Thank you, Mike. It's good to have Paul back.
He was away on vacation for a couple of weeks.
And you can tell he was at the lake. He's got
this suntan. Have you noticed that? A little
additional suntan there in his face. Would you
open your Bible, please, to the book of Hebrews
and today to the tenth chapter of the book. as
we continue our study about firming up our foundations.
When we consider the foundational concerns of
life, we think of things like faith and salvation,
which we have talked about. But the one we're
going to look at this morning may surprise some
people. I believe it too is a crucial subject.
for us to talk about. However, what we're talking
about is on the periphery of so many people's
lives. It's considered by some secondary as nice
but not necessary, as an ancillary issue. But
today I want to talk about the church. as being
one area of the foundation of our lives that
many of us may need to firm up. I believe the
attitude that most people have about the church
is desperately in need of just that. For slippage
has occurred that humanly speaking puts in jeopardy
the work of Jesus Christ in the world. One denomination
did a study a couple of years ago of its missions.
outreach. And the study showed them that if their
current giving trends continued in that denomination,
by the year 2000 they're going to have to recall
most of their missionaries from the mission fields
of the world. There is tremendous slippage regarding
the place the church has in the lives of those
who are God's people. We need to firm that up,
because this is important to God. Jesus Christ
gave His life for the church. The sad fact is
that some people don't give a rip for it. As
long as the church is there to meet their needs
on Sunday morning, they could care less about
what happens in the church or with the church
the rest of the time. That's because of worldliness.
I grew up in a time when worldliness was defined
as four or five things you didn't do. How well
the devil fooled us in those years as to what
worldliness is. Worldliness is not difficult
to figure out. It's not four or five things that
Christians ought not to do. Worldliness is an
attitude. Worldliness is adopting the value system
of the present order that controls the world.
That present order is created by and dominated
by none other than Satan. He has instilled into
the world system certain values and worldliness
in the lives of Christians as the adopting of
those attitudes. We see it in secularism, for
example. Our world is secular in the sense that
it tries to rule God out up front. As a presupposition,
God isn't important in our world. And tell me
if that attitude hasn't crept into the lives
of some Christians. God is important as long
as He saves me from hell, but beyond that, I
wish God would get out of my way. I've got too
many things I want to do. Our world is given
to the value of materialism. Where material things
are all important, there is little or no emphasis
or attention given to spiritual things. Has that
affected any Christians that you might know?
Where all the money is spent on material things?
All the time is spent on things here and now?
Very little thought, very little emphasis in
the life on what comes next? On what is spiritual?
The values of the world are not only secular
material, but they're also individual. Individualism
is one that has developed in the last couple
of decades in the West. It puts the priority
in whatever is satisfying to oneself. There is
no need of anybody else. And so we just close
ourselves and our family up and we're just ourselves.
Individualism. The Bible's value is interdependence.
But I tell you that individualism has swept into
the church of Jesus Christ as a worldly value.
Consumerism. We all understand what consumers
are like in the world, but the attitude of consumerism
has crept into the church as well. I want the
church to meet my needs. And if it doesn't, I'm
going to go shopping somewhere else, where a
church will meet my needs. So people look at
the church as consumers. And the last one I want
to mention, I just did mention it. I thought
I had five, I only got four. I had one other
one in mind, but I couldn't put a title on it.
The church is at once taken for granted, and
practically speaking, it's ignored. People want
the church to be there when they need it, but
they do not want the church to expect any commitment
from them. They want the church to inspire them
with heavenly music and entertaining preaching
that please don't confront me with my sin or
call for repentance. They want the church to
offer a wide array of programming without even
having to pay for it. If the church doesn't measure
up, they look around, or worse, Worse, they decide
to go to two or three or four churches and select
what offerings they want from those two or three
or four churches. They treat the church like
a smorgasbord. So when I think today about firming
up the foundation, I don't think there's anything
really more critical than our attitude about
the church of Jesus Christ. Our text today is
in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 where we'll begin
reading and read through verse 25. over the house
of God. Let us draw near with a sincere heart
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled clean 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
how to stimulate one another to love and good
deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together,
as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more, as you see the day
drawing near. The day drawing near, of course,
is the day of our Lord's return. And he says,
as we see the sky brightening in the east, as
the dawn is about to break, we are to be sure
to be committed to the church. The church is
the house of God, as the writer of Hebrews puts
it. Look at verse 21, we have a great priest
over the house. of God. That isn't the first
time that phrase has occurred in Hebrews. Go
back to Hebrews chapter 3 for a moment. Where
there's a contrast between Moses and Jesus. He
is showing here the superiority of Jesus. He
says, therefore, my holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the
apostle and high priest of our confession. He
was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses
also was in all his house. Now he's saying that
Moses had a house, and he's going to say that
Jesus had a house. He's not talking about a structure,
a dwelling. He's talking about a family. We might
say a household. He says Moses was faithful in
his household. That was Israel, of course. Verse
3, for he, Jesus, has been counted worthy of
more glory than Moses by just so much as the
builder of the house has more honor than the
house. For every house is built by someone, but
the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was
faithful in all his house as a servant for a
testimony of these things, which were to be spoken
later. But Christ was faithful as a son over
his house. You see, Moses was faithful in the
house. He was a part of the household. Jesus
is faithful over. his household, the superiority.
He's God, the one who created the house. He was
faithful, it says. And then he goes on to say,
whose house we are? We. We're his household.
The Israelites of old were the household of Moses.
He was faithful as their leader. He was a member
of the house. He is commended for his faithfulness.
But far greater than Moses is Jesus, who created
the house and who is over the house, who is faithful
as an apostle and high priest. And we are His
house. We, the church, we're His house. He says,
We hold fast our confidence and the boast of
our hope firm until the end. He's not doubting
necessarily that the people he's writing to or
that we will not hold fast. But the point he's
making is the same one that we made last week
when we talked about salvation. And that is our
genuineness is proven by our continuance. Not
by some date we've written down in the Bible,
not by some prayer that we prayed at some point,
but the genuineness, the authenticity of our
salvation is demonstrated by our continuance
in the faith. And there may be times of lapse,
there may be times when we backslide, but inevitably
God will discipline us and bring us back because
all of His sons, He disciplines like a faithful
father and brings us back. and we continue on.
We are the house of God. Now let's go back to
Hebrews chapter 10. The local church is the expression
of the house of God in the world. Today there's
no temple of stone, but there is a temple of
redeemed people, living stones, that are being
built together by God and indwelt by the Holy
Spirit. to make the temple of God. The church
is the center of what God is about in the world
in this age. What a thrilling thing that God
has called us to be a part of what He's doing
in the world. God is at work in the world and
He is at work in and through His church. It is
an exciting thing to be called out by God from
the world to be a part of His task force to go
back to the world, to represent Him. It is an
exciting thing to be a part of the temple that
God is building in this age, in honor to Himself,
a temple in which the Spirit dwells. But we know,
all of us know, how imperfect the church is yet,
for it still exists as we know it in this fallen
world. Jesus is preparing His bride for her heavenly
calling, but she still has spots to be removed
and wrinkles to be smoothed out. We all know
that. The church is not a perfect place. Someone
said to me last week, the church is full of hypocrites.
Well, of course it is. Can you think of a better
place for hypocrites to come and get healed?
There are hypocrites in the church. There are
hypocrites in the world. There are hypocrites
everywhere. The church is still in a fallen world.
The church is not perfect. I'm not perfect. You're
not perfect. But we are God's house. That's why
it's important that we firm up the foundation
of our lives with regards to the church. I say
this with conviction. That our commitment to
the church parallels our commitment to Jesus
Christ. Now I've been in the ministry 26 years,
and in those 26 years I have yet to meet a Christian
who was deeply devoted to Jesus Christ and had
little time for the church. Now to be honest
with you, I have met people who were deeply devoted
to the church and were not too devoted to Christ.
And that's not right either. But I have never
met a Christian who was devoted to Jesus Christ's
lordship in his life and who was laissez faire
regarding his commitment to the church. Our commitment
to Jesus Christ parallels our commitment to the
church. The two line up. Therefore, we need to
firm up that commitment. In the text that we've
looked at today, this morning, we see that the
commitment to the church involves three duties
that every one of us has as a part of the church,
the house of God. I think it was J. Vernon McGee
who called this one of God's gardens. He says,
this is the lettuce garden. Lettuce draw near.
Lettuce hold fast. Lettuce consider. Here we
have the three duties that all of us have to
the church. As part of God's house, you and I
are to worship God corporately. Now today we
have this emphasis on individualism. Well, I'll
worship God out there at the cabin by the lake
sitting on the rock. And of course you can worship
God there. You can worship God anywhere. But
the writer of Hebrew says let us draw near He
doesn't say let each one of you draw near in
his own way his own time his own place He says
let us draw near Part of our commitment to the
church has to be this that we worship God together
as a body of people It is a household duty that
we have as God's family, that we worship Him
in association with others. Now the whole basis
of this is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We
can draw near because it says in verse 19 that
we may enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.
He has inaugurated for us That is, He has dedicated
for us the way to God. It is the sacrifice of
His own body. Just as there was a veil that separated
the holy of holies from the holy place in the
temple. So Jesus came veiling the glory of God
inside of Him, and that veil was broken. It was
rendered. It was sacrificed. And in the sacrifice
of His body, The way to the Holy of Holies was
opened up for us. And that was symbolized, wasn't
it, by the veil in the temple being torn from
the top to the bottom when He died. So the whole
basis of our worshiping together is the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. The sufficiency of His blood
shed on the cross of Calvary for our sins. And
because of that he says that we are a priesthood
of Jesus Christ. He says we have a great priest.
We are priests who serve under a great priest,
the high priest, Jesus Christ. And because he
is in heaven today in his glorified body interceding
on our behalf before the throne of God, we may
come together here and worship. And it says that
we have been made fit to do this, for our hearts
have been sprinkled clean, our bodies washed
with pure water. These are the symbolic kinds
of language relating to the temple worship. But
what he's saying is that we are fully qualified
to worship God, to come into His presence. And
so we're to come, he says, with a sincere heart,
a true and genuine heart. in contrast to the
way Israel at times worshiped. In fact, Isaiah,
in the first chapter, if you begin reading about
verse 10 and following through that chapter,
it strikes you how God rejects all of the rituals
that He Himself had ordained for the Jews. He
said, I've had enough sacrifices. I don't want
any more observances. I don't want any passovers.
I don't want this. I don't want that. Why? Because
their hearts were far from God. They were just
going through the deal, see? Just going through
the rituals. And God says, don't even bother
with it. We are to come together for worship
with hearts that are sincere. That are involved
sincerely in what we're doing It does us no good
and God is not pleased if we come to church just
to go through the motions We need to come to
church with intention To come with purpose and
that purpose being that we will enter into God's
presence with others and offer praise to Him.
So he says, let's draw near but be sure with
sincere heart and also with full assurance of
faith. We're to be completely engrossed with
an expectation of God's promises. But I fear
that for some Christians worship is at best half
-hearted and at worst lifeless, faithless, merely
routine. So as we think about firming up our
commitment to the church, let's begin here at
this point and recognize that it involves coming
to worship God corporately with others. How you
doing? Does your life need to be firmed up? Is
the foundation where it ought to be? regarding
your worship of God with others and coming to
church with a right heart attitude and expecting
God to do something in you. Now secondly, he
says, we have a duty as God's house to weather
our tribulations patiently. He says, let's hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering
God's faithful. You and I are promised in the
world a good deal of affliction. We are told
by God to expect tribulation. 2 Timothy 3 .10
says all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted. It doesn't necessarily mean
persecuted all the time. But there will be seasons
of persecution for those who will live godly
Peter joins in and says do not be surprised The
implication there is that of an astonished resentment
Peter says don't be surprised and resentful At
the fiery ordeal among you Which comes upon you
for your testing as though some strange that
is some foreign thing were happening to you Peter
says that's the norm The fire is the norm the
quiet times the times of peace when there's no
persecution. That's the unusual Then Paul says
in first Thessalonians he's writing here to a
persecuted church You yourselves know, he says,
that we have been destined for afflictions. For
indeed when we were with you, we kept telling
you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction.
Affliction means hardship. It means pressure.
If you're a member of God's house, you're going
to have pressure in the world. Jesus himself
said, in the world you shall have what? Tribulation?
But he went on to say, but be of good cheer,
for I have what? I've overcome the world. He
said the world is going to put its pressure on,
but remember, I'm the conqueror. I'm the victor
of the world. But he said you will experience
trouble. Some of you are. We have one man in
our church who periodically updates us on the
pressure that he's facing at work because of
his Christian commitment and asks us for our
prayers. Some of you know what that's about.
If not today, you have in the past experienced
what we're talking about here. Now we should
count that as an honor. In fact, doesn't Paul
say that? He says, rejoice that you're counted
worthy to suffer shame for His namesake. Boy,
that's a different perspective, isn't it? We're
worthy of suffering for Christ. What an honor.
And the writer of Hebrews joins in with this
now and he says, now listen, as part of the household
of God, weather your tribulations patiently.
Hang in there. Hold fast. There will be times
when you will be tempted to turn around and walk
the other direction. The pressure against you
is going to, you want to be carried downstream
with it. But keep swimming upstream. He says
weather. Hold fast. Endure patiently. The tribulations
that come upon you as a believer. Those are times
when Satan tries to get us to compromise. When
we're under pressure, he comes to us whispering
how sweet it would be just to lay off a little
bit. To retract our confession of faith. To submit
to the peer pressure. And let's not kid ourselves,
teenagers aren't the only ones who have peer
pressure. He comes to us inviting us to escape
the disapproval of society by taking this route.
But God's Word says hold fast. Don't give up.
Don't take the compromising way out. Rejoice
that you can suffer for Jesus. as part of God's
house. Are you willing to do that? We're talking
about commitment now to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Are you willing to firm up that foundation of
your life and be willing to suffer with the Church?
The Church has always suffered and always will,
as long as it's in this world. Now there's a
third duty that he gives us as a part of God's
house. That is that we are to weigh our actions
responsibly. He says let us consider how to stimulate
one another to love and good deeds. He says let's
weigh carefully. Let's observe. Let's contemplate.
That takes time, doesn't it? It takes effort.
But this is part of what we're about. He says,
now let's consider how to stimulate one another.
How does the King James put it? Does anybody
have it here this morning? Provoke. How to provoke
one another. Some of us have misunderstood this
term. We have taken the King James literally.
The word here can have the meaning of irritating.
And let's face it, there are some Christians
who are irritating. But that isn't what he's
talking about here. He's talking here about inciting.
Stirring up. Encouraging. Raising up people.
To what? Well, to love and good deeds. You see,
we are to sharpen each other. We are to encourage
each other. To love God and love others and be
involved in doing good in the world. How do we
do that? Well, first by doing it ourselves. We
have to set an example and then we take a hold
of the hands of other people and we say, come
on! We need to firm up this part of our foundation.
You see, we have a responsibility for others.
This goes back to this idea of individualism
again. Well, you know, I wouldn't do that, but
if that's their choice. Sounds great. The only
problem is it's not biblical. Because we are
to be concerned about others. How many one and
others are there in the New Testament? Twenty
some? Pray for one another, build up one another.
Here he says, stimulate one another. And he says,
encourage one another. I got a little chuckle
frankly this last couple of months as we noted
in our bulletin on Sundays that the elders are
going to be discussing church discipline. And
there were some people in our church, and I don't
know who they were, if it was you, I don't know
who you are, so you don't have to be embarrassed.
But I found it a little amusing to me, in a perverse
sort of way, that there were people who said,
well, what are they trying to do here, create
a police state? Isn't that an interesting attitude?
You see, there is such a thing as church discipline.
where the body watches out for one another. And
it begins so very simply as Galatians 6 .1 says,
if you see anyone overtaken in a fault, in a
sin, you who are spiritual, restore them. Checking
your own attitude. Checking your own life. You
see, we have a responsibility individually for
one another. Church discipline begins with one
member who lovingly goes to another member and
says, my brother, my sister, I'm concerned about
you. You see, worldliness says, that's their
choice. You wouldn't do it, but let them have
their way. No. If it's dangerous, if it will
hurt them, we care about them. And so we go to
them. And of course, the theology of church discipline
goes beyond that. The other extreme of it is
when one is involved in some public gross sin
that is bringing disgrace to Christ and to the
church and will not repent, although pleaded
with, then that one is to be removed from the
church. But I just found it interesting. When
just the idea of church discipline was being
discussed, that there would be some who would
react that way, so typically American, so sadly
unchristian, biblically illiterate. Because the
Bible says that we have responsibility for one
another. And we need to firm up that part of
our foundation. We need to seek others good.
We need to realize that we are interdependent.
And under the same thought, he tells us here
that we are to not forsake our own assembling
together. As the habit of some, he says. Even
then, in the third quarter of the first century,
only 40 years or so after Jesus had been on the
earth and died and rose again and went back to
heaven, There were some whom he says were forsaking
the assembling of the believers. This word assembling
together is where we get the English word synagogue,
the Jewish meeting, the synagogue. It means to
come together, to assemble together in one place.
But it doesn't mean just to come together in
one place on an occasion, but it means to do
that as a habit and as a custom. And so we are
to set priorities in our lives that are God -centered.
Assembling here doesn't just mean coming to church.
That would be easy enough. But the whole thrust
of this idea of synagogue is being involved in
going the same direction. It means being involved
in the mission of it all. To have heart and soul
in what's taking place in the meeting. And what
he says is that even in that day, and remember
this is the day when there was a Laodicea, and
a Thyatira, and those other churches that Jesus
wrote to in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. In those
days, there were believers who just weren't with
Him. They had other priorities in life. Other
things are more important than what God was doing
in the world. Other things took priority over
the church. So they were forsaking. The word
forsaking here is used in some literature of
betraying one's loyalty. It's the kind of a word
that you would use of Benedict Arnold who forsook
the United States by his actions. It's a very
strong word. And so the writer is saying, don't
forsake the assembling. Don't forsake the being
together with a mission. Don't betray God's cause
in the world is what he's saying. Don't turn
against what God is doing in His church as the
habit of some is. In the lives of many Christians,
the place of the church is firmly in place. I
thank God for them. I thank God for the people
of Grace Church Roseville in whom that is true.
Who understand what the church is, what it's
about. Who understand their place in the church,
who are deeply committed to it. and whose hearts
are knit together in the assembling. But I weep
for those who do not understand that. And I believe
the Lord weeps. I have my very expensive Casio
watch on today. I pulled out my dress Timex a
couple of days ago to wear it to an occasion
and it wasn't working. So I picked it up and
shook it and it started moving. So I set it down
and thought, well, maybe you're just one of those
things. Maybe I healed it or something and touching
it. So I just left it there and came back a little
bit later and it had stopped again. It had stopped
again. So yesterday... Yes, it was yesterday
that I took it to a local store to get a battery
put in. And they took the old battery out and
tested it and they said, hmm, this is very strange.
Part of this battery says it's fine and part
of the battery says, eh. But it looks like it
ought to still be good. And I said, well, here's
what the watch is doing. I'll tell you what,
let's just put a new battery in and hope that
that takes care of it. So, we did. And this morning,
I pulled out my dress Timex to put on my wrist
and it wasn't working. It stopped at 220 this
morning. You know what I'm going to have to do?
I don't know, do you repair a Timex? You probably
send it in with $100 to cover the shipping and
handling and they will repair it, I suppose.
I'm probably going to end up getting a new dress
time mix. Because you just can't have a watch
that runs part of the time. You can't trust a
watch that runs occasionally. Do you think there's
any application there? to us as part of God's
family? Do you think God needs the members of
His household to be faithful? Do you think He
expects to be able to count on us? Well, of course
He does. Of course He does. And that's why I
need to talk about this this morning. That's
why it's important for you and me to think about
firming up the foundation of our lives in the
area of the church. And ask ourselves the tough
question, what is my commitment to this church?
What is my commitment to this church? How do
I measure it? How do I measure my commitment?
But then the most important question, how does
the Lord measure my commitment? And when we've
begun answering those questions in our hearts,
then we'll be at work, firming up this foundation.
Let's pray. Please sing with me. In my life,
Lord, be glorified today. Would you stand please?
And let's sing, In our church, Lord. In our church,
Lord, be glorified. Lord, we have sung our prayer,
and we pray that you will be glorified in your
church. by the commitment of our lives to your
Lordship. I pray that you will guard us from
allowing the foundation to erode. Help us to
see, Lord, where it needs to be firmed up. And
especially today as we think about where it needs
to be firmed up in regards to the Church, the
household of God. which house we are. And as
we go from here, may we determine in our hearts
to do whatever we need to do under your Lordship
to be sure that that foundation is well built
and stays in place, especially as we see the
day drawing near. Amen. God bless you.