Starving Souls

Take your Bibles, if you would please, and turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 19 is where we will start, and I'm excited for this text today because Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 marks the transition where the preacher of this book — this letter, this sermon — transitions from the doctrinal to the practical.

Hold your place in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19, and I'd like to ramp up to it. Turn back if you would, and I'd like to ask you just a few questions — and then have the text answer them.

In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, it says, "For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it." And so the question would be: how do we keep ourselves from drifting from Christ? Well, today's text will answer that.

Now turn to chapter 3 verse 1. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." The question would be: how do we consider Jesus, and how do we keep our confession nice and tight?

If you look at chapter 4 verse 1, "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." The question would be: how do we keep from coming short of our rest in Christ? Jesus is our Sabbath rest — how do we fear or honor Him?

And to continue on, take a look at chapter 5, the last verse, and then the first verse of chapter 6 — some good questions that are going to be leading up into today's text. The last verse in chapter 5 says, "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." The question would be: how do you mature in your faith? And then chapter 6 verse 1 says, "Therefore, leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let us press on to maturity." How do you press on to maturity? Again, I'm putting these ideas in your mind from the text so that the text can answer them today.

And then let's skip to chapter 8 and verse 1. It says, "Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest." Jesus Christ — He is such a high priest. All this information compiling into the fact that He is such a God, such a Savior, such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary, in the true tabernacle. How do we tabernacle with such a high priest as Jesus Christ?

Well, let's skip over to our text. I would like to propose to you that the information we'll see starting in chapter 10 verse 19 will have some points that lead up to assembling together. The answer to all of the questions proposed throughout this letter can be answered in the fact that when we gather together and assemble together and meet together, all that God has designed for life and godliness is in and through Christ — and His first dispensing of His grace is through His church. All those things are especially heightened when we assemble together — all of the gifts of the brethren, all the preaching, all the worship, all the prayers, all the fellowship, all of the ordinances, and everything that God has for us to learn about Him and to develop our gifts. They're heightened when it comes to church, when it comes to worshiping together, when it comes to coming together.

And so all of these things happen as we now transition from the doctrinal to the practical. Read with me in chapter 10 verse 19. We'll work our way through a few of these verses and end up around verse 25.

"Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus" — it's very fascinating that the author of Hebrews repeats himself in regards to the blood. We see that again and again in chapter 9, and it just continues to come up. Now let's continue to read in verse 20: "by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh."

We can pause there for just a moment. The confidence that we have to tabernacle with Christ is because He was willing to have His flesh torn — like the veil that was torn from top to bottom. He was crucified for you to be able not only to be saved, but to tabernacle with Christ.

In verse 21 it says, "And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and with our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

If you're taking notes today and you'd like to title today's message, simply title it "Starving Souls." Starving souls — those who would not engage in the means of grace which God has custom-designed for Christians, starting with the local church, the hope of the world, would starve their own souls. Who would do this? They're not wise.

All of the points you'll see in the text today continue to add up to this climax of assembling together. So forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some in verse 25, is not wise. You say, "Okay, why are they drifting away? Why are they falling away from Christ?" In chapter 2 verse 1, it's a command not to drift away from Christ. Well, one of the things that unfortunately seems to happen when people go through sufferings they did not expect, or questions, or hardships — whatever the case may be — is that they first drift away from their church family. And this is a command not to do that.

And so we have to hold fast not only to our confession and our beliefs, but we have to hold the line when it comes to keeping healthy habits and worshiping regularly. We have to remember what we are — we are human beings. And the Bible says very clearly that if you spend time around people who are not given to Christ, you will be affected by them. It doesn't matter if you're a pastor or a regular person. We're all influenced by our surroundings. Bad company corrupts good character — the Bible says that in 1 Corinthians 15:33. And so the opposite is being said here: you should not forsake the assembling of yourselves. If we fall away from the church or treat the church sporadically, our spiritual condition will decline. It's just a fact of the matter.

Missionaries who go on the field — the first thing they need to do is start a church. They need to witness and evangelize, win people to Christ, invite them into their living room, start a Bible study, start worshiping, start reading Scripture, and make all of these things work for themselves. It's a really sad fact that a lot of missionary kids suffer the effect of having a soul that's being starved because they do not hear the preaching of the Word of God. They don't have the Word of God being taught in their homes, being explained and encouraged. They don't have other believers encouraging them outside the family. It's the truth. And we need to make sure that we are monitoring our missionaries correctly, and that their children have the Word of God being preached to them.

These things can happen to us as well. And I'd like to take quick notice of the commands in the text. In verse 22, there's a command to draw near. In verse 23, hold fast. In verse 24, stimulate one another. In verse 25, assemble together. And also in verse 25, encourage one another. All of these happen at church.

And you get better at these things at church. Then you go and do likewise. The church is truly the center point for Christian activity and how we become more and more like Christ. The text is leading up to assembling together. I would say this entire sermon is leading up to assembling together.

And so my proposition is this: those seeking Christ and holding fast to sound doctrine, while also being fully engaged at a faithful, Bible-believing, and Bible-preaching church, have souls that are thriving and not starving.

If you're committed to Christ and His church — and it's a good church, a church that's Bible-believing and Bible-preaching and adhering to the Word — then your soul is thriving and not starving. But a lot of this is your own personal responsibility to be fully engaged.

One of the things we've committed to here at Ula Baptist Church is to cut away all the fat — all the unnecessary things that seem to crowd our lives away from Christ. We've cut them away from our church life. We've studied ecclesiology, the subject of the church and what it is to be and do. And we have executed exactly what the Scriptures say for the church to be and do. Every time the doors are open here, it is pushing and promoting a biblical, scriptural purpose. We don't do things haphazardly. We're not wasting anybody's time. We are truly executing the necessary means of grace here at Ula Baptist Church.

And I promise you — I promise you — that if you engage in everything that we do weekly... I understand some jobs keep you from these things. I understand the difficulty. I really do, and I feel for those who can't fully engage, and I pray — and I see God answering those prayers oftentimes — working it out in your life so that you can be fully engaged over time. So pray if you can't be. But I'm just telling you right now that those who are fully engaged in the local church — bragging on Christ, bragging on Ula Baptist Church, bragging on the fully devoted saints here — by observation, their souls are thriving. They're not starving. They're not declining. They're growing in Christ.

It's just wonderful to see how God has simply arranged the means of grace in the local church for us to be and do and be engaged in. And those are directly linked to our spiritual health, to how we think, to how we feel and guide our emotions, even down to our physical stamina and our physical abilities and how we live and breathe. Everything is from God, through Him, and back to Him. It's glorifying. It's wonderful. And so I pray that you're all able to fully engage.

One of the things we also do here is for those who can't make it on Wednesday nights, we upload these teachings to YouTube, and a lot of you are faithful to watch those the next day as a family, fill in the blanks, print the handouts — everything. I'm so impressed by the dedication in this flock. Keep it up. Keep on pressing forward to Christ.

Point number one: approach God.

I'm going to skip to verse 22 to drive home this point of drawing near. In verse 22 it says, "Let us draw near." The word "draw" means to approach — to simply approach God. Draw near to God. You don't have to come to church to approach God. You should approach God and tabernacle with Him in unbroken fellowship. But at the same time, there is something very special and indispensable about gathering together — and that's the reason why there's a command to assemble together.

If you draw near, you would simply be fulfilling what the writer of James said in James 4:8: "Draw near to God." And here's the promise — He will draw near to you. If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you.

And I truly see this happening. Those who want to be more spiritual are more spiritual. Those who want to pray more, pray more. Those who fast and pray, those who draw closer to God, those who read their Bible more, those who are fully engaged in church, those who turn their cell phones off or leave them in the car and come to church to worship God — those who make an effort, those who truly draw near to God.

Envision yourself entering into the Old Testament tabernacle, through that first veil, the first curtain. You go into the courts and you see all of the furnishings. As you're drawing closer to Christ, envision yourself coming closer to the Holy of Holies — the actual presence of God. And as you do this, remember that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. So you want to confess your sins.

Look at the last verse in chapter 12. Hebrews 12:29, when it comes to approaching God and drawing near to Him, it says, "For our God is a consuming fire." And sometimes we reduce the holiness of God and forget that His holiness demands justice. When we approach God, we had better approach Him respectfully, confessionally, in a repentant way, and make sure that we are as right with Him as we possibly can be.

So as you are drawing near to God and approaching Him, be trepidatious in your spirit — humble and confessional and prayerful — and at the same time confident, because you have a loving Shepherd who is willing to forgive and to cleanse you of all of your sin. There's no need to walk around with guilt and shame. Christ has already paid for sin — past, present, and future — so don't hang on to it. Repent of it and move on and be cleansed of the filth. Draw closer to God.

When you draw closer to God, there are some benefits in this passage that I would like to unfold for you. The benefits of approaching God and drawing near to Him are immense in this text.

Starting with verse 19, you see that His confidence is in us. "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence" — it's not your confidence. Who of you would look in the mirror and say, "Because of who I am, I can approach God"? Well, that is foolish. One who truly knows how he stands before God knows that it's only by God's grace that you stand, and by God's grace you've been saved, and by God's grace you are able to approach Him. And so it's actually God's confidence that has been placed inside of you, giving you the benefit of approaching Him.

And not only that — not only do you have His confidence in you — but another benefit of approaching Him is that His presence is in us. "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place" — these two words, "holy place," are typologically being used as God's presence. God is a consuming fire, as we just read in chapter 12:29. Entering into His presence can be a terrifying thing if you have unconfessed sin in your life. And so the confidence comes for those who truly confess their sin and then enter in. Confidence to enter His presence is simply by His grace and not by our virtue. We have an accurate understanding of who we are and who we aren't.

Then as we approach God, we have the benefit of His daily newness of life in us. As the text says in verse 20, "by a new and living way" — the newness of His life is inside of us. We also have the benefit of His personal oversight as a priest for us. He is not a police officer against us. A police officer who does his job well is a public servant and is for you. But God is not one who is policing you or ready to pounce on you. He is a good Shepherd, and He pastors His sheep and shepherds His flock.

Look in the text — "by a new and living way" — this is a reference, or perhaps an allusion, to the word "new" as a new covenant way, and then a "living way" to the resurrecting Savior. A new and living way inaugurated for us through the veil — that is His flesh — since we have a great priest over the house of God. We have Him as a priest. He is our priest. He is our Shepherd. And so this personal oversight He has over our life is for us.

Then as well, a benefit to approaching God that you see in the text is assurance — assurance of heart that strengthens us. And then we have the feeling of being clean.

When you get nasty and dirty — maybe outside doing work in the yard, or going hunting, or you fall down in the mud — you get really dirty. After a little bit of time, you start to feel grimy. You're like, "Man, I need a shower." And when everyone around you starts saying, "You need a shower," you start to feel even dirtier. Well, the same thing with lingering sin. People around you can see — perhaps even sense — the sin, and they know it and you know it. But the feeling of being clean is amazing. What a benefit to have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, to have His blood sprinkle our hearts and our consciences clean. It's just great to be clean before God. It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. It's a delightful thing to be in God's presence. Psalm 16:11 says, "In His presence is fullness of joy." And so it's a great thing to be clean before a holy God and to walk in His light.

So approaching God has these benefits. Not only that — having a clean conscience — we have the ability not to waver. It stabilizes us. And we're also filled with hope that inspires us.

With all of these benefits — and there are more to be found if we were to continue through the text — how would we not want to meet together and encourage one another and stimulate one another? This is a benefit of meeting together that keeps us on the top side of life. To be fully engaged — it's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. How could we not stimulate each other to love and good deeds, and assemble together, and worship together, and be maturing together, and encourage one another together? This is the emphasis of this text.

And so point number one is to approach God.

Point number two is this: fellowship is to be kept fresh.

Fellowship with God is to be kept fresh. In verse 20, this is a new and living way. This new covenant that we have the privilege to be in cost Christ everything. And this living, resurrected way — your life should resemble having been resurrected to newness of life. Just like when you are baptized and you symbolize that you once were dead and now you've been resurrected to newness of life, your life should embody all of the joy that is in Jesus and all of the benefits that are in Christ — this new and living way.

And so Christ's work and personal ministry as a priest for you is effectual each day as if the cross happened yesterday. Can you imagine how you would feel and act and be if the crucifixion was yesterday and you comprehended all that you have in Christ — how excited you would be in this new and living way that is in the text?

Martin Luther said this: "Christ is even now as fresh to me as if this very hour He had shed His precious blood." Martin Luther was a German theologian in the late 1400s and early 1500s who protested against the Catholic Church and promoted Jesus Christ crucified for the salvation of those who would repent and believe. He wanted everyone to know this freshness, this newness of life in Christ, as opposed to a dead religion that wants your money and your attendance.

This word "new" means fresh and recent. God's grace does not gradually fade away. The light of Christ in us gradually gets brighter and brighter and brighter. Life in Christ gets better and better — as the old farmer said, "gooder and gooder." Life in Christ is great.

And not just to be renewed each morning by His mercies, but also to be in awe of His grandeur, in awe of His deeper and higher riches. I believe the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews, and I think he is perhaps longing for the Hebrews the same thing he longed for the Ephesian church. Turn to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 and look at the Apostle Paul's prayer. It's just amazing how he wanted the richness of Christ to be known by the Ephesian church.

In Ephesians 3:14 it says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."

This abundant life in Christ, I'm telling you, is centered not only upon Christ but upon the church for which He died. And all the benefits start with church — worship, His Word, the fellowship, the ordinances.

One hunter mounted a 12-point buck and said, "It ain't gonna get any gooder than that." Well, I would say in response, "In Christ it gets better and better and better." It doesn't matter how big the bass you catch or how many points on a buck you shoot — nothing compares to Christ. It doesn't matter how big of a boat or a yacht you have — nothing compares to Christ. It doesn't matter how high a mountain you climb — nothing compares to Christ. Those of you who have traveled the world and gone on the best vacations this earth can provide — you know there's nothing better than Jesus. There's nothing better than fellowship with the brethren, the church. There's nothing better. You would rather be here. In fact, I hear it all the time. We all need to get away and go on vacation, I hear it — but when you come back, "We missed our dear church. We missed our church family. Nothing is better than our congregation." I love Ula Baptist Church. I love what God has done here. I see it in the text.

Point number three is this: do not waste His full payment.

In verse 20, it brings up the veil. Back to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 20 — "by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil." This veil is then described as Christ's flesh in the text: "the veil, that is His flesh." When the preacher of Hebrews says "through the veil," he is repeating the same idea as in the previous verse, which states "by the blood." By the blood of Jesus, not only have we had eternal redemption provided for us, but also our consciences have been cleansed, the text says — and it's by His flesh being torn.

And so, as we see in the text, it's by the blood, it's by His flesh — the veil being torn from top to bottom — that we can now enter into His presence. And so Christ died so that we can not only be saved, and not only be cleansed, and not only be confident in approaching Him, but also to tabernacle with Him.

Look at the word "house" in verse 21: "since we have a great priest over the house of God." We are God's house. And so this full payment has been purchased. And I would say to us: don't live in such a way that you would waste His payment.

Have you ever paid full price for something and didn't get what you paid for? You got a little bit ripped off? I would say to us: don't be a rip-off. Christ fully paid for you and your life, and the life He wants you to live — according to the benefits mentioned in this text and more — those benefits are what He has for you. Don't waste them. Don't waste the things that Christ died for you to have.

Point number four: keep close to God.

Verse 23 mentions holding — holding means to keep, to hold fast. And we need to understand that God's method to help us hold fast to our confession of hope is not only through the local church. If you skip through all of these points again, you would see that holding fast without wavering means that we are reviewing. In verse 21, it has the word "since." When someone says "since" — you're reviewing what has just been said. And so we have to repetitiously review what has already been established. If we are to keep close to God and pursue Him, we're going to be reviewing everything we have learned.

You don't want to be like the homeless man who takes off one pair of pants and is given another pair, but leaves the old pair behind — he still has one pair of pants and has not advanced in any way. The same thing applies to our knowledge when it comes to learning about Christ. Don't let it go in one ear and out the other. We've got to find ways to review and retain the things we have learned.

When it comes to keeping close to God and holding fast, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Hold fast to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil." If you're going to hold fast to Christ, then simultaneously you're going to be abstaining from evil. You cannot do both. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." You cannot participate in the deeds of darkness and enjoy the light at the same time. It is a spiritual impossibility to flirt with the things of this world, to heartfully love the things of this world, and yet try to engage in the Word of God and enjoy Christ. The Bible says in 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." Our love and our aspirations are to be for God first. Then we enjoy the things of this world accordingly, according to a biblical worldview.

So not only will we be reviewing what we have already learned to keep close to God, we will also be pursuing Him. In verse 22, it uses the word "draw near" — we're pursuing Him. And in verse 22, it uses the word "washed" — we'll be being cleansed by Him to hold fast. And in verse 23, "holding fast" means standing firm. As we are standing firm and holding firm, we are keeping close to God.

And then in verse 24, look at this wonderful word — "stimulating." Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And then in verse 25, it uses the word "assemble" — not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some.

This habit of missing out on church, or skipping the assembling, or skipping worship, or skipping Bible study — whatever the case may have been for their context — whether it was at-home Bible study groups that sang and worshiped and prayed together and kept the ordinances, or whether it had grown into a local church where they were able to build a building because they outgrew living rooms and wanted to worship together. It's a deep desire for God's people to assemble together. They want to be together, and they would naturally outgrow homes. That's the reason why you have these letters addressed to the church at Colossae, the church at Ephesus, the church at Thessalonica, and so forth — all the churches in the region of Galatia. These letters were circulatory to the local churches. They had grown into these local congregations because of this inner desire and compulsion and obedience to assemble and worship together.

And so the modern home church movement — keeping it inside a home church — is not necessarily where it should stop scripturally. It's to continue to mature into a fully grown church, like the temple in the Old Testament: a place where the people could congregate and worship.

And then in verse 25, this wonderful word "encouraging." When we assemble together, we have the means of grace described in Acts chapter 2 verses 42 and following — the preaching of the Word of God, worship, keeping the ordinances, prayer, giving. These basics of what a church is to be doing each Lord's Day. And encouraging one another — the fellowship, if I missed that one — is one of the essential aspects of meeting together. This root idea of encouraging one another is helping another person over an obstacle. We need one another's intellect and gifts and courage to be able to overcome the obstacles in our life. None of us have it all figured out when it comes to life and godliness. In our humanness and our limitations, we depend on the giftedness of the whole body collectively, so that by God's divine providence He can work it out so that you're conversing with someone who has the information you need. And when you're going home from church, you're like, "Man, God — you are so good. You've just given me the boost I needed, the information I was longing for. You've helped me to continue in Christ, to continue in the Word." Through the wisdom of the collected body worshiping together — whether it be about work, family, marriage, parenting, finances, whatever the case may be — in honor of Christ and doing things wisely and wonderfully, God guides you. It starts through and in and through us as little Christians gathering together. It's wonderful.

So one way you keep close to God is to be very close to your local congregation and not forsake the assembling, as is the habit of some.

Now as we start to wrap up, I have just a bit of a nuance that I'd like to lean into, if you don't mind. The word "sprinkling" is mentioned in verse 22: "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." This word "sprinkled" is used by our Presbyterian brothers, whom we love, as to say that this is referring to baptism. And it is not referring to baptism. I would like to address that.

The word "sprinkled" in the Greek here is figurative — a figurative application of Jesus's blood. Look at chapter 9 verse 12. "And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

I love our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Christ, but I want you to know why we are Christians who follow the Scriptures biblically. What kind of Christian will you be if you're a scriptural Christian? Well, in my humble opinion, you'll be a Baptist with a biblical backbone.

Here we go — verse 12. "And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood." Mark the word "blood." "He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

"For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctifies for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience?" You have two applications here. In verse 12, the blood of Christ obtains eternal redemption. And then through the sprinkling of His blood upon you, not only is there eternal redemption, but also — according to verse 14 — a cleansing of your conscience. And there's a difference between the two. The first is eternal redemption — you've been saved, wonderfully saved. And the second is that you're cleansed from all the shame and the unnecessary guilt that you would carry from your past sins. You don't have to carry those things. Christ bore not only your sin and its punishment on the cross, but also the shame and the guilt from our past sins, no matter how small or how great we might think they are.

The sprinkling, figuratively, is for redemption and for cleansing. How then, back to the text, would you apply it to baptism? It makes no exegetical sense. It's out of context. You have to stretch it and connect it without any biblical references. And so, sprinkling is clearly a cleansing of the conscience according to Hebrews 9:14 and 10:22. This metaphoric sprinkling is a picture of what the priest did in the Old Testament. It's a metaphor of the blood based on the Old Covenant ceremony for Israel's priests. It is an error to leap and connect this to baptism. New Testament baptism is clearly by immersion, not sprinkling. New Testament baptism is clearly for those whom God has saved.

You see this clearly in the text. Turn with me to Acts 2. I'd like for you to see believers' baptism for yourself, so that you know exactly why we are who we are. And as you're turning — I put a little bit of this into the hearts and minds of our younger people. You may grow up and find yourself looking at another faithful Christian who is a Presbyterian. And I want you to know why you are a Christian who goes to a Baptist church.

In Acts 2, let's look at this. Our Presbyterian brothers and sisters — whom we love, and we actually have a Portuguese Presbyterian congregation on our campus worshiping every single Sunday; they don't use the baptistry like we would, but they're preaching the gospel and we love them, and I banter with Pastor Celso all the time on these subjects.

Here we go. In Acts 2 verse 39, "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, and as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." They would say, "See, you have 'your children' here in the text." But that does not necessarily mean that infants were baptized here. In fact, it's quite a stretch to say that infants were baptized or sprinkled here.

Moving forward in verse 40, "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.'" Verse 41, "So then those who had received his word were baptized." You see over in our baptistry the verse of Scripture we have on the wall — "those who had received his word." Those who had believed that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. They had repented of their sin. They believed the Word of God. They had received Christ, the Logos. They had repented of their sins and believed and been saved. Those who had received his word — they were baptized. And there are all kinds of other Scriptures throughout the Bible that support believers' baptism.

So now that you see the fact that we have believers' baptism, I would say to us to keep in mind that it is an error to do baptism in any other way than by immersion, and as well to baptize children. It's sad to think that perhaps through this tradition — which, by the way, is nothing more than leftover Catholicism that baptizes children; it's church tradition, not Scripture — we would perhaps confirm upon a child that they are already in Christ, that they're already saved, that they're already in the New Covenant. This produces false converts. Children who already believe they're good and going to heaven — it's almost like Judaism in that they feel that because they are a Jew, they're a child of God. There's no difference. It's a false belief.

And even back in the text, in Hebrews chapter 10, you have the word "washing" in verse 22 as well. They would say "sprinkling" or "washing" — but it's metaphoric again. To attach this to a literal sprinkling in baptism is an error. It pictures that a believer is in the New Covenant of Christ. According to Hebrews 9:15, the New Covenant has been mediated by Christ for redemption. And so those who are in Christ, or in the Covenant, have been saved. They have been redeemed.

Now look with me in chapter 9 verse 15. "For this reason He is the mediator of a New Covenant" — just to be clear. Our Presbyterian brothers and sisters would say that to be in the Covenant, you can be in it as a child; you can be baptized or sprinkled and you're already in the Covenant. I'd say that's wrong according to the Scriptures. "For this reason He is the mediator of a New Covenant, so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of transgressions" — this is for redemption. Redemption is for those who are in the New Covenant. If you've been redeemed, you're a New Covenant believer. The two go hand in hand.

As if it weren't wrong enough to sprinkle and call it baptism and follow these more Catholic traditions — and remember, "Catholic" is not inherently a bad term. Christians, the universal church, those who have truly believed in Christ throughout time — that's fine. But what we're talking about is the Roman Catholic Church, which has established all kinds of extra-biblical rules that are outside of Scripture. Those are the ones you have to watch out for.

The Catholic system has a false priesthood. The Catholic system has a false view of Scripture — they add words to the canon of Scripture and call it church tradition. The Apocrypha is that. They give authority to the Pope. They have a false view of salvation — it's synergism and not monergism. We believe monergistically — God is the one who wholly saves the soul. There's no synergism involved at all. It's not through your works. It's not through Mary or any other person that a person is saved. Then as well, a false view of the sacraments, saying that salvation is through them. A false view of worship, worshiping Mary and the apostles. A false view of works, as if you could earn salvation. And a false view of security in purgatory. There's no purgatory in Scripture.

These things we have to be very careful of — to make sure that we study ourselves approved and we know the difference. We're sanctified by the truth of God's Word. John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." And in Acts 17:11, the Bereans were good Bereans because they verified what the Apostle Paul was preaching with Scripture. And so it's each of your responsibilities to take what you believe has been said on behalf of God — what has been preached and taught — and compare it to the Scriptures. Go home and compare it for yourselves. See these truths and apply them to your lives. It's not just a Sunday religion we have. It is life in Christ — studying His Word, getting to know Him more and more and more.

We all have traditions that we are weeding out of our lives. We all have doctrines and beliefs, whether it's pop psychology, what your mom or dad said, something you grew up with in a false or true religion. I grew up in the Baptist church, and there are so many things our family has had to refine and even shed off even in Baptist life. There are so many things that have drifted into error in regards to soteriology, missiology, ecclesiology — so many refinements we've had to make. So everybody — everybody — has to work on refining their doctrines so that they can hold fast to the confession, as the text says.

Those who are closest to us in doctrinal truth — our friends, our Presbyterians — I love them. We go back and forth on these subjects. But I would say to you in conclusion on this particular subject: when tradition or even a leadership structure demands that you obey them instead of God's Word, you must obey God rather than man. Acts 5:29 says, "We must obey God rather than men."

So whenever you see and perceive a tradition that is demanding your obedience but is not necessarily according to the Scriptures, you have a point of decision — to either fear God or to fear man, to obey man and tradition or to obey the Scriptures. This is very important for us as we continue in the Word together — John 8:31 — to prove that we are His disciples. And this is the reason why I think Presbyterians should become Baptists.

In short, I have three take-home truths for you.

Number one: refuse to shrink back.

When you know the Word of God, you own it. You don't shrink back from it no matter how much pressure is on you.

And there has been a compromise in Baptist life that I'll share with you — it's called child dedication. In the colonial days when a church was established in a colony, sometimes there was just a Presbyterian church and not a Baptist church. The preachers compromised because the people wanted their children to be sprinkled or baptized. Presbyterian pastors wanted Baptist people in their congregation, so they would sprinkle them. But when there was a Baptist church and not a Presbyterian church, Baptist preachers wanted the Presbyterians to come, and so they compromised. They said, "Well, we can't sprinkle them and call it baptism, but we can do child dedication." And so that became a tradition within the Baptist realm that was born out of compromise.

If you can find child dedication in the Scriptures, you're probably looking deeper than I am — I can't find it. We can raise up a child. We can pray for that child. We can pray for the parents. We can dedicate them to the Lord. But is it actually a scriptural practice? It was a compromise.

Each and every one of us has to decide whether we're going to compromise in certain areas. And some are far more important than others. Obviously, nobody is going to be put up for removal from the church over something as simple as that. But we have to be very careful about our doctrines and our practices. I say that to us because we all have practices and ideas inside our hearts and minds that will continue to be refined — whether it's a theological framework, a tradition, a practice, or a belief. We need to be humble before the Scriptures and to be continuing in God's Word.

Number two: don't waste the work of Christ.

By means of a take-home truth — don't waste the work of Christ. All of the wonderful things we have seen in the text today are numerous, vast, and wonderful. And for you not to draw near would mean that you would be starving your soul. Don't waste the work of Christ — for which He gave not only His life for your salvation, but also for your sanctification, and not only that but for your service as well, and for your joy in Jesus. If you would not have your soul starve, you would not shrink back from sound doctrine. You'd hold close to it. Don't waste the work of Christ.

And then my last take-home truth:

Number three: be here for one another.

Not forsaking the church is not just about worshiping God. We owe God worship. Worship is due His name. Not only is He worthy to be worshiped, but it is due Him. So you must, from the depth of your soul, worship God. It is due His name.

But also learn His Word and conform to it — and be here for one another. Most consumeristic mindsets would decide whether or not to go to a church based on whether they have the right children's department, or the right youth department, or the right something else. What's in it for me? A consumer wants the most for their time. A consumer wants to get out and not give. So let's flip that on its head and be contributors and not consumers.

Like you already are — I'm preaching to the choir, I know. But as I continue to develop our mindsets: as you come to church, you may say to yourself, "What a wonderful Wednesday night series we're going through. Theological studies is great — I know my theology already, I don't have to come." No. No. No. Be here for one another. Your presence ministers to others. Grandmothers, grandfathers — you have no idea how much your presence means to children when you encourage them and see them do their discipleship moments. You have no idea how much it means for our young parents to be encouraged by the older married couples here.

I was talking with a good friend the other day who said, "We've never heard that we were good parents. Our kids are almost grown, and we've never heard from our parents that we were good parents." My heart sank. Maybe it's the same for you. Maybe you have some gaps in your life. Maybe your mother or your father did not fulfill their biblical duties in raising you in the admonition of the Lord, and there are still some huge gaps there. Well, keep coming to church — because the wonderful people who are here are investing in those gaps and they don't even know it. Just by exercising who they are as Christians and encouraging one another, you're there for one another. It's an amazing thing that God has designed called the local church — the hope of the world that meets every need. Salvation, sanctification, and service. Every need.

Let's pray together. Lord, thank You for this time, and I pray that You would continue to bless us as we serve You with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. May we be fully committed to You and Your ways. God, if there are those here who have occupations that keep them from doing what they want to do inside Ula Baptist Church, You are bigger than that. I pray that You'd work it out, that You'd open the floodgates and make a way for them to be around their church family and to minister and to be ministered to. Dear God, I also pray for the lost — that You would continue to draw them from darkness and into the light, and that perhaps if You see fit, You'd bring them here to Ula Baptist Church to be able to hear the gospel: that You died on the cross and rose again for the payment of their sin, so that they could repent and believe. I pray that many would continue to be saved and baptized and belong to this local church, and learn how to study their own Bible and go make disciples. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.