Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Let Us Draw Near Pt.2

Let's turn to Matthew 10. I want to take the next couple of sessions and address where we are as a fellowship based upon what Father has been doing in our midst--a purging process that has been taking place, a shaking in our midst--and how we, then, are to respond to those that have been shaken out of our midst. That is very important, to relate biblically so that what God is doing in their lives cannot be interfered with by our natural love, our natural compassion, our natural relationships. Let's first of all remember that what is happening in our midst is of God. Nothing is by chance. God is ordering. Whatever it is that you're experiencing in your family right now, God is the author of that, ultimately. Regardless of what it is--the good times, the trials, whatever it might be--God is the source, and His purpose is for His own eternal glory. We're not going to talk about sovereignty at this particular time, but remember what the source is. Your steps are ordered by the Lord. Do you believe that? If you don't, then you're in trouble. If you believe that you're subject to fate, if you believe that somehow like everybody else you're going to stumble through life and that your course is not ordered, then you don't believe that Jesus is raised from the dead, and we of all men are most miserable. You might as well go out, eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow you die. If we're a people that believe in the sovereignty of God, the lordship of Jesus, a people whose steps are ordered by the Lord, a people whose lives mean something, that are being conformed for the glory of God, then everything that is happening for us is for an eternal value of good toward God. I didn't even say it would make you feel good. I didn't say you would have the fuzzies when it was all over. I said, "Good toward [say it] God." Isn't that what we're living for?

As this shaking is going on in our midst, we tried to relate to the fact that you as parents (if it is our children), or as a spouse, we can't take the total responsibility for anything that is happening in our lives that doesn't involve specifically ourselves. We saw that bad kids can come from good homes and good kids can come from bad homes. Now, we contribute; we have responsibility. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself (Romans 14:7). We have influence on those that are around us, but here is the real issue. If you're old enough to be sitting in this room, you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because, "even a child is known by his [say it] doings" (Proverbs 20:11). Every man is going to give an answer of his life, what he has done, even every idle word, whether it be good or whether it be evil. We understand that ultimately every one of us is independently, specifically responsible for the course of our lives and how we relate to one another.

As we look at these things in this last day, the thing that I want to address over the next couple of sessions is I believe as a people--not only us here in Calvary Temple, but especially the church, the visible church, and even probably the true church--that we've come to a place where we have really minimized backsliding. I want to take a look over these next few sessions as to how God sees the backslider, how we're to see them, and how the backslider sees God. That is vitally important because many of us are getting into the place of getting ourselves in trouble when we think that somehow those who have backslidden "still have a heart for God; they've just been overcome in their flesh." Let's let the Word of God speak for itself. Let's let the Lord establish His own glory.

Some of us here have thought, "Well, my children [or a spouse or somebody] have backslidden. They have just chosen not to serve the Lord. I'm just going to relate to them like we always have." There has been the misapplication of "pleased to dwell" toward backslidden individuals. We shared with you in a panel a few sessions back that "pleased to dwell" has nothing to do with backsliders. How many times do I need to say that this morning to make sure that we grasp that?

When you read the Corinthians epistle, "pleased to dwell" speaks to this situation: two people who are not saved are married. They are pagans. See them however you want, bones in their noses, bowing down to wooden or stone idols, whatever it is, whatever it takes to imagine a pagan in your mind. Here on the East Coast, you could see a guy on a motorcycle--that's for you old-timers that lived up in Maryland, Hells Angels out in California. How many of you remember the Pagan motorcycle gangs? Some of you remember them from around here. They are the East Coast type. Whatever it takes for you to imagine a pagan, there it is: pagans that are married. Then one of them stumbles into Calvary Temple in Sterling and gets the bone taken out of their nose. They get born again. The question was, "Now that I'm born again, do I go home to this particular individual? Are our physical relations going to be displeasing to God because my body is now the temple of the Holy Ghost and I'm joining it to this person who is a pagan? Is this somehow going to defile God? How do I relate this person now, domestically, physically, emotionally?" Paul says, "Your new life and Jesus' lordship will dominate the course of your life, your thoughts, your actions, etc. You are no longer your own, you're bought with a price."

The epistle of Peter gives us some insight and different things in this domestic relationship, but basically now he says, "What I want you to do is win them with your chaste conversation. You're going to seek the kingdom of God first. If the pagan still wants to remain with you--and you're no longer going to run to the bar with them or to the orgies, or wherever they're headed. You're no longer going to worship their idols. They know that you're going to worship the true and living God and that He is first in your life, and they still want to stay with you, then let them stay but let them know there will be no compromise." "Jesus is first in my life, and I will keep the Word of God at all times. I'll submit to you the best I can domestically. [I'm talking about a wife now in this situation.] I'll cook your meals and iron your clothes, but I will not worship your god. I will not defile the temple of the Holy Ghost." If they want to remain, let them remain. That is "pleased to dwell." If they say, "Forget you, Jack," then let them go. You are no longer in bondage. If they want to remain, the children that may be in that house are to follow the rules of the saved individual. They are sanctified by the faith of the believing party. Now you see, the Bible tells us who the children belong to. The State doesn't say that. The State says they belong to the mother regardless. Historically, they belonged to the father. Biblically, they belong to whom? God and the believer. Now, that is how we relate. It's very simple. You see, the lines are clear from biblical order. None of that has to do with people who have backslidden. There is nothing in there about a backslider. The person who is pleased to dwell or the person who is pleased to depart was the pagan. He never knew Jesus, never was enlightened, never knew the truth, never departed from the faith, so you can't apply the sample principle.

In Matthew, let's look at what the Scripture says concerning flesh and blood. That's primarily what we want to talk about in these next sessions. Frankly, we have numerous families in here right now that are going through this thing. Hopefully, we're going to answer all of the questions that I've spent probably just in the last couple of weeks--I can't tell you the hours in our deacons' meeting that we've spent talking about just a handful of families. We're trying to relate this situation, and the deacons have gone and talked to individuals and come back and say, "They're not getting it." Let's see if we can get it. Let's see what we can do to help you out. Let me say first of all that I understand that we're dealing with a very sensitive area. In no way--in no way--are we conveying that what we do is to be done with a callous attitude. In no way are we trying to say that what the Word of God requires of us is emotionally easy to do. All we're saying is that you have one of two choices: you're going to obey the Word or you're not. To obey it is going to require you dying to yourself, crucifying your flesh. It is vitally important for us to understand this.

Let's look at the basic, overall comments about family, first of all, natural relationships coming into the kingdom of God, and especially coming into this hour that you and I are living in. In Matthew, chapter 10, are the classics. Every one of us here is aware of this, but I just want you to grab hold of it to refresh yourselves as we go into the study. In chapter 10 of Matthew, verse 20, He talks about what to do when the system rises up against you in these last days and hates you and is going to persecute you and arrest you, this apostate religious system that is one with the government.

Beloved, you're going to be hated for Jesus' sake. You're going to be hated if you do the Word. People that are leaving here find out how hated we are as a people. If you leave here, within one day your phone is going to ring. There is a people out there that are ready to take you in who have come out from among us. They are actively seeking and soliciting. My understanding is that they even meet regularly to pray for you for your deliverance. These are a group of people that if they could kill me and get away with it, they would do it in a heartbeat. That is how much malice is in their hearts, how hateful these people are. They would do it in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it. I'm talking about getting away with it in the secular, because they "know they're on God's side."

Jesus is speaking toward that in this tenth chapter. He says, "The time's going to come when you're going to be taken in by the government [or, in this case, by the Pharisees, the religious hierarchy, taken before the Sanhedrin] and don't worry about what you're going to say." "Ye shall be brought before [them] for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles" (verse 18). What I'm trying to do here, to help you understand is, I'm trying to show you where the fight is. The fight is not between myself and a group of people that don't like me. The fight is not between you and your children or you and a spouse. The fight is between truth and lie, light and darkness, God and Satan. Let's understand what the battle is, then it will help you out--not emotionally. You're going to have to deal with your own emotions. You're going to have to deal with your own natural feelings. I'm not talking about the fact that all of the hurt will go away and how easy it will be. I'm not talking about that. I'm trying to talk about you seeing where the battle is, and it will help you understand these principles because it's either for God or against Him. We'll see as we go on in the study there is no neutrality. "You love Me or you hate Me. You're for Me or you're against Me." Is that clear? Is that a clear principle to most of us? Why doesn't that apply to your family then? How can they be "partially"? How can they be in the middle? How can they have not made a choice? How can they serve two masters? "You're either for Me or against Me. You love Me or you hate Me." "It's light; it's darkness--except my family." It doesn't work that way.

The choice you're going to have to make, then, the choice you're going to have to make is, "What side am I on?" If I'm still wanting to give them honor, bless them, embrace them, go to the mall with them, and shop with them--my backslidden children and my estranged family member--then could it possibly be that I'm more interested in my own emotions, that I'm more interested in their temporal, secular welfare than I am in the purity, the holiness, and the value of the blood of Jesus that they have willfully chosen to tread beneath their feet? What this whole thing is about is loving or hating Jesus. That is what it's all about.

It says right here, verse 18, that they are going to bring you "for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, [don't worry about what you're going to say, for at the necessary time the Holy Spirit will tell you what to speak]" verse 20. Here's how it's going to happen. Verse 21 says, "And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men [say it] for my name's sake." That's what it's all about: "for My name's sake." It's not about the fact that you didn't let them go to the movies, you didn't buy them the Nintendo, or you made them come home at a certain time on curfew. That's not what it's about. There will be a hatred because the core, the root of why you are speaking these things, is based in Jesus because you're serving another God. You are living in another kingdom. It's not philosophical; it's relational. It's who our allegiance is to. It's not about a philosophy; it's about a man named Jesus. He said, "They're going to hate you." Look. "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth [with me, he that loves Me more than he loves them, he that is willing to die to himself and take up his cross] to the end shall be saved" (verse 22).

This is as simple as we can make it. That is what this is all about, so don't get caught up next time you're having to deal with relating to children or spouses. Don't get caught up about "you" and "them." It's light and darkness; it's truth and lie; it's Jesus or Satan. Step back and get yourself out of the picture. Look strictly at the eternal consequences, not what's going to make you feel good, them feel good, or what kind of an argument they have. "You didn't wipe my nose when I was a baby, therefore I killed twelve people." Sin will always want to say, "The woman thou gavest me." They are always going to point their finger at someone else. "The people made me," Saul said. "The woman thou gavest me," Adam said. The fact of the matter is you're the man! What are you going to do now that you've been enlightened and know the truth?

As you read on in this tenth chapter, he goes on and says, verse 34--get this in your hearts. Get it in your notes. Understand this, those of you who are trying to hold your families together, those of you who are trying to hold relationships together with lifelong friends, companions at work, whoever it might be. Listen! Get this verse. Verse 34, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father [I came for this reason!], and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law [That's not as hard.]. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Look at verse 36. "A man's foes shall be they of his own household."

Now here is bottom line, verses 37 and 38. If you can get hold of this, you'll understand this thing and you will be free. If you can't get hold of this, then nothing else we're going to say is going to make any sense to you. As I've been re-studying this out, I have numerous core biblical passages that I'm going to share with you. The most obvious, the clearest, the most specific verses that we're going to give you--about a couple dozen of them--won't make any sense to you because the god of this world will still have your eyes blinded. If what we share with you over these next sessions makes no sense to you, then you're in the wrong camp. You're still in darkness. You're still believing a lie, but if these verses are real to you, you're going to be able to see, you'll be free, and His grace will enable you to do the truth.

"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (verse 37). What do you think that means? Can anyone interpret that here for me? How many of you think you have to have your doctorate in theology to interpret that? If you love your father or your mother more than Jesus, you're not worthy of Him. He just said, "I'm coming and I'm going to split your houses up." Nice guy. Yes He is, because your house is under the lordship of Satan. Every home that doesn't have Jesus as Lord needs to be invaded and broken up, and thank God a remnant can be saved out of it. So many of us are spending all our time dwelling on those that are being cast off. We ought to be rejoicing in those that are being saved, praise God. Amen? What about those that are lost? Thank God that His grace is working in a remnant.

He said, "I'm going to come and bust your houses up, and if you love your father or mother more than Me, you're not worthy of Me. If you love your son or your daughter more than Me, you are not worthy of Me." We're going to see what it means "to love them more than Jesus" as we go on in the study. What does it mean to love our sons or our daughters more than Jesus? Very simple: it means to not apply the Word to them. They are the exception. "Well, this doesn't apply to them! They're doing the Word." "Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears?" "They still have a good heart." You're going to find out the Bible doesn't say that. If they had a good heart, the Word would still be growing in it according to Jesus' teaching, and it would be bringing forth fruit thirty-, sixty-, and one hundred-fold because good hearts respond to the Word of God and obey it.

To love your son or daughter more than Jesus is to make the Word not apply to them. He says, "You're not worthy of Me. If you don't take your cross and follow after Me, you are not worthy of Me." In other words, "I understand that what I am telling you is going to require your death. You're going to have to die to yourself." Nobody in the natural can stand back, watch their natural families be busted up, and not do anything about it. There is a natural allegiance.

You're going to see as we go on in the study that there is actually a natural perversion. Isn't it interesting to see how many people that are unenlightened think their families are "special"? My family all went to Special Ed. Not really. It never ceases to amaze me how people think there is something special about their clan. That's the origin of all prejudice. Some people think prejudice has to do with race. Prejudice has nothing to do with race. If we could find that out in our country here, it would really help us out. Some people are telling us today that prejudice is really not racial, but economic. No, it's not. Prejudice has one source: pride, pride in who I am and everybody that's not like me is inferior. I don't want to get off course on that. You can apply it and see that it relates to all these. That is why no matter where you go, you can go to the Middle East, and people who look just alike are fighting each other. You can go to Africa, and people you couldn't tell the difference from--I mean they live one creek away from the other guy. If you stood them both up and looked at them, they'd look identical the same. They fight each other and kill each other because they are not of this clan. Do you want me to give you another one? Let's take some rednecks. How about the Hatfields and the McCoys? Identical, all of them with one tooth and a pair of bib overalls! What makes McCoys better than Hatfields? Their own perception. All of us that don't belong to Hatfields and McCoys step back and look and say, "Okay. Do you want us to make a choice? We have enough powder here to blow you both up." That's what we're worth.

You're not special. Your children are not special. We're all of the same fallen race. We all have the same father, Adam. We've all been dominated by the same force, sin. We've all been liberated by the same love and blood of Jesus. We've all been given the call, "Whosoever will, may come." Some of us have accepted it, and the rest of us have mocked and spit in His face and laughed at the blood that He freely shed for us. Now you choose which team you're on. It has nothing to do with natural blood. There is an end to the allegiance of natural blood. Natural blood will offer up to be killed those who love Jesus. They would fight for you. They would defend you to the death based upon politics, economics, plague. They would sell all they have to help you in your sickness. They would use all of their energy to help rebuild your home that was devastated, and they'll offer you up to be killed because you love Jesus. Same guys! It's about Jesus. Same folks, same brother, same sister, same uncle. They'll do anything for you but bow their knee to the Jesus you love. That's what it's all about, folks. Until we come to that, we're still blind. We're still moving in the realm of the natural.

If you find your life, if you take control of it, if you're going to make your own choices, if you're going to say, "That doesn't apply to me and mine," and you're going to retain your life instead of taking up your cross, you will lose it. "But if you'll lose your life," verse 39, "for My sake, it's the only hope you have of finding it." All these great ideas you have, all the exceptions you're making for both yourself and your family will kill both of you, but if you'll be willing to die, there is a possibility that will save both of you. Otherwise, there is no hope. You can temporarily intervene, and we have two more Hatfields left on the planet. The decision is yours, but Jesus said it this way. Turn to the twelfth chapter of Matthew. Let's find out who our real family is. Chapter 12, verse 46, "While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him." "Your Mom's outside." How many of you know that Mary was no normal Mom? Would you say? She was blessed among women. Catholics made her "above" women, but that's not what the Bible says. It says "among." "You're blessed among women, highly favored, a pure vessel that said, 'Be it unto me according to your word.'" This woman that was used by almighty God, overshadowed by the Holy Ghost--you think your child is special?--conceived in her womb the Son of God. "Your Mom is outside and she wants to talk with You." "But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. [And whoever does not do the will of My Father is not My brother, sister, mother, son, daughter, or friend.]" (verses 48-50). That is what this thing is all about.

"Yeah, but God is a god of love, mercy, compassion, and longsuffering." Yes He is, but we're going to see how all of that is applied. The same God that we've studied that's a God of love, mercy, compassion, longsuffering, and gentleness is holy, just, and vengeful. He says, "Vengeance is mine." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. We've got a misconception of how God responds to backsliders: those He bought with His blood and have tread it beneath their feet. We're going to look at that in this study and see how God responds to them. We have no other recourse but to respond the same way He does, but we first of all have to establish who it is that's family. This is family: "those that do the will of My Father," period.

At this point, there is no way we can misunderstand any of this. If you can't hear this, you're spiritually dead. You're not born again if this makes no sense to you, so I'd encourage you to repent, cry out to God to save you from your sin and to give you some kind of understanding so that the Word of God would be alive and true to you. But if you can hear what we're saying to this point, if you understand this, then we can go on and the rest of it will begin to make some sense. We're going to talk about the obvious apostates. They are a little easier to deal with than those who we might consider "tares." Tares you just leave alone; you just let them keep growing. You're aware they're not right with God but they're not, and it's not so obvious that to remove it would cause more trouble and more consequence than to let it grow. You let it grow, a tare. You let a tare grow--listen--when it's not bothering anybody. I'm not talking about an "apostate," a "backslider," or those who have gone on record of their defiance to spiritual authority, the Word of God, the lordship of Jesus. I'm talking about somebody that it's so close it's hard to call.

As we look at the Scriptures, we have to see how we respond to these folks. Turn to the book of Hebrews for just a second. There are two classic passages in Hebrews. Get it in your notes. Hebrews, chapters 6 and 10, very classic passages that we're going to have to spend time in over the next few sessions. Hebrews, chapter 6 and Hebrews, chapter 10. I want you to get this in your notes. There are a couple of words that are very important. You can go to Strong's Concordance and look these up, see the definition of these words and it will help you out, but I want to set the principles down for us first. Chapter 6, verse 4 says, "For it is impossible for those who were [Here's what I want you to get in your notes. Put it down there.] once enlightened" That's a key, "once enlightened." What's interesting is we have people in our midst, children that have been taught in our school here that have gone out, backslidden, and are using the Scripture against their parents. "Well, the Bible tells you you're supposed to treat me this way." How dare you take the Word of God in your mouth! You're nothing more than a dog that's returned to your vomit, the Scripture says in Hebrews 10. How dare you take the Word and try to turn it on somebody who's trying to bring you back into light. Let me ask you a question, those of you who are still wanting to bail your kids out their problems, have them over for dinner, and go shopping with them. "They're just backslidden is all. They just chose not to serve Jesus anymore." Do not trivialize their hatred for the blood of Jesus Christ, the choice they made to defect from the kingdom of God and become an apostate. "They just chose not to serve the Lord anymore." What does that do to you? "I really wish they were serving the Lord." Why? "I'd feel better knowing that they're going to heaven, and our relationship would be better." It's not about you; it's about the holiness of God. How does it affect you that they hate the Jesus that loves you? How does it affect you that a holy God is being daily reproached by their rebellion and mocked in the streets because of who they once were and the gods that they now serve? You're going to see all this in the Scriptures as we unfold them to you in the next number of sessions. All these statements I'm making have biblical passages to back them up as we go on in our study.

"Once enlightened." If they can quote the Word of God to you, they've been enlightened. "I don't know if they were really saved." Did they say they were? "Yeah, but they may have just been lying." Maybe they're lying now! "Once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift." Did you ever sit by them and watch them take communion? Did you see them get baptized? Have you ever seen them with their hands raised and praising God? Have you ever heard them witness to another person? Have you ever heard them thank God for His goodness? Have you ever heard them acknowledge Him as the giver of every good and perfect gift? Have you ever heard them say, "I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead"? Have you ever heard them talk in tongues?

"Have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come" (verses 4-5). Have they ever seen a prayer answered? Have they ever seen a person healed? Have they ever seen another person born again? Have they seen a change in your life? Have they seen a change in a brother or sister's life? Have they seen a change, because of the resurrected Jesus, in the great cloud of witnesses? Yet you stand to make every defense for their rebellion, and they've tasted this good thing that God has given them.

"It is impossible for those.who have tasted [this] If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." We're going to talk about the ability to reconcile with God at another point. The point we're making at this juncture is the falling away of someone who has tasted the good things of God, and what we want to see primarily is this next phrase, the consequence of it. Look at this. Here's what a backslider does. "They've just chosen not to serve the Lord." "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame" (verse 6). Get it in your notes. Backsliders, every day they have tasted and every day they remain separate, every day they choose to reject what they had tasted of before, they are crucifying Jesus and making a mockery out of Him publicly. Look this up in the Greek. That's exactly what it talks about here, that phrasing, a "public mockery," just as though they were going out and verbalizing, mocking the blood of Jesus, setting up a podium and preaching on the street corner the ineffectualness of the blood of Jesus. "It doesn't work. I tasted it. I tried it and look, I'm back in sin." That's their message. That's what they're preaching daily, putting Jesus to an open shame.

How lightly should we take this, these evangelists for Satan, these mockers of the blood of Jesus, these enemies of the cross? You want to go to the mall with them, buy them Christmas presents, bail them out of jail, send them care packages to the pigpen, and stop by and try to wipe a little bit of the mud off of them on a daily basis. I guarantee you if that's what you're doing, you're not going to get the results of the prodigal. The father stayed at home where he belonged, serving God, ministering to the older son who had not defected, caring for the things God had put into his hands. Yes, he constantly looked onto the horizon. Yes, he expected the return of his son, because when you raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, when they're old they won't depart from it. Yes, he had the hope, but he never pursued. Why? His son mocked the blood of God.

The choice is, "Who are you going to worship, yourself, your child, or the Lord?" It all comes down to this simple thing, beloved. To misapply and mis-relate in these circumstances is idolatry, and there's no other explanation for it. As we go on in the study, you're going to see very clearly that it's a daily mockery, shame, and crucifying afresh of the Lord Jesus. Every day that backslidden person--that person who tasted, that person who knew, that person who had spoken in tongues, that person that can quote the Word of God, that person who has witnessed to others, that person who had given praises to God, that person who had received the blessings of God--every day they stay backslidden, they mock the blood of Jesus. It's impossible to renew them as long as that's their attitude, as long as that's how they perceive Him.

Hebrews 10 speaks to it in another way. Let's look over there and then we'll unhook for this morning and take it back up this evening. As you look at the tenth chapter of Hebrews, you can grab the context. From chapters 7 through 10, it is basically saying this: the law could make nothing perfect, but the blood of Jesus did. It's by that blood that "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (verse 10). "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (verse 14). These are the ones who have "tasted," as we saw in chapter 6. "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." You see, no man can pluck us out of His hand. Can you say, "Praise God" for that this morning? Those that have left chose to leave. They were not overcome by sin; they chose sin. They were not kidnapped by the devil; they followed his tune and they loved it better than the tune of praises to Jesus. If you can envision the Pied Piper, the satanic tune, the tune of the world, that tune was the one that their heart embraced and not the song of heaven that said, "Worthy is He who was slain who is, who was, and who is to come." They left Jesus because they hate Him and they love the devil, and they love themselves, and they love sin, because everything that was needed for life and godliness had been applied to them. Hebrews 6 says they had tasted, they had partaken, they were enlightened, and now they chose to put Him to an open shame.

"The poor things, they just didn't understand." They understood. They understand enough to manipulate you with the Word of God and to try to use the Word of God against you, knowing that you're still human, that you still have natural empathy, and that you still love them. They use on you the same manipulation that Eve used on Adam to get him to sin. As he speaks to us here very clearly, he said, "I want you to know how saved they were." This is how saved they were: "perfected for ever.whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness [saying] this is the covenant that I will make with them...I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds...and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of [sin] is, there is no more offering. [Nothing else needs to be done. What I did was sufficient. They were as saved as you could be. They were as filled as they could be.]"

"Having therefore this boldness, brethren, enter into that fellowship. Choose Jesus. Choose to draw near with a 'true heart,' verse 22, and 'full assurance.' Hold fast your faith without wavering and consider one another to provoke to love and to good works" (paraphrasing of verses 19 through 24). Let me ask you something, those of you who've had loved ones depart. Were they provoked to love and to good works? Did people tell them the truth? Did people come to them with the Word of God? One of the young people responded this way, "I'm just tired of people telling me what to do." Why, if it's what's right? Why does it bother you that somebody's telling you to do something right when you're wanting to do something wrong? "I just don't want anybody controlling my life." It's obvious, you rebel! Somebody's going to control your life: God or Satan, God's ambassadors or Satan's ambassadors, the Spirit or the flesh. There is no such thing as an individual in control of their own life. We're either under the power of faith or the power of sin.

In the context of all this, look what it says. Here is a people drawn nigh to the blood of Jesus, walking boldly into His presence, partaking of the free gift of God, people that loved them enough to provoke them to love and good works, to bring admonition, to bring instruction in righteousness, etc., and not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. If in the midst of all of that--and we'll end with this for this morning--verse 26 happens ("For if we [then] sin willfully after that we have received [put in your notes:] the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for our sins."), there is only one other thing that can follow this decision that you just made. Look at verse 27: "judgment." "Yeah, but shouldn't we extend a little more grace?" "Judgment." "Judgment and fiery indignation."

"[For] He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses" (verse 28). "Well, it just seems to be so harsh." Harsh? We're talking about a new covenant! We're talking about people that loved them. We're talking about longsuffering. We're talking about people who've gone the second, third, fourth, twelfth, and twentieth mile. "Well, I think we need to dung around them one more time." You can't even find them to dung around they're under so much dung. For some of you, this will help you out. Let me share with you the biblical principle. If you want to be the person who dungs around them, then what does your commitment have to be? Who remembers the teaching? If you're going to dung around them, if you somehow think that they haven't been dunged quite enough and you begin to back off the twenty-five dump truck loads of dung that everybody's put on them and you think that they just haven't been dunged enough according to your standards--everybody else is wrong and you're right, they need dunging--then what does the Bible say? I'm giving you twenty-mile-down-the-road cop out. Even if that's your perception, you have two responsibilities. It's limited. The time that you can give them is limited, and you then have to be the one to kill them when it's over, nobody else. Are you ready to do that? You're the one that lays the axe to them. You almost find yourself in the situation David was in when the judgment was coming, don't you? "What do you want? Do you want plagues, armies to come and invade you? What do you want?" David's wisdom was, "I just want to put myself in Your hands, God." If I were you, I wouldn't take it back into your own hands. You're not that smart.

Watch what he goes on to say. We'll end with these next couple of verses. "[Under Moses law, they] died without mercy under two or three witnesses" (verse 28). Who are these people, in the context? We won't go there right now. We'll show it to you probably tonight or in Wednesday's service. It's going to take at least three services. He's referring back to the "two or three witnesses" and the death, primarily the death penalty to those who had forsaken the covenant of God. The decree of death, capital punishment, to the covenant people of God was only for breaking the covenant. The covenant was pretty elaborate, pretty specific. There are not a lot of loopholes. Here is basically what I'm telling you. If you want to get down and start to put yourself back under the law, you're going to die and there is no escape. There are no loopholes. You don't have that good of an attorney. You're better off to cast yourself on the mercy of God, but there are certain people who say, "I want what's right! I want justice!" No you don't. You want mercy. "Well, they weren't treated right here, and this was not exactly applied to the nth degree perfectly in the last time that they were dealt with. Yes, the other six thousand times they were treated properly, but on this one time, this one word was maybe spoken" You want justice? You want to go back to every letter? I don't think so.

The Scripture says under Moses that with two or three witnesses they were killed. Primarily, these are people that forsook God. There are a lot of ways to forsake God. Do want to know how to forsake God under the old covenant? Go bow down and worship some image. You see, there was more to those images than just rocks. With those images came lifestyles of lascivious living, adultery, fornication, lasciviousness, worldliness. Idolatry is not bowing down to some pagan idol. Idolatry is living like the pagans. It's having their lifestyle. It's serving their god. It's bearing their fruit. It doesn't matter who they say they're serving. It doesn't matter that they're going to some church, or that they say they believe the Bible. What is their fruit? It's by their fruit that you know them. He said in the passages we just read, "I've put a new heart in them. I've put My word in their hearts and their minds so that they can't sin, and yet they're choosing to live and embrace this lifestyle. Therefore, they've rejected My commandments. They've rejected My lordship. They've bowed to other gods. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Every backslider is committing idolatry. Everyone who has tasted the goodness of God and rejected it for their own lordship is an idolater and worthy of death, period. If two or three people can say, "Yep, they were over here and now they are over here," then they died.

Tonight we'll look at that in Deuteronomy 13. We're going to see the admonition that was given to those who were their closest friends, their family, their relatives, or their best buddies. It said, "You cannot dare try to conceal this thing or cover their iniquity, but in fact, you're to be the first one to expose it." Not only that, it is not the government "Don't ask; Don't tell." You read into the seventeenth chapter. He said, "You go and investigate. You search it out, and you find out everything you can. Dig as deep as you can to see whether there's any impurity in this life or not, because if there's sin in your midst you can't stand before the enemy. Not only will you die, you'll bring everybody around you down." If you don't believe that, just read about Achan and their coming into the Promised Land. Yet many of us want to hide our loved ones under the tent. We still want to fellowship with them. You've got a people that are trying to enter into a land that's filled with giants and walled cities, a people that are trying to live by faith, a people that are trying to oppose principalities and powers, a people that are trying to deal with all the sin that's in this world, and you're wanting to bring that into our midst. It's not acceptable.

The Scripture speaks and says, "If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there [is] no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation He that despised Moses' law" I want you to catch that word there again, because it's the same thing that was spoken of over in Hebrews 6. Look at the word "despised." "Well, they just decided not to serve the Lord anymore." Despised the Word of God, "hold it to open contempt" is what this means. It's a powerful word: "open contempt" for the Word of God. "They don't say, 'I hate the Word of God. It's a lie. It's a farce.'" No, they just live a life that says that. Yes, that's what they're saying exactly, and that's what the Holy Ghost is saying. When you despise the Word, you die without mercy.

Look at verse 29, and this is our last one for this morning. If that happened under the old covenant, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy [Yes, your little loved one. How much sorer punishment should 'sweet thing' be thought worthy] who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of [Jesus], wherewith he [at one time] was sanctified, an unholy thing." Do you know what that word "unholy" means? It just means "common, no better than anything else." "I just count this blood about the same value as my sexual promiscuity, my drunkenness, my lasciviousness. Church is okay. Religion is okay. It's just about like everything else. It has no greater value. The blood of Jesus is kind of like Confucius, Krishna, Buddha." The minute you've tasted of it and then willfully departed from it, you've just made it common. It was just one other thing you've tried, and the Holy Ghost says through the apostle that you have then brought "despite unto the Spirit of grace" (verse 29). That word "despite" is talking about that reproach again, a spitefulness, a hatred for, a mockery of, a commonness of the Spirit of grace. Do you want to know what God thinks about all that? That's the question we're going to answer tonight. He says, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay you for this action." The Lord will judge His people, and "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (verse 31).

Father, we thank You for Your Word. As we spend time studying the consequence of backsliding, renew in our hearts an appreciation for Your love and for Your mercy. As we study about those who have made common Your blood, restore unto us our First Love. Those who have made it common did not make their decision in an instant. It was made over time as they chose not to do the Word fully at this moment, chose to compromise a standard here, partook of a little bit of sin here, gave place to the enemy there, a little leaven leavening the lump, the little foxes spoiling the vine, and "What's the least I can do and still be right with God?" instead of "I press toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God." I want to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to be made conformable to His death. Which avenue are you on, "How little can I do and still be right?" or "I want to know Him"? Let's stand before the Lord this morning.

As Gary plays for us, we want to take this time in the presence of the Lord and be prayerful. Pray for me. I've been fighting whatever this is going around. The last two days, I feel like somebody's pulled the plug on me energy-wise. I just need strength to be here tonight. This is a Word that we need. This is a Word that is going to make a determination in a number of families that are here in our midst--their lives, their loved ones. This is a message that's going to prepare us for the hour that we're in and things that we're going to face down the road here shortly. This is a message that should stir your heart for your First Love. This is a message that should cause us to enter with fear and trembling. This is a message that when we're done, you're going to see God made big and how worthy He is of our obedience, our worship, and our love.

Let's sing this together and give Him His honor. "Jesus Draw Me Close" Father, we do thank You for Your Word. We seek Your grace to enable us to obey, for it is by grace that we're saved through faith. It's not of ourselves. There is no boasting. So in the great gift, we say, "Thank You, Father," and we ask You to finish it in us that men would see the works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. There are those that are bringing a reproach on You daily. Let the fruit of our lives bring glory to Your name, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Take up your cross." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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