Remain standing and take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. We're going to read Psalm 19 and then we're going to read from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21. But first, Psalm 19. And before we read God's infallible Word, let us ask Him to bless us. Father, bless us now. As we go to minister the Word of Grace, the Word of Healing, the Word of Enlightenment, the Word of Conversion, the Word of Sanctification, Lord, we pray that You would send upon us Your Spirit and that that Spirit this day would be a life-giving Spirit, that it would awaken and quicken and strengthen and fortify Your people. O God, send us Your Spirit to teach us Your Word, that we might be greater conformed unto the precious Jesus Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 19. Hear now the word of the living God. The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard, their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterance is to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. It rises from one end of the heavens, and it circuits to the other end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether. They are most desirable than gold, yes. than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me, then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer." Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. And now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. We continue to bring the book of Hebrews to a close. And what we have found out is that in this benediction, in this word of blessing, this exhortation, this exuberant small prayer that the apostle has lifted up to the triune God on behalf of God's people, We have found that it is essentially filled with all of those truths that the book of Hebrews contains. That in these lines and in these phrases, all contain those precious, wonderful promises and truths that the apostle has spent thirteen chapters unfolding and declaring to his people, to God's people. Now, beloved, one thing you need to understand about a benediction, whenever you study them or whenever you find them, what you're going to notice is that they usually summarize and contain those statements of truths and doctrines that were before them. If you read the benediction of Jude, you'll find that contained in that benediction is a summary of what Jude has stated in those few verses. Well, it's the same here. That is, the purpose of this benediction is that God's people might be blessed with those central ideas, doctrines, and truths that the Apostle has exposited to them, that they would be blessed to contain in their mind. And in their soul, that it would become a part of their lives and a part of their practices, that their habits might be shaped and fashioned by this expositing of Jesus Christ to them contained in this benediction. That God would be faithful, in other words, to apply these truths to them. That God might be faithful. in His sovereign power, in His grace, in His mercy, that He might be faithful and dispose that grace upon us, that we might apprehend with our minds and our hearts these truths and say, Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Amen to these things. The Holy Spirit confirms them to our heart and to our minds. I mean, it's not just the end of a worship service. The benediction is not a time to pick up your pocketbook, zip your Bibles up, and you know what I think about them zipper Bibles. It's not a time to put away your pencils and your notebooks. The benediction is a time for God's people to stand up and to receive by faith the blessings of God. Okay? It's serious. It's a pronouncement. That is, God has ordained ministers of the gospel to be a blessing to the people of God. To be a blessing. You know, we read last week how Paul was appointed by Christ to enlighten minds and to open eyes. Human. appointed by Christ to be that messenger. How was Paul going to do that? He's not magical. He's not mystical. He doesn't have any special powers. He was going to do that by declaring to God's people God's truth. God's will. And he was going to do it authoritatively with the expectation that it would be effectual to God's elect. Power is just not the preacher raising his voice. I understand that. But that he would preach God's truth in such a way that they would be convinced he believes it, and that they would be convinced that they need to believe it. That they just would not consider it to be a lecture. Preaching is not lecturing. Preaching is setting forth the crown rites of the Lord Jesus Christ. And summoning God's people to conform themselves to Him. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is God's predetermined will for you and for me. And we're in that portion of the benediction where we're discussing the will of God. and what we need to know, and how we're to respond to the will of God, and how we're to live according to the will of God. Now, before we get into that, let me say this. I want to remind you of one of the reasons the Apostle felt the need to pen this book. They were backsliding. They were, in their hearts at least, if not in their actions, giving up on Christ. They were pulling away from the covenant of grace and their duties and their obligations, not just to God, but to one another as well. Not the whole church, but people in the church were being influenced to walk away from their profession of faith. to walk away from what they had confessed. And what did the apostolic church confess? Well, they confessed the same thing we confessed. Jesus is Lord. That's it. Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, again, that statement is full of everything that God, the triune God, has revealed about Jesus. Now, we can't exposit that phrase now, but guys, you get the point. You understand that when that statement's made, you have to think back in your mind what has God already said about Jesus and His Lordship and His Messiahship. One of the things that I was struck with this week is how beneficial our Reformed catechisms are to the preaching of the Gospel. Let me say it another way. By you learning the Reformed catechisms shorter, larger, the preaching of the Gospel is going to be more effectual for you. Why? Because it's in those catechisms where you're taught and instructed over the phrases and the words and the intention of the Bible. It's those day school, it's the Sunday school lessons of Reformed faith. Before there ever was a Sunday school, there was the catechism. And people used to memorize them, they used to learn them, and they used to know that all of these questions, these answers and questions, what is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to fully enjoy Him forever. that that statement is pregnant with way more than just those words. It's pregnant with the details of the Scriptures. That's a statement summarized. That statement is summarized by the doctrines of the Bible that in it contains these things. Why? And the purpose that God made us. Brothers and sisters, if you don't avail yourself to the teaching and instruction of the church, Preaching may sometimes be very boring to you. Preaching may sometimes be very laborious, hard to understand, difficult to comprehend, because you have failed, you have failed to enlighten yourself, to educate yourself, and to take baby steps, which we all need. Brothers and sisters, I use the catechism every day for myself. Helping me understand the doctrines of Scripture. Baby food. I need baby food on some things. But I know that if I'm going to eat the steak later, I better eat the baby food now. And we have provided an opportunity for everybody in this church to learn the catechisms. And the reason we've done that is not just so we can say we're TRs. We're truly reformers. I mean, brothers and sisters, there's nobody in Macon, Georgia like us. I mean, we're really reformed. We really believe this stuff. No. The purpose in instructing you in the reformed faith is so that you might be a faithful man, a faithful Christian, a faithful woman, a faithful husband, a faithful wife, a faithful son, a faithful daughter, friend, church member, elder, deacon. that you might grow up and be matured in your person, so that you might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, so that when we preach these things, you grasp it, you understand it. You know that when God talks about Jesus as prophet, your mind goes back and it relates all those things to what a prophet is and what a prophet does. And how beneficial is that to your soul? This church, these Hebrew Christians, beloved, forgot that. They forgot it in a way that we can relate to. Because they once were very studious. They once were very grounded in the faith, so much so, that the apostle says, by now you should be the instructors of truth. Giants in the faith. Fathers and mothers in the faith. By now you should be leading baby, infantile Christians in the faith. But you're not. You have regressed. And now those difficult doctrines and those difficult things that I want to say to you, I can't say to you, I can't speak to you of Melchizedek, because it would be over your head, you wouldn't comprehend it, you wouldn't understand it. But I need to talk to you about Melchizedek because Melchizedek is a type of Christ. And if you want to know something about Christ, you're going to have to know something about Melchizedek. But I can't speak to you that way because you have forgotten these things and you're no longer giants in the faith. Let me say this soberly. Please do not take for granted your knowledge. You know, we have the saying, I guess maybe even an American proverb, if you don't use it, you lose it. We apply that to our doctrine and faith. That is, if we don't seek to take what we know to be true and apply it, in the areas that it needs application. If we fail to do that on a regular, consistent basis, then we lose what God has been so gracious to hand to us. And I bet you most of us could testify to a day when you go, I used to know so much more. I used to understand so much more. And God has put particular providence in your life to help you, not hinder you, to help you to enforce those things. And what have you allowed that providence to do? Distract you. We have allowed those things that God has put in our life to aid us in enforcing those habits. All of us have, each family here, I want to point at everybody so they can't say, well, Pastor Joe's pointed at me when he said it. That's not my intention, brothers. I'm included. I have more pointed back at me. That is those things that God reveals to us. We all have sins and we all have areas that we must be prayerfully working through and working on. And if we don't, we're sinning. We're out of the will of God. Please understand that. Please understand that. Every family here, every individual has sins that they need to work on and to conquer, to overcome, to apply the will of God in those areas so that we might continue to grow in the will of God, bringing pleasure to Him, and growing in grace, being conformed greater to the image of Christ. All of us. And it's all going to be little different areas. Now, beloved, let me say this about the will of God, because that's what we're talking about in verse 21, where He says that the God of peace has brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. He's raised up from the dead Jesus Christ. And the whole purpose for God raising up Jesus is so that God would have a people that would glorify Him. That's it. There would be no reason to send Jesus Christ to die and to suffer on the cross except to redeem a people for God's glory. You have been redeemed to bring God glory in everything you think, in everything you say, and in every emotion you feel, and in everything you do. That's why God sent Jesus. Jesus was raised from the dead. Now this is like Salvation 101. But I think it's so often we forget this wonderful, the gospel's wonderful. And if it's wonderful and needed for these Christian brothers who are struggling, I guarantee you it's wonderful and needed for us. But he raised Jesus from the dead. He sits him at his right hand so that Jesus would declare his glory and praise through the church. Go read Ephesians chapter 1. Go read verses 20 through the end of the chapter. And you'll see in there that God exhibited the power to raise Jesus from the dead, and He has given His people that same resurrecting power that they may overcome sins and be enlightened in their mind. And He has established us in Christ Jesus, and He has put all things under the feet of Christ, and that He is doing all things for the sake of the church. So we see here that there is this hindrance in obeying the gospel. that they have allowed these providences in their lives to hinder them from keeping up, constantly worshiping and doing those things they need to do, and therefore in that backslidden state. Now understand, this is what God says about it. It's not what we say about it, because so many Christians today, I've talked to at least a handful within the last six months that have told me, well, I am a Christian, but I'm on a sabbatical. Yeah. I'm on a sabbatical. I'm taking a break from the church. And I'm going, what Bible is he reading? Second Opinions? Because he's not reading my Bible. Have you met anyone like that? Yes, you know what? We're burnt out on serving the church, so we're just going to take us to sabbatical. God's people are not to take sabbaticals. When can God's people, God's redeemed elect, God's prized possession, when can they take a sabbatical from glorifying God? Why would you want to if He is your chief possession and treasure? All of us have little trinkets at the house we like. You know, when you show people these little trinkets when they come over and they go, oh, look at this, this is a page out of the Geneva Bible, the Gospel of John. Oh, this is so-and-so, my grandmother gave it to me, or so-and-so, my... We all have those prized possessions, but beloved, listen to me. What about God? What about His glory? What about His Son? What about His Spirit? When is God set forth? As, look here, this is my God. How glorious is He? He raised Jesus from the dead. He sent His Spirit to live in my heart so that I might subdue and conquer sins, so that I would not be the old Jess or whoever you may be. This is my God, and He's a God of salvation. He's the God of everlasting redemption. Beloved, God has put providences in your life, difficult, difficult ones, for your help and for your aid. Now, we were talking about the will of God. And God has raised this Jesus from the dead. He has seated Him at His right hand. And now the Lord Jesus is busy applying that salvation that He secured. You see, so many people have this idea they believe in Jesus. But Jesus is like the storefront mannequin. They just sashay by the storefront and see Jesus, and they're like, oh yeah, that's Jesus. I know Him. But they don't trust. They don't rest in Jesus. They don't apply Jesus. They don't do anything to accept what this Jesus has done for them. Brothers and sisters, there must be an application of the redemption purchased by Jesus Christ. And in this verse it says that it is Him, He who is equipping us to do His good will and pleasure. He is working in us to do that which is pleasing in God's sight. Beloved, it's not just a matter of believing a gospel, or in a gospel, or even in the gospel, you must, you must, by the help of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Holy Spirit, with the faith the Holy Spirit gives you, with the repentance of sin the Spirit gives you, embrace this Jesus. And then the evidences of that work begins to be applied out every day. And God sends these providences into your life. Why? So that you might know the will of God. Now, there's two ways to know the will of God. There's that providential will. Now, what do I mean by that? Because we talk a lot about the Word. The Word is the primary. The Word of God is the infallible, revealed will of God. That means when you read the Bible, you read in clear statements what God's will is for you today, every second of the day. But there is that providential will that God puts into your life to show you what He wants you to do. For example, Some of you have been given strong-willed children. Not everybody's looking up. Not everybody. Some of you. Now, why would God give you strong-willed children? Because it's His will that you sit back, recognize the situation that you're in, and flee to Jesus. Because you can't change the strong will of a child, can you? You can't put your hand into their mind and heart and give them a new one. The Lord gives you that strong will, child, so that you might rest upon Christ even more, run to His Word, open up the pages of the Bible, and to begin learning what you need to learn so that you can deal faithfully with that strong-willed child. Because what's the purpose of God giving you that strong-willed child? Faithfulness. To teach you faithfulness. To teach you obedience. To teach you how to walk before God in great difficult situations. What about the compliant child? It's the same way. Those same principles work out even though you have a completely compliant child. This child never gives you a problem. But yet, this child shows no love for spiritual things either. You see, we kind of confuse those two things. Oh, my son's compliant, my daughter's compliant. They never give me a bit of problem. But you know, Pastor Jess, come to think of it, I don't even know if I've ever heard that son or daughter pray. I don't even know if I have ever heard my son or daughter call upon the name of the Lord, witness in the name of the Lord, do something in the name of the Lord, talk about the will of God. I don't think I've ever done those things. So being a compliant child doesn't mean that that child is godly. So what do you have to do? Well, you're going to flee to Jesus. I'm going to give you the whole scenario. Flee to Jesus. By fleeing to Jesus, you're going to come to the Word of God, and you're going to begin studying the Word of God. And then you're going to begin applying those things that you learned from God's Word into this situation. Chunk your psychology. Throw all that psychobabble out. Throw Dr. Spock away. Don't give it away. Burn him. You're going to rest upon God. You're going to rest upon Proverbs 3, where it says, I lean not into my own understanding, but in all my ways I acknowledge him. I acknowledge God. I acknowledge his truth. And then you're going to begin to apply those things. Why? So you can be faithful. So that you can be a faithful parent in that situation, an obedient parent. Now, those are just two scenarios that we can do anything with. So you can see providentially. Now, let's add another element of providence to it. All right. Christ has not left you alone. Remember, He's been raised from the dead. He's seated at God's right hand. The Bible says in Hebrews 13 that it's Him who is working in us, right? He's equipping us. That word equip has to do with restoration, restoring. Remember what Isaiah 61 and verse 1 said. What has Christ been anointed to do? To bind up the brokenhearted. To fix in you what is broken. To fix in me what has been shattered, devastated, corrupted, broken. Our hearts are corrupt, they're broken. Why are they broken? Why are they corrupt? Because they don't palpitate and beat to the law of God. They no longer beat to the will of God and His law. They no longer love what God loves. But they love what God hates. If we all were there, maybe some of us still are. And you need the work of the great Mediator to send His Spirit in your life. Isaiah says that Jesus Christ comes to bind up the brokenhearted, beloved, and that's what Jesus is doing here. He is fixing. He is repairing. He is restoring us to this place where we can see the will of God. We don't just see the will of God like the mannequin behind the glass, but we embrace the will of God. We desire to have the will of God. We want the will of God. We sing praises like David. Oh, how I love thy will. Thou, Lord, it is thy meditation day and night. That's what the Spirit of God does in us when our hearts have been fixed. Beloved, Jesus Christ is that faithful prophet. And to add this other element of providence to this, He gave you ministers. So you're looking at this situation, you're looking at this compliant child, you're looking at this stubborn child, you're looking at your work situation, you're looking at life that's coming at you fast. I don't know if there's a commercial that says it, but it's true. Look at this past week. I was at the hospital several times. Life comes at us fast. Life changes like that. Are we prepared for it and ready for it? And God gave you ministers of the gospel to help you sort it out. He gave you pastors and teachers and ministers that they might minister to you the words of grace, the words of healing, the words of sanctification appointed by Christ. Not just, listen, listen to me. Everybody wants to give advice. Most of it is not worth accepting. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody wants to help you with your problem. Everybody wants to offer up to you some words of whatever. But beloved, providentially, What has been revealed in the Bible is God has appointed from heaven ministers of the Gospel, men who are supposed to be humble, meek, and mild, who are sympathetic, who are mature in the Scriptures, who are knowledgeable in the Word of God, who understand the system of doctrine displayed in the Word of God, who are not infantile in their faith, who are strong in the faith that they might help you and minister to you, enlighten your minds, Grow you up to help you to see what's God desiring for you in this hard and difficult situation. We've already talked about ministers and the callings they have and how they're held doubly accountable. There's going to be a lot of ministers, I believe. I believe the words of Richard Baxter when he says, on that great day of judgment, there's going to be a lot of ministers going to hell. That should strike fear in all of us. Why? Because these ministers were not cared about healing God's flock. They didn't care to minister the salve of redemption. The words of grace. They ministered their own opinions. They ministered what the people wanted to hear, not what they needed. Beloved, we must preach and proclaim and herald and declare what men need, and they need Jesus. They need Jesus. We need Jesus. Now, let's talk about Jesus as a prophet for just a little bit, okay? Because I really want you to understand what God is doing in you. I want to demystify, if that's a word, If not, we'll use it anyway. I like making up words. But I want us to understand what Jesus is doing as our great mediator, particularly as our prophet. And what you're going to find out is he's doing the same thing he did to the church in the Old Testament. He's revealing God's glory. And He is working in you that which is pleasing to God, because you and I do not have the ability to please God apart from the Spirit of God. Okay? Understand that. We're not Arminians. Arminianism teaches that somehow man is saved and he goes off on his own. And he can just do things. You know, he didn't really need everything because he only needed just a little bit of help. Remember? You know, it's like, I'm just kind of sick. I'm not dead. And if you just give me some medicine, I can do what you called me to do, God. And the Bible, of course, that's foreign to the Bible. The Bible don't even understand that teaching. The Bible says man is dead in his trespasses and sins and God must wake him up. He must revive him from the dead. He must give him life. And then everything that we do is the Holy Spirit. Everything that we do that is good and well-pleasing to God is the Holy Spirit working in and through us. And that's why Paul says in Galatians, walk according to the Spirit. You're either walking according to the Spirit or you're walking according to the old man, the old ways. So, what is Jesus doing as a prophet? Jesus, as a prophet, is declaring to God's people God's will. Pretty simple, isn't it? Same thing the prophets did in the Old Testament. What did the prophets do? The prophets went around and they proclaimed the will of God. Now, most of the time, prophets did not foretell. That, you know, to predict. Most people think about prophets as only predicting the future. That was a very small, small activity of a prophet. The majority of the time, prophets did not predict. Prophets instructed. Prophets preached. Prophets went about town to town, village to village, whatever their area or district was, whatever they were assigned to, and they proclaimed the will of God to those people. Same thing Jesus does to us. Jesus proclaims to us the will of God. Now, before we get to the will of God, let's talk about how He does that. Turn in your Bibles to John, I believe, Fifteen. No, sixteen. Now this is what Jesus does to His people. Jesus is sitting at God's right hand. He's mediating on behalf of His people, on our behalf. He's ministering to us. Right now, Jesus is preaching to the elect through the appointed minister And if you have the ears of faith, you hear Jesus' voice. Okay? If you have the heart of faith, your will is being shaped and fashioned. Okay? The ears of faith, to hear the voice of Jesus, the truth, the message of the gospel. There's only one effectual preacher. His name is Jesus. He's the prophet. And then he sends to us the Holy Spirit. Now, let's see. We're in chapter 16, but back up. I just want to show you. Most of you know that John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 is that time with his disciples right before his crucifixion. And it's called the golden transition, so to speak, and it's where Christ ministers to his disciples, and he's teaching them, and he's instructing them. And he tells them that he's going to send to them the Holy Spirit. Back over in chapter 14, in verse 16, he says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that he may be with you forever. Okay, so he says that he's going to send to them the Helper, the Paraclete, the one who comes along besides and helps the people of God. Now look at verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. How does Jesus come to you? Jesus comes to you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Spirit of God is working in us. And by His Spirit, we can say Jesus is here. Jesus is present by His Spirit. Let's go over to chapter 16. Now, he's talking to his disciples, and of course, they're feeling sorrowful because Jesus is fixing to be crucified and he's going away. And they're sorrowful. They love Jesus. So he says in verse 1, he says, "...these things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling." Listen, I want to teach you, I want to instruct you in what I'm going to do so that you don't stumble. Now, beloved, that applies to us as well. We don't need to stumble in this life. We need to know what God's doing. We need to know what God's promised. We need to know in this covenant relationship what to expect out of God so that we know what He's doing in us and to us so that what? We can know how to live. What's expected of us. Look at now, let's back down to verse 5. He says, But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment, because the rule of this world has been judged." Now, let's stop there. This is a glorious passage of Scripture that is misunderstood in many ways. One of the reasons that it's misunderstood is because when most people read it, they don't read it carefully, And they read it applying it to just the world in general. And if you apply it to the world in general, you actually miss the force and the application of it. Now, some of your translations may have over in verse 8, when He comes, He will reprove the world. That's a good translation, but it's not the best translation. The best translation in understanding this is convict. Convict. And the reason that word is so important, because what Jesus is telling the disciples and what the Word of God is revealing to us, is that when He sends to us His Spirit, the Spirit is going to have a ministry of conviction, of convincing God's people of certain things. Now, before you go, in your mind and hearts, Jess, I'm a Christian. I already know about sin. I'm already familiar with righteousness and sanctification. I already know that God's going to judge the world." Well, if that's what you think, you totally don't even understand the passage. Because that is not what this passage is saying. This is an application to us of how our great Redeemer and Prophet who sits at the right hand of God is going to minister to you and to me now. How does He do this? Because first of all, these are present tense verbs. This is not a one-time act. This is not something that the Holy Spirit comes and does one time, and then He's gone. Beloved, this is a ministry that the Holy Spirit does every day, all day long, present tense. He did it yesterday, He's doing it right now, and He's going to do it tomorrow, concerning God's elect, God's people, whom He is calling out of the world. Now, let's look at this. What is the relationship of these words to us this morning? Well, simply this. First of all, he says that the Holy Spirit is going to come and to convict or to convince you of three things. Number one, concerning sin. Concerning sin. Secondly, concerning righteousness. And thirdly, concerning judgment. Concerning judgment. Now, let's talk about this idea of sin and why this is so important, and why this is the very heart of the gospel. You don't have to turn there right now, but if you go to Ezekiel, I believe it's chapter 36 and verse 27, there is a promise there given to this prophet. that God will put His Spirit in His people and cause them to walk according to His ways. Okay? That is, God promises to give His people what Adam lost in the garden. So that the reason He gives them the Spirit and this quickening Spirit and the Spirit of life, so that the Spirit of God, so they may be reconciled to the God of peace. And that they may be under this conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment on a continual basis. And that through these three avenues, these three things, we're brought closer, closer and closer into conformity with Jesus Christ and in relationship with God. Brothers and sisters, What was one of those minor motifs of Hebrews draw close to me? Salvation is drawing closer to God. It's not just saying, okay, I made a profession of faith, I'm saved, I'm done. Past the cake. That's not it at all. Salvation is a continual drawing near to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. Drawing near to God. Closer union and communion with God. And what were they doing? They were drawing back. By what? By not reading the Bibles? By not studying the Bibles? By not growing in doctrine and teaching? By not going to worship? by not ministering to one another. They were forsaking their Christian duties, and by forsaking their Christian duties, He was saying, you're falling away from Me. You're not drawing near to Me. Now listen to this, because this is the Reformed understanding of this passage of Scripture. That is, that God sends to us His Spirit. to convict and to convince and to persuade. Why? Because we are not just ignorant, which we are. Remember how, again, how does the Bible describe the unbeliever? They grope around in darkness. They're darkened in their understanding. Not only does the Holy Spirit come and enlighten our minds so that, what, we can actually think properly, think God's thoughts after Him, Think properly concerning the things we need to do. But He comes to convince us we need to do it. That's two different things. He comes to convince us that we need to do it. He comes to persuade our minds, our hearts, our wills concerning sin as it relates, not to ourselves, Jesus Christ. That's interesting. See, even our idea of salvation is so introspect nowadays. When we look at ourselves, we go, well, I'm just this terrible sinner. And that's true. That's true. We are terrible sinners. But we have to go beyond that and we have to look to what our sin did to Jesus. We have to look at what our transgressions did to the Son of Glory. We have to look and see how it affected God's Son. Beloved, if we don't do that, we're never going to understand the devastation of sin. We're not going to understand the sinfulness of sin. We're not going to understand. If you just look at yourself, You're not going to see the depth of depravity and sin. You've got to look and see Jesus. You've got to look and see what it cost Him. It cost Him His life. It cost Him everything that He might come and save a people for God's glory and praise. The Spirit of God, in spite of our ignorance and carnality, brings to our intellect the reality and importance of saving truth. Not just the sin of, oh, I'm ugly to my wife, or I'm ugly to my husband, or I didn't say a kind word to my son walking in. This particular sin has to do with Jesus. It has to do with the sin of unbelief. And that's huge for us this morning. Because what were the Hebrew Christians guilty of? Unbelief. The Holy Spirit comes and convicts us in such a way that we can't resist it. We can't fight against it. He comes and persuades and convicts and convinces us in such a way that when we see Jesus Christ and we see the effects that sin had upon Christ as the Son of Man, the Son of God crucified to a cross, we see the reality, the heinousness of sin, and we understand how grievous unbelief is. We understand the death and hatred God has for all unbelief. As one Puritan said, Unbelief is the mother of all sins. And unbelief will be the mother of the sins you commit today. Not maybe of salvation, but of embracing what God says about this life. You don't believe me? Well, let's turn to Hebrews then. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. And this is what it's saying about these church members. These people who were part of the Old Testament church. He says, Therefore let us fear, if while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For we indeed have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them." Now, why did the preaching not profit them? Because it was not united by faith in those who heard. You say, well, Jess, I'm already a Christian. Now, brothers and sisters, throw away the Baptistic understanding of salvation. Embrace the biblical idea of salvation. Not only have you been saved if you've embraced Jesus Christ, but every day you are being saved. Every day you are applying faith. Every day to God's promises, to God's words. Every day you are repenting in faith. Every day is an improvement over that one profession of faith. There are many, many, many, many millions of decisions that a Christian must make. It's not just one decision. Every day, it's exercising faith. And what these guys failed to do, now listen to me. I want to be clear about this. Again, Salvation 101. Being in a good church is good, but it's not going to save you. You could have Moses preaching to you and perish. You can have Joshua preaching to you, and that's the emphasis, that's the strength of this passage. What he's saying is, hey, these people had Moses preaching to them, and yet they failed to enter into this covenant of grace, this covenant of rest, because they failed. As Moses preached the gospel, they failed to apply faith. Every message, every opportunity, every time they got a chance, they failed to exercise faith. And what happened? They apostatized. Because somebody told them, all you need to do is confess Jesus one time, and everything's okay. And they did, remember? Remember, this generation did confess the Lord. They saw mighty miracles of God. The parting of the Red Sea. They saw the plagues of Egypt. And they perished. I'm sure, I'm sure they said, I believe in this God. Oh, I believe that this God's all-powerful. I'm sure they made professions of faith that would make ours seem insignificant. But it wasn't enough. to make just some declaration about God. They did not believe it in their heart. They did not embrace Him in faith. They were not resting and trusting in this God who parted the Red Sea to do one thing for them. They thought they could do it themselves. And because they did not add faith continually, to the preached Word of God and the ministry of the church, they perished. Beloved, what's the will of God for you right now to add faith to the message? So that you will be spared. So that you would grow in grace. So that you will be what God has predestined every Christian to be. To look like Jesus. Okay? So the Spirit of God comes into our life and He is the one who convicts us and convinces us of the sin of unbelief, first originally when we repent. But beloved, how much unbelief is still lingering in your heart, in my heart? How much unbelief has God exposed in your mind and in your heart? How much unbelief still resides in our hearts that the Holy Spirit is constantly convicting us of, convincing us of, and yet, beloved, if we don't deal with it, we can expect to look like these. The ones that didn't make it into God's rest. Unbelief is the mother of all sins. Even today. Beloved, the Holy Spirit comes and does not bypass your mind. He comes to enlighten and to work in and to work through an enlightened mind. Why? So that when you add faith to the Word of God preached, you are convinced in your mind that the Word of God teaches it and says it, and you embrace it. God works through your God-given faculties that He made you. That's why when we started talking about emotions on Sunday night, we're talking about, sanctification of the whole man, the whole person being conformed to the law, the Word of God, that we all might be shaped, that our emotions might be godly emotions to match our thinking and our duty. Convincing, convicting, persuading is what the Holy Spirit is doing concerning the sin of unbelief. concerning Jesus Christ. What's he saying? Believe Jesus. Not only just believe Him savingly, do you believe Him in life? I mean, seriously. Do you believe that Jesus has the answer to your business relationships? Do you believe that Jesus has the answer to your parenting relationships? To your friendships? To your relationships? Do we believe that Jesus has anything to say about church government? about how a church ought to function. Do we believe Jesus has anything to say about marriage, fornication, adultery, worship? Does Jesus have anything to say about worship? Should we worship Him in a certain way? So you see, beloved, we have to fight unbelief every day. We have to fight not believing what Jesus says. and embracing that grace given to us by God and the power and the work of the Holy Spirit that Christ is mediator because He has secured redemption for the sake of the elect, and now He sends His Spirit to apply that work to His elect and people. And that's an effectual work. But this is what's going on in our minds and hearts. I mean, how many times have you maybe heard me say something and you go, I don't believe that. And maybe I was wrong. If I was, you never said anything. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's not. But the whole idea is that's the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit, even to you right now and to me right now, is we are being convicted and convinced and persuaded to believe what God says about Jesus. And we know that God says that Jesus sits at God's right hand. God makes us willing by doing this. He doesn't just give us some help or changes our mind one time. God changes our mind every day. Luther said that unbelief makes everything evil. Unbelief makes everything evil. And that's why when a father plays with his child and he does it in unbelief to Jesus, He doesn't have this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't believe what God says about His Son. And he's a good father. He plays with that child. He gives that child whatever that child needs. It's to grow food, clothing, a house and shelter. But if that man does it in unbelief, it is evil and wickedness to that man, even though he should do it. Because he does so in unbelief. And that's the Apostle Paul and not Pastor Jess. Secondly, the second thing that the Holy Spirit is doing, it is not just convicting us of the sin of unbelief, but He is convicting us of righteousness. Now this, I've got to be quick. I have to be quick. This righteousness is not pertaining to sanctification, as many would say. That's not it at all. Remember, all three of these have to do with Jesus. He's the most important person, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of God's tender love and affection. And this ministry of the work of the Holy Spirit has to pertain to Jesus. What does Jesus do? I mean, how adorable is Jesus? Well, the Holy Spirit's making Jesus more adorable to us, right? That's the ministry. That's why we asked last week, is Jesus more adorable to you today than he was a year ago? If He is, that's a ministry and work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, because He is shaping and fashioning your mind and your heart to look at Jesus and to see a most adorable Savior. So, righteousness. Now, how? What's in this relationship of righteousness? This relationship of righteousness does not have anything to do with us. It has everything to do with Jesus. That is, the Holy Spirit comes to His church, to His elect. And He convicts us, convinces us, persuades us that there is no righteousness in and of ourselves. That we can't do one good thing. That there's not one thing we can do to please God, but that our righteousness must be found in Jesus Christ. He is. He is. Present tense. He is our righteousness. He was our righteousness yesterday. He is our righteousness today. And He will be our righteousness tomorrow, beloved. When you go before God in prayer, you must cling to the righteousness secured by Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness in and of ourselves. It's all about Jesus. And the Holy Spirit convinces us and convicts us that we can do no good thing apart from our prophet who teaches us and preaches to us the Word of God. Remember what Armenians teach. Armenians teach that God gives them some infused power and some help, and God's just this big helper, and then man goes about his way. That's heresy. Even though we've got a lot of brothers and sisters that believe that. No, the Bible teaches that Christianity is this, resting solely and only upon Jesus Christ for everything. I don't think I need to say much more about that righteousness, but that righteousness that we're convicted of, and look, we've been convicted of it, it's present tense too. We're constantly being convicted of where our righteousness is. It's Jesus. Thirdly, judgment. Judgment. This isn't talking about the judgment of the world per se. This is talking about how Jesus Christ sends His Spirit to His church to convince, to convict, and to persuade God's people that Jesus Christ has exercised judgment upon sin, death, and the devil. That great promise that was made back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. that the Son of Man would come and that Satan would bruise his heel, but that Son of Man would crush the head of Satan. What the Holy Spirit does is come into our lives and persuades us that that happened. That happened. Your foe has been defeated. that Jesus Christ has come and pronounced, declared, and exercised victory, judgment, over sin, death, and the devil. And it's only in Christ Jesus can you stand firm against the devil when you're tempted and the Bible says that he will flee from you. You see, if you don't have Jesus Christ, you belong to him. He's the Prince of this world. The prince of the power of darkness. The Holy Spirit comes and persuades God's people that Jesus Christ is victor and judge. And He's judge over all the forces of evil. Of hell. Amen? And you need to know that. Because all of us have sins we need to get rid of, right? And those sins have no power over you because they've been judged. They've been taken care of. Jesus Christ is persuading us that we do not have to wallow in the sin of misery any longer, but that we need to rise up, beloved, and be the church of the living God. We need to rise up and we need to charge hell with the Bible in our hand, preaching this gospel, preaching a resurrected seated at God's right hand, mediator, a prophet, priest, and king, and we need to charge hell with that gospel, pushing back the gates of hell. And the reason hell is enforcing itself upon this nation is because this gospel, this Jesus, is not being preached. Some other Jesus. Feel-good Jesus. Happy, glad Jesus. But it's a gladness and happiness that's not based upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Brothers and sisters, this is the gospel. And it's summed up in this benediction. Now let me make a comment. I want to give you verses. And I know, I want to give you these verses, Matthew 28, where Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and declare these things that I have commanded you. Psalm chapter 2, kiss the Son, lest He be angry with you. Talks about the exaltation of Christ at God's right hand as King. Revelation chapter 20 and 21. But beloved, listen. What's God's will for your life today? Well, what difficulty are you struggling with? And what's God's answer to it? Well, first of all, that's God's will for you. Secondly, there is the particular, the particular will that God has for your life. And you know what? We read it in Psalm 19. The law of the Lord is perfect. What? Converting the soul. The law of God is the will of God. The law, the will of God is summed up in the Ten Commandments. Now, what I'm saying is not popular. It seems to need a lot of explanation today. And so we got to explain it. And we need to understand that we are not legalists. A legalist is somebody who takes the law of God and seeks to do something with it that God never intended for you to do with it. God never, ever, ever intended for one man, one woman, one boy, one girl to ever be saved by the keeping of the law. Ever. Just erase that from your mind. God never gave the law as a means of salvation. But He gave the law as this yardstick. And I want to try to explain it to you as elementary as I know how. First of all, for the unconverted man, when the law of God is preached, when the crown rites of Jesus Christ is preached and we preach the will of God, it acts as a yardstick. And when you measure yourself up to that yardstick, you fall way short for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What do you think that glory is? God's Word. What do you match yourself up to? Scripture. That's why Jesus preached in Matthew chapter 7, "...Judge not, lest ye be judged." Because by the same standard you judge with, it will be meted out to you. First dig the two-by-four out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to dig the speck out of your brother's eye. Listen, the whole idea is this. You're going to help your brother get the speck out of his eye, but how are you going to do it? You've got to make judgments. But you're not going to make judgments according to your own opinions, not the book of opinions. You're going to make judgments based upon the 66 inspired books of the Bible. And you're going to live your life by it. And then you're going to be able to help your brother live by this judgment right here. You see, brothers and sisters, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I mean, 2 Timothy chapter 3. I want to show you something. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Notice what Paul says, the inspired apostle. Now, inspired by the Holy Spirit, it says in verse 16, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Does this verse say just the New Testament is inspired by God and profitable? No. Just the Sermon on the Mount. Just Paul's epistles. Just the general epistles. Just the Apostle John. He's the apostle of love, right? You know, It's amazing how people always want to talk about John being the Apostle of Love, but they forgot that his nickname was the Son of Thunder. The Son of Thunder was the Apostle of Love. No, all Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, All of the laws of God are profitable. Everything that God has revealed to man is profitable and adequate to convict, to teach, to instruct, to train, so that we may be what? Equipped to raise our families. Equipped to train our sons and daughters to be Christians. Equipped to run a church. Equipped to preach the gospel. Equipped for every good work. Psalm 19 and verse 11, in the keeping of His commandment is great reward. You see, brothers and sisters, listen to me. God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus has sent His Spirit to work in us. And if the Spirit of God doesn't work in us, we can't do that which is pleasing in His sight. You need two things to live the Christian life, and then we'll end with this. Two things. You need God's Spirit and God's Word. Brothers and sisters, if you just have the Word of God, you're going to be a legalist. You're going to be all about external laws and external commandments. You're going to be just about going to church because you should go to church and people are going to think you're not a Christian if you don't go to church. So, you know, it's just about keeping this external duty. So you need the Spirit of God to do what? To come into your life and to convince you of unbelief, to persuade you, to convince you of righteousness, sin, and judgment, so that you can look at yourself and judge yourself with God's Word, judge your brother as God's Word, so that you're both adequately equipped to live the Christian life. So you look like a Christian man, you look like a Christian woman, you look like a Christian son and daughter, a Christian family, so that your families don't mix and mingle with the world and you can't tell them apart. You need God's Spirit to make you say, along with the psalmist, I love the law. I love it. It's my reward. I'm going to close with this, and I think it's important that I say these things. Because I think we still have to convince people that the law is not bad, the law is good. In Romans chapter 7, I just want to read you what Paul says, and then we'll end. Chapter 7, I'm just going to read two verses. Paul says in Romans chapter 7, verse 12, he says, So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good. This is Paul's opinion of the law. Is that yours? Is that your opinion of God's law? Or do you view God's law as that mean old taskmaster? Verse 22, For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. How are you going to love what God loves, brothers and sisters, without the law of God? How are you going to know to do His will You won't. And that's what the Holy Spirit is doing. The Holy Spirit is working in us the law of God so that we might love to do the will of God. Praise Him. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for not leaving us orphans, but giving us the Spirit. to indwell us, to convict and to convince and to persuade us, Lord, of our unbelief, of the righteousness of Christ and of His judgment as victor, as King. Lord, this day we continue that battle. Give us that strength. Give us that grace, Lord. Make this day sanctifying to us Preserve us, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.