The Christian life - Not..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Thank you so much, brethren, for being here. As I said, tonight we're going to be addressing the importance of not neglecting the gathering of the saints.

And as I said to you, we're going to be getting that from verse 25. It's a very famous, I think, or popular verse for these matters. When we're speaking about the gathering of the saints, this is the coming together of the saints. Every time that there is a gathering of the coming together of the saints, More importantly, for the Lord's Day, when the church comes together, but every time that the church comes together, like in this very moment, the Bible calls us not to neglect the meeting together of the saints or the Christians. The author here is writing to Christians, and it is, as we know, not only an expectation from the Scriptures, but if we are going to see it, it is also a duty, a Christian duty of the gathering together, of the saints.

We're going to be reading from verse 19 to verse 31. We're going to see sometimes we stop there at verse 25, and we take that passage there, and it's very important because the passage continues, you can see there with verse 26 with the four, connecting everything that has been said before with what is going to come after that. So what I want to present to you, dear brothers and sisters, those of you who are here and those who are within the sound of my voice, I just simply want to present from the Scriptures that neglecting the gathering of the saints, as we're going to see it from this passage here, is a sinful behavior. It's a sinful behavior. Neglecting the gathering of the saints is a sinful behavior that demonstrates, that is a manifestation of a broken relationship with God that has very serious consequences.

Those are the only three things that I want us to see, not only from this passage, but from the Scriptures, that neglecting the gathering of the saints, as it is written here in verse 25, neglecting the gathering of the saints is a sinful behavior that demonstrates that there is a broken relationship with God, and we are going to qualify all of that, it's a sinful behavior that demonstrates that there is a broken relationship with God that has serious consequences. Sinful behavior that demonstrates a broken relationship with God that has serious consequences. And now, as we are going to read now from verse 19 to verse 31, I want you to have that in your mind. I'm saying to you that neglecting the gathering of the saints in sinful behavior, and that it demonstrates a broken relationship of fellowship with God that has serious consequences. So let us read the Scriptures together and we will take it from there as the Lord allows us to speak and as allows us to hear the words.

So the author of Hebrews, of course, has been speaking about the preeminence and the importance of the new covenant that we have in the blood of Lord Jesus Christ. And then here from verse 19, there's going to be kind of like a summary, very important summary. It says in verse 19, therefore, brothers and sisters, oh brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, that is fellowship with God, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, Since all of those truths, 22, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with a pure water. Verse 23, not only let us draw near, but 23, let us call fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promise is faithful. And also, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

And the opposite to that is verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as it is the habit or the behavior of some. but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Why? Verse 26, "'For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy, on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That is the word of the Lord, brethren.

As I said to you, I want to speak. There are many things there in that passage that we are, of course, not going to be addressing, because we're going to be speaking primarily and more importantly about the importance of not neglecting the gathering of the saints, as we have in there in verse 25. The importance of not neglecting the gathering of the saints. And this is a very important topic, my dear brothers and sisters, because at times people can take two extremes when it comes to the neglecting of the gathering of the saints. One that is one extreme, both of those extremes, in which the view of the coming together of the saints is so strict, that even when a person is unable providentially of coming to the church, that a person or someone might call them as sinners, just because they are unable to come to the gathering of the saints.

Of course, there are times in which, providentially, a person is prevented from coming together and being in the context of the saints. That is one extreme that takes that very extreme. And also, there's another extreme that takes the coming together of the saints, which is more predominant among Christians, very loosely. That is that just coming to church is just something that is not very important. that being together is not something very important, that being together is something that could be replaced, that being together as Christians is something that just can be not done for a reason that is not valid, that is not a providential reason that prevents a person from coming together with the saints.

So simply, what I want us to consider and meditate about is just, as verse 25 has it there in the context of what is said there, this importance of not neglecting the gathering of the saints. And as I said to you, my dear brothers, what I want to present to you is this neglecting of the gathering of the saints as a sinful behavior that demonstrates a broken relationship with God that has serious consequences. The first thing that I say or that I have said is that neglecting the gathering of the saints is a sinful behavior. When I say sinful behavior, I'm referring to a sinful practice. That is what the text says there in verse 25.

It says, "...not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some." So here the Scriptures call this neglecting of the gathering of the coming togethers of the saints as a sinful behavior, as it is the habit or as it is the custom of some. And that is very important because what we're going to be addressing here is not the person that is not able to come to church because of a certain matter, a providential thing that prevents that person from coming to church. But here what the Scriptures address is the person who has a habit already, a custom, something that repeats and repeats and repeats of neglecting the coming together of the gathering of the saints.

And it's a sinful behavior, it's a repetitious behavior that now the person is okay with neglecting willingly the gathering of the saints. It is a habit. It is not something that happens only once, that the person just simply is prevented from coming to church for a particular reason, and they are unable to come. But it's rather that the person now has the external practice, the external habit of just for any reason, neglecting the gathering of the saints. And that is what I am calling a sinful behavior.

Because as I said to you, in our minds and in our practice, we can fall into the error of two extremes. One that is super extreme and at times legalistic, in the sense that for some reason we're providentially prevented to come together, for some reason we're prevented from coming together, or a brother or sister is prevented from coming together, and then someone will judge that person or that church in their heart, as they are neglecting the gathering of the same. That is not what this verse is saying. It is a habit of neglecting the gathering of the saints. It is a repetitious behavior.

And of course, brethren, as we know, behaviors of Christians are rooted in the... heart. So if a person now is having a behavior that the scripture calls a neglecting of something that they are called to do, there is something that is happening in the heart. And remember what we have said, that the definition of a sin in the many definitions that we have given is the practice that is not rooted in faith. So that is that if a person has the habitual, a custom or the habit of neglecting the coming together or being joined with the Christians, that means that the heart of that person has the absence of that faith that will naturally move that Christian brother or sister to genuinely desire to be with the brothers and sisters.

And what we're actually addressing here, now, it is a very serious matter, because we're addressing a sinful behavior. And it is not only for the neglecting of the gathering of the saints, but any sinful behavior, any practice of sin, is very strongly condemned by the Scriptures. Condemned in the sense of, you know, like, opposed, if you want. So the Scriptures clearly, clearly oppose the practice, the willing practice of sin. And in this particular case, neglecting the coming together of the saints.

Now, of course, if there is a neglecting of the coming together of the saints, there's something that is taking place in the heart. Now, this person, whoever that person is, or those people are, that are now neglecting the coming together of the saints, have been taken over by something that they are not supposed to be taken over by. If you come with me to Peter chapter 1, in Peter chapter 1, the Apostle Peter speaks to us about a very important reality of something that takes place in the heart of the Christian, of the genuine believer. And by seeing what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, we can see what is actually taking place with a person who is in the habit of neglecting the coming together with the Christians. If you go to verse 12 in chapter 2, in verse 11 of 1 Peter chapter 2, in verse 11, it says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, it says, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

So, brethren, the Christian has within passions of the flesh still that are at war. And the Christian has been empowered with the Holy Spirit to overcome those passions of the flesh. Now, coming together as brothers and sisters in the faith and in union with Christ is not a virtue, it's not a characteristic of the flesh. But it's something, it's a virtue and it's a fruit of the Spirit. Love and faith and joy in the coming together of the saints.

So, when the saints come together with a desire to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, to sit under the preaching of the Word, to have fellowship with the saints, to participate in all the matters that the local church participates as a community, that is not the act of the will of the flesh of a person who consciously just simply decides. Now, a person can do it in that way, they're doing it in the flesh, But the expectation of the Scripture is that the outcome of our coming together would be the genuine desire of our heart, the genuine desire of the heart, that is the presence of the Holy Spirit that brings us together. That is that when we come together, it is the Spirit of God that is leading us to enjoy the presence of one another, to minister to one another, to edify one another. So when that does not happen, but rather changes to a habit of neglecting the coming together of the saints, that means that a passion that is natural to the flesh, namely love to self, individualism, I do not need them, they do not need them, or for whatever reason the mind makes, or has in the mind, it is a passion of the flesh. that was supposed to be at war with the passions of the Spirit that is within us, but now that passion has taken over that person.

Now, if you remember, before we go to Romans chapter 6, we go there to verse 14, because the Apostle tells us something very important. In chapter 1 verse 14, the same Apostle is speaking about these passions, or this lust of the flesh. He says, "...as obedient children, brethren..." in verse 14, Chapter 1, it says, As obedient children, pay attention to what it says to Christians.

Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. So, it's not that the Christian is always going to have victory over the passions. The scripture is calling us, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. It says verse 15, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy. The commandment in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

So, brethren, when a person enters into a sinful behavior or into a sinful habit, that means that the natural passions of the flesh of that person have taken over. Now, in the best case scenario, that is a genuine brother or sister who is backsliding and now is walking in darkness, and now for some reason, disconnection with the Lord. That's what we're going to show later, breaking fellowship with the Lord. Now that person has fallen into a sinful habit, a sinful behavior, and the passions of the flesh are overcoming of that person. That is the best case scenario.

But the worst case scenario is that that person has not the Spirit of God in them, and they're just simply going with the passions that they naturally have, because they don't even have a world within them. They are slaves to the flesh. If you go to Romans chapter 6, and we could see Romans chapter 6 and Romans chapter 8, and see all of that, but if you go quickly to Romans chapter 8, brethren, The Apostle makes it very clear when he speaks about our freedom, and stills are called to be free. We are free in Christ, yet we are called to be free, or to live lives of freedom and liberty. It says in Romans chapter 6, in verse 12, Let us not sin, therefore...

Let us just perhaps read it, just to get the therefore from verse... 9, it says, Romans chapter 6, verse 9, We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the day He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Then he says, verse 12, because of that, that you can consider a life in union with Christ. It says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sins as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace. You see the eschatological promise there in verse 14?

That is true for every single Christian, that is, that in the end, sin will have no dominion over us, because we are under grace. But it's also true what the apostle says in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, because the sin can have reign in the present time in the mortal body of the Christian. In the end of that Christian sin will have no dominion, because we are under grace and we're not under the law. But the call to the Christian in the present time is a battle. It's a battle against our passions, the passions of our flesh that are making war within us.

And the call is, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. So what can we conclude from the person who is in the habit of neglecting the gathering of the saints? The gathering of the saints, brethren, the coming together of the saints is a Christian call, it's a Christian duty. Now, if a person is in the habit, the repetitious custom habit, the willful habit, Because brethren, if a person does not come to church, and the person misses the church and misses the brethren the first day, and the person does not come to the church the next week, and the person misses the brethren and being together with the church, that is not the work of the holy fight and sanctified flesh of that person. It's the work of the Holy Spirit in them that says, you belong to that community and you should be with them.

But if a person allows and allows time and time and past and past and past to go against that conviction of the Holy Spirit that says, you should be in the midst of your brethren. You should be under the preaching of the word. You should be with, you know, like breaking the bread and taking the wine and you should be with the brethren. And then now that person is in the habit of neglecting the gathering of the saints. That person has let sin have dominion over them.

once again, in the best case scenario. In the best case scenario, that is a Christian that is backslidden, a Christian that is walking in darkness. In the best case scenario, because brethren, there's also the possibility that this person is not genuinely in Christ. A person that can't go without the brethren, that can't go without the local church just easily, and they are naturally separated in their heart from the local church. That goes contrary to what the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us.

Come to John chapter 13, the loving of the brethren is a qualifier of a genuine salvation. And not love brethren, but the love to one another, right? This is a very popular verse that we usually repeat. Loving one another is a manifestation of a genuine salvation. And if a person is in the habit of neglecting the gathering of the saints, That person can say with their mouth that they love the brethren, and they can write it, and they can even speak words about it.

But that is not a manifestation of genuine love towards the brethren. It says in chapter 13 of John, in verse 31, it says, speaking of the new commandment, that is the title that we have there in the ESV, The Lord Jesus Christ, when He had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and glory have Him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek Me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also said to you.

Where I am going, you cannot come. a new commandment I give to you." Now, I'm going, I'm going, he says, but a new commandment I give to you in verse 34, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

So, brethren, being a disciple of Christ is meant to naturally produce love for the brethren, love for one another. And we cannot produce love in and of ourselves. So, love is not just simply that I say, I love you, or you love me, or we love each other. It's not only about the words. Love, according to Christ and according to the Scriptures, is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ making us love one another as He loved us.

Our love is categorically different. Even our experiences of love before our salvation, even if they were emotionally genuine to our parents or to our spouses or children, or even before our salvation, they're categorically different. They are of a different kind. They are of a different type. They have a different nature to the love of God that Christ demonstrated for us.

Hence, if we are to love one another with the categorically different love that the Lord Jesus Christ had for us, then we need to have a new life, then we need to have a new heart, the heart of Jesus Christ. So then a person that is neglecting the gathering of the saints is a person that does not love the saints. It's a person that now loves him or herself so much that the passions of the flesh now have taken dominion over the person, once again, in the best case scenario, because it's very difficult to consider or just even to reconcile, generally according to the Scriptures, that a person will not love the brethren and not be lost. The whole point in 1 John is that if you don't love the brethren, you're lost. That is the whole point in chapter 2, and then it moves.

But a Christian can be backslidden and walk in darkness at times, as we have spoken before. And that would be the best case scenario. Now, what is the manifestation of this love, brethren? What is the manifestation of the love of Christ in our hearts? Come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians chapter 1. You remember what the apostle says about knowledge? What does knowledge do? Puffs up, but love builds up. Very good.

So in Romans chapter one, sorry, 1st Corinthians, 1st Corinthians chapter eight. So what is the love of Christ in our hearts supposed to do? The love of Christ in our hearts is supposed to build up, brethren. It says in Romans, 1st Corinthians chapter eight, verse one. Now concerning food offered to idols, I said 1 Corinthians, right?

1 Corinthians chapter 8. Now, concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. Now, he gives a statement that is a truth, a general truth. This knowledge puffs up and the ESV very clearly, very smartly, helping us to understand, puts knowledge in quotes, or at least my ESV, what do you call this? Quotes, right?

In quotes. Because he says this knowledge, because genuine knowledge produces love. Genuine knowledge produces real power. He says this knowledge pops up, but love builds up. So the presence of Christ's love in the heart of a genuine believer is supposed to move that person to be a builder.

So every Christian now, it is by mission, a builder. And we're a builder, not of self. We're a builder of the church. Not a mission of the preacher or the teacher. Now, every Christian, by virtue of the presence of the love of Christ in his or her heart, is a builder.

And it's in a mission to build. To build, of course, our hearts and our souls before the Lord, but to build up others. That is the whole point of 1 Corinthians 12, if you go to verse 14. Let us just get to chapter 14. Wow.

Chapter 14, verse 12. Brethren, Remember what was the controversy in 1 Corinthians chapter 14? Remember the controversy of the Corinthians about the gifts, and I want to have that, and I want to speak in tongues, and I want to do all of these things? I want to have all of those things. And the apostle says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and in verse 12, it says, So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, that is, since you desire so much to speak in tongues, since you desire so much to prophesy, since you desire so much to interpret tongues, since you desire so much to do all of these things, to have words of knowledge and all of those things, since you desire so much, all of that is try to excel in building up the church.

in building up the church. Because brothers and sisters, the coming together of the saints is not for the religious purpose of just simply ticking the box that we're coming together. It is with the purpose of building up one another. Because someone might not come to church and be clearly neglecting the gathering of the saints. But if in the heart we are just simply coming to the gathering of the saints in the flesh, and we are just simply being there physically, and we are just being there, just move through motions in the things that we have to do, and we are not there with a genuine Spirit-given desire to love the brethren, to build one another, we're not fulfilling this commandment.

We do not fulfill the coming together of the saints just by coming to church. It is the purpose and the spirit behind coming together, or in us, moving us to come together. And that is that we are to love one another, because if we love one another, then they will know that we are Christ's disciples and that love builds up. So here, the non-neglecting together of the saints is with no purpose that people will come to church. We don't want people to come to church.

We want people to come to build one another up in the love of Christ. That, of course, requires presence. That requires that we will be physically one with the other. We don't want people coming to church. We want them to come to build one another up in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because in the flesh, some extremes will pursue just simply, you have to come to church, you have to come to church, you have to come to church, you have to come to church. We can do that and say that to the brethren, but what we want and desire is that they will come to Christ, and that by being in Christ, they will decide to love the brethren, and coming to church physically, organizing their time, and organizing their Sunday, and organizing all of their things, will be just simply a natural byproduct of my desire to be with the brethren and to serve them. And not all of the things will be moving and defining my Sunday, but it will be that moment in which I'm going to be coming to the church. Brethren, as I said to you, neglecting the gathering of the saints is a sinful behavior. And it's a sinful behavior that not only goes against a commandment, but more importantly, brethren, it goes against the example of the Lord.

It goes against the life of the Lord. If you go to Acts chapter 1, It goes against the example of the Lord, it goes against the life of Christ. Yes, there is a commandment that we are not to neglect the gathering of the saints and the way to come together. Of course, there is a purpose in that. But more importantly, brethren, this goes against the life of Christ in the heart of the Christian.

Remember the very first thing that the apostles did in Acts chapter 1 verse 14, it says, All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. They were together after the Lord Jesus Christ had departed. But there is something very interesting, when they are appointing the replacement for Judas Iscariot, in verse 21. Remember when they are appointing the other apostle? They're by the Holy Spirit, of course, because some people will neglect that that was by the Holy Spirit.

In verse 21 it says, so one of the men, they're speaking here, let us just read from 20, it says, for it is written in the book of Psalms, may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it and let another take his office. So then he says in verse 21, so one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus, it says, went in and out among us. That was the ministry of the Lord. That was the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that was in and out with the disciples. The word there is literally together, that He was together with the disciples.

That was the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, that is how the Christian church has been built. Christ is the rock upon which the Christian church is built, and the means by which He built up the apostles and the disciples was not only just by Him being God, but it was by His diligent giving of Himself to them. He came as a servant, not only to die upon the cross, but He came to a servant to teach them, to pray, to teach them to serve as an example, to guide them, to show them diligently. He didn't only say pray, but he prayed through the night without sleeping.

He didn't only say love, but he loved. This is the way that he built up the church. And that's why the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church, because the foundation of this Christian church has been established by the loving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that initiated with the power of the Holy Spirit, through the disciples, feeble, weak disciples, that which we call the Christian church. And that's why the world can go nuts and crazy and whatever they want. They will never, ever prevail against the genuine bride of the Lord, because it is not only the eschatological promise of the Lord, but the foundation of this church is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

So when we neglect the gathering of the saints, We're demonstrating that there is something wrong in our hearts already. We're demonstrating that we do not love the brethren. We're demonstrating that we don't want to encourage the brethren. We demonstrate that we don't care about the brethren, that we care about ourselves. That the reason that is preventing me from coming to church is so important, more important than the brethren.

And when that becomes a habit, a repetitious habit, a behavior, saying, I love you is hypocritical because there's no love in words. Love is to be demonstrated as Christ loved us. And He didn't only say, I love you, but He demonstrated through His life that He loved us. And of course, as I said, it's not only a sinful behavior, but brethren, also it is a demonstration, it's an evidence that that person has broken fellowship with the Lord. Come to 1 John, in 1 John, I will just build the theological argument there, and then we will return to Hebrew chapter 10, and then see it from the text.

So if you come to 1 John, You remember, right? Like, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, and all of those things that we have discussed in the past. Let us read from verse 6 of chapter 1, 1 John. Okay? Let us read from verse 6, just to get that fellowship concept there.

It says, if we say we have fellowship with Him, that is with God. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth. Do not practice the truth, verse 6. But now verse 7, brother. But if we walk in the light, that is, if we are not liars, but rather we're telling the truth.

In other words, if we walk in the light, as he's in the light, in other words, if we have fellowship with him, right? If we are walking in the light, because previously he had said, if we say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie. In other words, if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in the light, we're telling the truth. Because having fellowship with Him is to be in the light, to walk in the light. So it says in verse 7, but if we walk in the light, in other words, if we have fellowship with Him, As He is in the light, that is all the time, that is unmovable, unchangeable, He belongs, He is the light, then He says, we have fellowship with one another.

Now, this is not saying we come to church, it's deeper than that. He's saying we have fellowship with one another, just as the fellowship of the Father and the Son in truth and love, Just as the fellowship that the apostles had with the Lord Jesus Christ and with God through Christ, and just as the fellowship that the apostles suspect that we will have with Him and with God through the proclamation of the gospel, is a fellowship that we can have. Fellowship that is manifested in the heart. And of course, when it comes practically, it will be, I want to be with the brethren. I need to be with the brethren.

I want to serve the brethren. What can I do to be the first to serve the brethren? What can I do to be the one that serves the most? Because the one that serves the most is the one that is seen in the eyes of the Lord better. Not as if there are statues, but the one that serves the most is higher.

The one that puts his life down is the one that is walking in the spirit of Christ. That is the natural desire of the spirit of Christ. He being the highest, God Himself made Himself of no reputation in the likeness of men. He sacrificed Himself and this is the example of His love. This is what the love of Christ in us should manifest.

That is the natural spiritual manifestation of the presence of Christ in us. And that only happens when we are genuinely saved. And when BiFed were continually abiding in the light, because it says, if we walk in the light, we have, as he's in the light, we have fellowship with one another. So that means that if we do not have fellowship with one another, it's because we are not walking in the light as He is in the light. Hence, we do not have fellowship with one another.

And it's very important there, brothers and sisters, you pay attention to the other statement that is there. It seems that it's not connected at all. It says, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Fellowship with God, think about that equation there. Fellowship with God, walking in the light, fellowship with one another, and then the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

Think about that and come to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, which is the passage that now we have there. Fellowship with God, fellowship with one another, and then the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Neglecting the gathering of the saints is a sinful behavior. It's a sinful behavior that demonstrates that we have broken relationship of fellowship with the Lord.

Now it says, now pay attention to the things that we have said. I want you to pay attention to verse 19. We're just going to read it to you, verse 25. But I want you to see, brethren, I want you to be with me and bear with me here and see how from verses 19, 20 and 21, The author is going to build the case, so the foundation, and then in verse 22, 23 and 24, he's going to call the Christians to do because of what he has said. Let us, let us, let us.

And those three statements in 22, 23 and 24 are contrasted with the opposite of it, which is 25, neglecting the gathering of the saints. This is what the author has there in mind. It says in the first three verses, this is the foundation, namely, that we can have fellowship with God because of Christ, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It says in verse 19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, That is, we're not entering a temple, we can enter the throne of grace by the blood of Jesus. That is fellowship with God, right?

That is fellowship with God that he speaks of in Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 4. It says, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh, and since We have a great priest over the house of God, sins, all of that, you see the sins in verse 19, sins because of all of those. Then it comes the instruction in verse 22, "...let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance and faith." He's saying, you already have access to God.

You already have access to the presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through the new covenant. As he says, sin will have no dominion over you. That is already a promise. But he says, let us draw near, in verse 22. Brethren, this is very powerful that he puts it in the context of the coming together of the Christians.

It's very powerful. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience of our bodies, washed with a pure water. First, let us just call that, draw near to God. Okay? Verse 21, let us draw near to God.

Second, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Let us hold fast our confession of our hope without wavering for he who promises faithful. So let us draw near to God with faith. Let us hold fast our confession and hope. And verse 24, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

I don't know about you, but this sounds to me as love that builds up. Right? Jesus and Paul, it says, let us consider to stir up one another to love and good works. And then the contrast of those three things is not neglecting the gathering of the meat together. This is of Christians as it is the habit of some.

Three important virtues. I don't know if you saw them there in 22, 23 and 24. The three virtues that Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and being the important virtues of the Christian life. One of them being the greatest. What is the greatest virtue of the Christian life, brethren?

Love. And then what are the other two virtues that Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians chapter 13? Faith. And then we have them here. Verse 22, drawing near by faith.

Pay attention to it. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Brethren, what he's saying there is very powerful. Because for a person to have fellowship with God, that person needs certainty that that person can have fellowship with God, full assurance, but very importantly, clear conscience.

Clear conscience. Because a conscience that is not clear, When you come to God, you say, Lord, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And there is a place for that fellowship with the Lord, right? Of course, there is a place for that fellowship when we come with a repentant heart. But here is that we can enter the throne of grace and I'm innocent, look at me, I'm innocent, I'm not guilty.

And it's not because of me, it's because the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has been sprinkled on me and I can enter into the presence of the King of Kings. Not only is He going to destroy me, but with full assurance. Brethren, if you remember what the sermons that we did in 2nd Peter chapter 1, if you remember that, let us just check that very quickly. I'm sorry that I'm taking you too many scriptures, but let us just quickly just check there. 2nd Peter chapter 1.

Do you know to which passage I'm taking you? 2nd Peter chapter 1. Yes, bro. 10 and 9. But more importantly, brethren, pay attention to this.

So what was the first virtue there in verse 22 in Hebrews chapter 10? Faith, right? Draw near to God with faith. Now pay attention to 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5. It says, for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with all of these virtues.

Remember all of these virtues that end in love? And then it says in verse 8, after all of those virtues, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love, all of those virtues, it says in verse 8, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Dirty conscience, in other words. The apostle is not saying that that person was not cleansed from the former sins.

The apostle is saying that that person has forgotten that he or she was cleansed from the former sins. Why? Because they have broken relationship with the Lord. They are not abiding in the presence of the Lord and that faith is not producing any fruits that take to love. And now that person is living in either with a burden of self condemnation, Satan and the flesh condemnation, not that the person is condemned if the person is in Christ, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but with a sense of condemnation, a lack of assurance, a lack of power and not coming to the Lord, even in the best case scenario.

The author of Hebrews says, he will return to Hebrews chapter 10, let us draw near with full assurance, brethren. Let us move quickly through this, because this is one of the main things that I wanted to share with you. So we have that faith that brings us close to the Lord, and that says... So that means, brethren, that the person who is neglecting the gathering of the saints, is not walking in this type of faith. He's not walking in the type of faith that draws them close to God with full assurance and that have their consciences clean.

No, no, no, no, no. That person has a broken relationship with the Lord. Not to give any specifics, but just to use the words of the Apostle Peter, forgotten that they had been cleansed. Verse 23, it says, "...let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."

Brethren, holding fast the confession without wavering. You know what is wavering? Deviating, right? without wavering, because brethren, not being in the presence of the Lord, you know what produces? Immaturity.

The only way that we can grow spiritually is in the presence of the Lord. It is not by having white hair or just by growing old that we are more mature. It is by abiding in the presence of the Lord. This is what it says in James, if you just turn a few pages. Pay attention to these strong words in James that combine being fixed upon the hope of our calling and faith, being fixed upon our faith and the hope.

It says in verse 2, let us just read from verse 2. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." The faithless person that is not able to approach the Lord to ask Him for wisdom, in this case, is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Brethren, this is a characteristic of spiritual immaturity. Being tossed, as Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 4, being tossed by every wind of doctrine from one place to another, was, James says here, like a wave of the sea.

Driven and tossed by the wind. This is a person that is not holding the hope. with a steadfastness, but is wavering from one place to another, and is taken from one place to another spiritually immature. And the reason of the spiritual immaturity is because that person has broken fellowship with the Lord. It's because that person is not walking in the light as he is in the light.

And because he's not walking in the light as he is in the light, the manifestation of it is neglecting the gathering of the saints. Lack of faith, Lack of hope or steadfastness in hope. And then when we come to 10, then we see they're the most important one. That it is now, that is a lack of love. Right?

Because verse 24 says, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Love and good works. And this love is the one that moves faith according to Galatians. If you go to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5, brethren.

This is a verse that we have mentioned many times, but please, now pay attention that I want to show you the three virtues, faith, hope and love, in the context of our working, in the context of our obedience. Because it's not only faith and love, the ones that make us obey, but pay attention to verse 5, in chapter 5 of Galatians. It says, for through the Spirit by faith, We ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. This is the hope to which we have been called. This is the hope of righteousness, the blessed hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 5, for through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. Why? For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. In other words, works of the flesh. but only faith that works through love.

That is what makes us wait eagerly for the blessed hope that we have as Christians, a faith that works through love. So, brethren, when we see someone among us who has neglected the gathering of the saints, we are seeing a sinful behavior. We're seeing a sinful behavior of a person who has broken fellowship with the Lord. faith, love and hope, broken because they're not abiding with the Lord, that is now manifested in the easily neglecting the gathering of the saints. And as I said to you, it has very serious consequences, because if we return to the passage there, at times, Of course, Hebrews 10 is a conclusion of the previous chapter that is moving to the new topic of faith.

That is true. But we cannot deny that verse 25 and 26 are connected, right? How do we disconnect those two verses? And how do we disconnect the fact that they even start with 4? It would be very difficult for us to say that the author, when he's thinking about verse 26, is not thinking about what he has just said in 25.

It would be very difficult for us to say, it is more cautious to believe that there is a connection between the warning and what he has just said. Because he says, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing. 4. If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a duty of fire that will consume the adversaries. 5.

For if we go on sinning willfully, deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Now, here the problem is not with attending or not attending church, brethren. The problem is with a sinful habit. A sinful habit that now the person is aware, the Holy Spirit is bringing the conviction that they should be in the context of the church, that they should be with the brethren, that the Spirit is bringing that conviction, and now they go against that conviction of the Spirit, In the worst case scenario, as I said, this is a backslidden brother or sister who is walking in darkness. In other words, in the worst case scenario, it would just simply be the apostates, or just simply those who are not in Christ, that will be later described here from verse 26 onwards.

So brethren, as I said to you, when it comes to neglecting the gathering of the saints, there's two extremes. The extreme in which a person does not come to church and they say they're neglecting the gathering of the saints. Or that the church was not able to meet together for a particular circumstance and that church is neglecting the gathering of the saints. They should come, they should come together. You know, they should interpret Romans 13 properly.

They should go against the government and they should be together. And of course we need to meet together. But the important thing is not coming together just for the sake of meeting together. The important thing is that we come to build one another up. And that we have not in the heart the habit of neglecting the gathering of the saints.

Because the other extreme of it is just brethren that just simply take the coming together of the saints lightly. And the coming together of the saints brethren is as we are here. in the flesh, is in the flesh, physical. This is the coming together, the gathering of the saints. Providentially, we have means through which people can hear, but they are not here.

It is those who are gathered together. We have the means that providentially we have the opportunity just to... when providential situations do not allow the brethren to be with us, that they can hear. But the coming together of the saints is to build one another up, to exhort one another up, to speak to one another, to have fellowship, to break the bread with our hands, to take the wine in our hands and to be gathered together. Church does not exist online.

Church is done with the coming together of the saints, brethren. It is done with the coming together of the saints. And let me just simply, perhaps, just finalize. I'm not going to finish with this. But let us just go to Hebrews chapter 3 and pay attention to the exhortation in Hebrews chapter 3.

It says, take care, brothers, Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving, lack of faith heart. leading you to depart, fall away from the living God, having fellowship with God. Faithless, evil heart, not fellowship with God. But now it says, but, he says, he does not give a spiritual solution.

The but is, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you might be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Brethren, our battle against sin cannot be done individually. It is supposed to happen in the context of the church. Exhort one another that we will not be deceived by sin that is in our hearts. The coming together of the saints is for the building up of the saints.

As I said, if the love of Christ is in the heart of a person, now that person is a builder. A builder, not of self only, but a builder of the church. And the way that the church is built up is through the practical manifestation of the coming together of the saints. When two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, there the Lord Jesus Christ is. Yes, that is in the context of church discipline, but it says that when two or three are gathered together, that the Lord Jesus Christ is there.

That when the saints come together, the presence of the Spirit is there. the breaking of the bread, and the taking of the wine, and the preaching of the word, the fellowship of the saints, this is essential for the spiritual maturity of the saints. And if there is anyone among us, or that is hearing within the sound of my voice, that is in this sinful behavior of neglecting the gathering of the saints, that demonstrates a breaking of fellowship with the Lord, then we need, and I call them to repent. Because as we said there in chapter 10, all of that is with the assurance that we have access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ already. So if a person is a genuine believer, is walking in darkness and is now manifesting these fruits of sinful behavior, neglecting the gathering of the saints, the only call is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He has already paid the price of even that sin.

and He can cleanse you from all of that. I don't like to use that word because many Christians name churches that way and use it very improperly, but there's a new beginning, right? You are forgiven and then you are forgiven, your sins are cleansed and you have to move on because the sins are covered and are forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ. You start, you can move on with your conscience clean. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse every single one of our sins.

So, if there is anyone among us who is with the habit of some in neglecting the gathering of the saints, the call is not, come to church on Sunday or come to the Bible study, don't do it in the flesh, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse your conscience, empower your heart and give you the genuine desire to be in the context of the local church and Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. will never be the light and soul that we ought to be to the Gold Coast, if each one of the saints are not walking in the light. Because if you walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. Amen.