Examine Yourself Part 1-2, Complete Edition

Examine Yourself Part 1-2, Complete Edition

By John MacArthur

Examine Yourselves Whether You Be in the Faith, Part 1

As I said at the beginning of our fellowship this morning, the Lord's supper, I believe is the most wonderful, the most

sacred, the most unique act of worship that the blood bought church of Jesus Christ can ever experience. It is sacred in many ways. It is sacred because it is a sacred memory of the cross. The bread speaks of His body and the cup speaks of His blood and they point to the cross where His body was crucified and His blood was shed and so it's sacred because of its memory. But more than that the table of the Lord is sacred because it is a present communion with the living Christ. He meets us here. The Apostle Paul says "the cup which we drink and the bread which we break, is it not the body and the blood of the Lord, Jesus Christ?" We literally commune with Him here.

And thirdly it is sacred I believe because Jesus said in Luke 22:19 & 20 "Do this." And so it is sacred because it is an act of obedience. And obedience is a sacred and holy thing. And so the Lord's Table is special. I come to the Lord's Table as often as I possible can. And very often in my own life I take the most common things in my hand and in my heart they become symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ because this is so meaningful to me. And yet as I think about it, and you know I've kind of shared my heart in the last year about this; there are many Christians who rarely or never for long periods of time come to the Lord's Table. Even as there are many who are never obedient in baptism. And I guess my approach was always well, maybe they are just ignorant, they don't understand the importance of the Lord's Table, or they don't understand the importance of baptism. They don't know what it is to make a public testimony in obedience to the act of baptism. They don't know what it is to commune with Jesus Christ and the body and to celebrate the cross. They are just ignorant. And I guess I've told myself too maybe they are just disobedient, maybe they just are acting carnally. But then lately I've been thinking something else. This is the message I want to share with you this morning.

I have been thinking lately that if someone has no desire for testimony in baptism and if someone has no fellowship at the Lord's tab le maybe it isn't that they are a weak Christian maybe it's that they are not a Christian at all. The may think they are but they are not. What about you? Are you a Christian? You say 'well I'm a Christian, I believe! I made a decision for Christ.' And believe me there are a lot of people who point to the past to verify Christianity or to salvation and the Bible never points to the past, the Bible never talks about a decision in the past. Are you really a Christian? You say well I came to Jesus. I invited Jesus into my life. Is that enough? Let me show you something. We all know I Corinthians 11 talks about communion.

Now let me just remind you briefly of it. I Corinthians Chapter 11 and verse 27. "Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Now that's pretty strong. I'll tell you something, you know what is worse thannever coming to the Lord's Table? coming to the Lord's table when you don't deserve to be there, that's worse, because to do that is to eat and drink unworthily and be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and so verse 28 says "Let a man examine himself, and so et him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29, For he that eateth and drink unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself." It's very serious to come to the Lord's Table. It is serious for a believer to come to the Lord's Table while entertaining sin in his life. It is serious for a Christian to come to the Lord's table where he does not repent of everything and desire above all things righteousness and holiness and turning from any known sin - serious. But what is even more serious is to come to the Lord's Table and drink unworthily because you are not a Christian at all.

Paul calls for an examination in another passage and I want you to notice this. It's the last chapter of II Corinthians, Chapter 13, and verse 5, I want you to note what it says, Il Corinthians 13:5, just the first sentence, "'Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; (prove it, is what he's saying) prove yourselves." You say to someone "are you a Christian?" 'Yes.' What do you base that on? 'Well so many years ago I made a decision.' That means nothing. The Bible never verifies anybodies salvation on the basis of the past, It's always on the basis of the present, And if you don't have the evident proof of real salvation in your life now, there's a very real possibility you're not a Christian at all, no matter what happened in the past. So examine yourself, to se whether you are in the faith prove yourself. You say John' how do do that? How do I know if I'm really a Christian? I believe! (Maybe you've eve been baptized.) I go to church, I, think I'm a Christian.' Look with me Matthew Chapter 5 and let's find out. When Jesus had arrived on the scene, the Jews had already decided what right-living was all about. They had already built their own code. They had already developed their own system, and they had it pretty cu and dried and pretty well laid out that this is what it was to be holy, and it was all external, it was all self-righteousness and works, and Jesus came and shattered that thing and He said I want to give you a new standard for living.

I want to give you a new criterion by which you evaluate whether you are redeemed or not. I want to ell you how a citizen of the kingdom really lives. You want to prove yourself, ere is the proof, you take your life this morning and let the Spirit of God compare it with the facts of the sermon on the mount and the result will be an examination and he end result will be whether you are a Christian or not. Here is the standard, an the key to it all is one word.

Now watch this, it is the word righteousness, that's the key. Jesus is saying in the Sermon on The Mount, if you are a child of the King, if you are really converted, if you really belong to God, if you've really been redeemed, the characteristic of your life will be righteousness. And there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians and you look a long time to find any righteousness in their lives. Somebody said to me last week there's a lady in our church who says she is a Christian, and ever since she has been a Christian she has been living with a man who is not her husband. And I Corinthians 6 says "Fornicators do not inherit the Kingdom of heaven." Why? Because that is a constant state of unrighteousness. And conversion is characterized by righteousness. Look at it in verse 20; this is the key verse to the whole sermon. Chapter 5, verse 20. Jesus says "I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Listen, they went to the temple every day, the paid tithes, they fasted, they prayed, they were religious freaks, if you will. And He says I don't care about all of that unless your righteousness, this is minimum requirement, exceeds that, you will in no case enter My kingdom. You see righteousness is the sinequanon, righteousness is the issue, righteousness is that which sets us apart as converted and righteousness is simply a long word for living right, living under God's standards, living by God's definition. In Hebrews 12:14, there's a verse that haunts me constantly when I meet people who claim to be Christians but whose lives don't agree with that, and the verse says this, it says, "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Did you hear that? Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord! In II Timothy 2:19 it says "The Lord knows them that are His; (and who are they?) they are those that name the name of Christ and depart from iniquity." In Titus 1:16, it says 11 certain ones profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, because they are abominable, and disobedient."

In other words the profession means nothing unless there is obedience there, unless there is righteousness, unless there is holiness, unless there is a departing from iniquity. God has every right to expect that. And I heard a fellow say the other day, and he was preaching, and he said, "isn't it wonderful that you can come to Jesus Christ and you don't have to change anything on the inside or the outside." That's a lie right out of hell. There better be a transformation. In II Corinthians 5:17 it's well summed up, "if any man be in Christ h is a (what) new creation, old thing pass away and all things have become new." I John Chapter 1, verse 9, says Christians are constantly confessing their sins. Being righteous in that sense, practical righteousness, does not mean that never sin it means that you deal with it when you do, you confess and you turn from it and you repent of it and you despise it and you hate it, you don't love it. It means in Chapter 2, John says, "If you really love Me you will keep My commandments, and by this we know that we know Him, when we do what He commands us."

Further in Chapter 2 he says, "a true believer will be one who will love his brother, he that hates his brother is in darkness until now. Further on he says, "If any man loves the world, the love ofthe Father is not in him," AndJames put it this way, "Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity against God, you adulterers and adulteresses, "You can't be the friend of the world and the friend of God. Further on in John Chapter 3 he says "He that is born of God does not continue to commit sin, he can't because a new seed is in him and he can not continue to commit sin."

Now what am I saying? I'm saying this, God says if you are really saved there will be righteousness, there will be holiness, there will be a whole new approach to life. You will have sin yes, but you will see a decreasing frequency of sin and when sin appears you will despise it and you hate it as Paul in Romans 7 did, and you will confess it and you will turn from it and you will repent of it and you will hunger and you thirst for that which is right, and you will obey and you will love your brother, and you will hate the evil system of the world. That's the way it is if you are really saved. You can't say 'well I'm a Christian and just go right waltzing down the same old path you've been on, prove it, You say your a Christian prove it. I guess maybe I'm not content any more with just saying if you claim to be a Christian you must be, and if you made a decision somewhere at a meeting or a conference or you walked an isle or you went into an inquiry room or somebody took you through a little book, or what ever, you're ok, I don't think that that's ever the Biblical criterion for salvation. The Biblical criterion for salvation is right now, what is your life like right now, and if it isn't what it aught to be, oh yes, maybe you are a Christian living in carnality, but there's an equal possibility that you are not a Christian at all, you just think you are, and believe beloved, and I say this with an ache in my heart, I'm sure there are many people, and I say that, many people in Grace Church who are not Christians. We don't know that and maybe they don't even face up to it. You say what are the standards.

Let's look at Matthew 5 to 7, Sermon on the Mount. We are going verse by verse through this on Sunday nights, if you are missing this you are missing something that is life changing. But I want you to see the criterion, Jesus sits down and teaches us the principles of living in His kingdom, And here's where it starts. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; (verse 3) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (and the emphatic Greek is indicated here, There's only. There's alone. Nobody else but them. In other words the only people who ever enter the kingdom are those who are broken in their spirit, those who face their spiritual bankruptcy, those who see themselves as sinners, those who know inside that they can bring nothing to God. They are poverty stricken in terms of their own spirit; They have nothing on which they can count. No hope for themselves, poor in spirit And the result is in verse 4, They mourn; (And again emphatically,) and only they shall be comforted. The only people who ever receive salvation, He says, the only people who ever come into His kingdom are people who are broken over their sin and who mourn over their sin. And then in verse 5, they are people who are crushed into meekness, they along inherit tie earth, they alone are kingdom citizens, and the upshot of all of that when you are broken in spirit, mournful and crushed to meekness is, verse 6, you will hunger and thirst after righteousness and only they will be filled.

Listen if you didn't come to Jesus Christ broken over your sin, if you haven't come to Jesus Christ literally shattered to the very depths of your being over your sinfulness, if you haven't mourned Over your sinfulness, if you don't hunger and thirst after righteousness more than anything else there is a good probability that your are not even a Christian. That's the criterion our Lord gives.

First of all, He says there will be the proper entrance into the kingdom. That where He begins the Sermon on The Mount. A kingdom citizen can be determined by his own selflessness, his own self-despising, his own sense of inadequacy and bankruptcy and nothingness. There are a lot of people who come to Jesus because they think He would like to get in on what they have. We handle that that way too. We say wouldn't it be great if such and such a big famous thing became a Christian because boy the Lord could... He doesn't need that. What makes you think He needs, you think He need their ability in addition to His power? No sir. If you don't come to Jesus on His terms then you don't come at all. And His terms are brokenness, mourning, meekness and hunger and thirst for righteousness. And who are these citizens of the kingdom?

Verse 7, The are merciful, the are pure in heart, they are peacemakers, they are persecuted, they are reviled. You want to know something, if you come to Christ, broken, contrite, mourning, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and by the way that's the only way to come, I don't believe anybody is every a Christian who doesn't repent of sin. You may have made a decision years ago, that wasn't your salvation if it didn't involve this, and years later maybe you came back to the Lord broken over your sin, that's the moment it became real, that's the moment you entered the kingdom. And you'll live that way the rest of your life, loving righteousness and hating sin. One of the characteristics of a Christian is when he sins he despises that thing. He hates it; it's not what he wants. It's the sin that is in him that does that, and he hates it. And when you COME on those terms the Lord makes you merciful, and He makes you pure in heart, and a peace maker, and you try to live like that in the world and they will never be able to stand you. So what happens, in Verse 10, you get persecuted, in Verse 11, you get reviled, you get all kind's of things said against you falsely, but that's all right be happy, why, because you're a kingdom citizen. Now the first thing I want you to see then is if' you are really a Christian you come on these terms, mourning over sin.

Now the second thing about it, examine yourself. If you are a Christian, not only will the iterance to the kingdom be on this condition, but your testimony will be different too, and that's what He goes into in Verse 13, You are the salt of the earth, And then in Verse 14, you are the light of the world. Now listen to what I'm going to say, If you are really a Christian your testimony will be clearly decisively and easily distinguishable from the rest of the world, That's what He's saying, You see the world is like decaying meat, it's rotting, and you know salt is a preservative and we are here in t e world to preserve the decadence and the destruction of the world that's why the tribulation is so horrible, when the Church is gone the salt is out, And we are here o preserve this thing, and we are distinguished from the world, we are a preserving agency in the midst of a decadent and decaying civilization. And we are to be a 1ight set on a hill and we are to be salt that has it's savor, in other words, He's saying, not only if you are a Christian do you come in the right way but you are going to have a testimony that is easily and clearly distinguishable from the rest of the world. What about your testimony. Is it very evident to everybody around you that you are different or do you do what everybody else does, Are you right in the flow of life with everybody else. When you became a Christian did it change things about your life? If it didn't then it didn't happen, It didn't happen.

Our Lord goes further. He says another thing that will characterize one as His child of the kingdom is obedience, Verse 17, "Do you think I came to destroy the law? Do you think I came to set aside the prophets? No, to fulfill it. In fact not one jot or one title shall ever pass from this law, and I say to you whoever therefore shall break off of the least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And then He goes on to say your righteousness better exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The point is this if you are truly saved you will be obedient, you'll be obedient! There will be acts of obedience, The law of God wil1 be something you long for.

Again Romans 7, Paul longed to do the law of God, he hungered to do the law of God, he delighted in the law of God, he loved the law of God even though sin was always tugging at him, So examine yourself, are you really saved, did you come in mourning over your sin, did you come in broken over your evil heart? Examine yourself, are you clearly, distinguishable from the rest of the world? Examine yourself, are you obeying God, is the great hunger of your heart to do that which is is will? He goes further; if you have really been converted you will think different. That's right. He talks about right thinking in verse 21 and following. You see the Jews could do the outside stuff they just couldn't handle the inner thing. And so the Lord says to them, "You heard you shouldn't kill, and whoever would kill would be in danger of judgment, but (He says I want to go a step further and take it inside and say you should not even have bad thoughts in your heart against somebody).

In other words a child of My kingdom is not somebody who is a non-murderer, it's somebody who inside His heart doesn't desire to hurt anybody, and He pushes the whole thing inside. If you are really a child of the kingdom you are going to have a different heart. Ezekiel 36, the Lord says when you become redeemed He takes out the stony heart, the heart of obstinance and He puts in a heart of flesh, a new heart.

And further He says in Verse 27, You heard it said you should not commit adultery; But let Me take t inside, you shouldn't even want to. You shouldn't look at anybody that way, you shouldn't think that thought. In other words a citizen of the kingdom is different. And when somebody says well I'm a Christian, I just have problems in that area, and they continue to be an adulterer or continue to be a fornicator or continue to be a homosexual or continue in some kind of thing like that I always go to I Corinthians 6 and say those kind of people do not inherit the kingdom of heaven. You didn't come o Christ on His terms you came on yours and they don't make it. Until your broke and shattered over those things, until you weep yourself to tears and crawl into H s kingdom mourning for righteousness you will never know what true redemption is.

Further than right thinking, He says, if you are really a child of the kingdom you ill have right words, not only thinking right but talking right, and in Verse 33 He talks about that. He goes on to talk about perjuring, and about swearing and about your communication should be ya ya, and na na. In other words it's going to come out right, because out of the abundance of the heart (what?) the mouth speaks. And so our Lord is saying if your life is set to hunger after righteousness it will result in obedience and obedience means you've got right thinking going on, and when you open your mouth right words will come out. And when you act, Verse 38 and following right deeds will be the result. You won't retaliate instead you will be kind and if somebody asks you for one you will give them two. Verse 43 you will love your neighbor. And then down further you will even love your enemy. You'll even love tax collectors. In fact in Verse 48, He says this is the whole idea, be like God, He loves His enemies. Do you see the point? Prove yourself; don't tell me you are a Christian because five years ago you walked an isle. Don't tell me you are a Christian because once you signed a card. Don't try to tell God you are a Christian because you went forward in a meeting, you went into a prayer room, you talked to a counselor, and do tell yourself you are a Christian because some counselor told you you were a Christian because he didn't know either . The worst thing you can do to somebody is to talk to them about Christ and when they've prayed a prayer and verbally invited Christ into their life then to sit there and assure them they are really saved because you don't have any idea whether they are. That's the Holy Spirit's work; He's the one who grants assurance and He grants itby the inwardtestimony Romans 8, and by the outer exhibit of works thatprove it, because without works is what? Dead.

You know one of the legacies that we've had from the kind of evangelism that has gone on in our country is that we believe salvation is attached to a decision, but the assurance of salvation has nothing to do with the decision in the past it has to do with what's going on in the present. Jesus put it this way in John 8, "If you continue in My word then you are my real disciples." It's always continuance, it's always present tense. So our Lord says, If you are really a child of the kingdom you come in the right way, mourning over sin, and your life is totally different, distinguishable from the world. And you are characterized by obedience, right thinking, right talking, right doing.

He goes even further right motives, the right kind of religious expression, the right kind of worship we might call it. When you worship God (in chapter 6) it's real, it's not like the phonies who blow a trumpet and come and pray to make a parade. He talks about the hypocrites whose religion is phony, yours is real, and when you pray you pray right, you pray, Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. He saying if something has really changed in your life your religion isn't phony it's real. Your prayers aren't like the prayers of the phonies, they are real prayers. Your fasting isn't the fasting of public display it's the fasting of the closet that no one ever knows about.

So He says, you obey, you are going to have right thinking, right words, right acts, right worship, and right relations too. You are not going to love money, verse 19 of chapter 6, and I'm just talking you through the whole thing here. He says you are not going to lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. You are not going to get hung up in serving money because you can't serve God and money; don't say you are a servant of God when your whole life is bent on getting money! Those two are incomparable. You're trying to be a friend of the world and a friend of God and you can't, if you are a friend of the world you're the enemy of God. If you love the world the love of the Father is not in you. He saying citizens of My kingdom have a right relation to money.

Then in Verse 25 through 34, He says, in Chapter 6, they have a right relation to material things. They are not always concerned about what they wear or what they eat or where they should sleep because they know God handles all of that. Verse 31, "Why would you be anxious saying what will we eat or what will we drink or with what would we be clothed? That's what the heathens seek after. If you are a child of My kingdom you know God the Father takes care of that." And so you would have a right relation to money and to material things and you would even have a right relation to people, Chapter 7 says. You wouldn't be running around misjudging people. You wouldn't be going around trying to play pious when you've got problems in your own life. So you see the Lord is really laying down some basic things isn't He. He's saying you want to know whether you are a Christian?

How did you come to Christ? Did you come just saying 'Hey Jesus, if You can give me a happy life I'll take it.' How would you like to have a happy life? How would you like to have an abundant life? I have a wonderful plan for your life. Want to know something? God has a terrible, wretched, ghastly plan for your life, apart from Christ, and you only come to Him on His terms, not yours. So you come broken and contrite, shattered over your sinfulness, and He changes you immediately and gives you a new heart and you are different, you're salt and you're light and you're on a hill and the world can see, and you're distinguishable if you are really a Christian. And your life is characterized by righteousness which means you are going to want to obey more than you want anything else and that's going to result in right thinking and right talking an right acting and right kind of worship, and right kind of relationships and you know immediately somebody is going to say 'Who can ever live like that?' Good I'm glad you got to that point. Because you can't, you want to know something, that's all impossible.

I can illustrate to you by looking at Matthew 19, verse 23, Jesus had just talked to t e rich man, the rich young ruler, told him to go sell everything he had and give it o the poor, and then then come and follow Him, and the rich loved his money more than e loved Jesus so he took his money and walked away.

Now watch what Jesus says. "Verily I say unto you that a rich man shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom of heaven 24, And again I say to you (now listen to this statement) it is easier for a cam 1 to go through the eye of a needle, than for a right man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Now let me ask you something, can a camel go through the eye of a needle? You s y 'well you don't understand, that's the needle Gate,' that's not the needle Gate, that is exactly what it means. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to be saved. You say that's impossible, that's exactly what the Lord waited you to conclude. Verse 25, "When His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, (now if He would have been talking about some needle gate they would not have b en amazed) and they said, who, then can be saved?" They knew He was saying a rich man can't be saved! That's what He was saying. Jesus beheld them and said unto them, I think you got the message boys, with men this is impossible. With God all things are possible. What was He saying? Just this; the standard is impossible, nobody, no time could ever e saved, but with God it's possible. Do you see what He's trying to say, we don't ha e the resources on our own. We can't do it. And that's why you've got to be ready W o strip that baggage off and cast yourself on the mercy of God and the rich man was It willing to do it. He was willing to clime on the religious band wagon carrying his luggage of materialism and he couldn't get on with it. It was like trying to go through the eye of a needle with a hump-backed camel, impossible, that's the whole point. The only way anybody ever enters the kingdom is when he realizes he can't and strips himself naked and arrives back at Matthew 5:3 broken in spirit and mourning and hungering and thirsting for a righteousness which is absolutely impossible for him to ever attain. You say but most people don't want to meet those conditions, you're right, most people want to go to heave their way, that's right. They want to get on with all their crud; They are like a guy going on a trip with four bags. Here's worldliness, sin, Satan, and self, and their going to get on. And they are saying Jesus I want the happiness you are going to give me I want to say out of hell, here I come! There's a road for them by the way, go back to Matthew 7:13 and let me show you.

Now you see the disciples at this time along with the multitude are probably saying to themselves 'boy with these kind of standards who ever gets on? Who ever gets saved? Who ever qualifies? Listen to this, "Enter in at the narrow gate for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, (and watch this one) many there be who go in that way." Why? You can go in there with all your baggage, it's a wide gate, this huge thing, you just take all the garbage you want on there. All your works and self-righteousness, and I'll do it my way, and I want Jesus, but I want the other stuff too! Like the guy who was saying he was a singer in Las Vegas and then he got saved and then he continued to be a singer in Las Vegas, well maybe the Lord knows more about that than I understand. But that seems to me like you are trying to get on the narrow gate with a pile of baggage. You know the narrow gate and the wide gate are different in that sense. Verse 14, "Narrow is the gate and hard is the way which leads to life, and few there be that find it."

Listen it's a hard way! And the word literally means a compressed way; you can't juggle all that garbage on that way. In the first place you can't get through the narrow gate. Have you ever tried to take four suite cases through a turnstile? Can't be done see, you can't get in that way, you gotta drop all the garbage, you gotta come in stripped bare and naked.

Now I want you to notice something. The broad way that goes to destruction is not the road to hell. This isn't people piling on the road to hell, this is the road to heaven only it's the wrong road, they think it goes to heaven. They are all getting on the Jesus road. This is the broad you don't have to drop anything, you don't have to live any different, you don't have to think any different, you don't have to do anything, all you have to do is say I made a decision. Or I was baptized, I walked an isle, I went forward, I signed a card, when I was a child my mother helped me. And you can just get all your garbage and pile right on, the only thing is it's a broad road that leads to destruction, the sad part of it is many are on it, many. And narrow is the gate and the only way you can get through is to drop your sin, Satan, self and the world, and hard or compressed is the way which leads to life and few there be that find it.

Listen in Grace Church there are those few, but there are those many too. Who are on the wrong road. You are on that road and you've got all your worldliness, all your self-righteousness, all that other garbage. You've never cut the cord with the world, you've never cut the cord with your evil lifestyle, you've never changed your own self-righteous approach to God. You still think it's good works and you're going to make it, and Ill tell you are on the broad road and you are going to come us some day to the very portal of heaven and like John Bunyon says "There's an entrance to Hell from the portals of heaven." And you want to know something, people get on that way because it's easy and there's a lot of people selling tickets to it, you know that. In fact it talks about them in the next section, beware of false prophets, verse 15 says. What are they doing? They are trying to get you on the broad road; they are trying to get you on the easy way. You don't have to change anything, just jump on and take Jesus, see. But do you know what's going to happen when you get to the end of that road, verse 21 tells you. "Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom, but he that doeth the will of My Father, who is in heaven, many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?"

Can't you see, this is, the whole mob, on the road, the broad road, You see the word many in verse 13, many are in that way, and then in Verse 22, and when many finally arrive they say Lord, Lord, have we not done all these things, We're the gang from the church down there-Lord, we were involved in the deliverance ministry, we were preaching we did wonderful works, And I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye workers- of iniquity," They are going to say Lord, Lord, you see there are going to be a lot of people who don't find out 'till the end they are on the wrong road, and I guess that's why, I'm telling you what I'm telling you, You can't do this, I- mean don't lull yourself to sleep, Few there he that find it because few-were willing to get on on God's terms, see. And then He gives an illustration to close.

Now if you want to know-how this works He says, let me tell you a story about a wise man, verse 24, who built his house on a rock, the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew-and beat upon that house, and it fell not for it was founded on a rock. Now there's a guy who came on God's terms, And he was on the rock and he built his house, He built that house on the rock-and it stood, Verse 26, Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, (this is the disobedience) shall likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.

Listen this guy built just as beautiful a house, listen US religion looks great, Great sides, great windows great walls, roof is super, Fabulous religious house, Oh we've prophesied, cast out demons, Oh Lord, Lord look what we've done. Only thing is he never got in on God's terms so the foundation was sand and when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, it fell and great was the fall. See what He's saying. What a disaster, to come to the moment of judgment and have the rude awakening that the only thing waiting for you is Hell, b cause you never came on God's terms. And so I repeat to you, beloved examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith, prove yourselves, these are God's conditions.

Let's bow our heads. I'm reminded of the words of Isaac Watts:

How helpless guilty nature lies, unconscious of its load; The heart unchanged can never rise to happiness and God. The will perverse, the passions blind in paths of ruin stray, Reason debased can never find the safe, the narrow way.

Can ought beneath a power Divine the stubborn will subdue, 'Tis Thine, Almighty Savior, Thine, to form the heart anew. 0 change these wretched hearts of ours and give them life divine, Then shall our passions and our powers, Almighty Lord, be Thine.

Father, we call on you to change us. For anyone in our midst this morning who is counting upon a salvation that is invalid, may they be shaken out of such confidence. Shatter such assurance. Drive them to the place of penitence, that they may come on your terms, saying goodbye to self and sin and Satan and the world, to embrace Your holiness, without which no man shall see You. So Father dismiss us with your grace and mercy. Thank you for our time of worship today. We look forward to sharing again tonight in the joy of the testimony of those who have been given a new heart. We pray in Christ's name. And everyone said ... Amen.

Examine Yourselves Whether You Be in the Faith, Part 2

As I mentioned to you this morning, we're going to take a little break in our study of the Beatitudes because the Lord has really kind of pressed it on my heart to share with you from the book of Hebrews a special message. So if you'll look with me at the book of Hebrews we'll study together.

Now as you know, some weeks ago now I spoke on the subject examine yourself whether you be in the faith, it was on a Sunday morning prior to when we had our communion time. And I was greatly concerned that there were many people in Grace Church who came and listened and maybe even believed but who had never committed their lives to Christ. And would come up short on the Day of Judgment. And I'm continually faced with that fear. I know that there are in the church wheat and tares. I know that there will always be the false among the true. It's so easy in a church our size with many thousandsof people to hide and never really e confronted with the reality of whether you've committed your life to Christ or not. You can just kind of get by with getting in the crowd and moving along with everybody else. And my heart is very deeply concerned over the reality that some of you very precious people for whom Christ died have been coming and you've been coming and you've been listening and you've been hearing the messages and maybe even believing that it is true but you've never really come to Jesus Christ. For some reason or another you're holding back. A lady called me on the telephone and expressed that very thing. She said - I come but I'm not a Christian but I'm interested. And if I've heard that from that lady and received letters to that effect and I had one man who said - I come I don't believe in what you say but I like the way you say it. If that's true, if that's true with the people who talk to me, they're probably even others who feel that way or hear it all and for some reason or another never make a commitment to Christ, they just kind of sit on the edge of the fence. They kind of hang in the balances. And maybe if you've been coming a we've been studying the gospel of Matthew you understand that Jesus set down the standards for being in His kingdom.

You know by now that He says in order to be in My kingdom you must be poor in spirit and mournful over sin and meek. And you must hunger and thirst for righteousness and be merciful and be pure in heart and be a peacemaker. And you've probably heard that when you fulfill those qualifications and you reach out to God in Christ and you are redeemed you become a possessor of the kingdom, you become a recipient of the blessings of all of God's, all of God's bounty. You become a son of God in the purest sense. But even though you know the qualifications and even though you know the consequences and the blessings of it maybe you still have not committed yourself to Jesus Christ. And I dare say, this is true all over the land and all over the world, there are people who know but they never make the commitment. They never take the step. For one reason or another their moment hasn't come. They just push it off and push it off and push it off.

Look with me for a minute before we examine the book of Hebrews to John chapter 12 and I want you to see what a dangerous delay this is. In John chapter 12 in verse 32 our Lord said, "And I if I be lifted up from the heart will draw all men unto Me." This He said, signifying what death He should die. The people answered Him, We've heard out of the law that Christ abides forever and how sayest thou the son of man must be lifted up. Who is the son of man? In other words, we've heard that the Messiah will live what are you talkingabout that He would be crucified? What son of man is this?

Then Jesus said unto them, and listen, yet a little while is the light with you, walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not where he goest. While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the sons of light. These things spoke Jesus and departed and did hide Himself from them." What an illustration. He says, You better believe while you can believe and then to illustrate that he went and hide where they could never find Him so that they might comprehend what it would mean not to have Him around. And verse 37 says, even though He had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on Him. At the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them.

Now notice, Jesus says - You'd better believe when you can believe. You'd better enter the light while the light is available for the time will come when it isn't around and then He illustrated it that the prophecy of Isaiah came to pass, they wouldn't believe therefore they couldn't believe and God closed out the day of grace. That's what Isaiah is saying. This was Jesus' last appeal, by the way. A one last invitation in the gospel of John The day of grace was passing and in the very next chapter He meets with His disciples the day before His trial and ultimately His death. This is His last invitation. He says - I'm not going to be here very long. You'd better act while you canact before you are confirmed in the sovereignty of God in your unbelief.

In John chapter 8 and He here says the same thing at leas, three times. In verse - well, look at verse 12, "then spoke Jesus again unto them saying - I am the light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." That's the first invitation. He's saying - If you follow Me you can walk in light. But then He says in verse 21, "1 go My way and ye shall seek Me and s all die in your sins where I go ye cannot come." This is the second invitation, really. Because it's a warning that if they don't accept the light while the light is available there will come a day when the light is not available. And then in verse 24 He repeats the warning a third time, "I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am He ye shall die in your sins."

You see, Jesus was always extending His love but always telling them there was a limit. Go back to chapter 7 verse 33, "Then said Jesus unto them yet a little while I with you, just a little while, then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me and where I am there ye cannot come." That's the same idea. You know, before God sent the flood in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 3 God said, "My spirit will not always strive with m n." In other words, there comes a time when God runs out of patience. And then came the flood and the whole wide world was destroyed. In Isaiahchapter 63 we find it illustrated in verses 7 to 10. The prophet Isaiah said, "I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses." What a verse. It talks about the loving kindness and the praise and the goodness and the mercy of God, "For God said - Surly they are My people, children that will not lie," so He was their Saviour. What a picture of God. He was so loving, He was so merciful, He as so kind, He was so gracious, He was their Saviour and verse 9, "In 11 their affliction He was afflicted and the angel of His presence saved them." In His love and in His pity He redeemed them and He bore them and He carried them all the days of old.

Oh, what a picture. What a loving Saviour. But verse 10 comes like a shock. Like a lightning bolt out of the blue to shatter the peace of the scene. But they rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore, He was turned to be their enemy and He fought against them." Can you believe that kind of change? In one little three verse section? God is patient, God is kind, God is good, God is gracious, God is merciful, God is long-suffering, God is not willing that any should perish but Go Is mercy has limits. It has limits. And that's why I don't want o leave the Beatitudes quite yet. I just felt that maybe God wan ed me to say one more time but if you haven't committed your life to Christ and you haven't come into the kingdom on His terms you'd better o it while you can, you see. You better come to the light while t e light is available. That's the message.

Now the book of Hebrews gives us a graphic look at this wonderful truth. This wonderful warning invitation of God and I want you to look at Hebrews an we're going to look at what it has to say. Now the book of Hebrews is basically written to Christians, Jewish Christians. That's why its title is Hebrews. They were Jewish believers but, now listen, interspersed through out the book of Hebrews which is written to Jewish Christians are warnings, warnings, warnings to confront those people, now watch, who know the gospel intellectually, who understand the call of salvation but never make the commitment. Okay? So as the writer goes along writing to the believers every once in a while he'll stop and he'll say -

Now, I Know that in this congregation some of you know this is the truth but you've never made the commitment and thus there are these warnings. In the case of the readers of this letter to the Hebrews they were Jews. They were intellectually convinced that the gospel was true. They were intellectually convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. But they wouldn't commit their lives to Him. They wouldn't take that simple act of childlike faith and throw themselves on His grace and mercy. They wouldn't come to Christ. They were afraid they would be ostracized from their community. They are afraid they'd be alienated from their families. The price was too high to pay and so they hung on the fence fearing that they would be persecuted or alienated or ostracized or that they would have to give up their current life style.

Now maybe you fit in there somewhere. You know the truth. You know Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. You know the gospel and you believe it's true but you resist making the personal commitment to Christ because you're afraid of being alienated from your family, afraid of being ostracized from your friends or the people you run around with or work with. Or you're afraid you might get persecuted and the price would be too high or maybe you just don't want to give up your current sinfulness so you hang there knowing it's true but never making the commitment. Well, if that's the case then Hebrews speaks directly to you.

Let's look at the five warning passages very briefly and see what they say. Chapter 2 verses 1 to 4 is the first one. Chapter 2 verses 1 to 4; "Therefore, "-therefore, what is therefore mean? Takes us back to chapter 1 and that's all about the majesty of Jesus Christ. All about the glory of Jesus Christ, all about the one who is ascended to be the one at the majesty, the one at the right hand of the majesty of God. The one who is better than the angels, Jesus Christ Himself. Because we've learned what we've learned about Jesus Christ, because we now know who He is, because we now know how God has exalted Him, because of who He is in His majesty, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them, what? Slip.

Listen, if you know that He is who He is and if you've heard the message then the writer is saying - You had better give earnest heed to what you have heard lest it slip away. I always think about the man who had reduced his entire fortune into a diamond which he put in his pocket to take to Europe andwhile he was on board ship he was tossing it in the air and the ship lurched and it went over the edge and into the ea, lest it slip. For, verse 2 says, if the words spoken by the angels was steadfast. Now what was the word spoken by angels? That was the Old Testament law. That was the law of God given by a God at Mount Sinai. That law was ministered by angels. So if the Old Testament law, if the Mosaic law, if the Ten Commandments spoken by angels was steadfast or binding on people and every transgression and disobedience of the Mosaic Law received a just recompense of reward.

In other words, if God gavethe Mosaic Law and demanded absolute obedience and judgment on everybody who disobeyed how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation as that which is in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Do you see? If the people under the Mosaic economy never escaped the judgment of God what makes you think you will? If the people who lived in the Old Testament before Christ didn't escape God's judgment and God was more tolerant then what makes you think you'll escape because you reject the great salvation in Jesus Christ? That's what He's saying. And the us here, we ought to give, he uses the word we - and he uses it again in verse 3, How shall we escape if we - the idea, this plurality is Jewish in the context, it's national. If we who are of Israel, who have heard the gospel, if we know that those under the old economy didn't escape when they denied God's word what makes us think we'll get away if we deny God's Word? It's a powerful passage. Certain judgment will result. It says in verse 2, Every transgression and every disobedience received a just recompense of reward. And it's a negative reward. Do you think you can turn your back on Jesus Christ? Do you think you can neglect so great a salvation as He offers and still escape? No. They couldn't even escape under the old covenant let alone under the new.

Let's look at the second warning in Hebrews chapter 5 and 6. Hebrews chapter 5 and 6. And we don't have time to go into all of this in detail but let me just - let's just look at chapter 6 and we'll skip some of the earlier part. But He's saying to them, verse 12, this is a warning, "For when for the time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you the first principles of the oracles of God." By the way, the oracles of God are the Old Testament laws.

In other words, He says, -You people, you ought to be teachers of the gospel, you have enough information to be teachers of the gospel but instead of that somebody needs to teach you the Old Testament laws again. You are primitive when you should be advanced. You haven't responded to what you've heard. Now go over to verse 4 and He warns them, "It is impossible", do you see that word? It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance. Seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God and put Him to an open shame."

Now listen, this is a warning again, this is not to Christians and this is not to flagrant, blatant non-Christians,this is to the fence sitter, this is to the person who says - I know it's true but I never have made the commitment. And what he's saying is this, Look if you have been enlightened, in other words, enlightenment is a mental comprehension, mental understanding. you have tasted the heavenly gift and who is the heavenly gift? But the Spirit of God. And how had they tasted the Spirit of God? Because the gospel pr ached to them had been confirmed by signs and wonders and gifts of the Spirit, it says in chapter 2 verse 3 and 4. So they had had the Spirit of God working in their midst, they had tasted of it. They hadn't really eaten and partaken, they had tasted of it. And in a full sense they needed to partake but they were sort of partial partakers and partial tasters. They even tasted the Word of God. They tasted the power of the age to come.

You see, the miracles that were done in the early church and the miracles that were done in the apostolic time were like a forerunner to the miracles to be done in the kingdom. And themiracles, ofcourse, that Christ will do when He returns. So He says to them, You've had your mind enlightened, you've had a taste and you've been in on what the Spirit has done. And, you know, manyJews had, while the Holy Spirit was the power through Christ that fed the 5,000 and everybody who ate the fish and the bread that day when Jesus fed the was taking in what the Spirit had done. They had partaken of His miracles, they had partaken of His teaching, they had partaken of His word but they never made it their own and what He says if you've had all of this revelation and you've tasted and you've heard and you've seen it, and the power has been displayed and you turn your back on it and you fall away it's impossible to get you saved. The point being this, if you reject when you have full revelation you're hopeless. Because what else can God do? Right?

By the way, no term in verse 4 or 5, not the term enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word or the powers of the age to come, none of those terms is ever used anywhere, anytime in the Bible for salvation. They are not salvation terns. They are terms talking about exposure to the gospel and exposure to the power of God and exposureto the life of Christ. And they had seen enough and heard enough and if will all that information they would fall away they could never be saved because listen, beloved, if you don't accept Jesus Christ when you have full light, you'll never accept Him. Because He can't do anymore than that. And so it's a severe warning, certain judgment. Then He gives an illustration in verse 7 & 8, "For the earth," He says, "which drinketh in the rain that cometh often upon it and bringeth forth herbs fit for them by whom it is tilled receives blessing from God."

Now isn't that a beautiful thing? He says, the earth drinks in the rain that comes off and on up n it and brings forth herbs fit for them by whom it is tilled. In o her words, the crop is produced and it's a blessing from God when the rain falls. And you know what the picture is? It's the picture of a ready heart and the rain of the gospel falls and the ready heart takes in the rain and it brings forth the fruit of salvation. But verse 8 says, "But that which bears thorns and briars is rejected and is near unto curing whose end is to be burned." The rain is spiritual truth. The r in is the gospel. The rain is spiritual enlightenment. One piece of ground produces good herbs; one produces thorns and thorns are the fruit of religious effort.

You see, it's a works righteousness system. They don't produce nothing, they produce the wrong thing, you see? They're very busy, very productive but it isn't herbs to eat it's thorns and al you want to do with thorns is stay out of their way. They're useless. Religious self-effort is cursed. So He says to these Jews, listen, - You can stay in your Judaism and you can crank out your self-righteousness and when it's all said and done you're going to have thorns. Or you can take in the rain of this enlightenment, you can hear the gospel and you can believe it in your heart and let it go into the soil of your life and let it produce the thing that God wants it to produce the choice is yours. The choice is yours. That's another warning.

Let me take you to thethird warning in the 10th chapter. The third warning is in the tenth chapter and verse 26. And here's the same thought. He's going to hit these fence sitters again. These people who keep coming but never make a commitment. These people who hear it all but never do anything about it. These people who say it's all wonderful and I believe it and I'm going to do it someday, I'm going to do it ... He hits them again. And He says Look, for if we sin willfully. And the sin here is the sin of rejection if you willfully reject after you've received the knowledge of the truth. You haven't received salvation; you've received the knowledge of it. You know what it is. You understand it. And if you willfully reject it then there is no more sacrifice for sin. He's saying to the Jew, you can kill a11 the lambs you want, you can slaughter all the goats you want, you can kill all the bullocks you want, you can slay all the turtledoves you want but there is no more sacrifice for sin if you reject Jesus Christ. There's nothing. If you know the truth and you turn your back on Christ you do nothing about Christ there is no other think you can do, there is no other sacrifice.

And you see, these Jewish people didn't want to come to Christ they were afraid of being unsynagogued, you know, put out of the synagogue, losing all their friends and all their family and so they would go on and on in their Judaism and they wouldn't come to Christ but they'd keep up their sacrifices and He says - That's ridiculous. If you turn your back on Jesus Christ, if you sin willfully after the knowledge of the truth, you're damned because nothing can do for you what only Christ can do. An what will happen, verse 27says it, "A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." In other words, God is going to come down on judgment.

Now you say, Well, you know, I think - I think that God will probably be easier on the people who really knew the most and came to church the most and got the most information. You want to know the truth? He'll be harder on them. The le s you know the better it will be for you in eternity. And if you have exposed yourself by God's grace to the fullness of God's truth you are the most responsible of all. And the fiery judgment is waiting for you, if you reject Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what He says, verse28, 29, "He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses." Listen, if you just despise the Mosaic Law the law that was given on the earth, the law that came fro Mount Sinai, if you just despised the tables of stone, you were slain, why of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the son of God. If you violated Moses and you died what do you thinks going to happen if you violate the Son of God, you see. That's the point. If you have counted the blood of; is covenant some unholy thing, if you've done despite to the Spirit of grace.

You see, to disobey law was to die. To treat that covenant with disrespect was to die. To violate that law was to die. Oh how much more severe is the punishment for the one who turns his back on the Son of God and counts the blood of His covenant an unholy thing and does despite to the Spirit of grace for we know that He has said vengeance belongeth to Me, I will recompense saith the Lord. And then verse 31, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Boy, that's pretty strong stuff. That's a warning that if you know the truth and you turn your back on to Him vengeance is Mine I will repay. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Such a serious problem. And so He warns again that if you knowthe truth and you don't receive it there's a deeper and greater responsibility because you're trampling under your feet the Son of God. Can you imagine that? You say, - I would never do that; I just haven't made up my mind yet. No, that's not how the Bible looks at it. You may see it as not making up your mind; God sees it as treading under foot the Son of God.

There's fourth warning in Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 25, and it sums up basically the same thought, it's the same thing. Says, "See that you refuse not Him that speaketh," by the way that's God, that's God, He's the main speaker in this chapter. You better refuse not God, now listen, for if they escaped not who refusedhim that spoke on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven whose voice, then, shook the earth but now He hath promise saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven.

You know when God spoke from the earth? At the giving of the law. And God uttered His voice from Mount Sinai, right? On the earth. God spoke from the earth and the mountains shook and rocked and reeled and He says if theydidn't escape when they refused the one that spoke on earth what makes you think you're going to escape when you refuse the one who speaks from heaven. You say, - Who is that? That's God. God said from heaven several times and the voice came out of heaven saying this is My Beloved Son here ye Him. Do you see that? In the Old Testament God spoke out of an earthly mountain and said do this law. In the New Testament God spoke out of heaven and said - Here My Son. And if they didn't escape when they refused the voice of God on earth what makes you think you'll escape if you refuse the God who has spoke from heaven? He sums it up in verse 29 by saying, "For our God is a consuming fire." He is a consuming fire and some day He'll shake not only a mountain but He'll share the very heavens in His judgment. What a warning.

Final warning I want to share with you tonight is in chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 and 4. Now I want you to think with me as we go through this rather rapidly because it's the longest warning in the book, I'm just going to read some verses and make some comments. Chapter 3 verse 7, here again the Holy Spirit stops and says to the person sitting in the congregation -- Hey, you who know the truth, you who have heard it all, you whose had it all given to you, you who want to be religious, you who know it's the truth, please while the light is still available before it's too late, before God's grace is over, before God's mercy runs out, please say yes to Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7, "Wherefore," and then there's a parenthesis all the way down to verse 11, "as the Holy Spirit saith today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Do you see that? Today, He says. Sounds like Paul in Corinthians, II Corinthians 6:2, today is the day of salvation, now is the time.

Today, He says. It's now and here and now. I always think about D. L. Moody, the night he preached in Chicago and said - I want you people to go home and think about what I've said and come back tomorrow night ready to make a decision for Christ. And that night the Chicago fire broke out and a great portion of his audience was dead. He said I never told anybody tomorrow again.Today. If you will hear His voice harden not your hearts. And then He gives an illustration, "As in the temptation" or provocation. What was that? In the day of trial in the wilderness. He says, I want to give you an illustration. There was a people who hardened their hearts, there was a people who had a day of testing who had a time of trial, a time in the wilderness and instead of saying yes to Me and instead of responding, instead of hearing My voice they hardened their hearts. When was it? Verse 9, "When your fathers put Me to the test, prove Me and saw My work forty years."

Now we know where we are. Right? We got the wilderness in verse 8, and the forty years in verse 9, this is Israel's forty years in the wilderness. And verse 10 He says, "I was grieved with that generation and said they do always err in their heart and they have not knowMy ways so I swore in My wrath they shall not enter into My rest." The word rest there means Canaan. Those people aren't going to Canaan. And that's what happened, isn't it? What happened to the whole generation in the wilderness? They all died, didn't they? God swore they will not enter into My rest. And every last one of that generation died in the wilderness and never entered the promise land. And so He says, verse 12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God."

You better look at your own life and make sure you don't do the same thing. Here God is ready to lead you into His rest, here God is ready to lead you into His kingdom, here God is ready to usher you into salvation but you harden your heart and you are caught in the evil act of unbelief, departing from the living God. Oh, don't let it happen to you, He says, like it happened to them.

You see, there was a day of God's patience running out. He was patient for awhile and then He said - That's enough! And they died in the wilderness. And never came to the land which was to be their rest 400 years of slavery, 40 years of wandering, oh how they longed for Canaan the land of milk and honey and they never got there. They died in the wilderness becauseof unbelief. They didn't believe God. It's that simple and I'll show you why in a moment. But rather, He says in verse 13, "Exhort one another daily, every day exhort." And that's why I'm doing this message. Exhort people everyday and say to them today - today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Today is the day, don't go another day. If you reject Christ today it will be easier tomorrow. If it's easier tomorrow it will be easier the next day and so it goes and you harden yourself.

For verse 14 says, "We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." That's the proof if we're really redeemed. And so while it is said today if you will hear His voice and all of this is quoted out of Psalm 95, today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the wilderness temptation or testing for who when they had heard did provoke did not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, the whole generation provoked God. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them who had sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and to whom swore He that they shall not enter into His rest but to them that believe not.

Verse 19, so we see they could not enter in because of what? Unbelief. And unbelief is the final reason you don't cometo Christ. You don't believe. You just don't believe enough. You don't believe you can really transform your life. You don't believe it's worth it. You don't believe you can make your life what it ought to be. You want to hang on to what you have. You don't want to throw yourselves in faith in Him. You want to protect your reputation and you want to protect your occupation and you want to protect your family relationships. You don't want to be persecuted, you're not ready to take a step of faith and give your life to Jesus and so because of unbelief you wind up dying in the wilderness and your carcass falls there and you never enter into God's rest. Well, this is a vivid illustration, isn't it? Vivid. Can you imagine how vivid it was to see all the carcasses of a couple of million of children of Israel lying all over the desert? Pretty vivid. They died there because of unbelief. They never entered His rest. Now that whole thing is a picture of what the writer of Hebrews wants to say in chapter 4. And I want you to look at it with me. Proverbs 29:1 says, "He that being oft reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy."

Now listen, God offers a rest to people. It's available. And we enter God's rest by faith. I believe the rest He's speaking of is salvation. I'll show you as we go as clearly that is it. I believe it's salvation. And we've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount and we've seen that it's a very narrow way, isn't it? And not too many people find it. It's a hard way and it's a narrow way but how wonderful to realize that God also calls it a rest. Isn't that great? You say, -Well, how can you equate those, a hard and narrow and compressed way with a rest? It's this, it's so hard and so narrow that you can't do it and so you give yourself to Jesus, you rest in Him and He does it for you. See? That's the rest. And so He says, - I want you to enter My rest. It's not a works system, you enter it by what? By believing just as you're kept out by not believing. It isn't what you do or don't do, it's what you believe or don't believe.

Now I want you to understand this as we look as chapter 4. 11 want you to see, first of all, the availability of rest. I want you to hear the invitation He gives to the people sitting right on the fence. Listen, verse 1, "Let us," and again it's the us of the Jewishing congregation that He's speaking to and so I use it to speak of you, Let us therefore fear. Oh, you better fear, "Lest a promise being left of entering into His rest any of you should seem to come short of it." I mean, what He's saying is - Oh, wouldn't it be fearful to know that God had given us the promise of rest but we fell short of it? Can you imagine if you were one of those children of Israel living in the bondage of Egypt how you would be oppressed and how you would be pushed as a slave from one thing to another and try to make bricks without straw and you would be beaten and abused and bruised and for years and years your family had gone through that for century after century after century after century and finally God sends a deliverer. A mighty deliverer by the name of Moses, we heard about him this morning in the song and Moses had an available life and he gave it to God and God has him lead these people out and can you imagine how the Red Sea split and they walked through, turned around and watched the army of Pharaoh drown and they went on, rejoicing, ready to meet the thing that God had laid before them, the land of Canaan, the flowing with milk and honey, coming out of incredible slavery and bondage and they all never saw it. See. They dropped dead, carcasses wasted in the desert, And he says, You better fear lest God has laid out in front of you the same kind of a promise, the same kind of a Canaan, the same kind of a land of milk and honey but you never get there. Even though in a sense you've escaped from the bondage. It's like Peter talks about, you have escaped the corruptions of the world, you've been brought out of the corruptions of the world but you never enter into the kingdom of God, you see? You got reformation not regeneration. There's a lot of people who want Jesus as Saviour, they want a deliverer, He'll take them out of bondage they just don't want a Lord they have to trust to lead them into Canaan, see. And you know what happens to people who only want a Saviour, they die in the wilderness, they never know God. He is Saviour and Lord. And so He says, - There is a rest left for us, in verse 1.

You know,that was just a picture back there - Canaan, that was a picture. There's still a rest. It isn't too late, He says to these Jews.

It isn't too late. God has another rest. Not a Canaan rest but a spiritual rest and it's salvation. And it's still available and it's still there. And oh, what a tragedy if you should come short of that as your forefathers came short of Canaan. The rest that He talks about is salvation. So the availability of rest. People, God has extended His love to you. God has reached out His arms and said there's a rest for you. It's rest. Rest from your self-righteous activity. Rest from you fears. Rest from your anxieties. Rest from your frustrations. Rest from the guilt of sin. Rest. And it's available. And Jesus said, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise," what? "Cast out." It's available for anybody who comes. Whosoever will, let him come. It's a rest. But, you know, you can know about it and believe it all and sit here and listen to it and come short of it and your carcass would die in the desert of unbelief and you never enter the promise land. That's the way a lot of people are. They want a Saviour to get them out of bondage. They want a Saviour to deliver them from bondage. But they don' want a Lord they have to trust with their life.

Look at he basis of rest. Verses 2 and following. You say, Well, how do get this rest? Very simple. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, the good news was preached to them. But the word preached did not profit them because it was not mixed with what? Faith. You know, it doesn't matter what God says if you don't believe it? You know what God said to those people? He said, I'm going to take you into that land, I'm going to take you into that land, I'm going to lay that land out at your feet, I'm going to give you that land from top to bottom, from Dan to Barsheba, I'm going to give you that land from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, that's your land. It's given to you by Me. It's My gift to you, your land. He laid it all out.

And you know? Numbers chapter 14, they got to the end of the land and Joshua said - Well, let's go check it out. So he picked out twelve men. He said, Alright, you go in and find out about the land. Twelve men went in ten men came out and said -Joshua; we have never seen such big people in our lives. They're giants in the land and we're like grasshoppers, they'll step on us Joshua. We can't hack it. Ah rather, they said that to Moses, I got my men mixed up. Joshua and and Caleb came out and they said - It's okay. We can do it. We can handle it. God on our side, no problem at all. And of course, who did the people believe? They believed the ten spies, didn't they? They believed the ten rather than the two. And you know what happened? Because they didn't believe God, they died in the wilderness. God gave them all the information; God told them all about it. God told them what the rest was but because they didn't believe they were doomed to wander for forty years and thendie, see.

You know, the only reasonthey wandered was just so they'd all die off. Their carcasses dropped in the desert because they didn't believe. They were ready to be saved out of Egypt, they wanted a Saviour, they weren't ready to obey in faith and have a Lord. And what's he saying? Look, he's saying the availability of rest - it's offered. The basis of rest - you must hear the gospel and mix it with what? Faith, you have to believe it. You have to believe it. Every preacher in the world could preach till he died. Jesus Himself could be here and preach the gospel to you. You could read it; you could hear it until you die but if you never believe with your heart and put your life in God hands you will die without God. I don't know how much time you have, frankly. Life is a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes away, James says. I don't know how much time you have. I don't know how many days you'll live. I don't know how long the light will be available. I don't know how long it will be before you've hardened your heart so many times, God will harden your heart and it will be over and you'll be an apostate. I don't know that. He says, if it's not mixed with faith it doesn't matter. Verse 3, "For we who have believed do enter into rest." It's just those who believe who enter in. I The next one says, "As I have sworn in My wrath they shall never, "this is a better translation, "they shall never enter into My rest." Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. You know, God from the beginning of the world was creating a paradise. That's right. Verse 4, He spoke in a certain place and seventh day when God had created everything He created, He said, rested.

Now it's going to be like this, I've made a paradise for man. He rested from all His works. And He says, - Here is the rest I offer a man but man chose to believe the devil instead of God and man forfeited that rest and God says in verse 3, - He'll never enter into My rest until He believes in Me even though from the foundation of the world I wanted him in rest. Even though I always planned that he would be with Me. Even though I always planned that he would be My child, if he does not believe he will not know the fulfillment of that promise.

Now some will enter, verse 6 says, "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter into it but they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief." And what's that verse saying? Oh, it says this. God will always have a remnant, won't He? God will always have some who enter. There will always be a few.

And then comes the plea again in verse 7, it says - and get this one - "Again, He limiteth a certain day." Did you hear that? He limiteth a certain day. "Saying through David," back to Psalm 95 again, "Today after so long a time as it is said - today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart." You see? It's the same message again. So He says, - it's available. You say, - Well how what's the basis of this rest? The basisis that you mix it with faith, that you believe it. If you don't believe it God swears that you'll never enter into His rest even though He created the world that it might be for rest. Even though HE created you that you might enter into His salvation. And even though many do reject, verse 6 says, some will believe. And so he's right back to His same premise, today if you'll hear His voice harden not your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. Oh, what a great statement. If Israel had entered into rest then, Joshua wouldn't have had to talk about a future rest.

You know they never knew rest? They never did. Even the few who went in the land never knew rest because when they got in the land they disobeyed God and they never killed the enemies in the land. Right? So they never knew rest. Some of them died in the wilderness and never entered the rest those who entered the land never knew the rest because they never killed the enemy. They never dealt with it in the way God told them to. The whole generation. So God took the whole idea of salvation for Israel and postponed it. And as Romans 11 says, someday Israel will be saved. There is still a rest. God is still offering a rest. It isn't the physical one like Canaan, it's a spiritual one and the writer of Hebrews is reaching out and saying -Right now, right today, this moment, you can enter into God's rest by faith in your heart. And I love verse 9, what does He say? "There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God."

In other words, that wasn't the end. God just didn't say - Oh, curse you human race! That's it! It's all over! No Salvation! No more rest! I quit! I give up! I've done everything for you - you turn your back on Me, that's the end of it. No, He didn't say that. He said -Well, if you won't take the rest here in Canaan that I offer you in a physical sense, as a symbol of the salvation I offer you spiritually, I'll keep My arms of grace open until you do. Isn't that great?And so in a general sense, God's grace has always been extended to Israel and to the Gentiles, the whole world. God's arms are still open and there remaineth, verse 9, a rest for the people of God. I think the people of God here is a technical term for Israel. He's really saying - there's still an opportunity for the Jew. And we can say that today, can't we?

You know, even though Israel never entered the Canaan land the way God intended. Even though they never took the land away God intended, even though they crucified their own Messiah, God said to them through the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost, He said - And you havekilled the Messiah. And the next line He says - But you're still the sons of the covenant. It didn't break God's promise there is still a rest remaining for Israel. Isn't it wonderful today that we can go to the Jewish people and call them to Jesus Christ to know that there still is a rest for them? Isn't it wonderful that when we failed God in the garden He didn't turn His back on us? When we failed God at Canaan He didn't turn His back on us? When the whole world gathered together, Jew and Gentile alike, to crucify His own Son, He didn't turn His back on us. When the church has been apostate, He didn't turn His back on us. He still holds out His arms with love. There is a rest for the people of God.

And then in verse 10 he says - "He that has entered into His rest is ceased from his own works as God did from His." Oh, what a great statement. You enter by faith not by works. You enter by faith not by works and you live by faith not by works. It's not a works system. It's a rest in the work of Christ. And He works it through us. We don't do it in our flesh. Therefore, verse 11 says, "Let us labor to enter into that rest."

Now there's a dichotomy. He just says it's a rest and you don't enter by works and then he says, let's labor to get in. What does he mean by that? What kind of labor is he talking about? It's not the word labor it's the word spoudazo and it means to hurry. Listen, he says this is a rest that God wants you to enter into, hurry and enter in lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. After the example of Israel, don't fall. Well, I've tried to show you the availability of rest, the basis of rest, verse 11 gives us the urgency of rest. Hurry - hurry and enter. You say, - Why? Because of verse 12, and 13 and we'll close with these.

You got to hurry. Why? For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." You can stop right there.

Now listen to this, he's saying - Hurry, spoudazo, hasten, make haste to enterthe rest. And the rest is salvation, people. He's saying - Come on, come on - how you going to escape if you neglect so great a salvation. What are you going to do if you willfully sin after the knowledge of the truth? It's going to be impossible for you to be renewed unto repentance, once you have crucified the Son of God and put Him to an open shame. If they didn't refuse who said no to the God who spoke out of an earthly mountain, how are you going to escape if you do not hear the voice of God who spoke from heaven? All of these warnings are summed up and he says in verse 11 - Let's hurry to enter into God's rest, don't put it off, don't neglect, don't procrastinate, don't say tomorrow, don't say when I understand more - do it now. Give diligence. Why? You say - Why? "For the word of God is a sword," that's why.

Now sometimes you hear people use this verse to talk about how comforting and how lovely and how wonderful the Bible is. That's not what it's talking about. The Word of God is a sword of vengeance. The Word of God is a sword of wrath. And the two edgedness means you can't escape, it goes both ways whichever way you move it will get you. You see, it will pierce you and it will divide asunder your inner being and it will reveal your motives and it will tear you wide open. That's what He's saying. It's all a picture of a sword plunged into an individual that rips open the joints and the marrow, it discerns the thoughts, it discerns the motives. Listen, the Word of God will penetrate the heart of an individual and even though they've been religious and even though they've gone to church and hung on the fence and even believed with their mind the Word of God will diagnose the true condition of the heart, it will show whether the profession is a real one or a sham and it will split you wide open before God.

Now, you see, here the word is presented as a sword wielded in judgment. It is alive. It is powerful. It is sharp. It divides, it discerns. And nothing escapes. You'll never escape this. That's what verse 13 says, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight and all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." You'll never escape because He'll know. He'll know.

Listen, that little phrase - powerful, all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have -to do. In ancient times when a criminal was led to judgment a dagger with its point up was fixed under his chin, tied around his neck so that his face was pushed up by the dagger and it couldn't be moved down. Why did they do that? Because it was common for a criminal before a judge to bow his head in shame and concealment and hide his face. What the writer of Hebrews is saying - in that day Your face is going to be propped up to look eye to eye with the judgment of God. You will not be able to conceal anything. And the word will unmask the truth of whether you know God or not.

Now, this isn't an easy message to preach and I'm not trying to destroy anybody's hope. I just want you to know Jesus Christ. I want you to enter Cod's rest. You know, I know what's going to happen. The Bible tells ME. There's going to be a whole lot of carcasses in the desert and they're going to be very religious people, very religious. They may believe Jesus died and rose again and they may have wanted someone to take them out of the bondage of their life but they never took a Lord in whom they put their faith and so they'll die in the wilderness. Religious people, oh, they think it's going to be alright but it isn't. It isn't going to be alright in the end. It's going to be terrible in the end when the judgment sword of God falls. Today, today is the day to enter His rest.

Listen to this, explorer Edward Parry was exploring the North Pole. He took his crew to the extremities of that white wilderness. And they endeavored to walk as far North as they could. The days were long as for North as they were. So while night was going on they chartered the stars and determined their exact position and then they walked for hours and hours and hours and hours until it finally became dark again. They had walked across the white tundra for hours. As the stars came out they examined the stars and rechecked to see how far they had gone. To their shock they found out that they were further South than when they started. The truth of the matter is they were walking North on an ice flow going South. And I dare say there are many people who are walking vigorously on the ice flow of works that are going to find themselves further South than when they started.

Listen, if you're trying to get there on your own or if you think just knowing it's true is enough - you're wrong. Until you cast yourself on Jesus Christ you are living in eminent danger of the judgment of God. Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for the clarity with which You speak to us in Your word. Oh, how it penetrates. Father, I just pray so much right now, with all my heart, for those who may be here in this situation. Lord, I don't know how many there are. And I don't know who it is that will sometime listen to me preaching this same sermon on tape but Oh God, if there is somebody who knows it's true but hasn't yet opened their heart to Jesus Christ, may this be the moment when they do that. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, let me just ask you somethingin closing? Would you just open your heart to the Lord tonight? And would you say, - Lord, I want to know if I'm a real Christian? Just examine yourself, you shouldn't be afraid to do that if you really know Him. If you have some doubts about whether you've really made that commitment to Christ then you probably haven't. And maybe you need to say - Lord Jesus, I've sat on the fence long enough and I've known the truth long enough and now I want to take Jesus Christ and crown Him King in my life, I want to yield to Him, I want to accept His salvation. I want to walk beneath His Lordship. Maybe, you just need to say, Christ, come into my life, I believe and I receive You as Lord. I really don't know what went on in your heart. Obviously, the Lord does. Oh I hope you don't go away tonight and say - tomorrow and saywell, I'm going to do that. There may not be a tomorrow for you. This may not happen. And the tomorrow may be worse than today because you've said no one more time, it will be easier the next time. If you know you need Jesus Christ and you know it's the truth in simple childlike faith say - Lord, I believe, I receive Jesus Christ. Cleanse my sin and reign as Lord.

Father, we thank You tonight for Your word and we thank You so much for its tremendous truth. Lord, how it touches life. It's so obvious that it's Your book because nobody could ever know all these things that go on in our hearts but You. Thank You for speaking to US. Bless every person here. May not one person rest his head in sleep tonight ho hasn't received Jesus Christ and been born anew into His Kingdom. e pray in His wonderful name. Amen.