A Final Warning (Part B)

If you will not come to hear of Christ on the cross, you must one day see for yourselves Christ on his throne. Now I'm going to use a verse or two to tell you where he got that from. And you know, when Spurgeon preached these things, many people were coming to Christ. They weren't coming to the Metropolitan pulpit or the Metropolitan Tabernacle there in London just to have a good time.

They were hungry for God. 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. A final warning is the title of Pastor Rick's message. He'll continue in Hebrews Chapter 12 today. These words right out of the mouth of God to this very day, at this very moment. Now, feature about Scripture that we cannot ever lose sight of is that the Bible in this sense is much like Adam was at creation, just a sculpture out of the clay, just out of something out of creation shaped, but lifeless. That is Adam that God had put his hands on the clay, the earth, and fashioned the shape of a man, but it was still just a sculpture, nothing more.

Even though God had touched him, it was not until God breathed his life into him, put his breath into him, that Adam become a living being. Well, Scripture is like that. You can take this and put it in the hands of an unbeliever and there's no benefit to them. In fact, it becomes condemnation to them.

So many of them have read it and said, I don't care for it. They were not careful to heed him who speaks. The Holy Spirit has to come upon the reader, breathing life into them so that they can embrace and cherish and act upon the things that they read in the Bible and not refuse him who speaks, and with us, we call it the Word of God. It continues here in verse 25, for if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth.

We have to stop mid-sentence right there. If they did not escape, that's the Jewish people. He's writing again to Jews, to Hebrews, Christians, Christian Hebrews, and he's saying to them, okay, words come to me. Some of you are thinking about leaving the faith going back to Judaism. If you do that, you will not escape judgment. You will be judged with the unbelievers. You might say, well, my theology doesn't like that. Well, it's not your theology that counts. It's what the Scripture says. We cannot tailor our doctrine to suit our theology.

We get our theology, what we think about God, from his Word. And it's been clear throughout this letter what he has been saying. And it's been clear to me on this particular subject of their salvation. And so he says, listen, if they didn't escape when the law was given, those who rejected it, what makes you think you're different?

What makes you think you're going to escape? God does not change. He'll get to that next chapter. God is the same yesterday, forever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He changes not. And so this contrast between heeding God and refusing to heed him. Well, we go again to Exodus.

And so the law, the Ten Commandments has been given. God has brought the elders up on the mountain. They have witnessed the presence of God. They saw God.

Not in his full essence, of course. Moses and the elders. And then they go back off the mountain. And then Joshua and Moses go up some.

And then Joshua is left back a little bit. And Moses goes into the presence of God. And then God gives him more of the law. And then after 40 days, again, the people said, as to this Moses, we don't know what. And God sends him back to the camp. And so we pick it up in Exodus 32, verse 25. When Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me. And all the sons of Levi had gathered themselves together to him. So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about 3,000 men of the people fell that day.

They were killed. So when the writer says, they did not escape, who refused him who spoke, what makes you think you're going to be different? Are you willing to take this chance? Knowing the history and the ways of God, are you willing to jeopardize your soul? Now you've got to understand his audience is hearing this and they're, as we would say, sweating bullets. Or they're dead in their soul and they could care less about what God and his servants have to say.

I believe that they responded to this. I believe that's why the letter is preserved, because it was a victory. He continues in verse 25, he says, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven. He is relentless with this.

He's been hitting it all the way through. I mean, chapter 6, you know, he slams it and then he comes back again and again and again until the final warning. When pastors hopefully make points, sometimes, oh sure, other pastors can overdo it, the tendency is to say, oh, he's on his hobby horse.

Well, why is that? Where did he even get the hobby horse? Why is he on it? Because there's something he's after that God has put on his heart, hopefully, ideally speaking. There's a critical point that has not been registering and he's trying to drive it in. That's what the writer to Hebrews is doing with them.

That's why he has hit this five times with, again, critical warnings. And since those who refused the Old Testament message did not escape, those in the New Testament cannot expect special treatment. This is good for us to hear. Refuse Jesus Christ and you reject the highest possible authority there is to reject. Matthew's gospel. Therefore I say to you, Jesus speaking, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. I mentioned earlier that the Holy Spirit comes beside you and he comes beside a lost soul and he begins to share Christ.

If that soul should say, I don't want to hear it, get away and don't come back, that soul perishes in that state, there's no forgiveness for sins. And there's a message that I've been thinking about, but again, I can't share with that unless the Lord opens it up for me, but it's been concerning the rapture. I don't think Christians should let it get out of hand wanting the rapture and here's why.

I'm not saying we should shut down to it, of course not. We should have this expectation and excitement for it. Jesus left that with us, but at the same time it has to be balanced. It has to be balanced with we have work to do and we're not looking to get out of work. We're looking to save lost souls.

We know who they are, many of them. We know family members, loved ones that are lost, and we want time to reach them. That balances out. You have to have a purpose in life. You have to have a meaning. Even in Christ, if you just kind of, you know, wandering along, that's a tough way to live. There's a better way. Purpose.

Focus on something. Understanding that what you are doing is leading to something that is worth doing. Who wants to do something that's not worthwhile? This is one of the reasons why I get so irritated when people expect pastors to just check a box, but they really don't need him or want him there, but just check the box. I don't like, sometimes you have to because the immature state of the believer is not worth irritating, but other times you want to say, listen, this is not real stuff. This is not real ministry.

Let's not waste our time with this and let's move forward because the things that we handle are very serious. We understand the judgment of God. Again, another Spurgeon quote. You may close your ears to the invitation of the gospel, but at last you will not be able to close your ear to the denunciation of wrath. If you will not come to hear of Christ on the cross, you must one day see for yourselves Christ on his throne. Now I'm going to use a verse or two to tell you where he got that from. And you know, when Spurgeon preached these things, many people were coming to Christ. They weren't coming to the metropolitan pulpit or the metropolitan tabernacle.

They are in London just to have a good time. They were hungry for God. You can go to the bookstore and you can find the book that is a journal actually that documents what the people were going through and when they were exposed to the ministry of Charles Spurgeon, which was the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Hebrews two, he says, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which was at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him?

How will we escape again? He's talking to the brethren. He calls them that he says, Brethren, if you walk away from the faith, how are you going to escape? And so when Spurgeon makes a comment, when he says, If you will not come near the cross of Christ, you will come to the throne of Christ.

He's talking about the great white throne. Revelation six shows us what's happening with, you know, we hear this nowadays, the masters of the universe, all the big money and the big decision makers of the world getting together and sort of steering humanity, whatever course and direction they want to steer them in, at least making an effort to do that. What Jesus addresses that. Revelation six and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand it?

No one. Stern warning from scripture. Final warning. Revelation 20.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. See, we need this. We have to be jarred back into this away.

That's right. What I preach has everything to do with the salvation of a soul versus the destruction of a soul. I need to be stirred from time to time to be reminded that when I preach Jesus, I'm preaching to souls who are lost. I'm not just sharing my faith. The intensity of truth, we have to keep it in front of us or else it will evaporate because that's the fallen nature that we have. It will allow it to happen. But with men who hear our message, they ought to be angry with sin when we preach the message. Instead, they're angry with Christ for exposing their sin. The world wants to do what it wants to do.

It wants men to dress up and be women. I mean, this is insanity. Listen, they're not our enemy, incidentally, but it is our enemy who is getting them to do this. We want to reach them with truth. You know, it's an old saying.

It was around before I was born. The truth hurts. So it makes sense to line up with it and not be against it because the Word of God is a sword and a sword hurts if it cuts you.

I'd rather be on the swinging side than the receiving side. And so our mood in this day of sexual and moral perversity out of hand, I mean, it's always been here, but now it is global. It used to be in Bible time centered in certain places like Sodom, for example, but now it is global because the Tower of Babel has been rebuilt electronically. You can go anywhere in the world electronically. Well, nearly anywhere in the world. You can do it through Google Maps.

You can do it through just contacting with people who are in other parts of the world. So the world has become one place and they're all swapping notes. But they're not about the righteousness of God. There's some of that, of course.

But overall, that's not what's going on. It's how can we recruit you to join our movement of moral perversity and no longer have it be called moral perversity? In fact, let's call the righteous the perverted ones.

I'm not saying this in a tone of disgust or trying to make anyone feel small. If the truth does that, that's on you. I mean, God's word will make you feel so small if you are against it, they'll have to pick you up with tweezers. But you don't have to get to that place.

We can avoid it. So let's go on and find out what he has to say because what I am saying right now, the immature will push back against. Immature Christians, they don't want to hear this. They don't want any confrontation.

They think the church is supposed to be an entertainment center and they're just problems. The penitent will repent. Those who are smitten in their heart, they will say, I want more of God. I want his holiness. I do not want to be profane. I want holiness. And the mature will applaud it and say, God, use me, use me, use me up. God, if you want to be used by God, understand you are going to have to be wise as a serpent, as harmless as a dove. You cannot just bring your definitions of love into serving Christ. It's not enough.

It won't win the war. There's got to be. You must go deeper and you can't go deeper on your own. You must ask God to get you there.

And he most often takes you there in phases. I mentioned that the giving of the law, it wasn't just a one day event. It was issued to the people. It was released slowly to the people so that they could bear it. So do not become impatient.

You're going to need much patience. Verse 26, he says, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven. So he's got this working knowledge, the writer, of of course the Old Testament. He has roamed through it. He understands it.

So does his audience. And now he's quoting the prophet Haggai. He said, This isn't our scripture. This is prophecy.

And you know it's true. Christ's work is so profound that even heaven is changed forever by the population of sinners saved by grace. Heaven will not be the same in a glorious way when all the sinners that are saved by grace enter in. Who else can do this but God? Only God can shake heaven and earth.

He shook it at the giving of the law. There on Mount Sinai, at the foot of Mount Sinai, on the mountain itself, Exodus 19-18. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. This violent earthquake and yet no one was killed by the violent earthquake.

There are times when it is. There's another time in scripture when they will rise up against Moses and the ground will open up and swallow up many of the rebels. So it's a good idea to be friends with God. Anybody that's got that much power, it's a good idea to be friends with them. And that would be God.

That would be Jesus Christ who allows us to be friends. He says, But now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. This is future. This is prophecy now. I'm going to spend a little time reading from the scripture on the prophecies. Jesus said, There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, and on the earth, distress of the nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Jesus says, you know, there's going to be a radical. I mean, this is not going to be an isolated event here and there.

This is going to be a global operation. Revelation 16, 18, And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth. This is a coming attraction, you could say.

Really not an attraction, but it's coming. Joel, the prophet. Yahweh also will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and earth will shake, but Yahweh will be a shelter for his people and the strength of the Children of Israel.

In the midst of all of these cataclysmic events taking place during the great tribulation period and especially towards the end, God will shelter his people. Zechariah 14, 4. I don't mind reading the Word of God, incidentally. I don't mind reading it whether it's a pulpit in front of me or just me.

We need these things to hear the Word. When one of the prophets said, they have rejected the Word of God, so what wisdom do they have? We've not rejected the Word of God.

He's warning them not to reject him who speaks, which is the Word. Zechariah 14, 4, concerning the cataclysmic events to come. And in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley.

Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. This is going to be a literal event. It is going to happen just as it has been called. Human rule will end at that time. God will put an end to what we know as the world, the world's way of doing things. Daniel chapter 2, verse 44, and in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.

That is the Gentile rule that we are now under. It will come to an end. Haggai, again, chapter 2, I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.

And then there is First Corinthians, one of my favorite verses. I'm going to be here for this event, be there for that event. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and authority and power.

You're going to be there too. Christ is your Lord and Savior now. He will be your Lord and Savior then. And it will be a glorious time. And so, again, going back, he says, be careful.

Don't refuse him. He has promised that he will shake heaven and earth. And if he's got that much power, you better listen to what he is saying because of who he is. Now, verse 27, now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. The word of God, living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit, the joints and the marrow, the material and the immaterial, the sheeps and the goat.

God will separate things so that he can deal with them the right way. His kingdom, however, in the midst of all these things, it will never be shaken. It is an everlasting kingdom. It is undying. It is eternal.

Gabriel, when he approached Mary and announced that she was going to have the child, he said this of Jesus Christ, of his kingdom there will be no end. Can you imagine telling that to a mom? All moms think their kids are superior. That's not a bad thing.

I mean, if you act it out too much, it can be a problem, but we all, this is our child. We love them bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Annoying, but still bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. But Mary, to be told by an angel, of his kingdom there will be no end. I don't know how she retained any of this except by the hand of God.

I would have been so blown away just by the experience that I don't know that I would have recalled anything. I would have been so excited, but God did not let it get away from her. See, God is not the cause of hysteria in the church. Hysterical people are the cause of hysteria in the church. God is the one who orders it. I know there are those that think, well, if we just bring in, you know, let everybody in, how else are we going to reach them if we don't let them in?

They're going to reach us and destroy who we are. They can't sit for the word of God. If the word of God is interrupted, you cannot appease.

They must conform to the order that God has put in place. When someone jumps up and starts running around the sanctuary, who gets the attention at that moment? It ain't Jesus Christ.

Everybody's looking at them running around. You may say, well, this offends me, Pastor. I get some of my best exercises in the church.

Where else does this take place? Where else does one man get in front of an assembly of people and preach God's word to you? Not a motivational speaker trying to tell you how to get a million dollars by Thursday or something like that, but someone saying, thus says the Lord.

So God who shook heaven and earth at the giving of the law will do so again at his 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.