Take your Bibles with me this morning and turn back to Hebrews chapter 10. And this subject that we're going to begin talking about this morning, and we'll talk about it for several weeks, especially ending up with when we get down to verse 25. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. I know that in false religion, and I want to make sure that I'm careful the way I state these things, so that you don't at least mentally misunderstand the point that I'm trying to make. And I don't want anybody that happens to be watching this out there to misconstrue the words that I speak to say that going to church saves anybody. Okay, because I can remember in false religion that when I would get to verses like Hebrews 10, 25, would hammer that thing to death and threaten people that if you're not in church every single solitary time, the doors are open. If you miss any services, you better examine yourself. And I don't think that's what we're talking about because one of the things that we know is we've gone through this. He has written this epistle in all of the epistles throughout the entirety of the New Testament. Who were they written to? The believers, the justified saints. And this book is a warning and an encouragement at the same time to those who had believed and rested in Christ, had claimed Him at least mentally or with their lips or with their actions as they had followed the Lord Jesus Christ in believer's baptism, had confessed that Christ was indeed the Lord their righteousness. And all of us know individuals, friend, family, and maybe even foes who have professed that they rest in Christ. I'm not talking about them folks. And I'm not talking about all these religious people. I'm talking about we know people, you and I, who have at least given mental agreement to this gospel we know and love. And one thing is certain, now, and this is not conditional salvation. This is a reality. And we'll see that when we get down to verse 38 and 39 in this chapter. Go over there, let's look at this together. Hebrews 10, 38, 39, because we've got to be right here. Now the just, and that word just is the righteous. Now who's righteous? We know there's none righteous, no, not one, not any of ourselves. We know it's not based on our decision or our reformation or our continuance. It's not even based on our perseverance. It's certainly not based on our faith. Because our faith at most times, what? It's weak and it's faltering and it's failing. And God cannot and he will not count imperfect faith that men have and count it as perfect righteousness. Our faith has nothing to do with that righteousness based on which we're justified. Now let the pot charge the earth. contend with the potsherds of the earth and try to make some kind of argument that faith's imputed. That's not, faith's not imputed. Faith is a fruit and the effect of regeneration and conversion by God the Holy Spirit. It's part of the fruit and the effect of the righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner by God the Holy Spirit in time in each successive generation, which results in God's children doing what? Resting in Christ. Believing His righteousness is their only hope, ground, and cause of salvation. So when he says, now the just, he's talking about those who are righteous in Christ, shall live how? By faith. Not our faith, but what? We live in His faith. We walk in the light as He's in the light. You know what John said? If we walk in the light as He's in the light, we have fellowship, we have communion, we have union one with another. and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins." Okay? How many? Which sins are going to be charged to you? Now, I know religious people say, don't say that, don't say that. Listen, could you be more clear than what David was in Psalm 32? or what the Apostle Paul was when he quoted from, moved by the same spirit that inspired Paul, David to write Psalm 32, when he reiterated David's words in Romans chapter 4. How did David state it? Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven. Not are in the process of being forgiven. Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven. whose transgressions are covered. Blessed is the man, listen to this, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Is there a more blessed truth in God's word? But see, those who are born of God, we recognize that God's just not pretending like our sins are gone. If God doesn't impute them to me, what does he have to do? He has to deal with them. And that's why when Paul re-quoted from David in Romans chapter 4, he changed a little bit of the wording. How did he change it? Well, listen to how he stated it. He talked about that David described the blessedness of the man. Let me get over there. He said, uh, even as David also describes the blessedness of that man unto whom God imputes righteousness without word saying, now he goes back and he quotes from, from David, but he's telling us, see, this is how we know what David believed. They delay. David believed the same exact thing you believe. His hope was in the same Messiah our hope's in. The same righteousness as that. He says, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is that man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. How does God not impute it to me? Where'd he impute it? He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's a double imputation. It's a legal transaction. where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit satisfied themselves through the purpose and plan of God the Father, the execution of Christ the Son in time as the surety and substitute, mediator, and representative of his people, and the application in each successive generation by God the Holy Spirit as he takes the things of Christ and reveals them unto his people. So he says here, the just shall live by faith. Faith in a righteousness they had no part in producing. Faith, listen, faith in a righteousness we have no part in maintaining. We have to be careful with our words. I see a lot of people write a lot of good things on Facebook, but then write down in the same article they write and speak so eloquently of Christ's blood and righteousness, they turn right around, they put conditions back on center. If you don't do this, you probably ain't got that. What's the difference between that and what I was hearing in that old false church back over in Shreveport? What's the difference between that and most of the reformed people that I hear talk about when they talk about progressive sanctification? If you're not something different now than you were when you 10, 20, 30 years ago, you probably didn't really know what to begin with. We live by faith, ever and always. But now notice what he says about this faith. But if any drawback, that doesn't mean if any sins, because we know from 1 John 2, what are we going to do? 1 John 2, what does it say? My little children, these things write unto you that you don't do what? Don't sin. Don't you wish we didn't? Huh? But here's the tragic thing about even God's children. When we don't sin, you know what we start beginning to be if we're not careful and we're not directed and living by faith on righteousness, we have no part in producing or maintaining. What do we start beginning to do? We become self-righteous. And we think, well, look at me. Look at the change in my life. Folks, don't look at yourself ever. We are not fruit inspectors. We look to Jesus Christ, the author and our finisher of our faith. He says if any man draw back, He's not talking about if a man starts cussing, or starts lying, or starts cheating, or commits adultery on his wife. We start talking about that if that's what He means, all of us have got to be excluded. Because He says if you draw back, what? My soul will have no pleasure in you. And I tell you, if Paul didn't have, the writer of Hebrews had no pleasure in you if you drew back, what do you think about him who has eyes that beholds the good and evil in all places? If that's what he's talking about. Aren't you grateful our God has promised us that your sins and your iniquities, plural, sins, not sin before, sins and your iniquities, I will remember no more." Now it's not that God's forgiven them. God's infinite in wisdom. He knows everything about us. Why does He not remember them? He's satisfied. Satisfied with you? Satisfied with me? No. Satisfied with Him. And that's where we're at. That's one of the two. And that's what he's telling these people. That's what he's talking about when he talks about if any man draw back. Draw back from what? Your state, position, place, standing before God and Christ Jesus your Lord. You draw back from that. I tell you, if you leave this faith, you don't know this faith. That's not conditional salvation. I'm just telling you, if God reveals himself to one of his own, they will never depart, Bart. They won't. Oh, they'll have problems. They might go away for a while, but I tell you what, He will bring them back. Always does. Always does. Because He says, verse 39, but we, who? Who's the we here? It's the same one that was talked about in verse 14. He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, set apart by God. He said, that's the we, and what about this we? We are not of them that draw back to hell. That's what that perdition means, draw back to eternal condemnation. But what do we do? We are of them that believe, continue to believe. Walk by faith, what? In Christ's righteousness to the salvation of our soul. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's where our comfort is at. And you can't, look, you can't tell me enough about that. How about you? That's not patting me on the back, I'm just telling you. Think about this. I think about these things all the time. This is completely off my notes. I ain't even got started on my notes yet. You say, oh my God, Pastor. I'm telling you. I think about it all the time and you do too. Do you love your, let's put it in natural terms. Do you love your family? Your brothers and sisters, it's hard for me to believe that we're coming up on nine years since my daddy left this earth. Coming up on 23 years that my mama's been gone. I can still hear her voice. Did your parents, Did they have to beg you and plead with you and threaten you to get you to come home for Christmas or for some other holiday? Huh? Did they? I mean, when our kids were growing up, I'll be honest, I got sick and tired of it, having to load everything, especially when they were little. We'd have to load them up in the car, and we'd have to somehow sneak all those Christmas gifts into the car. Had that little bitty tiny car, and we'd back up, and I'd cram all that stuff inside that car. We'd go down there, and we'd spend Christmas with her grandparents, Christmas with on both sides because some of them was on both sides was alive and then we'd go spend Christmas Eve with her parents and then we'd come back spend Christmas with my parents then we'd go over to my brother's house then we'd go back to Shreveport and spend time with my grandfather my daddy's daddy up there in Shreveport and it was an inconvenience it was a lot of driving A lot of time, a lot of trouble, and you'd come back, that little car that was packed full, all that stuff those kids got, we had to somehow transport that stuff back to wherever we lived at. But because of a love and an appreciation and a devotion to them who raised me and cared for me and watched over me and would help and support me in anything that I came across, almost without exception, I wanted to be around them. For nearly 30 years, my wife has worked a job that's taken her away from me between three to five days every week for the last 30 years. I tell people all the time, laughingly, that that's the secret to a happy marriage. But I tell her I couldn't wait for her to call me at night. Or I couldn't wait when I got to call her at the end of the day. Because I knew when she picked up, even though I couldn't be with her, I could hear her voice and be with her. Huh? Now let me ask you this. If you treated your family, and I'm talking about everybody believing, I'm talking about justified saints, those who claim they believe the gospel, claim Christ is the Lord, they're right. If you treated your family, or your children, or your in-laws, the way you treat the gospel of God's grace and fellowship with your real family, How do you think your family would react? Huh? I'm just telling you. I hope and I pray people's priorities are just mixed up. I know we have a tendency because of who and what we are by nature being so closely tied to this human frame and this earth, this ungodly place in which we live. We have a tendency to put too much value on this stuff. Love my wife, love my kids, love my sons, love my daughter-in-law, love my granddaughter, love you. Don't love you that much. Huh? This is my family. Huh? You believe that? And the scriptures tell us we know we have passed from death unto life if we love who? Mom and daddy down there in Manny? Huh? That don't believe nothing? My brother that doesn't believe the same gospel I believe, rest in the same Christ I...them? No. What's the brethren? Those who've rested in Christ. But I'm telling you what, believers can wrong one another, and they do. You believe that? Believers can be mean-spirited, can't they? And if you don't believe that, cross me. I don't say that to be, I'm not trying to make a joke, I'm just telling you, I know how I am. You hurt my feelings, it's coming out. Don't want it to, but it will. Believers can have, but here's the thing. We have a bond that unites us. It goes beyond flesh and blood. I tell you, I thank my God through Christ Jesus, my Lord. And I look back, and I love everybody in Grace Baptist Church, every believer that the Lord has graciously brought across my path, but grace has taught me something. It takes us beyond the realm of this flesh and blood. And I still remember, it's been about 11 years ago, 10 years ago when y'all showed up, And I came in here, and Bart met me out at the back, because I saw, you know, we're so little, we see a new car outside, and we know it's a visitor, right? And there was a Lincoln sitting out back, and I'm like, who's here now? And Bart came out back, we got some visitors in there, and Kenny told me later that Bart had told him, do you know where you're at? Do you know what, do you know, yeah, I know what, And I'll never forget, Kenny was kind of where he was at there, and I walked in, and I heard the voice before I saw him. I walked in, he said, I bet you don't know who I am. And who'd I call you? Gary Lawrence. And he said, what? No, I'm not Gary Lawrence. It was one of our friends from Manny High. But Kenny and I never had anything to do with one another. We grew up from kindergarten to when I graduated high school. We walked across the aisle at Manny High School 42 years ago, May the 17th, 1976. 46 years ago, not 42, 46 years ago. From kindergarten to when I graduated high school, I would say that Kenny and I maybe had, I think the most words we ever had was when we built floats down there at my daddy's shop, and you had to come down there and help on the floats. Just didn't talk, we ran in different groups. But if you had told me when they first showed up years ago that he and I would have the relationship and friendship that we have today, compared to the fact that I spent over half my life never talking to the guy. And yet now we have a sweet communion that's got nothing to do with anything on this planet. It's about the gospel. It's about a righteous. And that's how we find like with Ken and everybody in here that the Lord's brought our way. Doug and Doug Messer and others that have found us out there. People that we have nothing in common with in this world. This bond and union in Christ, it overcomes it all. It puts us on a level playing field. And it teaches us who our family is and who will be there for us. And who, even though they might get upset and might get their feelings hurt and they might say something bad about us, in the long run, they'll be there for us. Paul was upset with Mark, and it doesn't tell us in the Scriptures how long he was upset with him, does it? It was probably a while. But eventually, what did he do? He said, go fetch me John Mark because he's profitable in the ministry. We'll get over it. I mean, we got to be pally-pally, biggie-biggie buddies. Got to beat around each other all the time. That's not what fellowship's about. Somebody hugging my neck or saying I love you. Religious people do all that junk. It's a bond that words never have to be spoken. And it's a bond that's supernatural. Because it's not so much we love one another, it's we love one another where? In Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. There ain't nothing lovable about this old dude. He's shot full of hope. But I tell what you and I both have, if we've rested in Christ, we have Christ in us, the hope of glory. He reigns in our heart, does he not? And we can't go away from it. I would to God that I don't understand God's plan and purpose, but I can tell you what, I can remember when 30 some odd years ago, and I never thought it would wear away, but when I started this walk of faith nearly 35 years ago, you couldn't take this book out of my hand. You couldn't take a good commentary out of my hand. You couldn't get me to not listen to sermons all the time. Listening to somebody, either Henry or Bill or others, just non-stop, just rejoicing in Christ Jesus and filling my soul. And somewhere along the line, what happens? And I'm telling young believers, just expect it. Somewhere along the line, it's going to cool. Because you're going to get caught up with the things of time and sense. They don't go away. And God does not change our personalities. He doesn't take away our desires. I don't understand that, but that's His will and purpose. And we go through ebbs and flows that make us question whether or not we're truly His. Don't they? I share this with you as my brothers and sisters in Christ, Pam and I, we were out walking the other day and I was walking down that path and every once in a while it flashes through my mind, what if you're not really a preacher called to preach the gospel? That's terrifying. To think that I've stood in front of a group of people and claimed to preach for Christ, his gospel, his blood and his righteousness, and have a thought like that shoot through my mind is what if I'm mistaken? And I've taken this upon myself. And I'm not supposed to be in this role. Well, other than that, there's times when I do things, say things, acts in a certain way. What do we think? Just like you, what do we think? Am I really one of his? How could I do that? How could I think that? How could I act this way? But it brings us back to this. We cannot leave our hope. That's where He always draws us back to. Good times, He draws us to Christ. Bad times, when we've fallen into the depths of sin, where does He lead us? Does He start beating us to death and threatening us with hell and condemnation? No. The Scriptures are quite clear. What leads God's children even to a continual state of repentance before Him? Not the wrath of God. Not to get up and say, if you don't do this, you probably don't know God. That's not going to draw you back. What draws you back? In spite of who and what you are and what you've done, as bad as it might be, Christ, by his blood and by his righteousness, put away your sins forever. So we don't draw back. And that's what he's encouraging these people. And see, this is the thing. In light of everything that he said up to this point in this book, In spite of all Christ's accomplishments for His people, all those given to Him by the Father and everlasting covenant grace, in light of the complete, listen to me, the complete, complete entitlement to all of salvation, we have it, based on Christ's righteousness alone. The Apostle Paul encourages all those who believe, including these Hebrew believers and every believer who would ever read this from that point forward, he encourages all who believe in Christ to realize the blessed privileges and the assured benefits and blessings of this salvation that has been freely given to them. Let me tell you how you walk successfully by faith. I think it's Isaiah 32. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed, stayed on the... You want the successful formula for walking by faith? Stay your mind on him. Huh? I tell you, if you stay your mind on Him, all that other stuff is less prone to come into your mind and heart and understand it. That's just the long and the short of it. And I tell you, I've learned that lesson by experience. Still ain't learned it completely. Because, you know, I still do. I don't. And that word, stay, it's the same word as translated. Remember when I think it was Joseph. Might have been Jacob. Well, it was the one where he crossed his hands and put his hands on the opposite heads of the boys when he brought them in to bless them. I never forgot who that was. Okay. But it said that he steadied himself on the bed. It means to lean hard on something. You got no other way. And that's what he's saying. Where do we lean? We don't lean on the arm of the flesh. We don't lean on other believers. Who do we lean on? Lean on Him. Think about that song, Lean on Me. That's what we lean on Him. On Christ as the Lord, our righteousness. And he also encourages these believers, you and me included, to make use of these privileges and all these benefits and all these blessings and all these means God has appointed that safeguards the child of God. And this is the thing, it safeguards the child of God from apostasy. Why can I not apostatize? Because I'm stronger than somebody else, got more faith, try harder. No. Huh? All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. My sheep hear my voice, and they come unto me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, you hear that, never perish. Why? We're in the Father's hands, we're in Christ's hands, and He won't let us go. Why? His glory's at stake in this thing. See, that's the thing this religious world's missed. If there's one the Father chose, one that Christ redeemed, one that God the Holy Spirit in time regenerates and converts unto God, if just one is lost, you know who is a failure? who is no God worthy of our praise. People say, don't talk that. That's just, that's the truth. Because if he loses one, what's he done? He's lied. And what's he said about himself? I am the Lord God, I change not. Therefore, since I don't change, you change. We're changeable, fallible all the time. Since I don't change, what? You sons of Jacob, y'all are not consumed. What are the means? What are the means that God's given us to keep us from apostasy? I tell you the chief means is what? This book. How many of the promises have you taken advantage of in God's Word that are sweet, loving, precious gospel promises to all of us this week? How many times since we ended the Bible conference last Sunday have you spent any time thinking on the things of God? Don't answer. I wonder why we're so weak. I wonder why we're so easily overrun. You know, there's only one offensive weapon in the weapons of our warfare. Which one is it? Huh? He says, taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Huh? You know, it entails this idea, to be an excellent swordsman, what do you have to do? I always think about David. David had one skill. What was he skillful with? Weapons-wise. A slingshot. And that giant was out there. How tall was that sucker? He was big. How tall was he? Anybody know? Goliath was a big old dude, right? up there mocking Israel. Everybody's scared to death. We can't fool with him. David says, I'll take him on. And they carry him to Saul, and Saul says, yeah, I'll do this. And so they said, equip him. What'd they do? They put all that old heavy armor on him. Gave him a sword probably as big as he was. And he says, this won't do. One, he wasn't equipped with that kind of weaponry. He wasn't built for it. And not only that, he knew whose warfare was it anyhow. When he walked out to that giant, the giant mocked him and he said, this ain't between me and you. Whose battle is this? And he has them five smooth stones that he's taken out of the creek, five being the number of grace. And he reaches into that satchel and that giant just standing there thinking, I'm going to clean your bones this day. You fixing to die. And he puts that one stone in that slingshot, just one. I ain't even good with them slingshots that you pull it back, but one that you're going to spin around your head. one stone though and he lets that sucker go and it sails perfectly and it hits that giant in the head between his eyes and he falls down dead. Who directed the rock? And he goes up and he takes Goliath's sword and he chops Goliath's head off. And he gives all the glory to who? I am a fantastic warrior. He was, when we are weak, then He's strong, right? God help us to humbly submit to the weakness that He puts us in so that we have to rest where? On Him. That's how we overcome. So we study this book. You ought to make this book the subject and source of your life. What's another means? The preaching of the gospel. We don't come up here just so I can stand up here for two hours on Sunday morning and flap my job. That's not what that's about. This is about you and I being equipped to do the work of the ministry that we are called upon as a local church assembly in the place where our God has put us. I cannot reach everybody. You cannot reach everybody. But combined, we can reach all those whom God has intended in purpose for us to reach. That means that when we get up on Sunday morning, what do we do? We get our kids out of bed and we bring them to church. And if they don't want to come, they're kicking and screaming, and you know what you still do? Bring them to church. How long do you do it? Till they get big enough, they can pay their own bills. And if they don't like that, show them the door. If you're big enough to take care of yourself, hit the door. But as long as you live here, as long... And see, that also entails this. What do you got to do? It means you got to get up and come. But see, here's the difference. Those that are God's children, those that have been regenerated and converted by God the Holy Spirit, they do get weary at times, but they want to be here. They want to hear the word. They want to be around friends, brethren, those who have the same good hope, good grace. And see, here's the thing, every one of these means, prayer, that's the one that gets me. I swear I wrestle with this all the time. Pray without ceasing. Our Lord said, He spoke a parable to this end, men ought always to pray and not faint. And prayer is difficult. Isn't it? People ask me, even believers, they ask me to pray all the time, and I've got to the point in my life, I'm not going to just tell you I'm going to pray. If I do, when I do pray, I'll remember, because I tell you what, anything and everything comes between prayer, and I swear most of the time that I spend in prayer, I feel guilty because of the prayers that I've prayed, because so much is in me, my eye, you know, things about me. Lord, what about my family, my friends, and my brethren, and this and that, and I'm coming to the opinion, I think a lot of times prayer is just shut your mouth and sit still before the Lord, and listen to His still small voice. Trust Him to do His will in His way. Prayer. Study the Word. Attendance of worship. Participation in the ordinances. Believer's baptism. If you have not been baptized and followed our Lord Jesus Christ in believer's baptism, should you? Yes, you should. Not to save you, keep you saved, to qualify you, entitle you to eternal life, but why? Out of a humble, submissive identification with Christ as the Lord, your righteousness, and an identification with those that are of like pleasures, faith. But I'll tell you one thing believers should never disregard. Even if you don't come every single Solitary Sunday, when we have the Lord's Table, it is your responsibility as a child of God. Where should you be? Because it's the Lord's Table. It ain't Grace Baptist Churches, it's His. And it's one of the means whereby He used our heart and our mind and our understanding. What Christ accomplished, His shed blood, His broken body, this do and remember. That's one of the only things that we do that He tells us every time we participate, what are we doing? We're remembering Him. We forget through the week, don't we? But if we participate, and not that we get any blessing from it. I mean, it's not that you're going to start glowing because you drink the wine and eat the bread. It's just a cup of wine, and it's a piece of unleavened bread. But what it represents to you shouldn't be mechanical. It shouldn't be going through the motion. It should be a thoughtful consideration that I'm one with this person whose body was broken, whose blood was shed. And see, we see the wisdom of God in appointing all these means, not as a condition of our salvation, something we have to meet in order to be saved or entitled to any part of our salvation. All of these means, you know what they are? They're the fruit and the result of Christ's righteousness, which alone, by itself, In every situation and in every circumstance, entitles the sinner to all of salvation. I did not cover a single verse. We'll come back next Sunday and we'll start talking about three solemn duties. This particular section is safeguards against apostasy, part one. And we'll start talking about our duties next week. You're dismissed, the worshiper appreciates your presence. you