Unprofitable Religion

All right, the bulletin's wrong, but not too wrong. We'll start in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7. So if you have a Bible, go there and make sure that I'm actually reading God's Word. Open your Bible in church. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways. As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Take care, brethren, that not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. While it is said today, if you hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those whose sin, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us, just as they also. But the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, our prayer is simple. We ask that...

Your word be made effective in us by faith. We thank you that faith is a gift and the spirit brings it to us and increases it in us. And we ask that would happen now in the name of your son. Amen. I know what people want when it comes to sermons. They want intriguing theological insights. They want practical steps to make their life better. And above all, above all, they want encouraging words of comfort. People come to church to be comforted. It's probably why you're here today or why you're here some days. They want to be told everything's going to be okay, and they want to be told, don't worry, be happy. You and your children are safely in the hands of God. They want their guilty conscience to be eased and their fears to be extinguished. They want the sweet balm of the gospel to be applied to every womb. They want grace. They want grace. And then after that, They want some more grace. But you know what they don't want? They don't want to be warned. Warnings are disturbing, and that's the opposite of comfort. I used to have a profound fear of flying, and I always hated the part where the stewardess goes over what to do if some terrible thing happens. And I'm not trying to think about that at all.

I'm imagining a peaceful flight, one without turbulence, catastrophic failures, a water landing in shark-infested waters. That's where my mind wants to go naturally. I don't need her help. Her preparatory warnings aren't helping me think happy thoughts. They're bad mojo. They're disturbing me, right? When they go on long, I'm going to say, shh, comfort me. Woman, come on. Don't disturb me. And we'll make allowances for stewardess and doctors when they warn us, because planes, they crash, and heart disease happens. Those people are just doing their job. And yet the same allowance is not extended to pastors. The pressure is always towards positive and encouraging sermons, always. That's where the pressure is. And he feels that pressure externally from the congregation, from you.

And when I say you, I don't mean the person you think I'm talking about. I mean you. I'm talking about you. Sermons are for you. God brought you here today sovereignly. You. Stop thinking about other people. I always have to say that whenever I preach. If you feel like I'm talking about you, it's because I am. But they always feel external pressures from the congregation and internally from their own struggles with sin. But he mustn't collapse under the weight. He must warn. And that's my first point. I only have two. I only have two for you today. Tim Bailey had 19 this other day. That's impressive. I'll keep it simple. Warnings are good, needed, and a clear expression of love. That's my first point. Consider the amount of warnings in our brief passage. It's just a mere 15 verses. The author says in chapter 3, verse 8, do not harden your hearts.

Chapter 3, verse 12, take care, brethren, that there not be anyone in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. And verse 15 in chapter 3, do not harden your hearts yet again. And then in verse 1 of chapter 4, therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. And Hebrews is loaded with... like that. The whole book is basically one big warning. These Hebrew Christians are tempted to turn away from the faith in Christ to the pre-Messianic Judaic system of worship. That's where they want to go back. And that's why the book says Jesus is better than angels, than Moses, than Aaron, the tabernacle, and so forth. Over and over, Jesus is better. And that's a very positive affirmation of the primacy of Christ.

But it also has repeated warnings about what happens if you turn away from Christ. If you go to your doctor and he looks at your diet and the things you are already getting, he doesn't tell you to do more of that. The things you aren't getting, that's what he emphasizes. And that's why pastors pull out things and passages that are not in your diet, that you don't want to hear, right? And so I love all the sermons on how Jesus is better, and you should preach them because it's in the text. But it's good to also emphasize the things that we ought to want to hear, that we want to ignore. And warnings are like that. But it's not just Hebrews. It's the whole Bible, right? The Bible opens and closes with the warning. In Genesis 2, think of this. The world is perfect, and God...

Then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely. Positive and encouraging. That feels good. I like that. But from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. That's not too bad, right? I mean, the slope of positivity is going downwards right now. For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. Right there. Very sharp warning. Imperfection. In Revelation 22, we read, God will take away his part from the tree of life, from the holy city, which are written in this book.

That's what God's saying. If you add or take from this book, you're going to be judged. Don't do it. The whole Bible is full of warnings, right? You may say, well, Genesis is like Old Testament, but Revelation is definitely written to Christians. This is a warning for Christians. I mean, Genesis is too, but if I have to deal with some weird hermeneutic stuff, I promise you that I can show you that both are true. But definitely Revelation, it's to you. It's to Christians like us. And then Proverbs, if you read Proverbs, I love Proverbs because I have four sons. It's good for girls, but it's especially good for sons. And Proverbs always warns about bad friends, bad investment, bad women, bad men, bad strategies, and more. Warning after warning. Both the minor and major prophets are largely dedicated to warning Israel about the dangers of breaking covenant with God.

And who does Jesus not warn in the gospel? Who does he not warn? All right, he warns the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and lawyers, and politicians, but those are bad people. And of course, we don't fall in those categories. That's for someone else that's not here today or a row behind you. But he warns his own disciples and whoever else he ran into. He warns everybody. It's constant. Warnings over and over. Look, if you love God, if you love God's word, if you love God's messengers, if you love your own life and soul, you will learn to love warnings. Good, godly preaching comforts the disturbed, but also disturbs the comfortable. You have to do both. And if you are comfortable, you do need to be warned. It is the most loving thing. Here's why. I'll give you two examples.

of warnings I hate, a lot of warnings I don't like, but rumble strips and speed humps. And I say speed humps on purpose. The difference between a speed bump, right, it's reasonable. A speed hump is not reasonable at all. But rumble strips are those obnoxious things on the shoulder that go vroom, vroom, vroom, right, when you hit them, when you're drifting onto the shoulder. And I hate the sound of them. I don't like the way they feel. I don't like the vibration. It just is very, it puts my teeth on edge. But there is no doubt that I owe my life to rumble strips. In high school, I'd hang out with my now wife all day long down in eastern Cincinnati in Ohio. And then late at night, I would drive all the way back to southern Indiana, Lawrenceburg, across the Ohio River. It was about an hour drive, and I'd have to do everything to stay awake. You know, the things you do.

to stay awake when you're in a car, like you like roll the windows down, you know, and turn the music up loud. And then you do, I don't know why we do this. I used to think it was just me, but I found it. You can't like lick your finger and like put it up in the corner of your eyes to try to stay awake, you know, because you don't want to die. And anything not to fall asleep, but sometimes for me at least, and I don't know if you fall in this category, that is just not enough. And I would drift off, right, and the rumble strips would save me.

It's always very shocking to realize what just happened, right? To be awakened from a 65-mile-per-hour slumber, there's that initial blast of adrenaline followed by the disturbing realization that you had been moving as fast as a cheetah, but doing so totally asleep, right? Oh, it's scary. The same is true of speed humps. You enter some housing development going a normal speed, which I think is 35 to 40 everywhere. And you hit a speed hump. And your car literally launches into the air. And when it comes down, like the body, it comes down and it hits the ground and makes terrible noises and sometimes sparks fly out. And you know what happens, what you do after that.

I think everyone's the same. I've actually hurt my back doing the speed humps, but not because of the collision with the ground, but because I tensed up on the wheel. Like, you know, I mean, it's so upsetting when you hit, when you awaken from a sleep, when you hit those little rumble strips and you hit the speed hump, which is shocking. But in both cases, you've been provided with a tangible warning that we or someone else is being put in danger. How many lives have been saved by rumble strips and speed humps, by them rudely and suddenly shocking awake some sleepy, careless driver? A friend of mine killed a kid. He hit the kid with a car. And the only reason he didn't go to jail is because he was doing the speed limit. Had he not been doing the speed limit, it would have at least been manslaughter. Terrible guilt.

But he was following the warnings. He saw the signs. He slowed down for the speed bumps. I mean, he had to carry that guilt in his life for a time. But he had done what he needed to do. He was listening to warnings. Warnings are there so you don't hurt yourself. You don't hurt others. The nature of warnings is that they shock. They shock awake. They disturb. They're always initially upsetting. When people warn you, it's rare that you're like, oh, thank you. Right? I mean, maybe you say that on the outside, but inside is like a hurricane of emotions. But they're always upsetting. Listen up, brethren. It is easy to fall asleep spiritually. It's very easy to be lulled into a state of reckless slumber. It's easy to be unknowingly headed for danger when your sight is impeded.

They're clouded, and that's why Scripture warns over and over again. That's why the faithful pastor warns. That's why the faithful pastor shocks and upsets over and over again. They say no, right? They say no when your kid's about to run into the road. You don't say no, right? Dads have that. We can, like, cut through. brick with our screams if we need to. That's how powerful they are. It's like a mutant ability. Everything isn't all right. You're headed down a dangerous road. You aren't leading your wife. You aren't following your husband. You aren't disciplining your kids. You don't respect your parents. You're being foolish with God's money. You're being lazy. You're being arrogant. I mean, the list could go on and on forever, right? And whatever it is, your pastor will say, this is bad.

If you don't change, things are going to get worse. If you slow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind. So learn to love warnings because those who warn you love you and are doing it to protect you from trouble and even possible destruction. My wrist is going off. This isn't in my notes. I'm glad there's a clock over there. Let me tell you, let me take a little privilege here. No one really wants to warn you. I mean, it's just terrible. When you warn people, it's very rare that they thank you immediately. So you've got to gird up and you're like, I know this person doesn't want to hear what I have to say, but I know I need to say it because I love them and I fear God, so I'm going to say it. When someone warns you, even if the warning is kind of misplaced, there's very few souls I've ever met that really get high off like warning people. I suppose they exist somewhere.

But I don't run into them. So know if a fellow Christian, especially if a leader, takes the time to warn you, I'm in it as an expression of love. We once found a three-year-old in our backyard that I had no part in making. It wasn't my three-year-old, right? It was the woman like four blocks down the road. And then Emily takes the three-year-old. I don't know, boy, I guess, down there and say, is this your kid? I think I've seen this kid in your front yard before. Oh, that's mine. Opens the door. Like it's no thing, right? Like a little beagle was in my backyard, not a three-year-old kid. And what do you think? What do you think about that mother? You think, I don't know that you love these children, right, because you're not protecting them.

You're not warning them. She was just so laissez-faire about it was the main thing. My kids have gotten away from me too, especially in stores. But my point is, look, those who warn you love you, which brings me to a specific warning that I want to draw out of this passage. And this is my second point. It's that we should be wary of not entering the rest of God. It's a real threat for those who profess Christ. Let me just read verse 1 and 2, which was supposed to be the text. Therefore let us fear, while a promise remains of entering his rest, any one of you may have seemed to come short of it. For indeed, we have had good news preached to us, just as they also. But the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

So in verse 1, we see that the danger that he's warning them about in this passage is about coming short of entering the rest of God, which begs two questions. First, what is the rest of God? And second, how does one come short of entering it? So first, the rest of God, says Matthew Henry. refers to entering into a covenant relationship to Christ, a state of communion with God through Christ, and of growing up therein till we are made perfect in glory. In other words, the rest of God is all the benefits that accompany salvation. That's what it means. There is a rest that only Christians have. Our souls find rest when we are freed from the dominion of sin, Satan, and the flesh.

Our conscience finds rest when we know that it, through the blood of Christ, is at peace with God so much so that we have fellowship with him as a son to a father. Beautiful rest. Wonderful. Scriptural rest is what's being talked about. Spiritual rest. And this passage is warning that there is a possibility of not coming into that rest. That reality should be fear-inducing. And when you read Scripture, If Scripture's not making you scared, I mean, that's scary to me. Like, look, if I take a nail and press it against your skin and you don't pull away, something's not right. You're not feeling. You should feel things. You should feel pain. You should feel the sting of God's Word from time to time. He says this should be fear-inducing, which is why in verse 1 it says, let us fear.

Right? There's a command. Let us fear. We should be fearing. John Calvin explains that the fear which is here recommended is not that which shakes the confidence of faith. Right? It doesn't reduce the confidence of faith. But such as fills us with such concern that we grow not sluggish with indifference. So when you see those little curvy signs, the ones that say like, you know, It's about to get crazy. Have you ever gone through West Virginia? It's like that. Well, those curvy signs, they don't make people, like, speed up. And the curvy signs, okay, I want to stay between these lines. I'm going to be careful. Right? Warnings do that. Warnings to those that have their senses make you take.

Take care. You take heed according to the warnings. That's why warnings are good for Christians. If I'm chosen, if I'm elect, why do I need to be warned? Won't I always be saved? Well, if you're chosen and elect and have faith, you will respond to warnings. Therefore, you won't drive off the edge down the mountain. That's how warnings work. And so he says that these are the ones that keep us from becoming indifferent. And so we should be concerned about this danger. We should be on guard. So what is it? How does one come short? of entering the rest of God? Well, the writer of Hebrews, whoever that is, answers this question by comparing the New Testament Christians to the generation that Moses led out of Egypt in the Exodus. Both groups, according to verse 2, note this. It's a little cool thing. Had the gospel preached to them. The gospels preached both in the Old and New Testament. They both had the gospel preached to them, and yet the word that the Jews heard

did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. So that's the answer, the quick answer. It's unbelief. Lack of faith, which can keep someone from coming into the rest of God. All the benefits that accompany salvation. It kept a generation of Israelites from enjoying God's promise, and the same will be true of us if we follow their example of unbelief. Now, I fear the radicalness of that statement is... easily missed if we don't consider the nature of the congregation that wandered in the wilderness. It's amazing to think about what that generation had. Think about for a moment. They had Moses. Who's your pastor? Moses, a prophetic leader who God had handpicked to lead his people to the promised land. Well, who's his assistant pastor, right? Who's the priest?

Aaron, the first high priest who God handpicked to minister on behalf of his people. They saw God's awesome judgments in Egypt, all those amazing plagues. They experienced the first Passover, very first Passover. They passed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They received the Ten Commandments written by the very finger of God. They had the tabernacle. They saw the glory cloud. pillar of fire at night, cloud by day. They had all these powerful means by which the gospel, says the writer of Hebrews, was preached to them. Which, by the way, is just an important issue to address here for a moment. God works through means. He can work directly upon a soul, but generally he has seen fit to bind his work to means that are largely visible, objective, detectable, tangible.

The Westminster Sorted Catechism, I love it, recommend everyone memorize it, says, the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefit of redemption are his ordinances, especially the word, sacrament, and prayer. The importance of visible means has been diminished or wholly rejected by modern evangelicals. They don't think they need to hear preaching. They can just study their Bibles by themselves with the squirrels in the wood. I don't know. They can go anywhere. It's just them and their Bible. Or perhaps, perhaps with a small group of carefully selected friends who have the exact same commitment to not sitting under preaching. MP3s don't count, right? If the preacher can't make you squirm by staring at you for a long time, it doesn't count. That's my rule. I don't know if I can fully justify it from Scripture, but I can.

Make a go at it. And they make baptism into a personal rite done by a friend in a bathtub or swimming pool. That's like a Midwest thing. Everyone's like baptizing their friend in a bathtub of all places. David smiles. He knows all about this. A friend of mine baptized me in a swimming pool. I just don't count it. It has little to do with being brought into the visible church by identifying with the local congregation. Baptism doesn't mean almost anything. And the Lord's Supper is reduced to a mere memorial meal if it's even kept at all. There's churches that almost never take it or it's so casual. It's just like kind of off to the side. I've been to a church where it's off to the side and people kind of wander like, so do we do this? They don't really emphasize the power of means. I mean, they deny the need for the visible church. They see it as entirely optional often. They get to church when they get to it.

But thankfully, there's a growing reaction against this, especially in Reformed churches like this one. People are starting to see just how important it is that they get baptized, belong to a church, sit under preaching, partake in the sacraments, and submit to the leaders. And it's really wonderful, but there is a danger still. There's still a danger. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 about that generation that's in the wilderness. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren. Again, emphasizing the continuity of God's ministry to his people in both covenants, right? God was working through these things. In other words, they were blessed with the same...

benefits we enjoy today. There was a church of God among them, as there is today among us, and they had the same sacraments to be tokens of God's grace to them. And yet in verse 5, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Makes me think of that Johnny Cash song, God's Gonna Cut You Down. Laid low in the wilderness. Back in Hebrews 3, the writer said, and with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not those who sinned whose body fell in the wilderness? I mean, just take that in for a moment. Let it soak in. The Exodus generation, who had all those incredible means of grace, I mean, their visible society was organized precisely according to the direct commands of God.

So structurally and systematically speaking, they had it perfect. And yet they all died in the wilderness. None of them entered the promised land in that generation. Why? Because the word they heard wasn't united by faith. None of those things, none of those means, none of those visible things are profitable without faith. And that's a good warning for us. We all are tempted to trust in outward visible systems. But you can have all that outward stuff right and still not enter the rest of God. That's what he's talking to these Hebrew Christians about. They're like, we're going back. We're going back to what the Jews had. He says, well, first off, Jesus is better. Second off, they're not going to do anything for you apart from faith. You can listen to a million sermons.

You can read a million theology books, but the word without faith is unprofitable. It does nothing. When you think of that, think that there is someone in hell right now that has listened to way more sermons than you, but they did so without faith. The same goes with the sacraments. Baptism, regardless of mode and time, has zero value without faith. People can't get that about Clearnote, right? How Clearnote has like Presbyterians and Baptists living together in like relative peace. And they just like jab each other every once in a while. You want to know why? Because we know it does not matter if you don't discipline them and call them to faith. It doesn't matter. There's no power in the form in itself without faith. The Lord's Supper is worthless without faith. It does nothing without faith. Nothing.

Well, no, no, nothing. The belonging to a visible church, this church, this very church, will not save you or give you any true rest without faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It's impossible. I talk to a lot of people about churchy stuff. I manage the welcome process at our church. I do a lot of outreach. I'm the one that calls guests. After they visit, what do you think about this? How can we get you to stay, please? No, I don't think. But then I personally just have an interest in the doctrine of the church, ecclesiology. I love to read books on it. And when I talk to people about stuff, their questions about our church, they consistently demonstrate wrong priorities. Like time and time again, does your church have a youth group?

Well, if your kids come, maybe, right? Does your church have an evening service? I got fired up about this a while back. I was in a seminary class. So what's going on in your church? Well, we're thinking we're going to get rid of the evening service and start doing small groups again. Oh, well, that's a shame. I was like, no, it's not. You're asking, why is it a shame? You don't even know why we're not doing it. Right? You just immediately decide that if we don't have evening service, that's bad. There might be a reason we're not doing it. It could be a good reason, but you didn't ask that. Why did you not ask that? Because they care about the outward form, the system. How frequently do you celebrate the Lord's Supper? You get that one all the time. Calvin wanted weekly. That's only kind of true. You settle on monthly. Are you exclusive psalmody? Now, I know you guys don't deal with that as much as we do. I live in...

like mega super reform land where everyone argues about everything. Are you exclusive psalmody? Do you use instruments? Do you allow younger children to take the Lord's Supper? What age can they come? As if, like, at four years old, little kids automatically fear God or something. Do you sprinkle, dunk, or pour? Are you a family integrated church? What's your style of music? And on and on and on it goes. These are the questions. And look, those questions are fine to ask. Some more so than others. But once and for all, I'd like to hear someone ask, will your church consistently call me and my family to faith and repentance? Why does no one ask me that? Why don't they ask me? What do they care about all these other things? What are those things going to do without faith and repentance? You know what? I don't have a youth group.

You want them to go hang out with some teenagers at some other church, that's great. Your kids come to our church, I will tell them to repent and trust Jesus. I will teach them God's word. It's not not good enough. You know, I sympathize. You want your kids to have friends. I get it. As they get older, they start pulling away from you, and you're like, man, maybe Christian teenager friends will help them. Well, they might not, right? They could have the opposite effect. You're missing the point. Why don't people ask that question about faith and repentance? It's because it's not our concern. We're after a system that makes us feel safe, a perfect system of church, a perfect system of education. Right, homeschool moms? We think it'll give us rest. We think it'll guarantee the salvation of our kids, but it won't. Our gaze is too low when we get stuck on these things.

We find a similar warning from Paul in Romans 2. Paul says, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not for men, but from God. So the Jews had come to trust into a bare sign, circumcision, right? Again, Calvin says, Calvin's always really helpful in the sacraments. Calvin says, for it always happens that those who dare to set up their own merits against the righteousness of God glory more in outward observances than in real goodness. For no one who is seriously touched and moved by the fear of God will ever dare to raise up his eyes to heaven, since the more he strives after true righteousness, the clearer he sees how far he is from it.

There's always a danger of thinking mere participation in outward signs and means will have a benefit, but they don't. I love the verse that follows Romans chapter 2, that little passage right there, because it's exactly what we all would say. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what benefit is circumcision? If that stuff doesn't matter apart from faith, why even care? I mean, the way we would translate it today is, what is the benefit of word and sacrament? What advantage has the church going Christian? Well, Paul's answer is great in every respect. The means of grace are just that, means of grace, but they're only made effective by faith. When they're joined with faith, they do things. There's real spiritual power in preaching and in the sacraments. I don't fully understand it, but there is power.

But only when it's joined with faith. The power comes from the promise of God. Blessings flow from the word and sacrament when they're joined with faith. That's the main thing you've got to get right. I had a friend. I had a friend that used to be like a really hardcore feminist. Like she would write about her and all this stuff. Hopefully she doesn't listen to this. But nonetheless, she was never deferential towards men. in my opinion, were respectful at all. Her repentance of feminism mainly took the form of her growing her hair out and wearing dresses. And I'll tell you what, I'd rather you wear jeans and shave your head and have a deferential spirit, right, than have just the outward appearance of femininity, right? Like guys think you grow a beard and drink beer and...

fight and spit and all that stuff that makes you a man. No, it doesn't. I mean, men tend to do that eventually. But that's not the core of masculinity. That's not the core of maleness, right? You fix the core thing, and the other stuff will follow in time. But we always have a tendency to want to have the outward things and not the inward. My eldest son, Hudson, is baptized, and he's been admitted to the Lord's table, and I'm very happy that's the case. But these things don't give me comfort, right? And there's like no sigh of relief when my kid gets baptized. This is how I know like everyone's a sacramentalist at heart. I see Baptists like when their nine-year-old gets baptized, like, and of course I see Presbyterians when the cute little baby gets sprinkled, like, what's the sigh of relief? What are you relieved by? I mean, the baptism's beautiful, but they got to close on Christ. They have to have faith.

You know, here's what gives me comfort. It's when I see my son repent of sin and ask God forgiveness. When I see what can only be produced by the Holy Spirit, a brokenness. I mean, when I see it, it almost moves me to tears. Because I want my son to go to heaven. I want him to know Jesus. So I'm looking. I'm looking for faith. God, give him faith. Holy Spirit, break his heart. Give him faith. Help him love you. But we're also scared. It's hard for us to trust in God. So we say, well, he's not doing so well. But he was baptized. He did show up to church. He doesn't cuss. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink. He only dates Christian girls. We start to comfort ourselves and say, this means our kids are okay. We say it about ourselves as well. But what we want, the sigh of relief, is when we see people fearing God and trusting God.

that they have faith. A real faith joined to preaching and sacraments produces powerful results in the life of the believer. It's wonderful. You should never miss church unless you're leaking from somewhere, right? I've missed church 10 times since I've been converted. I have a bunch of kids. I get sick real easy. I'm always sick. And don't miss it. Is it because I'm an illegalist? There's worse legalisms, I suppose. But no, it's because I believe in the power of the word preach. Because I know it'll make me strong. So as long as I'm not contagious, I come to church. You always have these excuses for not coming to church. I got a huge family. I have to wake up early and do Sunday school and all this stuff. I'm always here. And I did it long before I was ever paid or on staff or anything. You can do it too. It's so easy to do this when it's someone else's congregation.

When it's your congregation, you're scared you're going to offend them, but I just kind of don't care. But I like to be able to say things to other people. Look, you better not be skipping church for football. You better not be skipping church to do evangelism. How dare you use Scripture to justify skipping out on the means of grace. You should show up as often as you can because you need it, because it's hard to finish well. Right? You need it. It'll encourage you. It'll strengthen you. That's why you should. So what's the conclusion of all this? It's love warnings. Love them. Warn one another. There's a few times. There's a guy at the conference. I had to get my guts up to say this. He kept saying, oh, my gosh. Every time he said it, I was like, you know. Oh, my gosh, man. Oh, my gosh. You know. And I'm like, can I tell you something? Which really means.

I'm going to at that point, right? But you're like feigning like this is an option. Can I tell you something? Brother, you are breaking the second commandment or third commandment over and over again. You keep taking God's name in vain. Like, you know, you keep saying, gosh, we all know that means God. So either just say God so your sin's all the more clear and you'll feel terrible about it or stop saying it altogether. And I didn't want to warn him, and that seems like a silly thing to some people. It is one of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. It is our God's name. And so warn one another. Every time I go to the pastor's conference, I know someone's going to warn me about something. I'm just waiting for it to happen. Hey, can I see you in the kitchen? No? I have to use the restroom.

I don't feel well. Yes. And then my specific warning, beware the trust and bear signs and systems. They are worthless without faith. Come to a church like this. So hard being a church plant, isn't it? Very difficult. You're hoping enough people show up that it won't be so awkward when a guest shows up that they think, whoa, what's up, right? It's very hard because people want a church for all the wrong reasons. I know David. I know David. I know Abram. I know Daniel. What's the other one that's not here? I know Dan a little bit. I know they'll warn you because they care about you. I don't know if you're a guest. I don't know really many of you. But if you're a guest, you should come to this church. If you can find a church that you like better that warns you, whatever. But if the church you're going to, you're going to because you like the systems, like the smells and bells, you like the music, how it makes you feel and all that stuff, and they don't have any warning.

Man, leave it. Let me end with this, okay? Let's just go back real quick. Here's the exhortation to you. Verses 12 through 14 in chapter 3. This is to you. This is the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from living God. Children, you hear that? Do you? Don't fall away from God. Mommy and Daddy doesn't make you a Christian, but Mommy and Daddy gave you a wonderful foundation to build on. So go farther. Spread the kingdom. Right, boys? Don't be like the generation. They perish in the wilderness. They come in the promised land, and that generation does all right. The next generation, they do not remember what it was like to come in there, and they start to fall away. Don't be that generation.

But encourage one another day after day. Now the encouragement is the form of warning is what he's talking about. So as long as it's still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, or you've got to be warned, so that's falling asleep at the wheel, deceitfulness of sin, don't be hardened by it, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast to the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. Right? With the warnings up from Scripture. When we react to them in faith, God will preserve us to the very end. Praise the Lord, right? All right, you've been warned. Let's pray.