Our reading today from God's word is from the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews chapter 10. We will be starting at verse 26 and going through verse 39. So let's listen to the word of God in whose presence is death's deity. 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 will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your own goods knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. for yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to partition, but of those who believe in the saving of the soul. You may be seated, amen. Let's pray once again. Our Father, what a difficult passage that has been read to us and now is going to be preached to us. O Lord, we know if we're in Christ, there is therefore no condemnation. But if we are not, it is a terrifying judgment. And so we pray that we would all take heed now to what has been read and now that is going to be preached in our hearing, that we might have a better understanding both of your justice but all the more of your grace that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we pray that we would be built up in the faith through the preaching of this word, that we might have a better idea of the faith that endures. So might you grant this, not just for our good, but above all, that you might grant this for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. The title of the sermon this morning, The Faith That Endures. Well, I begin this morning with an account of an oak desk. It was a prized possession in a primitive land. It was an oak desk. It looked solid, strong. Oh yeah, there were a few holes in it. And every once in a while, you would see a pile of dust on the floor below those holes. And usually around the legs and the feet of the desk. Well, these continued to proliferate, the holes, as well as the dust. They increased. We had a lot of termites around, or there were a lot of termites around, obviously, and didn't think much of it. Everything looked, to appearances, anyway, to be fine. Until one day, a box, a heavy box, full of books, put it on the desk, and everything collapsed suddenly. And what looked to be a sturdy oak desk was in fact, as you looked at the remains with tears in the eyes, it looked like a Swiss cheese, because the ants, the termites, everything had been through it, and it was left hollow. Apostasy often happens like that. Appearances are that one is indeed a believer. A profession of faith certainly made in a person gives some show of Christianity certainly. But the signs are there, if not publicly, certainly privately in the heart and People we all can live in denial and self-delusion at times. The Reformed confessions talk about those who make a false profession and false assurance. And that, I suppose, is what we're talking about. And here in this text, as we begin here in verse 26 and look at verse 27 as well, we see, first of all, when faith fizzles, falters, and falls, just like a desk. And so, first of all, I'd like for us to consider what we've seen and remind you what we've seen from the beginning of the book. We've seen it time and time again in chapter 2 and chapter 3. We looked at a number of these, chapter 5, chapter 6, and now here in chapter 10. We've seen signs of the, you might call them spiritual termites. It talks about drifting, remember. where one has gone into the drift mode, and then suddenly one goes into the neglect mode, and then finally there's stunted growth. There seems to be no growth showing. Then we found, fourthly, there were hidden doubts that are really troubling one. The doubts grow, the doubts proliferate, the doubts deepen. And fifthly, There's a hardening, a desensitizing of the heart towards the things of God. And sixthly, we've seen the wavering of doctrine, the wavering of belief, the faith itself. And finally, the collapse, the forsaking of worship is the last sign, probably, before it occurs. You know, the scriptures, as we ended last time, we talked about camouflage. I didn't call it that, but I am today. Camouflage that can be put up. We were reading in 2 Timothy chapter 2, and I'll return there, referring to it. Excuse me, 2 Timothy chapter 4. And in 2 Timothy chapter 4, It says these words, I charge you, verse 1, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing in His kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. Now listen to this, for the times will come When they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap to themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. There's the camouflage. They heap to themselves teachers, but they're teachers according to their own desires. In other words, they want to have pleasant, always happy and celebratory things taking place. Looking for a life coach and self-improvement. And they want to hear the hard truths the scripture would teach us. I'm reminded of the Titanic. You remember what, or some of you have read, what took place in the Titanic, you know, to calm the people as the ship was sinking. They had the orchestra playing. And so the orchestra was playing calming music while the ship was sinking beneath the waves until the lights went out. That's what I think churches like have just been described in these verses are like, calming as it sinks. And so in verse 26 here, back in our text of Hebrews, we look in chapter 10, verse 26. Remember it says, for if we sin willfully after we receive the knowledge, or some of your translations might say deliberately, after we receive knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Now the old covenant, Remember, there was a sacrifice there, and we've dealt with that in Hebrews. It's dealt with this at length. There was the blood of lambs, bulls, and goats, and ashes of a heifer, and all of these things were mentioned. But the blood of bulls and goats, as we've seen, like in verse 4, it says, those are eliminated. Those are superseded. And it says that they do not take away sin. In fact, in verse 9, it says, he's removed the Old Testament, or excuse me, Old Covenant, by Christ's New Covenant sacrifice. Then we've seen the New Covenant here in verse 10, that Jesus Christ's blood of the atonement is a once for all eternity, a finality to it, once for all. Verse 12, the one eternal sacrifice, the only right, the only hope for salvation. because Christ is at the right hand of God. Verse 14, we saw Jesus Christ has been sanctified and has sanctified us as righteous forever, all believers. And our sins, verse 17 in the New Covenant, remember what it says, our sins are remembered no more. They're forever forgotten. Well, there's hallelujah time. And then in verse 18, full forgiveness. No more sin offerings, sacrifices exist. That's what he means. when there is no more offering for sin. The old covenant offerings are antiquated and done away with, irrelevant. The new covenant sacrifice of Christ is a once for all thing. So if one abandons Jesus Christ, then they have no sacrifice for sin. The Old Testament ones can't be reinstituted. And part of what was happening probably were those who thought they could go back to the old covenant and have those sacrifices too. But he says here, those who are antiquated in Jesus Christ is null and void toward you if you're trusting in the sacrifices of anything and anyone else other than Him. And this is, therefore, turning back or turning, sliding away, backsliding away, you could even say, from one Mediator, one Savior, one Lord Jesus Christ. That's what is the deliberate or the willful sin that it's describing. That is called elsewhere apostasy. And so, what takes place? Now, are these people who had their salvation, and therefore they lost it? Well, we looked at that last week, remember. We looked at various passages where Jesus said in John 10, you know, that His sheep hear His voice, He knows them, they come to Him, and He says, they're in My hand, and I'm in the Father, we're one. Remember, we've seen also that, like is quoted by our brother John in Romans 8, 1, you know, there is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Only those in Him. So those who are in Christ, in union with Jesus Christ, who hold to the faith, hold to the gospel, are not wavering this way or that from Him. These are they who have everlasting life. Remember what John 5, 24 says, where they're the Lord's talking about, you know, that those who come unto him, he says, you know, it says they have crossed over from death unto life and they do not enter into condemnation or judgment because they're in him. And so it's not talking about losing salvation. Remember scripture says, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. So everyone who has the Holy Spirit within everyone who's in Jesus Christ, these are they who are sealed forever. And so when it says here, those who turn back, they sin willfully, as it's described here, that there remains no sacrifice for sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. What's it talking about? Well, when it says if we sin willfully, it's not talking about sinless perfection either. As you look at the possibilities in scripture, it certainly can't be that, can it? When we think of sinless perfection, what does scripture say? Well, remember in chapter 7 and verse 25, we found Jesus Christ lives forever to make intercession for us. Why would he have to live forever to make intercession for us if we didn't need it on an ongoing basis? Furthermore, in this chapter, verse 14, remember those who are justified, those who are in Christ, remember, these are the ones who are being sanctified. In other words, sanctification is progressive, a lifelong thing. And so it doesn't mean we don't need that. All of us know 1 John 1, don't we? Verses 8 and 9. It says there that if we say that we have no sin, we are a liar and the truth isn't even in us. So none of us here, certainly not me, can claim sinlessness in the real sense. We are declared righteous in Christ forevermore. Yes, through faith alone though. But what does it go on in that next verse of that chapter 1.9 of 1 John? It says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The very first verse of the next chapter, verse 2, just a couple of verses later, really, it says, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so you see, it's not saying we're sinless. It says Christ is the one who stands between as our advocate. Our attorney who claims paid in full in me. So it's not talking about that either. So you see, we can't lose our salvation and we're not sinful. Sinning willfully doesn't mean that sinless perfection. What in the world is it talking about? It's talking about what the context has been talking about and shall in chapter 12 as well, by the way. Apostasy, those who fall away. Well, how can they fall away? That doesn't make any sense. Well, it can only make sense in this way. 1 John 2, verse 19, I think you have it in your bulletin. 1 John 2, 19, yes, it's in your sermon notes. Speaking of those who find themselves loving the world and the things of the world and that kind of thing in 1 John 2, 17 and following. In verse 19 it says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out from us that they might be made manifest, demonstrated, shown to be, in other words, that none of them were of us. In other words, apostasy shows that what appeared to the outside to be real, like that desk, is actually riddled with holes of unbelief. We'll point out a few of these things in a moment and show them to be a false believer to begin with. And so when we look at what our text is teaching us here and warning us about, We see here that they never were regenerate. Remember chapter 6 and verses 4 to 6, it went through all of these things where they tasted of the heavenly gift and they tasted of the good things to come. They tasted of the Word of God and they tasted. It goes through all these things, they tasted. Five times. But you see, they were tasters. They were not those who were all in. And so when you boil it down, you see they had a second-hand faith perhaps. Easily done with children, why you must be so careful with children. Is this a second-hand faith? You're just mouthing the beliefs of your parents. Or it can be a fair weather friend. You know those who are, and we'll come to this in a moment where it talks about those remember that have confiscated their goods, they've lost everything, and those who have been even made a public spectacle in the text here before us. And here they endured through all of that, but he says now what's happening is you're wilting. Jesus gave a parable that helps, perhaps, in Matthew chapter 13. I'll ask you all to turn there. You're way ahead of me, probably, in your thinking. You know where I'm headed with this. Matthew 13. Verses 20 and 21. This is the parable where he talks about a sower that goes forth to sow, and that he's sowing it, and it falls upon four different kinds of soil. You know this one. And it's that second soil that really brings to mind what we're looking at here. But the third would apply as well. In 20 it says, but he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears, this is the second soil, hears the word, that is the word of the kingdom of the Lord, and immediately receives it with joy. So there's an immediate joyful response and certainly an emotional response. Yet he had no root in himself. But he endures only for a while, and when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. The word stumble there is the idea of scandalizo. You hear the word scandal there? It means to fall away, to fall on his face and not get up, however you want to put it. The next one is the 122, now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. Luke 8, the parallel text of this says, or 4, it says that, and the deceitfulness of pleasures as well. But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who bears. the word, or hears the word and understands it and who indeed bears fruit and produces some 160 and 30 fold as a return to our text. The fruit tells the story of what was really there. And so when we're looking at this then, they have those who have truly taken the knowledge of truth that says here in verse 26 they have the knowledge of the truth if they fully embrace it as true and that it owns and endures in us therefore that is an abiding in real faith isn't it and furthermore when we look at verse 27 when it's talking about this deliberate sin understand it's not talking about something that's accidental It can't be. It's not talking about something that's thoughtless, or a lapse, or a whim, or something of that nature. This is something that comes to a point where one throws down their hands and says, I give up. Or one turns their back and says, I'm done. So please understand, that's what we're talking about here. We're justified. The truth is that faith alone justifies, right? It's in Christ alone, his righteousness alone, and that we're resting and trusting and believing in that. And so as we look at this, let's dig a little deeper about this abandonment. And by the way, it's not just abandoning the faith many times. Sometimes apostasy is the idea of adding to the faith. you know, adding to it. You know, this is what some of them were doing, no doubt. They said, here, you've come all this way in faith in Jesus Christ. And they say, I'm going to go continue doing these things, but I'm also going to continue doing these sacrifices. You see, it can be null and void that way, too. Or it can just be that as this is rooted out and dealt with in the life to understand that it's replaced with something else that's somewhat Christian. And there you had those teachers according to their own desires. Now, by the way, this can happen dramatically, or apostasy can happen quietly, subtly, gradually, and just melt into the background. Now because of this warning, notice the warning he gives in verse 27. The terrifying, everlasting consequences. Fiery indignation. Now remember he's talking about the coming of Jesus Christ. And remember Jesus Christ comes again. Those of you who know 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1. Excuse me, 2 Thessalonians 1. You look in that chapter and it says when Jesus comes, he'll come with his angels dealing out fiery retribution. That's what he said. So perhaps he's talking about at his coming or talking about the judgment itself or both. But furthermore, the warning in verse 31. It says in verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. Now only if you're an apostate or an unbeliever regularly. You know, you look through the scriptures and you find in the New Testament especially, you find it talking about the fear of God not as much like it does in the Old Testament. You find in Romans 8.8-15, for example, it talks about because of our forgiveness there is not the slavish fear, but now we come to Him as sons and daughters, and the Spirit cries out, Abba, Father, and we have that assurance of salvation by the Spirit. But you see here in Hebrews, and we come to these apostasy texts, it does warn, be terrified, be afraid. Why? Because it says, those who do this will never save but are lost. You ought to be afraid. You better be scared. In fact, terrified. Look up this same chapter, verse 19, by contrast. Therefore, brethren, listen to the words, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, we're 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 full of assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. And so you see here, beloved, those who are indeed resting and trusting in Christ, believing his word, in other words, without qualification. In other words, it's not, I believe it, and you see the face gives it away, doesn't it? I'm talking as, I believe it mostly, you know, and what do you mean mostly? All kinds of things, you know. There are all kinds of... I believe the Word of God, yes. I believe the Scriptures, that God has spoken in the Scriptures. Back up. I heard what you just said, and I know it was clever, but you're trying to hide. Do you believe all the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, is indeed God speaking to us? Well, I believe God speaks through them, or in them. Ah, you see, already hedging our bets. Okay? It goes on to talk about what happens when people deny Jesus Christ, and I'll come to that in a second. But you see, this is the sort of thing we're talking about. Is it true faith? And those who have faith in Christ unqualified, I come to you, nothing in my hands I bring, I'm trusting and resting in your word without reservation, and I I'm just one who's laying at your feet and basking in your grace and rejoicing in your salvation that you offer through faith alone. Remember what faith does. Remember the illustration of a baby. A baby is there in the arms of a parent I am trusting without qualification. You and you alone. That's saving faith. But those who would bring in the doubts, and bring in the questions, and bring in the denials, and add to it, and have this sort of thing come into the picture, and the things that happen so much in our day, that are humanistic and self-serving, and not Christ-honoring, that's what leads to apostasy. Remember what Paul said, the day will come that will not endure sound doctrine. It's not something to boast about, we have it and they don't. It's something to weep over, and to plead, and to pray, and to preach, and to seek them, turn them to Christ. And so anyway, The Lord is coming, verses 37 and 8. We saw that in verse 25, didn't we? It says, don't forsake the gathering together of yourselves as a matter of some, but all the more as you see the day approaching, right? Christ is coming again. And when he comes again, there'll be the raising of the just and the unjust and the judgment. Paul was preaching on Mars Hill. He says, God has appointed a day. which he will judge in a man. And he's given proof of it by raising him from the dead. That's the day it's talking about here. By the way, there's another sign of an apostate. The one who says, I don't know about this second coming. You know, it could be just symbolic or I don't know. It's kind of questionable. Questionable? Really? You've read the New Testament and it's questionable? Yes. Uh-huh. Reminds me of 2 Peter 3. Any of you know what it says there? It says lots of things I know. 18 verses. But you look in there and it says that at the end of the age will come those who are scoffers, saying, where is the promise of His coming? Everything continues as it has from the beginning. From, you know, maybe they'll say creation, maybe they won't. But from the beginning, He's not coming. And it says, the Lord comes like a thief in the night. It's a thief to them, because they're not watching. And so belief says, I know he's coming back, and therefore I have a sense of urgency, and I have a sense of vision, and I have a sense of purpose, and I look at this faith, and I know I wanna be faithful unto my Lord until he comes. There's the heart of a mind of a believer, and that's what we should strive for. and encourage one another unto. And so anyway, he says there's judgment that's coming. It's a fearful thing. The Lord says in verse 30, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. The Lord will judge his people. But let me back up to the gravity of the thing. Secondly, the horror of a hollow faith. before a holy God." Well we've seen here already in verse 28 the consequences, the old covenant consequences were. And it's quoting, you know, out of Deuteronomy, where it's talking about those who would turn their back on the true and living God, and those who would make self-made gods. You know, Isaiah made a big, what do you want to call it, a lot of irony, sarcasm. As he's writing there, he says, here, you cut down a tree, and half of it you carve into a god, and you bow down to that half. The other half you cut up in pieces and cook your supper. You're worshipping the thing you made. And how many people are worshipping gods of their own imagination? Or sometimes themselves? When someone says, I am a god, lost. It's not even debatable. That goes for all of the popular preachers. They would preach that stuff across America. When you think of apostasy, it is ubiquitous in megachurches, a lot of them. Not all. But you think of that kind of apostasy, beloved, that's darkness indeed. But you see, that which would have a self-made God, or in other words, a self-made savior, or one who is created in our image, rather than vice versa. That's the heart of an apostate. Well, he argues here from the Old Covenant, and he says under the New Covenant, worse punishment is due to denying Christ. In the New Covenant, because of who, first of all, one is denying? It says they're trampling underfoot the Son of God. Imagine that. the Son of God, the One who is the Great I Am, the Alpha and the Omega, Emmanuel, God with us, the One who is the Eternal Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, the One who sustains, as we saw in chapter 1, who sustains all things by the Word of His power, the One whose Word, when He comes again on that day, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, the Antichrist, the Beast, all things meaning the same individual. It says, the Lord, when he comes, he will destroy him with the breath of his mouth. It says, and also he's the one who's coming, Revelation 1-7, it says, he's coming on the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, this Son of God. You see the gravity of it, of trampling underfoot him. That's what apostasy does. And furthermore, it goes on to talk about the blood of the New Covenant. The blood whereby He, that is Jesus Christ, was sanctified under this mediatorial role. That blood considered common, a common thing. Oh beloved, remember in chapter 9 when we were talking in verse 14, 9.14 of Hebrews, remember, where you have here that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice, not the blood of lambs, bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer, casting all those thousands of years of blood sacrifices. Here Jesus Christ came, listen to what it says, that He is the one who is the sacrifice who offered himself as High Priest, offering himself, his own blood, as a sacrifice through the Eternal Spirit, the Everlasting Spirit, to God, the Father, in other words. And here is the Triune God, the Holy Trinity, involved. Here is the One whose blood, that blood, who sanctified all of His elect for all time unto salvation. That blood, considering it common, like dishwater to be thrown out into the weeds, Oh, you see, that's what's at stake. And furthermore, in the same verse, it says, a better word would be blasphemed. Blasphemed the spirit of grace. Oh, beloved, this message is not one that's to be taken in such a trite and trivial way as so many do. The holy gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of the everlasting gospel of the kingdom. Holy. In the grace of God, that is God's favor that's demerited, not just unmerited, but demerited. We deserve the opposite, in other words. He takes those who are dead in trespasses and sins, those who are blinded by the God of this world, those who are, you know, slaves to sin and to the flesh and to the devil, those walking according to the course of His world and so forth. He takes these who are enemies of His. And while we were enemies, He died. And we who are far off, He brought near. And He's the one whom sovereignly, monergistically, reconciles us unto himself in Christ, not because we deserve it, none of us do, not one, but because it is grace. And to do blaspheme the spirit of grace. We have an illustration of that, the spirit being blasphemed in Matthew chapter 12. Remember that text? Jesus has cast out demons out of a young man. And as he's cast out the demons, you know, our demon out of this young man, the Pharisees and the scribes, what are they doing in their hearts, in their minds? They think he can't hear them. They think he doesn't know. They say he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebub, prince of demons. Jesus said, if Satan casts out Satan, he hears their voice and responds. Can you imagine? You just thought somebody and someone starts talking to you about everything you just thought. If that doesn't prove something about his deity, I don't know what does. He responds and he says, if Satan casts out Satan, how will this kingdom stand? How can you plunder a man's house unless you first bind the strong man and then plunder his house? That's what he's doing. But if I cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, then the kingdom of heaven has come upon you." But he goes on, after that whole thing, because they did that, Jesus said, you know, all the sins will be forgiven in the future. Of course, understanding belief in the gospel and everything, except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. here talking about apostasy is a blasphemy of the spirit of grace. And so we see the consequences of it and we see in verses 30 and 31 as we were pointing out in 31 a bit ago, the fall away from grace, that's what Galatians 5 is talking about by the way, not that you can lose your salvation Fall from grace, it means they've turned away from salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. They've turned away from that and turned unto circumcision and works. That's what that text is talking about. And so as I use it, I use it in the proper way. To fall away from grace is to fall to God's justice. Can't have it both ways. to fall away from grace, to turn away from this gospel of Christ and grace. Grace alone is to turn to God's justice. Remember we touched on this, or circled back to this before we quit, and that's the idea. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? It deals with it in chapters 5 and 6 of Romans, all through the New Testament. Why? Because justice, for those who are in Jesus Christ, were united to Him. You see, justice, not that God's justice, that He said, nah, never mind, I won't do it. Romans 3 is a perfect explanation of it. It's not that God changed His mind, okay, I'll let you off the hook without justice being served. No. No, the gospel's not that. The gospel is that through faith in Christ, what Jesus suffered, what Jesus endured, what He went through on the cross, what He went through in that scoffing, and that beating, and that piercing, and everything else, and His death, and suffering, and being there at that point, and dying, that Jesus Christ actually was punished in our place. That He endured the suffering. And so it's not that justice is not done for us. Oh, it's paid in full. Colossians 2.14. Paid in full. And you see, there's our umbrella, our Passover, our rescue. But if you're not in Christ, well, then all that justice falls on us. Any who would not be believers. And so that's what it's getting at here, the idea of justice. No mediator, no union with Christ, no grace. It's a righteous retribution for defying biblical revelation. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 to 3. God's holy character, God's attributes, Justice is required. That's why verse 31 says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Well, it's time for us to stop here, but let me leave you with something else. You have included in your sermon notes another verse This one taken out of James, really two verses. James chapter 5, verses 19 and 20. Remember in verse of this text, Hebrews 10, we were looking in verses 23 to 25, really. And there in 23 to 25, it talks about, you know, that we should encourage one another unto love and good deeds. And it says, not forsaking the gathering together of yourselves is the manner of some, but all the more as you see the day approaching. Why more? Well, maybe these two verses have put a finer point on it. In James 5, 19 and 20, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from error of his way shall save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. As we will get through, Lord willing, next week, the part about their persecution and what they gave up and why endurance is necessary. May we not lose sight of the fact God puts us together, as we've said before, in communion one with another to encourage one another. It says that, to exhort or encourage one another unto love and good deeds. To lift up one another. I used the illustration last time of the runners running the race, one under each arm, carrying them through. But you see, one of the ways to encourage is when we know of the doubts And we think, shh, confidential, can't say anything. Well, you can say something to them, can't you? We must. Don't pat them on the back and say, oh, it'll be okay. Urge one another. No, we need perseverance, we need endurance. Set your sights on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. That's the beginning of chapter 12. No, forget those things that are behind. Press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. No, don't you know that those who turn away, they went out from us because they were not of us. Oh, I'm convinced of better things of you. And so it gives us this calling, this charge, this glorious privilege to turn one another When we see a turning away, come alongside and encourage. Link arms. Not to slap them between the ears, but to encourage them. Because many times it's because people are downhearted and discouraged. They want to give up. And it's encouragement in the faith. The glories of Christ. But also verse 28. Or maybe 29, where it describes Christ. Here it is, verse 29. Of what's at stake with regard to Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ. The blood of the covenant. The Son of God. And we think of Him. And we say, no. I cannot do this to Him. Remember our faiths to be in Him. We recognize that a turning away is turning from Him. May we be full of faith. May we come into the holiest of all boldly. May we be they who have full assurance of faith, nothing wavering. And if that's not so today, may today be the day We get that settled. Today be the day we recognize faith means absolute conviction of things not seen. Absolute assurance of things God has promised. An anchor within the veil. That's what's here before us. Oh, may God encourage our souls. May God strengthen us. And may God give us eyes to see and hearts to desire and to comfort and encourage all around us, whether we think they're in danger of apostasy or not, because we love Christ and because we love them. May God give us the grace for it. Amen. Let's pray together. Holy Father, if we did not have Jesus Christ, we would be like those that are described on the day of the wrath of the Lamb in Revelation 6, who call out to the caves and the rocks and say, hide us, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of God has come, the day of the wrath of the Lamb. But, O Father, because of your great grace, because of the blood of Christ that is holy, That is, as you described there, Father, in Hebrews 13, 20, the great shepherd of our souls has sealed the covenant, the everlasting covenant with his own blood. And so nothing, Father, can take us out of him except unbelief. And so, Father, may we be full of belief, of confidence, of assurance of your truth. May we not be those who doubt, but may we be those who stand in the shelter of the Almighty. Father, as we sang, a word above all earthly powers. May that be our belief and our focus and our walk. In Jesus name. Amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before his presence and glory with exceeding joy. To the only God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.