Warnings from Hebrews

Well, good afternoon again, brethren, and it's always good to see you. I'm going to have to have about four or five of you stand right over there to block the sun shining on the nice white snow out there that's piled up all over the, you know, the little patio area out there. It's, that's quite bright looking out. I'll be looking this way a little more than this way because you all are glaring when I see you. We want to welcome our guest today. Glad to see Mr. Mrs. Allwine and I hope I'm not missing someone else, but appreciate you being able to be here with us today.

Of course, we didn't have services last week, and in the thinking back to the two weeks before that, I hope that all of you can remember that we've been going through some information from the book of Hebrews, and we've reviewed that there are two, in a sense, kind of primary focuses or topics that we find in the book of Hebrews. The first of those is that Jesus Christ is our high priest. Oh, that's all right. It's not going to be that big of a problem. We've got a lot of trees maybe we can put out there, but we've reviewed several weeks ago how one of the primary focuses of the book of Hebrews is Jesus Christ. Christ as our high priest, as our Redeemer and Savior, but now, today, at the right hand of God, and as the ultimate high priest that we appreciate, enjoy, and are very grateful for. We also know the second thing that we covered in another service was the fact that He's the mediator of the better covenant. I think many of you ladies were gone on that particular day. Some of you were down in Springfield, and so you missed our discussion about the better covenant. But clearly, the new covenant is a covenant that we all are to embrace. We are to be engaged in the new covenant because, in a sense, as we become a part of the church of God, as we are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are making a commitment. We are making a covenant. We are making a vow to God that, in a sense, we again renew each year at the Passover. Because, as we come to understand our relationship to God, we are to be ultimately married to Jesus Christ. We read about that in Revelation. And yet, that begins, that process begins, of us growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ as our high priest and mediator, and then later as our husband, that we are to be preparing to marry. That's going to occur in the future, but we're in the process. We're in the process now, and that's what the better covenant is about. And it has several terms to it that we discussed, and I hope that you can easily read through those in Hebrews 8 and be able to identify with each one, because they're all designed to draw us closer together and closer to God. Today, I want to cover, in a sense, several other things that you see in the book of Hebrews. Because not only is the author of Hebrews directing the Jewish Christians that he is writing to, directing people who were familiar with the law, people who knew the Old Testament, people who, to some degree, tried to obey, but of course they missed the mark over and over and over again. And yet, what he was telling them was that, you know, you don't want to miss the significance and the importance of Jesus Christ coming to this earth. You need to embrace him. You need to embrace his better covenant. And what we find when you read through the book of Hebrews is that it almost entirely discusses Jesus Christ, the better covenant, living by faith. Those are kind of the way you could break it down as far as the entirety we're all familiar with Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 specifically talks about living by faith. It's called the faith chapter in the Bible. And yet, what you find throughout this book are a number of warnings. A number of warnings that should help each of us as we navigate our way on a spiritual journey toward the Kingdom of God. And so I think it's important for us to not only see the positive and uplifting and inspiring aspects of the book of Hebrews, but also to see what the warnings are.

And we might start here in chapter 1, because here in Hebrews 1 it mentions, in the last part of chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, it's talking about how much greater Jesus is than any of the angels, and how that he was set at the right hand of God, how he has a name that's above every name, and clearly beyond and above everything that might have been in any way transmitted through an angel. And it says in verse 14, talking about angels, talking about what do angels do. It says, they're not all angels, spirits in the divine service sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. See, angelic beings, and God rules over that angelic realm that he created even before he created this physical universe, or before he set man on the earth, he created angels, and at least some of those angels, the righteous angels, the good angels, the one who respect God's Word, you know, they are ministering spirits to those who are the errors of salvation. That's what we read here in the last part of chapter 1. It points out how that we can be grateful for that, and we should be thankful for that. It also, in chapter 2, talks about how it is that God is in the process of bringing many children, many sons and daughters, to glory. It is fitting in verse 10 that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, and bringing many sons and daughters to glory should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. See, that again is about Jesus Christ, but it again points out what God is doing with us.

What he is doing with us as we are engaged or embracing the New Covenant, how we are embracing our relationship with Jesus Christ, the mediator of that New Covenant, and with God our Father, that we are going to worship for all eternity. It is not just something we are going to do here in physical form. We are going to do that for all eternity. In the future, we are going to worship God and Jesus Christ because they clearly deserve that worship. But as I mentioned, there are a number of warnings.

A number of warnings here in the book of Hebrews, and I think we could examine these as perhaps pitfalls. We normally are examining ourselves prior to the time of the Passover, and as we mentioned, we had three weeks before that time, and so it might be good to know what the pitfalls are. What are the things I could examine? I could look at. There are numerous different ways of going about that. It is clearly told to us that we should be doing it.

We should be in the process of preparing for the Passover even before that particular time gets here. But what are some of the pitfalls that we could examine? Well, the first one I would like to start off with is Chapter 2. Chapter 2 has, in the first few verses, a warning.

The first warning that I want to mention, and there are six or seven or eight, I'll see how many I actually get through today, but I want us to think about these warnings. What it says in Chapter 2, it says, therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord. It was attested to us by those who heard the Lord, and while God added His testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.

Now, see, what is the author of Hebrew? What warning is being given? Now, if that author is Paul, I might just use that name. I think very likely that it was Paul, but there is a little bit of discussion about whether that's accurate or not. But I can say, well, clearly Paul could have written this, and yet what was he saying? He was telling people who were familiar with the law and who had grown up in a Jewish world, he was telling them what Jesus came and did was more important than anything ever transmitted by angels through Moses, through Aaron, through any of the other things that you read about in the past.

And what he says here in chapter 2 is that we ought to pay greater attention to what we have heard so that we don't let it just drift away. He says, if the message declared to angels was valid, every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty. How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? See, here's the first warning.

He says, you're a part of the Church of God. You have come to understand your need for Jesus Christ. You have sought the mercy of God and the forgiveness that He extends. You're on the path to eternal life. He says, don't neglect that path to salvation. Don't allow anything else to get into your life or get into your mind that would take you away from the path to eternal life.

And of course, he even mentions, you know, in talking about the way of salvation, the way of life that we've been called to live. It says, it was given to us by Jesus our Lord. It was attested to us by those who hurt Him.

And God even backed that up. We can read the backing up mostly if you read the book of Acts. You see how God backed up the message of the coming kingdom of God in our potential sonship in the family of God by signs and by miracles and by wonders and by giving gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is what you read about throughout the entirety of the rest of the New Testament after the...you certainly see the signs and wonders that Jesus gave, and yet His message was about the kingdom of God.

It was announcing, introducing the kingdom of God, introducing the fact that salvation is being extended to those who come to understand the Word of God and come to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. So the first thing we find here in chapter 2 is just simply He didn't want them to be neglectful. He didn't want them to allow it to be a secondary item. He didn't want them to get sidetracked. He didn't want them to be drifting away or be deceived or become neglectful. He wanted them to be on fire, I guess you could say. He wanted them to be on fire for the wonderful blessings that had been extended to them, and that He didn't want anything else to take them away, anything else.

And see, rather, we live in a hectic society today. We live in a society where things move very quickly and where you have communication capacity that is just beyond what certainly you would have thought of 20 years ago. It's beyond what I think of even today. I can't keep up. I have no idea what many of the electronic things are doing. I'm glad that we have someone who understands some of that. As far as if we're going to proclaim a gospel message to the world, we've got to be able to use that in some ways.

However, well, you know, I can use it. But we don't want to neglect. We don't want to drift away from the important items that is mentioned here. The second thing we read about is in chapter 3. The second warning that I want to point out to us is in chapter 3.

This one has a great deal to do with each of us. Here in chapter 3, verse 7, it says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear my voice, if you hear my voice or if you hear His voice, excuse me, in verse 8 it says, do not harden your heart, as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. See, now here He was clearly referencing the Israelites, how that even though they were brought out of Egypt, they were brought out of slavery, they were rescued, they were delivered, they were delivered through the Red Sea, and yet what happened to them?

What was their problem? Well, it says, in verse 8, it says that their hearts were hardened.

Now, do we have a hard heart? Or do we have a heart of flesh? That's the way it's described back in Ezekiel, a heart that is softened by God, a heart that is reflective on what God tells us in His Word. Or is that just something we do at church? Is that just something we do on the Sabbath? You know, it's fine to know all of those things, and that's a needful thing to know.

But see, we want, and God is working with the transformation process that is to transform our lives and transform our hearts. And as it says here, it says, do not harden your hearts, as the Israelites did when they rebelled against God after being rescued from Egypt.

They didn't appreciate that. They didn't appreciate what had been given to them. They allowed their heart to be hardened. I'd like for us to look back in Deuteronomy 10.

Deuteronomy chapter 10, and I may go through some of these kind of quickly, because there are several that I'd like to get to. But what we read in Deuteronomy 10, starting in verse 12, is pretty much what God had told the Israelites, what He wanted them to do, He wanted them to follow, He wanted them to obey, He asked them to be His people.

Here in Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, so now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

He answers that by saying only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all of His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God in His decrees, that I'm commanding you today for your own well-being. That's a pretty good summary statement as far as the essence of the law. It's a summary statement of what it is that God asks of us. What does He want? What does He wish for us to respond to? He goes on in verse 14, although heaven and the heavens of heaven belong to the Lord your God the earth, with all that is in it, yet the Lord set His heart in love on your ancestors alone and shows you their descendants after them out of all the people as it is today. Do you hear? Moses was writing something that was pointing out to the Israelites that God has offered you a tremendous blessing, and He wants you to respond. He wants you to obey, and yet in verse 16, He says, Circumcise then the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.

See, this is really what we read about back in Hebrews 3.

See, what happened? Well, they became obstinate. They became stubborn. What did they love to do? They loved to moan and complain. They loved to pick on Moses and Aaron and claim, Why did you bring us out here into this wilderness, and we don't have anything to eat, and we don't have anything to drink? They just couldn't figure out what it was that God was doing with them. Let's go back to Hebrews 3, because when we drop down, you know, we read verse 8 where it says, don't harden your heart like they did in the rebellion.

But in verse 12 of Hebrews 3, it says, Take care, brethren, that none of you have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. It says, Take care, that you not have an evil and unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened. None of you may be sidetracked. None of you may have your heart hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And in verse 14, For we have become partners of Christ, if only that we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

See, here we find a discussion of a warning. He says, Don't be like they were in the Old Testament. Don't fall into that trap. Don't allow your heart to be hardened. Desire for it to be soft, malleable, teachable, able to be addressed by God, able to be moved by the Holy Spirit, to be able to know. See, there's a whole lot of areas that I need to grow in.

I know that. And I dare not ask you, because you probably could tell me areas that I could grow in, that I should grow in. And yet, every one of us ought to have a heart where we want to know, where we don't want to harden our heart and to be stubborn, like it says back there in Deuteronomy, to be stubborn. But we want to be malleable and pliable.

The verse that Ken read earlier in our sermonette regarding God giving grace to the humble. Resisting the proud, resisting those who desire their own way. But he says, I give grace unto the humble. That type of broken spirit and a contrite heart is not just written about in a few passages in the Old and New Testament. It's a part of growth and development toward our eternity. That's what it is. And we need that type of a softened heart. Not a hardened heart, but a softened heart. And I know we ought to think about this because we, several of you here in the congregation, have gone through very severe trials in the last year. I guess we could all say, over the past year, we have all prayed for each other. We have striven to help and pick up and encourage one another. And yet, as we go through trials, as we go through tests, and even as we read about Mr. Lucre now going through a very severe trial, a health trial, we're praying for healing and mercy. But as he points out, I'm good with God's will. Whatever that is, he wants to yield to that as he goes forward. And yet, we need, when we have trials and when we share trials, and again, I mentioned we have a prayer list that, you know, it's weekly. Every week we have several different people that we need to be aware of and praying for and asking for God's help for them. And I know trying to even keep up with that is difficult to do. Usually we can keep up with people we know. Whether we can easily keep up with others, I don't know how you do that. I struggle trying to do that. And yet, the thing about trials, we know that trials have purpose. We know that they are beneficial. We know that we're not going to get away from having any trials. We're all going to be tried and tested in this life as we look forward to eternal life. But whenever we have trials, whenever we are struggling, either with health or job or finance or any other type of difficulty, family-related difficulties that we struggle with, we need to guard our hearts. Because sometimes, if we feel broken, if we feel our health is very limited, sometimes that can soften us toward God. We can see how much more we need God's help. We see how limited we are. We see the need for intervention.

We appeal with more urgency when we recognize that and our heart is softened.

But there are times when we're tried and maybe tried and tried, and we can become hardened.

We can allow our heart to be hardened and, in a sense, kind of blame God. Why am I having all these problems? See, this warning, harden not your heart, is telling us to guard our heart and ask God to give us a softened heart, a heart that is flexible, one that is reaching out to God, one that is appealing to God and desiring to draw close to God. Of course, it tells us, even as an exhortation here, to exhort one another so that we not be hardened by the trials that we go through, but to hold our confidence unto the end. That's what chapter 3 tells us. Chapter 4 has another warning. Chapter 4 has another warning. Again, you can read this section, and probably you have focused in this section about some information it has about the Sabbath. That clearly is a legitimate topic that you could use if you wanted to focus on that. I'm not going to focus on that. But the third warning is here in chapter 4 where it says in verse 1, therefore, while the promise of entering His rest is still open, we have the hope of being a part of the rest that God promises this world and promises us to be a part of the family of God. Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest is open to us, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed, the good news came to us just as to them.

But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. See, here again, if Paul is the author, he says in talking about the Israelites, they had a certain message, they had an opportunity, they had some information provided, they were given instruction, but it wasn't united with faith. It wasn't built or led by faith in God. And so clearly that's what we want to do. And it defines this even more down in verse 6 because it says, "...since therefore it remains open for some to enter the rest, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience." To hear, he defines it a little bit differently. They failed to enter because they weren't led by faith. They didn't live by faith, and they became disobedient and delinquent. And so in essence, you know, they were disallowed. But what this whole chapter, in a sense, kind of warns is that don't allow yourself to allow a deceitfulness of sin to creep in and to become disobedient, but seek to live by faith. Seek to walk in the same type of walk that Jesus walked, which was completely by faith. See, obviously we can read chapter 11 and see who the paragons of faith are. And yet clearly Jesus was the epitome. He was the epitome of a human life lived by faith, lived by obedience, lived by responsiveness to his heavenly Father, and of course a communion. A communion in heart and mind and thought and action that was always guided and in connection with the Father. And of course, that's what we want to be. So we don't want to fall prey to disobedience, again as the Israelites did. In chapter 5, the next warning, it says in verse 11 about this, we have much to say that it's hard to explain since you have become dull, dull in understanding. To hear you find it again in another warning. You know, Paul is telling these Christians who were aware of at least whatever level of understanding they had about their hope of eternal life. He says, we have much to say and it's hard to explain because you don't listen very well. You are dull of understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk and not meat. To hear he was telling them, you know, we want you to be spiritually maturing. We want you to be able to teach, but you don't seem to be able to teach because you seem to be dull in your understanding.

He goes on in verse 13, everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant is unskilled in the word of righteousness, but solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. See, now brethren, is that what we are seeking? Not to be dull of understanding, not to be limited in what we're able to produce, but actually looking to God, looking to Him for His inspiration and His blessing. Chapter 6 has another warning. You start off in chapter 6, verse 1. Therefore, let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teachings of Christ and not laying again the foundation. And he goes through several different of the doctrines that, again, we should be very familiar with.

Not laying again the foundation, which he says, his repentance from death works in faith toward God and obstruction about baptism and laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. See, now those are all topics we could discuss. You could have sermons on every one of those. You could have discussions on every one. The Bible says a lot about each one, but he said these are basic things. These are the foundational things that we all need in order to become a part of the divine family of God. But he says, I want you to go beyond this. We will do this if God permits in verse 3, for it's impossible. Another warning in verse 4, it's impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened. And so this is the description he was giving Christians and the description he gives to us as members of the Church of God today, being led by the Holy Spirit. We've been enlightened. We've been given the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We've been given the one who is the source of living water, the bread of life, so many different descriptions that we have for our relationship with Jesus Christ. But he says it's impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away. They've turned aside. They've allowed other things to become more important. They've allowed other things to turn their hearts to something else. It doesn't really matter what else.

But turning away or falling away since on their own, he says they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. See, this is, again, a warning. A warning about not growing spiritually in chapter 5, being dull and understanding and not being able to mature spiritually. And then here in chapter 6, he says you need to mature spiritually. And we have to ask ourselves, you know, am I maturing spiritually? Am I growing in the qualities and characteristics that God would like for me to grow in and my relationship with Him? Down in verse 9, in a sense, Paul makes an encouraging statement. Even though he has made a number of warnings, he has pointed out, and I don't want you to have a hard heart. He's pointed out, I don't want you to be slow to understand. And I certainly don't want you to fall away. But he says in verse 9, even though we speak in this manner or way, beloved, we are confident of better things, in your case, things that belong to salvation. He was telling them, you know, I don't want you to fall into that category. That's why I'm warning you. That's why I'm telling you, you're seeking eternal life needs to be the most important thing. And doing that through the mediator of the new covenant, Jesus Christ, is what you can depend on and you can take it to the bank. It will work. If we are drawing closer to Jesus Christ and becoming more aware of the Word of God and more aware of how it is that God wants me to respond to His Word. So He says, you know, we have more better confidence or confidence of better things in your case. He says, I feel you're going to do a good job and I'm confident that you won't fall aside.

For He says in verse 10, God is not unjust. He will not overlook your work and the love that you show for His sake in serving the saints as you still do. And we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end so that you may not become sluggish. That's in connection with the dullness. Don't become sluggish. Be on fire for the Word of God and for the kingdom of God and for our growing to become like Jesus Christ so that you may not become sluggish in verse 12, but be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. See, that's what we all want to do. We all want, and I certainly want for you to inherit the promises that God sets out before us. I want that for me, but I want that for you. I want that for each and every one of us, and yet the warnings are here for our benefit, and God will be faithful to help us. It tells us here, and Paul is encouraging them to do everything you can to grow spiritually. Think about your communion with God in prayer. Think about your study of the Word of God.

Once you've studied the Word of God, just like we heard in the sermonette, you can start reading through Chronicles, and it'll put you to sleep. I can read Chronicles and go to sleep, but then sometimes you read something in there. Oh, that kind of brings you back to reality. And, you know, we can become familiar, and I know you are familiar with the Bible, but we should never become complacent about studying the Bible, about reading the Bible, about applying the Bible in our spiritual growth and development. The next warning that I want to point out here is over in chapter 10.

Because here in chapter 10, we've skipped several chapters here that talk about the high priest and talk about the tabernacle and a number of things that, if you read through the book, you know kind of what's in there. But over in chapter 10, you know, this book concludes with some more warnings, and it tells us that we need to be excited about what God has given us and about the type of race that He has placed us in. Because that's really what it is. We're running a race, that we need to patiently endure. You know, what kind of runner are you? What kind of runner am I?

Am I a sprinter? Well, I can tell you I'm not. I'm not a sprinter as far as physically. I couldn't sprint 40-50 years ago. I certainly can't sprint today. I can hobble today, but that's about it. And I certainly don't want in a spiritual training to be a sprinter, to be good at the 100 or 200 meter run. It would be far better, far better, you know, to be a distance runner, even a marathon runner, because we need to continue the race until the race is done, which will be at the end of our lives. But here in chapter 10, starting in verse 26, it says, if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no longer a sacrifice for sin. What remains is just simply a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. And so here he's making a very plain appeal to them. You know, don't persistently willfully sin. Now, do we fall into that category? Do I fall into that category? I've wondered about that at times because I know that I do continue to sin. Is that talking about never sinning? Is that talking about every day, every week, not acknowledging or recognizing that I fall short, I sin, I transgress the law? You know, that's not what this is talking about. See, if we are fighting against sin, if we are struggling against sin, even though at times it may get the best of us, then we are not persistently, willingly persistent in sin. We hate the fact that we are in sin, or that we fall short, or that we have difficulties that we just tried and tried and tried to overcome and haven't overcome yet. But, see, what it tells us to do is to understand the need to persevere and even to acknowledge our sin and then to turn from that and fight the next day as well. Fight the next week, fight the next month, continue to struggle against sins that we find that so often creep up in our lives and that we think after year, after year, after year, after year, why am I still struggling with saying, well, maybe I am quite a bit improved, but I'm not perfect, maybe I'm quite a bit better. But, guarding our minds and certainly in the unbelievably immoral society that we live in today, you can't hardly walk through a grocery store or any kind of entertainment or anything without running into problem areas.

And so, whenever we read verse 26, if we willfully persist in sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. What that means is that we don't want to just give up and not worry about whether or not we sin. We want to continue to struggle against sin. And as it goes on in verse 28, anyone who has violated the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved of those who have spurned the Son of God, who have profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and who outraged the Spirit of grace? See, I want to be thankful for the Spirit of God, the Spirit of grace that God has extended to me. I want to grow in understanding the covenant and the blood of the covenant and the extinction that Jesus made for me.

That's what I want, and I clearly don't do that perfectly, but maybe that means I understand how much I need it, how much I know I need the blood to cover the sins, my sins, and I certainly don't want to spurn, but I want to be closer and closer to the Son of God, because he's the answer. He is an answer to every difficulty that I run into. So here you find this description, and it's encouraging us to persevere. If we drop down to verse 32, in a sense, he kind of gives a warning, and then he says what to do about it. He says in verse 32, But recall your earlier days, when after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with them so treated. For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourself possessed something far better and far more lasting. So do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours. See, brethren, we've been set on the path to eternal life. We've been placed in the race that will end in the kingdom of God. So he says, therefore, don't abandon, in verse 35, that confidence of yours, because it brings a great reward. For you need endurance. So we don't need to be sprinters. We need to be marathoners. We need to, in our spiritual lives, know that as I made a commitment when I was much younger, that was a lifelong commitment.

And you made a commitment when you were baptized. That was a lifelong commitment from then until the remainder of your life. But he says, in verse 36, you need endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. We may receive what he has in store for us. He calls us to persevere. He calls us to struggle against sin. Don't willfully persist in sin. Don't just give up and say, ah, it doesn't make any difference whether I sin or not. He says, I want you to be diligently fighting. And if you are, you will, with the help of God and with the faith that comes, as he's even going to describe more so in chapter 11, you will, living by faith, inherit the promises of eternal life. The last warning that I'll mention here this afternoon is over in chapter 12.

And certainly, you know, this is a warning that Paul was extending to these Jewish Christians because he really wanted them to embrace Jesus Christ, not to rely on any of the rituals that they were accustomed to in the past and pretty much what they were used to doing as religion in their former life. But he said, I want you to trust Jesus Christ. I want you to appreciate the sacrifice that he has given. I want you to appreciate all the warnings that I've given up to this point. And he says here in chapter 12, starting in verse 22, actually, in many ways, I'm leaving out a lot of the preparatory things here that are in these chapters, but I'm trying to simply focus on areas of the warning that you could go back and read if you wanted to just evaluate, you know, how am I heating that warning? How am I progressing? In verse 22, it says, you have come, of course, it's saying you've not come to just a mountain like the Israelites did, a mountain that was smoking with fire and shaking, and they were afraid. They were really afraid when they were appearing before God. But he says in verse 22, you have not come to Mount Zion, or excuse me, you have not come to the mountain that Moses came to, but you have come to Mount Zion. You have come to Mount Zion. You have come to the city of the living God. You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable angels in festal gatherings and to the assembly, the church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And you have come. To here he was trying to help them to see the magnitude of having been drawn into the church of God, having the blessing of knowing eternal life, of knowing that they are to be the sons and daughters of God, that the angels are even ministering spirits to those who are the heirs of salvation. He says, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God. You have come to the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of angels. Abel, see in verse 25 that you do not refuse the one who is speaking.

Verse 25, see that you do not refuse the one who is speaking. So he knew he was writing under the inspiration of God. He knew he was writing the words of life. He knew he was pointing people in the right direction, and he says, don't neglect this. Don't overlook this. Don't forget. Don't neglect. Don't be dull. Be persistent in your struggle against sin.

And he says, don't refuse the one who is speaking, for if you don't escape, if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven? See, the Israelites were frightened. They were afraid. They didn't want to even hear the voice of God. They wanted Moses to go up and get whatever information we need. But he says, you know, they were afraid of that.

And if they rejected that, that's one thing. But we certainly don't want to reject the one who has reached down from the throne of the leadership and rulership of the universe to touch our lives, to touch our hearts, and to bring us to repentance, and to cause us to love the tremendous mercy and grace and forgiveness that has been extended to us. We don't want to neglect that great Lord and the one who is inspired to direct us. In verse 26, at that time, his voice shook the earth, and now he has promised, once again, I'm going to shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.

See, he encountered the Israelites at Mount Sinai. He encountered them through Moses, and he's going to come back. He's going to return. He came the first time, and he's going to come back, and he says, yet once I'll shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. In this phrase, in verse 27, yet once indicates the removal of what is shaken, that is created things, so that that which cannot be shaken will remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, see, he was pointing out to them, as he points out to us, we're being extended a kingdom that will last forever. We're being extended a kingdom and opportunity to serve in a kingdom that will forever be creating good and serving others and expanding in whatever way God is going to cause that to be. He says, we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Since we are, let us give thanks by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and all. And indeed, our God is a consuming fire. So he was trying to make a contrast, as he wrote this, with what the Israelites had experienced, and they weren't really moved by it.

And by what we have been extended, what has been extended to us, as individuals who have embraced the New Covenant and who are New Covenant Christians, and as it says here, let us give thanks by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and all. Brethren, that's where we are today. That's what we're asked to do. This warning is really, be sure to listen. Be sure to be moved by the words of God. And don't ever allow those words to become dull.

I want to go back as a conclude here to chapter 12, verse 1, because there's a couple of encouraging statements. The book is not filled with warnings. There are some warnings there, clearly, that we ought to heed, that we ought to know about and heed. But for us to run our personal race, for us to be successful, then the success depends on our dependence upon Jesus Christ. Our success depends on our appreciation of the blood of the covenant that has been extended for us. And of course, we know that God is going to see us through in verse 12, or excuse me, chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight in the sin that so closely clings to us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. See, that's what we're to do. Persevere, endure, be listening, heeding, not being neglected or neglectful, not allowing our heart to be hardened, even by some of the sins or some of the trials, even, that we may go through. But to be softened, but as he said, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, has taken his seat at the right hand or the throne of God. That's who we want to look to. And he even goes on to say, consider him. Consider Jesus who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or you may not lose heart. See, we have a wonderful blessing before us. We want to be persevering in our acceptance of the warnings and then our reliance on the one who can provide everything that we need. And as he tells us, you know, not to grow weary, or not to lose heart. He says, if you struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. See, we're all here. We're all still alive. Now, there may come a time in the future when we will face the possibility, but this is what Jesus did. And, of course, the warning throughout the book is to keep our eyes on the high priest. Keep embracing the better covenant and heed the warnings that are given as we look to Jesus Christ to help us endure to the very end. That's what God has called us to do. And he's given us the wonderful blessing of his word to be able to read and to heed and to be, in a sense, motivated by his words. And so I encourage all of us to not only understand the warnings, but to look to the one who can carry us through every burden. And that would truly be Jesus Christ.