Tonight, we start one of the portions of the book of Hebrews, which is one of the most controversial chapters in these verses of certainly the New Testament, quite possibly the Bible itself. It's something where churches, denominations, and believers have divided over this issue. Um, what's remarkable, as you'll hear more tonight, is that we're all going to be challenged here.
Look, we're at a great advantage being here together tonight because you didn't walk into a denomination. I don't know if you realize that or not. So wait a minute, pulled up at Sid Calvary Chapel. Yeah, who cares?
I'm dead serious. Calvary Chapel is not a denomination. Some people want to say it is, but it's actually not. A denomination, you pay fees and dues to the hierarchy.
There's a governing body that tells you what to do, what not to do. There is. I'm not aware of it. And if they had something to say, I wouldn't listen.
But we're going to follow Jesus here. Here's the thing, is that you didn't walk into a preloaded service whereby we must maintain a denominational foundation. Are you hearing me?
We don't have to come from a Catholic approach of this verse. We don't have to come from a Baptist side approach. We don't have to come from... an Anglican approach.
We don't have to come from a Lutheran approach, a Presbyterian approach, none of that. The Bible is one, but the views of men have divided things up. And when you get carnal, I just, I'll just punch in the face right from the beginning. When you get carnal, you begin to follow the teachings and traditions of men.
instead of the Bible. And you'll even sometimes go so low that you'll even say, well, I'm of Apollos. I'm of Cephas.
I'm of Paul, as Paul spoke about them in 1 Corinthians. But some people will say, well, I'm of Calvin, or I'm of fill in the blank. That's sad.
Because I'm sure that if John Calvin was here today, he'd slap you and say, you should say that you're of Christ. And so tonight, we're just going to break it open. But tonight, boy, I tell you, if you guys can handle the next several weeks, it'd be so healthy for you. It'd be so good for us all. So we're looking at a message series titled, Who Are Those Who Can Never Be Saved?
How's that for a title? Who are those? Who can never be saved? We're going to look at that starting tonight.
Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 4. I'll read the even-numbered verses. If you read the one, I think you only have one. You've got one odd verse to read, don't you? Verse 5. But let's read it slowly, huh? For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become...
partakers of the Holy Spirit. If they fall away, if they backslide, if they fall away, if they depart, if they leave, if they wander off. It's impossible.
It's impossible, he's saying, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. Wow. Father, we pray that you would be our teacher tonight. Moral, Lord, be our teacher. So, Father, give us ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying to we, the church, here tonight.
We ask it in Jesus'name, and all God's people said. Amen. You may be seated. I'm going to ask you to take notes tonight.
Certainly, absolutely, right in the margins of your Bible. Your Bible should be marked up. You should be taking notes, marked up Bible. And then when your Bible gets all marked up, you put a rubber band around it, put it on the shelf, and you get a brand new Bible and start all over again. And yeah, you just showed me your iPad, and you can't do that with an iPad.
There's something... Listen, your device that's glowing in your... I know it's nice. They're very nice and shiny.
But it's not as romantic as having a book, as having a book. But it works. You get the knowledge. You get it all the same.
I get that stuff. But for many of us who have been, or many of you perhaps, I can't speak to myself on this, but to many of you who have been traditionally churched, a church group of people, there's a great amount of you. As I said earlier, that you have been trained. If you know it or not, you've been trained in your previous denominational experience to approach the Bible in what I call a preemptive or a preloaded manner. And that is to read into Scripture the doctrinal influences of the denomination that you've come out of.
Now this is a non-denominational church, which means... It's kind of cute, I always think about this. Sitting right next to you is a Baptist. Sitting right next to you is a Lutheran. Sitting right next to you is a Presbyterian.
And listen, I have a blast with this one. Sitting right next to you might be a Roman Catholic who come to study the Bible. How do I know? They tell me.
They go to Mass on Sunday, but they come here on Wednesdays. I say, why do you do that? And they said, oh, because we don't get the Bible when we go to Mass. We come here to study the Bible.
And so you are very welcome to be here. Keep learning. Keep studying.
Because I know something about you you don't know. Eventually you're going to fall in love with the truth and you'll make the jump. And some people come of the cults.
Jehovah Witnesses are always here. In fact, we've caught some Mormons in the parking lot trying to get a hold of people. And we in turn got a hold of them.
Uh, but listen, you're welcome to be here, learn and find out who the real Jesus is and find out what salvation is really like and, um, on and on it goes. But the worst thing tonight would be that someone who is churched coming to the conclusion while I'm stuck in this view, because that's how I was brought up. And I want to tell you tonight. Every one of us should always let the Bible do the teaching.
Growing up, there was a commercial on TV. Granted, it was, I think, black and white TV in those days, but there was a set of fingers, or a pair of fingers, walking through the Yellow Pages. Anybody remember Yellow Pages? Before Google and all that stuff?
And it said, let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages. That's how you found stuff. And so what a good thing to keep in mind is this. Let your fingers do the walking through the Bible.
Well, wait a minute, pastor. I got to check that out. I got to go to my denominational manual and under the category of what I'm supposed to believe. Seriously. And you wonder why people have no unction and no passion and no power about God's truth.
It's because they don't own it for themselves. So there's a time when a baby must be fed, and then there's a time when you put the spoon in the baby's hand. What happens? Is it messy? Oh, it's messy.
But it's gotta happen. You don't, listen, you don't spoon feed a five-year-old, okay? The only way that you would do that is if your child is severely, severely handicapped by whatever means.
And there's grace for that, obviously. The mom or the dad deals with that situation differently. But listen, if you're 20 years old and we're still talking to you in baby talk, you can drive your car.
I know you can. Go ahead, turn the key. Now put on that bright, blinky light. Something's wrong, okay? And remember, in...
Hebrews 6, the author is walking us through a growing, deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. He just told us last week that we need to forget those things that we've built upon. They're secure.
We got that. Salvation is from Jesus Christ. It's the blood. We've now escaped eternal judgment.
We know about the laying on of hands. we understand the foundational. In fact, let me read it to you.
It's Hebrews 6, verse 1. Therefore, leaving the discussions of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to completion or perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. We already know all about that. And of faith toward God.
Got it. And of the doctrine of baptisms, plural. Yep, we understand that. Water, the body of Christ being baptized into Jesus. Also Jesus baptizing the...
the believer with the Holy Spirit. We got all that. Of the laying on of hands. Yep, got that. Of resurrection of the dead.
Understand that. Can't wait. And of eternal judgment. That's what's coming to a Christ-rejecting world.
And you and I as the church standing before the Lord Jesus in the day of the judgment seat of Christ. And that's going to be a great day, if you think about it, where we are going to be judged by Jesus for our faithfulness to what he's called us to do. Verse three. And this we will do if God permits. And the beautiful thing is God will permit, meaning Paul is announcing, or I believe it's Paul, he's saying, as we continue on and God gives us time, let's go for it.
And I hope I speak for all of you tonight that we all have a sense of urgency, do we not? We have a great, something's up. I'm not talking politics. I'm talking about you feel it. Every Christian I know.
has got this urgency. It's almost like, man, something's coming and I gotta make sure that I get done for Jesus what he's called me to do. So let's go. And it's a beautiful thing.
It's like fire and it's increasing. And I'm really glad about that because I'm getting older, but the fire is increasing. And it's not because I'm getting older, hallelujah, it's because we're at the end. It's a remarkable time. And look, I'm very self-serving in this comment I'm about to make.
I believe in the entire world and of course for America, the only answer is the church. And you are that answer. Because you're growing on and you're growing on deeper. And so we're going to look at what is the correct view.
Can we know? Oh, yes, we can know if, church, we let our fingers do the walking through the Bible. Regarding this very, very controversial portion of Scripture, a lot will lead into this.
I'm going to ask you to write some things down. Very important. 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Be diligent.
Think of that. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. How's that?
A worker who does not need to be ashamed. What's the criteria? Rightly dividing the word of truth.
Every Christian is to know how to use their Bible. Not Google, not denominations, not pastors, popes, or priests. Think of it.
You, directly connected to your Bible, is the will of God. That's so important. Listen, it's so important that when a pastor, pope, or priest is teaching from the Bible, Acts 17 11 says that you are to be judging those who teach the Word of God against or by the Word of God.
Did you know that? How are we going to know if we're being led astray? You won't know unless you know your Bible.
Think of it. Thus, a lot of people are being led astray today because they're not in the Word. They're not reading the Word.
I had a very godly, saintly woman yesterday tell me, it was awesome, it was just, I know it was from the Lord. She just said, listen, you're busy, God's blessed the church, and he's blessed the ministry in so many ways. I want to tell you something. Don't miss one day of Bible reading.
She said, Pastor Jack, and I was in Orange County when this woman stopped me, and she said, Pastor Jack, I'm telling you, Satan is hunting down you and your church and your family to destroy what God is doing all around the world through that church there at Chino Hills, and I'm telling you right now, don't miss one day of Bible reading because the enemy is stalking. and hunting and waiting for an open door. Don't give it to him. Man, let me tell you, that came right from the throne. You could tell.
Wow. And that's true. That we are to be rightly dividing the word of truth. If you rightly divide the word of truth, you won't be led astray by some of the teachings that are applied to the portion of scripture we're looking at tonight, if I ever get through the introduction.
Second... 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Again, our fingers are walking. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Verse 17, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. No denomination needed.
No need to add water. It's all there, right here in the Bible. It's incredible. It's awesome.
Let the Bible interpret. A good rule. Let the Bible interpret the Bible.
How's that? Well, I read the Bible to see, you know, to see what? To see what you can find in it?
Let's be honest. If you read the Bible to see what you can find in it, you'll find it. You may not find it in the right context.
I mean, you know, some people play Bible roulette. Don't do that. At home, you could get hurt. But somebody, I need to, Lord, I need to know what to do.
I need to know what to do. And you, you know, you don't have a Bible diet, so you do Bible roulette. And you go like this, and then you go right here, and you just go, and Judas went out and hung himself. That's not good guidance.
It's out of context, and you ought not to do that. You don't want to do that. The Bible. Inspired, given, God-breathed. That's why the scripture and the original languages have no error.
They're without error. The inerrancy of the Bible is a real deal. And so in Paul's farewell address to the believers at Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, verse 26, he says, therefore, I testify to you this day.
So he's got all these pastors that have come there at Miletus regarding the Ephesian elders. And he says, therefore. I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
Can you imagine saying that? That means every... Paul is saying, every person that I've come in contact with, I've told them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
His conscience is clear on that. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
I love that. Take care of the house of God. Listen, this is what pastors are supposed to do. How? Give them the word.
Jeremiah, God said through Jeremiah, I'm going to send to my people Israel shepherds who will teach my people the word of God. Listen, with all due respect, pastors are not to be your best friend. We're not to be your tennis buddy or your golf pal. Most importantly, above all things, is that a pastor is to speak into your life the word of God.
Why? Because it is a supernatural feeding trough that we experience at the Bible. And pastors are to be held responsible for giving out the full counsel of God. That means everything.
The fun stuff and the not so fun stuff. The easy stuff and the controversial stuff. Because there's a day coming.
But I love the fact that we're supposed to teach or feed the church which God birthed with his own blood. That to me is awesome. Jesus bought every one of us with his blood. He owns us. And we come together at a time like this, and then again on Sunday, to get refueled with the word to get back out and do it.
And so I want to just read this to you as we get set up. It was true in the first century as it was, or it is true today, when 2,000 years ago as the Lord had not returned to establish the promised kingdom, many grew faint in their profession of faith and lacked a deep personal relationship with Christ. Tragically, shortly after Jesus'ascension, many began to give up on waiting and went back into their former relationship with Judaism. After all, what had come out of the Judaism was the fact that it did have divine origins, being the Old Testament, the Old Covenant.
This was a very serious thing for true Christians, for true Christianity. in the fulfillment, that is, that Christianity is the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures. You need to remember that.
Do you remember when we talked about the Judeo-Christian worldview? The reason why you hear that phraseology is because the Judeo-Christian worldview is in harmony one with another because it's all biblically based. It's not the Islamic Christian worldview, is it?
Or it's not the Judeo-Islam worldview. No. We think Christianity is a Gentile thing.
Christianity is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and scriptures. But listen, don't confuse Old Testament teachings and what is known as Judaism today as being one and the same thing. Judaism today...
Predominantly leans upon the traditions of men more than the scripture. If you have Jewish friends as I do, they're heavily into the teachings of Rabbi so-and-so and the other Rabbi so-and-so. And when you bring up to them scripture, they will be honest.
They'll tell you, I've never heard that verse before, or I've never read that book before, or I only read the first five books. I've never read any of the other Hebrew prophets. But Christianity is the fulfillment of all of those from Genesis to Malachi.
And what happened in the first century church was that people gathered together to the gospel preaching, got all excited about it. But remember, even the disciples said, Lord, will you restore the kingdom now at this time? And he said, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons that the father has said in his own care. But you go now and you go to all the world and preach the gospel. They wanted the kingdom to happen now.
It's kind of like you and I accepting Christ now and then going to heaven. Wouldn't that be great? Look, we want Jesus to come back now. But watch, watch what's happening.
This is what was going on at the time of the authorship of the book of Hebrews. Remember, it's the book of Hebrews. He's writing to those who were Hebrews who had come to a saving or at least a professing knowledge of Jesus.
But some were giving up. Some were turning back. Why? We know that some in church history, he's not coming back.
It's been 20 years he didn't come back. We're just going to go back to Judaism. It's still there, but something had changed, mind you.
Something had changed. There was no power in it. In fact, we'll get to it tonight. A whole lot had changed where there was, in fact, no place to go to.
I'll explain that in a moment. Sounds like a brutal statement. So I want to show you three things, and we'll look at it together.
Three views. Number one, there are those who hold to the view that the people described in these verses are Christians who lose their salvation. But if that is true, notice that there is no ability for them to repent or to be restored.
Nor would they have the opportunity to return to Christ, for it would be impossible for them to return. This view does not allow for a backslidden believer to be saved. Listen, I'm not going to name names, but they're famous names who hold the view one.
They believe that if you backslide, by the way, define backslide to me. The only thing I can do to define backslide or backslidden, you guys know what I'm talking about? Okay, is this.
It appears in the Old Testament, and it's assumed in the New, but look at it this way. You can't backslide unless you slid forward. Only a believer can backslide. Does that make sense?
A non-believer cannot backslide. Does that make sense? This is important. This is important. So there are those, I'm not going to name them, that believe and teach that if you backslide, There's no coming back for you.
You're gone. It's over for you. So my question to them is, define to me backslide.
And they can't do it. I've literally talked to a pastor who's known around the world, who holds this view. And I said, listen, I see why you believe what you believe. Listen, because you came from a certain denomination. That teaches this.
But let me ask you, define to me backsliding, backslide, backslidden, backsliding, and tell me, what is it? He can't do it. Because how do you qualify it?
Because technically, I could stand here dressed in white, holding a Bible, and be completely backslidden in my thoughts. Correct? So you see the silliness of view one?
It's merciless. It's brutal. And by the way, it leads to the beating of the sheep. There's no hope in view one.
Very famous view. Maybe the denomination you've come from holds to this view. That's for you to go find out.
View number two. There are those who hold to the view that this passage refers not to genuine believers, but to those who only profess to being believers, citing that verses 4 and 5 of chapter 6 are understood to refer to experiences that come short of actual salvation. I actually have no problem with view number two. View number three. There are others, that's me, who understand the passage to be an exhortation to true genuine believers, urging them on in their Christian growth and maturity.
Having been practicing Jews, remember, it's the book of Hebrews. Under the old covenant, and thus having identified Jesus as Messiah, there is no other form of salvation. This is very, very critical.
This is very, very... important church because they are they're hebrews who say i believe jesus is messiah that he died on the cross for me and they make that profession and they go to church and they've been worshiping with all the other believers including gentiles uh but they become disillusioned by whatever means maybe it's maybe it's that the lord didn't come back or maybe life has gotten tough or things didn't go the way that i thought and um you know what most of my family are still jews This isn't going the way that I expected. I'm going to go back. The problem with going back is that there's nothing to go back to because when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, technically Judaism was ended.
Do you understand that? The Messiah had come and you either understand that or you don't. You either believe the Hebrew prophets or you don't.
You either read from Genesis to Malachi, the whole thing, or you don't. And this is very, very important. So we'll be looking at this together. One final thing is a great, great quote by...
Dr. Charles Ryrie. To this, Dr. Charles Ryrie illustrates by saying that it is like a classroom of students who are told it is impossible for you students once enrolled in this course, if you seek to turn the clock back, which cannot be done, just to start the course over again, that will be impossible. Therefore, let all of you go on into deeper knowledge of God. I like that. I like the way he put that.
Dr. Ryrie continues. The sentence is structured in such a way as to encourage the true believer to press on, while others who merely say they are followers of Christ not only in time will depart or fall away from all that they know, but eventually turn back toward the old practices and traditions of the law. For such a person who has rejected God's way of salvation, listen to this, Salvation itself becomes impossible for them because there is no other form of salvation that exists apart from Christ.
Do you get that everybody? You're a Jew. You have an animal.
You have blood. You sacrifice the lamb. You go to the priest. You get the covering.
You do all of the things. And then you hear the gospel preached across town. Paul's preaching it or Peter.
And you're listening and you go, oh my goodness, this is amazing. And you leave all that because you see. This is the fulfillment. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Wow, this is amazing.
And then as time goes on, as time goes on, the luster, the shine, for whatever reasons, it diminishes. Maybe you are not reading. You're not listening.
You're not talking with, you're not connecting. And you even see God move. You see things happen in the church.
You see maybe a miracle. You hear people talking about God. And you feel.
You feel like you're in, but not really totally in. You go, but you're not, you know, something's missing. You don't know what it is. And you look around and you see people worshiping and praising God, and you don't get it. You just go along with it.
Then a time comes where whatever, by whatever testing or trial, you give up. If you've left... your Jewish practices, and you've come to Jesus as Messiah, and you've said so, you know what you've said, you know what you've heard.
To then turn your back on that and go back to animal sacrifices of blood, do you see? It's impossible to renew you to repentance again. You can't come back because you've already left.
It's not that you can't come back, you won't come back because this is not good for me anymore. I'm going to go over here. Oh, this is great.
Oh, no, it's not so great. I'm going to go back over here because it's traditions and I'm used to it. Where are you going to go for salvation? This can't save you. That over there can save you, but you don't want that anymore.
So the Bible says it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance because they don't have any mode of forgiveness because they have broken rings with the... salvation provided by God. Does that make sense? Now, can we make that mistake this way?
We can be living right now in this age, and you and I could say, for example, I accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. What is that? He died on the cross for my sins. He rose again from the dead.
And you ask people, are you a Christian? Yes. Tell me what that means. And they'll tell you exactly what that means. And then after some time, we don't know how long, whatever situations, issues of life hit them, and they'll wind up.
Leaving Christ and going into the world or back to the world. Did they lose their salvation? I don't think they did because they didn't have it. They never had it.
The Bible tells us if they had it, they would have stayed with us until the end. The Bible says that they were with us, but they were not of us. And they went back into the world.
So listen, this is going to be a deep. few weeks because we're digging down into where you and I are at, each of us. So number one, write it down. It's verse four. Who are those who can never be saved?
It's those who put themselves in an impossible situation for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. So consider this, everybody. When we look at this, we're talking about Some key words.
Look at the word impossible. That word impossible means unable, powerless. It means without a path or without a course. In other words, have you ever heard the term don't burn your bridges? Well, in a very poor analogy, it would be like burning your bridges.
So mark this down. They were looking back to the past. When I say the past, I'm not talking about a psychological past.
I'm talking about a religious past. They wind up saying, nope, this Jesus is not good for me anymore. You say, Jack, I'm not connecting with the message.
Yes, you are. I'm going to ask you right now. Do you know anyone in your life who once accepted Christ, maybe they went with you at the crusade or they went forward at the church or they signed up or whatever. And after a few months or a few years, you never saw any fruit, but they eventually, they just flat out stopped fellowshipping altogether. Do you know anybody like that?
This is exactly what we're talking about here. If you found them today, you may not have seen them in years. And maybe the two of you went forward at the crusade and said the exact same prayer, did the exact same thing, but you haven't seen them since.
And you see that you meet them, and they're living in the world, and they're living for the world, and you're like, what happened to you? What do you mean, what happened? Well, last time I saw you, you and I went forward at the crusade together. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what? I went to church for a while. Yeah, I checked that out for a while. But, um, it just wasn't for me.
That person can tell you the gospel. That person can recite it. They can even admit, yeah, yeah, yeah, I went forward. I read my Bible a few times.
They, listen, what made them go forward? They sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God was moving and working, convicting them. But what happened? They didn't continue on.
They believed. Their belief never took them to faith. And that's very critical. That's very important. And the Bible says to those who have done this, there's no place to bring them back to.
They have... by and large have said, Jesus isn't the one for me. Well, then where are you going to go?
You see how it's impossible to renew them again into repentance? Because they can't find forgiveness anywhere else. They have rejected God's salvation. And that's who he's calling out here.
And so we're looking at those who are on this course of going back to the past. I want to reiterate something I said in the introduction. Remember that at this time of the writing, where would they have gone?
There's no priesthood. Think about this. They come out of the traditions of men. They embrace Jesus, but not fully. They depart from Jesus.
Where are they going to go? There's no priesthood. There's no temple.
In 70 AD, the temple was torn down. Imagine that. There's no Ark of the Covenant. There's no temple in Jerusalem.
It's a wasteland. There's no lamb. There's no sacrificial lamb. There's no more Passover. Real true Passover.
They may celebrate Passover on a calendar, but there's real no true Passover. There's no blood. What are they going to do?
Where are you going to go to? You might be here tonight and you're saying, well, you know what? I was invited here by a friend.
Yeah, yeah. I know all this stuff. There's a danger of you being almost a Christian, you know.
And this is a very serious portion of scripture that now you see why many churches don't even teach on it because it just generates all kinds of questions. It shouldn't generate questions. It should cause you and I to take stock of where we are with Jesus and conclude, hallelujah, there's no Messiah, there's no power, there's no gospel.
If you depart, And it's so possible in our 21st century right now, in these days, in the days that are coming upon us as a church. I say church. This church, all churches. The church and the earth. It's very possible, you guys.
Things are happening so fast. Would you agree? Things are just so fast. We dare not try to predict three months from now what could be going on, because we don't have a clue. What's going to happen...
What's going to happen, you guys, when, if? The Bible teaches that the rapture is true. It's for real. The word rapture is a Latin word. It's caught up in your English Bible, so don't get worried about it.
If you want to do Greek, it's harpazo, which to me sounds Italian, like something you should eat. I'll take two harpazos with extra sauce, right? But in Latin, we get the word rapture.
In English, it's two words, caught up. The Bible teaches that that could happen imminently at all time, anytime. For the last 2,000 years, it could happen at any time.
In fact, there's a trigger, by the way. The book of Romans on Sundays, the book of Romans, there's a reference to when the fullness of the Gentiles is complete and some have come to conclude, and there's no reason why you shouldn't come to this conclusion, that God knows the last Gentile that's to be saved when the church is full. And then it's done.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine that last guy? Do you want to repent of your sins and accept Christ?
Yes, I do. Do you believe he died on the cross for you and rose again from the dead? Yes. Will you pray this prayer now? Dear Lord Jesus, I believe in you, and I give you my heart and my life, and I confess you as my Lord and Savior, and I pray it in Jesus'name.
Amen. And it's the last. Can you imagine it's the last guy?
And then, boom! And the guy's like in heaven going, why didn't I do this sooner? But what if that doesn't happen? Listen, what if we're stuck here another five minutes or five years?
Another 10 minutes or 10 years? At this rate in America, 10 years. You don't want to be here.
I got friends buying land in Costa Rica. They bought homes in Costa Rica. That's where they're going.
I think I'd rather stay here. I've seen the bugs in Costa Rica. I'd rather deal with Al-Qaeda than bugs. So, Texas, there's bugs in Texas, huge bugs.
Everything's big in Texas, including the bugs. But, you guys, here's the thing. What if, listen, this is, we've barely gotten into this study.
Here's the thing. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. If the warning is given.
You better be careful what you are entertaining about departing from Christ because the fact is you ought to dig in deeper and find out more. This is what's happening. You're drifting.
He told us this a couple chapters ago. You're drifting away. Hang on.
Stand firm. If you keep drifting, you're going to drift away and it's going to be made evident. that you were never really in the family of God to begin with.
And I really want to stress that tonight because what if times get tough, people? I think it happened, well, I know it happened with some people during COVID. They gave up on Jesus. They couldn't take it. Are you kidding me?
That caused them to fold on their, look at my fingers, faith. They didn't have any faith. They believed in him.
But when the going got tough, they got going. And it didn't even get tough. That's nothing. Do you understand that?
COVID was a joke compared to what's coming, says the Bible. You think the people in Turkey tonight are concerned about COVID? People, if it gets tough, guess what? God's Word has not changed.
Listen, listen. We have to be careful we don't go like, hoorah, rah. Listen. If the carpet gets yanked out from underneath your feet, you lose your job, the board decides that you're not the one any longer, or you wind up losing your practice, or your firm, or somebody sues you. I talked to a man yesterday, I think it was, who twice was on the brink of losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
He started a company with nickels, built his company. worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and there were pirates, there were corporate pirates trying to steal it from him, and they got an ironclad attack to destroy his life, and he told me, he said, I was five minutes away from becoming very, very wealthy to becoming very, very poor because they were eating me alive. And he said, the night before, he said, God, this was your company from the beginning. You did it all.
It shocked me anyway that you did this. And so it's all, I've honored you with it. It's.
So God, whatever, and he said, I went to the meeting and all the big wheels were there and all the attorneys were there. And he walked in there ready to be like a lamb on the slaughter, to walk out completely broke, not a penny to his name. And he said his attorneys wound up finding a clause, a statement in some old minutes that were written in the corporate books. And it turned out that what these guys had done, the...
minutes had already anticipated it years in advance and that wound up completely destroying them. And he was able to keep the company that he started. And he said the whole meeting was eight minutes long.
And he said, he just walked out just saying, God, it's all yours. It's always been yours. Is that awesome? But listen, not everybody responds like that.
What if your wife leaves you? What if that child that you gave your life to and for raises up to turn their back on Christ and hates you? You've loved on them. You've changed their diapers.
You've wiped their bottom and you fed them. You stayed up with them all night and you wiped the snot from their face. You brought them through. You saved their lives when they were little. You literally, how many times has a parent saved the life of their kids?
It's like every other day. If it's not walking out into the highway, it's making sure they get the right treatment or medicine or care or love. And then the kid grows up, goes to college, comes back after their freshman year and says, you're nothing but a loser.
And it rips your guts out. And then what are you going to do? Listen, trials and difficulties hit us like it hit these 2,000 years ago. And they decided to bail. The reason why they bailed is because they had no faith.
They only had belief. Fair weather followers. So when the world slaps you in the face, and it's going to slap each and every one of us, listen, it's going to happen.
God's word says it's unchanging. You need to hang on to it. And tonight you'll sit here and you'll hear this and you'll go, yeah, yeah, okay.
And then who's to say that you go home tonight? And all this is going to have to be, it's no theory now, it's no Bible study, it's life. And you will either say, what was it now he said?
What verses did he go to? What was that? Or you'll say, where's God? God, why? How could you do this to me?
Walk out. Were you really his to begin with? 2 Peter chapter 1. Verse 10, 2 Peter chapter 1. I know we're in the book of Hebrews, but we're in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 10. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wow. Does that sound like assurance, people? Everybody look, that's assurance. Hebrews sounds kind of spooky right there.
Just know this. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. This is assurance for those who have gotten serious with God.
If you're not serious with God, get serious with God. John 15, verse 4. Jesus said, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
You know what's beautiful about that? We're born again by the power of God. The Holy Spirit's at work within us.
I don't have to worry about abiding. I just need to do what I'm told to do. It's called obedience.
When God says, don't forsake the assembling together of my people. Listen up, everybody. God says, don't forsake the assembling together of my people.
Well, do I need to go to church to be saved? No, of course not. But did he say, gather together? Yes.
In fact, he said, when you see the days getting really goofy, weird, exactly. Gather together more. Nonetheless, so when the governor says, church can't meet, that's not even a debate.
Do you understand that? Listen. The governor, the pope, if I, Jack, were to have said, can't meet, sorry, can't meet, then you should have packed, you'd have packed up and go somewhere. Hey, listen, even if it was on the side of a hill, we are commanded to gather together. What if a nuclear bomb goes off in Omaha?
What do we do? Stay indoors? God says, meet, gather together. You understand that?
Everything about. running from God's people and from his church, which is not a building. Do you understand that?
Do you understand that? This is a bunch of junk. This is metal, glass, steel, fabric, wood. Do you understand that?
This is not the church. You are the church. And we meet in a field, on the shore, on a mountaintop, on the side of a hill. It doesn't matter. Where we meet, that's called church.
Okay, and we're never to forsake that, no matter what's going on in the world. We are commanded. The ones that are being addressed here, they walk away.
When we abide in him, he tells us, abide in me. And our response, because we love him, is, okay, what does that mean? Jesus says, hang out with me.
I'm going this way. Come on, come, follow me. Okay. Can you imagine if... Jesus would have walked by Matthew's toll gate and said, come, follow me.
And Matthew would have said, I don't want to. Well, he wouldn't have, Matthew wouldn't have been in the Bible. His book wouldn't have been the first one in the New Testament.
I tell you what, he doesn't force you into the kingdom, but once you walk in, he knows how to hang on to you. And he's got that ability to show. you himself in such a way that the more you press into him, the more you want to stay with him.
And he goes on to say in John 15 verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, and he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 20. 2 Peter 2 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, watch this, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so whoever he's going to tell us about, they know who Jesus is, they know that he's Lord, they know that he's Savior, And they know that they have walked away from a polluted life.
They, if they are, so again, entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But as it, as, but.
It has happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, a pig, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire. Why? Because pigs roll in the mud. That's what pigs do. Dogs, that's what dogs do.
Pastor, I just read in the Bible recently that Jesus is going to separate the sheep from the goats, the people. I'm afraid I'm a goat. Why are you afraid you're a goat? Why do you think you're a goat? I don't know, I could be.
Do you want to be a goat? No. That's probably because you're a lamb, you're a sheep of his. Think of it.
By the way, sheep, they're very picky about what they eat. Sheep. Their cousins... The goats, they'll eat your clothes off your body if you let them.
They'll eat a tin can. They're insane. Have you seen them?
There's nothing they will not eat. They'll eat anything. They're like people of the world.
I'll eat it. The world eats anything. And then they clap.
They clap. The world watches a demonic music concert. with Satan's horns and women. This is, we have to end at this.
This is epic. The ungodly, unbelieving, anti-Christ, progressive, liberated world out there who claims. This was my thought. I'm just sharing with you my thought the moment I saw the clip. All this happened in my head in a second.
Ha! That's what happened. That's the people.
Those are the people telling me how I should live my life. Watch. And how my God doesn't matter. You keep your mouth shut.
You can do anything you want in your church, but don't you take it outside of the doors. What do they do? They tell us that we're the knuckle-dragging morons who live in the first century, right? They, not knowing that Christianity is the number one civil rights tool to set people free around the world. No other faith in the world has the record we have on liberating slaves.
And you name it? And the word of Christ and the Bible brings dignity to an individual. I'm watching Hollywood.
What was that thing? Grammys or Emmys? I never get that. Grammys.
So the guy's singing with Satan's horns, all red with flames, singing this demonic song. Here's the part that just cracked me up. Women just about naked.
In a cage, all the women were caged, and he's strutting around like the king. And all these women were bowing down to him. That's the world that tells us we're nuts.
That's the world that's telling us that we are not, we don't believe in equal rights, we don't believe in fairness, while they put women in a cage for entertainment. How many kids were watching that show and said, I guess women in a cage naked is okay. And this was a huge hit, I guess.
And listen, when that performance was over, the crowd went nuts, cheering. Nobody was speechless. Nobody stood there.
Nobody said, that's wrong. Nobody grabbed a fire hydrant, or not a fire hydrant, a fire extinguisher. The world has gone antichrist. And the world applauds, and I just thought, what a blazing, blazing manifestation of their hypocrisy. They say, you know, this toxic masculinity.
Uh, yeah. They showed that quite graphically. They talked about how women need to be elevated and not made to be sex objects.
Well, that's not what they portrayed in the whole gig. This world is polluted. But the person who is religious... and not rooted in Christ will in some way, shape, or form. I mean, honestly, I guess maybe that might, that production might allure somebody away.
I mean, man, you gotta be messed up. But it doesn't matter what it is. Dear church, there are things trying to get to the door of your heart to try to approach you dressed up like a hypothetical mailman or FedEx, you know, or Amazon delivery guy.
But he's not bringing your shoes, you know. He's not bringing your vitamins. The Bible says Satan is like a lion roaming around seeking whom he may devour. And you want to be very, very careful.
And when your mind starts thinking thoughts of self-justification and self-argumentation and self-centeredness that, well, I've put up with this long enough. I deserve better. You know, I just don't have the thrill in me anymore. It's time to move on. You have fallen for literally Satan's tactics.
And the question is, were you really even a believer in the first place? Very serious stuff. Barely got into it. It's...
A normal Wednesday, I guess. Father, we just, we come now tonight, and God, we just pray at this moment this would be a good time for us to rededicate our lives right now, to say to you, Father, search our hearts. Lord, look deep within us now. See if there be any wicked way in me. Lord, I'm asking Father God that if there has been a stone left, not only left unturned in our lives, but that stone has been very guarded.
Maybe it's a stone in your life, my friend, that you have really maintained all around it that nobody move it. It's a stone that you know what's under it, you think nobody else does. But I want you to know that stone, that stone's going to grow into a millstone. That stone is not going to be a stone.
It's going to become a rock. It's going to become a mountain that will drown you in the depths of the sea if you let it. I'm asking you tonight, my friend, to you talk to God about that thing in your life.
Maybe it's pride. Maybe you see yourself so spiritually superior to other people. And it's a stone. Maybe tonight, friend, there's been things in your life that you've just settled for. You have just concluded, I guess this is just how it's going to be till I die.
I'm going to be a Christian, but these things are going to just be in my life. This addiction. or this thing.
You know what it is. I don't need to tell you. I want you to know tonight that you can right now just tell him right now, Lord, I don't want Satan to have a handle to be able to get into my life.
I'm going to ask you right where you're at, silently in your own words, to rededicate your life. All of us, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, if every one of us just were to say something like this right now, Lord, I'm in this body of believers, or I'm in your church in the earth, the bride of Christ, and Lord, I'm asking you. to strengthen the things in my life that remain, things that are good.
The earth has moved, the quake has hit, everything's fallen down. But this, Lord, strengthen that. Strengthen, Lord, what little faith I have. Lord, fortify it, please.
Jesus, I need you. And God, those things that are in my life, like that stone or like that thing, Lord, I'm asking you to extract it like a surgeon, please, Lord. And if I try to stop you, don't listen to me, Jesus.
If I say, no, no, no, no, no, not that, not that, Lord, don't listen to me. Prepare me for heaven. Prepare me now for your use, whatever you want me to do.
And Lord, I do it right now. An earthquake could hit underneath my foot right now, and I want to be ready. I give you my life, Lord.
afresh today anew. So Lord, when you tell me to gird up the loins of my mind and to put on the weaponry, the armament of the soldier, at the exact same time, I have to say, will you help me put it on? Lord, protect us. Watch over us.
You've promised as we pray. Lord, may no temptation that we're led into succeed. May no weapon formed against us prosper. Father, may no home or marriage represented here tonight be invaded by an outsider.
If that's happening right now, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord, that you'd intervene by whatever means necessary that you'd protect and watch over that home and that you'd rescue. God, we give you our lives in total. Church family, let's stand if you would.
I don't know if this means anything to anybody, but in one of the trees in our backyard, it's a big sycamore tree. It's 30 feet tall, easy. It's massive. And there's just no way you're going to get up into that tree. But you know what happened some time ago?
A branch broke off and it left just a stub sticking out from the trunk. And it was just enough that if you grab that, you can pull yourself up enough to get into the tree. Massive tree. But it's accessible to any one of us because there's a little remnant of something sticking out of the side that once was a branch. And to me, that's how Satan works.
There might be a little handle. that's there in your life that he's using to get in. Cut it off. Shut it down. Close the door.