The Basis of Our Spiritual Security
First B Jackson
2019-09-29

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you?

It's good to see you this morning. It's good to see you. Hey, would you stand and and sing with us? We're we're gonna sing we're gonna sing a song. It comes right on a Psalm 92.

A song to be sung on the Sabbath day. Amen. It's good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to the most high. Let's sing of it. Alright.

It is good.

It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, oh, most high. Sing that again. It is good to praise you, Lord, and made music to your name, oh most high, oh most high.

Alright. Let's sing that again. It is good.

It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, oh, most high. It is good to praise you, Lord, and make music to your name, oh, most high, to proclaim, to proclaim your love in the morning and your ness at night. Oh, I sing for joy. Oh, more. I sing for joy at the sound of your name

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. Can y'all hear me? We have Bible studies coming up.

Bible study actually has already started. It's during the same time that Peak Children's Church happened downstairs. There's a junior high and high school girls. If you fit that description and you'd like to go down, you're welcome. Down there, Judy Wells is leading youth group is tonight from five to seven.

So, it starts at five. Mike, is Mike here? He's strapped to a baby. Anybody seen Mike? He's walking down the street.

Okay. He'll be back. Maybe he's going to second service today. It'll be five to seven tonight. Youth group starting here unless otherwise notified by text.

Monday nights?

Yep. Monday is also on. So, meal music message tomorrow. We're in a series on encouragement. Tomorrow's about encouragement through prayer and through God's word and through his spirit.

And so love to have you.

06:00. Cool. Thank you very much. That's 06:00 meal music and a message tomorrow night. Happens at the same time as Awana.

That starts off in this room. Somebody was here yesterday and they said, what is this that looks like a helicopter landing pad on the floor? I said, well, it's the Awana Game Circle. So, that's what happens right here. We start off in this room together.

They do kind of an opening ceremony and then they split up all over the church but there's game time for all of the the kids that come and it's going from age two up through fifth grade and when kids have gotten to the sixth grade, they've started helping out with the with the younger kids which is the way this is kind of supposed to work. So, it's pretty cool. Awana is a great thing. Kenya, it says on your bulletins, pray for Kenya. Tanya is still in Kenya right now.

She's headed home this week. She's supposed to be home Wednesday afternoon evening but Kenya, the the Maisha Mapia Learning Center and the the girls center. The Emma means grace and so she's getting a chance to visit the Grace Center for Girls this week. She's headed back home though. So, please keep on praying for Kenya but also pray for Tanya and her travels.

Community Bible study, engaging God's word that has gotten its start. Anne is holding up. Hold it up again. That's engaging God's word. A little booklet about Galatians and she has those.

If you would like to join in, it's going to be Wednesday mornings, 09:00 to 11:30 and Thursdays from six to eight in the evenings. Galatians study, engaging God's word. We have a girls Bible study that's meeting at the Whole Grocers Community Room at 04:00, not 03:30, 04:00 on Wednesdays for eight to 13 year old girls. We got a precept study that is meeting here in our fellowship hall. Big horseshoe of tables down there and that's at 09:00 sharp on Thursday mornings in the fellowship hall and there are other Bible studies too and if you would let us know.

Leading or one that you're involved in. If you'll let us know, we'll advertise for you and try to let people know that it's out there. There's one that happens at the senior center on Mondays and it's just after lunchtime. Roseanne has been leading this study for years and years. When I came out as an intern, Roseanne was out of town, and I helped lead that one for a while.

It's been going on a long time. It's a really good study on Mondays just afternoon. It's like 12:30, 12:45. But please, if you if you know of a study that's going on and I know that there are small groups that are happening. If you let us know, we'll let other people know.

If it's a closed group and you don't want us to know, okay. That's fine. Connect our happens between services. There are prayer requests in the bulletin and there might be other announcements that I've forgotten but I'm trying to move past these announcements. Are y'all with me?

Okay, let's stand and greet one another then. It is that time of year.

Let's sing higher than. Let's sing that again. Higher than. On me. And your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me.

On

I'd love to pray on that. God, truly, we can't sing that enough. You are love. You are the source and supply of love. When we want more love, we go to you because you are love.

I thank you for loving us through absolutely everything, for being patient with us. Amen. That comes right out of Exodus, Yahweh, where it says where God says to Moses, I am who I am. I am who I am. I'm God.

He says to him, my name is the fact that I exist. The self existent one. Isn't that amazing about God? He's always existed. My head just exploded just now.

But truly, he is always the self existent. He doesn't need anything or anyone, and yet he's created us and he loves us, and here we are to worship him. Let's continue on.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm going to invite the frontline team to come forward. Would y'all pray with me? God, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for the ability lord to to gather the freedom to gather. Lord, I thank you for those who have come this morning, who are gathered in your name. It's great to hear your people sing your praises, lord. Would you empower us? Would you fill our lungs with breath so we may praise you?

May we give our all to you, our all in all. God, I pray that you take the the tithes and offerings that are placed in these plates and that you would do with them lord as you will. Would you multiply these funds to do your work here and beyond here. God, will you start right in the room right today and then moving forth from there, ripple all the way out to the uttermost parts, the very ends of the earth. In Jesus name, lord, we bow to you and we seek to live out a life that would draw others in.

So, God, show us your way and allow us the strength to walk in it. Amen.

You can't help but smile when you sing that song.

Amen. Carl thought we needed an antidote to last week's sermon. Wow. Oh, it's good for us. It's good for us both.

Children's church is starting right now. So, that's what's going on. That's the that's the mass exodus. You'll notice, most of those are small people that are leaving. Little folks.

Children are dismissed for church. We have this week hopefully, this will be kind of a wrap up and a review of this parenthesis that we've been studying for the last few weeks. So, the title this week is the basis of our spiritual security but we're going to walk through the past couple of weeks. Forgive me. You know what I don't like about HGTV?

I'll just break it out. You ever watch HGTV? No. Heavens. We'd never admit to that.

HG Home and Garden Television, when they tear down a house and they're putting it back up or they're tearing and doing a remodel, after every commercial break, they tell you everything has already happened and it is frustrating. You could watch the whole thing in six and a half minutes. I'm trying not to do that, but Hebrews really begs for continuity. It begs for it. If you haven't read it beginning to end, front to back, all the way through, you might not see that and you just think, why is he believing this point?

Well, I'm trying to get you to the actual point. Last week, I sat a warning in your lap that was very strong and it's real and I think that it's a real warning but it also ended with some encouragement and then when we get to this, we see Amen There is something that I can hold onto as secure and know that it is secure Now, our own human frailty and our fickle minds and the way that we act it out is hard. Warm weirds because it's the basis of our spiritual security. So, I'm the landscape. Diagnosis.

Last week, we talked about this and with any diagnosis, usually you're finding symptoms first. So, we're going to go here. Concerning him, we have much to say. It's hard to explain since you become dull of hearing. I told y'all, I think that's Melchizedek.

That's what that's talking about concerning him. We have much to say. It's hard to explain since you become dull of hearing. So, that's symptom number one. You become dull of hearing.

Something's wrong with the way you're hearing. That's symptom number one. Symptom number two is, by this time, you ought to be teachers. You have had enough time and enough instruction and enough learning that. The symptom number two is you ought to be able to teach now but you're not.

Symptom number three is, you've come to need milk, not solid food. You got a baby food diet. Something's wrong. If you're a grown up and you're eating a baby food diet. And then the symptom four is a little harder to explain but not being accustomed to the word of righteousness and I think that's speaking of God's word but it's about living out the righteousness that's found in God's word.

Allowing the spirit to empower and working forward and by practice, have your senses trained in applying the scripture for these folks, symptom number four was, they had not been applying what it was that they knew and they were immature. So the diagnosis is immaturity based on symptom number one, sluggishness of hearing that they were not mature enough to teach. They should have been able to by that point that they were on a baby food diet and that they were not accustomed to the word of righteousness. So, that's a diagnosis. The remedy for that is this, the remedy has already been given a couple of times in Hebrews.

One of them is pay more attention to that which you've already heard so that you don't drift from it. I don't know about y'all but I've mentioned this several times. I probably shouldn't but I I do. My own diet, my own personage was more profound a year ago. There was more of me a year ago, and I have found over this last year that as I pay attention to that which I already know to be true, eat less, exercise more, simple.

But if I'm logging it, paying attention, I put it in my phone, this is what I ate and this is what I did for exercise, just that little act of paying attention, my weight goes down. But when I get close to what I wanted to be, get close to my goal, and I start going, does it really matter if I have that slice of cake? Does it really matter if I don't do any outside exercise? Doesn't really matter. I'm I'm pretty good.

I'm good. Everything's okay. When I stop paying attention and stop logging, paying attention to that which I've already heard, I start to drift and I start to gain. In my case, wait but you can gain all kinds of barnacles on your boat if you don't pay attention, right? So, the remedy as it's been expressed already is that pay more attention to that which you already have heard so that you don't drift away from it.

Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teaching. You're dealing with what happened and you're dealing with salvation issues but sanctification, you're not allowing that to be walked out in your life. Leaving behind the elementary teachings about Christ. Let us press on to maturity. So, that is the first thing right there.

This is the first prescription, I guess. Let's press on to maturity. Pay more attention pressing on. And I think that's the main one. I could cover the others but I've already preached that twice.

So, warning comes next and this is what I laid in your lap last week. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and they've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and they've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and have then fallen away. It's impossible to renew them again to repentance. Since they again crucify themselves to themselves, the son of God, and put him to open shame. So, this one's a hard and I laid it in your lap last week and I asked you to consider it.

Pray about it. Think about it all week and a lot of y'all did. I heard about a lot of back from And I tried not to get theological from either side of this. I just say what it says. Let that sit.

Let the scripture do its work. And there's some of you that say, well, yes, I believe you can lose your salvation. There are others say, no, you can't. I don't think that you can but if you look at it yourself, those all do look like a true Christian but is it hard to tell the difference between a Christian because man judges on the outward appearance, right? But God judges the heart.

The writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit but still a human being. Looking and seeing the problem that he saw facing was these first century folks who had professed Christ were being tempted to turn back and when you know the goodness of Christ, being tempted to turn back seems ridiculous, right? And so, from the outside looking in, it's like, you need this warning. It'll go on to say, I think better of you than this. I I really do but the warning still stands.

So, that's where I left it last week. In the case of because it once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, made partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God, powers of age coming, then fallen away. It's impossible to renew. That absoluteness of that statement is really hard for people but it's a passive. It's impossible then for them to be renewed.

By someone else. There's nothing that you can do when someone's walking away from the faith. You can pray for but you can't by force of your will bring them back in because they're still, they are crucifying again presently. It's a present tense too. They're presently, progressively crucifying again Christ and until they hit that point of surrender and repentance, there's nothing you can do for them that's going to make the difference.

It's quiet in here. And then, this is an illustration for ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and you can pour scripture, you could text scripture, you can throw it at them all you want to and it's rain and it's good and it's good for growth but if it produces thorns and thistles, and that that's a possibility in this illustration. It's a possibility that you could take all these good things that are being thrown at you by God and everyone else but still just produce thorns and thistles. I think your will is really important in this. Individually, your own will is important in how you react to God.

So, you worry about yourself and pray about others. What it would be? Ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it, brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it's also tilled, receives a blessing from God. Yes. The word won't return void and this is what we're looking for is good fruit but it is possible to hear all of that, live through in the midst of other people living that out and then your life only produce thorns and thistles.

It's worthless and it's close to being cursed and if you just stop right there, it goes, oh my goodness, that's the heaviest thing I've ever heard. I sinned. Does that mean I lost my salvation? And and and that I can't be repented and I've had it all. I've had calls, multiple calls from people saying, have I committed the unpardonable sin?

No, not yet. You haven't. Quenching the Holy Spirit when he is, if if you're making a call and going, what did I do? What did I do? Have I fallen from grace?

God's offer of forgiveness and love is still valid for you. If you're asking that question, you're asking for it. God always responds to the cry of faith. The encouragement here I love. A beloved.

Oh, it's the only time the Hebrews author uses beloved but beloved, dear ones, dearly beloved ones, we're convinced. Another we there. That's the authors of Hebrews, I think. Dearly, beloved ones, we are convinced of better things concerning you all. Things that accompany salvation.

Though we are speaking this way, warning still stands. It's hard to tell a difference in a Christian and a professing Christian. A Christian and a professing Christian that just professes that it's not real. If the milieu that you are in, it was an expectation that you would begin to say these things but you never have accepted it for yourself. You could possibly be a professing Christian.

I think that's a difference in James too where he says, now, normally, professing Christ, if it's true, is the absolute right thing to do. Many of us have hit a place in our life where we realize that what we had been saying now, all of a sudden, we realize that we were going through the motion. And what we knew was the right thing mentally had not been something that we had accepted really in our hearts. I had this experience. I had this experience and it felt like a whole new thing like God had forgiven me in a whole new and different way and I pray that that is an experience that if you feel like all all of that I have ever been taught has not been working for me.

I pray that you'll accept the possibility that God may be reaching and saying, that's because you haven't ever really tried it. God is good. He answers the call of faith. Everyone who calls on his name, he will say, living out our own expectations or expectations or whatever may not be the same thing as reaching out to God. So, beloved, I'm convinced of better things or we are convinced of better things concern you, things that accompany salvation.

Though we are speaking in this way, God is not unjust so as to forget the work and the love which you've shown towards his name and having ministered and still ministering to the saints. We desire that each and every one of you shows the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. This is a call to persevere. It's also a call that you'd be really, really real. That's why I left the warning in your lap last week.

I wanted you to process it on your own and not for someone else. We desire that each and everyone of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope till the end and hope in the Bible is an absolute certainty that has not yet happened. Hope in the Bible is an absolute certainty that just has not yet happened. It's secure. It's not like, well, I hope it gets better.

I hope so. I ordered something. I hope it gets here. No, it's an absolute certainty that will happen. It just hasn't happened yet.

The full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish. Use the word again, not for us. Sluggish or dull. But you'll be imitators of those who through faith and patience actually inherit the promises. Through faith.

It is about what you believe. It's not about works. This is foreshadowing of chapter 11. Everything in this book ties to everything else. So, here's the sermon for this week, ten minutes in.

The basis for spiritual security is this, for when God made the promise to Abraham, God made a promise. So, the first one is God's promise. This is the basis for your spiritual security right here. God promised. When God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself.

You might think, God swore? Well, he can't take the Lord's name in vain. He knew what he was saying. He's always truthful and he couldn't swear by anything greater. You know, by the beard of Odin or Thor's hammer or anything like that.

It's no, he could swear by none greater and both of those things, you know, people swore by all kinds of things. We'll get into that in a minute. When God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying this, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. That's multiplying the the blessing. The the promise.

Now, he made multiple promises to Abraham. I think this is the one that we're referring to, right? Here because he says it flatly by myself, I have sworn. He had made a couple of other promises. Actually, in Genesis 12, he had he had given him the proto Euangelion, the pre gospel gospel but in Genesis 22, here we have it and he said, by myself, I have sworn declares the Lord because you've done this thing and you've not withheld your son, your only son.

This is after God had asked Abraham to go up and sacrifice us because you've done this thing. And have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. This is the promise. I think, Genesis 22. I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you and so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

Now, if I think of Abraham, the first thing I think of is not patience. I think of impatience. I think of him thinking, well, God promised me this and now, I'm going to do something about it. Since his way is not working, I'm going to go figure out a different way or his wife might say, we'll we'll we'll figure out a different way. Let's how about this?

That's what I think of but this writer of Hebrews is very gracious and says, so having patiently waited, obtained the promise. How long did he wait? About twenty five years. How long had it been since the cross when this book was written? About thirty years, the temptation to do something else, go back to some man made way was pretty strong especially under such persecution but I think it's a great example for the audience that he was trying to reach or that the author of Hebrews was trying to reach.

Authors. For men swear by one greater than themselves. That's a very common thing then and it's still a very common thing now. People say, oh, I swear on my eyes. Like, we don't hear that one a whole lot anymore but you know, on my mother's grave or a stack of Bibles.

You know, they have a lot of different things that they swear about. I know the Bible's good but a stack might even be better, you know? Men swear by one greater than themselves and with them, an oath is given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. That's the whole reason for contracts, right? It's an oath.

It's written down. We signed it. You know, in the same way God. That's interesting to me that God in the same way as the way that men get along with one another. God actually did that.

Y'all remember, it's a weird passage for us but when God said, when he was making his promise, his covenant with Abraham, he said, now, you take a bullock and you split it down the middle and you put the pieces on each side and you and I will walk together in between. That was a Hittite ceremony for a covenant but God, when he spoke to Abraham, he did it in terms that Abraham could understand. That's really important, I think. Actually, ceremonial and symbolically. That's why we have a center aisle in the church right here.

Y'all are the body of Christ and you've been split and when people walk this aisle, it's a covenant. The wedding ceremony. You ever notice the groom usually enters this way from the right? Usually and then, everybody else proceeds in. There's some pageantry there and then when they leave, husband and wife leave together and they walk between the pieces.

It's a covenant. In a language that Abraham could understand but it's it's by God. In the same way God, men swear by one greater themselves. With them, an oath is given as confirmation. It's an end of every dispute.

In the same way, God desiring even more to show to whom the other side of this covenant that he's making, the heirs of the promise. So, Abraham is who the original promise was made to but it was to bless those whom he blesses and curse those. He curses those who with Abraham believed God and it's counted them as righteousness. They're the heirs of the promise. And God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeableness of his purpose.

He interposed with an oath. So, God's oath. God's promise and God's oath. I don't do three point sermons very often but this one almost is one. The unchangeableness of his promise.

Those terms will stand. He interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things, God promised and his oath. In which it's unimpossible for God to lie, he is not a liar. The Satan is a liar. The father of lies when he lies, he speak the Bible says but God is not that way.

He speaks the truth. So, that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge, those of us who have taken refuge are heirs of the promise. To be an heir of the promise and not having that promise fully fulfilled yet, we have hope. This is where this goes. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

So, if you read this passage and you read four through six and you think, oh my goodness, that's so condemnatory and that warning is so profound. If anybody's ever sinned, they've walked away from God and they can't be renewed to the faith. It's it's like, no wonder he says it's a narrow gate. No. This is an encouraging passage overall.

It's an incredibly encouraging passage but it has to be anchored in something and this is where we get to that. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hopes set before us. This hope an absolute certainty that is not yet come to pass. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Praise God.

We have an anchor of the soul. It's a hope both sure and steadfast. This absolute certainty does not yet happen is sure and it is steadfast. It is an absolute certainty. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And it is one which enters within the veil. There's old Ironsides, the there's a famous preacher from way back, Ironside, not the not the guy in the wheelchair from the old TV show but there's a preacher named Ironside and he says, the whole of the book of Hebrews can be with just these two phrases without the camp and within the veil. The holy of holies is within the veil. They knew about the holy of holies being within the veil and the temple. The temple at this point was still standing.

Within the veil, there was only one person to go in on the day of atonement. Had to make sure that he'd been cleansed of all of his sins before he went through behind into the Holy of Holies beyond that veil and even then, they tied a rope around his foot so they could pull him out if God struck him dead for impurity, okay? Jesus has entered within the veil. This is actually where we're going with this. I hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil and where Jesus has entered.

So, God's promise and God's oath and God's son, God's son, the only begotten son given for all those who would believe, who would put their faith in him, where Jesus has entered and how has he entered as a forerunner for us. He has gone within the veil so we might follow him in. It is by his righteousness that the veil, remember at the cross, at the crucifixion when the earth shook and the veil was torn in two from the top to the bottom, Jesus goes in symbolically and then, it opens the way for us to enter the Holy of Holies. Where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever. The high priest status of Jesus is something that Hebrews hammers home and if you haven't ever studied it before, for me, it's been really, really, really freeing and enlightening to know Jesus as high priest.

I've heard that from several of y'all too. We need, we need him. Where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever. It's eternal and perpetual and that in itself, since we're speaking of that hope which is not yet come to pass. That hope can be accessed here and it will be as Peter says, an incorruptible hope that we can look forward to and we can move towards by spirit.

Having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Here we are again. So, this is the end of our parenthesis right there. The basis of our spiritual security is after the diagnosis and the remedy and the warning and the encouragement. You ever been to the doctor and gotten a diagnosis and he told you what to do and then he gave you a warning if you didn't do it?

Then, he encourages you to do it. Says, really? No. There have been tons of studies done on this and if you don't do this, the basis of our spiritual security, the anchor of our souls is the hope we have in Jesus and he is a high priest forever since before until forevermore, always. And you can count on the security that comes from calling out to Christ.

Our own human nature that I was speaking about earlier where we feel like we've done it, we think we might have done it. If you're looking at the warning and you see thistles and thorns and you don't see good fruit, good. You can't just manufacture the fruit on your own. Go back to the source. Go back to the elementary things that say, no, really.

Rid me of all of my external stuff that I've been trying to patch this with lord and take me to yourself. Forgive me. Overwhelm me with your love and forgiveness. And then teach me as a baby growing and teach me to feed myself and teach me so that I may teach others. Looking forward to that incorruptible hope.

The basis of our spiritual security is the anchor of our souls. Jesus, he can be trusted. So, the opening of the parenthesis was this, by the being designated by God the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, mysterious figure, concerning him, we have much to say but you become dull of hearing. That's where the princesses starts. It goes through all those.

It gets to this and next week, we'll start with this. For this Melchizedek, king of blah blah blah, okay? We'll start right there. He's a mysterious figure. I'm doing all the study I can.

Y'all go ahead and read all you want to. We are surrounded here by people who take this obscure and mysterious person and I believe use it and twist it or gain and so I want for us to be serious and in our study but this is very important to the author of Hebrews. Takes almost a whole chapter to discuss it. We'll start that process next week. I told Carl Matt to sing a song twice at the end.

I was right. Would you stand up and sing with us? Can we go back to and sing in Christ alone again? Okay. Standing on the promise, we'll close with that but we got we got eleven minutes, alright?

Would you stand up? We're going to sing two songs. Think about this one as you sing it. Our hope is in you, Jesus. The altar is always open.

If you want to speak to me, I'll put down the bass and turn off the mic. Amen. That's a promise we can't stand on. Yep.

Yeah. Let's end with this one.

Hey, hey, that's the benediction right there. Listen to this. It's an Old Testament benediction from Samuel. It's nice. If you are thinking that God is a cosmic killjoy, you are wrong, okay?

God does not take away life. Instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from it. He has made the way. Your hope is in Christ alone. Run to it.

Run to it. In Jesus name, lord. May we be examples of your promises of a life redeemed that we are no longer dead men walking but we are alive and living out an abundant life secure in you in Jesus name. Amen.