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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good afternoon everyone, please turn your hymnals to hymn number 40. Hymn number 40. Music Hymn number 40, No Disappointment in Heaven. Verse, verse. There's no disappointment in heaven, Though fear is sorrow or pain, Though hearts are bleeding and broken, No song without honor refrain, The clouds of earthly horizon, Will never appear in the sky, For all will be sunshine and brightness, With ever a sun or a sky, I love that beautiful city, My Lord has prepared for His own, Where all the redeemed of all ages, Sing glory around the white throne, Sometimes you grow up sick from heaven, And the glory is that there shall be hope, What a joy that will be when my Savior has seen, The beautiful city of will, We'll never pay rent for our mansion, Love's passes will never come due, Our garments will never go threadbare, But ours be faithless and new, We'll never lean on weight or their seed, Our ancient property better, For all the rich bounties of heaven, This sanctified children will share, I bow to that beautiful city, My Lord has prepared for His own, Where all the redeemed of all ages, Sing glory around the white throne, Sometimes you grow up sick from heaven, And the glory is that there shall be hope, What a joy that will be when my Savior has seen, The beautiful city of will, We'll never pay rent for our mansion, Love's passes will never go threadbare, My Lord has prepared for His own, We'll never lean on weight or their seed, My Lord has prepared for His own, We'll never lean on weight or their seed, Our ancient property better, We'll never lean on weight or their seed, For all the rich bounties of heaven, This sanctified children will share, I bow to that beautiful city, My Lord has prepared for His own, Where all the redeemed of all ages, Sing glory around the white throne, Sometimes you grow up sick from heaven, And the glory is that there shall be hope, The Savior has seen, That beautiful city of will. Alright, let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you that we are able to come back here and gather around to worship your name and to hear your word. And God, we thank you for brother Joe Jones, that he is able to preach for us again tonight. And Lord, we pray all this in your name, Amen. Please turn to hymn 410. Hymn number 410. Hymn 110. Hymn 110. How to make your first verse. In paths along the hills of light, Ye Christian soldiers rise. And rest the battle ere the night Shall fill the glowing skies. Against the flow when males below Let all your strength be heard. Then is the victory we know, that overcomes the world. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world. And on the second, He's better over us, as long as for the word of God, which, when the world is safe so long, shall try and trod. But with the high, the world was breast-wept on her every field. The big, high boots they conquer dead, is still a shining shield. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world. And the third, on every hand, the fold we find, gone up in dread array. The tessibees we left behind and onward to the fray. Salvation's found, then on each hand, the tranquil herd of boughs. The earth shall tremble, we'll have a trip, and we'll go with our shout. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world. And the last, to him that overcomes the world. Why freedom shall be given, before the angels he shall know, his name confess in heaven. To know her, the hills of life, her hearts full of the flame, will they push on the hearts of God, in Jesus' common name. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world. All right, lastly, please turn to him, 198. Hymn 198. Hymn 198, joy unspeakable. I have found his grace is all complete, he supplyeth every need. While I sit and learn, and Jesus speak, I am free as free indeed. Into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, all the half that has never yet been told. I have found the pleasure I once dreamed, with his joy and peace within. What a wondrous blessing I have seen, from the awful ghost of sin. Into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, all the half that has never yet been told. I have found the hope so bright and clear, living in the realm of grace. Oh, the Savior's presence is so new, I can see his smiling face. Into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, into joy unspeakable, and full of glory, all the half that has never yet been told. On the last I have found the joy no tongue has seen, how it waves of glory roll. It is like the grain overflowing, but springing up within my soul. It is joy unspeakable, and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, it is joy unspeakable, and full of glory, all the half that has never yet been told. Welcome back, everyone. We'll be back in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. The Bible reads, For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of things, that can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect, for then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. More for when he cometh into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering that wouldest not, but a body hast not prepared me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 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 and burnt offerings, an offering for sin that wouldest not, neither hast pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. For henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever then that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he hath said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil that is to say his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promise. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for a judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore of punishment, suppose ye, shall ye thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Adventures belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people, and is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days, and which after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly, whilst ye were made of dazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion in me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense and reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Now the judge shall live by faith, and if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Pray. Thank you, Lord, for this chapter. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us all here together again to praise your name. Go, brother Joe, with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, good afternoon. It's good to see everybody again. Originally, I was going to preach something different. You know, I had a different topic lined up, but I'll preach a shorter one because I'm not sure how long my voice is going to last. But, yeah, we're there in Hebrews chapter 10. The first part of Hebrews chapter 10, before verse 23, which we're going to come to here in a second, which is the title for my sermon, is talking a great deal about eternal security, okay? It's talking about eternal security. And I just want to go through some verses on eternal security before we start the sermon as an introduction because it's going to not only help us all, but it's going to make the rest of the sermon more easily, easier to be understood, if that makes sense. So turn over, keep your place there in Hebrews. But go to John chapter 10. Go to John chapter 10. As you may or may not know this, but most people that profess to be Christians, that have a profession of faith, they don't really believe in eternal security. And what does that mean? Well, first of all, it means they're not safe. If you don't believe in eternal security, then that means you're trusting in something other than Jesus Christ to keep you safe. That's what that means. And so John chapter 10, look at verse 25. We'll start there. It says, so John chapter 10, verse 25, it says, Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not. The works that I do, I do in my Father's name. They bear witness of me. And look at verse 26, it says, but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And look at verse 28, it says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. In verse 29, it says, my Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. And then in verse 30, he says, I and my Father are one. But look again there at verse number 28, it says, and I give unto them eternal life. So we can see that eternal life, life that never ends, right? Everlasting life is a gift. It is given to those of us that believe. He says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, right? They will never perish, never expire, never go to hell. He says, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Here, Cady, come here for a second. Let me just illustrate this. Sometimes I like to do this to people because it kind of puts it in perspective. So let's say that I'm Jesus. Cady in here, he gets saved, right? Which would be a great thing if this kid would get saved one of these days. But we're still working on it. We're still working on it. We gotta get Rick and Mike saved first. I'm saved. Okay, so look at this. So let's pretend I'm a ward, right? I'm Jesus Christ, I've got him in my house. So if you read the verse, it says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So even if he lets go, so you go ahead and let go of me, right? He's let go. Who's doing the holding? I am, right? That's what this verse is saying. He can't pluck himself out of my hand. Why? Verse 29, my father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. See? So even if he wants to let go and say, oh, I'm gonna live a life of sin, I'm gonna backslide, I'm gonna do all this crazy stuff. Yeah, he's gonna get chasin', right? He's gonna get spankin', but nonetheless, I've got him. He cannot escape. Go ahead and sit down. So that's kind of like a, I know it's kind of goofy, but it puts it into perspective, and sometimes I do that because it helps teens and kids really understand eternal security, but that's what he's saying here. If you look at verse 28, who's doing the holding here? Is it you or is it Jesus Christ? It says, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So once you are saved, you are saved forever. Nobody could ever take you out of Jesus' hand, and I mean, we could prove this for years. I mean, there's so many sermons you could write about this, but turn over to Ephesians. Go to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. It's such an easy thing to us, but for some reason, our culture and in this world, people have been brainwashed into this idea that you have to be somewhat good, you have to do something, or you have to maintain a certain lifestyle to be saved. You have to continually offer something kind of like the priest did, and that's just simply not true. So Ephesians chapter one, look at verse number 13. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. It says, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise. So what's going on here in this verse? It says, in whom ye also trusted, but when do you trust? After that ye heard the word of truth. So you hear the gospel preached, you hear God's word, you make the decision in your heart to trust, to believe, right? And then what happens? It says you are sealed, right? You are sealed with what? With that holy spirit of promise. So go over to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, and look at verse 30. So somebody might ask the question, okay, well, I see that you're sealed with holy spirit of promise, but how long? Right? Are you sealed until the end Are you sealed until the next time you sin? Until you agree to sin? Until you don't go to church a certain amount of times a week? What? What is it? Well, the Bible has the answer. Look at verse 30. Ephesians chapter four, verse 30. It says, actually look at verse 29. Sorry, back up to verse 29. He says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that I mean minister grace unto the hearers. And look at verse 30. And grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. It doesn't say that you're sealed until the next time you sin or until you get right with God. You're sealed until the day of redemption. And I heard this idiot named Tim Conway say, well, seals were made to be broken and you can break it if you don't repent of all your sins because in the Bible it says we're being saved. Problem is he's reading a new King James, which does say that you're being saved. But our Bible, our King James Bible, God's word says that you are saved, that it is instantaneously. You're born again once you decide to place your faith and trust on Lord Jesus Christ. And then now finally go back to Hebrews chapter 10. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Let's see here. Look at verse, look at verse number 10. We'll start there. Hebrews 10, 10. And then that brings us to this here where he says by which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all, forever. Look at verse 11. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. So notice what it says there. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. This is teaching eternal security here that once you are saved, once you receive this offering, it's forever. Look at verse 13. From henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever, forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them. And then verse 17. In their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And that's why he says in verse 18, now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. So once you are saved, you are saved forever, God's not holding your sins over you. I think I mentioned this last week about the Chick tract and how a lot of Baptists will teach that you're gonna get to the judgment seat of Christ and God's gonna be like, okay, you said this word on this day, you flipped this guy off in traffic two weeks ago, and bring up all these things. No, he says in their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now does that mean that we can just live how we want and not get chastened from God? No, of course not. We've talked about that before. And finally, let's look at verse 23 because this is where I get the title for my sermon. He says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised. Well, what did he promise? He promised, for example, in Titus chapter one, verse two, it says in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So even before the world began, as much as the dispensationalists don't want to admit it, God promised us eternal life and that it would be a free gift. And so the title of my sermon is how to hold fast your profession of faith. So what he's talking about here is not how to hold your salvation, right? It says let us hold fast the profession of our faith, the profession of our faith. Hey, look, he's saying, hey, you profess to be saved by faith. You profess to be saved. You profess to be a Christian. You profess to be on God's side. Now you need to hold fast. What does that mean? Well, if you're ever in the military, a real popular command is to stand fast. They'll run around. Hey, you stand fast. Hey, stand fast. What does that mean? It means don't move. And that's exactly what he's telling us here. Hold fast, so don't move. You know, be steadfast, be unwavering, be rock solid in what you believe. You say you're a Christian, now act like it. So why preach this sermon? I've got five reasons why this sermon needs to be preached. Number one, it's a commandment. You don't have to turn there, but in John chapter 14, verse 15, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Right, and it's a reasonable thing. We should love God because he died on the cross force and forgave us of our sins. Point number two, it's God's desire. In John chapter four, verse 23, it says, but the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. And that's a slap in the face to the Catholics and all their idolatry. We're to worship God in spirit and in truth, and you do that by reading the Bible, by preaching the gospel, and all the things that we've already mentioned this morning. Number three, bad times are coming and the mission cannot be compromised. I think it was Moses was talking yesterday about how Pastor Mendez will say, you know, either you're in a storm, you're on your way out, or if you're out of a storm, you know, everything seems to be fine with your life, everything's going good, you're about to go in one, right? You may not be able to see it, but it's good to know that you're gonna go through a storm. All of us are. We all have bad times. We all go through trials and tribulations. You know, and then 1 Peter 1, verse 7, it says, about that, it says, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now, the fourth reason that I'm preaching this sermon is that the rewards that you'll receive, the rewards that you get from holding fast your profession of faith, they're eternal, they're forever. For example, Matthew chapter 6, verse 20 says, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. See, it is a fact that we will be in eternity longer than we're alive on this earth, and so it's no wonder that your treasures that you earn in heaven, that you lay up for yourselves in heaven, that's going to be forever, and that should motivate us to hold fast our profession of faith. And then finally, number five, turn over to James chapter one, so just a few pages to the right in your Bible, if you're in Hebrews 10, and like I said, we're going to come back to Hebrews throughout the sermon, but we'll go over to James chapter one. So the fifth reason that I'm preaching this sermon is that you be perfect, be complete. So James chapter one, look at verse two. This is about the testing of your faith. It says, my brethren, so who is he talking to here? Is he talking to heathens, or is he talking to Christians? Who's talking to Christians? Look, it says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Now, the Bible says, in Ecclesiastes, it says, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not. We all have sin. We all have the things that we have to work on. That's not what he's talking about here about being sinless. He's just talking about being exactly what it says, be perfect, meaning be complete, entire, wanting nothing. When you decide in your heart you're gonna hold fast this profession of faith and you're gonna follow God and you're gonna be zealous and you're gonna do all the commandments, you're gonna be sold out for God, he's gonna give you the desires of your heart and you're gonna find, as you go through life, you're not really wanting anything. You're not really just floundering out in life. You have a whole book with all the answers and it really is a blessing. So those would be five reasons why I'm preaching this sermon. Now, the reason why I believe that in Hebrews chapter 10 it starts off by talking about eternal security is simple. It's because when we know that we're saved forever and we have that security, we have that eternal security, there's a temptation to just be like, well, I'm gonna do what I want and just continue to live in sin. Turn to Romans chapter three because Paul addresses this a lot in the New Testament. His idea like, well, eternal security, dude, I'll just keep living and doing however I want. And I wanna show you Paul's attitude about that. And first of all, the obvious reason is it's not a good way to hold fast our profession. So Romans chapter three, look at verse 31. Romans chapter three verse 31, it says, do we then make void the law through faith? Yea, we establish the law. So he's like, look, we don't just throw the law out the window because we're saved and because Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law. He said, we establish the law. So we preach these things, we continue to live in them because we're saved. We wanna hold fast that profession. And then turn over to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. So Romans chapter six, look at verse two. He says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And jump down to verse 15. It says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Just simply saying, hey, look, just because you're saved, just because you're saved forever and you're secure in Christ and you know you're not gonna go to hell, that doesn't mean we should live however we want. You know, we should have a good testimony and that's why in verse 23, it says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Because when we waver, and we're gonna get into this a little bit more, but you know, we just start living crazy lives. I mean, what does that say? That gives the enemies occasion to blaspheme, right? They look at that and say, you're a joke. You're a disgusting joke. You know, you profess one thing, but really you do another. So point number one here, I just wanna go over a couple of things that will hinder your ability to hold fast. And number one is a lack of understanding of sinning ignorantly versus sinning willfully. And he talks about that in Hebrews chapter 10. So go back to Hebrews chapter 10. Hopefully I told you to keep something there so you can find it quickly, but we are gonna go to numbers chapter 15 after this in Acts. But point number one here, so we need to understand what's going on here in this chapter. He starts to talk about sinning willfully. And so I wanna take a look at that. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 26. It says, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. What does that mean to sin willfully? We need to understand that sinning willfully. Go to numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15. Like I said, we will come back to Hebrews. Numbers chapter 15. Look at verse 30. It says, but the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. So he's saying that the soul that doeth ought, the soul that sins presumptuously, willfully, right? He says, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. I don't have time to get into it, but he's not talking about these people if they were saved, they lost their salvation. That's not true. That's never been true. Now look at verse 31. It says, because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. So go ahead and turn to Acts chapter five. So I just wanted you to see that that when we sin willfully, in verse 31 of numbers chapter 15, it says that he hath despised the word of the Lord. So when we take it upon ourselves and say, you know what? I heard a sermon about this before. I read in the Bible about this before. I know that what I'm about to do was wrong, but I'm going to do it anyways. The Bible says that God looks at that and he says that you are despising his word when you do that. Let's take a look at an example of this here in the New Testament. So Acts chapter five, look at verse number one. We're gonna read all the way to verse 11. This is a story about Ananias and Sapphira. Acts chapter five, look at verse one. It says, but a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? So you can see here that, you know, we learned in Numbers chapter 15 that when we willfully sin, we're despising God's law. Well, who do you think puts those seeds into your heart, into our hearts? It's the devil. That's why in verse three, Peter says, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart? I'll bet if you were to talk to Ananias here, he would be like, I didn't see Satan. I didn't see the devil. He didn't fill my heart, but the Holy Ghost through Peter here says, no, he has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. Look at verse four. Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and a great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in, and Peter answered unto her, tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, yeah, for so much. And Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then she fell down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And in verse 11 it says, and great fear came upon all the church, upon as many as heard these things. Now go back to Hebrews real quick, go back to Hebrews chapter 10. So, there's a few things, there's tons of things actually in that chapter that we can learn. First of all, it's like, you didn't have to do that, right? Nobody, God didn't say hey, sell all your possessions, all your land, and give it to the apostles, you know. They wanted to look good in front of men. That's why they did it. You know, they're probably going around bragging hey, you know, we sold our land for this much money, we're gonna give it to the church. You know, but then they decided when it came time to actually follow through, well, we're gonna keep back part of it. You know, and what did God do? God knew that was willful sin and God killed him. Now I'm not saying that if you do that, God's gonna strike you dead. But nonetheless, God's got this story here so that we can learn, so that we can fear. Because remember, the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Well, it also says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? So we need to get that knowledge and be able to use that. And once you do that, you are wise. You'll get that wisdom, that godly wisdom here. Now I had you turn back to Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse 28. It says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Now I just wanted you to see that there, that word despise, because what do we read in numbers when we willfully sin? God says he looks at that as we are despising, means as we are hating the word, basically, is what he's saying, that we want nothing to do with it. And look, that's no way to hold fast our profession of faith. We ought to act like we're Christians. Look at verse 29. Of how much sore punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done to spite unto the Spirit of grace. And then verse 30 says, For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. Now, he's not teaching us here that we should live life every single day, like, oh, this guy's gonna kill me, you know, oh, I want someone to think, because I thought, I was afraid God was gonna give me a heart attack, right? We should have a healthy fear of God, though. We should want to do right. You know, we should want to read the Bible. And you know, you might be thinking, okay, well, I just don't be, I don't feel motivated to read, I don't feel motivated to do these things. It's probably because you don't really love the Bible. You gotta develop that love for it. Once you develop that love for it, you're gonna want to read it, you're gonna want to follow it, you're gonna want to do more, you know? And you might be thinking, well, how do I get that? It's through discipline, right? Look, you're saved, you know, you're saved. You understand what you were saved from. That alone should be enough to motivate you to read and to develop that love for the Bible. So go back to Numbers chapter 15. I should have told you to keep your place there. So we read from Numbers chapter 15 what sinning willfully was. But now let's talk about sinning ignorantly. Sinning ignorantly. Because a lot of people will claim, you know, well, you'll be judged according to what you know. And that's just not simply true. You know, I've heard that in churches my whole life. You know, oh, well, you know, they didn't know, they didn't know. You hear people say, oh, what about the guy on the lost island that never heard the gospel? Well, first of all, my question with that is, how do you know there is a guy on the lost island? First of all, right? Well, what about the tribes in Africa that have never heard? Where are they? Let me know. We'll go send somebody over to them and preach them the gospel. It's just a silly cop out. It's stupid. All right, so Numbers 15, look at verse 22. Numbers chapter 15, look at verse 22. So we're talking about sinning ignorantly. How does God view that? Numbers chapter 15 verse 22 says, And if ye have erred and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and henceforward among your generations, then it shall be if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that's important, that all the congregation shall offer one bullock for a burnt offering for a sweet saver unto the Lord, with his meat offering and his drink offering according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering. So why would God have them go through this process if sinning through ignorance wasn't important to them, wasn't a thing? Now look at verse 25. It says, And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation and the children of Israel, that it shall be forgiven them, for it is ignorance. And they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their ignorance. And it shall be forgiven all the congregation and the children of Israel, and the stranger that sojourneth among them, seeing all the people were in ignorance. And if any soul sinned through ignorance, then he shall bring a she-goat of the first year for a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinned ignorantly when he sinned by ignorance before the Lord to make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him. Ye shall have one law for him that sinned through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. And I just wanted you to see that there. I'm not saying that sinning through ignorance is the same degree of sin as sinning willfully, but nonetheless, God is not going to allow us to use ignorance as an excuse. And of course, like I said before, your sins are forgiven. But look, we've got a big book here. God expects us to learn it, right? We don't have an excuse. We should never be ignorant of God's word and his laws. We ought to continuously seek his truth. So point number one was just understanding the difference between sinning willfully and sinning ignorantly is really going to help you hold fast your profession of faith, you know, your testimony. Now point number two was wavering. So look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23 again. We've read it several times already, but he says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith. And then after that, he makes the statement, it says without wavering, without wavering. Well, what is wavering? Turn to James chapter one and look at verse six. So go back to James. What is wavering? So let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. James chapter one, look at verse six. It says, but let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. You see, wavering is being tossed around, you know, unstable, flip-flopping like a pancake, just unstable. And it's just sad to see, you know, throughout all the drama that you'll see on Facebook and YouTube, and not just the stuff the last couple of weeks, but I'm talking just anytime. If you watch people, how they react, there's people, you can read the comments and you'll find one person saying, oh, I support, you know, I support the cause and you'll see them on another thread. Oh, this is messed up. You just keep changing it. You know, it's just, it's just stupid. But you know, we learned here God's attitude about wavering. It says, but let him ask in faith. So in prayer, we should ask believing that God's gonna give us what we ask. That's what he's saying. You know, just ask believing that he's gonna give you what you, what you say. You know, God doesn't want us praying to him and saying, you know, Lord, please help me with my finances and then go home later. Oh, God's not gonna help me with my finances. He, he's probably mad. He doesn't want that. He wants that faith, right? He wants you to hold fast that, that profession of faith is what it's saying. So look, maybe you're not where you think or where you know you should be in your walk with God. You know what? That doesn't mean you can't pray. You can still pray. Just believe it. Look, when I preach these sermons, I believe it's gonna change people. When I go knock on someone's door, I believe that they're gonna get saved. Do they always get saved? No. I mean, we saw that today, didn't we? You know, we went through the gospel and she didn't get saved, but nonetheless, that doesn't mean that God's word is not powerful. You know, we are gonna do the worst. We are gonna get people saved, but nonetheless, we ought to not waver when we ask God for help and we should not waver in our own faith. Make up your mind and just stick to it. You know, turn to Revelation chapter three. Another thing, if you think about being tossed around on the sea, you know, like in a ship, it could make you seasick, right? You know, I remember when we were in Japan during the Fukushima earthquake, there was a big plume of radiation coming and we had to get out, so we had to get on to the George Washington and ride that out to sea for a month to get away from the radiation plume. And the first night, man, I got sick. I was really sick. I mean, those waves were just, you know, taking that aircraft all over the place and there was probably about a hundred of us just utterly sick. So this first sticks out to me, you know, while wavering. So, but you know what? It makes God sick when we waver. So you're there in Revelation chapter three, look at verse 14. It says, and unto the angel of the church of the land of the sea and its right, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot. And then he says, I would thou work, cold or hot. So he's, you know, he's like, look, all the road stuff is just garbage. It's just making me say, now look at verse 16. It says, so then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. So you see what he's saying there? That being unstable as a born again child of God, you know, as, as being saved or as professing to be a Christian and makes God sick. And that's what these people in Laodicea were doing. You know, they were just lukewarm. You know, you go talk to these lukewarm people in these mega churches and that's what you're going to find. They're going to tell you, Oh yeah, you know, I know it's, it's by faith. I know it's by grace through faith. And then out of the next breath, they're going to say something different. One minute, they seem strong. The next minute, everything's crumbling down and they're just crying their eyes out. And God's like, Hey, look, I just wish you were either cold or hot. Not lukewarm, not, not doing this kind of thing. I'm hot. I'm cold. I'm hot. That's wavering. That's, that's like being on a wave, on an ocean wave. And the Bible says that makes Jesus Christ sick. It makes him sick. He doesn't like it. Look at verse 17, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. He says, I counsel thee to buy me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that thy shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. So he's, he's providing them with a solution. Just like I mentioned earlier, right? Those eternal rewards. That's what you need to see. Not just temporary rewards. That's what you need to see. Not just temporary rewards. That's what you need to see. Not just temporary rewards. That's what you need to see. Not just temporary rewards. That's just going to produce lukewarmness. And look at verse 19. He says, And as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. So, you know, another example of this could be, you know, if you find yourself, you know, if your faith is wavering after, you know, a tragedy or after, you know, some really terrible news or, you know, or something like that, somebody attacks you and your family, it could possibly be because your faith is in your family. It could possibly be because your faith is on the wrong thing. You know, maybe you're just not trusting fully in God. You're just not as on board as you should be. And that, you know, and that's a problem. So point number three is being weak. So go back to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. A third thing that could hinder you from holding fast, a good profession of faith is being weak. So like he says in Hebrews 10 to 23, he says, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Well, the opposite of holding fast would be holding weak, would be wavering. And go, I'm sorry, go to Hebrews chapter 11. I'm going to read for you out of Romans chapter four. So point number three is being weak. In Romans 4 19, it says, And being not weak in the faith, talking about Abraham, it says, He considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. So again, kind of like we talked about this morning, right, we went and talked about Benaiah the son of Jehoiad, and how he was, um, how he was just, just had that mentality. He was not faint in his mind. He was very strong, you know, and how you see the same thing through, with, with whether it's Noah or Abraham, Samson, a lot of these guys, even though we read about their sins and stuff, they still had great faith. They still had strength. And that's what Paul saying in Romans chapter four, verse 19 says, And being not weak in faith, Abraham was not weak in faith. He considered not his own body now dead when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. So look at Hebrews chapter 11, look at verse one. We read this this morning, but let's read it again. It says, Now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. Right? What's a good report? It's a profession of faith. Then in verse three, it says, Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And that gets, God the atheist side is really angry when you read that to him. Skip down to verse eight. It says, By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac, Jacob, the heirs of him, I'm sorry, the heirs with him of the same promise. Then in verse 10, it says, For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith, also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful, who had promised. And then finally, in verse 12, it says, Therefore sprang there even of one, in him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand, which is by the seashore, innumerable. So what that's talking about there is because Abraham, because Sarah, they had that great faith, they had such great faith. Look at the result. Look at all the people that have been saved, all the people that were able to join themselves to the nation of Israel and get saved in the Old Testament, like Rahab the harlot. I mean, there's just countless examples. You know, we're here today because of that faith, because of that same faith that he had. You know? And so here's a couple of facts about being weak. Number one, out of weakness, you can be made strong. You might be sitting here today this afternoon thinking, you know what? I don't measure up. And you know, none of us do, honestly, right? We all have our weaknesses. We all have our struggles. But you might be thinking like, man, I am weak. Well, you know, out of weakness, you can be made strong. If you look at Hebrews 11, look at verse number 34. Talking about these mighty people of faith in this chapter. In verse 34, about them it says, quenched, this is what they did, they quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. And look at this next part. It says, out of weakness were made strong. And then, of course, like we read earlier, waxed valiant fight and turned the flight of armies of the aliens. All right, I'm almost done. I think I can make it. All right, point number two about being weak is that being weak in the faith shows your lack of knowledge. You don't have to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians chapter eight, verse seven, it says, how be it, there is not in every man that knowledge, for some with conscience in this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. So, I just wanted to read that to you because Paul's telling the Corinthians here, you know, some people think it's bad to eat this, they think it's, you know, talking about, you know, we shouldn't eat stuff that's sacrificed to idols, but we who are strong know that idols are nothing. They're junk, they're garbage, right? So if you did eat something sacrificed by an idol and you didn't know and someone came up to you and said, oh, you just ate that by an idol, and you never make that mistake again, but you know, you got me. Whereas the person that's weak, that his conscience is weak and defiled would just probably just flip out and have a really hard time with that, and who knows, need counseling sessions or whatever the case, but nonetheless, being weak in the faith shows your lack of knowledge. So what's the remedy? The remedy is to get as much knowledge as you can and then apply that knowledge, which breeds wisdom. Remember that knowledge breeds wisdom and that only comes from the fear of the Lord. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, it says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. You know, this is another thing to work ourselves out of weakness is to consider each other, right? Church isn't just about a pastor or about the guy that comes here and preaches. It's about all of us. It's about every single person in this room considering one another, helping each other out, giving to each other and loving each other and, you know, and just edifying one another. That's what he's talking about here. Look at verse 25. It says, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. And we talked about this last week. So I don't want to spend too much time on that, but if you're there in Hebrews 10, look at verse 30. It says, for we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. We ought never to forget, right? The reason why he says in verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering is because, look at verse 30, the Lord shall judge his people. You know, and as somebody who preaches a lot, you know, I know that all the pastors, you know, they have these things in the forefront of their mind when they write sermons all the time. It's because they want to provoke you to do good works. They want to spare you from the chastisement that could come from us, you know, sinning willfully, ignorantly, whatever the case may be. We want to have that profession and hold it fast. Look at verse 31. He said, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And how true is that? You know, there's only a certain amount of time, a certain amount of patience that God has with us. So when we say, you know what, I'm not going to really hold fast my profession of faith. I'm going to tell people I'm a Christian, but I'm just going to go ahead and do whatever I want. Well, you better pay attention to verse 31 because he says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And Ananias and Sapphira would attest to that. And you know what? They aren't the only ones. A lot of us have been chastised. And the whole point of the sermon was just to hopefully provoke all of us that we should hold fast to our profession of faith. We should guard our testimony very tightly, very securely because it matters, right? Our testimony matters to this community, to this state, to the works that we do for God. And let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for letting me preach today. I thank you for all these people here, Lord. I just pray that something I said was edifying, Lord, in order to heal my voice. So I can preach later this week. And Lord, I pray you bless these people and keep us safe. In Jesus' name I pray.