Sermon Cloud

Preventing a Fall

Hebrews 4:11-13

Grace Fellowship Church

September 16, 2007

Series 3 Sermon 14

 

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Introduction

There are all kinds of preventatives in our lives.  Race car drivers and football players wear helmets to prevent head injuries.  We wear seat belts and put the small kids in car seats to try and prevent injuries from car crashes.  We try to watch what we eat, get some exercise to prevent an early death.  We go to the doctor for a checkup and when we really are in pain we head to the hospital.  If you think about it, a lot of what we do is to prevent bad things from happening to us. 

 

Remember what your mom would say to you?  “Don’t run with a pencil in your hand because…”  Why?  That’s right.  You might poke your eye out.  “Stop making that face or your face…”  You got it.  It will freeze that way.  And if you go in a hospital or a restaurant they have signs in the restrooms to remind you to wash those pesky germs off your hands. 

 

We brush our teeth and floss to prevent tooth decay.  We wear ear plugs when we are around loud noises to prevent hearing loss.  We wear sunglasses in order to prevent our vision from being impaired by the sun. 

 

The list could go on and on. We are all about preventing physical harm to ourselves.  But what about spiritual harm which is much more deadly?  How careful are we to watch our hearts and our lives from spiritual decay?  How careful are we on a daily basis to prevent spiritual harm in our lives? 

 

The truth is, it is easy to forget to care for yourself spiritually.  If you miss a few meals your body will quickly let you know you need to eat.  But when you are not feeding your spiritual life, our depraved nature often hides that from us.  We think we can make it just fine on our own and we really don’t need to pray and read our Bibles and meditate on the Word. We convince ourselves that we can pretty much handle the spiritual things and make them a private matter that only we are aware of. 

 

But what is the truth?  The truth is that we can not handle spiritual matters ourselves usually in a profitable way.  So we need more than just ourselves.  We need spiritual help in order to prevent spiritual disease.  You go to a physician for physical ailments and discomfort, but where do you go for spiritual disease and discomfort?

 

Context

The writer of Hebrews has been warning us over and over about spiritual apostasy and the dangers that we all face.  We have been warned to look at ourselves and be careful to help others out on this journey.  But verse 11 is the key to understanding Hebrews 4:12-13.  Look at verse 11. 

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

The command here is to strive to enter God’s rest.  The danger is in the last part of the verse.  Look at it again. 

so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

The danger is in falling.  Or as the writer has already said in the previous sections that we do not miss God’s rest, that we don’t have an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 

So how do we fall?  How is it that our faith will be proven illegitimate? Look at verse 11 one more time. 

so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Last week we saw the example of faithful living in Joshua.  The writer now calls our attention back to the group of people who walked with Joshua out of Egypt who by their own actions denied themselves entrance into the Promised Land or the rest of God.  What was the reason they did not enter?  Unbelief and the outworking of that unbelief was disobedience to the Word of God.  Look at Hebrews 4:2.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

There is only one reason that people will not go to heaven and that reason is unbelief.  They hear the Gospel message or they are shown the creation and yet they will not believe.  That unbelief will always lead to disobedience.

 

Particularly here in our context in Hebrews we find people who have been exposed to the Word and miracles of God who still do not believe.  We are not talking about a person in the jungles of Africa, Asia, or South America who have never heard the Gospel but rather the writer calls our attention back to the Israelites who heard the Word of God and witnessed some of the greatest miracles in biblical history.  And the writer is talking about first century people who have had the Gospel preached to them.  They have heard the message of Christ dying on the cross for sins and that they must repent and believe or they will perish. 

 

In our present day application we would say that these are church people.  They have been under the preaching of the Word of God and yet unbelief remained in some of their hearts.  That is why some had defected under intense persecution.  That is why some in this group were considering leaving Christianity for Old Testament Judaism. 

 

The writer of Hebrews has been consistently warning us about failing to enter God’s rest.  He has told us to consider the Lord Jesus, to look to Him.  Remember chapter 3:1-6?

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, ² who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. ³ For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. ⁴ (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) ⁵ Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, ⁶ but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

 

The task at hand is to hold fast our confidence, our confession even in times of great difficulty.  This is how this section closes and the next section opens. Look at Hebrews 4:14.     

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

 

So now that we know what we are called to do, how do we prevent the opposite from happening?  How do we appropriate steps into our lives in order to avoid being like the Israelites?  What are the preventatives? 

 

PNP

This morning from our text, I want you to see two preventatives against falling into the same pattern of disobedience as the Israelites. 

 

1.  An understanding of the nature and effectiveness of the Word of God is a preventative from falling.

2.  An understanding of the judgment of God is a preventative from falling.   

 

Purpose

This morning I don’t want you to lose sight of the forest for the trees.  The trees are wonderful but the forest is also wonderful.  My purpose in preaching this passage is so that we all will understand that we need the Word of God and the understanding that we will all stand before the Lord one day.  These are the fences to keep us from falling into the cliff of the pattern of disobedience like the Israelites did and thus losing out on the rest of God.

 

I have personally witnessed as people who I thought were pretty strong in the faith fall into these patterns of disobedience.  Sin became a constant in their lives and then it took them over and they were ruled by it.  Sin is a pervasive, aggressive cancer that will ruin your spiritual life to the point that to our eyes the Word of God seems to have no effect on them and they cease to live a Christian life. 

 

RPNP

But these events are warnings for all of us. None of us are so rock solid secure that Satan could not sift us like wheat.  None of us are so self disciplined that we could walk away every time from every temptation in our own strength.  We all need help.  We all need encouragement and no matter how spiritually mature we may become we all need these two preventatives against falling into the same pattern of disobedience as the Israelites. So look at these two preventatives with me.   

 

Here is the first preventative.

1.  An understanding of the nature and effectiveness of the Word of God is a preventative from falling.

Look at verse 11 and 12.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

Hebrews 3:12 tells us, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.”

 

Then Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the living God has a living Word.  Look at the first part of verse 12.  For the word of God is living and active

In the original language of the New Testament the word living is the very first word in the verse and that is because the emphasis is being placed on it as a description of God’s Word. 

 

I want you to take notice of how the Word of God is described in verse 12. 

1.  We have already mentioned that the Word is living. For the word of God is living

The Word is not a dead letter.  It is life. 

 

I want you to hear the testimony of Scripture about itself as the living Word.  1 Peter 1:23-24 says:

for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS,
AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS,
AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, ²⁵ BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER."  And this is the word which was preached to you.

 Isaiah 55:8-11 says:

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. ⁹ "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰ "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; ¹¹ So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

 

The Word of God is living.  But that is not all. 

2. The Word of God is active.  Notice again verse 12. For the word of God is living and active…

Jeremiah 23:29 asks the question..

"Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says:

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

 

3.  Third, the Word of God is sharp and cutting.  Look again at verse 12.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,

We need to know that it is the Lord Jesus who wields this sword.  Revelation 1:16 and 2:12 tells us this.  The Word of God is in the control of the Lord and He wields that Word like a soldier would wield a sword. 

 

We have seen these three descriptions. The Word is living, active, and it is sharp. 

The two edged sword works both ways. Its like a spiritual Ginsu knife.  It both slices and dices.  On one side the sword will convict and convert the sinner.  On the other it will condemn the unbeliever. Now I want you to see what the Word accomplishes.  Look at verse 12 again. 

¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

Again we have to go back to Hebrews 3:12.  

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

 

This where the preventative comes in.  We need the Word of God to be the judge and jury of the intentions of our heart.  The heart is deceitful and wicked and must have an outside source of judgment because our hearts are incapable of judging themselves. This worldly idea of following your heart is wrong because if the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked then it will not lead you in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.   We need something that will get deep within the recesses of our minds and heart and penetrate while cutting the cancer of depravity out and renewing us to think and act biblically.  This has to be done by the Word our we can easily be deceived.

 

As a matter of fact, we can deceive others.  We can even deceive ourselves but we can not deceive God.  Notice where the sword pierces in verse 12. 

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow…

The Word of God dissects to the hidden parts.  When is the last time you have seen someone’s soul?  How many of you see on a daily basis a person’s joints and the marrow of their bones? 

 

Physicians need an MRI or x-ray to see joints and bone.  But the Word of God penetrates to the deepest recesses of the human heart.  Nothing can be hidden from God.  The Lord even discerns the thoughts and the intentions of our heart. 

 

Remember Aninias and Sapphira?  Peter asked them why they had lied to the Holy Spirit.  They might have fooled some but they could not fool God.  And neither can we. 

 

This is why we need the Word of God in our lives.  This is why we must read it, meditate on it, learn it, and hear it proclaimed.  This is why it is so important to shun the idea that the Word must be diluted in order to get people to hear it and heed it.  It must be given full strength. 

 

But people, even people who claim to be Christians often cringe at the Word given full strength and unglossed.  Dani and I were talking about this one time and we wondered why.  We love the Word and we love it full strength.  And so what we decided is that it was like our kids.  We would give them fruit juice to drink but it was very watered down.  Probably one fourth juice and the rest water.  So they would happily drink that watered down juice and they didn’t know any better.  They had never had the real thing full strength.  So when we would go to a restaurant and order them juice and they would get it in one of those little kid cups they would take one drink and they did not like it.  Their little jaws would cringe under the strength of the juice and they would say, “Momma, something is wrong with the juice.”  And I think for a lot of Christians what they have been given for so long is so watered down that when they do hear the Word full strength it is not familiar.  

 

So what do we do?  Do we change and start watering down the Word so that people can take it more easily?  Some have decided that people can’t tolerate the Word so they have to pursue other means of teaching.

 

This whole notion that we live in a new age where people just can not sit and listen to the Word proclaimed and therefore we must pursue other means of communicating the Word to them is utter nonsense.  I have said this before and I will say it again, humanity has not changed.  The outer accoutrements may have changed such as technology but strip all of that away and what you will find is a sinner who by nature wants nothing to do with the Word of God without the Lord doing a work of grace in his or her heart. 

 

But we hear and read constantly, “Times have changed and things are different now and so we must change and adapt to the new ways of doing things.”  But let me tell you that things indeed have not changed, people have not changed, and the reason that people do not want to hear the Word of God is because they are lost and are enemies of God and want only to live in direct disobedience to His Word.  It’s not in the presentation that people are usually offended.  It’s in the content of the presentation. 

 

We hear, “People just will not sit for 45 minutes to an hour and hear someone talking.”  But they will go and sit for an hour and a half to listen to some motivational speaker.  They will sit two hours through a movie.  They will watch a three or four hour sporting event.  Men will sit in a tree stand and not see a thing for hours on end.  They will sit in a boat watching a cork move with the water for hours and hours.  They will sit in front of a computer.  People will do all kinds of things except hear the Word of God. 

 

People today are no different than the people in the ancient world.  People today want to hear only what they want to hear and nothing else.  It is all about what excites the flesh.  This was the case in the days of Micah the prophet.  Listen to Micah 2:11.

"If a man walking after wind and falsehood Had told lies and said, 'I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,' He would be spokesman to this people.

 

Have you ever wondered how people could sit and listen to the garbage that flows out of some of the leading preachers of our day like Joel Osteen or Benny Hinn or those of their ilk?  It is because it has very little to do if anything with the Word of God and it pleases the flesh of people.

 

So there really is no reason to alter our methods.  Preaching the Word was the method of the prophets, the method of the Lord Jesus, the method of the apostles, and the method for the Christian church until Christ comes.  Listen to what the Apostle Paul told Timothy.  This is 2 Timothy 2:15.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Now listen to 2 Timothy 3:12-16.

¹² Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

 And then in light of all that the apostle told his protégé in the previous epistle and this epistle he lays down the foundation and priority for Timothy.  Listen to 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

 

Timothy was not called to preach the Word only when the listeners had eager ears.  He was called to do it when it was popular, he was called to do it when it was unpopular.  He was even called to do it when it might get him killed or thrown into prison.  He was even to do it when it could cost him his job.  Listen now to verses 3-4.

³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

 

Is it just me or does the first century sound a lot like the 21^st century?  It is the same, people have not changed.  So was Timothy supposed to modify and change his methods and message to fit the current fad among those who would hear him?  Listen to verse 5.

⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

 

The Puritans understood these instructions and appropriated them into their churches.  They preached the Word in season and out.  Many labored their whole lives without seeing much fruit of their ministry while others reaped harvest after harvest.  But no matter what their focus was the same.  The Puritan pastor’s priority was the proclamation of the Word of God to the people of God. 

 

The Reformation was a rediscovery of the priority of the Word of God in the church.  It was a rediscovery of the words of Christ when He prayed in His high priestly prayer, “Father, sanctify them in the truth, Thy Word is truth.” 

 

So as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we need the Word.   The Word proclaimed, the Word studied, the Word read and meditated upon is life to us.  It is the Word of our salvation. It is the Word of our sanctification.  It will be the Word of our glorification. 

 

The word of God is powerful.  By His Word He laid the foundations of the world.  By His Word He sustains the universe.  By His word He calls sinners to repentance and faith in Christ and by His word He condemns the unbelieving world. 

 

I know that some of your theology will be challenged this morning by what I am about to tell you but that is okay.  Most of you probably already believe that God uses His Word proclaimed to call the lost to faith and repentance.  You hear the Gospel and God enables you to believe.  Thus you are saved.  Here is where your theology may be challenged. 

 

God uses His Word proclaimed in your security or your persevering in salvation. Listen to what Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16.

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

 

This modern idea of not needing to hear the Word once you are saved is an idea that finds it roots in the sinful heart of man and not in the Word of God.  We need the constant carving of the Sword of the Spirit to slice away the deadness in our hearts and souls.  We need the Word of God to penetrate our hearts and teach us God’s will and what He desires and to show us when we sin against Him.  We need the Word for our sanctification. 

 

But what about for the deceived?  One of two things will happen.  First, being under the Word of God proclaimed will cause them to see their need to repent and believe.  God will bring about a work of grace in their hearts and they will be converted. Let me say pastorally, it is not uncommon for a person who has thought they were converted for many years to come to understand that they are indeed lost and in need of Christ when they come under the Word.  If you are struggling with the condition of your soul right now then that is okay.  That is a wonderful thing.  God may be indeed using His Word proclaimed to bring you to true faith and repentance.  You might say, “Well I thought I was saved at this time but now I am not sure.”  This is the opportunity that you must take to seek the Lord and seek Him while He may be found.  This is your opportunity to run to Christ and see that He is mighty to save.  Run to Him and seek the gifts of repentance and faith.  Be like the woman with the issue of blood and understand that you can be made whole if you just get close enough to touch the hem of His garment.  This is the purpose of the Word.  To secure salvation in God’s elect.

 

There is another option. Under the preaching of the Word the deceived one will be driven away by the Word.  The preached Word will be more than they can stand.    

 

They will find teachers and preachers who will tickle their ears and appeal to their fleshly desires.  They may not go off into full lives of sin and debauchery but what they will do is exchange the Word for the things of the world.  Sometimes they will stay and fight the one preaching the Word.  They will form alliances of other deceived people to stand against the preaching of the Word and then heap up teachers that they prefer. 

 

These teachers always seem to be using the Bible.  They hold it in their hands, they may read it but their doctrine is unbiblical and their preaching is to appeal to the flesh.  These are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  These are imposters and imposters can be hard to spot at times.  That is why we need the Word.  And we need to know the Word so when someone preaches or teaches we can discern truth from error. Knowing that God’s Word is effective and remaining under the preaching of that Word will keep us from falling into the same patter of disobedience as the unbelieving Israelites.   

 

We have seen that an understanding of the nature and effectiveness of the Word of God is a preventative from falling.  Now I want you to see that:

 

2.  An understanding of the judgment of God is a preventative from falling. 

Look at verse 13.

 ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The gears shift from the Word which is the prosecuting attorney now to the Judge.  This judge is truly omniscient and thus always rightly judges.  There is no hiding in the shadows and sneaking in under the radar.  Look at the beginning of verse 13. 

And no creature is hidden from his sight,…

Here is a quote I ran across and I am not sure who said it but whoever said it said a lot.

“God’s wisdom, simply manifold, and uniformly multiform, with incomprehensible comprehension, comprehends all things incomprehensible.”

 

Therefore nothing within us will be hidden from God.  We can not hide our motives, we can not hide our intentions, we can not hide anything from God.  Adam and Eve learned that in the Garden and it is a lesson that most people forget. People think they can get away with anything.  After all what is done in the darkness is hidden, right?  Wrong.  Let me illustrate.

 

In Ezekiel chapter 8 Ezekiel is sitting in his house with the elders of Israel when the Lord gives Ezekiel a vision.  He is taken to the Temple of the Lord and in verse 6 God asks Ezekiel a question.  Listen as I read.

And He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations."

 

The elders and Israel thought all of their wickedness was hidden from the Lord.  Listen to Ezekiel 8:7-18.

⁷ Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, "Son of man, now dig through the wall." So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. ⁹ And He said to me, "Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here." ¹⁰ So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. ¹¹ Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. ¹² Then He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.' " ¹³ And He said to me, "Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing."
¹⁴ Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these."
¹⁶ Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. ¹⁷ He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. ¹⁸ "Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them."

 

Our children have learned this.  Does God know all things?  Yes.  Nothing can be hidden from God. 

 

But there is more here.  Look again at verse 13.  It’s not that God simply knows all things but He will ultimately do something about it. 

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

 

Did you notice the “we” there in the text?  That is you and that is me.  We must give an account.  Exposure to the Word of God exposes us to God.  And it is to Him that we must give an account.  Verse 13 puts us in a defenseless position.  Nothing is hidden all is exposed to God.  God is aware of every action, He is aware of every motivation even for the good that we do, and He is aware of our every thought.  The trouble is, we are all alike.  We are all sinners and the Bible says that the thoughts of man are evil continuously.  So standing before a righteous, all knowing judge is a scary proposition when you are a guilty sinner.  He judges us because we are guilty and finds us guilty and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.  Except one thing. 

 

Our only hope is to run to Christ.  Our only hope is to cling to Him in faith because left on our own and trying to defend ourselves we would be guilty as charged. 

 

In a court of law a criminal must be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  In God’s court there is no reasonable doubt.  The judge already knows the outcome of the case before the trial ever begins.  The crime is treason against the Lord of the Universe and all humanity is guilty.  The penalty is death. 

 

So what do we do?  Is there any hope?  How can we avoid the righteous judgment of God in His eternal court?     

 

We must run to Christ.  We must hold fast our confession and our hope which is in the substitutionary atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.  Our hope is in Him and the truth of His resurrection.  This is where the Word of God points us. This is why we need constant reminder to flee from the wrath to come and flee to Christ in faith.  This is the only hope for the sinner, the deceived, or the saint.  There is no righteousness apart from Christ that is pleasing to God.  Christ has either paid the penalty for your sins or you will pay for it for all eternity. 

 

I have talked to people who said that when they stand before God He will accept them because they did their best in this life.  This would be laughable if it were not so sad.  God knows the truth and judges rightly. 

 

How will you stand in the judgment?  Will you be condemned or will you be one covered by the blood of Christ? 

 

We must have these preventatives in our lives.  We must be under the Word of God and understand that one day we all will give an account before the righteous Judge.  These two preventatives will keep us clinging to Christ for salvation. 

 

Let’s pray.