Brethren, a lot of times when we begin to soften up,
it's not a good thing.
You don't want to soften up on what's
really right, really good.
Brethren, we need to be
abandoned for Christ.
We need to be Jesus freaks - all our life.
Not just when we're first converted.
We need to be radicals.
We need to do radical things.
We need to apply the Word of God
in a radical way.
Not just when we were first born again,
but all the way through.
We need to mature. We need to grow.
You can just understand what happened
to these Hebrews, right?
They suffered. They were weary.
They were worn out. They were tired.
They had been through the trials,
they had been through the snares,
they had been through the dangers.
And in their weariness they weren't ready
to be as exact as they were.
Isn't that where it happens?
We go through the trials,
we get beat up by the trials we're made to go through.
They came through much tribulation.
That's what we saw in Revelation.
These are the ones that came
through the tribulation.
Well, I don't know what your eschatology
is all about,
but brethren, we're told
through much tribulation, we all come.
That is the tribulation I believe that's speaking to,
not some concocted thing of
premillenial dispensationalism.
This is the tribulation that God has called
all of His people to come through.
And you know what?
We go through that tribulation.
We come through all the dangers, toils and snares.
We come through the trials,
and the fact is, we can get worn out.
And we're ready to lay down,
not be so exact, not be so precise.
But the writer of Hebrews is saying,
Onward, Hebrews!
And onward, Grace Community Church brethren.
Onward, we need to press in,
we need to press through,
we need to go on.
Brethren, be exact.
Be precise.
So what if you seem strange to your family
or to others or even to other Christians.
A lot of times it's other professing Christians
that are the greatest ridiculers
and the biggest wet blanket when there's
somebody who really wants to give their life
for serving Christ.
Brethren, do you see what the writer of Hebrews
is calling us on to?
Maturity.
Pressing onward, pressing upward.
And it's down that path, brethren,
that when we get to Melchizedek,
that kind of resolved, resolute life
where I am going to do what is right;
I am going to conform my life,
not to the world,
but to the Word of Righteousness,
to the standard found in here.
I'm going to strive to figure out what
is pleasing to the Lord,
and I'm going to be exact.
And I'm going to back to it.
And if I got dull and sloppy
and thick-skulled in my life,
if I began to stray, I'm coming back.
Repentence is not a one-time thing, brethren.
We need to come back.
You need to be on that track
of preciseness.
Precise to this Word.
You need to read it and hear.
Don't be like I was with the stewardesses.
You need to come back where this is the Word of God.
This is not some paltry word of a stewardess
that doesn't matter.
You are in an airplane that is
going to go down.
There is a wrath of God coming, brethren,
and the seatbelt of this Word is
all imperative.
And you need to stay fresh
on how to keep it buckled,
and how to not let it get unbuckled.
Folks, this is life and death.
And if you just write yourself off right in the beginning
as well, you know, apostacy is for these other people
and it could never happen to me.
Brethren, it's happened to people
right out of our own midst.
And it's a reality.
And if you want to stay good and true
to the end, this is something, it is your soul.
Matt Haney's brother just passed off into eternity.
What? About 30 years old.
A life wasted.
Brethren, that is a shame.
But you know what would be
an even greater shame?
Is if he sat in this church every week
and he actually owned a Bible and read it.
And he became so dull of hearing
that in the end, he lost his soul.
That's even more tragic, brethren.
Coming so close.
Jesus said to one man,
"you are close to the kingdom."
Coming so close and missing it.
You don't want to do that.
This needs to be your food.
We live not by bread alone.
Brethren, be in this Word.
Pray to God for help to see it,
to understand it, to apply it,
to live it.
Be exact.
Be a fanatic.
Be a radical.
To God's Word.
This is not something that you want to
slow the pace in.
You've got to persevere to the end
if you wwould be saved, brethren.
Press on.
Renew your commitment to this Word.
God help us, brethren.