WEBVTT 00:00:05.925 --> 00:00:09.087 Brethren, a lot of times when we begin to soften up, 00:00:09.087 --> 00:00:10.855 it's not a good thing. 00:00:10.855 --> 00:00:12.694 You don't want to soften up on what's 00:00:12.694 --> 00:00:15.825 really right, really good. 00:00:15.825 --> 00:00:19.161 Brethren, we need to be 00:00:19.161 --> 00:00:21.176 abandoned for Christ. 00:00:21.176 --> 00:00:24.024 We need to be Jesus freaks - all our life. 00:00:24.024 --> 00:00:25.649 Not just when we're first converted. 00:00:25.649 --> 00:00:26.789 We need to be radicals. 00:00:26.789 --> 00:00:28.457 We need to do radical things. 00:00:28.457 --> 00:00:30.452 We need to apply the Word of God 00:00:30.452 --> 00:00:32.076 in a radical way. 00:00:32.076 --> 00:00:33.860 Not just when we were first born again, 00:00:33.860 --> 00:00:35.360 but all the way through. 00:00:35.360 --> 00:00:37.574 We need to mature. We need to grow. 00:00:37.574 --> 00:00:39.659 You can just understand what happened 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:41.248 to these Hebrews, right? 00:00:41.248 --> 00:00:43.741 They suffered. They were weary. 00:00:43.741 --> 00:00:47.564 They were worn out. They were tired. 00:00:47.564 --> 00:00:49.078 They had been through the trials, 00:00:49.078 --> 00:00:50.844 they had been through the snares, 00:00:50.844 --> 00:00:56.020 they had been through the dangers. 00:00:56.020 --> 00:00:58.455 And in their weariness they weren't ready 00:00:58.455 --> 00:00:59.845 to be as exact as they were. 00:00:59.845 --> 00:01:01.529 Isn't that where it happens? 00:01:01.529 --> 00:01:02.808 We go through the trials, 00:01:02.808 --> 00:01:06.263 we get beat up by the trials we're made to go through. 00:01:06.263 --> 00:01:08.939 They came through much tribulation. 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:10.577 That's what we saw in Revelation. 00:01:10.577 --> 00:01:12.072 These are the ones that came 00:01:12.072 --> 00:01:13.395 through the tribulation. 00:01:13.395 --> 00:01:15.889 Well, I don't know what your eschatology 00:01:15.889 --> 00:01:16.633 is all about, 00:01:16.633 --> 00:01:18.040 but brethren, we're told 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:19.823 through much tribulation, we all come. 00:01:19.823 --> 00:01:21.966 That is the tribulation I believe that's speaking to, 00:01:21.966 --> 00:01:24.922 not some concocted thing of 00:01:24.922 --> 00:01:27.602 premillenial dispensationalism. 00:01:27.602 --> 00:01:31.380 This is the tribulation that God has called 00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:34.000 all of His people to come through. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.050 And you know what? 00:01:35.050 --> 00:01:36.620 We go through that tribulation. 00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:39.256 We come through all the dangers, toils and snares. 00:01:39.256 --> 00:01:40.487 We come through the trials, 00:01:40.487 --> 00:01:42.847 and the fact is, we can get worn out. 00:01:42.847 --> 00:01:44.559 And we're ready to lay down, 00:01:44.559 --> 00:01:47.505 not be so exact, not be so precise. 00:01:47.505 --> 00:01:49.373 But the writer of Hebrews is saying, 00:01:49.373 --> 00:01:50.603 Onward, Hebrews! 00:01:50.603 --> 00:01:53.105 And onward, Grace Community Church brethren. 00:01:53.105 --> 00:01:54.956 Onward, we need to press in, 00:01:54.956 --> 00:01:56.274 we need to press through, 00:01:56.274 --> 00:01:57.577 we need to go on. 00:01:57.577 --> 00:02:00.428 Brethren, be exact. 00:02:00.428 --> 00:02:02.579 Be precise. 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:04.204 So what if you seem strange to your family 00:02:04.204 --> 00:02:05.695 or to others or even to other Christians. 00:02:05.695 --> 00:02:07.662 A lot of times it's other professing Christians 00:02:07.662 --> 00:02:09.922 that are the greatest ridiculers 00:02:09.922 --> 00:02:12.480 and the biggest wet blanket when there's 00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:14.729 somebody who really wants to give their life 00:02:14.729 --> 00:02:16.969 for serving Christ. 00:02:16.969 --> 00:02:18.373 Brethren, do you see what the writer of Hebrews 00:02:18.373 --> 00:02:19.589 is calling us on to? 00:02:19.589 --> 00:02:20.754 Maturity. 00:02:20.754 --> 00:02:22.870 Pressing onward, pressing upward. 00:02:22.870 --> 00:02:25.124 And it's down that path, brethren, 00:02:25.124 --> 00:02:28.129 that when we get to Melchizedek, 00:02:28.129 --> 00:02:31.793 that kind of resolved, resolute life 00:02:31.793 --> 00:02:33.646 where I am going to do what is right; 00:02:33.646 --> 00:02:36.783 I am going to conform my life, 00:02:36.783 --> 00:02:38.772 not to the world, 00:02:38.772 --> 00:02:40.280 but to the Word of Righteousness, 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:41.806 to the standard found in here. 00:02:41.806 --> 00:02:43.479 I'm going to strive to figure out what 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:44.752 is pleasing to the Lord, 00:02:44.752 --> 00:02:46.474 and I'm going to be exact. 00:02:46.474 --> 00:02:47.711 And I'm going to back to it. 00:02:47.711 --> 00:02:49.843 And if I got dull and sloppy 00:02:49.843 --> 00:02:51.504 and thick-skulled in my life, 00:02:51.504 --> 00:02:53.562 if I began to stray, I'm coming back. 00:02:53.562 --> 00:02:56.484 Repentence is not a one-time thing, brethren. 00:02:56.484 --> 00:02:57.852 We need to come back. 00:02:57.852 --> 00:02:59.443 You need to be on that track 00:02:59.443 --> 00:03:00.825 of preciseness. 00:03:00.825 --> 00:03:02.018 Precise to this Word. 00:03:02.018 --> 00:03:05.455 You need to read it and hear. 00:03:05.455 --> 00:03:07.616 Don't be like I was with the stewardesses. 00:03:07.616 --> 00:03:09.559 You need to come back where this is the Word of God. 00:03:09.559 --> 00:03:11.887 This is not some paltry word of a stewardess 00:03:11.887 --> 00:03:14.029 that doesn't matter. 00:03:14.029 --> 00:03:15.492 You are in an airplane that is 00:03:15.492 --> 00:03:16.632 going to go down. 00:03:16.632 --> 00:03:19.216 There is a wrath of God coming, brethren, 00:03:19.216 --> 00:03:21.428 and the seatbelt of this Word is 00:03:21.428 --> 00:03:22.720 all imperative. 00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:24.588 And you need to stay fresh 00:03:24.588 --> 00:03:25.972 on how to keep it buckled, 00:03:25.972 --> 00:03:29.546 and how to not let it get unbuckled. 00:03:29.546 --> 00:03:32.935 Folks, this is life and death. 00:03:32.935 --> 00:03:35.222 And if you just write yourself off right in the beginning 00:03:35.222 --> 00:03:38.100 as well, you know, apostacy is for these other people 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:39.419 and it could never happen to me. 00:03:39.419 --> 00:03:40.541 Brethren, it's happened to people 00:03:40.541 --> 00:03:42.740 right out of our own midst. 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:44.864 And it's a reality. 00:03:44.864 --> 00:03:46.258 And if you want to stay good and true 00:03:46.258 --> 00:03:48.742 to the end, this is something, it is your soul. 00:03:48.742 --> 00:03:51.542 Matt Haney's brother just passed off into eternity. 00:03:51.542 --> 00:03:52.969 What? About 30 years old. 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:55.122 A life wasted. 00:03:55.122 --> 00:03:59.206 Brethren, that is a shame. 00:03:59.206 --> 00:04:00.521 But you know what would be 00:04:00.521 --> 00:04:02.063 an even greater shame? 00:04:02.063 --> 00:04:04.549 Is if he sat in this church every week 00:04:04.549 --> 00:04:07.592 and he actually owned a Bible and read it. 00:04:07.592 --> 00:04:09.199 And he became so dull of hearing 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:11.634 that in the end, he lost his soul. 00:04:11.634 --> 00:04:13.768 That's even more tragic, brethren. 00:04:13.768 --> 00:04:15.498 Coming so close. 00:04:15.498 --> 00:04:16.828 Jesus said to one man, 00:04:16.828 --> 00:04:18.913 "you are close to the kingdom." 00:04:18.913 --> 00:04:22.426 Coming so close and missing it. 00:04:22.426 --> 00:04:24.634 You don't want to do that. 00:04:24.634 --> 00:04:26.482 This needs to be your food. 00:04:26.482 --> 00:04:28.411 We live not by bread alone. 00:04:28.411 --> 00:04:29.746 Brethren, be in this Word. 00:04:29.746 --> 00:04:32.017 Pray to God for help to see it, 00:04:32.017 --> 00:04:34.076 to understand it, to apply it, 00:04:34.076 --> 00:04:35.277 to live it. 00:04:35.277 --> 00:04:36.378 Be exact. 00:04:36.378 --> 00:04:37.326 Be a fanatic. 00:04:37.326 --> 00:04:38.584 Be a radical. 00:04:38.584 --> 00:04:41.358 To God's Word. 00:04:41.358 --> 00:04:43.113 This is not something that you want to 00:04:43.113 --> 00:04:45.134 slow the pace in. 00:04:45.134 --> 00:04:47.041 You've got to persevere to the end 00:04:47.041 --> 00:04:49.070 if you wwould be saved, brethren. 00:04:49.070 --> 00:04:52.116 Press on. 00:04:52.116 --> 00:04:54.755 Renew your commitment to this Word. 00:04:54.755 --> 00:04:57.270 God help us, brethren.