Our reading today from God's Word will be in the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. We'll be starting verse 19, going through verse 31. Let us listen to the words of the living God. Therefore, brethren, of in boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of son. but exhorting one another, and so much more as we see that day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy. On the testimony of two or three witnesses, of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot? counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord would judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the sermon this morning, Christ's Church, Persevering in Truth and Worship. When we begin with verses 19, continue through 22, we find something that is hard for us to completely fathom with our feet here on this earth. And that is to say that the Lord invites us to come into the holiest of all, that is to say, into the heavenly sanctuary. The reality of our participation in the affairs in heaven is in just itself that which should cause us pause. It should be sobering, it should be that which gives us great delight in our hearts and souls. But it should also cause us to recognize the high and event and privilege that it is. We are there, of course, in the person of, in union with, Jesus the Christ. He is our representative, that is to say, our Great High Priest. And He is our substitutionary atonement, the one who is satisfied for our sins. And so we come as those who are declared righteous in Him. as we saw at the end of the verses previous to this, that he remembers our sins no more because of Jesus Christ. He's our representative, but he's also our mediatorial king. Remember he is as Melchizedek. And so as we come to this time of worship, it is to hear from above, from the one who is the very ruler of our soul. he is our king by redemption he bought us and when you think then of the really the depth and the what do you want to say the the complete rule he should have in our lives think of second corinthians 10 where it talks about how every high and lofty argument or or imagination is brought down toppled every stronghold brought down and brought to be laid at the feet of Christ, every lofty thought raised up against the knowledge of Christ brought into submission to Him. And as you and I join in this time of worship, it is to recognize it is a Trinitarian affair, that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are joined to Jesus Christ and brought into the Holy of Holies, but it's also that we come unto our Father. And so let me, if I may, summarize as we've looked at these things, where it says in verse 19, brethren having boldness to enter the holiest or the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith and so with our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water worship is directed from below here on earth. up to God. Worship is that which is offered unto God. When you think of worship, think of the altar, and when that was put on the altar, and there upwards towards God was where the smoke would rise, the smell would ascend, that the prayers would waft in the incense, etc. And so we are to think of worship in that regard, opposite of what many would think of when they think of worship in our day. Many think when they think of worship, they think of it in a horizontal fashion. That it's something that is horizontal, where one is receiving their entertainment here, and they're having their felt needs met. And so really, it's something very horizontal, and it's something that one is entirely a recipient of, and not that which they offer. And so allow me, if I may, to try to put encapsulate worship in various categories, 12 to be exact. of how it is to be done. First of all, we come in faith identity or faith union with one King and Savior, a priest, Jesus Christ. So we come to Him. We're coming unto Him, as it says, into a high and holy place. We come unto Him in faith, identifying with the One who is at the Father's right hand, in union with the One who is at the Father's right hand, Jesus Christ. He's King, Priest, and Savior. Secondly, we come. We come indwelt. We come empowered by one Holy Spirit. And so as we come, it is the spirit of God within us who's crying out, the spirit of adoption crying out, Abba, Father. We come unto him as the one who intercedes for us in ways that we don't know, don't understand, and he takes that where our understanding leaves off, and he takes it from there and joins us to Jesus Christ, our mediator to the Father, and there we come, indwelt. empowered as the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit and corporately as the temple of the Holy Spirit here on earth unto the Father. Thirdly, we come united. We come united as one living body of Christ, the Church. And so when you think of worship as it's going to describe, not abandoning or forsaking that, you see we are to look at worship and now we come, thirdly, united as one unto the Lord in worship. We come as this body, this vital living organism. Not just an organization, but a living organism, the body of Christ, pulsating with the life of God, with the holiness of the Lord. that's put to our account and formed within us. Fourthly, we come together to the Holy Trinity in worship. And so we come unto Him, together we do, coming unto the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And by the way, what day do we come? We come on the Lord's day, that is to say the day of the Lord's resurrection from death unto life. And we raised with Him. And so as we offer our worship, we come together to the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You do realize that. Of course you do. As I talked about the role in what we call the economic trinity, where as you say, the Father being You know, the Heavenly Father there, and in the Son, that is right hand by His blood and righteousness, we come to the Father. And that we come joined to the Son and to the Father in communion with the Father by the Holy Spirit. And so as we come in worship, we also worship each of the three persons of the Godhead. For there is one true God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And so we worship. the Holy Trinity, the one true God, the Holy Trinity, on the Lord's day. Fifthly, we come united in heart, mind, and soul. So united hearts and minds and souls, all of us, we come. Notice, come unto Him and worship. We come to Him with united hearts and minds and souls, set on heaven. In Colossians chapter 3, you remember what it says there? The first three verses, it says, set your minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father on high. Notice it says for us to, in our minds, that's where we are to set our minds. What's the problem with this so frequently? All of us. It's too frequently we get our minds set on things below. Too frequently our minds are conformed to the things of this world. Too frequently our minds are filled with the things that are worrying us, or trying us, or distracting us, or fixing our attention Yes, we must do the things and with excellence as doing all things as unto the Lord, but still even in that doing it with our minds set on heaven. All things are done Coram Deo, before the face of God, they are before him. So our hearts and minds united and set on him. That is what worship involves. We come with our souls and hearts and minds set on our Father. Think of that. Calling God our Father. And He calling us His children. You know Jesus when He prayed in the garden, remember in the Garden of Gethsemane? Great drops of sweat like blood. And here He was praying, you know, and here when He prayed, you know what He prayed? Abba, Father. the fact that you and I are called and enabled to say that. And it means something true and real that he is our father by adoption. And we come with our hearts and souls and set on our Redeemer. We were enslaved to sin, to death, to misery and darkness of the fall. And he is the one who set us free by the ransom price paid of his own blood. And he's the one who rescues us in union with him. We're delivered from death unto life. And so we're redeemed and bought by the blood of the Lamb. And so we look unto him, our Redeemer. And finally, we look to the Holy Comforter, the Holy Spirit. As we worship these things are on our hearts and minds, singleness of purpose, that's what we do. And so, we come to the sixth thing, we come to hear and to be edified by the word of God. To hear from our prophet. You remember Jesus Christ is a prophet, right? three offices of Christ, to hear from our priest and to hear from our king. You think of the prophet Jesus is the Word of God, is he not? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And so we're thinking of, it says in Hebrews 1, remember, as all of the patriarchs in the past and the prophets of the past, various times and various places and various ways, they spoke God has spoken in these last days in a son. The prophet, the word, what does the word say? Thus saith the Lord. And so as we worship together, we are listening to this scripture. What God says in this book, in this sacred text, and it is thus saith the Lord. And so we are here come to hear that and to be built up edified by that. We come to the one who is our priest. Matters of righteousness, matters of salvation, matters of repentance, matters of confession, matters of presenting ourselves as sacrifice. All of these things, we are here to hear the message from our priest, but also to hear from our king. When you hear the word from the king, what do you say? I don't think so. Is that what you respond with? No. When we hear the message from the King, we bow. We bow the whole of our being, our will, our understanding, our goals, our desires, our love, all of it. That's what we bow to the King. And so when we come to worship, we come to hear the word and be edified. That means to be built up. by the word that comes from God and his scriptures from the prophet, priest, and king. And seventhly, we come to offer ourselves. Yes, to offer ourselves unto him in worship as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service of worship is the idea. And so, beloved, when we come to worship, it's not just that we attend, we put in our time, we're entertained, and we leave. But it is the fact that we come to offer unto him spiritual sacrifices and hear a living sacrifice ourselves. And eighthly, speaking of spiritual sacrifices, we come to offer spiritual sacrifices of praise and gratitude for grace of confession, of repentance. We come to offer the spiritual sacrifices, 1 Peter chapter 2. You remember that text? You read it there? It says that you and I are living stones. Each one of us alive, a living stone. And together we form this temple of living stones, a living temple, filled with the presence of God. And so when we come together, you see, it says that we might offer spiritual sacrifices unto our Lord. And it goes on to say, we form a kingdom of priests. Imagine. And so, beloved, when we come to worship, that's what's really taking place. Does it sound different at all up to this point from what so many would pass off as worship? Maybe we should sing, you know, twelve verses of He is Lord. Or maybe, well there's only one verse, but twelve times. Or maybe, of course, we can mess up a hymn too. As we think of singing, what is it? When we think of a sacrifice of praise, that's the next thing. We offer unto him sacrifices. Notice, offer to him, like a sacrifice, like you would on an altar. Offer him sacrifices of praise. What if we do not get it exactly right? But we're offering it unto Him in desiring to glorify Him, and we're desiring to praise Him, and we're desiring to draw nigh unto Him, and desiring to offer it as a sacrifice of praise, a spiritual sacrifice in Christ Jesus, accepted with all our imperfections. Isn't that extraordinary? And so, beloved, when you think of what worship is called, what it's really defined as. You see here we have, furthermore, we come to offer the sweet incense of our prayers. Now why do I call it sweet incense? Well, because it was at the hours of prayer, that's when the priest would be offering the incense on the altar of incense. You have in Revelation a couple of places, like in chapter 8, for example, and I think also in chapter 6, where you find that the incense wafts up at the prayers of the saints. Not super saints. You know what I mean by saints, by the way? I was asked about that once. You know who the saints are? Those are every single believer in Jesus Christ. You are set apart unto Him, sanctified unto Christ, a saint. And so all the prayers of the saints we offer unto Him as it were a sweet savor unto the Lord, an incense in all of its beautiful smell. The prayers of faith seeking God's kingdom and God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. that's worship. It says we come washed, our bodies washed with pure water. You and I come washed by the blood of Christ, washed by the Spirit in faith's baptism. Over in 1st Peter chapter 3, I think it's verse 21, there it talks about, maybe we should look at it, it's not that far away, 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 21. He talks about Noah, and the ark, and the flood, and things like that. And he said this is an antitype which now saves us, baptism. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's a lot we could go into, but let's get this much clearer. The washing of the filth of the flesh away is not what saves us. But it is, remember that internal work of the conscience, we've seen that back in chapter nine of Hebrews, where the Lord came and he says that the sacrifices were good enough to clean the flesh. And so Peter's making the point here, God through Peter, that it wasn't just the cleansing, washing of the flesh that saves, but it's a washing of the conscience and the crying unto the Lord in faith with a clear conscience. Come to him clean, washed. as Titus 3 would say, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. And we come furthermore in communion with Jesus Christ and with our brothers and sisters in a new covenant meal. Think of the Lord's Supper as we will enjoy next Lord's Day and think of that new covenant meal whereby we have communion with Jesus Christ it says in first Corinthians 10 when it describes that supper two times it says we have fellowship with his blood fellowship with his body that is to say with Jesus Christ and what his sacrifice meant that we have fellowship with him and there in that bread and wine we do not have the presence of the real presence of Jesus Christ in terms of transubstantiation or something of that nature, but we do have the presence of the Lord in us and among us and with us as we do partake of this time of fellowship with our Lord and communion with him in faith and new covenant promise. And finally we come to worship our Lord in love in a mutual encouragement. The Bible talks about the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And so as we come to worship, beloved, all of those things are what we talk about. That's what worship's like. Just to name a few things. But did you notice something? The direction of everything I shared. It was all, we come to him, we offer unto him, and all of it is through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, unto the Father. Did you get that? That is the way worship is to be done. Let me hasten secondly to the Lord's warnings to his church. As we pick up with verse 24 or 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some. but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching." Now in this, these three verses you say, well that was a sudden shift of subject matter. I mean, why would that come up now? Well that's not a new theme in the book, is it? As we've gone through the book of Hebrews, we've seen the Lord's warnings to his church. And let me go through briefly the things that we've seen thus far, or a number of things we've seen thus far, and I'll have you go back to chapter two, start there. When we see there, to watch for these symptoms, the Lord says, it is as it were, he was saying that, watch for these symptoms of apostasy. Watch out, keep an eye out for these things. So as we're looking at these things, it says, hold fast the confession. Stir up love and good deeds. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Exhort one another. You see there, it's the Lord giving us the safety measures, giving us the warning to keep us from apostasy. Remember what apostasy is. It is a falling away, or the deliberate turning away, or even the rebellion against. the name of the Lord, the things of the Lord, the people of God as his church, to turn away from him as all-sufficient, etc. And so let's look at chapter 2, 1 to 3. You see, he's giving an urgent warning throughout the epistle of Hebrews. So it must be a real danger to consider, wouldn't you agree? So in chapter 2, of Hebrews in verses one to three, he says these things that should give us pause. He says, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who were heard him? So first of all we see here the idea of the urgent warning is to give more earnest heed, lest you, did you get this, drift away, lest you drift away. How can we escape, saying in other words the impossibility of its being highlighted, if we neglect so great a salvation. So the idea of drifting away, the idea of neglect, is being the very thing. What is it that we find in a river or in a stream or in ocean currents too and that sort of thing? It's a current. You and I live in a world that's a fallen world and you and I by our own nature can have a current that's driving us not toward but away from the Lord. And we can have things that affect all around us and the things of this world. What is the current? Is it leading toward the Lord or away from the Lord? It says don't drift. It's dangerous to drift. And furthermore, it says, not only don't drift, don't neglect. When you think of the idea of worship, you think of the idea of attending to the word of God, you think of the things of the supper of the Lord, you think of the things of what baptism is all about, or you think of the things of fellowship with the saints, or encouraging the saints, or seeking encouragement, and on and on we could go. You see, all of these things, do not neglect, is what the Lord tells us. So in other words, the Lord shows us it can be subtle or gradual, this idea of drifting into danger zone, right? And so that's something that certainly we should take into our counsel. But look at chapter 3, verse 12. In chapter 3, verse 12, he escalates a little bit and he says, beware lest you have an evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God." An evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God. Too often I've heard people that are trying to say, yes, I'm a believer, but the very things they're describing that they have in their heart and in their minds is not belief. but disbelief, unbelief, in various points, in various ways, and frequently escalating in its intensity. And so the point here is that he warns, don't beware of that. In other words, be on the lookout for that. And he says a heart that's hardened and deceived by sin, in verse 13. When you think of the heart, think of the secret things. All of us have secrets in the heart. The others don't know. It says in Revelation 2.23, the Lord is the one who judges and attends to the secret things of the heart. And here it says, for us to seek out this truth and how we are to beware of the secret things of the heart, we can be led astray or go astray from the ways of God, in verse 10 it talks about that, and be deceived by sin. If there's anything sin is, the effect it has in our lives, it is to deceive us. Why? Because we've been trained in it for many years. And we're familiar with the voice of call of sin, the tug at the heart, the temptations we faced. We're so familiar. And so with familiarity comes the ease of slipping into the sin, the deception it talks about. In verse 13, it says, exhort one another. Now get this, exhort one another daily. It's something that we should be doing frequently. Why? Because we care about each other. We love each other. In verse 6, it reiterates what we found there in chapter 10. Hold fast to the confidence, the hope. Hold fast unto the end. And so we're thinking here about those who could drift away, those who could harden against the things of God and be deceived by sin. You say, how is this possible? Well, chapter five, remember, showed us that. If you look at the last three verses, verses 12 through 14. In chapter five, it warns us there. It warns us about people that want milk only. People who are satisfied with milk. Don't make me stretch. Don't make me dig deeper. Don't make me think. Don't make me face the hard things. Face up to my secret and favorite sins. Don't make me face up to those things that they're not so bad. Why are you getting all uptight? And on and on we could go. They're satisfied with milk. He says they're unskilled in the Word. We've had some studies going on for years in this church. And I've known people that have entered into those studies as they said, you know, this is great. And they thought they knew the scriptures and they found out this is where you can have milk and not realize you're really raised on milk. And that is they have what I call the slogan or the soundbite theology. You remember what I'm talking about? And so they say, they throw these slogans out, or throw the soundbite out, or they throw just a bit of a verse out. And they think, oh, I've covered all that doctrine in that one thing. And then you go into Bible studies and you say, I want you to do something for God's glory and for your benefit, for your growth and grace. I want you to study, to read these verses yourselves. I want you to dig into it. I want you to pray. I want you to meditate upon it and read through this portion of Scripture. That's all. And you say, well, what kind of agenda? What kind of notes are you giving me? I'm not giving you any of those. Just read it. And what does God tell you? And just that simple process, how many people have come back and just on fire and excited. I understood it. Well, that's amazing. It's called the revelation of God after all. But the growth in grace, because they no longer were satisfied for milk, you know what happens? It grows even more, and more, and more, where never again will milk satisfy. How many of you were ever babies? You see, now I'm testing who's still awake. That's how I know this. Okay, so I get chuckles, no hands. All right. I'll just, if you don't mind, I'll just take it as universal. And you started out with milk. I dealt very seriously. And if you started out with steak. You didn't start out with breakfast tacos. You didn't start out with something other than milk. We started with milk. How many of you, when you were finished with the worship of God on this Lord's Day, you want to leave this place, and you want to go home, and you want to get yourself a big bowl of milk, and you're going to pour the milk, and that's what you're going to get your spoon and just chow down. That's what you're yearning for. Your stomach's growling right now. He keeps talking about food right before lunch. because I get your attention that way. You satisfied with milk? No, we're not supposed to be anymore. And neither are Christians that have been Christians. He says by this time you should be teachers and you need someone to teach you the elementary things of God all over again. And so what is one of the things that has tripped them up? They're unskilled in the word, and they're not mature in the faith. They have not grown. They've been stunted in their growth because they've been attending to milk and only milk, because they're soundbite Christians, because they're sloganeers. And in chapter 6, we get to the are one of the most scary passages of scripture in all the Bible to me, and to many people, verses, chapter 6, verses 4 through 6. He describes someone, or he describes people, it says that, listen to some of the things, I'll just summarize it if I may, so you don't get bogged down, as you talk about, these are people who have been enlightened, to some degree, by the Holy Spirit. They have tasted of the power of God and His Church. Secondhand, mind you. Maybe they thought firsthand for a while, but they've tasted of the power of God. They see it, and they're delighted with it, and they want it. And they've tasted of the Word of God. It goes on to these five different things, names, and all of them, you say, they sound like they're Christians. The only way we find out they're not is the thing that it ends up with and it says, and then to fall away. The word that's used there is the idea of apostasy. Those who fully and finally fall away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. He goes on to say, but you know the water that falls, that waters the rain, that waters the ground frequently, and it says that the plants bring forth the fruit, but if they don't bring forth anything, they're dead. He says, so it is with us, you bring forth the fruit, the things of God, and the love of God, and the love of Christ, and the devotion to Him, and loyalty to Him, etc. He says, I'm convinced of better things of you, things that accompany salvation. And so all these warnings that stem all the way through the book of Hebrews in these various places I pointed out, and that's where I'll stop. It says they fall away. That's what it's warning us against. That's what he's pulling us back from the precipice from falling into. May I show you a couple passages, one in 1st Timothy 4 and one in 2nd Timothy 4, that can explain how this can happen. with false worship. 1 Timothy chapter 4, you know these passages, 4, 1, and 2. 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2. Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, that's apostasy, giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. And so this is what's going on, doctrines of demons. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared as with a hot iron. Imagine those that are teaching or preaching doctrines of demons. We touched on a few things last week that's shocking to some, that the idea that to say that Jesus' blood and righteousness or his blood, his sacrifice once for all time was insufficient. that it must be reinstituted or it must be repeated or it must be something in some form that's ongoing time and time and time and time again. To point out how that is itself an abomination before God. So you see that's a doctrine of demons. There are lots of those who think that they are the ones who are the very epitome of spirit-filled people. These are they who know all about the things of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and that sort of thing. In fact, they even say they're gods. In the word faith movement, doctrine of demons. And so, beloved, as we see here, it says there'll be many doctrines of demons. Many. 2 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4. And this one's more familiar. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires highlight that. Because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn away, their ears away from the truth to be turned aside. to fables. You want to hear the Greek word for the translated fables? Mythos. Myths. And so, beloved, you see, that's how teaching the doctrines of demons and not having sound doctrine, but preaching according to their own desires. There are two basic religions in this world. There is a religion of God and there's a religion of man. And these are they who want to serve the religion of man. You hear a lot about self-actualization or self-realization or self-improvement. There are these who want to grow, you know, and have self-exalted in some way. Did you remember how true worship started? We come to Him. We offer to Him. It is for Him. This is a religion that's entirely from below. This is a religion that's being described here. It's one that's entirely horizontal. In a book that was written by Michael Horton some years ago now, he entitled it, Made in America. Interesting read, if you can find it. And, you know, he said that the dynamic that's at work in the churches in America that's really thrown them off the rails is they are consumer driven. What do I mean? You say, well, you know, we got to offer the brand of what they want. You know, if people like, I don't know, if they like macadamia nuts, then that's what we're going to give them, macadamia nuts. You know, if people like to have, I don't know, a guitarist playing, you know, the rock music that comes right out of the secular world at a headbanger or something like that, and we're going to call it worship, because that's what they want. If they want to have the lights of a nightclub going and everything going on, that's what we're going to do. If they want us to scream and shout and jump up and down, that's what we'll do. If it will bring more people, that's what we'll do. Or I'll stand up there and I'll be a life coach and I'll tell them, you can have your best life now. You know the problem with you, you just don't realize how wonderful you are. And I guarantee you the crowds. will come, because the gate is wide unto destruction, but narrow into eternal life. There's another book that's written by J.I. Packer, if you can ever find that one, another oldie, and that is, you'll love this title, Hot Tub Religion. and the books describing the problems with so-called Christianity and as precisely as the title would indicate. That's what's wrong. Think of this, you and I pray every Lord's Day for those who are persecuted for Christ, those who are laying down their lives as a sacrifice unto the Lord's glory, if that's what it takes. Of those who will not stop worshiping, no matter what the cost. Of those who will not stop preaching the gospel, even if they will slaughter them for doing so. Of those who will not turn back, even if the Lord has called them to do so, they shall do so. They overcome the dragon by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they do not love their lives even unto the death. We pray for them, and yet in hot tub religion, God doesn't want you to suffer. Tribulation? Are you kidding? I'll be taken out of here first. That's for those other folks. I don't want to be left behind. If you say, don't tell me he's not a pre-tribber. I'll tell you right up here. No, I'm not. And there's a reason why the Bible isn't. You say, why'd you have to throw that out right before we quit? Because it's something we should consider. We're called to take up our cross and follow hot tub religion. Well, you see, beloved, it says, and our time is up. So this is where we pick up next week. Not to forsake. The word there forsake in the original language is the idea of abandon, turn away from, flee from. Don't forsake the gathering together of yourselves as is the manner of some. But notice how it turns it around, the Lord does here, but all the more as you see the day approaching. Yes, that's why I brought that other idea about tribulation stuff. All the more as you see the day. What day? Approaching. You know what day. Those of you who are in my study in the book of Revelation, I remember that when I gave out a chart that listed the New Testament texts, and no, I don't know where it is off the top of my head. I'd have to re-find it. But it goes through all the New Testament, and if you want to really expand it, go in the Old Testament too. But look at how many times it says, the day, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, the day of the wrath of the Lamb, the day of God Almighty, and so forth. It's ubiquitous. The day, there's one day when the Lord comes again, and that's the day we are looking for. When we say Maranatha, that's what we mean when He comes. And so, beloved, it says, as you see the day approaching, what's indicating the day's approaching? Well, we'll talk a little of that next time. But I think some of you know. You look in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, It says, let no one deceive you as to the coming of the Lord and our gathering together to Him. These things will not occur until first, listen to this, what are we talking about? There is the great apostasy and the revealing of the man of sin, the son of perdition. who will exalt himself to be worshipped over all that is called God, and take his seat in the temple of God, calling himself God. And it says there will be a great delusion. God will give them over to a great delusion, that they may believe the lie, because they did not believe the truth. And it says he will do lying wonders, miracles. So convincing, beloved. Even the elect would be convinced if God didn't prevent it. But it says the Lord's coming and He will destroy them with the breath of His mouth. We who endure to the end will be saved. And so, beloved, as we see the day, as we see the things of a tyranny of the state, a uniting of world government, a uniting of world religion, of a movement that would cause something, the uniting of banking where there's no buying or selling unless there is that way that is universally accepted, etc. Those are a few things you might toss out. We gather together in worship, not less, not forsaking, but all the more as you see the day approaching. Yes, beloved, Christ's church persevering in truth and in worship. May God give us the grace for it. Amen. Holy Father, as we've opened your word, and as it has been preached, it is, O Lord, as was preached, that we should desire to hear our prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. For he is also our priest and he is our king that will return. For we thank you, O Lord, that he came as a lamb in grace. And we will testify because if we are in the faith, united to Jesus Christ, Saved by His grace, we thank You that He came as a Lamb. But, O Lord, we look forward to the day, the day that is prophesied over and over in the Old Testament, the day of His return. May we look to that day as a day that He returns in grace to us, but he returns as a lion. Oh, Heavenly Father, we bow before you in absolute gratitude for your grace. And so may that create in us hearts that are tender, that are compassionate, that are loving, in those around us who stiff arm the truth that you are God and there is no other. You are the one who has all things in your hand. You've created and you will recreate. And so we pray that we would live in this world before your gaze with whatever we do. and that we would look to you and the new heavens and the new earth, which only righteousness dwells. May this not leave our minds, but may we constantly be remembered. Remember your words, your promises, for it is you that are faithful. You who have promised this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and as much as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.