Hebrews 2:1-4 Jesus - Savior of Man

Well, welcome everyone. We're a minute ahead of time, but I think this is a great time to start. We've been really studying the book of Hebrews, and it's been great. As you've probably gathered, one of the key passages of all of Hebrews, even though there are some neat passages later on, is Hebrews 4.12, which says, The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Divides to the soul and the spirit, joins in the marrow, the discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. And so we're directing this teaching to the heart, to our hearts. And so that's the neat thing about this study. As far as the last verse, the last lesson was on that Jesus is superior to the angels. And today we're going to be talking about the humanity of Jesus Christ himself, and why he's to be exalted. So we're looking forward to a neat study. But really the whole idea of the early chapters in Hebrews is so that we don't drift away from God's word. And we'll be talking about that as we go along, and the ramifications of that. So let's begin with the word of prayer, and we'll be ready to start. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this time together to study your word. And we realize that you are the all in all, and you're superior to not only the angels, but also the prophets and the priests and everything in all creation. So dear Lord, we pray that you'd help us to build upon the truth of Jesus Christ, who says in John 14, 6, that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. So as we study Hebrews, dear Lord, we pray that you'll touch our hearts, and melt our hearts before you, so we will not drift away from you and your word. And pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. David, do you have a few words to share with us? I have. Okay. Just a couple. Okay. Just a couple. Alright. So, as Ron said last week, thank you ma'am, last week we talked about Jesus being superior to angels. Tonight we're going to talk about Jesus the Savior of man. And Ron used that phrase, drift away, and we're actually going to look at the phrase, drift away, out of the Scripture tonight. My first point is, you don't neglect His great salvation. And how do you not neglect it? First of all, you consider who He is. So, a long time ago, there was this preacher, by the name of Shadrach, Meshach, how's it go? Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, no Lockridge, that's his name. Dr. Shadrach, Meshach, Lockridge. And he gave a sermon that I thought would be great for you guys to listen to. I mean, it's not a sermon, it's more of a little seven minute... Well, you'll enjoy it. Let's just do it that way. Alright. Let me see if I can get this up to where we can see it. My king was born king. The Bible says he's a seven week king. I have got it really messed up. He's a king of interest. That's a national king. He's a king of righteousness. He's a king of ages. He's a king of everlasting. He's a king of glory. He's a king of kings. And he is the Lord of Lords. That's my king. Well, I wonder if you know him. Do you know him? Don't try to mislead me. Do you know my king? David said the heavens declare the glory of God. And the Father showed his hand to him. My king is the only one whom there are no means of measure can define his limitless glory. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. There we go. 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And what's interesting is this word, perseco, has a nautical connotation, meaning to moor a ship and tie it up in a harbor. Does anyone in here have experience with sailboats or powerboats? Anyone ever done that before? Everybody? I mean, there's been times in my life where I've been out on a lake with a friend or something and he says, I want you to drive that boat, drive that up on the trailer. I'm going, are you kidding me? No, you drive it up on the trailer. As I'm coming into the trailer, you know, I mean, you've got the waves, the wind, you've got the currents, you've got the, I mean, you know, you don't know which way to turn. I mean, all this type of thing. It's not an easy thing to put a boat where it belongs. And once you put it there, you want to make sure it stays safe. You know, the last thing you want to do is drive it up on that little boat trailer and not take that hook, right, and put the hook in the slot, in the little, the eye, what do they call it, the eye bolt, right, and then take that cinch, right, and that winch and start winching. Yeah, if you don't winch it up, right, you've got a problem. If you don't hook it up, you've got a problem. If you don't latch it, you've got a problem, right? So here's the problem. When it comes to this great salvation that God has provided for us, if we don't give careful attention to it, if we just let it go in one ear and out the other, we've got a problem. That we're drift away, which Ron has been alluding to, and for the life of me, I don't know why you're not, if you're teaching it, because that's what you wanted to be teaching all along. Drift, drift, drift, drift. I've been hearing him say drift, haven't you? That's all he's been talking about is drifting. Well, that word drift is probably the best I can do with it. Something flowing, slipping past, and I have another personal example this week. I didn't ask my wife if it would be okay to share it, but would you like to share from that back you were playing volleyball with some teenage girls at a camp. Yeah, good. Share that story. Well, I was a lot younger and thinner and had a lot more energy. I was playing at a youth camp, playing volleyball with a bunch of kids while we were just getting ready to leave. One girl and I kind of collided, and it's not that my diamond was so ginormous or anything, but it just scratched earlier, so I put it in my pocket, and then we were trying to get our stuff together and it wasn't in my pocket. I was thinking, okay, this is not the end of the world. It's just a thing, but it's mine. The kids saw me looking out in the sand, and a bunch of kids came out, and they were all playing and trying to get to the sand. I couldn't find it, and I thought, where in the world has this gone? When we got back, we had to leave. It was going to be taking too much time to get home and everything. We were getting the last of our stuff together, and one of the girls said, did you look in your bag? I said, no, because I had taken it off out there in the sand and put it in my jeans pocket. She looked in my bag and found it in my backpack. Wow. That was the big thing on the way home was, do you know, I found that and put that in her bag. You know, seventh and eighth and ninth graders, you know, but anyway. Yeah. Is that what you were looking for? Yeah, but what really happened, in all likelihood, is it slipped out of your pocket somehow or another, and it landed somehow or another in her shoe, would be my guess, or somewhere down. I can't remember. Do you have a cuff? I can't remember if you had a cuff on your pants or whatever, shorts. Yeah. Anyway, somehow or another, it slipped, right? So that's the word, slipped off. Slipped off, like a ring slipping off of a finger. Slipping down and getting caught in a difficult place. That's what happened to that ring. Couldn't find it. Carelessly allowing something to slip away. That's got a nautical connotation as well. It's like of a ship being allowed to drift past the harbor. Because the setter forgot to steer the ship properly, or take into account the wind, tides, and current. Or if you're like me, doesn't know how to. It's not that I didn't forget, I just didn't know how to. Right? I love what John MacArthur did was, he said, he used these connotations and translated the verse this way, Therefore, we must the more eagerly secure our lives to the things which we have been taught, lest the ship of life drift past the harbor of salvation and be lost forever. It's a pretty serious warning there, isn't it? Pretty serious encouragement. What's interesting about this, there are two different positions that are taken by various people on who the audience is specifically here. Some of them say this audience that he's addressing specifically in these first four verses is the audience of a member of the First Week. We talked about the three different audiences. The audience that had heard, actually in their mind they thought, sounds reasonable to me, they had yet to actually make a commitment. They had yet to actually embrace it and say, I'm going to make that mine. I'm going to receive Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. They had yet to do that. So they knew the truth, but they had yet to act upon it. That's one viewpoint of who the audience is. The other viewpoint is, the audience is saved. I have a question for you. Since Ron's brought this word up, I'm going to let him address it. Ron, is it possible for those who are saved to drift away? Unfortunately, yes. And what do we mean by that? By drifting? Yeah. Oh, it's just not paying attention to it. Things that you've learned and heard from God and God's people. So we are sort of absent-minded about God's word. And so we forget. And so as a consequence, we tend to drift into the world. Drift into the world. That's what I was looking for. Drift into the world. All of a sudden you find yourself letting the world have influence in what you say, what you do, what you think. I don't. I agree completely with that. But it's also that the devil will attack you, as a Christian, will attack you constantly. And you have to choose to say no. If you say, well, this time, that sounds reasonable. They haven't been fair with me, so I'm going to do this, flag this ticket or whatever. No one will ever know. And I'll get even with what has been done to me. Any time you have something like that in your head, it doesn't agree with what God says that's coming directly from the devil. And what he's trying to do is draw you away with the big thing all at once. What he does is a little bit, he wants you to move away from the center of trusting God for things a little bit at a time. And if he can get you a few steps away, then it will sound more reasonable to get two more steps away. And before you know, you're far away, and you're just going along with everything because it benefits you. You think. So, I mean, as I've gotten older, the thing I will recognize, like just in a day at work, where there's an opportunity for me to flag a ticket in a certain way where I can make more than I should, and nobody knows. The problem is, the Lord knows. And when you step away from him, he'll call you back. I mean, I'll give an example of today. It's just a simple thing. By the way, time out. If you don't know him, he's a mechanic. Works for a dealership. Okay. When you have to take locks off a car, this is an example of the day, and there's no key. You have to use a tool where you pound it on, and you have to get them off so you don't damage the wheel, but you get the locks off. That pays an hour. If you have a key, and you're going to pull four locks off and go get four standard lug nuts and put on them and leave the locks off, it is four-tenths. It's only six-tenths difference. It's not that much. But when I wrote the ticket up originally, I looked through the car. I couldn't find a key. When I wrote the estimate, and this is just in the dealership because I am making the certified cars ready for people to buy used certified cars. And so the devil's talking to me. Well, you look through the car. You can't find the key and so forth and so on. But I went ahead and looked through the car a final time and found it in the truck underneath some stuff. So I got them. So that should be four-tenths. Well, he's telling me, well, you try to get the lock off. You hunt it through. But because I've done some stuff wrong and God has disciplined me, I'm careful. And I recognized immediately that that was coming from the devil, not from God. And so I said, not out loud, but in my mind, I said, no. I found the key. The key's in the car. That's four-tenths. God has taken great care to bless me. I am not going to do what you tell me to do. I'm going to do what's right. And I got it done. And God has provided me good living. I had a great day today. It wasn't worth six-tenths of labor to disobey God and have Him discipline me like He did when I was a young kid. We know that story. You'll get to hear that story another time. I don't want to go there. But even when I came home and I told Susan, it's God loving us so much that He will discipline us harshly if necessary. I had a harsh lesson. He drew me back to Him. And there is a line that I will not cross because I don't want to go to that woodshed again. That's like not holding on to the Lord. That's drifting. All right, so back to the two different positions. Those who are saved, they must give close attention to what God says and dutifully obey it. They must not be careless in their daily devotions. See, I didn't get there, but if I'd asked you, how do you keep from doing that, Noel? You do it by your daily discipline of walking with Him. Right? The daily discipline. If you start drifting on your daily disciplines, guess what? You get way, way before you even know it. Oh, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. So, they'll gradually drift away from the blessings of having a God-centered life and close fellowship with Him. Anybody in here want to testify to the blessings you've experienced because you've got a God-centered life and you walk with Him? Oh, come on now. Ed, come on. Isn't it a blessing? Yeah. I really enjoy the peace of knowing who I am in Christ. Yeah. Yeah, the big word, the P word, well, not the ugly P word, the good P word. Peace. Peace. What's another blessing? Yeah. From the very beginning of when I was doing my training in orthopedics, God showed me that whether to take a job at the Denver Broncos and be a team doctor or to come back to Texas to, I'm not sure exactly what, but there was a church here and there wasn't a church up there. So, God threw a wonderful, wonderful experience in showing us that Matthew 6.33 really does work. Yeah. That's Joyce's favorite passage, by the way. Yeah, mine too. Yeah. And when we were living in disobedience in our early marriage, our marriage was in trouble. Our marriage was in constant trouble for the first several years. Even though we were in church, we were Christians, we just were neglecting spending time with the Lord. You drifted. And so when we got right with God, our marriage was saved. Yeah. And we had four children because of that. There you go. Because there was a point before the children had come that we were very seriously planning to not stay together. God's good. All the time. Yeah. So there's a blessing that, I don't know how to say this, there's just a joy, isn't there? There's just a joy of walking with God. Just a joy. Watching Him come through. I mean, time after time after time. Experiencing His grace when you least expect it. There's all sorts of things I can explain about how we get blessed, right? And so, why do you want to drift away? I mean, why would you want to? Yet, we can do it so easily. You have to maintain that daily discipline. Now, on the other hand, if this is addressing those who've heard the gospel but have yet to receive it and allow it to change their lives, then they must decide to believe it, receive it, and allow it to change their lives, or they'll drift past that harbor of salvation and be lost forever. They can be lost forever, but God can save them. He can still save. God can save. He can still save. I'm not saying He can't. He still can. But you can drift far, far away. It's very difficult. If you know my story, part of my story is one that a boss I had in my 20s. And there came a point in time when I said to him, he was basically saying, you know, I think your time here is over. And I'm saying, well, you know what? If you want me to be that kind of a manager I can't be. That's not me. So, you know, it's time for us to part ways. I just, you know, I'm good. He says, well, I'm worried about you. I said, don't worry about me. I said, my God's already got this covered. I said, it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm here because I'm supposed to be. But if I'm not supposed to be, then I'm going to move on, God's going to put me where He wants me. He is going to provide for my needs. I'm not in the least bit worried about it. Don't worry about it. It's going to be fine for me. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, I wish I could be like you. I said, you can. That's what I said. I said, you can. And in the saddest words I've heard in my whole life, no, I can't. I've already made my decision. I'm real. He had cousins that were gospel singing quartet. He'd heard the gospels his whole life. And he had decided against it. I tell you what, those that don't embrace it and receive it, it becomes much more difficult on down the road, Susan. I'm not saying they can't be saved, but it becomes much more difficult. So, question. Back to staying in that position of blessing. What am I doing on a regular basis to maintain a God-centered life and close fellowship with Him? Ask yourself that when you look yourself in the mirror in the morning or the night before you go to bed. What am I doing to make sure I maintain a God-centered life and close fellowship with Him? So, first of all, don't neglect His great salvation and consider who He is. And secondly, consider the reality of judgment. Consider the reality of judgment. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That word if in this context means a fulfilled condition. In other words, it could be translated sins in view of the fact. So, if we do it that way, in view of the fact that the word spoken through angels proved unalterable. So, word spoken through angels refers to the Old Testament Law and the Ten Commandments. And I thought that's interesting. We talked about that last week. And I thought, well, let's explore that this week and see if we can get to the bottom of this, because I think it's very interesting. Let's go to Psalm 68-17. Somebody can look it up. Yeah, I provided it. Top of the page there. Psalm 68-17. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness. What happened at Sinai? You have to understand what happened at Sinai to understand that verse. What happened at Sinai? Moses received the Law. He received the Ten Commandments and the Law. And so, what this is saying is that the angels were there when the Law was being given. Let's look at another verse. Deuteronomy 33-2. This is Moses talking now. He said, The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones. At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them. Again, this is Moses. He refers to Sinai and refers to the angels. Myriads of His holy ones. So, interesting, isn't it? I never really looked at this before. I thought, man, this is interesting. So, the Word spoke through angels. First, the Old Testament Law and Ten Commandments. If you look at Acts 7-38, I didn't provide that, but if you go look at that, Stephen actually talks about that as he's giving his sermon. Remember what his sermon is about? What's the end result of Stephen's sermon? Stoning! Woo! Wow! Anyone want to sign up? Y'all don't have stones with you tonight. I want to make sure there's no stones in there. I mean, seriously. This guy is a hero to me. Now, Stephen, if you'll read what it says, it's Stephen full of what? Full of the Holy Spirit. He was totally empowered by the Spirit of the Living God as he is preaching this sermon. And in the middle of this sermon, he says, and I pulled this out of context a little bit, Stephen mentions there was at least one angel who spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai and was involved in Moses receiving the living oracles. If somebody would actually look that up, you can read the verse. Go ahead. This is the one who was in the congregation of the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. Alright. Again, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, under the Spirit's control, preaching a sermon that results in his death. This is what he says. And one more place in that sermon he says something else. In 753, if somebody has that. You who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it. You who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it. He actually specifically says they were basically the mediator through which God provided the law to Moses. Interesting, isn't it? So, why would the author be putting that in here? Again, we're looking at the author writing a letter to a bunch of Jews who have as their context a history of a belief in angels and what angels did or didn't do, right? And so, he's bringing this back up to say, look, remember the angels we talked about last week? Remember how he said that Jesus is superior to the angels? Well, guess what? The angels were just messengers. And what they were doing was they were playing the messenger and providing a vehicle through which God provided the law. So, what's interesting though is this law, alright? It was pretty strict. I asked the question, what happened when the law was broken such as adultery, the worship of false gods, or blasphemy? What happened? Anybody remember? Ed's shaking his head, he knows. Somebody else, who knows? Oh, oh, oh! Say it! Oh, gold star, Joyce! Gold star! Stoning! Stoning! Yeah, the reason Stephen was stoned is because they saw him as being blasphemous. He wasn't being blasphemous, that's what they thought he was being. That's the reason he was stoned. So, if you broke the law, it broke you. The word transgression, it says every transgression and disobedience, that word transgression means to step across the line. That is a willful act. We've got a little granddaughter. I love her. We've got a story that Terry needs to tell about our granddaughter. Something about a blister on her finger. She's getting ready to be five and she's our little chili pepper. She adds a lot of spice to our fingers. I was in there playing with her and she said, Green, did you see my finger? She's a little drama queen, too. And I said, Oh, Bennett, I'm so sorry, what happened? And she said, My blister. I said, Well, how did that happen? And she said, My mommy said, Bennett, don't touch that, it's hot. And she said, I touched it. And I said, Well, mom and dad tell you no, don't do that, because they want to keep you safe. I know it, I just forgot it. Right. That's what you call transgressing. That's where you willfully step across the line. That shows our sinful nature. Oh, doesn't it? Oh, doesn't it? They didn't conjure, she didn't conjure that up. It's as natural as it can be. Separated from God. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. It's cute. You would look at it and think it's cute, but it's not, is it? Really? But we think it's cute. It's cute. Yeah. I touched it. She's honest. She was honest about that part. Yeah, I mean, I guess Eve was honest when she said I ate of it, you know. That's a penalty she paid. Yeah. She got a blister. Yeah. She paid the penalty, that's right, she got the blister. So that word transgress is to step across the line. It's a willful act. The word disobedience refers to the idea of deliberately refusing to listen to the commands, warning, and imitations of God. That's a sin of neglect or omission. It's doing nothing when something should be done. You've heard those before, right? Sins of omission and sins of commission, right? What do they have in common? They're both sins. They're both sins. So, the one's active, the other's passive. But both are willful and serious. I thought we'd see how serious God takes these things. Look at Leviticus 24, 14-16. Claire? Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head. Then let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sins. Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The one who blasphemes the name shall be put to death. Pretty serious, isn't it? If it was that way today, there wouldn't be very many people around, would there? Again, God takes these things very seriously. Numbers 15, 30-36 gives us another story, which I've always found interesting. Bill, you want to read that? The person who does anything defiling, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be completely cut off. His guilt will be on him. Now, while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation, and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Which law had he broken? Do you remember? Sounds like working on the Sabbath. Correct. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labor, seventh day you shall rest. So he... I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I'm going to share with you. The Orthodox Jews, the ones that have the long curls and the boxes on there and all that stuff, right? Okay. They are so concerned about what they do on the Sabbath, right? To them, flipping a switch to turn on a light is working. They will not flip on a switch to turn on a light on the Sabbath. Now, God didn't say that. He just said remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall... Later on, remember Jesus comes in and so there's this big debate that goes on when Jesus is around. Ed's shaking his head. He knows where I'm going with this, right? Where am I going with this, Ed? He walks into the... Right, he's in the synagogue and it could be the woman that was hunched over or the man that had the withered hand, right? Susan knows where I'm going. The man with the withered hand and they were testing him to see if he would heal on the Sabbath or not. And Jesus looked around and said, is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? And they would not answer him. And so he said, stretch forth your hand and it was healed. And immediately they began to plot against him. Yeah, because what was he doing? He was breaking the rules of man. That wasn't what the Sabbath was about. He said, as a matter of fact, later on he says what? He says the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Right, and Sabbath wasn't created... Man was not created from the Sabbath. Man was not created from the Sabbath. The Sabbath was created from man, right? So when you think about it, it's not so much what you do, right? It's what you're not doing. In the case of the man picking up the sticks, he was not focusing on God and relying on God to provide for his needs. Correct? It sounds like he knew. Oh, he knew. Everybody knew the law. It had been handed down. It had been recited. Everybody knew the law. He knew better, but he chose to do what he wanted to do. Right, right. So, to me, the indication also is in there, or the implication, should I say, is possibly in there. I'll put it that way. The implication is possibly in there. That his purpose in picking up sticks wasn't just to build a fire for himself. It's quite possible he's picking up sticks because he was going to sell them or something like that, too. You know, it's possible. Nevertheless, God saw his heart, knew what his heart was, and says, this has got to be punished. And I want to punish it in such a way that people understand I'm dead serious about this. I cannot allow this precedent to take place. And so he did. He punished it. That's how serious God takes sin. The word just refers to God's nature. Here's what's interesting. He is always just and can never be unjust. So I ask the question, which transgressions and disobedience received a just penalty? Of all the ones... Every. Every. Right. That's the answer. Go start. Every sin was punished with a just punishment. And that's still true today. And Noah got spanked. He'll tell you the story sometime how he got spanked. I can tell you how I got spanked one time. I mean, God took me to the woodshed one time and taught me a lesson. No! And by the way, I haven't ever done that again. You know? Mine had to do with tithing. We'd gotten in a pickle. I'm self-employed. I don't know where the next check's coming from. Yet I'd received commission and I knew I needed to tithe it. I didn't. Whoops. Whoops. So I get sick. You know, if you're self-employed and you get sick, what can you not do very well? Work. You can't work. If you don't work, what do you not do? You don't get paid. I had to go to the doctor on top of that and pay a doctor. Snowballs. Snowballs. He says, you know, I had a really bad case of strep throat. I mean, it was just horrible. He says, you've got to go home and rest. I didn't. I did. I went home and rested. That was on a Monday. On Tuesday, about 10 o'clock in the morning, I get up and I'm going, man, I'm tired of laying in this bed. I turn on the TV and I sit down in the chair. And up comes a TV program by a preacher over in Dallas named Tony Evans. And lo and behold, he's preaching out of Malachi chapter 3. Imagine that. And what does he say in Malachi 3, Ed? They're tired. Don't rob God. And he says, shall a man rob God? Oh, right then and there, the Spirit of God goes, that's you, boy. I mean, it's like Nathan's finger sticking into David's chest, right? That's you. You maybe got sick so that you would hear that message. Oh, I guarantee you. I guarantee you God was in that all the way. Guarantee it. That's right. I look back on it that way. That's for sure. But I'm telling you, I got up and said, okay. I grabbed a checkbook. I wrote a check. I said, I have no clue how you're going to cover this. I don't. But I'm writing a check and I'm trusting you're going to cover it. And he did. He did. Lesson learned. Right? Whom he loves he chases. Every sin is serious. Every one of them. I say all the time, every sin has a consequence. Not all consequences are the same. Some are worse than others. But every sin has a consequence. I will say, David, though, it's awesome. Have you gone through something like that? Because you know without a shadow of a doubt that you're his child. Oh, yeah. I mean, we raised four children. And they had friends sometimes that would come around that were terribly undisciplined. But you know what? As long as they follow the rules in my house, it was not my job to raise them or discipline them. But when my kids said, well, so-and-so could do so-and-so, and I say, they're not my children. You are. You will do. You will be obedient because this is the right thing to do. And it's a good thing when you go through something. You know for a fact that you're God's child. And He loves you enough that He would discipline and embarrass you and shake you and put you on your face so that you will learn a lesson and be obedient, not get in that kind of... Yeah. It's worth it. Yeah. It's just hard. The best thing is not drift. Yes. Right? The best thing is not neglect. Consider the reality of judgment. What's the ultimate penalty for rejecting, disobeying, and defying God and the salvation He's provided? Eternal hell. Let's look at Matthew 25, verse 41. Who's not read yet? Chris? Then He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his enemies. Wow. And then Mark 9, 43 and 44. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It's better for you to enter a life crippled than having your two hands. It's better for you to enter a life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where the worm does not die and where the fire does not burn. I tell you what, hell, I don't care what they say. What God says about hell gets my attention. It's what He says. This was Jesus Himself, God Himself, telling you what hell is. I mean, it's plain as day. So, that's what's in store for those who neglect so great a salvation. Consider who He is. Consider the reality of judgment. Finally, consider the way it was confirmed. After it was first spoken to the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. So, Jesus preached the gospel. He confirmed His identity. And the truth of His message, by what? Look at John 10, 22-38. A long passage he wants to read out. Caleb, you haven't read tonight. I know I haven't got Revelation here, but you haven't read it. As I saw it, the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him and were saying to Him, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, these testify of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning me? The Jews answered Him, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. Jesus answered them, Has it not been written in your law? I said, You are gods. If you call them gods, to whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken. If you say of them, Whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming. Because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am the Father. Wow, right? Wow. Jesus preached the Gospel, confirmed His identity, and the truth of His message by His works. By His works. I did not put the passages in here, but you all remember Jesus towards the end of His walk on the earth here. He started saying, Woe, to different things. Right? He said, Woe to you, Woe to Chorazin. Right? Woe to Bethsaida. Woe to Capernaum. Why? Because of the works that were done in Tyre and Sidon, and the same works done here, if they were done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would still be standing. They would have repented. They would still be standing. Woe to you. You have seen all these works, yet you have not responded. Wow. So, the Apostles preached the Gospel, and God confirmed the truth of their message by giving them the ability to do the same works that Jesus had done. What are some examples of those works that the Apostles did that confirmed that what they were saying was of God? Healed. Healed. Give me an example real quick. Healed. I can think of one real quick in Acts chapter 4. It was Peter and John or James walking into the temple. Remember what happened? There is a guy that is lame from birth. Silver and gold have I none. But in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. Wow. If that does not get your attention, what will? Right? What is another one? Peter also prayed for Tabitha, and she was resurrected from the dead. Oh, raised from the dead. Gold star, Susan. Gold star. God, you have two. Yeah. Yeah, there is another guy that raised somebody from the dead. Do you remember who that was? He was long-winded like me. He was getting late at night. Paul. Paul. What happened? You want another gold star, don't you? Jesus kissed her or whatever his name was, fell out of the window while he was listening to Paul preach. He fell asleep. He fell asleep. Then he fell out of the window. Paul went down and... And revived him. Yeah. Yeah, raised the dead, healed. What else did they do? All the stone, and then all of a sudden he got up and left town. He got up from being... They thought he was dead, and he wasn't. He just got right up. Something else Paul did, right? Snake. Snake and a viper, right, on the Isle of Maltha, wasn't it? I think it was. I bit him right in the hand. Everybody thought he was about to swell up and die. No. Didn't faze him. Then they started calling him Zeus and whoever was with him. I can't remember if it was Titus or whoever it was. Hermes. Hermes, right. Who was it? I think it was Barnabas. Barnabas. Was Barnabas on that one? Okay. Anyway, you get the point. There was miracles of all sorts being done to confirm the authority and the validity of the truth of the gospel being preached by God's apostles. God also confirmed the truth of the gospel message delivered by the apostles by giving them gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. These were miraculous gifts that only the apostles were given. Refer to Acts 14.3. Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying in the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. Wow. Okay. Romans 15.19. It is the power of signs and wonders and the power of the Spirit so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as the Lyrican gospel of Christ. Good. And one more. 2 Corinthians 12.12. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. Alright, so these signs, again, these miracles, these wonders, were apostolic in nature. In other words, it was the original apostles that were given these gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the purpose of that was to validate the message that they preached and to launch the church. Alright. We don't need those signs today. They don't exist today in the same way. So, reflection. Here's the one that's hard for me. Do I see my sin the way God sees it? Is there an attitude of remorse, repentance, contrition, and humiliation within me when the Spirit of God confronts me with my sin? What am I doing on a regular basis to maintain a life that's pure, clean, and right in God's eyes? That's how... If you start asking yourself these questions and you start evaluating yourself, then you're going to see I need to improve here, I need to improve here, I need to improve here. If you're honest with yourself, right? There's always going to be a place where you can say, you know what? I can do better than that. And by the grace of God, you can. And you need to. So that you don't drift. You don't neglect. And you live for Him and point others to Him. Right? Do you think I'm going to add anything to that? Because this is a fun part of the discussion. Now, because we realize that what we would like to do from this final few minutes is to do some self-examination. You know, the issue of Hebrews, particularly in Hebrews 1 and 2, that Jesus is a spirit of angels. Now we realize the humanity of Christ Jesus. Now we're talking about sin. Now, could Jesus sin? Did you say could or did? Well, could and did. Did Jesus and could He sin? Was Jesus tempted? Yes. So we all agree that Jesus was tempted. Now, did He have the capacity to sin? Did He have the opportunity to sin? Yes. Yes, He did. Now, just as we have the opportunity to sin. Now, do we sin? And everybody says yes. Well, you're looking at the chief of sinners right here. And Joyce will attest to that. But you know, that's the good thing about life, isn't it? Is there a sin that Jesus cannot or God cannot forgive? Absolutely not. A plus to infinity right there. You're all going to get A pluses on this part, okay? Because, you know, we can be really honest with ourselves because we realize that all of us, you know, have a problem because we're human and we all sin. Now, Jesus was human, okay? Because, you know, He came from heaven. But He became man. But He was the unique hypostatic union between God and man, you know? Now, how did that happen? This is way out of our ability to understand. But the point is we want to understand the fact that God is a God of relationship. So He wants to reestablish us so that we will continually walk with Him and not drift. Now, there is a passage in 1 John. And all of you are familiar with this, right? Because we've all used it at some place in time because we were all guilty. Exactly. A plus to infinity and beyond. Because the only way you can go beyond where we are today is to take advantage of that gift of forgiveness that we get from 1 John 1. Would you state that for us? I keep forgetting how that goes. It says, if we confess. Is it confess? If we confess our sin. He is faithful. He is just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh, okay. So it's all about Him and us being willing to confess. The word is homo legeo. And homo legeo means homo meaning the same. And logos meaning the same word. So if we agree with God and His word, then we start the whole process of establishing reconciliation. So now remember, we have this process that we're talking about. And this is the process of discipleship. Remember, it's called SOAPS. And SOAPS is Scripture First. O is the objective looking at God's word. So that means what does it say? What does it mean? The A is the application of God's word in our heart. The P is to pray. And that's the confession part. And then the S is to share. So all of us here in this room are going to be mentors of our children, whether we tell them not to touch hot objects, of grandchildren, of our friends. Because we could be mentoring even people that don't know they're being mentored. By taking them and inviting them into our home and showing them that we can love them in spite of who they do and what they think and what they do. Because it's the idea of sharing to people that are not very lovable. Okay. Now, some of our friends are not very lovable. But they're our friends, right? Some of them are relatives. And so now we realize that now we have a challenge in life because Jesus says in the Upper Room, John 13, 34, he says a new commandment that I give you, that you love who? One another even as I have loved you. And what did he just do? What did he do? He washed the feet of his disciples, even the one that was going to deny him three times and the one that he knew was going to betray him. Right? Knowing that, he still washed their feet. Now, this means that we can love even our enemies and be willing to wash their feet. Now, the question comes. Now, this is the hard question. Would we be willing to do that? You know, because there are some enemies out there that want us and want to take us out. Okay. They want to ruin our reputation. They would like us to be dead, in other words. Okay. So, okay, tell me how you handle that because that's going to happen this very day. Someone's going to cut you off on the street here or try to run you over. So, how do you handle people like that? What do you do? Something I've been working on, especially in those types of situations, is that I forgive easily because I tell myself that had that person not have done that, there would have been something that would have put me in a path that would have caused me harm. So, God let that happen to keep me from having harm. So, I look at whatever the bad thing is and try to spin it in my head that God was protecting me. I caught that red light because if I hadn't caught that red light, I was going to get hit in a car accident down the road. So, sometimes even the bad things in life are there for a reason. A plus to infinity and beyond because forgiveness doesn't come from us, right? Right. Where does forgiveness come? A plus to infinity and beyond. See, all of you are now cycling into what is happening because what's happening in this world is all about us in the world and us in the world but not of the world. Remember, to be of the world is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, now we see 1 John 2, 15 and 16 are really important because now we realize that the way that we can be in the world but not of the world is to take God's word like David so well said, seriously. Because the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides to the soul and the spirit joints and the marrow. It's a discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. A plus to infinity and beyond. See, that's where God says the action is. In our heart, what do we do? How do we handle the issues of life? And the issues of life are such that Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy us. And he's come close, hasn't he? In many ways. Satan doesn't fight fair. He fights in the spiritual realm and he sticks his demons on us. Just like C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters says. And they have all the tools. And they know what our weaknesses are. And they're going to attack us right where we are vulnerable. And are we vulnerable? So you can smile because they know all the tricks of the trade. So they know where our vulnerabilities and weaknesses are. And all of it, it comes down to pride, doesn't it? Because it's all about me. See, Judges 21-25 says, In those days, there was no God. There was no king. So they did what was right in their own eyes. So we see a world full of spiritual apostasy. A world full of moral awfulness. A world full of political anarchy. So where are we in the United States today? We're in deep trouble. Because we've become an anarchistic nation. Because of spiritual apostasy. Now, we who are Christians in a spiritual apostate world, how do we handle that? Now, they say to us as Christians, You can't do this, that, or the other thing. As a physician at UT Southwestern, Dr. Yam, we like you here, but we don't want you to talk anything about prayer. We don't want you to do anything about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the clinic or in surgery. So what would you help me to do? Suggest some things that I could do to get out of that rat hole. Consider whether it is right for me to obey men rather than God. Like Peter and John said to the Jewish council that called them in and said, You are not going to speak anymore in the name of this Jesus. And they said whether it's right to obey you rather than God, you decide. For we cannot help but speak what we have heard. Amen. Amen. A plus infinity. But remember, Stephen did that. He got stoned. He got to go to heaven young. Yes, yes. Now, that's an advantage. But I would like to stay around to take a few people with me. So one of the thoughts that we can have is the fact that, right, if that's the rule in your work setting, and it's not proper for you to do that, we do need to honor our people that hire us. But the thing is that we have the opportunity to ask questions. And one of the questions I can ask and you can ask is, May I pray with you? As soon as they say yes, it's politically correct to do that. You see? So one of the ways that we can do this is to practically practice asking questions to ask permission. And then the other thing is, at the end of an interview for a patient of mine, I asked, well, if you come to a place in your life, if you die today that you know for sure you're going to heaven, is that something you're still working on? Okay, now they can answer, well, I'm still working on that. So then I can say, well, may I ask you, may I give you a few suggestions? So as soon as they say yes, then you see you have permission. So now we realize that now, once you've given permission, then you can speak. See? So that's another way of handling that. That's how I handle it in the medicine, by asking permission and asking questions. Because as a physician, if I just told you, and you had a cancer, and I said, now you need to take care of that cancer, and I need to cut it out right now, okay? I can do what we call medical abuse and assault. I can assault you with the truth of what you have. But if I don't give you your options, that's not, that's medical assault. And that's not right. In other words, I need to be sure that you understand what your problem is and the staging of what it is. Let's say it's cancer, to stage it, to make sure that you know what your alternatives are. And you can say, I don't want it to be treated, okay? Because it may be stage four cancer, it's metastasized and everything like this. And so, you know, why don't you leave me alone, doctor, and let me go in peace, you know, type of thing. See, now that's one of the options that they have. But on the other hand, this type of cancer has 90% cure rate if we do thus and such, because of thus and such. Because now we have certain types of treatment that we can target the cancer cells, and by targeting the cancer cells, we can give you chemotherapy that will go right to that target cell and kill that cell and not your normal body cells. How about that? Do you like that idea? And, of course, they'll say, yes, doctor, yeah. You know, let's try that. You see, now, this is what we call informed consent. Now, the thing that we have the privilege of doing is we have the privilege of giving informed consent in regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So now we get to do something very special, because now we do know that Jesus cannot sin, right? Even though he could sin, he has the opportunity to sin, but he doesn't sin. Now, we have the opportunity to sin, but we can take the opportunity and actually sin. And when we do so, it's done, like David said so well, it's something that we can do volitionally. When we do volitional sin now, we fall into some problems, and that's a problem of the heart. And the only way that we can stay out of that and out of that rat hole is to say, okay, God, you tell us in your word which is important. So please tell us how do we handle your word. And like in 2 Timothy 3.16, All scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the men and women of God do what? Be equipped to do good work. A plus to infinity and beyond. How come you get all these A pluses? Well, you get the gold stars. Well, nobody else will answer the question. I don't know. Okay. All right. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, all of you are tracking. All of you are tracking. And the thing is, is that it's important for us now in our latter discussions and classes that I'm not going to target you, but I would like you to give your opinions about certain things. Because some of the things that we're going to talk about are right here today. Right? When we walk out that door, we're going to be targeted. Okay? Targeted by evil people that want to take Christians out and not want us to have a say in this world. It's a very dark world. And, of course, politically speaking, it's an issue of power. It's an issue of pride. And so, you know, C.S. Lewis in his book, he says if you remove the comparison and you remove the competition, you remove the pride. So now we realize that if we start to judge people and we start to compare ourselves with other people, even in our church, then what happens is that breeds pride. And pride causes a lot of problems, as you well know. Because pride comes before the fall. But now we want to finish with thinking about another word that's just the opposite of pride. And we want someone in the back row to talk about this one. Okay? What's the word that you know, that you know it diffuses pride in your life? What's that word? It starts with an H. Okay. That's right. Okay. Because now we realize that now, the only way that we can handle life as it is, is God says in Proverbs, I'm a Proverbs guy, Proverbs 3.34, he says, God mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble. See? Now you realize that now what humility does, it opens up the front gates of grace. And Tom's favorite verse is, for by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast, because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. So humility opens up the front gates of God's grace. And so now in 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter's the guy that is the first to say something and put his foot in the mouth, right? I get into that problem myself. So I can identify with Peter a lot. But you see, he says this, he repeats Proverbs 3.34, God mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble. So 1 Peter 5.6, he says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may lift you up in due time, casting all your care upon him, because he cares for us. But be alert, be diligent, be sober minded, just like David's teaching here today. Be sober minded, because the devil is crawling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The devil's after us, and he has lots of minions out there to help take us out. But then in verse 8 he says, but resist him. Stand firm in your faith in Jesus Christ, because this is the struggle that all believers have, that it is the worst of the world. And he says now in verse 10, he says, but God, but God, but the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory, that after we have suffered a while, he will restore us, and complete and perfect us, and make us firm, strong, and fast in him. Jesus is superior to everything. And so now what? Now we realize that by humbling ourselves under God's hand, we have Jesus Christ in our heart. Like Romans 10, 9 and 10 says, if you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and confess with your mouth that he's raised from the dead, you'll be saved. Because it's your heart that you believe, and are made right and perfect with God, it's your mouth you confess, and you're saved. So, closing thought. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 10. He says, now that you're saved, you have all the resources by which to not only survive in life, but to thrive in life. So he says, and I want you to think about this this week. Therefore be diligent to add to your faith virtue, which is the courage to excel, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, phileo love, and to phileo agape. For if you do these things in increasing measure, your life will be neither unfruitful nor unproductive in the Lord. So now we realize that Peter is giving us the words to keep us from drifting. The words not only to survive in this world full of evil, but to thrive in it. So now, we'll talk about that next week. David has some really good things to teach you. So let me close in prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this time to just reflect upon your goodness and grace. We thank you that you are God who has given us Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who is superior to everything and anything. Not only prophets, but angels, and priests, and even the high priest of Melchizedek. We pray that you would help us to live a life with you so that we can realize that the only thing that we can realize is that we can live for the fact that we can live in your glory. So help us to remember that the only thing that counts in life is faith in you expressing itself through love like you tell us in Galatians 5-6. So dear Lord, help us this day and every day to speak your truth and love to everyone we meet, greet, and serve because the secret mystery of life is Christ in us, the hope of glory. So help us to continue to proclaim you, teaching and admonishing everyone with all wisdom so that we would be able to present everyone that we meet, greet, and serve to be perfect and complete in Christ Jesus. We pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Thank you so much for coming and joining us. Y'all get A pluses. Divinity. And now beyond. The best is yet to come.