Let Us (Part C)

I side with Christ about my sin.

That is the transformation, the renewing of my mind. I now side with Him. If He says it's wrong, I say it's wrong. Because I know, I know Him.

Not because someone's told me to. It's very personal, very personal, otherwise it's not genuine. It's been said, God has no grandchildren. You're either His child or you're not.

It has to be personal. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in Hebrews chapter 10 with his study called, Let Us. James 1.6, let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubt is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. In other words, don't doubt what's proven. To doubt what is not worthy of doubt is faithlessness. When God has established it with you, don't look back. It's a done deal.

It should be. And that's what they are encouraging. I mean, we all have doubt. Doubt comes very easily to us. Without effort, we doubt. Pressure pushes down on us, we begin to doubt. Where's the Lord?

If he is God, if he loves me, we've talked about this in other sessions, that his delay in answering prayer is not because he doesn't care, but he wants to show if you will cling to him in love no matter what. So faith is a leap into the light out of the darkness. Faithlessness remains in darkness because it doubts what it's been shown. Even though the evidence may be astounding, is astounding. That is the criteria. Colossians 1.1.

Oh, actually it's 1.11. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. Well the ones that he was writing to in Colossae, the city of Colossae, they knew this. And John writes in his first, in his gospel, in the first chapter, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. So faith, in full assurance of faith. How many of us have full assurance of faith? How many of us get very weak when we hear the roar of Satan?

Because he is a formidable opponent. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Now he is addressing the inner life of the believers. Still the imagery is Levitical, the people in the altar and the mercy seat. These were sprinkled with blood by Moses at the very beginning. So he says having our hearts sprinkled because he's writing to Jews who understood this. In other words, he's saying when he says sprinkled from an evil conscience, one's heart must experience the effects of this great salvation through the sacrifice of Christ personally. And so I go back to my own conversion.

What was the deciding factor? The voice of Christ. I am the one.

I am he. Each Christian may have a different experience, or a modification thereof, but still it comes back to you met him, you saw him, your soul spiritually, not physically. You sensed that pardon, that grace, the truth, the divinity of Christ, his love in an instant above everything.

It's like everything else was drowned out except him and what he was bringing. And that's why you turned your back on an old life. Look forward to the new life, the fresh in the living way that was before you for those who are in Christ, whatever impurities still exists, they will be washed away by the blood of the lamb.

Ultimately, our pardon will be thorough, he says, and our bodies washed with pure water. Now the outer life. Well, conversion is supposed to show up in the way we live, but it's a struggle because we're still sinners. In this lifetime, we will always have this fallen nature.

And that is where, of course, the conflict goes on. But the thoroughness of God and his cleansing process for all who surrender themselves, free will, no other way, body, soul, mind and spirit. For all who surrender to Christ, the cleansing processes begin. So Romans 12 verse 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable perfect will of God. Those who come to Christ have come from outside the world and into Christ. We know what we've left behind and we know what we're reaching forward to. We know what we have received. And when he says be transformed, our problem is that transformation is a very slow process in this lifetime.

It will be instant when we leave here, but for now, it is quite difficult. And yet you look back and you say, but I've covered a lot of ground. Christ has been far more patient with me than others, far more patient with me than I've been with myself. He never leaves me nor forsakes me, but he does pull back for his purposes.

And they are always right, pleasant or not. So the blood and the water together, they speak of our justification by the blood of Christ and our separation by the work of the Holy Spirit and separation from the world and who we were. It is a statement. I side with Christ about my sin.

That is the transformation, the renewing of my mind. I now side with him. If he says it's wrong, I say it's wrong. Because I know I know him not because someone's told me to is very personal, very personal.

Otherwise, it's not genuine. It's been said, God has no grandchildren. You are either his child or you're not.

It has to be personal. And he has to be treated as God. As you've heard it said, God is God.

He's not applying for the job. He either is to you or he is not. And so I side with Christ about my sin, personally me, my sin. My views must conform to his views. And if I don't understand it, he will reveal it if I come to him.

In time, he will reveal it. But often it's a process because he's got to shave off so many influences that have caked up on my life, blinded me. And so he receives me as his own. My sin is washed away in his blood. Verse 23, then the second let us. After having used the first one in verse 22, where he says, let us draw near. Then he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Well, this is the faith when he's saying, let us hold fast to the faith that they were considering abandoning or mixing, leavening, weakening, destroying. What should he have said? Let us abandon our faith.

Let us accommodate anybody's view, even if it's contrary to what Christ has said. Of course, he's not going to say that. He says, hold to it, cling to it. There's no need to exhort to hold something unless there is a danger of releasing that something. And thus, he says, there's a risk of slipping away. But you have a say so in this matter. Sin will dull the heart, false teachings, leaven. These things will cause you to slip away if you're not careful. Always reminding us the scripture is of opposing forces, appetites, and cravings, of corruptions, of lies, of attacks right in our face oftentimes.

It's not a random statement. It's very much connected to what I'm saying now. Well, he does exhort them. Now, what about the grip of his grace? Well, I think it can be overplayed in this way. We hear a lot, I'm in the grip of his grace.

Well, I am too, and I applaud that, and I agree with that. But if that's all you got, you've overplayed it. You've missed something vital.

You've overemphasized something. In other words, if I'm in the grip of his grace and that's it, there's nothing for me to do? I do not have to take up my cross and die daily? There's no holding on my part?

Well, that's not what it says here. He says, let us hold. And if you don't have that in your head as a believer, you're going to just think that Christ does it all and you just do the receiving. He does the dying, you do the getting blessed. And that's it. And you will be a dangling Christian all your days. You know, how are you doing? Oh, I'm hanging in there. Well, if something heavy has hit you, I understand that.

But if that's your whole life story, if all you've got is hanging in there, you are a dangler. I don't say that to insult you. I say that to offer you an alternative. There's more available to you. If you can't fire a musket, you can haul water to those who do because they will get thirsty. There's something for you to do other than just hang in there.

There's something that you can do to inflict damage on the enemy's ability to wage war. But you've got to want to do it and you've got to believe it and you've got to hold. When you feel like you're slipping away, you've got to tighten your grip no matter what.

You bind yourself to it if necessary. Do you think, do you think, do you honestly think, if there's a Christian you hold in high esteem, that that Christian does not have to do battle, that that Christian does not have times when they feel like, I'm done with this. I cannot fight anymore. I just want to go away. The instant those thoughts hit a mature Christian, that other sword comes out.

That's how it's supposed to be. That's how it has been ever since the days of, do you think the apostle Paul was never sick and tired of the junk he got from Christians? Do you think he was never sick and tired of going through the process of healing after his stonings and his beatings? But he had a righteous indignation that burned in him.

He understood what it was all about and it was worth it. He said, I saw the risen Lord. I saw the light. I heard the voice.

You're not taking that from me. And so I try not to hang in there wherever there may be. I want to be useful. I want to help. I want to wage war. I don't really want to, but I know that the alternative is worse. So if you want to learn how to pray, you have to pray.

And that is one way to haul water. Listen, it wouldn't, we wouldn't need prayer if we just submitted a request to God and got it. Prayer is something that has to break through and it can take decades. I would not be standing here right now if it wasn't for other people praying for me. I gave up on God. They did not give up on God. They interceded for me. And in time, and I never, I don't know that I've ever really gotten to say to them, thank you. One is with the Lord now. I cannot tell her thank you, yet. The other, I guess I should make a call.

I got their number. Well, if you want to learn how to pray, if you want to stop dangling, then pray. No matter what. Have that sword cleaved to your hand. He says, without wavering.

Wavering here is not getting rocked. It means leaving, the Greek word. And this is what they wanted to do. They wanted to leave the faith. And he says, don't leave. Don't crave anything above Christ. You don't care for anything against him. Because everything against Jesus is false. And we know that because we have seen him. We have heard him and we agree.

We've been transformed. He says, for he who promised is faithful. We do not trust faith. We trust the person in whom we have faith. We trust Christ Jesus. Faith is not a magic wand.

It's not a power we have in the closet. Christ is the power. And we say we access that through faith, through trust in him. I trust Jesus. I do not trust trust. I do not have faith in faith. I have faith in a person who loves me, died for me and not me only and others before me and others after me. And he has died for some that I am better them as men measure men. And then for those who are better than me as men measure men is died for all who come.

When we leave our faith, we leave strength behind every single time without exception. Paul again, he goes to Thessalonica, having left Philippi for being beaten for Christ. The wounds are still fresh on his back. He and Silas, both of them beaten. And he doesn't say to Silas, I'm sorry I got you into this man. You know, I'm sorry. I just thought I was going to preach from the pulpit like Rick Gaston does and not have to take these beatings.

He never does. And when he writes to the Thessalonians about their faith, he says, but even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, what an understatement. As you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. We preached it in the midst of trouble, in the midst of those who hated our guts. We preached love to them.

We did not back down from our terms. We boldly preached in spite of consequences and did not preach recklessly. Word came to Paul. They were hunting him in Thessalonica.

He moved on to Berea and then finally ending up in Corinth. When he found they were tracking him, he was not reckless with his faith, but he was bold nonetheless. We are left to overcome that which is questionable with that which is unquestionable.

In other words, if you have enough light, you can see enough in the dark. You cannot see everything, but you can see enough to make your decisions, to overcome the unsettled with what is settled is the walk of Christians. Deuteronomy 29, the secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but to those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. So here's how Kenneth Wiest, who is a great Greek scholar, Wiest word studies, he translates the verses that he comments the way he sees the Greek. And here's how he translates verse 23. Let us constantly be holding fast our confession of hope, doing so without being moved, for faithful is he who promised.

The faith is in he who promised. Verse 24, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. We fail here so often, so often we fail to consider one another. Every time you make the other person wait for you because you didn't put your turn signal on and you turn and he goes, you're not considerate. I'm telling you, I have resentment here.

I'm dealing with it. But again, we sell turn signal fluid in the chapel store for those of you in need. The emphasis here is not on what the believer gets from church. It is what the believer gives in church. You catch it again, verse 24. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Verse 25 would tell us, he's talking about this goes into the assembly. But just so that we are clear on this, what do you contribute?

Jesus asked, what do you do more than everybody else? And inconsiderate people, they disturbed the peace. Now that doesn't stop some from just writing for you a script on what consideration is when they're wrong.

But you know, and you should when you are being rude. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Now again, these Jewish believers began to avoid church because they were beginning to want to go back to the temple.

They were succumbing to the community, the cultural pressures, which are on all of us, the cultural pressures that say, be like us, conform to us, do what we do, think how we think, like what we think. We say, no, we're going to do what Jesus said. And then we are attacked. Well, bring the attack on, but we love him.

Nothing personal against you, but something very personal for him. And Jesus promised these things would come, so we shouldn't be surprised. It doesn't make them less difficult though.

They're there. And so going to one's local church, that is what Christians do. The assembling of ourselves. This is not the universal church. This is the local church. That is a local church whose doctrine is sufficient. If you have all, if you say, I got to have all my objections answered, then you're never going to do anything in life. Seldom are all the objections answered.

You have to know what are the major ones and what are the minor ones. And don't major in the minors, which we do very easily. I wish I could say what you do, but I'm guilty too of being friends with you. No. So tragically, doctrine is so low on the list. They want the music. They want the, you know, I had a field, you know, the kids ministry would program, but the doctrine is down at the bottom.

They can have all those other things. Well, don't fall for that. The assembly, Psalm 122. This is a song of a sense when they would go up to the temple at the feast days and David is written by David. He said, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Are you part of the process that makes people unjustly say, I don't want to go there?

Or are you part of the process that makes you say, I do want to go there? Psalm 26 verse 8, Yahweh, I have loved the habitation of your house and in the place where your glory dwells. And so that Jews understood this and we ask ourselves, are we quick to say, the Lord never leaves or forsakes me.

What about you? Do you ever leave or forsake him? I advise against forsaking a doctrinally sound church on grounds of gossip, bad mouthing, hearsay, unproven accusations, lies. Christians do it all the time.

You remember the caveat. If you are foolish enough to believe one side of the story, you get what you deserve. I have, as a pastor who gets back usually years later someone's yeah, and they were saying this and they were saying that.

None of those. I think of a pastor out west, his own children turned on him and then years later after so much they came back and said it was all a lie. But how many people believed and turned on without evidence? Watch out, be careful. Don't believe anything you are told.

Prove all things. Be gentle, be merciful, be wise. It's not asking you to put up with a moral sin or a doctrinal heresy.

But don't be so thin or weak that you bend at a breeze. Diatrophes, John 3, John, verse 9 and 10. Diatrophes, who loves to have preeminence, John wrote.

This is what he says. Pratting against us with malicious words. He was a confessed Christian. He was a pastoring of a false church.

And he forbade Christians to even have any association with the apostle John and none of the others who agreed with the apostle. Pratting against us with malicious words. Why?

So he was a corruptor and so be careful that you do not forsake the assembly because of some diatrophes. Years ago, I know I'm over time. You don't mind, do you? I'll wrap it up. Years ago, a Christian was beginning to sour me against the church and I was falling for it. He doesn't raise his kids the right way. He doesn't do this the right way. He does his sermon.

He just repeats himself and he doesn't stop. And I was beginning to say, yeah, you're right. I'm ashamed to this day that I even entertained it without proof. Even if some of the things were so petty. I couldn't dismiss them because I was a new impressionable, new, you know, three years into the faith. And I'm still ashamed of it.

And I'm sorry I told you. Anyway, God is greatly to be feared. In the assembly of the Saint, Psalm 89 verse seven and to be held in reverence by all those around him. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to the flock. He's speaking to the pastors among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his blood. He died for the church and he's telling the pastors this is the assembly, the local assembly. Acts 20 verse seven.

Now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. 1 Corinthians 11 18. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And in part I believe it.

And of course he dealt with these divisions. 1 Corinthians 11 20. Therefore, when you come together in one place. And so you see the emphasis of the New Testament. The church is a local assembly and those who hide behind.

Well, I believe the church is anywhere and I don't have to go to anything. You're wrong. You are contradicting scripture. The Bible does not side with you. It rebukes you. You say, Well, I don't want to go to church because there's a bunch of problems there that you got that right.

So why don't you just come and admit you're one of them? And it is. We know what happens when the church goes away.

I'd rather have a church struggling to do right and failing in the process than no church or church that's not even struggling or church that's been conformed to the world. Well, he says the day approaching, he says, as you see the end coming, you know where this is all going. That's how he closes this section. You see the day approaching. You know what's coming.

Christ is coming. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.