Keeping Near, Keeping On (Part 1 of 2)

Is it possible for someone to profess faith in Jesus Christ and then later change course and begin to drift away today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begged teachers what the book of Hebrews says about those who persist in their faith and those who fall away, his message is titled keeping near keeping on from our series called fix our eyes on Jesus God our father, we just pray for your gracious hand and help now as we open our Bibles semi-not interested in simply hearing the voice of a man giving his ideas on an ancient oak, but it is our conviction that when your word is truly preach that your voice is really hard and so we sit listening for your voice along here in our prayers for Jesus sake. Amen. One of the recurring themes of the letter of Hebrews is the fact that continuance in the Christian life, keeping near and keeping on, is one of the key tests of the reality of our profession of faith in the same way as few of us in being asked about the reality on the marriage relationship would go in our pockets and produce a legal document or wedding certificate if you like. Few of us would want in talking about our Christian experience to think about it, as some static event that was locked somewhere in the past with marriage. We would talk about the up-to-date nature of what is going on the privileges, the joys, perhaps the challenges the struggles but nevertheless we would have things about the relationship to say concerning the last 24 hours and so it is that in Christian faith are expressions of its reality ought to be directly related to our present tense experience and throughout the letter in order to make sure that people don't wander from the track. The writer has been providing a succession of promises and warnings the promises to be brought to our hearts for our encouragement and the warnings to be heated so that we don't end up in bypass meadow the warnings and some of them are severe, as is the one to which were about to turn. I should not be misunderstood to teach that genuine believers can fall away and be lost, but rather just in the same way as accidents are prevented by people obeying the warning signs that are put along the road on for our safety.

So accidents are prevented in the dangerous journey of Christian testimony to prevent us from falling off the track and I want to remind you one or two these warnings.

First of all, in Hebrews chapter 2, and in verse one, the writer says we need to pay more careful attention.

Therefore, to what we have haired so that we do not drift away so that we do not drift away towards there's a possibility that some who profess faith will drift away. What is the antidote pay careful attention pay careful attention to what what you have hair. What have you heard with her the message of the gospel chapter 3 in verse six similar emphasis we are. He says his house if important word.

We hold onto our courage and the whole of which we boast. We do not hold on to our courage in the hope of which we boast then of course we are in his house that's really say verse 14 we have come to share in Christ. If we hold firmly till the end. The confidence we had at first these people started off with a great show of faith for the great burst of enthusiasm. They were like plants that just seem to spring right out of the ground and they went up in no time at all and be was at my this is a marvelous garden.

This is a terrific crawl. What an amazing response to the witnessing and preaching of the word of God and then you turn around, is it where you turn back and did all begun to shrivel and they began to die at the parable of the sword. Incidentally, some who received the seed instantly bloomed and instantly faded and their instant fading was an indication of the five that there had never been a realistic root structure so as to be indicative of genuine faith. The New Testament warns us both by precept and by example that some professing Christians may not persevere in their profession of Christ to the end of their life's solemn thought, but it is clearly there on the surface of Scripture verse two of chapter 4 for we also have had the gospel preached to us just as they did, but in the lead in the case of these individuals were told the message they had was of no value to them because those who haired it did not combine it with faith. Sally tree reminder that it is possible to attend a church like Parkside church to listen to the ministry of the word of God from the servants of the word of God in this place, and for it to be like water falling on concrete absolutely impervious to its truth. All kinds of information rattling around in our heads. Nothing that is reached, our hearts, nothing that is commandeered our wills and nothing that is change our lives is one of the reasons that the James says don't just be hearers of the word but be doers. Also, as if somehow or another.

There was an option right you could just be here for you to be a hero process is nobody say he saying it is in the doing of the word that we reveal the father were genuine hearers, because even the pagans can hear the word but is of no value to them because they don't combine it with faith.

When we combine it with faith and we do it it says and it is in the doing of what it says that we give reality to the five that we have ears to hear what is being proclaimed.

Chapter 6 and verse eight in very graphic picture describing a horticultural scene and agricultural scene as being indicative of life. He says land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed, and in the end it will be burned and is using that there is a is a picture of the lives of men and women who in hearing the word of God do not produce the fruit that God intends but instead produce weeds and thistles and thorns. Notice follows all the way through when you get to chapter 10 and verse 25. You find that he is issuing an expectation there which needs to be understood in light of all of these warnings. He says let's not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, why not because absenteeism from our gatherings may reveal an absenteeism from the Lord Jesus himself. It's difficult to say which comes first in the life of a backslider whether they absent themselves from worship first and then they drift away from Jesus. I think in most cases, they drift away from Jesus and then they absent themselves from worship and read their Bibles. They don't pray them not involving a witness.

They have no personal worship may have no interest in things buddy. Keep up the pretense is by showing up at the gathered meetings and then eventually they drift away from the gatherings and it becomes apparent to the general public, or there must be something wrong with Joe. There must be something wrong with Karen. Whatever it is, what is it while it is that they have been heeding the warnings that have been there all the way through. And now, finally, it is become a matter of public and obvious experience.

That is why you see when we exhort one another to attend the meals on the Lord's day, and they all seem very self-serving on the part of those of us who have been called to the task of preparing the meals, but loved ones.

It's not ultimately about it is because God has ordained the means whereby men and women will continue to the end and be saved and one of the key means that he has ordained to ensure that you and I don't become castaways is the gathering of his people in the experience of worship and in the study of the Scriptures and we neglect the means to continuance at our peril. Now it is no surprise to me than to discover that after this statement in verse 25 he comes to issue one of the most solemn warnings in all of his letter is akin to what we saw Inver in chapter 6 and verses 4 to 8, which are those of you know the Bible. No theology a little bit know that these are the apostasy passages in Hebrews.

These are the passages in Hebrews which describe people who turn their backs on the Lord with such a dramatic and decisive expression of their rebellion and continue in that perspective to the end of their lives revealing thereby that although they once walked the walk talk the talk sang the songs hung with the crowd I'm going to fight you were never genuinely belonging to Jesus, a tall, and so in the course of things not because it's pleasant, but because it is necessary we find ourselves under the instruction. First of all of this solemn warning which is contained between verses 26 and 51.

I will try to balance my time in such a way so as to a finish on a positive note, simply because I want to be positive, but because the balance of the text here moves in that direction and I would be doing a disservice to the thought is expressed. If I only got as far as my first point so we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed but we are those who believe in our Savior's two groups here. They all start out on the same track. They all say the same things they all march to the same drumbeat, but some shrink back and are destroyed and some continue under, say, the question is which group are you in just in case were in the wrong group. He issues a solemn warning, because clearly as you read verse 26 and following. There were those who were not simply neglected the gatherings, but they had drifted from their own particular moorings to the truth of God in Christ that what may have appeared at first in their lives as an evidence of spasmodic doubting had grown to persistent unbelief and is now expressed itself in a convinced opposition not simply to the followers of Jesus, but Jesus himself is very very important we understand what is being written off here. This is, as I said akin to Hebrews chapter 6 when we studied Hebrews 6428. We noted that the writer was clearly not referring to genuine believers who have failed who had stumbled who had temporarily lost interest in the things of Christ. If we are honest, that experiences something through which all of us will go from time to time.

He is not describing that as Calvin says there is a great difference between individual lapses and a universal desertion of this kind is not something you woke up one morning and didn't know what he wanted be in the Army anymore who can decide we want to put his uniform on and go out and parade and Symantec condensate eight you missed don't do that again tomorrow and he was back again tomorrow. This is not some who had a temporary lapse. This is someone who was a total deserter to the uniform trashed it burned it said I have nothing to do with this. I have no interest in this. I'm out of here and gone. It is as if I was never a member of this that is what he is this right is very important because sensitive souls who are the least indication of the fight that they may be finding themselves in the chapter will apply this to themselves and make themselves psychologically unstable, while those of us who are proud and boastful don't apply to ourselves and we need to be made unstable on the challenges of dealing with apostasy passages.

You get all the telephone calls from the people don't need to call you and you know telephone calls from the people need to. Such is the perversity of the human mind.

Why don't need that yes you do. How do you know you said you needed so let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls like she who is years here. These are individuals were told who have received the knowledge of the truth. They have recognized to some degree the validity of the gospel. They have embraced it, at least intellectually, as a formulated system of life and belief by the eye. They have never experienced it as a life-giving force, something that transformed and changed them and it is of these people that he is speaking once again Pilgrim's progress is probably my biggest help as I studied Hebrews, especially in these passages, and if you remember your Pilgrim's progress et al. you will remember that one of the characters to whom we are introduced along the journey. Page hundred and 76. In this version is a chap by the name of temporary temporary and Christian and hopeful or talking to one another in Christian says well then, you know, about 10 years ago one temporary in your parts, who was a forward man in religion then hopeful says no and yes he dwelled in graceless town about 2 miles off of honesty and he dwelled next door to a guy by the name of turning back. Christian says right.

He dwelled under the same roof with him while that man was much awakened once. I believe that then he had some sight of his sins and of the wages that were due to sin.

Hopeful says I'm of your mind for my house not being about 3 miles from him. He would oftentimes come to me and that with many tears, truly, I pity the man was not altogether without hope of him, but one may see it is not everyone the Christ, Lord, Lord, that shall be see Christian says he told me once that he was resolved to go on a pilgrimage as we go now but all of a sudden he grew acquainted with one save self. And then he became a stranger to me and then he goes on to describe the way in which that might happen to an individual goes on to describe the way in which backsliding takes place. Kind of old-fashioned word self-explanatory. Sliding backwards rather than marching forwards. Christian says I think I know how it happens.

Hopeful says, how does it happen he says will is is out happens is what people do. First, they draw off their thoughts although they may from the remembrance of God. Death and judgment to come, so they quit thinking about God, life, death, eternity, then they cast off by degrees. Their private duties, private prayer deceased occurred their lusts, they don't sorrow over sin, then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians they go with the wrong crowd. Then they grow cold to public duty. The hearing in the reading and the godly communion of the saints, and the like, and then they begin to pick holes as we say in the coach of some of the godly and that devilishly that he may have a seeming color to throw religion. And then they begin to adhere to associate themselves with carnal and loose and wanton men, and then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret. I'm glad they are if they can see such things in that they are counted honest that they made a more boldly do it through their example and after this they begin to play with little sins openly and then being hard and they show themselves as they are just being launched again into the Gulf of misery unless a miracle of grace prevented everlastingly parish in their own deceiving's is heavy-duty and that is the reason why the Bible and Hebrews. In particular, is replete with these warnings, we are not those who swing back and are destroyed. He sets we are not these individuals would've these individuals do while verse 29 tells us first of all, they trampled the son of God underfoot, what is that mean to trampled the son of God underfoot the same word that is used by Jesus in the sermon on the mound where he talks about salt that is lost its savor, he says, is good for nothing BMIs what is going walk on to say more than he uses later on in the same gospel to describe what the pigs were doing to the perils. He said he'll cast your pearls before swine because they'll just go and gather hoops all over it and here the writer says that's what these individuals are done, they have trampled all over Jesus. It's the reverse of what Paul is saying in Philippians 3. Remember in Philippians 3 he says there were all these things in my life that used to be so significant to me of my religion and all my good deeds and all the things that they attach significance to and he said, but when I got a site of who Jesus is and understood why he had come.

Then I counted all this stuff is garbage for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ. This individual counts. Jesus Christ is garbage for the sake of knowing all this other stuff is reminiscent trampled underfoot. So for those of you are here and you're stumbling in your Christian life and your say I better take care. Of course you should, but I presume you're not trampling Christ. They were profaning or treating is on an unholy thing. The blood of the covenant. Whatever else that means it surely means that they were treating the death of Jesus is this just feeling the death of any man.

These individuals had previously been marked by some dedication to God by some professing of faith in Christ blood.

They had sat if you like of the Lord's supper. They had suggested to themselves and to the others around them that the symbol was an expression of reality, but they were in fact the cousins of Judas Iscariot, who was real close and did the right stuff and made the right noises, but he was reprobate who were not relying on our attachments to religious stuff. Our attendance simply to religious duties of an overview of your Bible open. You will notice that it says that they treated as an unholy thing.

The blood of the covenant that sanctified him and I should immediately strike you as a problem because you look at values he will if he was sanctified does not mean that he was a Christian can you be sanctified without being a Christian I see before I come to the troublesome phrase, let me lay down on a sheet of paper all the things that aren't troublesome about this particular question, let me lay down what the Bible categorically says about whether a person can be a Christian and fall away from grace. Then I'll come back to this race. What I know.

While I know first of all that Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice to follow him. He calls him by name.

He gives them eternal life. No one will ever perish, and no one will pluck them out of his hands or write add-ons and Jesus said once you're in his hand you're not coming out categorical statement then I'll read Romans eight the end of Romans eight.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Neither persecution or trial, nakedness, or peril, or sword. All these things were more than conquerors write that down and alerted Philippians 1M confidently you began a good working you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.

In other words, God is not the author of unfinished business.

What he starts in complete I would've first Peter now remind myself that we been born again of a living hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

We have an inheritance that is imperishable For us in heaven and we are guarded or By God's power for that day. I would've Paul's words. I know my have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to them against that day and that's just the start and I'll proceed from there I will lay down the clear instruction of Scripture as to whether a genuine believer can be lost and I will conclude on the clear balance of Scripture that it is not possible what the Bible teaches is that when we have been redeemed by Christ. When we have been brought into the orbit of his grace that he brings to completion the good work that he is begun in its then I'll come back to this race and I'll deal with this phrase in light of what I know to be true, and I will know that this phrase cannot overturn the clear and plain instruction of Scripture.

Then I will make sense of this phrase in light of the totality of biblical exposition now. Enough said. You must go on and get your own recipe books out and cook for a while in your own but I wanted you to know it is a little bit of a problem and I don't want you thinking I was trying to skip course if you want to just go ahead and teach that genuine believers can invite lose their salvation and then you don't have a problem with this phrase problem with all the other verses that I just mentioned to show how big of a problem. Would you like that's right not only as God's saving grace and imperishable inheritance. For believers it represents God's longing to draw near to those who follow him listing to Alastair big in the message titled keeping mere keeping on a Truth for Life were always on the lookout for materials that reinforce the teaching you hear on this program today were offering a book that perfectly complements our current series.

It's written by Ed Welch called created to draw near. In this book Ed Welch explores our spiritual lineage is believers. He starts in Genesis and traces the biblical theme of priesthood through topics like our falling to see them. God's covenant with Israel Jesus our tabernacle and what all that means in terms of our relationship with God created to draw near, shows that we are created for connection to God because were part of a royal priesthood, through our faith in Christ.

Would love to send you a copy of the book. Get yours when you give a donation to support the mission and ministry of Truth for Life request created to draw near online at truthforlife.org/donate or click the book image you see on the mobile app can also call to make a donation.

The number is 888-588-7884. Your financial support goes directly toward fulfilling the mission of truth for like to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance so that unbelievers will be converted and come to a saving faith in Christ, so that those who already believe will gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures be more established in their faith and so that both pastors and congregants will be encouraged to rely solely on the Bible for their worship and fellowship in the book of Hebrews.

It's made very clear that God's judgment on those who drift from the truth is severe tomorrow Alastair big helps us understand God's provision for staying the course on Bob Lapine. The Bible teaching of Alastair big is furnished by truth for line where the Learning is for Living