If you'll take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll begin reading in verse 26. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is God's Word. We've been traveling through the book of Hebrews for a very long time. And this is, at least according to my count, the 116th sermon in Hebrews. And Hebrews has been absolutely marvelous to us and for our souls. And really, once we came to Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 1 through chapter 10 and verse 18, We really hit the climax of the doctrinal instruction in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is, according to 1322, it is a brief word of exhortation. That brief word of exhortation actually employs logic, argumentation, Old Testament exposition, application, warning, promise, and what happens is Hebrews builds and it builds. And then you finally get to chapter 8 verse 1 through 1018, and you have the climax of the book doctrinally. In fact, if you turn back, since it's been a while since we've been in Hebrews, if you turn back to chapter 8, that section begins with these words. Now the main point in what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." And with that, the writer actually tells us, here is the main point, this is what we've been moving towards, this is the climactic point that I'm telling you, and that is that we have this great high priest. Now, what he does after that is he talks a little bit about the heavenly tabernacle, and then he moves right into the new covenant. And that really is the whole direction that the writer is getting to. He's getting to the New Covenant. And so he quotes, in the middle of chapter 8, he quotes Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34, and he begins to expound for us the benefits of the New Covenant as they had been promised, and the connection is actually very simple and yet amazingly profound. And that is this, out of all of these promises that God made for us in the New Covenant, these promises could never actually be fulfilled until We had the perfect High Priest who offered up the perfect sacrifice and therefore has become the perfect mediator of a new and better covenant. And so the writer's burden has been to show the fact that the New Covenant could not be inaugurated until the Great High Priest had come and offered up that once and for all sacrifice. Now, the New Covenant is filled with great promises, but the climactic promise is this, I'll be merciful to your iniquities and your sins I will what? Remember no more. Now that is about the best thing that you could ever hear, right? Because if you understand who God is and what He is like, the very last thing that you want to happen is for Him not only to remember your sins, but to bring those sins up as a point of controversy between Him and you. And so the climactic promise is God's going to forgive us and our sins He'll remember no more. And then here is the nagging question. How in the world could the God of heaven say, I will put away your sins and remember them no more? And the answer is this. in a once-for-all sacrifice that is never again to be repeated, God can make the promise that He will remember our sins no more because the final sacrifice of His own Son has put away our sins once and for all. If you are in Christ, your sins are gloriously forgiven. If you're not in Christ, They perilously hang over your own head. And so what the writer does is he then explains to us in this one summary verse, verse 13 of chapter 8, he says this, when he said a new covenant, He's made the first, that is the old covenant, obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. And so the writer tells us that the old covenant, which would entail not only the covenant of Moses itself, the Sinaitic covenant, but also all of the details regarding the priesthood, the temple, the sacrifices, those things have been made obsolete. because of the coming of Christ and the inauguration of the new covenant. And what the writer is doing is he's letting us know that on a theological level, what takes place in Jerusalem, in the temple, by those priests, through those sacrifices, is now theologically absolutely, completely, not only unnecessary, but obsolete, because the fulfillment has come. But there's something else that's going on as well. The writer is writing this letter around AD 66, and within three and a half, four short years, that which had been declared theologically obsolete would then become historically obsolete with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. And so the writer now wants us to understand, he wants his first century readers to understand the way that all of this works. And so the whole Old Testament's types and shadows pointing towards the fulfillment in the New Testament. And so the heavenly tabernacle, the ultimate tabernacle has come in Jesus. And the ultimate final sacrifice has now come in Jesus. And just a couple of summary statements. Chapter 9, verse 11. But when Christ appeared as a high priest, of the good things to come, that's the things of the new covenant. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And so Jesus actually enters in on our behalf, having offered up the perfect sacrifice, verse 24, For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor was it that he should offer himself Often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own, otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so the writer is making it absolutely clear that all that which the Old Testament pointed towards has been perfectly fulfilled. One of the things that he's going to bring up, especially in chapter 10, is that the repetition of sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats under the Old Covenant actually never took away sin. And in fact, the repetition of it was not a taking away of sin, but ultimately the repetition was a reminder of sin. And so every year as they would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the fact that you had to have the high priest go and enter in once again into the tabernacle, and then once again to offer up the blood of atonement on Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, the fact is that year by year, it was just a reminder that there's something that is not working here. And the writer says it's because When God's son is going to enter into this world, he's going to enter in as the great high priest of the good things to come, the blessings of the new covenant. And once he comes into this world and offers up that final sacrifice, there is no longer any sacrifice needed because the once for all sacrifice has been made. In chapter 10, he develops the argument even further. It's through this once for all sacrifice that God remembers our sins no more. And this is the connection that he makes. Verse 9. Then he said, speaking of Jesus, quoting from Psalm 40, Behold, I've come to do your will. He takes away the first, that is the first covenant, in order to establish the second, that is the new covenant. By this will, that is by the willing of Jesus to be our sacrifice, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ, Jesus Christ, once and for all. Verse 11. Here's the contrast. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. And so the beautiful picture that we have is a full, complete, final sacrifice symbolized how by Jesus actually sitting at the right hand of God. Remember, the priest never did what in the tabernacle or the temple? They never sat down. They were perpetually in motion, doing their priestly work of offering and sacrifice. Jesus Christ, because His work is absolutely, thoroughly complete, has actually sat down at the right hand of the Father. And you've heard it once, you've heard it a hundred times, here's a hundred and one. There is absolutely nothing that you can add to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf. Everything that was required for us and for our salvation has been perfectly fulfilled and accomplished By Jesus Christ, you cannot add anything to it. You cannot do anything to make God love you more. There is nothing that you can do to acquire one more ounce, one more iota of salvation. Jesus paid it all. All to Him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Now that's the writer's burden. He wants them to see the fact that that new covenant could not take place until the perfect sacrifice had been offered by the perfect priest. So now that new covenant has been inaugurated. And then he closes his argument with this verse, verse 18 of chapter 10, which is so critical to the passage we're going to eventually get to today. Now, Where there is forgiveness of these things, understand that clause, now where there is new covenant forgiveness of God remembering our sins no more, there is no longer any offering for sin. Got it? Clear? So these first century Jewish Christians who felt pressure to return back to Judaism, these first century Christians who felt the pressure, the social pressure to go back to their roots, the writer says, listen, you can't go back. Because if you've experienced this, the forgiveness of sin through the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, there is nothing over here anymore. There's no longer any offering for sin. Period. Why? Because the once-for-all offering of Jesus has taken place, never again to be repeated. Now, that's the doctrinal climax, all right? That is the doctrinal summit, if you will, the mountain peak of what he has been expounding. Then, in chapter 10, verses 19 to 25, This paragraph actually then begins to put the truth, the doctrinal truth, into application. In fact, we could say this. Chapter 10, 19 through 39, all right? So 19 through 39 is actually the application of the doctrine of 8.1 to 10.18, all right? Now, the writer is immensely pastoral. It's actually my personal notion that this writer actually had probably served as a pastor to this congregation at some time in the past. And so, the writer is pastoral. This word of application, he wants to drive it home. So, here's the pattern. Doctrine, truth, scripture, and now vital application. And what the application of this truth is going to be, New Covenant established by the priesthood of Jesus and His one for all sacrifice, the application is going to be, because that's been done for you, the call is now for you to respond to the Christ of the New Covenant with faith and endurance. That's the call. In fact, you can see it in the way that there are these little bookends, verse 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, so we have that confidence, now notice verse 35. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance. All right? So, understand very clearly that the climactic exhortation of this entire epistle actually is 19 through 39, which of course makes sense if 8.1 through 10.18 is the climactic doctrinal summit of this book, then this is the climactic application and it is all driving home the relevance of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. What's interesting to me is that the writer does not do this. He does not say, Jesus paid it all, his once for all sacrifice is absolutely complete, so you don't need to do anything. That's the way that we oftentimes reason, is it not? We oftentimes think if the Bible says that God's done it all, He's provided all, He's accomplished all, then we don't have to do anything. That's not what the writer says. The writer says, because of what God has done, there is now a response on your part. It does not add to what Christ has done, but it certainly demonstrates that you understand and value what Christ has done. Now, the way the application works is like this. 19 to 25 is one of the most beautiful, glorious, encouraging, uplifting passages, not only in the book of Hebrews, but in the whole New Testament. I mean, it is absolutely marvelous. It is heartwarming. It's one of those texts that as a pastor and as a Christian, you want to just swim in, and we swam in it. It took us a long time to go through this one paragraph, but it is really nothing more than taking the doctrinal truth, putting it into shoe leather, showing them and us the relevance of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus and His priesthood on our behalf. All right? And so you can just sort of see the way that it works here. We have confidence to enter. We have a new and living way which has been inaugurated because we have this great high priest over the house of God. And because that, because we have confidence, because we have a new living way, because we have a great high priest, then let us draw near with a sincere heart. Let us hold fast our confession of hope. And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds. I like heartwarming, uplifting stuff. All right? I do. I like stuff that just sort of just feeds your sense of faith and confidence and to hear of the beauty of Christ and all of that. And that is absolutely marvelous. But then the writer does something that makes us feel very uncomfortable. He goes from the most heartwarming encouragement and exhortation to the most frightening warning in the whole book. He goes from that which is so uplifting to that which is severe. He goes from that which is the most encouraging to that which is the scariest. And that's 26 to 31. And then, once he's done with that, scaring the you-know-what out of everybody, he then turns around and goes back to loving encouragement. Now, I don't know exactly how you would get along under this pastor. because he had no problem shifting gears from warm encouragement to flat out frightening warning right back to warm encouragement. What the writer does to finish out that chapter, is that He just reminds them of the old days, the early days of them following Jesus, and then exhorts them to continue on, not to shrink back, but to endure. Now, you not only think about what the verses in the Bible mean, you think about why the Holy Spirit arranged them in the way that He did, right? Because when we talk about verbal plenary inspiration, we're talking about that he inspired every word, all the words, but he not only inspired the words, he also inspired the grammar, he also inspired the syntax, but he also inspired the structure. Right? So you start asking yourself, what is this about the doctrinal truth, the elevation of Christ as High Priest, and then to warm encouragement, to severe warning, back to encouragement? I would suggest to you that there is a distinct and inspired pastoral strategy in this structure. The doctrinal truth about Christ and His work is the foundation for everything. Without that, there's no such thing as application. Without that, there's nothing to build your life on. Without that, there's just nothing. And so, the truth of Christ and His work for us is the foundation for everything. But it is the value of embracing and living the truth that has to be shown in application. And it is the danger of rejecting that truth that must be shown in application. So understand, that's what application is in a real sense. It is showing the value of embracing the truth and living the truth, but it also must equally show the danger of rejecting that truth and not abiding by that truth. There is something that is truly loving when you give somebody the whole picture. There is something loving about not only giving warm encouragement, promise, but also warning, sometimes severe warning. And so the writer has a strategy and he wants to show 19 to 25, here's the beauty and the value and the glory of embracing these truths and making them your own. You have confidence to go to God. But if he just stopped there, he would never address a segment of people who would hear his message, who would not believe it, who would reject it. And at the end of the day, those people have to be warned as well to keep them from rejecting it, to motivate them to embrace it. And so you have exhortation, you have warning. Why? Because the truth must be responded to. The truth cannot just be set out, explained, and then put on a shelf. Decisions have to be made. Commitments must be made. Truth must be lived out in life. And there are perils to indecision and unbelief and indifference, and those perils, if a person is to be loving, have to be set forth. And remember, a warning can be the most gracious, loving word that can be uttered. If one of you are sitting on a train track, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, having a picnic, enjoying yourself and enjoying the sunshine, and I see a train bearing down on you, it's not loving for me to say, I don't want to interrupt their nice day. It's loving for me to say, move, get up, you're going to die. Well, what about my peanut and butter jelly sandwich? What about my picnic basket? What about my glass of lemonade? What about me enjoying the sunshine? You're just trying to ruin my life. Thursday night at NSP, I preached, actually got to the text at NSP, which may not happen this morning. And, man, and, you know, it's tough stuff. One of the guys came up to Mark afterwards, it was his first night there, and he goes, what's that guy's name? Mark says, Pastor Brian. He goes, man, he is mean. And Mark's like, hey, you know what? He's in a warning passage and he's trying to be faithful to you. Come back, he'll get nice one of these days. There is nothing that's loving or kind. about letting people live in a dangerous place of indecision and unbelief. And so there are some of you today, here's the bottom line, we're going to get to this in a minute, but all of us need this warning. I don't care you've been a Christian for 50 years, you need this warning. But there are some of you who so desperately need this warning because you are doing the very things that are said in this text. And the most loving thing that I can do for you is to say, wake up, wake up, look at the severity God is not to be trifled with. Stop living a delusional life and get serious about Jesus or else. Now, this is a warning passage, 10, 26 to 31, and the warning passage must be understood. All right? In fact, all week long, as I thought about the message, I can tell you that I have a burden, and it's a huge burden, that everybody understands these warnings and what they're designed to do. On the one hand, I do not want to be misunderstood and thought to be teaching that you can fall from grace and lose your salvation. Alright? You have to listen to me, because if that's what you conclude about what you hear, then you've heard wrong. Alright? Everybody understand that? You cannot afford to misunderstand this. But on the other hand, I will also tell you, I do not want to be misunderstood in such a way that this warning loses its teeth. There is a sense in which when you come to a passage like this that you're so scared that somebody's going to conclude the wrong thing about it that you qualify it to death, you hedge it up, and all of a sudden that which was designed to be a warning to fulfill a certain function has actually become some sort of a neutered paragraph that doesn't mean anything to anybody other than that doesn't apply to me. I'm not willing for either misunderstanding to exist. We are talking about eternal destinies. We are talking about life and death, heaven and hell. And so to the best of my ability, by the grace of God, I want to make sure that nobody misunderstands what is being said here. Now, for many of you, you're going to hear this and you're going to say, well, you know what? I've heard this before. And so I just say, hoorah! You've heard it before. Simon Peter is an old man and he said, I don't hesitate to stir you up by way of remembrance, telling you things you already know. So you think you already got this down? Good. Just listen and see how well you got it down. But for some of you, you need to desperately pay attention because This warning passage with the others is designed to do something in all of us. Now, there are five warning passages in the book of Hebrews. All right? The very first one is in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. It is somewhat of a general warning against drifting. All right? There is an implied threat about the severity of the gospel, even as opposed to the severity of the Old Testament. But it is a general warning against drifting. The second warning is the longest. It begins in chapter 3, verse 7, and goes all the way through chapter 4, verse 13, and it uses the wilderness generation that did not enter into the land of promise as the example that undergirds the warning. The warning can actually be summarized in a couple of statements from that larger section. So the writer gets to this and he says, and this is part of the warning. Chapter 3 verses 12 and 13, see to it brethren, that none of you fall away from the living God through an evil heart of unbelief. but encourage one another day after day as long as it's still called today. And then, at the end of the passage, it tells us the Word of God is living, active, sharp and two-edged sword, and then it tells us that we have been laid bare and the God with whom we have to do can see everything inside of us, including our unbelief. So that's the second warning and it is a stiff warning against unbelief. We become partakers of Christ if we hold fast to our assurance firm until the end. That's the big if and then it is given to warning. The third warning passage begins in 511 with those that have become dull of hearing and goes through chapter 6 and verse 12. The heart of this warning is downright frightening. If we fall away, if we have tasted of the heavenly gift and may partake of the Holy Spirit, tasted the powers of the age to come and fall away, it's impossible to renew to repentance. Scary. By the way, designed to be scary. Get to the next warning passage, which is our passage. And in my estimation, our passage, 26 through 31 of chapter 10, is the most frightening, the most difficult, and the one that stands out as the most severe. And then you have the final warning passage of chapter 12, verses 25 to 29, which sort of images the first one, and it warns against refusing him who speaks. All right? Now, the obvious problem with these warning passages go like this. Who's he talking about? Who are those in question? Who are those who fall away, of whom it is said it is impossible to renew them again to repentance? Who are those who fall away, chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, through the deceitfulness of sin and hardened hearts? Who are these people who, in our passage, let's say, who go on sinning willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth? Who are they? Are they real Christians? That's the question that we ask when we read these warning passages, right? I mean, you ever just read Hebrews on your own and just go, my goodness, who's he talking about? It sounds scary to me. And so we read these and we have questions, and then we turn around and we have other questions. What's the nature of these people's sin? deceitfulness of sin, hardness of heart, fall away. What does it mean to fall away? What does it mean, in our text today, what does it mean to go on sinning willfully? I mean, with God as our witness, who among us has not gone on sinning willfully? And so you start asking the questions. Who is he talking about? What kind of sin is he talking about? And is this apostasy, this falling away, I mean, is it unto eternal condemnation? In fact, here's the question that emerges from these warning passages, and it comes out every time we read it, and it goes like this. Is this teaching that a person can fall away from grace and lose their salvation? I'm going to tell you, at face value, That's the conclusion that a lot of people come to. I remember being 14 years old, reading the Living Bible. Living Bible does a horrible job on these warning passages. I was so absolutely convinced when I read chapter 6 that I'd lost my salvation. I mean, my throat sunk down into the pit of my stomach. I was in tears. I couldn't breathe. I thought I was done, cooked, fried eternally. And so you know what I did? I thought, well, I just keep reading. Maybe I'll find some encouragement. So I went from chapter 6 to chapter 10. And I went from bad to worse. So I thought I'd just finish out the book and finish out the book. And I just was left thinking, I'm damned. I didn't have that salvation very long, only about a year. And then I lost it. And now I can't repent. Anybody ever come to similar conclusions reading Hebrews? It's just like, wow. By the way, that night I decided to keep reading and finish with Revelation, which also was a bad idea. But I was just convinced. And so here are the proposed solutions to this big issue. There is the Armenian position. That's Armenian with an I, not an E. Not the Armenian position. Okay? Armenians live over in Turkey. Armenians idolize free will. Alright? Big difference. Armenian position says this. Those people that are being talked about in the warning passages are actually real Christians. And real Christians who commit apostasy and lose their salvation and eternally perish. All right? That's the Arminian position. Now, there is a pro to this position, and it's the only pro to this position, and that is that they take the warning seriously. All right? Now, the con to the position is this. It doesn't take seriously enough the finished work of Christ and the security and assurance that the believer has that is even articulated for us in the book of Hebrews. Right? So, the Arminian position says, yeah, face value, these are Christians, they fall away, they lose their salvation, and that's that. There's another position. looks at these warning passages, and this is the, for lack of a better term, showing my own bias, which I very rarely ever let slip out, that is the easy-believe-ism position. Easy-believe-ism position says, these are real Christians, and they commit serious sin, which is usually failure to mature. And They lose not their salvation but their reward and suffer temporal punishment or discipline. The pros to this view? None. Okay? It is weak, anemic, and in fact, it does not even preserve eternal security right. The cons, too many to list, but let me just give you a couple. One, it doesn't take the warnings seriously enough. These warnings are not about just losing reward. These warnings are not about just temporary discipline in this life. These warnings are much more severe than that. So this position does not take the warning seriously. And it also, in turn, minimizes the punishment. It minimizes the sin, first of all, which is not just failure to mature, it's apostasy. And it minimizes the punishment, which is not just temporal discipline, but eternal condemnation. Then there's the Calvinist position. I'm going to surprise you. This is only partly right, okay? Calvinist position says the people that fall away that are envisioned in these warning passages, at the end of the day, were not real Christians. In fact, what the warning passages show is the danger of having only the appearance of faith and not the reality of faith. And so they fall away and they're lost, but they're lost because they were never saved. Now, one pro to this position is it at least does justice to the idea that there are people who falsely profess faith who end up being lost. Right? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. The Apostle John, very clear, 1 John 2, 29. They, that is the antichrists, they went out from us because they were not of us. For if they would have been of us, they would not have gone out from us. But in order to show that they were not of us, they went out from us. Clear? Okay. Another pro to the Calvinist position is that the warnings are taken seriously. They're real warnings. Here's the con. It turns the warning passages into something that they weren't designed to be. The warning passages in Hebrews are not genuine tests of faith. That is not their purpose. Are there genuine tests of faith in the New Testament? And the answer is yes. 1st John is filled with genuine tests of faith. Right? The Apostle Paul speaks frequently of what we could consider genuine tests of faith. Even Jesus talked about genuine tests of faith. For instance, parable of the four soils. The problem with the Calvinist position is that it fails to deal with the function of the warning passage and instead jumps to a theological conclusion inferred by the warning passage. Does that make sense? Okay, I'm in trouble then, because there are like three of you that said uh-huh. Now, let me just tell you, theologically, this is where I land, but as far as dealing with the warning passages, it's unsatisfactory because you have to ask yourself the question. The writer is pastoral. He has a pastoral strategy. What is the function of him giving the warning passages? Is the function actually to be able to say there are those who truly profess faith and those who don't and those who don't fall away? That's not the point of the passage. If you read the passages like that, then you're not reading them in the way that they're pastorally designed. Now, I can't do any better than that, so if you don't have it by now, just hang in there and keep listening. Let's talk now about the function of these warning passages. First of all, I would suggest to you this morning that the author may not have shared the same concerns that we do as we read our Bibles. You read the warning passage and you jump to, were these real Christians? Did they lose their salvation? These theological issues are unavoidable as we talk about the warning passages, but we have to ask, what did the author intend by them first? And it could be, in fact, I'm under the conviction that it is, that our theological convictions as we read these things were not his starting point. The author had a purpose for these passages, and the author is not primarily concerned about people examining the conversion, the genuineness of their conversion. In other words, when he gives the warning passage, he is not saying, look back to when you professed faith and see if you were real. The purpose of the warning passage is, you're running, don't stop. So the warning passage is designed to keep you looking towards the finish line, not called you to turn back and look at the starting line. The warning passage is a pastoral encouragement to keep you enduring and persevering. Now, for sure, New Testament theology would lead us to believe that in persevering, they show the genuineness of their faith. But that's not the primary function. The writer wants these people to be bold. He wants them to be confident. He wants them to have assurance. He wants them to trust God. He wants them to believe the promises, which is absolutely replete through the book of Hebrews. But he refuses to give them a false hope or shallow confidence or a shaky assurance. Would to God the pastors today would be concerned with these things? The minute that we start with the question, do these warnings teach that one can fall from grace and lose our salvation, what we do is we shape the outcome of the way we understand the text by our beginning questions. You understand how we do that. So if we start with the wrong place, we end up in a place that the writer did not intend. We must ask, what's the purpose? What's the function? And here it is in a nutshell. First of all, the warnings are not designed to create doubt any more than the promises are designed to create presumption. God doesn't give you promises so that you say, cool, I'm saved no matter what I do. And he doesn't give us the warnings to create doubt. In other words, the picture in Hebrews is that we're running the race, right? That's the picture. We're running the race. The writer does not give us these warnings to cause us to stop in our tracks, turn around, and go back to the starting line and say, am I for real? They're designed to keep you running. In order to finish the race, listen carefully, in order to finish the race, we need both the assurance of faith and the endurance of faith, right? You need both and just trying to scare people and make them think they're not safe. So they need to try harder. Doesn't get anybody saved. Okay. You understand that holding people in fear of whether or not they're right with God does not help them persevere. In fact, I would argue that over the long run, it undermines perseverance. In order to finish the race, we need both assurance of faith and endurance in faith. Now, the promises and the alreadys of salvation do what? Provide the assurance. The warnings and the not yets provide the endurance. Does that make sense? Promises and the alreadys provide the assurance, the warnings and the not yet provide endurance. All right? In other words, the promises and the warnings are means by which God's people persevere. The function of the warning is to keep us running, And the warnings yell at us, scream at us. Don't stop. Don't turn back. Don't stop now. Keep going. Now, I've used this illustration before, but none of you remember it, so I'm good. You drive from here to Sacramento on Highway 50. You get down by the American River. It's a real windy, right? You got these yellow signs on the side of the road. California Department of Transportation, I assume, put those up there. And they're yellow. And we call them warning signs, right? So you're driving along and it's really curvy, you know, and you're seeing how close to the line you can get. You're going real fast like I would never ever do. And you come up and it gets real winding. There's a yellow sign and it says 25 and it's got a symbol like this, right? You see the warning sign, 25, you don't say, oh my goodness, we're going to die. Lots of people die here. Honey, start praying. We're all probably going to die. Nobody says that, right? I mean, if you do, you're kind of dopey. I mean, nobody goes, oh, I'm filled with doubt that I'm going to make it to Sacramento. Right? So the warning sign is not designed to say, you ain't going to make it. But neither do you come up to the sign going, whoa, a genuine driver test. See how I'm going to do. Woo, made it. I must be a real driver. Nobody says that either. The warning sign is a means to get you to your destination safely. Real drivers heed them and get through. Now, to see the sign and go, ooh, caution, need to be careful. Is that healthy? Oh, sure, sure. Is, we're going to die. Is that healthy? No. The warning passages in Hebrews are just like those warning signs. They are a means to get you to your destination safely. You and I not only need the promises, but we need the warnings. In fact, every single one of us needs the warnings. All of us. Maturity does not say I'm above the warnings. Maturity does not say I'm beyond the warnings. Maturity realizes there's enough remaining sin in me to sink the Titanic of my soul, and therefore I need the warnings. The warnings are a requirement for me, just like the promises are a requirement to build faith. The warnings are a requirement to preserve faith, protect faith. I would remind all of us this morning that it is a soft, anemic Christianity which thinks it knows better than God and can survive only on the positive statements of Scripture. God in His wisdom has given us both positive and negative, both promises and warnings. And just as a little precursor to this afternoon, in verse 26 the writer says, if we... Are you more spiritual than the writer to the Hebrews? Are you more mature than the writer to the Hebrews? The writer to the Hebrews includes himself in the warnings. Who are you to exempt yourself from the warnings? Who are you to think that somehow your faith is strong enough that you don't need the warnings? Understand this, God has a divine design for our perseverance. to keep us on the straight and narrow. On the one side is the guardrail of his promises to keep us from despair. On the other side is the guardrail of his warnings to keep us from presumption. Both of them work in concert with each other to motivate us to endure all the way to the end. That's the introduction. Next hour, we'll get to verse 26. But I hope that you not only value what Christ has done for you and embrace it wholeheartedly, but I hope that you also embrace the means by which he has given to his people to persevere to the end. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for not only the totality, but for the completeness of your word. Father, you know what we need better than we do. And we confess that this morning and we would ask for forgiveness when we have thought that we've known ourselves and understood salvation better than you. Father, although we would have never said that out loud to anyone, Father, to think that there's parts of your word that we don't need and that are irrelevant to us is an affront to your wisdom and your grace. And so, Father, we pray that as we dig into this warning, that you would help us to see that it is there for each one of us. In Jesus' name, amen.