Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- Be Mature ~ Hebrews 6:1-9 ~ Pastor Ryan

to the book of Hebrews, chapter 6.

Hebrews, chapter 6. Well, today we come to probably one of the more controversial passages of Scripture in the New Testament, definitely in the book. So, Hebrews. And this is why I teach through the Bible the way that I do. I watched this video clip, and listen, if you're the one that posted it, I apologize, but I'm just being serious right now. I watched this video clip the other day

of these two wannabe theologians who were sitting there talking to each other, saying, you should not make it your goal as a pastor to teach all the way through the Word of God. After all, that's not what Jesus and the disciples did. And I thought, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. That's the most uneducated statement of a theologian that I could ever imagine.

I could point out some things to show how wrong that is, but just know that this is why we teach through the Word the way that we do, because then I can't skip the parts of Scripture that are really hard to deal with, like this one. And so, as we show up to this passage this morning, we come to part two in our series, Be Mature. Last week, we looked at a warning, and the warning that he gave is that we should beware of immaturity in our life. And today, we come to the second warning that he gives us in this aspect of being mature, and that's beware of falling away.

So we pick up in chapter 6, verse 1, and this is what it says. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God, of instruction about washing and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

For the ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those who are in need, those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. As I pointed out, it's a little bit of a controversial section and it's a little bit difficult to deal with.

So I'm gonna do the best that I can to handle this from a biblical standpoint. Use biblical language only in the way that we deal with this because there are hard subjects you have to address in the word of God and this warning that's given to us to beware of falling away is one of those difficult sections of scripture. It starts off in verse one with the word therefore, which is always a linking word, linking everything that we've been talking about up to this point to what He's about to address. So let's link those two things together quickly, shall we?

Let's build the context, reminding us of what we talked about in chapter five. Remember, the entire book we talked about in chapter five, the book of Hebrews is written to Hebrew believers who are being torn away from the faith because of persecution. They have left the Judaic law to move into a true relationship with Jesus Christ under the headship of Jesus Christ, what we know as the church. They have left that to go to the church and now they're facing persecution.

They're facing persecution from a Roman government who says now you should worship Caesar as God, not the God that you're worshiping. And now they're also facing persecution from a Jewish system who disagrees with the fact that they've left the law behind and are now pursuing a new relationship with this Jesus that the Jewish people didn't believe in. And this pressure that they're facing is causing them to want to fall away. They're thinking if we just go back to the Judaic system, if we just go back to Judaism, then life will be a lot happier for us.

We will still face persecution from the Roman government, but we will at least have a community that accepts us. And He is warning them about the danger of leaving the, freedom of Christ to return to a law. And so He painted the picture for them so far of what it looks like to know that Jesus is far superior to the Judaic system. First of all, Jesus is far superior to the angels.

Second of all, Jesus is far superior to Moses. Third, Jesus is far superior to the high priesthood because as the high priesthood of Aaron was taken from among men, it was gentle with people and gave temporary salvation through sacrifices. Jesus was taken from among men. He is gentle with people, but He offers eternal salvation through His one sacrifice. Why?

Because Jesus is not a temporary priesthood according to the line of Aaron. Jesus is an eternal priest according to the line of Melchizedek. That's what prompted the conversation now to say, I would love to tell you more about this, but you've become dull of hearing. You have, you've become dull in your understanding. You need someone to teach you. Teach you once again, the elemental principles of Jesus.

And you are milk drinkers, not solid food eaters. Therefore, let us leave behind the elementary principles of the teaching of Christ and let us press on to maturity. Are we all there with the context? Okay, so he continues this warning. Again, these two things. Number one, he says, let us leave behind the elemental teachings, the elementary teachings of Jesus

or about the Christ. And remember, last week, we defined the word elementary as simply the ABCs, but now he's gonna go into even more depth about what these ABCs, the elementary teachings are. And what these elementary teachings are is they are the things that are the common ground between Judaism and Christianity. He defines them more clearly in the following verse, and we'll deal with that.

But understand that he's talking to them about moving past Jewish law into the reality of Jesus. He said, let us leave behind the elementary teachings that are associated with law. Instead, let us press on to maturity. Let us press on to maturity. That idea of pressing on means to carry on and to carry on that which is complete. In other words, let us carry on to a full understanding

of what it is to walk with Christ. Let us press on to maturity. And if I may quickly draw a quick personal application about maturity in this section to us. We need to understand something as believers in Jesus. We need to understand something as believers in Jesus Christ. God uses the most difficult circumstances of life to create maturity inside of us. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say

it's impossible to become mature in Christ without facing hardship in Christ. In all of the hardships that we face, all of the difficult things that we face in our life are creating maturity on the inside of us. They are creating in us a mature walk with Jesus Christ because they force us deeper into our walk with the Lord. It's interesting to look back over a life spent walking with Jesus.

I've looked back over, for some reason over the last three months or so, maybe month or so, I've spent a lot of time doing this. Looking back over not only the last 20-some years of walking with Jesus, but in particular the last 10 years of walking with the Lord. Because there's been a lot of things in the last 10 years that have created a lot of maturity inside of me that I would never choose again. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't make that choice today if it was like, hey, you can be this mature and choose this.

I'd be like, oh. Because they were hard things to go through. They were hard things to go through. They were hard things to go through. They were hard things to go through. They were hard things to go through. And I don't ever want to relive any of them again. But they are the things that have founded me in my walk with Jesus Christ. They've put wrinkles on my face.

They've made me lose hair on top of my head. Actually, that happened without any of these things. It has put wrinkles on my face, but it's also put the proper wrinkles in my soul. Because I'm here to tell you right now, you show me someone with a solid, mature walk with Jesus Christ, and I'll show you someone with scars. And those scars are nothing that they would have chosen in their life,

but they are everything that has made them who they are today. And they can look back with fondness and say, this is what I went through, and this is what God has done because of it. Which is exactly why he's telling these believers that are about to go through very difficult things because they're facing persecution like we can't imagine. They're facing difficulties like we can't imagine.

And he's saying, press on to maturity. In other words, don't look at the hardship and run from it. Look at the hardship and run towards it. Because if you can run into the storm, if you can run into the hardship, then I promise you, God will meet you in the middle of it. And when he meets you in the middle of it, he will grow you in a way that nothing else can.

Because he will give you, through the power of his Holy Spirit, grace that you can't even imagine. I know because I've been there. I know because I've seen it. I've watched it in my life. As I've stood in the midst of some of the greatest storms of my life, I have watched God's grace arrive in words that I can't explain to you. But it was absolutely the power of God,

and it's created the maturity that I have within me today. And I know you're probably thinking, really? Listen, can you imagine how I'd be without this? You have to press on to maturity. Don't run from the hardships of life. Run into the hardships of life, because that's where you'll meet God in the middle of it. He says, therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about Christ,

let us press on to maturity. The second thing he says is, let us not lay again the foundation, middle of verse one there, not laying again a foundation of repentance, from dead works, and of faith towards God, and of instruction about washing, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Now, if we read this without context, we think that this would make a really good layout for a discipleship course, right? These all seem like things that are really important for making of the disciple of Jesus Christ.

But when we read it in its context, knowing that he's talking to Jewish believers tempted to go back to the law, we realize that the foundation that he's talking about, not laying, the foundation that he says, let's not lay this foundation again, actually has more to do with Old Covenant principles that are shadows that find their substance in Christ. He says, let's not go back and lay down the foundation of Old Testament shadows. Let's move on to the substance. Let me explain to you what I mean.

Let's work through each one of these together. He says, first of all, let's not lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works. Well, Ryan, that sounds like a very New Testament idea, and it is, except it finds its foundation in the Old Covenant. If you were to read the book of Acts, as they were kind of in this transition period, you would find that the disciples would often ask a convert, what were you baptized into?

And many of them will say, I was baptized with the baptism of John the Baptist, which was a baptism of repentance, not a baptism of new birth. You see, the idea of baptism is identification with. In the Old Testament, it's full of repentance from dead works, but there is no repentance that leads to new life, because that new life came about through Christ. He says, let's not lay again the idea of repentance from dead works.

Let's instead lay the idea of repentance that leads to brand new life in Christ. Now, the second thing that he says is, let's not lay again the foundation of faith towards God. Wait a minute, Ryan. Faith is a very New Testament idea. Yes, but remember, God is explained in the New Testament through Jesus Christ. So faith in God finds its fulfillment in the arrival of Jesus Christ.

And now it's faith in the new life that we have in Jesus Christ, as he, as we're told in the beginning of the book of Hebrews, explained God to us. The third thing that he says is, let's not lay again the foundation of instructions about washings. Instructions about washings. Some of your translations may say the foundation of baptisms, which unfortunately is a poor translation of the word, because the word washings is what's really indicated there, because it carries with it the idea of ceremonial washings that were all throughout the law.

He said, let's not, let's not lay that out again, of ceremonial washings that the law talks about. Instead, let us talk about the brand new washing that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. He said, let's not lay again the foundation of the laying on of hands. Now, what does he mean by the laying on of hands? Well, there's two times that you see the laying on of hands.

There's two times that you see the laying on of hands in the Old Testament. The first is when they would anoint a priest. They would lay hands on the priest, and he would be anointed, and he would be then appointed as the priest. But I don't think that's what he means when he talks about the laying on of hands. You see, there was another time that the laying on of hands

took place in the Old Covenant, and that was every time that there was a substitutionary sacrifice. They would bring the lamb to the altar, and the person who was making the sacrifice would take his hands and lay them on the head of the animal, indicating the substitution of the animal. Which is why he says, let's not lay again a foundation of the laying on of hands of a temporary sacrifice. Instead, let's move on to the maturity of understanding that Jesus was the one sacrifice for all.

He goes on to say, let's not lay again the foundation of the resurrection from the dead. Again, not only an Old Covenant idea, but finding its fulfillment in the New Covenant under Jesus Christ. And of course, not laying again the foundation of eternal judgment, which is throughout the Old Testament. But again, we find the substance in Christ who is the eternal judge.

He says, let's leave behind the elementary things and let's move on to maturity. In other words, let's get past the shadow and let's move into the substance. See, too many times do we want to live in the shadow of the sacrament. Listen, there are certain sacraments that are still beautiful, and we should partake in them. We're going to partake in one this morning.

It's called the sacrament of communion. But communion is not the way that we are saved. Jesus is how we are saved. This is a shadow of the substance that's found in Jesus. I'm just going to be honest, and this might get me in trouble, but I've never let that stop me before. This is where I have an issue with the Roman Catholic Church, is the Roman Catholic Church lives in shadows, not substances.

All of the sacraments are great. The sacrament of baptism is beautiful. I believe that as an act of obedience, everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ should be baptized, because that is an identification of the fact that I have been made brand new in Jesus Christ. But baptism doesn't save you. It is a shadow of the substance of your brand new life in Jesus Christ.

Does this make sense to everybody? But unfortunately, the Catholic Church is living in the shadows instead of the substance. And we have to be careful as believers to not do the exact same thing and say, well, it's Communion Sunday. It's a holier Sunday than all the other ones. No, because this is just a shadow of the substance of Jesus Christ. It's an important, necessary step of obedience,

but it's still just a shadow. Now, again, if you have issues with that, you can call 911. So, they'll be able to answer all of your questions. And then he goes on to say this. I love this. In verse 3, he says, and this we will do if God permits. In other words, we will, move on to maturity if God permits. Now, when we read that at face value, we go, so are there some of us

that God's not going to allow to move on to maturity? Because some of us got like, you're in, you're out. No, the idea is this. If by God's grace, He moves us into maturity, we will move into maturity. And we need to know that. Listen, these warnings are important. And yes, there's an aspect that we take part in in the moving into maturity. There's the decision-making process that we make.

There's the fact that we put in the time, and the word, and the time in prayer. But ultimately, God is the one who gives the growth, right? Like, like some plant, some water, but God brings the increase. And in our own lives, we plant the word, we water the word, but God is the one who creates the maturity inside of us. Because it's His work, not mine. And so, so he gives us this exhortation.

And now we move into this warning that he gives. And again, before I read this warning to you, I want you to understand something. It's gonna get intense, and it's gonna get a little bit deep. I'm gonna do the best that I can. You need to listen to me through the whole thing, okay? Don't stop halfway through and think, oh great, I've lost my salvation, and now there's no hope of me coming back.

Listen to everything that I have to say about it, and it will allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, and allow God to do whatever work needs to be done in your heart. And so, he says this. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted of the word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For in the case of those who, and he describes them.

Why does he give this warning? He gives this warning because he just said, it's time to move past the elementary, and it's time to move into maturity. Why is it so important? Well, because of the warning that he puts here right now. And he describes someone to us, that if this person falls away, there's no chance of them coming back. So, who is this person?

Well, he's described in five different ways. This person is described, first of all, as having once been enlightened. Having once been enlightened. That word enlightened means new light has shined on the mind and the spirit. The new light has shined on the mind and the spirit. This describes someone who the veil has been lifted off of. Whether it's the veil of the old covenant,

or the veil of sin has been lifted off of them, and they can now see clearly the salvation that there is in Jesus Christ. There's a new light that has shined, both on their mind and into their spirit. They're defined, secondly, as one who has tasted of the heavenly gift. Well, what's the heavenly gift? Well, the heavenly gift is none other than salvation itself.

This person has been enlightened. They have tasted of salvation. They are a, number three, partaker of the Holy Spirit. That word partaker means to have a share in. In other words, the Holy Spirit has been at work in their lives. They're described a fourth way. They have tasted the good word of God. In other words, they have experienced the power of God's word in their life

in a transformational sort of a way. And then number five, they have experienced the powers of the supernatural to come. In other words, they have experienced supernatural powers. Now the question is, this is the first one we have to ask, who is he describing here? Who is he describing? From everything that I just said there, I can't imagine that this is anybody

but a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. And so this is where this warning is really, really important for us to pay attention to. Not everybody agrees on this. As a matter of fact, there's an incredible amount of disagreement on this. Or at least someone who has put off all of the appearance of a believer in Jesus Christ. We do know that there are times in Scripture

where people have put off the appearance of being a believer in Jesus Christ that perhaps we're not really believers. Well, so he describes this person and then he describes what can happen to them. He says, For in the case of this person, if they have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again. To repentance. Fallen away. What does that mean? Well, the term

in the Greek, fallen away, means to deviate from the path or to deviate from the course. The idea here is that it is a deliberate departure from the course laid out in front of you. Now I want to point something out to you. There's a difference between fallen and fallen away. As a matter of fact, we are told in Scripture, it's in the Psalms, where he says, And that's important for us to pay attention to

because there's a difference between falling into sin and what's being presented here as fallen away. So for all of you who are concerned right now, have I fallen away? I would tell you that you have not. The reason why I know that is because what he's going to describe here is a hardness that can't be returned from. It is a hardness of heart that you can't come back from.

If you have learned that you have fallen into sin that has made you now unable to repent, I would tell you that you have not fallen into that sin because you still have a tender heart towards the things of God. And so, he says, If they have fallen away, then they cannot be renewed again to repentance. Let me read this to you again. It says in verse 6, And then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance.

That word impossible is very important to pay attention to. He did not use the phrase difficult. He used the word impossible. And I hope that that creates just a little bit of tension in your soul because it indicates that this person who appears to have come to a real relationship with Jesus Christ and has fallen away, it's impossible for them to be renewed to repentance.

So the question is, who is this person that's fallen away? Who does this apply to? Well, there's three main interpretations of this. And I'm going to give these three to you and then I'm going to share my thoughts on it. Several views on who he's talking about here in this warning. Or several different views of this warning. Number one, this is a hypothetical warning

and it's not anything that can actually happen but hypothetically speaking, if someone were to fall away, they could not be renewed to repentance. Here's my issue with this one. If it's hypothetical, why put it in there? If it's a hypothetical warning then it's a pointless warning to put, you've just created undue stress that does not need to be created if this warning is not something that should be paid attention to.

I immediately throw out the hypothetical warning in almost every commentator that I read immediately threw out the hypothetical warning. The second view is that this is an actual warning. Or excuse me, a warning to actual believers in Jesus Christ. That you can be saved, you can be a born again believer in Jesus Christ and then you can ultimately fall away if you come to this place of becoming so hard in your heart against the things of God then you can fall away.

The third, is this is an apparent believer in Jesus Christ who had all appearances of being a true believer but never really had a heart change and even though they experienced some of the good things of God there was no true heart change that took place and so when times got tough, they fell away from the truth. I don't know which of those last two that I believe if I'm being completely honest with you. I've been studying this all week long matter of fact I've been studying this longer than all week long I've studied this for years but I've definitely been looking at this all week long and I still don't know where I land just yet on this. I think it's really important that we pay attention to warnings in scripture and I'm going to end with that

as a statement here real soon but I think it's really important that we pay attention to the warnings that are given to us in scripture it's really important that we use scriptural language. that we deal with things very scripturally because what's interesting about the bible is that you see two parallel thoughts running through scripture you see two parallel thoughts about this running through scripture there's always this debate can you lose your salvation can you not lose your salvation and why are these warnings in here so let me give you a couple of thoughts here first of all we have to understand that there are warnings throughout scripture that are given to us of people who could potentially fall away

of people who were believers in Jesus Christ who seemed to have all of the fruits of a believer in Jesus Christ and then they fell away from the faith one of the biggest ones that I can think of is a guy by the name of Demas Demas was a close associate of Paul matter of fact he's referenced three times in the New Testament the first time that Demas is referenced he is referred to as a brother in Christ the second time that he's referenced Demas is referred to as a faithful fellow servant the third time that Demas is referenced he is referenced as one who loved this present world and has departed from us those are some pretty serious warnings that's a serious warning that's given to us in scripture and yet at the same time throughout scripture we read

that I know my sheep by name and no one can pluck them from my hand there are all kinds of things like that about the security of the believer in Jesus Christ about the security of who we are in Christ and so what do we do with the tension of I'm secure in Christ and there's a warning that you can fall away which one is it my answer to you is yes because they both run through scripture this is where you have to be really careful so most of you don't know very much about this kind of thing maybe some of you do I don't know unless you get into the weeds a little bit but there's two ends of the spectrum when it comes to this and one is a group called Calvinists and Calvinists are big on eternal security and God chooses you

and I believe both of those things and they will look at a group of people who disagree with him and they will give you every scripture possible to tell you you cannot lose your salvation that you are chosen and that nothing can ever change that and you can't lose your salvation and I can disprove everything that this other group over here has to say and over here there's this other group of people called Arminiists and Arminiists believe in free will and they believe that you can lose your salvation and if they were to debate a Calvinist they would give an incredible number of scriptures with every single warning that shows that potentially you can lose your salvation that God warns about this possibility and you have to be careful about it

because you never can tell and I can debate every single scripture against you now if the Calvinists have all of these scriptures that back up their thoughts and if the Arminiists have all of these scriptures that back up their thoughts what does that tell you maybe we should take the whole counsel of God right you see this brings me back to the thing I opened up with when I heard that wannabe theologian say you know none of the apostles taught all the way through the word of God I would like to give you Paul's address to the Ephesian elders in Acts when he says I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God why because you can't leave anything out to go for the other you have to take all of it in its context and brothers and sisters

I say you better maintain your walk you better maintain your walk at the heart of it all and I wrote this down so I wouldn't screw this up at the heart of the issue is that these Jewish believers were being tempted to deviate from faith in Christ and return to an old covenant relationship this would lead to a hardness of heart toward Christ and it was impossible to return not because Christ can't forgive but because their hearts had become too hard listen you have to understand something there can come a point in time when you can no longer repent not because Christ can't forgive because Christ is a great savior but because you will never come you will never show up to repent of your sins therefore he can't forgive you

and I think that's a really important thing for us to pay attention to as believers in Jesus Christ is that if you've reached a place where you're no longer willing to repent of your sin well that's a really really really dangerous spot to be and if you think that there's some other form of salvation other than in Jesus Christ that's a really really dangerous place to be because that's what these guys had found themselves in the potential of doing is going back to the shadow and leaving behind the substance he goes on in verse 7 to give a picture from nature he says for ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled receives a blessing from God

but if it yields thorns and thistles it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned he uses this example from nature he says if the ground receives the rain and has all of the good gifts from God and produces fruit it's a blessing to all but if the ground receives the rain and has all of the good blessings and the good benefits from God and it produces thorns and thistles then the farmer is completely justified in burning the field because it's now good for nothing and if that's true of the farmer it's true of God well I included verse 9 in this section because I knew that you all would have that look on your face after I was done with the first 8 verses because really verse 9 goes with the second section

but I brought a little bit of hope to the end verse 9 but beloved we are convinced of better things concerning you things that accompany salvation though we are speaking in this way the writer to the Hebrews says I know that I was just very harsh in what I just said to you I know that I just spoke incredibly harshly to you but I have a hope for you a hope that involves salvation a hope that you're going to hear me out and you're going to stick close to your walk with Jesus I have a hope for you that you are going to stick it out and you are not going to go back to an old covenant of shadows you will maintain the substance of the truth of Jesus Christ and you will hold tight to your salvation that's my hope for you

and can I tell you brothers and sisters that's my hope for you that's my hope for all of us is that we will continue to come back to the one source of salvation that we have and that's Jesus Christ you got greatなくs you haven't done gospel Efforts and you just want to stay in church and you just need to be here with Jesus and God has a message for you here in the church so starting today I think we might be taking a little bit of a break trying to get to the spirit of the church and taking baptism is truly wonderful I want to open up my heart and thankfulness how do I draw some personal application to this for us? So I wrote down three things, three things that I think that we take away from this

so that hopefully we can continue to draw closer to Jesus. Number one, we need to pay attention to warnings. We need to pay attention to warnings. It's interesting to take note of all of the warnings that there are in Scripture. As a matter of fact, you know that in the first three chapters of the Bible is the first warning that's given. The first warning that's given to man is if you eat of this fruit,

you will surely die, right? That's the first warning. Of course, they didn't heed the warning. You know what the second warning is? The second warning comes like two chapters later. It's with Cain and Abel. You see, Cain and Abel were the first two brothers that we read about in Scripture, and Abel offers the sacrifice of faith. Cain offers the sacrifice of works,

and God accepts Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's, and Cain. Cain hates his brother because of it. And so God shows up one night in a dream, and He tells him, Cain, listen, sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is to rule over you, but you should rule over it. That's an intense warning, isn't it? As you read Scripture, you should mark down a warning like that,

and you should say, if that's true of Cain, it's probably true of me. Sin is crouching at my door, and its desire is to rule over me. Its desire is to rule my life, and so I have a choice to make. I will either let it rule over me, or I will rule over it by the power of the Holy Spirit. You go all the way through the rest of the Old Testament. It's nothing but warnings.

I call them prophetic books. The entire thing is just a big warning, right? Israel, stop being dumb. It's Ryan's paraphrase. I don't think that's ever used one time in Scripture. Stop being dumb, and get back to God, because if you worship these idols, I'm going to have to bring the judgment on you, and they wouldn't listen to the warnings. You move into the New Testament,

there's a handful more warnings. Of course, there's the warning that Jesus gives to those who won't bear fruit when he curses the fig tree, right? And then there's the major warning that we all pay attention to with Peter. When Jesus is with the disciples, he says, y'all are going to run away. Peter's like, not me, Holmes. I'm here. I'm here to stay. And Jesus says, oh, man.

Peter, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny that you know me three times, and I need you to know something. Satan has asked for you, that he can sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. And, of course, Peter didn't heed the warning. He should have said, man, if that's going to be my potential, I've got to make sure I stay as close to Jesus as I possibly can.

And he kind of stayed close to Jesus, but not close enough. He warmed himself by the wrong fire, and he ended up failing with the warning. Of course, we're given other warnings, like when I talked to you about Demas. But, you know, there's warnings that we're given just in the history of the church as well. I think one of the greatest warnings we can look at

is a warning about a guy named Charles Templeton. If you don't know who Charles Templeton is, let me tell you this story about him. There's a famous evangelist that most of you have heard of. His name's Billy Graham. Charles Templeton and Billy Graham served alongside of each other. As a matter of fact, some would say that Charles Templeton was a much more fantastic speaker

and better evangelist than Billy Graham. He's actually the one that brought Billy Graham into the ministry. And there came a time when Charles Templeton began to question things. He began to dabble in what we call liberal theology, and he began to question the reality of the Bible, the reality of the creation story, which ultimately caused him to question the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and he fell away from the faith.

There's a fantastic movie. It's a little bit cheesy, but it's a pretty good movie. It's just simply called Billy, and it kind of tells the story from Charles Templeton's perspective. It's a true story. And Charles Templeton lived his life opposed to the things of God once he had fallen away. And I remember hearing the story of the Bible, and I remember hearing the story of the Bible,

and I remember hearing the story of who he was and reading a little bit about it, and I remember thinking one time, I wonder if he ever repented. I wonder if he ever came back to the Lord. So I got on the old Google machine, and I looked it up. I found this article. And in fact, he did not ever repent that anyone is aware of. I want you to think about this.

A more powerful evangelist than Billy Graham falls away from the faith reaches the place where he no longer believes the Bible, he no longer believes in God, and he never repents of it. Brothers and sisters, we call that a modern-day warning. A modern-day warning that we should all pay attention to. One of my favorite hymns of all time is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Have you ever heard that hymn before? It's a great, great song. And one of my favorite lines in it is at the very end, and it says, Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for your courts above. Well, there's a famous story that goes along with that, that goes along with that hymn. A man was riding in a carriage

with someone else sitting across from him, almost like a taxi at that particular point in time. And he's reading, and he's moved to emotion as he reads the lyrics. The guy across from him says, What are you reading? And he reads the line to him, that particular line. And he said, Have you ever heard this before? And he said, I actually wrote that line. And he said,

Wow, that's amazing. And the guy looked at him and said, I wish I still believed it. Because the guy that wrote that hymn fell away. Brothers and sisters, we gotta pay attention to warnings. God does not waste his words in the Bible. And so if a warning is there, you gotta pay attention to it. And it's gotta make you stick close to Jesus, amen? Number two. I was just number one.

Number two, you have to keep your accounts short with God. You have to keep your accounts short with God. What do I mean by that? I mean the minute God begins to convict you of an area of sin in your life, you gotta deal with it. You gotta cut it off immediately. Because here's what will happen, is if things like this come up where you're drifting into the shadow

instead of the substance, and God begins to reveal that to you, either through his word or through some other friend, some trusted individual who says, Hey, I'm seeing an issue show up in your life, and I think that you need to deal with it. You gotta deal with it. You gotta deal with it immediately. Because if you don't, what will happen is you create a callous, over your heart against that conviction.

And the next time that that conviction comes up, it's easier to not deal with it until eventually you become so hardened to sin that you don't deal with sin any longer. This loss of feeling is why leprosy is so often referred to in the Old Testament. Nobody likes to read the book of Leviticus, and almost the number one reason why is I get tired of reading about leprosy, right? Because ain't nobody got time for that.

Nobody wants to deal with that because it's gross when you read about leprosy, right? You're like, that's a nasty skin disease. It is a nasty skin disease, but you know what's pictorial of sin. What happens with leprosy? Leprosy creates a numbness in your body so that you can't feel anything any longer. So you develop infections, which causes parts of that body to become damaged,

and then they have to keep cutting off parts of the body. And here's the thing about leprosy. It will not end until it takes over your entire body, and it kills you. That's the way sin is. If you don't deal with it at the outset, it will create a lack of feeling in every other part of your life. Listen, until it eventually kills you, spiritually speaking. So how do you keep that from happening?

You keep your account short with God. The minute that something comes up that you go, ooh, that's a sin, and I better deal with it. Deal with it. If it needs cut off, cut it off. If it needs confessed, confess it. If it needs repented of, repent of it. But deal with it in the moment. Don't just, I'll do that tomorrow. Yeah, I'll deal with that later. Nope, you won't.

Listen, tomorrow will never come. There will never be a later. You've got to deal with it now. That's why it's so important when you hear a message that you respond immediately. Because if you don't respond immediately and you give yourself time to think about it, your flesh will justify the conviction out of you. It happens every time. So keep your accounts short with God.

Number three, press on to maturity. Press on to maturity. Make it your constant pursuit. Make your pursuit of a mature walk with Jesus Christ something that nothing gets in the way of. Because your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing in your life. And if you pursue maturity, you will become mature. If you pursue, if you pursue that knowledge, you will gain that knowledge.

But if you don't pursue it, it won't just happen. It's just like a marriage relationship, okay? So I share this with First Service too. Friday, my wife and I celebrated 22 years together, right? God bless that woman. She put up with me for 22 years, right? Passed our yearly review. We have a yearly review every year. How am I doing, okay? I didn't get a raise this year, but it is what it is.

No. So we lead incredibly busy lives and if we don't carve out time for each other, we never pursue our relationship and we get teased about this a little bit, but every day we do the same thing, right? The Starbucks girls know our names. They know our order. They see our car pull up and they're like, we got you, right? They leave us notes on our cups. It's amazing.

Not like a note like happy day or yum. It's like, hey, Aaron, hey, Ryan. I mean, they leave us notes, okay? And so, and so everybody gives us a hard time, but that's our time. Every day. We go grab a cup of coffee and we go on a drive for about a half an hour. Is it a waste of gas? Absolutely. Is it the most important thing we do? Absolutely. Because it's an investment in each other.

Because in that time, nothing else can get in the way. We tried to just sit out on the back porch or something like that, but there's always something. And so if we go drive, nothing can get in the way of it. And during that time, I don't answer my phone. If my phone rings, my wife says, you're in a meeting with me. You can't answer that phone right. Yesterday was that day.

Yesterday was that day for us. Listen, if you tried to call me yesterday, you couldn't get a hold of me. You know why? Because we went out for our anniversary. And my, I love my wife more than you guys. I'm sorry. I just do. Because if that relationship isn't healthy, I can't be the right guy for you. Just like if my relationship with Jesus isn't healthy, I can't be the right pastor for you.

And if that relationship with my wife is that important in my life, how much more important is my eternal relationship with Jesus Christ? How much more do I need to set aside? How much more can I give God? How much more can I give them? And so now this is the time where I say no one can call me right now because I'm in a meeting with Jesus. No one can call me right now because this is my time to pursue maturity and the Lord.

It's my time to pursue my knowledge of God. Because that knowledge, that relationship is just that important! Press on to maturity. Don't let yourself be content with how well you know God today. Don't be content until you go home to be with Jesus. And even then, you'll still spend all of eternity pursuing your understanding of His grace. That's what we're told in Scripture.

Press on to maturity. Brothers and sisters, this morning is Communion Sunday, and I'm looking at my ushers right now after that really fire-filled ending to my message and seeing if we have any small children out there. Do we have any kids on their way? He's looking down the hall. He's seeing no one down the hall.

We're moving with haste. We're running. Sorry, I'll be done now. All right, so while we're waiting for the kids to get in here, I'll just remind us what we're about to partake in. Because, listen, everything that we talked about this morning has to do with this. Because inside of each of these trays is the shadow of which Jesus is the substance. So inside of all these trays, there's a couple of cups stacked together.

The top cup has the juice. The bottom cup has the cracker. And as we've said before, in and of themselves, they're pretty mundane, and they are simply a shadow. They're not a shadow of the substance of Jesus Christ, but they are a very strong shadow. And so as we partake, we are told to do so in a worthy manner. Okay, hold on. Go ahead and bring them on in.

That way kids can hear this too. Come on in, guys. If you could keep an eye on the door for your children.

Here comes another line of them.

They just keep rolling.

Where did I see Katie? Over here.

Shauna, she's over here.

Okay. Okay. If I could have Jared. I thought Jared did come up. Oh, there you are.

So the Bible tells us that we're to partake in a worthy manner. And part of that is knowing exactly what we're about to do here. And that's that inside of each of these trays, again, is a couple of substances, the juice and the cracker. And they are just shadows of Jesus. We're told every time we partake of this, we declare the death of Jesus. And so that bottom cup that has the cracker reminds us of the body of Jesus Christ

that was broken for us. The fact that he bore in his own body on the tree all of the sin of humanity. And the cup represents the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us. The blood of Jesus Christ that is able to cleanse us from all of our sins to make us white as snow. And so to partake in a worthy manner means a handful of things. First of all, to understand what that is, which we've just gone over.

Second of all, it means that if you've never come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you've never accepted him, if you've never been born again, then today's the day for that. It really takes no magic words. It just takes really a condition of your heart. And simply praying a prayer that says, Lord, I'm a sinner and I need you to be my Savior. And in that moment, you become born again.

And for those of us that are born again, it means making sure that our hearts are right with the Lord. Making sure that we've kept those accounts short between us and God. So as this last song is played, I would ask you to allow the Lord to search your heart. To allow him to show you the areas of your life that need change. Perhaps sins that need confessed.

And allow him to do that work in you. So that we can then partake together with clean hearts before the Lord. So as Jared sings this last song, I ask that you would allow the Lord to do that work. And the ushers are going to hand out the elements. And as you receive yours, if you would please stand, we'll partake together. This is the body.

This is the blood.

Broken and poor. And in this communion, we're sharing.

This is the body.

This is the blood.

And I will remember everything, Lord, that you've done for me.

I won't take for granted the sacrifice that set me free. Hunger and conflict. This is the blood. And I will remember everything, Lord, that you've done for me. I won't take for granted the sacrifice. That set me free. Hunger and conflict. This is the blood.

This is the body.

This is the blood.

Father, we come before you and I just thank you so much. Thank you so much for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you that as we take this time to celebrate, we are reminded that the one hope that we have as believers is in the reality of your death and resurrection for us. So, Father, keep us. Ever in mind of that sacrifice. May we rest in the truth of who you are.

In Jesus' name, amen. Let's partake.

And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, be with us as we go into this week. Lord, keep our hearts close to you. Lord, help us to continue to deal with the things that come between us and you so that we can walk on in freedom. Father, we thank you. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.