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Hebrews chapter 10, of course, we're studying the book of Hebrews, which has a great theme throughout the entire book of Hebrews, which is Jesus Christ. Now obviously the whole Bible is about Jesus, but this particular book, and this is one of the reasons why I love this book, is just glorifying Jesus Christ in every way. We started out in the first several chapters, several comparisons, one after the other. In chapters 1 through 6, we saw a comparison of Jesus with the angels, how much better he is than the angels. Compare Jesus to Moses. What a greater man Jesus is than Moses. We learned about how he was so much better than David, so much better than Abraham, and he just goes down the list. How Jesus Christ is exalted above anyone who's ever lived, he's God in the flesh. Then we got to a section in chapters 7, 8, and 9, where God basically goes through the Old Testament sacrifices, all through the Old Testament rituals. And in chapters 7, 8, and 9, God shows us in the book of Hebrews that all of these things, the only purpose, all of it was wrapped up in one thing was to point us to Jesus Christ. It was the whole purpose of the whole Old Testament, the whole Mosaic law, and that's what we saw in chapters 7 through 9. We studied that the last three weeks, that everything in the Old Testament, every sacrifice, every ritual, the tabernacle, the temple, was all pointing us to Jesus Christ and showing us that he was coming. Now in chapter 10, kind of wraps up that segment and moves on to something else. Let's start at the beginning in verse number 1. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the covers they are unto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. Look at that in verse number 2. It says that the worshippers in the Old Testament who were bringing their sacrifices year by year continually, trying to somehow be absolved of their sins, some of them didn't understand that those sacrifices were just a picture of Jesus Christ who was coming, and they were trying to find redemption, and every time they sinned, or every time they did wrong, they would bring these sacrifices to the tabernacle and offer this sacrifice of blood on the altar as an atonement for their sin. But God says here, if those sacrifices would have been perfect, then wouldn't they have stopped offering them? If they would have finished the job, it kind of reminds me of people who see a psychiatrist many times, or people who take antidepressants many times. You hardly ever run into people who go to a psychiatrist for a little while, and then they say, oh, they straightened me out, I'm fine now, I don't need them anymore. No. And they keep coming back, they keep coming back. You know, same thing with antidepressants. Pretty soon, you're just taking another antidepressant upon an antidepressant. They don't give you some kind of a course that's going to get you off them and get you fixed, and then you're happy and joyful and glad through life. It's just some kind of an imperfect, continual process where you just keep coming back, keep coming back. Now, God's saying here that the worshippers once purged, purged means cleaned of their sin, cleansed from their sin, should have had no more conscience of sins. Now let me ask you something tonight. Have you been purged from your sins? Have you been saved? Have you been born again? If you've been saved, if you've believed on Jesus Christ and asked Him to save you, if you trusted Jesus Christ, God is your Father, all your sins have been forgiven according to the Bible, that you should have no more conscience of sins. That's what it says, isn't it? Now, a lot of people have this weird idea that that only applies to things before you were saved. And a lot of times people say, well, that was before I was saved, so that's under the blood. You know, about some horrible thing that they did in their past or something. Well, that was before I was saved, that's under the blood. Listen, Fran, everything I did after I was saved is under the blood also, because Jesus Christ died for all my sins before I was even born. And so everything that I've ever done or will do has been paid for. And so I have no conscience of the things I've done, of the things I'm doing, of the things I'm going to do, because it's all been paid for by the blood of Christ. Now what do I mean by having no conscience of sins? Does that mean that I just live a wicked life and have no conscience about it? No, but see, God says if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, conscience, if you study that word, it comes from the word science. C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. So science means knowledge. Now, that's the root word. It kind of means something different now in today's language, but the root word of science means knowledge. That's why God is omniscient, all-knowing. That's where that word comes from. Well, conscience is when the word con there, if you speak Spanish, con means with. So it's like with knowledge. It means it's just constantly with you, this knowledge of some bad thing that you did in your past. It's with you. It's in your mind. Bad things that you've done in the past or maybe failures that you have right now even. And God says the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. They shouldn't just be plagued with something that happened in their past, something that they did, failures or their shortcomings now. God says, look, you've been purged from your sins. Let it go. Move on. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Hey, look, I'm not pressing for some kind of a low mark. I'm not pressing to be a mediocre Christian. He said I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He said I don't want to rake right here. I want to make a mark, and I want it to be a high mark. I don't want to just go through life trying to aim at some low goal, being like everybody else. Well, you know, I'm as good a Christian as so and so. I do what he does. No, he says I press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, who had a worse past than the apostle Paul? You tell me that. Here's a man who persecuted Christians and killed them. I mean, the apostle Paul, if you study this in the book of Acts, and you'll find this in Acts chapters 8 and 9, Paul was persecuting the church of God to the point of having people arrested, Christians who believed on Jesus Christ, dragging them before a courtroom, and having them actually executed and put to death in the Jews' religion for believing on Jesus Christ. When Stephen, one of the greatest preachers in the New Testament, was stoned, it says that they took their coats and they laid them at the feet of a young man named Stephen. Even when he was a young man, he was a spectator, and Stephen, the first martyr of the New Testament, being killed. And he stood there and held their jacket and said, yeah, go get him. Yeah, hit him a good one with that rock. And they threw rocks at him until he was dead. Now, this is a wicked man. Saul was a wicked man, Acts chapter 8 and 9. But in Acts chapter 9, he gets saved. He receives Christ as Savior. And this is the man who penned these words in Philippians chapter 3, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the pride of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let me tell you something. Don't look at me and don't look at others who maybe have grown up in a Christian life, and perhaps you haven't, maybe you have, but don't look at someone who has and say, well, they pressed toward the mark because they grew up a Christian home. They don't have the past that I have. Listen, you've been cleansed by the same blood of Christ that I've been cleansed with, pressed toward the mark for the high calling of God. Let that encourage you. And say, look, if the apostle Paul could be the greatest Christian of the New Testament, the man who was used to pen 14 books of the New Testament, if that man came from a pretty rough background, let's not hide behind anything in our individual past. And hide behind that is some kind of an excuse why we can't serve God, why we can't press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let me show you, well, look at verse number three, actually. It says here, but in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. What God's saying is every time they brought the sacrifice to the temple, they're just reminded of their sins because they're bringing this animal and they're watching it butchered on this altar, and it's reminding them of the sins that they've done. And it's something that just, on and on, it's bringing it to their mind. Now, the Bible calls Satan the accuser of the brethren. He accuses them day and night. He's somebody who stands before God and tells God, look how wicked so-and-so is. Look at Steve Anderson, just what a failure. Look, he's blowing it. And he accuses the brethren to God day and night, the Bible says. Let me show you a real interesting story, and I'm going to deviate from the book of Hebrews a little bit, but I'm going to come right back to it as fast as I can. Turn to 2 Samuel in the Old Testament. 2 Samuel, this is right in the dead center of the Bible is the book of Psalms. And if you go to the left from Psalms, about four or five books, six, seven, eight books, you'll find 2 Samuel. And I want you to look at 2 Samuel 13. I want to show you this story. 2 Samuel 13, and we'll start out in verse number 1. I'll begin reading this story. This is a story about Absalom, David's rebellious son, one of the two... Stop everything. Roxanne's getting a phone call. Oh, it's time for me to quit. She said an alarm once I preached to her. All right, 2 Samuel chapter 13. Now, this is not too long after David had sinned with Bathsheba. David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. This is one of four judgments that God brings on David as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. He kills four of David's children in a very tragic way. This is one of those judgments. But in chapter number 13, verse number 1, the Bible says, and it came to pass after this that Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister whose name was Tamar. And Amnon, the son of David, loved her. Now, first of all, I want you to know that in the Old Testament here, these stories were written for our admonition upon whom the end of the world has come, the Bible says. And so whenever we look at an Old Testament story, there's an application, there's a meaning that we should take from this. Now, as you read this story, I want you to know that Amnon here represents us. He represents a Christian. The child of God. David the king represents God in this story. His son represents us, the child of God, Amnon. And Amnon's friend, Jonadab, is the devil, represents Satan. Okay, so who does Amnon represent? Us. Who does Jonadab represent? The devil. The devil, and who does David represent? God. Okay. Now, let's read this story. It says that he loved his half-sister, Tamar. And in verse number two it says, And Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister, Tamar. For she was a virgin, and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend. So here's Amnon. His instinct from what he'd been taught and just what he felt was right in his conscience was, you know, here's my half-sister. She's a virgin, she's my half-sister. Okay, that's reason enough. He said, I have no business doing anything about this, but for some reason he just loved his sister, for some reason. And he wanted to, you know, marry her or whatever, you know, for the children's sake. But the Bible says here, But Amnon had a friend. So here's a guy with great intentions. Here's a guy who has been taught the things of God. Here's a guy who grew up in church. He grew up in the house of David, who wrote most of the book of Psalms. But you know who got him into sin? Was his friend. Oh, but he had a friend. You better watch out who you're friends with. You better watch out who you let your kids be friends with. Because they can grow up in the house of the king here, but you know what? They can get damned to hell by some friend that's going to ruin their life and get them into sin. But look what this friend says. And Jonadab, I'm sorry, But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, verse 3, the son of Shimei, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very subtle man. Boy, that kind of reminds you of Sunday morning, right? Okay, I didn't even mention that one. And he said unto him, Why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day? Wilt thou not tell me? He says, Why are you so down? Why are you so depressed? I thought Christianity was so good. Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on my bed, and make thyself sick. And when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see it and eat it at her hands. So he says, I got an idea, Amnon. Why don't you pretend that you're sick, and then go lay in bed, and when your dad comes to see you when you're sick, have him send Tamar to cook you a meal and feed it to you. Wow, that's a great idea. So let's look at verse number 6. So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick. Now who gave him the idea? Jonadab. This is Jonadab's idea. This whole plan came from his friend Jonadab of how he's going to do this wicked sin with his sister. And the Bible says, And when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand. Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to thy brother Amnon's house, and dress him meat. So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was laid down, and she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. And she took a pan, and poured them out before him to eat, I'm sorry, before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, How about all men from me? And they went out every man from him. And Amnon said unto Tamar, Bring the meat into the chamber, that I may eat it at thy hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. And when she had brought them in to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me, for no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Do not thou this folly. And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? And as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king, for he will not withhold me from thee. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice, but be stronger than she forced her, and lay with her. Look at this verse. This is just astounding. And I remember when I first read this, it just blew my mind, boggled my mind. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly. Does that seem like the next thing that should come in the story? It doesn't really make sense, right? Remember how much he loved her? And fell sick for her, and he just had to have her. But look, it says he hated her exceedingly. So that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. And she said unto him, There is no cause. This evil in sending me away is greater than the others that did this unto me. But he would not hearken unto her. Then he called his servant, and ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her. And she had a garment of divers colors upon her, for with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servants brought her out and bolted the door after her. What a tragic story, what a terrible story. And what a horrible story in the word of God here. Amnon had a friend that got him into deception, got him into sin, got him into wickedness. But you know, when he got it, it wasn't really what he expected, was it? When he got what he wanted, you know, the world makes sin look so good. You know, you flip on the television, you look at the billboards on the street, you turn on the radio, and it all looks so fun. You look at the Budweiser ad, and you got these girls in bikinis and these big strong guys. They don't show the guy in the gutter who's had as little of his life from liquor. That's not what they show you. They show you some fake, phony person that's never drunk a drop of liquor in their life. They don't show you the guy who's got cirrhosis of the liver. And they don't show you some guy beating up his wife. And he's really Budweiser. They don't show you that, because it's all a big lie, kids. You listen to me, and you listen good. It's a big lie. Don't fall for the devil's tricks. And he's like a bullfighter. You ever seen people do bullfights? They got that red towel or whatever. Now, I've heard this, and I'm not an expert on this, but these matadors, when they're training these bulls, they take a red fleece or whatever, and they put something good behind it. I don't know. That's what somebody told me. And they train them, right? But when they go out there in the ring, is there anything good there? No, but the bull gets all excited. He's just got to have it. And he's so excited. And the matador's saying, Come on, come on, come and get it. It's good, it's good. But when he gets there, there's nothing there, is there? There's nothing there. Same thing here. The devil deceived this man, and he's saying, Just gratify your flesh. Just, if it feels good, do it whatever you want. Don't be lean from day to day. Don't be sad. Don't be down. Give yourself what you want. Don't deprive yourself of the things that the world has to offer. He says, Just take it. If you want it, just have it. And so, he says, Yeah, okay, I'll do that. But when he got it, it wasn't what it was cracked up to be. It wasn't what he wanted. He got tricked. But that's not even the worst part about the story. Look at this. This is found in verse number 32. And I don't have time. I'd like to go through this whole story, because there's so much in this chapter. You can read it maybe in your own time. Second Samuel 13. But there's a lot going on here. But look at verse 32. This is the next time we hear about Jonadab. The friend kind of disappears for the rest of the chapter. Then the next time we hear about Jonadab, who represents who? Satan, right? Okay. And Jonadab, the son of Shemaiah, David's brother, answered and said, Let not my Lord suppose that they have slain all the young men of the king's sons, for Amnon only is dead. For by the appointment of Absalom, this hath been determined from the day that he forced his sister, Tamar. So here's Jonadab basically telling on him, saying, Oh, don't worry about it, David. Let me tell you the whole story of how it happened. Amnon forced Absalom's sister, Tamar. Absalom found out about it. And Absalom murdered Amnon because he was so upset about what he'd done to his sister. So here's Jonadab, the guy whose idea it was. He forgot to mention that it was his idea. He just tells the story. He's just pointing the finger. Oh, yeah. Well, Amnon forced his sister again. Look at what Amnon's doing. Look at what your son is doing, David. Your son, Amnon, did this, and that's why he's dead. Boy, isn't that just like the devil? This is how the devil operates in everybody's life. He comes to you and he says, Do it. Just do it. It's not that bad. Don't worry about it. Do it. Do it. And as soon as you do it, he jumps around and says, What have you done? I can't believe you just did that. Oh, you're wicked. And don't even bother going to church. Don't even bother trying to get right with God. You're so far gone. I mean, look what you just did. None of the other people at church do this kind of stuff. Nobody who does this kind of stuff wins anybody the Lord. That's what he'll try and tell you. And he'll try and tell you, You're worthless. Just live it up, man. You're never going to be a good Christian. You might as well just go the other way. You're never going to live for God. Look what you've done. And so the devil, he's given you permission, given you permission. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. And then you do it, and it's like, I can't believe what you just did. And that's how the devil is. Don't listen to him. Don't listen to him over here. Don't listen to him over here. If you've done something wrong, hey, move on. The sun goes down every day, and it comes up again in the morning, and the Bible says, His mercies are new every morning. That means when you wake up in the morning, God's giving you a clean start and saying, I don't care what you did yesterday. I don't care if you read the Bible yesterday. I don't care if you didn't pray yesterday. You missed church yesterday. You lived in sin yesterday. You got drunk yesterday. It's over. It's gone. And here's a new beginning. Start out today and do right. You know what? I start out every single day just like you do, and today I had to decide today whether I was going to live for God or not. Just like you got to decide today whether you're going to live for God or not. The past has no bearing on it. God is a God of right now, as we preached several weeks ago. He said, My name is I Am. Not I was. Not I'm going to be. Not, yeah, I'm going to get around to that sometime. Yeah, when I'm ready. Or, yeah, I used to do that. I used to win souls. I used to go to church. I used to live for God. No, God says, I'm the God of right now. What are you doing right now? I lived a sinful past. Okay, but what about now? What about today? Oh, man, I used to live for God. Now. What are you doing now? 1357 times, I believe it was. The word now in the Bible. One little word now. 1357 times. That's an inordinate number of times. Because God is the God of now. Now. Sin never satisfies you. It's something, it's just like people who take drugs. They're always chasing the dragon. They want to go to the next level. They start out, it's alcohol. Then they move on to marijuana. Then they move on to the ecstasy. Is what I've seen people using a lot of when I was in high school. The ecstasy, the LSD. And pretty soon it doesn't even get them high. They just have to take it just to maintain normalcy. And they have to take something else to get them high. And it just goes on and on and on and on until they're living a life of misery. Until they're a slave and addicted. And their life goes to hell. Now, look. Don't listen to the devil. He's just trying to lie to you. But if you have listened to him, take the advice here in Hebrews chapter 10 where he says, Those that have been purged should have been, they should have had no conscience of sins. Don't have conscience of your old sins. Just move on. Just quit, quit getting all hung up about it. Forget about it. And let's move on and live for God now. All of us. Now let's go back to Hebrews chapter 10. And I want to show you this. In verse number 5, the Bible says, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, This is talking about Jesus Christ, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Look at verse 7. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice an offering in burnt offerings, an offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God. Boy, you hear a lot of talk in church, especially about the will of God. Constantly, preachers preach sermons about the will of God. Knowing the will of God. And I talk to so many people who actually get hung up on this thing. And they don't really end up doing anything wrong sometimes because they're just, I don't know God's will. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I've got to find God's will. I need some kind of a sign from heaven to tell me what God's will is. What is God's will? And you've got to pray, and you've got to find out what's God's will. Pastor Anderson, how did you know if it was really God's will for you to start this church? How did you know that it was God's will for you to come to Phoenix, Arizona? Well, I don't really buy that, to be honest with you. And that's taught almost in every church I've ever been to. But I don't really buy that whole philosophy, and here's why. I studied out this term, will of God. I just looked it up every time it occurs in the Bible. I looked at it, I looked at it, I looked at it. And every time, God is telling you what the will of God is. He's not telling you, you need to find out. You need to figure it out. You need to pray about it. You need to pray about what the will of God is. God says, I'll tell you what the will of God is. In 1 Thessalonians 4, I'm just going to blow through these real quick. You don't need to turn there. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 says, for this is the will of God. Hey, boy, all those people that were wondering what the will of God is, listen in for a second. This is what it is. He's going to tell us right now. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. God says, you know what my will is, sir? You want to know what I want? I want you to live a clean and pure and separated holy life, and I want you to abstain from fornication. That means I don't want you to live together when you're not married. That means I don't want you to sleep together with people that you're not married to. He says, I want you to abstain from fornication. That's my will. Oh, where am I supposed to live, God? You didn't tell me where to live. I don't care where you live. Just do what I said to do. That's what God wants to say. Do you think God cares where you live? Do you think God cares whether I go to Phoenix, Arizona, and knock a bunch of doors and get people saved, or if I go to Timbuktu because they're not getting it done anywhere? If I go any of those places, I'll be fine to get people saved anywhere. I can go to Constantinople and Timbuktu. It doesn't really matter. I can go to Phoenix, or I can go to Fresno. It doesn't matter. It matters if I do what this booksend I'm supposed to do. That's the will of God. And I don't sit around. I didn't pray about whether to come to Phoenix, Arizona. I asked somebody. I said, I'm going to ask him, God, and if you have any specific preference, just tell him, and I'll ask him, and whatever he tells me to do, I'm going to do it. I just walked up to somebody and said, where do you think I should go start a church? He said, Phoenix, Arizona. I said, okay. I got out of the plane. I got driven in the shuttle to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and I asked the lady behind the counter. I said, hi, I'm moving here to start a church. Where do you think would be a good place? And she said, Tempe. I said, okay. I don't care. Okay, that's where I started this church. Because God's will is to do what he said, and the Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. So I need to worry about being a good man, and God's going to order my steps. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths, God said. So as long as I acknowledge God, as long as I obey God, God's going to direct my paths. God's going to order my steps. Don't worry about what you don't know. Worry about what you do know. You read the Bible and say, well, there's a lot of stuff in here I don't understand. What about the part you didn't understand? Are you doing it? Because if you're not doing it, why would God teach you what the other part is? If you're not doing what you understand, why would God teach you the next thing? He's giving you too much information. You're not even going to know what to do with it because you didn't do the first thing he showed you. Why is he going to show you the second thing? That's the will of God. Another one right here, 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. What's the will of God? In everything, give thanks. Well, we live in such an unthankful society, just ungrateful, not thankful, especially not thankful to God, but just not thankful to anybody. So many times you run into it, you do something for them, and they don't even say thank you. And God is saying here, My will is that you give thanks in everything. Now, sometimes we can't necessarily give thanks for everything. Something bad happens, car accident. Now, Amanda was in a terrible car accident this week. I thought it was the most horrible one of us. Exactly. And so God's saying, Thank God for that car accident. Praise the Lord, my car is totaled. Hallelujah, I broke my foot. I mean, that's stupid, right? But God is saying, Hey, thank God I'm saved. Thank God I could have been killed in that kind of an accident. Thank God it wasn't worse than it was. Thank God that God loves me, and He takes care of me, and He blesses me in so many other ways. Thank God I live in America. He's saying in everything, in everything that you're going through, give thanks. That's my will. Here's another one, Ephesians chapter 6. Boy, and this one. One thing that I hate about my job is when I have to manage other people. I hate it. I hate having people, you know, employees, hiring people and everything like that. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers. That means they only work hard, you know, when the boss is around. He's watching them. Okay. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God. What? Doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men. God is saying here, my will, when you go to your job, you say, well, I'm not a preacher. I don't work for church. I don't have, you know, look, hey, I have a normal, I have a secular job. I mean, I work a fire alarm job 40 hours a week. And God is saying, when you go to your job, and I'm not saying you're working for church. It's just your job. I mean, I don't care what you're doing. When you go to your job, and when you obey the boss, and when you work hard like you're working for Jesus, not like you're working for that boss who might not be the exact boss that you want to be, but he says, when you obey that boss and you work hard for him, not just when he's looking, but when he's not looking, and you do it from the heart, like you were serving me when you do it, he says, that's God's will. God, you're doing God's will. You're doing a spiritual thing. You say, it's spiritual for me to go to work? Yeah, it's spiritual for you to go to work. But I wasn't praying, and I didn't see a light shine, and I didn't have an experience. I didn't tingle all over my body when I got up at work. I got up at 6 o'clock, and I went to work, and I showed up on time, and I worked hard. I didn't get any kind of tingle. I didn't get any kind of ethereal feeling. I didn't hear any hallelujah chorus in the background. But God says, no, those people are goofy that do that stuff. You're doing the will of God because you obeyed the boss, because you went to work, because you worked hard. That's God's will for you to work hard. It's God's will not to fornicate. It's God's will to be thankful and not be ungrateful, and it's God's will for you to go to work and work hard. Galatians 1.4, again, I'll just read this for you quickly. The Bible says here in Galatians 1.4, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. God says, my will is that you be delivered from this present evil world, that you be delivered from this attitude and this system that the rest of the world lives by, that you be delivered from this garbage where you just live for pleasure and you live for yourself and you don't care about anybody else. God says, I want to deliver you from that mess and show you something that's a little better way of living, like the Holy Bible, God's Word tells you to live, and he says, that's my will. So anyway, I could go on and on. I have several written down here. But God's saying, look, my will is not some spooky thing. My will is to do what I told you to do. How do you know God's will? Jesus said, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me in the book. It is written of me. I come to do thy will, O God. So where did Jesus find God's will? He found it in the book. He found it in the Bible. Where are you going to find God's will? By praying all night on your face somewhere, and there's going to be a light shine in the room, and you're going to feel a hand on your shoulder, and nobody was around. You know, somebody touched me. Touched by an angel. Isn't that some TV show? Touched by a demon. Touched by a lesbian pastor or whoever made that show. Anyway, it's for real. Hey, I know more about the show than you think I do. Anyway, God says, no, you find my will in the book. It is written of me. That's where you find God's will. You guys didn't watch that show anyway, right? Some goofy show. Sick. Watch anything except that. All right, let's go back to Hebrews 10. All right, we're going to have to skip ahead. This chapter is just extremely long, 39 verses, but look at verse number 24. Verse number 24. In verse number 24, the Bible says, And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Now, look, that word provoke, what do you think of when you hear the word provoke? He provoked me. What comes to mind? Anyone. Does anybody know what that means, provoke? Yes, sir, irritated. Irritated, that's good, exactly. Provoke means stir somebody up. Hey, man, hey, come on, man, stir him up a little. It's provoke, I think it means, I always thought of it as to make somebody mad. Does that sound pretty accurate? Irritate somebody a little bit, just by lighting a fire under somebody, as the expression goes. Well, look what he says here. He says, Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Now, boy, didn't Brother Jimenez preach a great sermon on Sunday night? That was fantastic. And, you know, he was doing a little stirring up about this thing of church attendance. Okay, he did a little provoking. You know, he was laying it out for us, and that's the kind of preaching that I like, and that's the kind of preaching that God's talking about right here. He says, Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not for, and it's the same sentence in verse 25, because there's a colon there at the end of verse 24, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. That's what this is right here. This is the assembling of ourselves together for church. Hebrews, throughout the book of Hebrews, talks about the church, talks about the congregation, and God is saying here, Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. And even if you have to make somebody a little mad to get that across to them, let them know, Don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. Okay, so there are some people who are forsaking it, for sure. But exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Now, this is very interesting to me. This is probably one of the most, I'd say this is probably the most negative in the entire New Testament, I think. This is probably the most negative passage right here. It's just God going on a tirade from Hebrews 10 26 through verse 31, where God just really lays it out toward Christians. Now, there are times throughout the Bible where God's wrath is revealed toward the unsaved, in hell and in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Okay, but that's toward the unsaved. But this is probably the most negative connotation to save people that I see in the entire New Testament. Look at this. And notice, it's right after God tells you, be faithful to church. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Look at verse 26. He starts out with a conjunction, four. Now, this is relating the idea. See the comma at the end of verse 26? I'm sorry, at the... Oh, wait, no, it's period. Oh, I blew my whole sermon. But anyway, he does say four at the beginning of 26... I'm sorry, I was talking about 25, though. All right, thanks for... Thanks for... Keep saying it's a comma, then maybe everybody else won't realize that it's not a comma. But anyway, it says at the end of 25, yeah, that's a period, but it says four if we sin willfully. Now, the four is relating us to what was just said because it's a conjunction. Four if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. Now, first, because most people interpret these as talking to unsaved people, these verses 26 through 31, and throughout my life that's the way I always say to priests, I'm going to prove to you quickly that this is talking to saved people. Let's do a little test, saved or unsaved. Verse 26, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth. That sounds like somebody who's saved, number one. Verse 27, let's see, verse 28, verse 29, okay. Of thou much source, punishment, suppose ye shall eat it thou worthy. Let's see, okay, look at the bottom. And accounted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified. So here's a guy who was sanctified by the blood of the covenant. That sounds like he's saved. I mean, he's been washed in the blood. He's been sanctified by the blood of the covenant. Now, let's look at verse 30. It says the Lord shall judge his people. His people, does that sound like saved or unsaved? Now, that sounds like saved. God's people are those that are saved. Now, I can't find anything in these verses to indicate that he's talking to unsaved people because he just finished telling people to go to church who were already saved. Then he said, these are my people. They've known the truth. They've been washed in the blood of the covenant, and he goes on and on. But listen to what he says, and I'm just going to read this for you, and you'll see how powerful this is. For if we sin willfully, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth. So this is somebody who willingly, they know what the Bible says. They know what they're supposed to be doing, and they just willfully say, I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to do what I want to do. I don't care what you say, God. For if we sin willfully, after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. He's saying it's not like in the Old Testament where people would just kind of abuse this thing, where they'd do something wrong, and they'd say, well, it's okay. I'll just bring the sacrifice, kind of like the Catholics do, where they say, well, I'm going to go out and get drunk and party and live it up on Mardi Gras, and then, you know, on Lent, I'm going to get it all right or absolved or what have you. Mardi Gras, the whole filthy holiday, you know, I turn on my stupid Internet today, and I see a picture of Barry Bonds in drag. That's what I see. I'm trying to do my work. I see Barry Bonds dressed up like a woman, and that's news. You think I'd give a flip if he's dressed in drag? I don't care about that garbage, but the whole point of Mardi Gras is a religious holiday. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday. Mardi means Tuesday, and gras means fat. So it's Fat Tuesday because the Wednesday, that's called Ash Wednesday, and that Ash Wednesday begins a 40-day period called Lent, and in this period of Lent, it's supposed to be, oh, they're fasting. Oh, they're getting ahold of God. They're living for God. So they say, well, hey, look, before Ash Wednesday, before we have to live for God, supposedly, what they think, afflicting their bodies and so forth, they think that that's godly to deprive themselves. They say, well, let's have Fat Tuesday, man. Let's live it up. Let's dress up like a woman. Now, I don't understand why that's fun, first of all, but let's go party. Let's go have a big bash. You know, you think they would have realized when God sent a hurricane and destroyed their wicked city, they would have realized that he doesn't like it, but they didn't, and they're just unashamed, unabashed. Hey, look at me. I'm dressed up like a woman, God. I don't care what you say, God. You know what? What a wicked, stupid religion that tells you, go out and party and get drunk and live it up so that you can get right with God again tomorrow. And that's what he's talking about here, people saying, well, we can sin willfully after the knowledge of the truth, and then we'll go down and get it right. Kind of like in the Old Testament, people were abusing this. In the Old Testament, they'd abuse it. They'd do wrong and say, well, I can just go down to the temple and bring my sheep and sacrifice it. Now, let's think about what that sheep represents that they're bringing down to the temple. It represents Jesus Christ. So they say, I don't care that what I'm doing is one day going to murder the Son of God on the cross who's the Lamb of God. I don't care. I'm just going to live it up and bring this sheep down and cut its throat and set the blood on the altar because it's just an animal, right? No, it's Jesus Christ. No, it's the Son of God being butchered on a cross, going to hell for your sins. It's not an animal. It's God. And maybe if they would have thought that through and maybe if they would have understood this, they wouldn't have just said, you know, I'll just do this sacrifice for my sins. I'll say, yeah, I'm sinning willfully. I don't care. But look, if we sin willfully after that, we've received the knowledge of the truth. There remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Now, in verse 28, God's making a comparison to the Old Testament. He that despised Moses' law, talking Old Testament, died without mercy under two or three witnesses. He's saying that penalty was brought out back then, man, when people sinned and committed adultery and did wickedness. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy? Boy, God's really lightened up in the New Testament, hasn't he? Boy, it doesn't sound like it. He's saying in the New Testament, of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God. Boy, that's kind of like what we were talking about, just devaluing Jesus on the cross. And accounted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing than is done despite under the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. Recommense means to pay somebody back. And God says, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. Look at verse 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now this is not talking about unsaved people and this is not talking about going to hell because of course a saved person cannot go to hell. A saved person has been given eternal life. God says you've been passed from death to life and shall not come into condemnation. And if you come into any kind of condemnation for your sins before God and go to hell, then God's a liar. And God's going to have to stop being God. But God said, they shall not come into condemnation. They've been passed from death to life. I give unto them eternal life and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. But look, God is saying here, if you sin willfully after that you've received the knowledge of the truth. You've been saved. You know what you're supposed to do. And you just say, I'm not going to do it. I don't care, God. And hey, the blood of Jesus Christ is going to save me from my sins anyway. I'm going to go to heaven anyway. It's all been paid for by the blood. So I'm just going to go ahead and tread under my feet the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant wherewith I have been sanctified an unholy thing and do despite unto the Spirit of grace. And God says, well, wait a second. Don't forget what God said. Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord, and the Lord shall judge his people. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now look, in the Old Testament, remember the story of Job. We talk about it often. It's a fantastic story from the Bible. But God said to Satan, behold, he is in thine hand. So Job was in whose hand? Satan's hand. He said, behold, he's in thine hand. He says, do whatever you want with him, but here's the boundaries. Don't touch his body. You can touch anything that he has, but don't touch him. Then later, they up the ante, so to speak, and God says to him, do whatever you want with him, but you can't kill him. Now who's in control here of what Satan is allowed to do? God is holding back Satan. Satan can only do what God has allowed him to do, even though God says he's in your hand, Satan. Now whose hand do you want to be in? Satan's hand or God's hand? You don't want to be in God's hand, because when you're in Satan's hand, you've got God holding Satan back, saying this is all you can do. When you're in God's hand, nobody's holding him back. When it says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, when you're in God's hand and God says, okay, buddy, you think you can do whatever you want, son? You think you can just live sinful after you've had the knowledge of the truth and just willfully sin against me, willfully do wrong? God says, you know what, you're in my hand now, buddy, and nobody can stop me from what I'm going to do to you, because God says, you know, there are people that God disciplines and chastens, and there are other people who God even kills. Now the person who's living for God, or the person that's at least moving the right direction, they may not be perfect, none of us are perfect, but they're at least moving the right direction, they're trying to purify themselves, they're trying to live for God, they're going the right direction, God may choose to put that person in the hand of the devil so that the devil can afflict them a little bit, but that's for their benefit. Just like it was for Job's benefit, Job came out on the other end twice the man that he was before. He came out with humility, which he had pride before, he came out with a humble spirit, because he spent some time in the hand of the devil. That was good for him. But then there's the person who's going the wrong direction, who's already been over here, they already know the truth, they already know what's right, and they turn around and start going the other way, the backslider, the person who's backslidden. And I've talked about this many times with my wife, but you know, the one person that I can't get along with, and you probably thought I'd get along with everybody, you thought that everybody loves me, but some people that I can't get along with, now I can get along, let's say this represents, let's say this wall right here represents just the totally perfect consecrated Christians. None of us is going to be totally there. And then let's say this represents just the most wicked, sinful person who's, they're saved, but that's about it, okay, but they're doing everything wrong, and they're living in sin. Right here, let's say this is the spectrum. You're somewhere on this spectrum tonight. But here's the more important thing. More important than whether you're on this side or on this side is which direction you're facing is far more important. And I have gotten along, I can get along great with somebody who's over here, get along great with them. When they're going this way, I can get along great with them, no problem at all. But you know what I can't stand is somebody who's all the way over here even. And the further over here it is, the more irritating it is to be around somebody who's over here, but they're facing this way. That's the person that I can't get along with because they've seen it all, they've known it all, and they've just willfully decided to go more liberal, less fundamental, more sinful, more worldly. Churches who were once like this church is, but they're moving this way makes me sick. But somebody who's over here, but they're going this way. And you say, well, good night, this guy, he's all the way over here. I just want to hang out with him. I don't want anything to do with that guy because he's going the wrong direction. Somebody who's over here, how can you hang around with these people? Look what they're doing. Yeah, but they're moving the right direction. And so God says people who know the truth and willfully disobey God's word, he says, I will recompense them, I will judge them. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And so God says you cannot get away with sin and just get by with it, do whatever you want. It's not going to happen. Pretty powerful verses here in Hebrews chapter 10. But look at this right here, and I want to hurry up because it's getting a little bit late, but look at verse 32. And this is the other side of the spectrum because you never want to judge somebody ever. This is for you to examine yourself. You never want to judge somebody when something bad happens, that it's because they are being disciplined by God like verses 26 through 31 talk about. Because look at verse 32. Here's the other side of the coin. But call to remembrance the former days. And you remember back a long time ago, in which after ye were illuminated, now the illuminated is the same word as the received the knowledge of the truth in verse 26. So now we're seeing the other side of the coin here. In verse 26 they received knowledge of the truth and then they just sinned willfully, they got out of church, they got into sin, etc. In verse 32 it says, but call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions. So God's saying, remember how when you first got saved, or remember how when you first started living for God, you endured a great fight of afflictions. He says, remember how just everything went bad and remember what a fight it was for you to get out of the sinful lifestyle and to get into the right kind of a church. And look at verse 33. Partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, but look at the second part. And partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. So God's saying, either or, if you just got saved, illuminated, or if you started living for God, or if you just associated yourself with people that are living for God. Remember all the bad things that started happening to you is what he's saying. You know, if you get associated with a church like this, hey, you better like to fight because there's going to be some fight, both spiritual and sometimes even physical. But anyway, the point is, there's going to be some fighting. And God says, remember when you were illuminated? Remember when you became companions of those that lived for God? Remember the fight of afflictions? Remember the things that happened? Remember the persecution? Remember just the friction among family members, perhaps? Remember the friction of getting rid of these old habits and trying to move forward and it seems like the devil is just fighting you? So some people may not be disciplined as much as just when you first get saved or when you first start coming to a church like this or you first try to live for God, the devil is going to try to oppose you. God said it right here. He said it. He's writing to a lot of people and he's saying, remember how that's how it was? So it seems like that's going to happen. If you don't have any problems, if things don't go wrong for you, if you don't have any troubles in life, you're not living for God, period. Because whenever you move, whenever there's movement, there's friction and it creates heat and it creates discomfort. And somebody who's really moving for God, boy, there's fighting, there's problems, but somebody who just sits around and does nothing, not a lot of friction, not a lot of problems, not a lot of troubles, but I want to move anyway. I don't care. I'm going to endure the pain and move forward for God. And the Bible says in verse 35, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. We're going to be rewarded if we hang in there. For we have need of patience that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry it. It's talking about Jesus coming back. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, it's talking about the backslider that we read about in verses 26 through 31, who draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. For we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, thank you so much for the word of God and thank you for Hebrews chapter 10. And Lord, we have to skip so much just for sake of time. Such a great chapter. But Father, what we did read and what we did hear preached, I pray that you would just ingrain it into our minds and burn it into our souls and help us to endure the great fight of afflictions that you talked about in verse 32. And to keep moving forward, to press toward the mark of the high calling of God, forgetting those things which are behind, not sin willfully after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the matter of some is, but so much the more as we see the day approaching the second coming of Jesus Christ. Father, bless us as we go and be with us as we're dismissed. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.