you just you just drift away from a hot passionate love affair with Christ you just drift you let sin take away that fire and you just drift and it says you will drift into those hands and it is a warning it is a warning the first warning comes to us in Hebrews 2 verse 1 look with me I want to take you through some of these today I want you to feel this brethren Hebrews 2 verse 1 therefore Oh brethren therefore chapter one is that therefore Christ is the radiance you got you have to understand this by angels the Old Covenant was given but now in these days God sent his very own son your God Oh God your throne O God that you go your throne O God is forever and ever this Christ that he's setting forth has brought such a salvation brethren we lose this sometimes because it becomes overly familiar that God actually sent his own son he who whom he loved more than anything else he sent him into this world to actually be put to death for purification of sins this one who is right now exalted to his right hand do you think with that son at his right hand looking over at him and seen pure Beauty pure glory that which purely delights the father and to see somebody down here in this world who slights him drifts away from it and says I like other things other than him what do you think is going to happen if you fall into his hands this is what it's all about therefore he is superior to the prophets and superior to the angels and superior to his companions that was all said in Chapter one and he has dealt forth this great salvation he came and he earned it he shed his blood for it and it is not a trivial matter and God the Father does not take it such and to offer it to men is huge and to reject it is a crime that is unimaginable and he says therefore you need to be very careful therefore we must pay much closer attention this is what I was telling you about last time brethren we need to be focusing on Christ on his parts and on his work we need to spend times in meditation closer attention brethren closer attention do you know when you drift it's when you stop paying close attention to Christ and to his salvation we must pay close attention the mind you must be putting it on Christ daily feeding on his word on his person praying to him and don't drift from it brethren it is deadly to drift is deadly listen we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it well that doesn't sound bad we hear about people drifting and backsliding all the time like mad or right I mean some of you people there you just you get too bent out of shape about righteousness and holiness get too bent out of shape about this come on we can be a Christian but we don't have to take it so far you guys but bunch of Jesus freaks you take it too far everything in moderation right well that's not what the writer of Hebrews believes he says the message declared by angels that Old Covenant it proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution and how shall we escape escape what a just retribution if we neglect its just neglect well come on I go to church on Sundays oh really when Christ said to carry your cross to die to yourself and to follow him he meant Sunday religion is that what he meant when he said unless you forsake all that you have you can't need my disciple is that what he meant brethren if you fall into the hands of the Living God after having drifted he is going to give you you know what retribution is it basically means payment of wages do can you imagine falling into his hands you're in his hands as one they let the ten thousand things in this world that can drift a person away from Christ and you counted them more valuable than him and you drifted and now you found yourself in his hands and you are face to face with the Almighty well yes I drifted away from your son because of and you fill in the blank and what you've just done is exalted that over his son he said my son shined with my own very own radiance my very Express image was planted on him he bore my nature into the world and you had something that was more important how will you escape brethren this is a warning take warning just retribution brethren I'll tell you this you may live a hundred and ten years but you get to the end of this life and those hands are waiting they're waiting or there's this Hebrews three verse 12 well kind of go through these things but this book and I'm not gonna hit on all of them but this book is just overflows with these warnings I mean why in the world that somebody needs so much warning because brethren but danger is this real that's why Hebrews 3:12 takecare brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away before it was drift here it's fall away from the Living God but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin do you know how sin is deceitful it says I am better than Christ that's exactly it that's how we exhort each other brother sister with Christ you have life forever and forever all your sorrows all your tears they are wiped away pleasures forevermore joy unspeakable you have unsearchable riches in Christ all brethren forever and forever and forever and forever being immersed in the kindness of God throughout all these coming ages and will you sacrifice it for a trinket that's how we need to be exhorting one another my brother my sister that sin that so easily besets you it's not worth it brethren it's not worth it what do you have that you would forsake your own soul for for Christ and I'll remind you this is speaking to brothers that's what it says brothers take Brothers verse 14 for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence confidence firm to the end jaw feel the warning people fall away this is one of the reasons that the church is so important we exhort one another we're exhorting brethren we need to sort and the preciousness of Christ market Christian every sin that you allow into your life is a drift inducer that's what listen what does it say here sin does what to us it hardens you let the first your conscience is tender Christ is sweet the gospel is precious justification by faith alone just thrills your soul you finding beauties in Christ and you let that sin in just a little one and it hardens there is a layer of callousness that comes and it's usually undiscerning and it hardens and we drift and first you drift before you fall away it's it's the slow moving away brethren when you find your brothers and sisters it's telling you you go exhort them brother sister do not fall away god help us and this is almost paradoxical to fall away from the Living God is to fall into the hands of the Living God and it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God and then look at Hebrews 4:1 just after that therefore while the promise of entering is rest still stands let us fear warnings are meant to make us fear so that we might avoid the danger that were being warned about let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it brethren those hands are fearful for those that don't reach God's rest that's the idea here this is precisely what the book of Hebrews is geared to do it's a book of warning meant to make us fear losing our hold on Christ brethren don't play around don't toy with the world don't listen you know what's just a dead giveaway you try to exhort a brother sister and they're always saying what's wrong with that well what's wrong with that you know the person that they're trying to see how much of the world they can get in their lives and still be a Christian and you say brother you probably ought not to do that well what's wrong with that and you see what happens the hardening effect is there have you ever seen a person when they are head-over-heels infatuated with Christ they are careful not to offend careful the person who's always playing the minimal morality game hardening is setting in the person that wants to see how close to the edge they can get God put fear in us how about Hebrews six verse seven and this is actually coming out of a portion of scripture that is warning about being enlightened about tasting the goodness of the word of God tasting heavenly gifts of salvation being exposed to the workings of the Spirit you see that can happen we get in the church we come under the truth we see the workings of the Spirit we become affected and what happens look at verse 7 here it's put into an illustration for us for the land that is drunk the rain you know what the rain is it's all God's blessings it's his word it's his enlightenment it's being exposed to the workings of the Spirit and this good gift from heaven and what God is doing it is working you come into the church and you get exposed to that you come among God's people and that is a reality we become exposed to that but what happens is when God rains down is blessings like that and the ground drinks if it produces a crop useful a crop it's producing fruit if it's fruitful and it's useful for those for whose sake it is cultivated these people they're receiving a blessing from God but if it bears thorns if you've got ground and you pour all these blessings into it and the life of the person is full of sin it's just constant there's a practice of it you look at them this way out of this corner of your eye and you're seeing sin you look at them out of this corner failure and I'm not pressing for Pripet perfection I'm just telling you what the verse says if you look at people and just like I can barely see fruit in their lives they seem to look a lot like the world they seem to look a lot like lost people it says these people fell though they were exposed to all that word of God though they were exposed to all that blessings it's worthless and near to being cursed and it's end to be burned it's a warning brethren a warning or how about this again Hebrews 10 verse 24 let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works here it is again or to be exhorting each other against the hardness of sin where to come into one another's lives where to stir one another to love and good works away from being a life that is thorny that's full of thorns and thistles just the opposite brethren it's not that we just press brethren to hold fast to Christ it's to run this Christian life to be fruitful to be full of loving fruits faith works through love Galatians 5:6 says it's it's looking to Christ isn't that what we saw in it I mean you take that whole chapter of Hebrews 11 and you have by faith Abraham obeyed we heard in the sunday school it produces obedience don't tell me you believe in Christ don't tell me you found him to be more precious than anything else and then you're not willing to follow him and do what he did and say what he said you see it's a it's a sham we're so we go to our brothers and sisters and we say brother Christ is worth it lay down your life for him live for him by faith look all the things in Hebrews 11 that they did they conquered they triumphed they were sawn asunder and they held the day oh they could have gone back but they said no way we desire a city a city that is not made by hands a city where Christ is that's what we want even though in that day they didn't know exactly who that was we do it's the city of our King it's the city of Christ and we encourage our brethren brethren stay the path it's worth it it may get hard you may suffer there may be trials all but it is worth it just like that sister we read about oh you can put the thumb screws on me you can put the ankle screws on me I can faint I can pass out but brethren do not dishonor Christ it is worth it and that day she was married to the true bridegroom all brethren it is worth it what is celebration in heaven the joy of one of Christ's coming now made perfect the spirits of these just men and women made perfect now in the celestial city brethren it's just around the corner this doesn't momentary light affliction the brethren we don't want to drop this we don't want to let go let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some brethren meeting together is imperative being in the church when it meets is imperative to your life but encouraging one another and all the more is the day drawing near and here it is again for if we go on sinning deliberately this is where we need to stir one another this is where we need to encourage one another brethren I'll tell you this the Christians not perfect but that person that gives themself to deliberate sin who basically says I know this is wrong and I'm gonna do it anyway oh you are on dangerous dangerous ground if you deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth this is the same kind of thing we saw over in Hebrews six exposure to the good word of God coming to a knowledge of the truth if you sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins a fearful expectation of judgment a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries and right after here's where it says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God about Hebrews 12 verse 25 for if they did not escape who's they well I'll tell you who didn't escape the ones we found out about we will look at much more closely those Hebrew children out in the wilderness they didn't escape they died they didn't enter Rast they were kept out and if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them that was Moses on earth much less what we escaped if we reject him who warns from heaven do you see the logic in this it's kind of like this when Moses was given the Word of God and they despised it they didn't enter the rest now if Jesus is far superior to Moses and he comes bearing a greater salvation a greater message and you despise that do you think you're somehow it's gonna go easier he's saying no you're gonna receive a just retribution and if it's a greater crime than your payment is greater be in fear here now brethren are getting a sense of the warning of the book of Hebrews do you feel the sense that there's danger you might not you know I realize for all that you may not you see what I when I was growing up in Michigan my buddies and I we'd go swim in Lake Michigan a lot there were certain parts of that coastline that had a tendency to get undertow you get the waves and the wind just right and it was an undertow and they would fly the red flag it was a warning warning you don't want to go swimming today the undertow is bad but you know what people still die why well here's basically what happens they come to the beach you're young you're 21 years old red flag we're strong we're good swimmers we come and swim here all the time you see you disregard it because you think that doesn't apply to me that applies to you know little kids of course they're gonna get swept out that undertow would either take you way out you get exhausted and wouldn't be able to make it back and you die or we just pull you under and you're gone and young men 21 years old 25 years old will die because they just disregard it and you see brethren this exactly can happen to us with regards to the warnings in the book of Hebrews you know why you know how this happens well it's logic that basically goes somewhat like this well my understanding of the Bible is that you can't lose your salvation once you're saved you're always saved and I'm saved conclusion I'm safe deduction the warnings don't apply to me brethren whatever warnings are counter in scripture about falling away if I reason like that they miss me they go right by me not too long ago I received an email like this pastor now listen to this this is so common pastor I know that at one point in my life I experienced true salvation there's his first premise I know that at one point in my life I experienced true salvation but and here's the but I feel and see that I have slid back quite a bit he's drifting and though my conviction is still with me I feel it is fading though I struggled to regain my faith here's a young man who plainly says I am sliding back my convictions fading I've struggled to regain my faith sounds to me a whole lot like the Hebrews sluggish dull immature fading and need of stir needing to be warned not to drift doesn't it and yet this young man makes this assertion right off then I know I was saved easy I spoke one time at the at the Bible study about making shipwreck and when I was done this girl came up to me and said you make it sound like you can lose your salvation just last week I got done just on what I was doing laying some some very preliminary things in Hebrews and a young man came up to me and he said I'm just I'm just wondering about this he said my pastor teaches you can't lose your salvation isn't it amazing you can't even teach Hebrews and people are saying what are you saying you seem you can lose your salvation it's because there's an there's no understanding people aren't getting this listen what scripture says is this that if you hold the way if you cling to Christ if you hold your confidence to the end you'll be saved you see brethren we are being saved and we are being saved and we will be saved if we hold on to the end and if you drop out are you saying does that negate past salvation no it does it doesn't negate that but you see where the assumption is faulty this young man is faulty and the warning never touches him right at this point his fatal assumption is to assure himself he's a Christian while he's drifting away what Hebrews says is if you hold your confidence in Christ if you wake up and you're living your days looking to Christ going to his word days of struggle but you're calling on him days when you're dull but you're going back to him and you're pressing on that's your confidence well brethren no doubt you'll be saved because by faith were saved and when that faith keeps glued to Christ faith is looking outside self it's looking to Christ clinging to Christ and when your life is that of course you're gonna be saved of course you have been saved are being saved will be saved as scripture says but I'll tell you this the whole the warnings are this if all of a sudden you're letting sin creep in it's better than Christ you're drifting away even though you maintain a profession even though you still go to church but he's just not the same it's kind of falling away the religion that you once had doesn't so much excite you anymore proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you into his kingdom you're just not there your mouth doesn't speak a whole lot about him the things of the world are becoming more interesting drawing you away for you to say but I know I was saved brethren how do you think there are so many people in Matthew 7 that are saying oh no Lord Lord we did mighty works and we prophesy we cast out demons he says I never knew you how do you think we get so many people it's because the warning signs are waving all over drifting drifting drifting go back and people don't even see him but I I was saved once saved always saved and they totally missed the warnings listen to this John Piper he said this this past September I spoke to the student body of Wheaton Christian High School I took as my topic ten lessons for fighting lust lesson number six was this ponder the eternal danger of lust my text on that point was Matthew 5:28 and 29 where Jesus says everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out and throw it away it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell Piper says I pointed out that Jesus said heaven and hell are at stake and what you do with your eyes and with the thoughts of your imagination after the message one of the students came up to me and asked are you saying then that a person can lose his salvation it's the same thing all over again this is exactly now my paper says this this is exactly the same response I got a few years go when I confronted a man about the adultery he was presently living in I tried to understand his situation and I pled with him to return to his wife then I said you know Jesus says that if you don't fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye you will go to hell and suffer there forever he looked at me an utter disbelief as though he had never heard anything like this in his life and said you mean you think a person can lose his salvation it's amazing it's everywhere I don't doubt we have folks in this room that think that same way so Piper says this so I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life and that nullifies the warnings of the Bible and puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical threats and this doctrine is comforting thousands on the way to hell brethren jesus said if you don't fight lust you won't go to heaven just like the rest of these warnings these warnings if you don't adhere fast to Christ but drift you don't go to heaven it's that plain you can say oh what about mine what about my past and maybe some of you are saying well then do we walk through life doubting all the time should we doubt our salvation can we be certain that we're saved doesn't all this just - our confidence - Pete pieces that people when we see people can fall away absolutely not absolutely not that's not what the writer of Hebrews is doing he is saying it is clinging to your confidence that is the way home it's not walking around in doubt it's listen as long as you rise up every morning and you no I love Christ I want to be in his word I want to live for him I'm looking to him Lord I have a done heart day ahead I can't do these things without you not trusting you I can do all things through you as you strengthen me I trust you I trust you to take me to this city that doesn't have foundations here I trust you to get me through today I trust you to keep me from falling Lord I love you I love the doctrine of justification by faith I know I'm a sinner I love the fact that there is a real gospel that says that no matter how bad a person is by faith in Christ I can be pure as the new-fallen snow I love that listen it doesn't say you should look at yourself when you're like that and say oh I have to doubt it all the time no that's the confidence it wants you to have Hebrews 3:6 we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting brethren are you boasting in Christ hold to it when you get to the place where hear boasting and other things then you fear how about that hebrews 3:14 we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end Hebrews six 11 we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope it's all about confidence it's all about assurance what the writer is saying brethren if you slip away it's this if you are deliberately sinning you say I know what God wants I know what Christ says and I'm not going to do it oh then you better fear because if you go on deliberately sinning after you hear about this you're in trouble and if you get to the point in life where you're dull you're immature you're slowing down you're sluggish the arms droop the knees are feeble your feet are strained you better beware and the writer of Hebrews says brother/sister come back to this confidence you see when a person is confident if I die today I go to Christ you can live like a madman the value I'll tell you when you have a confidence like that it puts a violence in you and the violent take heaven by storm again reminded of pilgrims progress and pilgrim takes up that sword and goes to hacking and he fought his way through there I tell you what assurance makes a man bold a woman confident she presses through I've got Christ I can do I can do radical things I can be creative in ways that I lay down my life for Christ and love others I can give my life for this brethren we need to press on with that we need to encourage one another with that and there's no conflict between fear some people think well how can I have assurance how can I have confidence and all the time I'm walking around with this fear you're saying that that this whole book is meant to drive a deep fear into us and that's right brethren the writer of Hebrews can say both Hebrews for one that says therefore while the promise of entering is rest still stands let us fear and he can also say Hebrews 6 12 that says that we ought to have this earnestness they have full assurance of Hope until the end see brethren if I see a warning sign I fear it I heat it listen they're not a contradiction it says I'm assured in Christ I believe I'm getting through I believe he's taking me but if I start drifting off and sin becomes clinging weights clinging I'm being beset I'm dulling down I look at that and I say I need to fear this it's a warning sign and I run back back to my confidence I call under Christ's arms its confident here out there in the world out there strain that's not good that's not confident you see brethren what God said in the New Covenant is this jeremiah 32:40 he says I will put my fear in them that they not depart from me you see that's that's what true salvation looks like he puts his fear so that we don't depart so here's the true Christian he's walking through life and here is he's he's at the Grand Canyon and there's a sign warning thousand foot cliff well you see the Christian says oh I fear that I'm running back over here to safety where I've got confidence and assurance the man without that the woman without that they say forget about that they go over and play around by the edge that's what happens but then God puts his fear in the hearts of his people when he knows all of a sudden that Christ isn't as precious isn't as real communion with him isn't as sweet as it was before he sees these sins he feels these weights they be any repents they've crept in he comes to God's Word and he says if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth and he's thinking oh man I did sin deliberately the other day and he's afraid and he says Lord I'm sorry I know I did that on purpose Lord forgive me I he runs back and he can have confidence but if you're able to say well I know that was sin and you're just justifying yourself you're going to hell you just live that kind of life where you just you deliver it sin and you're doing this it doesn't matter what you have brethren you and I need to have a theology that says no matter what we claim happened yesterday or 20 years ago or whatever no matter what claims we had it doesn't matter if I've been an elder in the church for 10 years and I preach to people and God uses it to help people it doesn't matter we need to have a theology that says if I stray and I walk away and I follow away from the Living God and I go into deliberately sinning I just drift I forsake and neglect this gospel I'm gonna perish and we need to have that kind of theology brethren that kind of theology and what we need to remember is this God appoints means by which he saves his people he appoints means these warnings are means puts his fear in us and then puts these means there there's a cliff you know how it was when pilgrim was walking in pilgrims progress he had this this like swampy deal on one side of the path and a cliff on the other side of the path if you fell this way you went off to your destruction if you went this way you got caught in this stuff and it destroyed you and so we walk and there's these warning signs and God puts his fear in us and now as we walk these signs are all along this warning warning so we keep straight and when we begin just stray there's that warning sign deliberately sinning and it causes fear and we we come back then there are means do you see what the means are we need to exhort one another while it's called today that we not be hardened we need to not forsake the assembling together brethren if you minimize the value of the church it can be destructive and if you don't believe that listen to first Timothy chapter 4 verse 16 you know what it says there Paul says to Timothy you preach this truth that I've taught you and he says by so doing you will save yourself and those who hear you I think a lot of times people read that and they're like whoa I don't you can't even fit that into my theology don't even understand what that says so we run away from it brethren I'll tell you it's right back here to the same reality it's it's saying this you come and you sit in the church and you get exhorted by the Brethren and they keep you from becoming hardened and then you sit and you listen to the men that God has called to preach and teach to you and by it they save themselves and you save you get saved well how because under this preaching we're calling you back all the time all the time back to this confidence in Christ warning signs we put up we exhort you we warned you we admonish you we rebuke you instruct you teach you and it's constantly working out towards your salvation these are the means that God is set up to get his elect to the end he saves through means brethren and if you say these means don't matter if you say this preaching doesn't matter and those meetings don't matter in the exhorting of the Brethren don't matter brethren they do matter they're right in the middle of these warnings so brethren I want you to see last week I exhorted you all that what this whole book of Hebrews is about intermixed in all these warnings and in all these kind of negative pictures of what these Hebrews were like it's all Christ it's the supremacy of Christ and last week I was exhorting you brethren meditate on Christ meditate on his supremacy this book is about how he's greater than able and greater than Levi and greater than Abraham and greater than Aaron and greater than Moses greater than the Angels brethren just fill yourself with the greatness of Christ and last week I showed you the life of Chalmers and Edwards and and Simeon and how they had just focusing on the person and work of Christ just had tremendous experiences but what I want you to see is that exhortation is not meant just to have you filled with the spirit or filled with joy it's meant to get you to the end it's saving when you fill your heart and mind your contemplations and meditations with Christ and we're exhorting one another to do it and we're preaching to one another to do it constantly Christ Christ Christ by it I'm saved and you are saved rather than if we believed our Bibles of course my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hands brethren those hands we've been talking about when a sinner is saved they hold him that's what Scripture teaches but the elective God will hear God's warnings and they will fear the elective God will drift it times and then fear and take the warning and run back to Christ the elective God will struggle feel their hands hanging heavy at times dull but the elect will become alarmed and they will repent they will hold fast their confidence yes the elect of God are most assuredly and certainly to be saved but they will not be saved apart from fear and warnings and church meetings and expectations that prevent hardening nor apart from meeting together and stirring up one another to love and good works and attending to the preaching that God uses to save the preacher in the hears y'all see that yes their security those hands are secure but there's a way as I heard Bob Jennings say one time he talked about the tapestry all of our lives are these tapestries and see God doesn't bring us through in a vacuum he brings us through using all of this machinery to get us to the end and I hope you all see it brethren confidence confidence and you don't establish confidence in Christ unless you're immersing yourself in those promises in the you know confidence is confident in something right he's not confident in nothing is confident then when I look at Christ he is greater it is such a great salvation I'm not trading this for the world and to get there you got to be thinking on it you've got to have a mind set on things above or you don't make it brethren that's my encouragement that's my exhortation those are the warnings of the Scriptures I hope you feel that there's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God well may God help us amen

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 13,699

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords: tim, conway, warning, fall-away, salvation, eternity, Jesus, Christ, hebrews

Id: caMRN4A1eU4

Length: 60min 27sec (3627 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2011