A Warning from the Letter to the Hebrews (Glory Days Student Camp Report)

I appreciate you singing with Keith. I really enjoyed learning that new song this week with our young people. Now I'll say this right away, the kind of music that we sing with our young people is worthy of singing in this church. So many people sing with teenagers and children, weak music, weak songs, doctrinally hazy and fuzzy, we do not do that. As a matter of fact, much of the music we use here we use with our students when we do student camp. I look forward to singing that song more often, I appreciate that one. Like I say, often, if any of the music that we sing blesses you, I would challenge you to find out how to get it.

Brother Keith can help you there. It's good for us to use good music in our own personal worship time in the life of our own families. As a matter of fact, sometime in my worship time I have printed songs. I pray through them at times, meditate over them, and the Lord uses those in my life. And we'll be glad to help you in that area. Well take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Hebrews. I'm sure you have your copy of God's word marked there from our scripture reading earlier. Now I'll be honest with you, we're going to cover a few different passages throughout the book of Hebrews. It will be easy for you to follow me.

We will begin in chapter 12, or excuse me, we'll begin in chapter 2, but we'll end up at the end of the message in chapter 12. Now you know it's not my habit to turn many different places throughout God's word, but this will be fairly easy for us. And I desire us to catch all that the Lord wants to show us out of this book of Hebrews. I think it's obvious to you by now that we have just gotten back from student camp. Some of you know that Brother Keith and I have been involved in a student camp for over 15 years. When I was a student minister I got very, very sickened and at times maddened because of the quality of lots of ministry out there.

And through much prayer and seeking the Lord, the Lord burdened me and called me to take my students and just get away, meet with him, and be under the word of God. And we've continued to do this through the years. There is a network of youth ministers and volunteers and churches that partner with us and I'm really thankful for the privilege of ministering to so many through the years. Now this year we have the privilege of hosting nine churches. We have the largest that we've ever had. We had 201 people and we had them for six days and five nights.

And this was an intensive time of preaching and teaching and it was all centered around the theme of Reformation. Now everyone participated in eight worship services. I preached four of them. Our friend Luke Johnson preached the other four. We had three small group Bible studies. I taught one of them as well as Brother Keith and some others that we trust. And then the students were involved in four personal Bible studies. Now I share that with you because I want you to know the volume of material that was put before our young people. Now the stated theme was Reformation and we went further with that.

It wasn't just studying the Reformation, but Reformation is every generation's battle. It's our desire to equip young people to be able to go into the church because they will soon be leaders in the church and to be able to reform the church back to the biblical standards that God has given us. Now our approach was to give them a basic overview of the Protestant Reformation. Simply give them the historicity of it to help them understand why we are giving them this information. And then we preached on the five solas of the Reformation.

Now the five solas were the foundational teaching of the reformers as they sought to bring the church back to biblical health. Now a question. Some of you might be thinking this in your mind. What are the five solas? Now I will skip the Latin title. Maybe I'll give those to you in another day. But the first sola is God's Word alone. What do we learn by that? That is that God's Word has the authority over all things in our lives and in the church. It is sufficient in all areas of life and in the life of the church. And we need to be back under the authority of God's Word.

In the days of the Reformation, the church had moved away from the authority of God's Word and they were operating under church tradition, which was horribly unbiblical. And then the second sola is Christ alone. Christ is the only mediator between God and man. He is the God-man. In that day, the church was leading people to seek after Mary and the saints as mediators. They were seen as co-mediators. But the Scriptures teach us that there is only one mediator between God and man and that is Christ Jesus, the God-man. And then the third sola is that we are saved by faith alone. And then the next sola is by grace alone.

Those are very much tied together. Man is made right by faith alone in Christ and by grace alone. It's not of our works. We can obey church tradition. We can be as good and righteous through the eyes of men as we can possibly be. But salvation is a grace gift and it's by faith and faith alone. And then the last of the solas is God's glory alone. Everything is done in life and in the life of the church for God's glory. The only reason that God would save a wretch like any of us would be for His glory. Now specifically our small group Bible studies focused on reforming our understanding of conversion. I had the privilege to teach on that.

We have to be biblical in dealing with conversion. I was reminded of how this is very relevant in my Bible study. One of the young men spoke up and said, "This is important because one day I will have a family." Now mind you, this was about a 16 or a 17-year-old young man. He saw how important this was because he saw that right around the corner of life he would have a family. Then our second small group Bible study focused on reforming our understanding of worship. Worshiping the life of the church. Brother Keith taught on that as well as some others.

And then our last small group Bible study was reforming our understanding of the Scriptures. Knowing where the Scriptures come from and the fact that we need them. They are authoritative and sufficient for our lives. Now what were some of the results? We really do not count conversions. We don't have an altar call so to speak. But we do hear from time to time that there are some who come to faith in Christ. I can't remember the name of the church but one of them told me that they had had two professions of faith. We leave that up to the Lord. He can count them because they're His.

Now specifically we saw some tangible results in the lives of our own students. As a matter of fact some of them said that they had a greater understanding of the Reformation. One of the young men there said you know I learned all about this in school but now it makes sense. In other words he saw the spiritual side of it all. Many of our young people who said they had a clearer, a better understanding of man's sinfulness. Now that's terribly important because no man can come to faith in Christ unless they understand their sinfulness before God. We have some students who do understand that they're lost. They're seeking the Lord in salvation.

We're praying with them and for them and we're counseling them. And then there are many of our young people. They had incorrect ideas about church and church culture and they were corrected because they shared some of those things with us. Now I want you to understand some of the things that we've seen, some of the progress from the week in the lives of our young people. Now this morning's message that I'm sharing is I have two primary reasons for sharing it. First Brother Keith and I believe it is important for the church as a whole to hear what our students are learning.

We do not want this separate ministry going on in the life of our church. We want all of our ministries to be holistic and you understanding what's going on and the preaching and teaching ministry of our young people is very important. Now this message I'm sharing this morning, it was the closing message. We always have a closing message on Friday night and then Friday morning. And then second, we believe this message is pertinent to us today. This message serves as a warning for us here at Nola Baptist Church and this warning would be good for any church to hear.

Now before we get into the passages that we're going to look at, we need to see the overall big picture here in the book of Hebrews. A couple of questions. This will help us get the context. The first question is who wrote the letter? Who wrote the letter of Hebrews? Now we really don't know. Bible scholars have debated all throughout the centuries. You know there's some that will say well I just know that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter. We really do not know. There's no definitive way that we can know. Much of the theology here seems Pauline, but yet Paul always identified himself. Paul's personality just oozes out of all of his letters.

But the safest and I think the best thing to do is to say we do not know. But we know it was inspired by God because all scripture has been breathed out by God. So it really doesn't matter if we know who wrote the book. Now the second question is who received the letter? Now based on the content of the letter it is obvious these were Jews or Jewish Christians. There are no Gentile problems mentioned, but there are a lot of references to the Old Testament. The writer assumes the hearers understand these Old Testament references. But also these were Jewish Christians who were struggling. They were struggling.

They were under persecution and they were facing the possibility of more persecution. Some have speculated these Jews were in or around Jerusalem. There are others who suggest that they were outside of Israel. I happen to believe that they were within Israel myself. Now the third question is what is the date of this writing? Now this is important. Most scholars believe that the letter was written between 60 A.D. and the time of Jerusalem's destruction. Now you've got to remember Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. This was part of the judgment of God on Israel.

The material in the book of Hebrew suggests that the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system was still in place. Well that had to take place at the temple. And of course if that's going on at the time of this writing, we know that this was before the destruction of the temple which was in 70 A.D. Now I will say a little more about the timing of this letter towards the end of the message because it is relevant for something that can teach us. Now I want to start off by showing you some concerns that the writer gives these Christians here in the letter. We see these concerns when we examine the entire book.

Some of these may be hard to see but they are definitely there. Now we will examine these concerns which will then turn into a warning for us. Now you will excuse me. I do not have this information on the screens this morning. I found it rather difficult with the way this message is spelled out and I think it's easy for you to follow me. Now I would rather you follow me with your ears and your mind and your heart rather than try to write everything down. So if you have difficulty in jotting some notes down, you are always welcome to my notes and I would encourage you to get them so that you can get this information.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 2 first and let's read verse 1. This will be our first concern. Our first concern from this writer to these Christians. Hebrews 2 verse 1. Now for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. Notice what he says. "Least we drift away from it." What we see here is the writer of Hebrews identifies these people as a drifting people. Now I'm sure not all of these people in the life of the church were involved in this sin but there was a portion of the people they had become a drifting people. There was a segment of the church that was a drifting church. Now there's a key phrase here.

This term drift away or these two words in our English drift away. It might be good for you to note that in your copy of God's Word. Now this word it means to let something carelessly pass by. Now this word was used often in secular writing in the day. It was used to speak of a boat or a ship that was not tied up properly. So therefore that boat could drift off. But notice, what were they drifting away from? What was slipping past them? Go back to the verse. For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard. Now that is allusion to the Word of God. These Christians had heard the gospel.

They had come to faith in Christ through the gospel. But yet they did have the Old Testament scriptures and possibly at least orally some of the New Testament teaching. But we see what these individuals were drifting away from. Go back to the verse. For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. Since we drift away from it. So this writer is warning these believers to stay tied up to the Word of God. This term, pay much closer attention, carries the imagery of a boat which is tied up firmly to its moorings. So we see that this writer is concerned that they are drifting away from the Word of God.

So there is a lot of application for us here. This is a reminder for us. We must evaluate, I think we must constantly evaluate our commitment to the Word of God. Now this is a twofold application because personally we must be tied to and faithful to the Word of God. Faithfully in our own time with the Lord. Faithfully in our home. Faithfully to digest the Word and adjust our lives to the Word. We must be faithful to the Word of God. But also in the context of the church. As leaders in the church we must be faithful to call you to the Word and to teach the Word. We must be a church that is tied to the Word of God.

Now here is a warning for me pastor here. One is personal. One is you. You are responsible to be tied to the Word of God. Now notice beyond what others may say. Some of you listen to preaching. That's good. Some of you read books. That's good. Some of you go to conferences and listen to other speakers. That is good. But we must be more faithful to the Word of God above and beyond what others say. What a book might say or what might come out of a conference. What am I saying? Our allegiance must be first to the Word of God. And for us as church leaders we have a very, very hard job ahead of us.

We have to stay focused on teaching you the Word and calling you to the Word of God every time we meet. Every week, every month, every year because we must be under the Word of God. We can never be a drifting people. Now let's notice the second concern. It's right here in chapter 2 as well. Verse 3. What does he say? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? What do we see here? There was a segment of the church that had become neglecting. They were a neglecting people. Now this word simply means to be careless. Go back to the verse. How shall we escape if we neglect? This is to neglect or to be negligent.

This is an act of carelessness towards something. And the Word carries the same idea that's seen earlier in verse 1. This idea of drifting away from something. And in this case, this something is very important. Go back to the verse. What are they neglecting? They are neglecting this great gift of salvation. So the writer is warning that those within the life of the church, they were neglecting salvation. So what do we see? This writer is calling those who are negligent to come back to salvation.

And so for us, we must see that we must always be tied to biblical conversion, biblical salvation, knowing full well what the Word of God says about how men and women and young people and old people come to faith in Christ. We must be biblical. I remind you what that young man said to me this week. He couldn't have been any older than 17. He said it was important for me to understand salvation because one day I'm responsible for a family. And we must stay tied to biblical salvation. Now if we study the reformers, we know that they were reforming primarily out of Catholicism.

And Catholicism had its fair share of problems when it came to bringing people in the right relationship with the Lord. But we must be faithful to identify the errors in our culture. And when we identify these errors that are around us, we must never stop sounding the alarm. If we're honest, we will recognize that our church culture in this day is flooded with decisionism and easy believism. Our church roles attest to that. So many people are on our roles. And look, we can't find them if we launch a great investigation. Many of them on our church roles do not live godly lives or holy lives. They are just out there.

And we must see that much of this comes from neglecting how men and women come to faith in Christ. And listen people, this affects the souls of our sons and our daughters. Now again, just because we're biblical and thoroughly biblical and teaching salvation does not mean that we put our two cents in and we automatically get people saved. No, this is a work of God. Jesus told Nicodemus, "It's like the wind. We don't know where it comes from or where it's going. But we know that salvation is of God." And we must, we must be tied to what the Scriptures say about salvation. And then the third concern comes out of chapter 3.

You probably have to turn a page over. But chapter 3, verse 12, this is the third concern from the writer of the book. He says, "Take care, brethren. Least there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart." What does he say? "Brethren, I hope that none of you are unbelievers." And what does he say? "In falling away from the living God." Now this concern here, it concerns those who fall away, fall away from the church, fall away from the faith. Now there is an interesting word here. This word "falling away," it simply means to depart or to desert. We have men in our church family who are in the military.

And we understand what desertion is in the military. If one is in the military and he leaves his post for whatever reason, he is considered a deserter. And that is what we see here in the life of this church. There were some who had deserted and there is a warning for some not to desert. Now there is an interesting Old Testament comparison later on. If you start in verse 16 on down to verse 19, what does the writer of Hebrews mention? He mentions those who came out of Egyptian captivity but they never made it to the Promised Land.

Those were Jews who left Egypt but were not permitted to go into the Promised Land because of their sin but greater than that because of their spiritual condition. They were among God's holy people but they were not of His holy people. See all of Israel was not the true Israel. They fell away because they were not Old Testament believers. And the warning here for those who are within the church is to be able to handle those who are not converted properly. There is an urging in verse 13 to try and minister to those in the church. Now how does this apply to us? First of all we must understand this reality.

It is earth shattering for some to realize that there are people in the church and they profess Christ and they know all of the Sunday school answers. They might even have straight and true doctrine but many times those people are not converted. And we see this reality right here. We see this in other places in the scripture. We learned a long time ago in our study in 1 John. 1 John 2.19 John says they went out from us because they never were of us. Now we don't say that with joy. No we are heartbroken because many times these are our sons and daughters. These are our friends and neighbors.

And we are heartbroken but we first must realize that this can be a reality. And then we must handle these people correctly. We must handle them correctly. Now let me show you one error in the life of church that I believe is a horrible error. And what has happened is we have not handled these people properly. Now let me say something before I get into the error. We cannot be judgmental. We cannot be arrogant. We cannot have this pious, Holy Ghost, policeman attitude. No. We deal with this in a heartbreaking manner. But what is this doctrine that is so prevalent that I believe is a mishandling of these types of people?

It's the doctrine of rededication. Now listen. I believe and we believe in biblical repentance. Christians struggle, yes. But Christians are led to repent. But what happened is somewhere down the line we had to deal with all these people who have gone off and lived however they want to live. You know how it is. They make a decision as a young child. I believe young children can be saved. But they graduate from God. They graduate from the church. And they go on. And then somewhere down the line they come back.

And I'm afraid many times they walk down the aisle and we pat them on the back and we rededicate them and many of them are not converted. I was reminded of another way in which some churches deal with these people incorrectly. I've got a good friend who lives in a larger city. And he was attending one of these church starts. And then when he found out the reasoning for the church start, he left. Now this church start, it was kind of a clandestine work. This large first Baptist church that was very traditional started this new very contemporary work and they wanted to stay disconnected from it.

And the whole premise behind the church was to reach those that have left the church. They've left the church and never come back. And they said they won't come back to the traditional church. So I have to believe whether it's traditional or not, those who go out from us were never were of us. And see how my friend understood the scriptures. So he said that was a faulty work and he left. So we must see that there are those who fall away and there were some in this church who had. Now this fourth concern is out of chapter 3 verse 13.

So we see, "But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today." In other words, why you have time. "Least any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." See there was a segment in the church, they had become a hard-hearted people. Now this word hard, it simply means hard. It's not a difficult word to understand. But what was causing this hardness of heart? What do we see in verse 13? Because of the deceitfulness of sin. So the warning here was this, "Do not let the deceitfulness of sin harden the heart." I ran across one little phrase that John MacArthur uses to describe sin.

And I thought it's accurate and I will add to it. John MacArthur says, "Sin lies and deceives using every trickery and stratagem possible." I love that, that's true. We must see that sin lies to us and it deceives us. And sin uses every trick and every strategy to deceive us. But in application, we must see that we must hate that which God hates and love that which God loves. We must desire holy living and we must have a renewed hatred for sin. Now I think we can make an error here. If we're not careful, we can look at that sin that we can identify. See we can look at that sin of action. See we are sinners in three ways.

We are sinners by nature, we are sinners by action and attitude. We understand the action of sin when we study the Ten Commandments. And we understand the attitude of sin when we look at how Jesus dealt with the Ten in the Beatitudes. But we know we are sinners by nature. So we must see that we must hate even, listen, the sin of attitude. No matter if we ever act on that sin. I'll flesh this out a little, Father. You know a man can never commit adultery physically. A man might be faithful to his wife but yet he can hold on to a lustful heart for years.

Teenagers can profess to love the Lord, maybe socially be born again and still have that rebellious attitude or that dishonoring attitude towards their parents. So my question is, do we really expect holy living in the life of the church today? And I think we should. See there were some, their hearts were hardened because of sin. And then this fifth concern out of chapter 5 verse 12. Verse 12 chapter 5, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food." See there was a segment of the church they had become immature. They were an immature church. Now this term ought to be, in verse 12 is key. This means that they should be able to, not necessarily that they should be teaching, but that they should be able to teach but they cannot. Now look at the result. The verse says that they needed elementary teaching because of their immaturity. They needed the first things. And the writer here uses the illustration of food. What does he say? "You are so weak spiritually you need spiritual milk and not solid food." Like a more mature believer.

Now the warning here is one we all should heed. I like this phrase that might help us. We must understand that stagnation in our spiritual life always produces digression. If we're not moving forward, we are moving backwards. And the writer here is rebuking them for their immaturity. And he is warning them that they must grow to maturity. Now an application for us, I think we need to see that the church should not run short of mature believers unless the pulpit and the teaching ministry of the life of the church is immature. You show me an immature preaching ministry and the pew will be filled with immature believers.

And look, if you have a solid pulpit and you've been saved for five or eight years, you should be able to teach. I didn't say you should be teaching, but you should be able to teach. You should be mature enough and know enough of the scripture to teach. And if the pulpit is solid and the church has men who have been saved for 15 or 20 years, they should be able to fill the pulpit if necessary. What is the story of the conversion of Charles Spurgeon?

He couldn't make it to his home church because it was a violent snowstorm and he stepped off in the church where even the pastor couldn't come, but a deacon was preaching the word and he was converted. See, that man was a mature believer. There should never be a shortage of men to teach boys in the life of the church and men to teach teenagers. There should never be a shortage of mature women to teach the younger women and the teenage girls and the children and so on. Now, I'm not saying all of us are called to teach, but we should be mature enough to teach.

And I believe that if the Lord needs someone to teach and you're mature enough, He just might call you to teach. Now this sixth concern, the last concern, is back over in chapter 12. That's where we were earlier, chapter 12, verse 12. This is the last of the concerns. Verse 12, "Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble and make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed." See, here we have a segment of the church. All the church itself, they had become weak. Notice there are several words. First, strengthen.

This word means to strengthen so it can be used. We go on and we see some descriptive language here. Hands that are weak. Now the picture here is of a runner and they're running and they're so weak that they can't hold up their hands. Their knees are weak so that they cannot run in full stride. So their hands are low from weakness and their knees and their legs are weak so they are not in full stride. Now you might not realize that this is an allusion to a passage in Isaiah 35.3. The prophet Isaiah uses the exact imagery to speak of spiritual weakness.

Here we see a warning from this writer to strengthen the body of Christ, to strengthen the individual Christians within the life of the church. Now an application for us. This is something that I have said repeatedly and I will continue to repeat. The church should always be victorious. Now there might be outward persecution but yet inwardly we should be victorious. We should never allow ourselves to drift into weakness because of negligence. Because we are just at ease in the life of the church. We should never become hardened because of sin which produces weakness.

Whatever would come our way that would produce weakness, it must be dealt with because we must, we must be a strong and victorious church no matter the size. Now I want to move away from these concerns and I want to go back to this timing issue. Remember I said earlier that we would look at the timing of when this letter was written. Now most scholars believe the letter was written very close to 70 AD, maybe between 65 and 70. The letter was written 70 AD is when Jerusalem was destroyed. Now I want to compare this to the life of Paul and I have a purpose so I want you to follow me.

Now most Bible scholars believe Paul was born around the time of 3 or 5 AD. Most scholars believe that Paul was converted to Christ in 37 AD. Now most scholars or we see scripturally that Paul's first missionary journey started from 45 AD and it lasted to 49 AD. Remember Paul had his home church of Antioch, the Lord called them out, they prayed and fasted, laid hands on them and sent them. Paul was not a lone ranger missionary, he went out from Antioch and came back to Antioch. But then his second missionary journey was from 50 to 54 AD. Third missionary journey from 54 to 58.

Then there's these Roman imprisonments, 61 to 63, 65 to 67 and then it is speculated that Paul died in 67 AD or 68 under the persecution of Nero. Nero was famous for his persecutions. Now with those dates in mind and our understanding of biblical knowledge we know that the explosion of gospel evangelism came right after the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now we know Saul was converted to Paul in Acts chapter 9. But we see the explosion of the New Testament church after the Spirit was given at Pentecost and then through the Apostle Paul.

Now if we compare the timing of this letter to Paul's life, we see that the Hebrew church was comprised of first generation Christians, second generation Christians and then their children. Now what's the point? This was a young church. Look the paint wasn't knocked off the walls yet. This was a very, very young church. Oh, but this young church had so many problems. They were young but yet so weak and so defeated. Now this church in our day, we would have called them the first Baptist church of, let's just take it easy. Isn't that what we see? Or we would have called them this.

This is the first Baptist church of carelessness or the first Baptist church of falling away. Now I know that sounds facetious. I'm not against first Baptist churches nor the title of a first Baptist church. But I'm trying to help us see that this was a young church and yet they are already in decline. They're drifting. They're easing away from the foundations of the truth. For us this morning, we must remember two things. These are two points of application. We have a warning here and we have instructions. First the warning. We must never drift away from the Word.

If we drift away from the Word, you might as well put a sign in the yard, "Rest in peace," because we're going down. We cannot drift away from the Word. We must never neglect salvation. If we neglect what the Word of God says about salvation, we lose our sons, we lose our daughters, and we lose everyone around us. We must not mishandle those who have fallen away. Because listen, it could be our sons and daughters and our friends who fall away and we must handle them properly. And we must not become hardened by sin. We must not allow sin to pollute our lives and pollute our church. And we must not be an immature church. We cannot be.

We must work hard to grow the saints. And we must not allow the church to become weak. Now, weakness because the persecution is one thing, weakness because of unsound doctrine and a lack of knowledge of the Word and disciplining our lives, that's another. Now what about the instruction? How did the writer of Hebrews deal with these people? We see this in chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. The writer of the book gives these drifting Christians a proper instruction to get going. What does he say?

"Therefore, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." And here in these two verses, there are three instructions which we must remember. And I believe they are the keys to staying victorious. Now these three instructions I will mention briefly. And then we will close.

Number 1, we must know our heroes. Isn't that what he is saying? Remember these are Jewish Christians who are the great cloud of witnesses. They're listed in Hebrews chapter 11. Oh, he is reminding them of the great heroes of the faith. What is he saying? Remember Moses. Remember Abraham. Remember Abel. Remember David. Remember Samson. Remember all those that we revere. They had lost sight of the Old Testament saints. And for us, we must know the great men and women of the Scriptures. And I believe we must know the great men and women of church history. This great cloud of witnesses are the ones that help strengthen our faith.

We look to them and they raise the bar. They raise the bar and they show us the great things that can be done through our lives. And then suck it, suck it, we must be fit for the race. What does he say? Let us. He is saying get busy. Let's throw off all this stuff in your life that slows you down and repent of the sins that entangle you. There are two things that he deals with. The weights and the sins that entangle. And see for us, we must be willing to examine our lives. We must be willing to examine if there be anything in our life that hinders us and the sin that can hinder us.

I do not believe that it's so you can play sports and just point to heaven. No, this is the race of the Christian life in the context of the church. This is the church he's riding to. And then third, we must fix our eyes on Jesus. What does he say? Fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith. Who for the joy set before him and do of the cross, despising its shame. And he set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now this term here means to look away to Jesus. That's indicting in and of itself. These people were looking to other things and not to Jesus and we must not do the same thing.

We must make sure we look to Jesus. This is relational because we are born again and we know Christ. This is worship because we love and adore Him. And this is obedience because this is word-centered. And this is the victorious Christian life. So what do we see? The warning to never let us become like this church in the instructions. Make sure we have a well understanding of the heroes of the faith. Make sure we are fitted to run our race and make sure we have our eyes on Jesus. Now what's the title of the message? A warning from the letter to the Hebrews. A warning from the letter to the Hebrews.

Now how did I deal with this with students and teenagers? How did I deal with this with other leaders? It was a call to not be like the church here before us. No matter what church they came from, it was a call to go back to what the church should be. And our church must be Nola Baptist Church, a victorious church doing great things for the kingdom. We cannot be like these Hebrews. If we are called Nola Baptist Church, a church where folks take it easy, well then we're just like these Hebrews. May the Lord help us not to become like this.