What Is Apostasy? - 9

Well, today we are looking into a portion of God's word that speaks about the dangers of apostasy, which actually is a rather frequent topic that comes up rather regularly throughout the book of Hebrews.

We've already seen it dealt with in less detail than what we're going to be looking at today. And we shall see it even in the verses and chapters to come in greater detail than what we are looking at today. So it is a very important subject and it is really what, in one sense, the whole book of Hebrews is addressed to combat. Because, as you remember, it is a book written to professing Christians who were of a Jewish background, some of whom were giving indication that they were going to go back to the old covenant because their identification with Jesus Christ was apparently attracting too much persecution from their non-Christian Jewish brethren. And so why do we need to become part of the new covenant and identify with Jesus Christ? Can't we worship God the way our forefathers did under the old covenant?

Wasn't that just as good? And we can do that without persecution. And for them to go back to the old covenant after having Christ come and been revealed to them is apostasy.

They are returning to error. They are rejecting Christ. That's what apostasy is. We use the term sometimes without thinking exactly what it means and sometimes use it almost interchangeably with the word heresy, but it's not the same. Heresy is false doctrine, unsound doctrine.

A heretic is a false teacher. Apostasy is departure from the faith. Now heretics may indeed be apostates.

They may be, they may not be. They may have departed from the faith. They may have never claimed orthodox faith. But apostasy is a departure from the faith. It is a Christian deserter. It is someone who formerly professed faith in Christ but no longer does so.

However, sometimes one continues to do so outwardly even having departed inwardly. And that really seems to be the people that the writer of Hebrews has primarily in mind. Both heresy and apostasy are serious matters and need to be avoided at all costs with the help of God, but they are not the same. And so we come in Hebrews chapter 3 verses 7 through 11 to one of several warnings about apostasy. We shall see first of all apostasy described. Secondly, if I can shuffle through all my notes, apostasy illustrated and thirdly apostasy condemned. Apostasy described.

And I have a five-fold description here and I'll give it to you and then we'll go back and look at it. Number one, apostasy begins with an initial profession of faith. Number two, apostasy lacks some necessary elements of saving faith. Third, apostasy lacks full confidence in biblical revelation. Number four, apostasy lacks interest in God's word and I'll explain that further. And finally, apostasy lacks receptivity to God's commands. Apostasy begins with an initial profession of faith and that we see in the introductory word to verse 7 which is where our text begins today. Though that therefore is going to take us back into verse 6 where we were last Sunday.

But apostasy begins with an initial profession of faith for our writer says therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and therefore always causes us to look back and see what goes before. And what do we find in verse 6? He was contrasting Christ with Moses and Christ who was a faithful servant and in the house that had been prepared for him to administrate but Christ is a son who is the builder of the house.

Great contrast there and great advancement when you compare Christ to Moses. And we read in verse 6 but Christ as a son over his own house and then notice carefully the words that follow. Whose house we are if, that's a big if, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence of the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. And so I say apostasy begins with an initial profession of faith therefore looks back into verse 6 and to people that the writer of Hebrews identifies himself with he says if whose house we are myself and those I'm writing to.

But then he also throws this caution into the statement we are if and only if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. So apostasy begins with an initial profession of faith. All of these people had professed faith in Christ. They all were members of the visible body of Christ.

They were all part of the visible house. They all had an attachment to Christ and Christianity. They agreed that Christ is son over his own house. They recognized Jesus Christ as God's son.

He is the son over his own house. They recognized Jesus Christ as the founder of the Christian religion. Christ is the one who is over his own house. That's a reference to the family of God. And had made a profession of faith in Christ whose house are we?

I've already pointed that out. Those who identify with Christ in his church with the profession. But then as verse 6 continues to unfold in all part of the therefore, we see that there are some in this category of visible identification with Christ. An outward profession of faith in Christ who lacks some of the necessary elements of saving faith.

We are in this house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Some do not hold fast to biblical truth, though they've made an outward profession. Some are not rejoicing in Christian hope. This really isn't their reason for living. This isn't what gives them joy in life.

They have other things. Yes, outward profession, but there's not this rejoicing in the hope of Christ firm to the end. And there are some who do not persevere in the faith.

They don't hold it firm to the end. And so apostasy, or if we use the noun that identifies the person, an apostate, is one who begins with an initial profession of faith and an attachment to Christ and Christianity. But lacks the essential, at least some of the essential elements of true saving faith. And therefore, not surprisingly, lacks full confidence in biblical revelation because he goes on in verse 7 now. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and then he extends a quotation from Psalm 95, it begins in the last part of verse 7 and continues through verse 11, and he picks up part of it later in the chapter and quotes it again.

And now he's quoting when he says today, if you will hear his voice. So notice two things that are very important here about divine revelation. Number one, the Bible is the word of God. When he quotes Psalm 95, he does not say, as David said, though he could have, it's identified as a psalm of David.

And sometimes that language is used. The Bible recognizes both the divine side and the human side. And sometimes it is very helpful to consider who is the human author in this case. David, what what do we know about him? That helps us in our understanding of the things David wrote.

But the language is very specific here. He skips over the human part of the authorship of Psalm 95. And he says, as the Holy Spirit says, God wrote it. The Holy Spirit wrote it. The Holy Spirit inspired David to write. Divine inspiration means that what a human author writes and that human author is a human being, like all human beings, meaning a sinful human being, a fallen human being, a fallen human being, an errant human being. But when he is writing what God has placed in the book we call the Bible, the Holy Spirit so guided and guarded his words that every word is truth.

No word, no letter is an error. It is all at the same time, both the word of the human author David, but something greater and higher than that. It is the word of Almighty God. That does not mean that everything that David said to other people was inspired in the narrative.

It wasn't. But what was included in the Bible was and is the very word of Almighty God. And yet it's evident by the warning that is given here that the people that the writer of Hebrews is writing to, some of whom were not remembering that this is the word of Almighty God. Some of them were not remembering that they needed to hear this voice and to hear it as the voice of God and not as the word of David. And so an apostate lacks confidence in biblical revelation and then loses interest in the word of God. If you lack confidence that the Bible is in fact the word of Almighty God, then you will in some regard lose interest in the Bible. And so this quotation is very pointed when it says today if you will hear his voice. You've got to hear it, you've got to listen to it, you've got to pay attention to it. If you don't, you're going to apostatize.

Today if you'll hear his voice. And this indicates that an apostate is one who becomes indifferent toward the Bible as a sacred deposit. In other words, fails to regard the Bible as the word of Almighty God, the Holy Bible, the sacred scriptures. And that loss of interest in God's word may be evidenced by an abandonment of all interest in Bible studies. Some apostates will manifest that characteristic, but in some cases it may be that they will continue to study the Bible, but treat it as a book of human literature having forgotten this is the voice of God.

Today if you will hear his voice, if you will recognize that it's God's voice speaking through the pages of scripture. This book is like no other book in all the world. You can read every other book in the world and you have every right to say I believe that statement is right and this statement is wrong. That statement is correct and this statement is incorrect because every other book is a totally human product, but when it comes to the Bible you have no right to do that. You can't say I believe this is really true and I believe this is probably not true.

You are in dangerous ground. You have shown manifestation of apostasy. And whether a professing Christian abandons all interest in Bible study, he may still come to church, but he's not really interested in the Bible. He doesn't read the Bible at home through the week. He's not drawn to churches that center on Bible teaching. There are other things that are of interest to him. And so he may lose all interest in Bible study or he may continue to honor the Bible in the sense that he treats it as a very exalted example of human literature, but either way he is ignoring the urgency of divine revelation. Today if you will hear my voice, you've got to pay attention to it now today and respond to what it says to you today.

Or you're in danger. And therefore it's not surprising that the fifth description of apostasy is an apostate lacks receptivity to God's commands. Today if you will hear his voice and the implication is some of you I'm writing to will and some of you I'm writing to won't. You're all reading the same thing or you're all hearing it read in your assembly. You're hearing the same words, but some of you are going to hear his voice in these words and others of you are not.

All sitting there listening to the same thing. But today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. The fifth description of apostasy is it lacks receptivity to God's commands. We harden our hearts by ignoring the urgency of God's commands.

Today if you will hear his voice. And when we repeatedly delay in responding to what God says, that over time produces what the Bible calls a hard heart. That's where you get a hard heart. You get it by hearing God's commands and not obeying them.

Ignoring them. And the hard heart issue is a very interesting one in scripture and it's clear that the Bible says sometimes God hardens hearts. Studying the times, multiple times that the Bible refers to Pharaoh's hard heart.

It's a very interesting study. Sometimes it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. People do harden their hearts and that's what this text is referring to.

Today if you hear his voice, obey, listen, pay attention, be careful that you don't, you don't harden your heart. And sometimes it says Pharaoh hardened his heart. A few times, not a great many times, but several times it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And then sometimes it doesn't make either one the obvious cause of the hardening, but it does say Pharaoh's heart was hardened.

So you've got those three different descriptions of Pharaoh's hardened heart. But the Bible does tell us that sometimes God hardens hearts and it does appear that in most cases that's in the life of someone who has hardened his own heart. And then as further judgment for his rejection of God's truth, God hardens his heart so that he's no longer able to receive the truth of God in the way that he did before.

That's a very dangerous condition to be walking around alive physically, to be attending religious services, to be professing to be a Christian, to be in a condition that you can't even understand God's word even to the degree that you're used to because you've hardened your heart. When God's word is telling you to do something, you need to do it or you're going to harden your heart. When God's word is showing you something that you need to obey, that God is telling you to do, you need to obey today or you are hardening your heart.

Apostasy described. Apostasy illustrated in verses 8 through 10 and now it's illustrated by examples from Old Testament Israel in the wilderness. This quotation from Psalm 95 describes that. Hardened hearts of professing believers, all of these Israelites in the wilderness professed to be the people of God, professed to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But now the writer of Hebrews takes us into an extended section quoting virtually the last half of Psalm 95. Once again, the writer of Hebrews driving us back into the Old Testament scriptures as he does over and over and over again. And what do we find in Psalm 95? I'll give you a real quick overview.

It basically divides into two parts. The first six and a half verses, verses 1 through 7a, describe the practice of worship. There's a call to worship. There's reasons for worship. God is a supreme being.

He's a great creator. He is God almighty. We are his people. A description of the practice of the worship of God, but then the last part of the Psalm, verses 7b through 11, tell us the dangers of worship. First, the practice of worship, a good practice, but the last part, the dangers of worship and what would they be? Well, they are, as we will see in our text where it's quoted to ward against apostasy, the dangers of worship are exposure to God's word, but hardening one's heart in hearing God's word. That's a danger of worship because there you are exposed to truth that you are hardening yourself against. And then some illustrations are given from the life of Israel to demonstrate what this hardening looks like and what the result of it is. And so the hardening of their heart at Maribah, the hardening of their heart at Massah, and their self-deception that grows out of all of this. And so apostasy is illustrated in this way.

And I have four words to describe the apostasy I see here in Psalm 95, which also Psalm 95 actually drives us back to Exodus and to Numbers. And when I first looked at this text, every time I'm beginning my preparation for the next sermon, I look at the text, not always sure what exactly the confines of the next sermon text are going to be. Do we start here and go here? Do we start here and go here? Do we start here and go here? And I was looking at this and I was saying, well, verses 7 through 11 in Hebrews 3 looks like a, what should I say, a logical section. We could go on further, but that's probably all we can handle, but I don't even know if that's going to be enough to fill a full sermon.

And then, as almost always happens, I start digging into it and I say, whoops, maybe that's too much. There's so much here. Can we get all of that into one sermon?

But fasten your seat belts, here we go. Apostasy illustrated, and let me give you the four words. It's illustrated, number one, in discontentment. Number two, arrogance. Number three, unbelief.

And number four, deviation. Discontentment, verse 8. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness.

In the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness. And that takes us back to Exodus chapter 17. And one of the early breakouts of rebellion in the life of Israel, God had brought them into the desert safely out of Egypt.

Safely across the Red Sea. Think of all the miracles that God performed in their sight, in their presence, to bring them out of Egypt, which seemed to be impossible. How could they ever get free from Egyptian slavery?

The Egyptians were determined not to let them go. But miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle, each one greater than the one before it, until finally Pharaoh, with his hardened heart that he had hardened, with his hardened heart that God had hardened, with his hardened heart that was hardened, and he kept changing his mind, I'll let them go, no I won't. I'll let them go, no I won't. I'll let them go, no I won't.

And finally, God killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians. And then the Egyptians themselves were crying out, let them go! Let them go!

Let them go! And away they went and Pharaoh changed his mind again and chased after them to bring them back. So God parted the Red Sea and Israel went through on dry ground and the Egyptians started in with their army and the water closed in and drowned them all. So now they're on the other side of the Red Sea and they march about three days into the wilderness and they've run out of water.

What would you do in that situation? Well I hope what I would do is say, the God who turned the Nile into blood, the God who brought darkness so thick that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, the God who performed all these miracles, powerful, amazing miracles in the land of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea and allowed us to go through on dry ground, surely this God is not only able but willing to provide water for us in the wilderness, but was that their response when they needed water? No, it was to complain and demonstrate their discontentment. They came into the wilderness of Zin, the people stayed at Kadesh, oh I've got the numbers, the numbers one, that's at the end, Exodus, Exodus. The people thirsted for water, the people complained against Moses and said, why is it you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? And Moses cried out to the Lord saying, what shall I do with this people?

They're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, go on before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel and take the rod with which you struck the river, behold I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it and the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel and then this, so he called the name of the place Masa and Meribah because of the contention of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? Now you'd have to dig a little bit to get the significance of all this, but you see Masa and Meribah, though they became after this names of a place, this is what Moses named the place, but they have meanings and let me make sure I get the two correct. Meribah means, one of them means discontent, the other one means striving.

And my handwritten notes, I'm having trouble, there it is, there it is. Masa means tempt, to tempt the Lord. Meribah means striving, that is to strive with God. And so those two names were applied to what happened here and when you come to Psalm 95 where this is described, the Psalmist, David, guided by the Holy Spirit, instead of using the names as if they were the names of the place, he gives us the meaning of it and that's what carries over into our New Testament translation in Hebrews. So do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial, testing in the wilderness, rebellion, striving, see there it is, in the day of rebellion and you're striving, fighting against God, rebelling against God, as in the day of your testing, the trial or testing in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me and saw my works and so forth. So that's what is at the background of what Hebrews is quoting from Psalm 95. So what's the first illustration of apostasy? Discontent, discontent with what God has provided, unbelief in what God will provide, discontent with God's appointed leaders, discontent. God has done miraculous things for them, God has provided amazing things for them and it's not enough and we don't trust Him to do anymore. We question Him, we doubt Him, we strive against Him, we bell against Him, we're discontented. That's the way Israel manifested their apostasy.

What is next? Arrogance. When your fathers tested me, the creature challenging the Creator. Can anything be more foolish than that?

Can anything be more arrogant, more evidence of pride than that? The creature challenging His Creator? That's what you have here and that's what we do all the time. Be honest about it unless we are always humble and submitted before God at every moment of our lives. Accusing God of evil motives. The only reason you brought us out in the wilderness was to kill us in the wilderness. Where did you come up with an idea like that? Why would God have done all that He did to bring them out of Egypt to kill them in the wilderness?

If He intended to kill them, why didn't He just let the Egyptians work them to death? Where do they come up with those thoughts about God? Apostasy.

Professing one thing with their lips but having opposite thoughts in their hearts. So discontentment, arrogance, unbelief. They saw God's works but they doubted God's works. They denied God's works. They discounted God's works. They failed to believe the evidence that God had already given them of both His power and His good intentions. All evident to see but they questioned and doubted all of that and abandoned more evidence. One of my commentators said unbelief never has enough proof. Unbelief never has enough proof.

You can show a person so many things about God it seems undeniable and they say that's not enough evidence, you've got to show me more. Remember the rich man in Lazarus? Lazarus died and went to hell and lifted up his eyes being in torment. And the beggar was in heaven with the people of God, with Abraham. And Lazarus had enough sense to know he wasn't going to get out of hell but he did have, interestingly, some compassion for his brothers still living. He said send somebody back to tell my brothers so that they don't come to this place. And Abraham who's speaking for God in this particular account says no, they have Moses and the prophets, they have the Bible.

And they have people who are teaching them the Bible. Don't need to send anybody back from the dead. And the rich man says no, Father Abraham, they won't believe the Bible but they will believe if one rose from the dead. Really?

And what is the answer? If they will not believe Moses and the prophets, neither shall they believe if one rose from the dead. Some people are convinced if we could just bring back in great measure the age of signs and wonders, we could persuade people to believe then.

Not according to what Jesus said. If they won't believe the Bible, they won't believe a resurrection if you could produce one. Because unbelief never has enough proof. Raise a dead person and I'll believe. Well, I don't know, maybe he wasn't really dead.

Do another one, do a hundred, you know, on and on and on it goes. Never enough proof when one is unbelieving. So the Israelites illustrate apostasy with their discontentment, their arrogance, their unbelief, and their deviation, verse 10. As they have always gone astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways, they will not obey God's commands.

They are always deviating from the commands of God. Which brings us now to apostasy condemned in verses 10 and 11. Therefore, here's another therefore. A lot of therefores in chapter 3. Chapter 3 begins with a therefore, holy brethren.

Conclusion, resting upon what has been said. This section, verse 7, begins with a therefore. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, also a conclusion, resting heavily upon verse 6. Now we come again in verse 10 to a therefore. Another conclusion based upon this description of the apostate Israelites in the wilderness. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their hearts and they have not known my ways. So, I swore in my wrath they shall never enter my rest. Apostasy described, the first couple of verses, apostasy illustrated by Israel in the wilderness, and now apostasy condemned. Here's what God will do with apostates. Apostates aroused God's righteous anger.

Therefore, I was angry with that generation, those people in the wilderness. We don't talk much about the anger of God, the wrath of God. We talk about the love of God endlessly. We talk about the wrath and anger, just and holy wrath of a holy God, almost never. You can go to some churches and probably never hear anyone ever say anything about the wrath of God. But that's as much a part of the Bible as the love of God. And if you don't preach both, you don't understand the love of God or write. Well, I don't like that part.

That's indication you need it all the more. We'll just set the love of God aside for a while and camp down on what you need. You need to hear about the wrath of God for the safety of your soul. If you don't come under Holy Spirit wrought fear of the wrath of God, the just condemnation that rests upon you, then you are going to go into eternal hell talking about the love of God and knowing nothing about its reality in your soul. God says he got angry with these people.

In fact, the original word is even stronger than our translation. It's a word that expresses not only anger but loathing. It pretty much says God hated these people. I thought God loved everybody. Yes and no.

To some degree, but not to the full extent. Those who hear God's word and will not submit to it, those who hear God's word and will not believe it, those who are arrogant and rebellious against God and who test him and try him and strive with him, God says, I direct my righteous holy wrath, my anger, my loathing, my holy hatred toward them. And so apostasy arouses God's righteous anger. Apostasy forfeits God's gracious salvation. Verse 11, so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. They are denied this rest with a solemn oath from God. When God swears something, you can be sure he's not going to change his mind. I swore with an oath they shall not enter my rest. They shall forfeit God's gracious salvation. The promise of salvation that goes out in a general sense to all who will hear it and heed it is now denied these who have rejected it in such an obvious and significant way.

They shall not enter my rest. Rest here has the idea of a permanent and self-place. And first of all, it is illustrated in the land of Canaan, the land of promise. That was the place of rest. And the people of God were going through the wilderness to this wonderful land flowing with milk and honey, which represented rest. They were no longer going to, this was going to be a safe place for them. And it was going to be a permanent place for them.

That's what it should have been if they had not been so unbelieving and rebellious. But it's all a picture, a type of heaven where all these things come to ultimate reality and undiminished reality in any way. Heaven is a permanent and safe place.

Heaven is a place of rest. We no longer strive. We no longer strive with difficult people. We no longer strive with difficult situations and circumstances. We no longer strive with pain and the illness and sickness and death.

We no longer strive, which is even more important, with inward sinfulness within us that has not been entirely eradicated but will be when we enter that heavenly rest. It will all be over then. What a day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. But they shall not enter my rest. A rest that in a general sense was promised by God to all who will believe it becomes a rest that is forfeited by unbelief.

If we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Now let me apply this with three lessons to close out my message today. Lesson number one is to expand on the manifestations of apostasy.

How do I detect it in myself most importantly? Well manifestations of apostasy can show themselves first of all by departure from Christian lifestyle. Lip service to belief. I believe in Jesus but I don't listen to his voice. I don't listen to his commands. I don't pay attention to his word.

I don't consider myself under the authority of his instructions, his commands. I'm going to live like I want to. I'm going to live like I always have.

I'm going to live like my friends and neighbors do. I'm going to continue to carouse and drink and commit adultery. But I'm a Christian. I'm going to heaven. I can sing Amazing Grace.

Sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I'm afraid, dear friend, you are terribly deceived. You don't show any manifestations of having been saved by that powerful grace of God that saves us from the clutches of sin, saves us from the desire of sin. Departure from Christian lifestyle is a manifestation of apostasy if you find yourself doing that.

I don't know who's here and what your lifestyle is like. I have learned over the years that there are some people that can be so convincing when they gather with the people of God and then when you begin to... Sometimes the truth comes out, not always.

Only God knows the heart and God knows all the details. But sometimes you begin to find out what kind of life they're living and you realize that person couldn't be a true Christian at all, but they sure had us fooled. So departure from the Christian lifestyle is a manifestation of apostasy.

If you see that in your soul, then you better listen carefully. Departure from a Bible-based church may be a manifestation of apostasy. When people leave a Bible-centered church and go to an entertainment-centered church, they are probably manifesting apostasy. Departure from a Christian profession, that doesn't always happen, but it sometimes does. When that happens, you know apostasy has occurred.

Lack of enthusiasm for a Bible-based ministry. Unhappy, critical, unconnected, peripheral in regard to a healthy Bible-based church. Those may be manifestations of apostasy.

People who can sit and hear the word of God but never really respond to it with enthusiasm and full obedience and involvement within the people of God. These can be indications of apostasy. But we move on to recovery from apostasy. Can a person be recovered from apostasy? And the glad answer is yes. Now there is a line that's crossed.

I'll get to that in a minute. But yes, we have had the glad joy over the years of seeing people who came into our church with a credible profession of faith and lived a credible life among us for some time and then at some point were truly saved and testified that in hearing the word of God they realized that they had not been saved, they were lost, but now they do trust Christ and they've been saved, they've been changed. That does happen before they would have fallen into the category of apostates who professed faith in Christ but were not truly saved and then God in His mercy, His grace, His powerful, amazing grace saves them in the context of their false profession but in the context of the ministry of God's word. Is it possible to recover from apostasy?

Thankfully, yes. But this warning, at some point recovery becomes impossible. Only God knows when that line is crossed.

Until that line is crossed, recovery is possible. Nominal faith can become vibrant faith. Arrogance may be replaced with true God-wrought humility. A critical spirit may be replaced by true appreciation for the things of God and for the people of God, for the church of God. Reluctance to engage can be replaced with a desire for active interest and involvement in the work of God and among God's people. Professing Christians who are unregenerate may be regenerated under the ministry of God's word but if you continue to harden your heart by saying no, no, no, no, no when you hear the word of God telling you what to do, you may harden it to the point that it will never be softened.

It's too late. So my third application is how to avoid apostasy. How to be sure that you are not an apostate and do not come to the end, the tragic end of apostates. How to avoid apostasy. Be serious in your appreciation for and attention to God's word.

Today, if you will hear His voice, hear it, hear it, hear it, hear it, hear it. Be serious in your appreciation for and attention to God's word. Number two, do not delay in submission and active obedience to this word of God.

Harden not your heart. Number three, do not allow a critical spirit to develop within your heart. If you see one there, acknowledge it, confess it, forsake it, suppress it. Constant complainers among the people of God are in danger of apostasy.

Number four, accept biblical correction with humility. Search your heart. When the word of God speaks to you, seek God's help in prayer. When you see evidences of danger in your soul, you'll have to acknowledge we all will. I see this, but I need help. I'm weak. I need help. Don't you think God is willing to help those who truly seek Him for it?

Of course He is. Seek Him. Number five, do not stifle the convicting word of God with superficial assurances of well-being. I'm okay because I can remember when I prayed a prayer. I've even had people tell me, well, I was young when I was saved, but my mother tells me that I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into my heart so I know I'm saved. They can't even remember it for themselves.

It's so unimpactful that it has not made the slightest dent in their memory, but my mother told me. I would hate to go into eternity hanging on what your mother told you about a prayer you can't remember. I prayed a prayer. I was baptized. I'm a member of the church. I'm as good a Christian as the others.

Run all that through what we just saw in this text. Old Testament Israelite in the wilderness. I prayed a prayer. I'm sure they did. It was part of their liturgy, their worship. They all prayed at times. Not I was baptized, but I was circumcised.

They were. They'd all been circumcised. I'm a member of the church.

Well, they were all members of the Old Testament church, if that's a proper term. I'll accept it. I have some reservations about it, but we can talk about that later. But yes, I'm a member of this body, this body of the people of God, the chosen people of God, the special people of God. I'm a member of that.

I'm as good as any of the others around me. Yeah, but all the others around you are lost. They're all going to hell. You're all going to hell together. I was angry with that generation. They all died in the wilderness, all of them 20 years old and above. All died deaths in the wilderness and went out into a Christless eternity, except for Caleb and Joshua and all those 20 years and under.

Everybody in that company was apostate. They could all say they had prayed. They could all say they'd been circumcised. They could all say they were a member of the family of God, the earth, the visible family of God.

They could all say they were as good as those around them, and they all died and went to hell. So rather than that, evaluate your heart and life honestly with biblical evidences of regeneration. Do I evidence the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith? Do I have a love for the word of God? These are biblical evidences of regeneration.

Do I love serious worship instead of superficial entertainment? If those things are evident, then cultivate them. Cultivate them. Continue to cultivate them.

Stay in that track. And if they're not there, then go to God and say, I need help. I need help. I may need to be saved. O Lord God, you're the only one that can do that. I cast myself before your throne. I acknowledge that I am a needy sinner. And whatever I need, O Lord, I call upon you to supply. And those who come to Christ with that attitude, he promises he will never, never, never cast out, shall we pray. Father, may these words be used for the eternal good of all who hear them. May we be sobered by them. May it shake us out of lethargy, indifference, and carelessness. May Christ be honored in our lives, we pray. Amen.