CHURCH: Exhortation

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, want you to invite you to take it and open it up to Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, I'm on page 1007.

There's a Bible on your roll there.

If you're visiting today, uh or maybe you hadn't been here in a while, we're finishing a series today on the church.

Next week we'll start the book of Romans.

And some of you have said, now how are you going to do that?

We're going to start in chapter 1, verse 1, and go all the way to the end.

That's how we're going to do that.

It'll take about, I don't know how long it'll take.

It'll take a while.

We'll do some Romans.

We'll take a break for Advent because we're weird.

We're a Baptist church that does Advent.

Alright, some of you say, hey, that Catholic thing with all the candles.

Yeah, we'll do that again this year.

Anyway, uh, we're in a series, we're finishing a series this morning on the church, and we've been using the acrostic of Y for the Bride of Christ.

And the W is for worship.

The I was for instruction.

The F is for faith or fidelity.

And this week the E is for exhortation.

Exhortation.

It's a word I said in an email yesterday I sent to you.

It's probably the greatest but most unused word in reality in the American church today.

And so I want to talk to you about exhortation.

And the Bible defines it so much better than I could.

Let me just get to the Bible, okay?

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19.

Hebrews 10:19

He says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast a confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and 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, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This past Wednesday was Yom Kippur.

In case you didn't know, Yom Kippur is the highest and most holy day in the Jewish calendar.

And it's i i it's what the writer of Hebrews is referring to.

On Yom Kippur, this high and holy day, the high priest would go into what was called the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle or the temple.

It's a place where the presence of God abode or abided or stayed or lived or whatever.

The Ark of the Covenant was there, and there was a curtain that separated it, and it only went in there once a year.

And the Bible says very clearly, he went in there to make atonement for his sins and for the unintentional sins of the people.

For all the sins that they had, that the people had sinned, they'd bring an animal to the temple, and they would sacrifice the animal for their sins.

But just in case they had sinned and forgot to sacrifice, on Yom Kippur, the priest would go into the literal presence of God, and he didn't do that lightly.

He would wash himself and he would take the ceremonial bathing ritual, which the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says our conscience has been washed clean.

We don't have to do this anymore, and we'll get to that in a minute.

And he would go in, he would sew bells to the fringes of his robe.

Because if he went into the presence of God and he had unconfessed sin in his life, he would be struck dead.

And they wouldn't go in there and get him.

They had a rope around his right ankle, they would just drag him out, hold the rope up and go, all right, Hal, your turn.

No, there was a sense of sobriety about the presence of God and there and they didn't take that lightly.

And that's what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in this first section.

This passage of scripture, this section kind of breaks out into three sections, and I want to use that as my three points this morning.

My first point is simply this when you talk about the church and exhortation.

Here's exhortation.

I'll give you an example out of my own life.

Yesterday, my wife and I were in the garage.

When your wife follows you into the garage on a Saturday, she wants to have this conversation.

And my wife and I, by the way, I'm a better man because I married my wife.

And I'm a more thoughtful, considerate person because my wife yesterday, the exhorting conversation we had was my wife said to me, You don't have to say everything you're thinking.

And sometimes when people ask you questions, just don't say everything.

You can answer the question and not say everything.

I try to explain to her.

I can't help it.

It's like the space shuttle and it starts rumbling and everything starts rattling and starts lifting off.

And I don't want to say everything.

Matter of fact, what ought to surprise you is I don't say everything.

And my wife said to me, and uh, because I said, I don't say everything I'm thinking.

She said, I find that hard to believe.

And I said, I'm thinking some things right now I'm not saying.

About how you remind me of your mother.

Yeah.

Boom.

Kept that one back there in my back pocket.

I don't say anything to her on the way out this morning.

But I was just like, and she's like, you don't, and I just said, and I'm and I mean this.

I'm not being funny.

I said, I think that's lying.

I think when somebody asks you a question and you don't answer honestly, or you just kind of say this and kind of, that's a lie.

Now my wife wasn't saying lie, she's just a very considerate person.

I'm considerate, but when you ask me a question, I'm just gonna tell you.

I'm not very smart.

That's exhortation.

I thought about that conversation into the night, and she probably thought about it because she kept wanting to have it an hour later.

I was like, I'm done with this.

Well, can we just go back to that?

Why do we gotta go back to it?

I'm done.

I'm right, you're wrong.

No, no, I am not wrong.

Okay, and by the way, some of y'all will rap me out and I'll have to have it again this afternoon.

Sorry, suckers.

Exhortation starts with this first point.

This is what we have.

That's verse 19 to 23.

This is what we have.

And you say, What do you mean?

There's about four or five things I just want to list briefly.

There's a lot to get to here, and I want to get to it all and get you out of here in a timely fashion.

Amen.

You say, what do you mean?

Look at verse 19.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence, what do we have?

First thing we have is confidence.

Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.

In other words, here's we're we're we're such a politically correct religious subculture in the American church that to have confidence because of what Jesus has done, not because of ourselves, but to have confidence has kind of become a sin in the American church.

But the Bible says, hey, because of what Jesus did, now we have confidence.

I don't have any confidence in myself, but we have confidence.

And he says, hey, this is what we have.

Secondly, he says we have this new and living way.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, in other words, we don't have to kind of shrink back and go through all these rituals.

He has rent the veil.

The curtain has been torn from top to bottom and bottom to top.

And he's kind of said, Come boldly before me and bring your confidence with you.

Why?

Because there's this new and living way which has been opened for us through the curtain.

That is his flesh.

That is because Jesus died.

There's a new way of relating to God.

Now, the Bible, I've said this before, let me say it again.

The Bible speaks with such amazing peace and loud authority, and it says so much that you've got to slow down sometimes, which is hard for me because I get excited.

You've got to slow down and not miss it.

And this is one of those cases where it says this new and living way, that word new is the Greek word prospythos, and it means freshly killed or lately slaughtered.

You say, What?

Yeah, that's what it means.

He's talking about when Christ died on the cross, how he was freshly started.

You had this new, and then you juxtapose that against and living way.

How can something be freshly slaughtered or just killed and still be living?

It's because the death of Jesus made life for you and me possible.

You have this new and living way.

And then he says this.

Since we have this new and living way that is open for us through the curtain, and then he says in verse 21, and since we have a great priest, since we have a great priest, someone said to me, I watch you sometimes on Sundays, and we'll be singing, and you're drinking a cup of coffee or something, and you just hoisted up like you're in a bar and we're doing sing-alongs.

And I said, That's exactly right.

That's exactly right now.

It's been a while since I've been to a bar, and if you're going and you need a designated driver, I'll go with you.

But but sometimes when we sing things and say things like, I pulled out a pen a minute ago, and if I'd had a coffee and I might have raised it up when we sang sin and despair like the sea waves roll, uh, and threaten the soul with infinite loss.

I was just like, yes, absolutely, because I have friends that go to this church that you may be here right now, and I love you, but I'm not gonna lie about you, or that some will be in the second service who are living in sin right now.

And they're threatening their soul with infinite loss, and they look at me and kind of go, Well, I appreciate your opinion, but I just disagree.

Well, it's not about disagree or don't disagree, it's about right and wrong, and you're wrong, which makes me right.

Not because I'm right, because the Bible's true is a better way of saying that.

Well, I'm just gonna do what I want.

You think Jesus died for you to get to do what you want?

Is that is that what this is all about?

But we'll get to that in just a minute.

But I you say, but but somebody said, hey, I watch you, and sometimes you get a little carried away, and and and I I didn't know what to say.

But but but but what I said came out of this.

I just said, I've never forgotten, I've never lost sight of who is great in this relationship between me and God, and it's not me.

He says, We have a great priest.

What makes him great?

Look back at verse 11 of chapter 10.

He says in verse 11, and every priest, every priest, that's the employees at the religion factory, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

Now just stop.

Just breathe that in for a minute.

Every priest stands offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

How would you like to have a job where every day you get up and go do the same thing and you know in the marrow of your bones it doesn't do diddly?

Wouldn't you hate that?

This priest stands, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but when Christ, our great priest, had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified or being made holy.

That's what makes him great, for us, because by a single offering, the reason we don't make offerings or sacrifices for our sins anymore, the reason none of you called me this week and said, Hey, I lusted, but I caught the neighbor's dog.

I'm gonna come down there.

Would you sacrifice it and cover my sins?

It's because when this priest, our great priest, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sin.

He sat down, and since that time, he just waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.

Why?

Because he's finished everything necessary for you, he has made you perfect forever.

Now turn to your wife, men, and say, I'm forever perfect.

Tell her that right now.

Some of you couldn't look your wife in the eye.

She'd look at you like, are you gonna say that?

No, we know that's a lie.

Just he didn't mean that.

No, that's what the Bible says.

You've been made here.

Let me drop a big word on you so you know I've been to school and got an education.

It's positional righteousness.

It's yeah, I've been made perfect forever.

That's my position in Christ.

And I am being made holy.

That's my progressive righteousness.

I'm becoming who the Bible says I am.

And one day I'm gonna get there, but in the meantime, I don't lose sight of the fact that that's what makes him great.

Is he says, this is who you are now.

Spend the rest of your life living like it.

That's what makes him great.

Fourth thing, he says, this, and draw near.

And let us, verse 22, draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, and our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

It's why Jesus said to the disciples, hey, you're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you.

He says, draw near.

See, if you hear anything this morning, hear this.

Deep in the heart of God is an invitation going out to you to say, draw near, get close.

Don't miss this.

Say, well, you know, and when you hear draw near, it's kind of like our dogs.

Every once in a while, like there's people I live with, like the three women I live with, who think those dogs are part of our family.

Then there's the man, I see some of you nodding your head.

You've lost your minds.

They're not part of my family.

They are consumers.

They eat food I pay for, and they do things on the carpet that I paid for.

And when my wife is there, I roll up the magazine and I talk to them in a deep voice.

And I tell them, when my wife leaves, this megaphone is going to become an instrument of wrath on your backside.

And they know it.

Because when my wife leaves, they go hide.

And I find them.

And I don't abuse them.

Don't come to me, you shrub huggers, and go, you shouldn't hit those animals.

Just get them by the collar and give them a few of those and throw them in the backyard.

And then my wife comes back and I'll call them and they won't come to me.

And she's smart.

She's like, Did you do something to those dogs?

I don't know what you're talking about.

I've been watching football the whole time.

Do you know A and M beat Arkansas?

I mean, big deal.

Who couldn't beat Arkansas?

But we're going, woo, we'll take some of that.

Why won't the dogs come to you?

I don't know.

They don't draw near because they're afraid of me.

The same reason you don't draw near to God, you think he's out to get you.

Deep in your heart, you have this un, this, this fearful uncertainty about just how he's going to react.

He's not an alcoholic stepdad that it could go either way.

Depending on how much he's had to drink.

He says, draw near.

Why?

Well, look up at verse 17.

He says, I remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

Where there is forgiveness of these, your sins and your lawless deeds, there's no longer any offering for sin.

Here's my fear for a lot of you.

You don't draw near because you don't feel like in your mind you've made enough offering or enough payback for sin.

And the Bible says your sins, if you're a Christian, I'm talking to you, if you're not a Christian, this is what you're missing out on.

This is what's available to you.

But the Bible says your sins and lawless deeds, remember no more.

Okay?

There's no such thing as karma.

Some of you that bothers you.

You're calling, oh no, easy, easy preacher.

No, no, no.

It's not about karma.

My sins and lawless deeds, God has forgiven and forgotten.

He has chosen, he's exercised his sovereign will, and he says, I will remember them no more.

So when people come up and they say, hey, remember back in 1988 when you, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, what how do you think God thinks about that?

He doesn't think about it, he's forgotten about it.

And they look at me like, oh, that's just arrogant.

No, it's confidence.

Because, see, not not in anything but but God and and what he what what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

When he says, draw near, there's no fear and there's no guilt.

Now that my sin is taken away, and if you're a believer, your sin is taken away, and you're forgiven and you're forgotten.

See, here's one of the things I've been thinking about because I don't know why, and we and we did, I don't evaluate the worship, but it's kind of like our worship gets to a certain level and then it just kind of stops.

And I wonder, here's the thing in my spirit today.

I wonder if sometimes the worship is what it is here, and it's good, and I and I love it, but it's kind of like we never just lose ourselves in worship.

Have you noticed that?

We never just kind of get excited and just like, whoa! And here's my concern that for many of you, worship is kind of an offering for sin.

It's kind of where you pay God back with some lyrics and go, yeah, that's me, God, right there.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And I just wonder, is if have you forgotten that your sins and lawless deeds, He remembers no more.

So you don't have to make any offering for sin.

Sin matter of fact, you you you don't, can you just imagine your life with sin not a part of it?

Some of you are like, shut up.

Let me ask you, can you imagine your because the Bible says your sinful nature has been circumcised?

Don't want to go into it, but that involves the removal of something.

You feel how just still got in here?

Because some of you are like, oh no, no, no, no.

Because see, what's gonna happen if we start saying what the Bible actually says, then you're gonna realize that now something's wrong here because you you you can draw near because you have this great priest because he's been freshly slaughtered, and there's this living way, not this dead religious ordinance or tradition.

Next thing he says is hold fast the confession of our hope.

Let's assume an active posture towards this, the confession of our hope.

And he says all this to get to this word.

He says, Let us hold fast, verse 23, the confession of our hope without wavering.

Why?

For he, not it or what, but he who promised is faithful.

It's not a body of information.

We're not memorizing religious facts for a pop quiz to see if we can get into heaven.

Our faith is in the person of God, it's in the person of Jesus because our faith was made possible, because God became a person to save people.

And he says, hey, don't lose sight of this.

Hold fast the confession of your hope.

Why?

For he, it's very personal in nature.

And the Bible says, this is what we have.

And so, secondly, this is what we do.

This is the exhortation part.

And then we'll end with a warning this morning.

This is what we do, secondly.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 24.

Because all this is true.

We have all this.

This great high priest.

We have our sins have been forgiven.

Our sins and lawless deed.

I have to come and put a fiver in the box to say, there you go, God, there's for what I did this week.

Verse 24, and 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, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

This is the heart of exhortation.

It says, Hey, let us consider, excuse me, and let us consider how to stir up one another.

That word stir up, that phrase stir up is the Greek word paroxosmos paroxysmos, paroxysmos, and it means to incite, to irritate, or to provoke.

Don't you want friends like that?

Don't you want to meet somebody at Panera Bread this week and you get there a little early and you sit down and you're kind of nervous, and the and the waitress walks by and says, Hey, uh, everything okay?

You're kind of sweating there.

Well, I'm having lunch with my friend Janie, and uh, she says crazy stuff, and there's no telling what's gonna come out today.

But she loves me, and it's always good, and sometimes it makes me so mad, and we this might break up, this might just kind of explode into a catfight.

We may have to pull each other's hair and slap each other, but don't break it up.

It's good.

Can you imagine that?

But see, here's the thing: we don't do that because the Bible says let us consider.

In other words, think about, be intentional about becoming this kind of person.

Here's my fear that most Christians are not that way.

We're not paroxysmos.

We don't stir up, we don't incite or irritate or provoke.

We get together and like a little bottle of hand sanitizer, we pull out our little squeeze bottle of affirmation cream, and we just polish each other up with affirmation, and then we leave real shiny.

And you're the same person.

You should go back to work with some buttons missing, your shirt a little disheveled, and like, oh, you had the launch of bill, didn't you?

Shut up.

I keep an extra shirt in my closet on days like today.

You say, Well, I I don't know what you mean.

See, because this is what we have, you don't have to mess with sin.

Sin's been atoned and taken care of for and taken care of.

Ask yourself the simple question What's the last thought provoking thing a Christian said to you?

Most of you have to think hard.

Because it's just this kind of weasley blah, blah, blah.

Good, good, good, good.

Bless the Lord.

Thanks for coming.

And by the way, the reason we're talking about exhortation in church is because you should come to church some days and leave a little irritated.

At me.

Yes, sir.

You should walk out today, maybe, and kind of go, he's loud.

I don't like that part he said.

I think he was making light of whatever.

I don't want that.

But every Sunday it shouldn't be, oh, come here, sweetie.

Let me just love you and braid your hair.

A friend of mine texted me a picture last night because I have friends that like a jerk with me on Saturday nights because they know I don't go out to eat.

I don't go do anything.

I just go in my office at my house and kind of start taking deep breaths, like Lama's breathing.

Getting ready for this morning.

Because I don't take it lightly.

I gotta get up and teach the Bible because we live in a day and age where people don't want to hear the Bible.

They formulate teachers after their own desires because they want to have their ears tickled.

And a friend of mine sends me a picture and says, by the way, and it's a pastor of a very large church in Houston, not in Sugarland, who today is starting a series entitled Angry Birds.

And I just wanted to smoke.

I was just like, and not because I was mad, I wasn't mad.

I mean, I had the picture on the stage with all this, took God's money and built stuff in a big slingshot over here, life-size slingshot.

What?

And I wasn't, I just thought, oh my gosh.

Or is this what it's come that adults get up and go watch cartoon sermons?

No wonder the salt has lost its saltiness.

Are you kidding me?

Somebody should charge the stage and ask for their tithe back.

But instead of wasting my energy being angry about that, because I wasn't angry, I was just sad.

I just went to my office and just closed the door and stayed up till one o'clock this morning.

He said, God, if I ever get like that, just kill me.

And I heard his little voice.

He said, Don't worry, I will.

So I went to bed and slept with one eye open.

You know, I we just kind of, you know, I didn't really mean that.

I did.

Okay.

So this is what we do.

See, because it's been taken care of.

He says, here's what you do.

Let us hold fast, excuse me, let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works.

And what is the Bible saying?

The Bible's saying that because your sin has been taken care of, all the your main focus ought to be to get with other believers.

Don't forsake this, and believe yourselves together here, but also in small groups like Bible communities that happen up here and upstairs over here and your community group, and you give deliberate intentional thought as to how you should in your community groups every once in a while, don't just answer questions that most of you don't do because they're a little too deep for you.

Because if for some reason you get about 50 in the church and you stop thinking digestively about your life, and you most need to think about your life.

Because you're just set up to just default into worshiping your grandkids and collecting stuff.

Oh, now we're getting down to where we lived.

You feel that?

Some of you are kind of like, and now you're irritating me.

Thank you.

Mission accomplished.

And by the way, if this is what we're supposed to be, let us consider how to stir one up to love and good works.

Look at me.

If you're in a community group, don't let your community group erode into a referendum on the upcoming presidential election.

That's not God's biggest thing.

I'm not saying it's not important.

I am saying unequivocally, it's not ultimate.

It's not.

It's where people go to hide instead of talking about their lives.

You can talk politics on your own time.

Don't come to our church's community group and show videos about how to take back the White House.

It's not what we're about.

Vote absolutely.

If you like socialism, vote for one person.

If you like capitalism, vote for the other.

Beyond that, you're thinking people.

What else do you need to know?

Oh, I can feel some of you didn't like that either, did you?

Lord, I'm fulfilling my purpose today.

There's gonna be some pearls come out of this irritation.

And by the way, a guy asked me, a friend of mine asked me, he goes, What are you preaching on this week?

And I told him exhortation, he goes, What is that?

Like, really?

Oh, I'm doing a thing on angry birds.

He would have thought I was clever if I'd have said that.

I said, Well, I just think that we need to, we need to love each other enough to irritate us towards holiness.

He goes, Oh, kind of like a little piece of, you go use illustration, how the little sand gets into an oyster and it becomes a pearl?

No.

No.

I'm going to use illustration about how how about us being men and women who are fully alive to the glory of God and we say stuff that matters to people we love.

Well, I do the pearl thing.

You ever walk away from conversations and just think, I need new friends.

I just, oh.

See, this because this is what we have, then this is what we do.

And then thirdly and finally, listen to me.

We're going to get serious here.

Not that we hadn't been serious, but but this is the part we preachers tend to skip because this is what we know.

See, unless you know this part, you won't, you'll lack sufficient motivation to speak up.

Look at verse 26.

For go on sinning deliberately.

After receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries or the enemies of God.

Anyone, verse 28, who has set aside the law of Moses, dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If this is true, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, who has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine and I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

See, look at me.

When he finishes and says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God, this is exhortation.

The Bible says, put yourself in the hands of some other people.

Because if not, you're gonna default into your most pet sin, and you're gonna just you're gonna become an apostate.

You're just gonna leave the faith.

You say, What do you mean?

That's what he's talking about.

The sin of apostasy, which is basically it's rejecting the gospel and its consequences in our lives.

And by the way, it it happens in the church.

Usually, you have to be around the truth in order to leave the truth.

And the Bible is replete with examples of this.

And by the way, if you say, Well, I don't understand apostasy.

You ever known a man or a woman that's been married 20 or 30 years?

And one day they get up and go, I don't want to do this anymore.

I don't love you, I never loved you.

I've heard that so many times.

And every time I hear it, my thing is, I know one's like 23 years.

God said to his wife, she walked in and said, I don't love you.

Actually, I never really loved you.

Should have never married you in the first place.

I've been unfaithful since we were dating and engaged, and ever since we've been married, I've been the flander.

Every time I go on a business trip, I just go out and cheat on you.

And he looked at me as if to say, and this will explain it all, Pastor.

I never really loved her.

Oh, really?

Yeah, your lifestyle told us that before your words did.

That's an apostate.

Someone that's around things and hears things and knows things and willfully, or to say it like the Bible says it, deliberately after receiving it, they go on sinning deliberately.

That's somebody that just says, hey, I don't care.

I don't care.

See, there's one or two responses to the gospel.

Either you can be around it and hear it, but you you'll either believe it and you receive it and you live it, or you just abandon it.

And some people it takes time.

So I just want to walk through some of the words and phrases in this latter part so we don't miss it.

But the Bible, I said a minute ago, the Bible's replete with it.

1 John chapter 2, verse 19, it says they went out from us because they were not of us.

1 John 2:19

They left.

They were no longer people of the faith because they never were people of faith to begin with.

2 Chronicles chapter 25, verse 14 and 15, and verse 27 talks about a man named Amaziah.

2 Chronicles 25:14

Amaziah was a king.

He conquered a city.

He took some of their gods back and he bowed down or actually burned incense to them.

And the Bible says he abandoned the Lord his God and walked in his ways no more.

And so the Jews got together in Jerusalem and they said, you know what?

We're not going to tolerate this apostate.

And so they sent a delegation and they killed him.

And he didn't go to heaven because he prayed a prayer when he was 13 and lived like hell until he was 63.

Abandoning God has dire consequences, men and women.

Think in New Testament and Demas, having loved this present world more than the one to come, has left us.

Think Judas.

Judas, three years right there with Jesus and walked away from it all.

Or the words of Jesus from Matthew 24, verses 10 to 12, I'll just read them.

Matthew 24:10–12

He says, and then many, this is Jesus talking, and then many will fall away.

It just because they never belonged.

It's not that they didn't try hard enough.

It was never in them to quote the adulterer who sat in my office a while back.

I've never loved her.

I just did this because I thought it would fix me.

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

And if all this is true, and it is, then we need to know what the Bible says.

He says, for we go on sinning deliberately.

What does that mean?

It means with committed intent.

It means I know better, I know it's wrong, but I'm just going to do it anyway, because that's what I want to do.

Now look at me, beloved.

I've told you before, if you're vista in this church, you'll know something about me very quick.

I don't apologize for what the Bible says, but I'm not mean-spirited or heavy-handed with it.

I'm not going to tell you, oh boy, I'm telling you God's going to get.

I'm going to tell you what the Bible says.

And the Bible says if you go on sinning deliberately, that means you know better and you choose to do it anyway.

The second phrase I want to point out to you is that there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

What does that mean?

It means because you've set aside the sacrifice of Christ.

Remember, we started with this is what we have?

This great priest who's opened up this new and living way.

He was slaughtered on the cross because of your sins and for your sins.

And if your life looks at that and says, I don't care, I'm going to do what I want, then there's no longer remains a sacrifice for your sins because who else is going to die for you?

He says therefore go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

By the way, receiving the knowledge of the truth doesn't mean they were Christians.

It means they heard it in their head, but it never got in their life.

There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment.

Now that that's a phrase you don't hear in church anymore.

A fearful expectation of judgment.

That means your good intentions will never excuse your bad behavior in the eyes of God, nor will it ever change his mind about judgment.

And beloved, it's just a bunch of I don't know what, it's just, I don't know what it is.

I mean, there's every preacher in this world is better than me.

But we got a lot of cowards in the pulpit that won't say what the Bible says.

And we make it sound like, well, I hear this all the time.

My God's a God of love, and He would never judge anybody.

He will judge everybody.

He's going to judge me, He's going to judge you.

If you're a Christian, doesn't get you out of the judgment.

2 Corinthians 5.10 says we all have an appointment to stand before the judgment seat of Christ so we can receive what is due to him for the deeds done while in the body, whether good or evil.

See, when I'm stirred up to love and good works, it's so I can stand before God and God go, you know what?

You were faithful, you did some good stuff, and no one knew anything about it.

And your faithfulness has a reward in heaven.

It's not in vain that you do the right thing.

He says, for this fearful expectation of judgment.

You know who understood this more than anybody?

Demons.

Like, you a crazy old man.

Yeah.

Don't turn to Matthew chapter 8 by verse 29.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

There's a gathering demoniac.

It's where Jesus cast the demons out into this herd of pigs over here.

And the gathering demoniac, the demons inside that person, uh, that didn't possess this person.

They cried out.

They said, What have you to do with us, O Son of God?

And hear this question.

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

They knew there was a fixed point in time that God was going to judge the world in righteousness.

That's what Paul says in Acts 17 when he's standing at the Europicus preaching.

He says, Hey, in the past God's been patient, he's overlooked your sin, but now he's commands all people everywhere to repent.

Why?

Because he has fixed a point in time where he's going to judge the world in righteousness, and he's given evidence to them to this by raising him from the dead.

No one is going to get a raw deal at judgment because you're going to be judged by Jesus who died for your sins.

And if you spurn the Son of God, there's no longer a sacrifice for your sins because you're going to stand before him in judgment.

What are you going to do?

Say, I never knew, I didn't get a chance.

I have friends that live in sin right now.

I was at the Denny's up here on Highway 6 a while back having breakfast with a friend of mine who's living in sin.

Love the guy tremendously.

Now, by the way, if you're in this room and you're living in sin, I'm not mad at you.

I don't know all your business, but I have friends that they think because they take their preacher friend Neil to breakfast, God's going to give them a hall pass.

That's not true, but if you want to just try it out, I'm available for breakfast this week.

Bring your credit card.

And so my friend is living with this girlfriend, and they do married stuff, and I said, Why don't you just get married?

Why don't you just move out and I'll do your wedding?

Just move out and live separately for three months.

Let's get some good biblical counsel and start this thing off on the right foot.

Oh no, man.

Well, we we uh we we we we're just living together to save money.

Not only are you committing heinous sexual sin, but you're a liar.

He goes, Well, you know, you you can't judge me.

I'm not judging you, I'm just telling you the truth.

You're a liar.

Because my friend drives a Lexus.

You can't roll up to Denny's in a brand new Lexus and tell me you can't afford two apartments.

Because I want to jump the table and just choke you right there.

Not because I'm angry or God, that guy's judgmental, or you think I'm that stupid.

At least be man enough to say, I don't give a rip.

Now here's the best part.

This cat grew up in church.

I told you, apostasy flourishes in church.

Where are you gonna hear the truth?

Where are you gonna get a knowledge of the truth and then walk away from it and just sin deliberately?

And all of a sudden the conversation started heating up.

He said, I don't think I appreciate you.

I didn't come here to be judged by you.

You better be warm to mind me than judged by God because it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.

We just don't believe in the same God.

There's not another one.

There's not another one.

Yeah, I don't get up in the morning and think, what can I say that will make people angry today?

And then the waitress comes over and got the coffee pot.

Why are they all holding up here?

And she's like, Did you just because I told him out of a because I care about him.

I said, here's one or two things.

Either you'll be found out to be an apostate, somebody that just has never known God, or if you are a Christian, God will probably just kill you and take you home.

That's what the Bible says.

For the believer, there's a sin under death.

You become such a stumbling block.

I said, because Pete, he says, Well, would a loving God kill me?

Because you make him look less than sufficient.

And the waitress said, Well, I don't know if I believe in a God like that.

It doesn't matter.

I mean, you think I'm gonna go home and cry because you don't believe that?

And I'm hey, I'm not a rude person.

I I buy tamales from a lady that walks through my neighborhood just because I like her.

She's hardworking.

Feed them to my dogs, hopefully it'll kill them.

It's not being taped, is it?

That's exactly right.

It's just, I mean, there's no fearful.

He says, hey, here's the deal.

He says, hey, there's no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment.

What got it going that day in Denny's where my friend pushes plate across the table at me because sometimes I irritate people.

I don't mean to.

I said, are you ready to be judged by God who knows everything?

I don't, I didn't come here to be judged by you.

Well, I'll eat that bacon if you don't want it, but I'm just telling you, man, this is not good what you're doing.

I mean, and you just you just keep bowing your neck.

It's like you want to get in a spitting contest with God, and he's gonna drown you.

And so our conversation ended that day, and we shook hands, and he goes, You make me so angry.

I have nobody in my life that makes me as mad as you.

I'm strangely warmed by that.

I'm gonna do the discount double check.

Look at the next phrase.

We're almost done.

You still with me?

Next week we're gonna do Angry Birds.

We'll build stuff up here.

I mean, look up here.

We just got all this, we got this broken down collection of musicians.

And we got a drummer over there that escaped from prison.

We've got to keep him locked up in there so he didn't get away.

Then we got Clyde, who looks like the guy on the office over here on the piano.

And then you got me, the beat, the B team.

The B team preacher is here.

Some of y'all are like, Lance was so sweet last week.

I know.

Look at the next phrase.

Hey.

Verse 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

What do you mean?

What does it mean to set aside the law of Moses?

I heard it last week right here in this room.

Somebody was talking and they said to somebody, Oh, well, I don't really, I don't really believe the Bible.

It's just a collection of things that men put in there, what they wanted.

Woo! And I was in a conversation, I wasn't even trying to eavesdrop, and I was just like, oh, oh, that's that's not true.

Who set aside the law of Moses.

See, we live in a day and age where the individuals become so exalted, he's accountable to no one.

To set aside the law of Moses is just to say, I don't care about that, I'm gonna do what I want.

I'm gonna live with who I want, I'm gonna eat what I want, drink what I want, say what I want.

I'm free.

My God's a God of love.

And it's just a matter of time before you destroy yourself.

Because you can't set this aside and act like it doesn't matter and do what you want.

Because when that day, when it all finally lands on you, how far you've missed the mark, who are you gonna come back to?

Who are you gonna come back to?

Because see, yes, God is a God of grace, but you cannot set aside the law of Moses and say, well, the Bible's just a list of things that men got in there.

I don't really pay attention to that.

What do you pay attention to?

That's what I would ask.

What do you pay attention to?

So I have to go to this person this week, pray for me.

I'm not kidding, and say, hey, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but can I be your pastor for a minute?

By the way, if Lance or Wade or Jerry or Aaron I say that to you, something interesting is coming.

Because some people don't want to be pastored.

I just want to say, hey, you I'm concerned you're setting aside the law of Moses, the clear teaching of the Bible.

It goes on and says this.

He says, If if if this is true, if they died on the testimony of two or three witnesses, verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who's spurned the Son of God and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and outraged the spirit of grace?

Really, in that verse in verse 29, you have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Uh what do what do you mean?

Who has spurned?

The Son of God.

It's katapateo in the Greek.

It's trample underfoot.

Treat with insulting neglect.

Just walk on it.

Secondly, profane the blood of the covenant.

That means you fail to recognize the nature of the blood.

You treat it like it's just another animal that's been brought to be sacrificed.

In other words, big deal.

Jesus died for me.

Blah, blah, blah.

I know that.

Not a good posture.

And then here's the other part.

It says you've outraged the spirit of grace.

That's the Holy Spirit.

See, grace was made possible by a person.

It's not this detached commodity that we can do what we want with.

Let me say that again.

Grace is made possible and available because of and by a person.

It's not this detached, infinite commodity that we can just do what we want with.

We don't sing grace, grace, God's grace, and go, yes, more of that, please.

If you're deliberately living in sin right now, it is not great.

You've insulted the spirit of grace.

And as I said to my friend that day in Denny's, I said, listen, he says, well, you know, because I said, you know, you can grieve the Holy Spirit.

And he says, Well, me and the Holy Spirit are good.

No, I think the Holy Spirit's insulted by your lifestyle, and he's angry with you.

Where do you get that?

And I said, the Bible talks about in Hebrews 10.

And it talks about those who just deliberately sinned.

And it says that you have outraged the spirit of grace.

And then it ends with this appeal to common knowledge.

And I'm done this morning.

You still with me?

Look at verse 30.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

See, these are Jews.

Some are believers, some are not believers.

But this is what they say.

This is not Fort Bend County people who have a church on every corner.

So if you get mad today, you can go to another church next week, another church next week, another church next week.

You can just play the circuit and that's fine.

But these people said, hey, we know that God said, we know that God says, hey, it's in quotes, vengeance is mine, and I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

There's this appeal to knowing God as he is, not as you prefer.

To know God means to know how he's going to respond.

And so I said when I first started that this kind of breaks up into three uh uh uh pieces, and I want to just remember, hey, he starts off with this great, hey, this is what we have.

We have this confidence to draw near to God because our great priest over the house of God has made payment for our sins, so we don't longer have to come and hopefully we sing a song that gives me a new way to say to God, I'm sorry.

Worship is not an offering of sin to God.

Your sin has been paid for.

And what's left for you and I to do, believer, is to come to God and just lose yourself in exaltation and just woo.

Because you've never forgotten who's great in this deal.

And so if you're drinking coffee next week, just hoist it up like now, hey, this is what you have, this is what you get to do.

You get to meet with other people this week and next Sunday night in your community group, you get to sit in someone's living room and have dessert and drink coffee and irritate each other.

Isn't that great?

Now, by the way, that doesn't always look like, oh, well, mm-mm.

Had an older man say, I love older people.

I love men that are old enough to call me son.

And I just go, oh, this is gonna be good.

Come on, be gentle.

Go ahead.

Older man said to me one time, there's not much of the old man in you, but what there is is good stock.

You're like, huh?

What he was saying was, there's not much of the adamic nature left in you, but what there is is really good in a bad way.

In other words, son, if you don't watch yourself, you're gonna screw this up.

But 70-year-old men don't talk like that.

They talk like Scotsmen.

And I just walked away going and he winked.

I can't wait to be an old man that says crazy stuff and then wink.

Don't you wish you had some men in your life like that?

Hey, the way you love your wife makes me want to take my cane and hit you in the throat.

That's exhortation.

I said to my buddy in the parking lot of Denny's, I said, Hey, what does it look like for me to be your friend?

Because I want to be your friend.

Oh, and just keep telling me the truth.

I know you love me.

Okay, I love you.

You know that, right?

I'm not here to judge you or win religious arguments.

I know, I know, man.

Just don't give up on me.

I'm not giving up.

I believe the Bible.

I believe there's hope.

You're not beyond the pale.

Well, I mean, she cries a lot these days.

Because she cries because she wants to be married and not feel stupid when she goes home to her parents and her grandmother looks at her and says, Why are you living in sin?

Because he told me, you and my wife's grandmothers on people tell us this is sin.

Me and Granny are right.

And we'll play you two in canasta to prove it.

And he goes, What's canasta?

That's your problem right there.

Here's a question.

See, this is what we have, this is what we get to do.

We get to be around other people who love us enough to spur us on to love and good works.

Who makes you want to be a better person?

Who makes you want to live a little brighter and a little bolder for the glory of God?

Spend time with them.

And then finally he says, because this is what we know.

It's a sober warning.

Hey, if you don't put yourself in the hand of some other believers who love you enough to tell you the truth, you're gonna just keep sinning deliberately and you're gonna fall into the hands of a living God, and that is not gonna go well for you.

And so here's my question: Where do you go to experience exhortation?

Where is it that you go to be exhorted, to be loved, and I mean to be to be spurred on, to be provoked, to be agitated, to be irritated, and it should be church.

I'm not saying every Sunday should be painful.

Hey, look at me.

Some Sundays you should walk out of here and go, that was good.

I enjoyed that.

Let's go eat.

And some Sundays you should be so mad at me you want to choke me out right here.

You should walk up to me and go.

If your face was play-doh, mmm.

I'm okay with that.

But let me tell you something.

You'll never be able to walk out of here and say, that man doesn't love me.

That man wouldn't give me the shirt off his back.

That man wouldn't give me his last 10 days.

He cares about me.

He wants me to have God's best for my life.

Because that's what you have here.

You have a God who splayed himself out on a stick on a rainy Friday.

So you could be differently.

It's a new and living way.

So if you're here today and you've never responded to that, you don't have a relationship with this God.

In just a minute, we're gonna be dismissed, and myself and some of our staff and elders will be down front.

Or I'm gonna tear off portion.

If you're a private person, I'm gonna tear off portion of your worship flow and just check on there.

Hey, I want to talk to someone about a relationship with God.

I'll come to your house, I'll meet you at Starbucks.

It's not rocket science, but it's a profound mystery.

And it's available to you.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

I'm gonna speak a blessing over you.

In drawing near, there's a reality that can't be understood.

It has to be experienced.

So draw near.

He's not mad, he's just right.

And he's your dad.

Trust your dad.

He's the same he's always been.

Yesterday, today, and forever.

Draw near and full assurance.

And depart now and live with that same assurance.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.