Christ's Cure for Lukewarmness - Brandon Scalf

The Danger of Spiritual Inactivity and Sins of Omission

Every year, some 2 ,000 people die from a medical condition called DVT. DVT stands for deep vein, and I think I'm saying this right, thrombosis. Thrombosis. Deep vein thrombosis. Now, what that medical condition is, is it is a blood clot that begins in your leg.

But over time, it travels up into your body, and the fear is that it would wind up in your heart and cause a heart attack, or it would wind up in your brain and cause a stroke. And this particular medical condition that kills so many people every year is so tragic, not just because it kills individuals, but because all you have to do to die from this particular medical condition is nothing.

And what I mean by that is, this medical condition is not caused by eating too much, drinking too much, eating the wrong things, drinking the wrong things. It's not caused by doing anything dangerous with your body.

No irresponsible behavior to speak of is found when they are looking at how this particular medical condition came about. No, the only way that this thing gets you is you literally being inactive, not doing anything.

Lounging around the house, not doing any sort of physical activity. Sins are much like this. There are sins of omission and sins of commission. Sins of commission are those sins which we outright do against the will of God.

We look at the Scriptures, it says, thou shall not do this, and we say, we will go ahead. Despite the fact that the Word of God says that, we're going to let our affections govern us, our disordered affections, and engage in said sin.

But the sins of omission are those sins where we neglect to do the right thing. Now, of course, when we blatantly do those things that God forgives, forbids, that is, the sins of commission, we expect that there might be serious consequences to that.

But because sins of omissions are subtle, that is, we're just not doing the right thing, we tend to think of them as benign. Nevertheless, sometimes it's the person who lays around and does nothing, or neglects to do the right thing, who faces the gravest danger.

You see, when we look at today's passage, we're actually looking at, even though it doesn't seem like it, a warning passage to those of us who call ourselves Christian, God's people. And it's a warning passage that is going to warn us not to neglect certain things.

Not to neglect trusting in a beautiful confession of faith, not neglecting to stimulate one another to love and good works, and most importantly, not forsaking assembling with the saints and encouraging them.

See, as a pastor, as a Christian, I have seen many people walk away from the faith. People who once stood in pulpits are now married, quote-unquote, to men. People who have walked away from their loving marriages.

People who are now engaged in all sorts of debaucherous behavior and reject the God of the Bible. And the reality is, those people, not one of them, decided overnight that they weren't going to be Christian anymore.

They didn't walk from the pew to the brothel, so to speak. It was a slow, habitual thing that began with not being engaged in the Word, not loving the truth, and then forsaking God's people and His church until eventually the reality that they never truly were saved was put on full display.

In other words, they found themselves not to be Christian because of their continued lukewarmness that ended itself in potential apostasy. But there is a way to guard against lukewarmness, and there is a way to guard, as it were, against apostasy.

And that is to start with the end in mind, and to start with what God has for us here and now. But first, we have to understand that we are weak and we are needy, and we need to hear from God. If we are to guard against such things, and if you think, well, I came on the wrong Sunday because I'm immune, that's the wrong heart posture, friends.

That's the wrong heart posture. So if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy, infallible, and all-sufficient Word. As I said, I will begin in verse 19. This is the Word of God.

Holding Fast to the Confession of Hope

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and 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 own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Amen? Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. As I said, this passage of Scripture is going to help us guard against lukewarmness and apostasy by showing us how we ought to live now in light of the end.

The first thing that I want you to note as we look at this passage by way of how to guard against lukewarmness is to hold fast to the truth. If we want to, in other words, guard ourselves against lukewarmness, we must hold fast to the truth.

Look with me at verse 23. It says, Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope, comma, without wavering. Now, of course, we are beginning this sermon kind of in the middle of an argument, not kind of, where I've already spent 10 chapters deep into this book, and of course we are in the middle of a clause that begins with therefore.

So it's a continuation of the argument that's been building, and the argument that's been building is essentially this. Jesus is better than Judaism. It's better than everything that you think if you lived in this time period and are either falling prey to falling back into Judaism or coming from Judaism.

That is, those who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus is the better prophet. Jesus is the better Moses. Jesus is the better priest. Jesus is the better Melchizedek. So on and so forth. Jesus is God, and Jesus is worth living and dying for, and we're kind of in the middle of this argument here that Jesus has not only come as the better priest and prophet and so on, but that he has essentially dismantled the entire sacrificial system.

He is now that sacrifice who has come to do away with the ceremonial sacrifices of the Old Testament because his blood was better than the blood of bulls and goats. Namely, that it is one sacrifice that is good for all who would trust in him for all time.

And it's because of that that Christians can come to God's place of worship, into the holy of holies, the holy places, because he has cleansed his people of their sin and their evil consciences. And so in other words, what has been happening here is Paul has been telling the Hebrews that they need to believe some stuff about Jesus.

And now he's here to say, I want you to do some stuff in light of that stuff that you believe. And Paul's argumentation here, if it's Paul who wrote it, which we don't know, some people say it's Barnabas, some people say it's Luke, some people say all kinds of crazy things.

I personally think it is written by Luke, but it was a sermon preached by Paul. You don't have to have that opinion, but that is an opinion that has historical and I believe biblical validity. But it has been argued about for a very long time.

But regardless, the author here is trying to get the Hebrews to live in light of the doctrine that has been laid out. And he does this repeatedly, not only in this book, but if we assume it's a sermon of Paul in other books.

The doctrine always influences our duty. If we are just doing for the sake of doing, it's just behavior modification and any religion can help you do that. But if Jesus is really Jesus, then that changes the way that we think about everything that we do.

It changes the way that we think about life. It changes, and hear me on this, in light of this sermon, it changes our priorities. It changes how we do life. Where we go, how long we're there, and so on.

Who we engage with and how we engage with them. And so he begins in verse 23 with this imperative. Let us hold fast. Now, of course, this seems soft because he says, let us, and he doesn't say, hey, you listen up.

So sometimes we can think maybe he's not actually giving us an imperative. No, this is certainly an imperative. This is clear in the Greek, but it's also clear in the English. He's just including himself in this command.

Let us.

If these things are true, we must do these things. Let us hold fast. In other words, let us cling to this confession of our hope, he's going to say. Let us grab hold of it. Let us wrap our arms around it.

Let us just continually be absorbed in it, promote it, and love it. Let it be the chain, as it were, around our necks. Let us hold fast. Let us continue to believe the confession of our hope. Now, at this juncture, we must pause.

And we must pause to ask the question, what does it mean that we must hold fast or grab hold of or cling to the confession of our hope? Is it talking about the 1689 confession? Of course it's not because it didn't exist.

And by the way, I am aware of the textual variant that exists here. In the King James and the other translations that favor that manuscript family, it says confession of our faith. But I don't have time to get into why in which this translation has chosen to use hope.

But I do believe that hope is the correct word being utilized here. So it says, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope. Now, this is not the first time in the book of Hebrews, nor is it the only place in the New Testament that speaks about a confession.

For instance, in Hebrews chapter 414, the author of Hebrews says,. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession.

So what is this confession? Well, we know according to this, because of its modifier, that it's a confession of hope. But what is the confession? Well, the confession is the truth that has been laid out for the people of God about the person of Jesus Christ and the work that he has accomplished on their behalf.

It is the stewardship that is being passed down from the apostles to God's people. Now, I know that as soon as we start talking about this, there are countless liberal scholars and Christians alike who essentially would scoff at the idea that there is actually truth out there in the world.

Evangelical Christianity in today's affluent Western culture is noteworthy for its cavalier treatment of truth. We will readily trade our doctrines in order to get along with others to create more impressive sense of unity.

But the reality is, truth is objective, it is real, and it is there. It is not left, in other words, up to interpretation. The Bible has an aim, and that aim is to promote truth. Truth namely about Jesus Christ, but many other things too.

And all that the Bible says, it is completely true and trustworthy. That's why we believe that the Bible is not only inerrant, but that it is infallible and that it is sufficient. In all that it contains, it is completely and utterly true.

If you remember, children, I have often said, if we come to the Bible and we feel like something's not true, we need to assume what? That the problem is not the Bible, but us. And so we must hold fast to this confession.

Now, it's becoming increasingly true and increasingly clear that we need to hold fast to this truth. But it was exceptionally clear and explicitly clear to the Hebrews that they needed to. The Hebrews, who the author was writing to, they were struggling.

They were struggling because they were stuck between two worlds. The temple was still standing, they were still offering sacrifices, but Jesus had come. And he had come, as the text says here, as the veil and the flesh to take away the sins of the many.

And so there were many people who were trying to take the sacrificial of Judaism and kind of merge it into Christianity. Or they had family members that rejected the Messiah and were trying to say, hey, Jesus is gone, come on back.

Or Jesus is never coming back, come on back, come back home to Judaism. And so the author of Hebrews here is saying, in light of that reality, friends, hold fast to what you have already been told is true.

And the same is true of you, Heritage. The world is going to pressure you, not necessarily to reject the Messiah in favor of Judaism. But in light of their religion, and make no mistake about it, everybody is religious.

And everybody is trying to make you a proselyte of their religion, whether it's true or not. Whether it's man-made or not. And Paul's admonition, once again, if you think it's written by Paul, is to continue to cling to the truth and do it without wavering.

Do it without compromise. Do it even when it costs you something. Friends, truth is truth, no matter if someone thinks it's true or not. That means there is a right answer and a wrong answer. Now, I can be wrong about that or you can be wrong about that, but it's there.

And the Bible is clear about what is true regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is what the Reformers and the Puritans used to call the perspicuity or the clarity of Scripture. And so the things that we confess are true.

And this is all that 1689 is, friends. And I bring this up only because, one, I'm going to bring up particular parts of it later. But then secondly, because you know that we're a confessional church. That we hold to the 1689 confession.

All the 1689 confession is, is a confession of beliefs about what is confessed to be true in the Bible. And so we don't hold the confession as another Bible, but as guardrails that help us understand what the Bible teaches.

And we just happen to believe that people who lived long ago, who were dead, who are dead and now buried, happen to know some things about some stuff, namely the Bible. That they thought about it long and hard and they were not distracted by their phones and their internet.

And that they mined the Scripture for the gold that's found in it. And they wrote it down and we read it and we bask in the treasure that is the confession. But we are concerned about the truth. The confession is concerned about the truth.

And we must hold on to it without wavering, without compromise, regardless of what will happen. And friends, things might happen. But there is no doubt that in the future years to come, that it will be costly to be a Christian.

In some circles it already is. And the question is, what will you do on that day? Will you hold fast to the confession of your faith? One that is filled with hope, right? Or will you shrink back in fear?

Which is precisely what the author of Hebrews is trying to get the Hebrews not to do. Which is why in Hebrews 3 .6 the author says,. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

And in Hebrews 3 .14, just a little further, he says,. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast to the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. To be Christian means to hold fast. It doesn't mean to be wishy-washy.

It doesn't mean to think something is important one day and then turn around and say that it's not all that important another day. It means to continually be grounded in the truth. Is that not what the church is for?

Right?

Paul says that the church is the pillar and the buttress of truth. This place does not exist apart from the truth. Therefore we must, in fact, hold to it without wavering. So if we are to protect ourselves against lukewarmness and apostasy, we must hold fast to the truth.

And lest we think that maybe that's the wrong thing to do, is to trust in that truth that is based in the hope of our sins being forgiven and ultimately the resurrection of Christ in our own bodies. Verse 23 ends by saying, For he who promised is faithful.

Now, we could be wishy-washy. We could maybe distrust this truth if we had a God who wasn't all that faithful. But we have a God who is completely and utterly faithful. We have a God who is completely for us.

And we have a God who cannot and will not tell us a lie. He who promised is faithful. So how do we persevere? How do we persevere in the Christian lives, in our pilgrimage along the way? We hold fast to the truth that is grounded in hope and a God who has promised to sustain us and to persevere us.

Children, would you look at me for just a second? As you grow older, there are going to be tons of things that you want to do. Tons of things that are going to beg you, essentially, to take them more seriously than you take God's truth.

Take more seriously than the Bible. But I want to tell you today, in case you haven't heard it before, which I'm sure you have. But there's nothing more important in this life than the Word of God. There's nothing more important than believing what's in the pages of the Word of God.

Because in it, God tells you what he wants to know about his Son and salvation, and he is trustworthy. And no matter what the world tells you, if the world tells you that God is not real, if they tell you that God is a liar, that God is evil, know that this Word, this God-breathed Word says that he is good, that he is faithful, he is loving, and he is trustworthy.

So give your time and your task to knowing the God of the Word, in the Word of God. God is faithful. God is faithful. And we have seen this in the book of Hebrews, if we look around. We can look at his promises that he has given, that he has made evident in the New Testament church.

Namely, that he has written the law on our hearts, Hebrews 10 .16. That he has promised to work in us, and most certainly he does, in Hebrews 13 .22. He promises to remember our sins no more, according to the gospel, in Hebrews 10 .17.

That he would never leave us or forsake us, in Hebrews 13 .5. That Jesus was made the single sacrifice for all time, in Hebrews 10 .14. Friends, the reality is true faith perseveres through trials and temptations, relying on God's faithfulness to his promises, because he is faithful.

When we rely on the one who is faithful, we can guard ourselves against lukewarmness, apostasy, and can persevere in the Christian life. And now that we have seen the first thing, I want you to now see the second, which is to consider the brethren.

Or consider the brothers, if you need a more up-to-date translation. Consider the brethren. He goes on in verse 24 and says,. And let us, another imperative command, consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Considering One Another to Stir Up Love and Good Deeds

So once again, we have the first thing, hold fast to the confession of hope. Second, consider one another. These are the two things that you, at this point, must do if you want to guard yourself from lukewarmness and apostasy.

Now this is an interesting phrase here, and it's even more interesting in the Greek, but we'll get to that in a second. But he goes on to say that we must consider how to stimulate one another. This word, consider, is somewhat of an obscure word, but it's used one other time in the book of Hebrews.

It is used in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1, when the author of Hebrews tells the people of God this, Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus.

So the people of God are to consider, they are to meditate on, they are to completely be enthralled by Jesus. And now the same word is employed to say, consider the brethren. Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.

Now you might be saying, why do I say consider the brethren instead of saying how to consider, how to stimulate? Is that not what the text is saying? Yeah, kind of. Some translations render it somewhat differently.

But one of the interesting things about this is that in the Greek it's front-loaded with one another. It says in the Greek more rendering, but you can't really carry it over in the English very well.

Consider one another to the end that those brothers, right? Consider one another to the end that they get provoked. That's going to be my translation, but we'll get that in a minute. To love and good deeds.

So you're not considering just how to stimulate. You're considering one another to the end that you can stimulate them to good works. So what does it mean to consider? Well, we saw in Jesus' case it means to meditate, to understand.

But one commentator that I read said that the way to best understand this is to consider or to study people. To study one another. To know so much about the other person that you can actually stimulate them or spur them on or provoke them to good works.

Here's what this means. You've got to know the people around you. Like not just their names, not just what part of town they live in. Not just when they're going to have their baby. Not just when their birthdays are.

Not just when their kids' birthdays are. But you've got to know them. How can you consider one another enough to be able to help one another with that stuff that they have? What do I mean by this? Well, this word stimulate or stir up in some translations is quite honestly too weak of a word to use.

I wish they wouldn't have used this word. The reason I don't like that they use this word, though I understand why they did, is because it's just too tame for the meaning that the Greek word symbolizes.

For instance, it's used two times at least in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it refers to, if you're looking at the Septuagint, an intense emotion and it's often of a negative kind.

Such as anger. You can look, for instance, in Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 28. But one of the most famous places it is used in the New Testament is there's a strong disagreement about the ways in which Paul and Barnabas want to do ministry.

They get into a heated argument. In Acts chapter 15 verse 39. And it says this, and there was such a sharp disagreement. And that word that they translate from this word is sharp. And there was such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another.

And Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. So maybe a better way to translate this word stimulate would be provoke or agitate. To provoke or agitate. So what we need to do is not only hold to a confession of faith, but know and love our brothers and sisters in the church so well that we can provoke them or lovingly agitate them toward what?

Love and good deeds. And that means what? That you have to know who they are. You have to know what they struggle with. You have to know what makes them happy, what makes them sad. You have to know what makes them tick.

You have to know them like their family because guess what?

They are. They are.

They're your family by virtue of Jesus' blood and you being a child of God. You have to know them. You have to know them. Because it is your job as a Christian to provoke them to godliness. And that's all that it's really saying here.

To love and good deeds. A Puritan I was reading says it like this. Now I know that was a really wordy way to basically just say this. That it is your job as a church member, as a Christian who should be a church member, to awaken, invigorate, and advance the cause of Christ in the lives of the people around you.

It's a tall order. But that's your job. Because there are areas of each of our lives that are dormant, idle, or decaying.

Why?

Because the Christian life is one of movement. You are either moving forward in Christ-likeness and Christ-conformity or you are moving away from it. There is no middle ground. And we need one another to see.

Why?

Because we're blind.

Right?

I try hard to repent of my sin and to trust on the Lord Jesus Christ every single day. But I am not the best judge of myself. You are not the best judge of you. Most of us have really inflated egos. And we think that we are really awesome and that the world revolves around us.

But the reality is, and what this text is teaching is, we need one another and God's grace to be other people focused and we generally do not like that. We don't. But we have to if we want to guard against lukewarmness and apostasy.

Because the quickest way to run from Christ is to run away from his people. To not be engaged with his people. So we must. And we must do it lovingly and winsomely but provokingly and agitatingly. And we must do it with our words and with our life knowing the people whom we live in front of and speak to.

Let me ask you this question. Does your life or the way you handle yourself provoke others to take God seriously? To take his word seriously? To take the confession of our hope seriously? Are other people looking at you and saying, what's going on with that guy?

What's going on with that woman? What's going on with that family? Which you shouldn't be thinking that way but hypothetically speaking they are. Or are they thinking, how do I love Jesus like he loves Jesus or she loves Jesus?

How can I see things in my life the way that they see things in my life? How can I be that loving? How can I be that truthful? How can I be that studied? Because that is what God is calling us to be. We are to consider, to know others very well in order to stimulate or to provoke each other to love and good works.

Firstly, love to God. And by the way, this little phrase here, love and good works, is essentially a summary of the Ten Commandments. We are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And as Paul has said in the New Testament, and when answering the question, how do you fulfill the law? He does it by saying, love. If you've loved, you've fulfilled the law, you've done good deeds.

So love to God, love to other, love to others. That is what we are about. After all, in John 13, 34, Jesus says, First John 13, 34, sorry, John 13, 34, says this, A new commandment I give to you, Jesus says, that you love one another.

Even as I loved you, that you also love one another. Now, of course, it has always been the truth of the Bible that we are to love God's people. But Jesus gives a new commandment that you are to love people like I love people.

And how did Jesus love people? He died for them. He died for them. Are you dying for the people that bear the name of Christ? If you won't do it figuratively or metaphorically, you're not going to do it if it's called upon you later in history, actually.

And friends, this loving one another because of God's love is the work of our lives. This is why Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 12, 15,. So I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

He says he would gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. I can't love them in this capacity because it will take too much of my time, too much of my effort, too much of my money. There's no argument in the Bible for a love that gets in the way.

We should be gladly spending all that we are. Which is why he says again in 1 Thessalonians 2, 8,. In this way, having fond affection for you, loving you in other words, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel, truth, which is of first importance, but also our own lives.

Friends, we are to love one another in the church in such a way that we give them not just time, energy, money, frozen meals, but our very lives.

Our very lives.

But lest we think that Christianity is all about fuzzy feelings, and by the way, I don't think I've given that impression. Or that it's an emotion. Well, I need to feel that way. No, it's also manifest itself in good works.

That is actions, words, or thoughts that align with God's law and his teachings. So we need to study people, as John Piper says, so that we might provoke one another to love and good works, to godliness.

Now, what that doesn't mean is that we went around being little legalistic busybodies, tallying up everybody's sins, right? Oh, he didn't do a good work there. He didn't do what I think he should have there.

He was really acting ungodly in that area. Well, let me tell you, no, that's not what it means. It's not an invitation for us to be judgmental, making the lives of others a burden. But it does mandate that we take seriously a very self-sacrificing interest in the affairs of other believers, especially those in our midst.

We are to study, another commentator says, and implement schemes that motivate one another in godly living. Not so that we would be loved more by God, but because God loves us and has given us the gift of his Son, who has caused there to be no condemnation for those who are in him, and now we can now begin to live free, walk in a newness of life.

In other words, you get in each other's business. You have to know, and you have to know each other to get in each other's business. And I want to ask you this question before moving on. How are you doing in that department?

In many ways, this is the job description of the Christian. Are you taking your job seriously? Do you do this for others? Do you get so involved in their lives that you can actually help them walk in a more godly manner?

Well, some of you are ready to say amen to that, and that's good. But let me challenge you further and ask this question. How many of you are allowing others to do that to or for you? We're a lot better at the pointing and a lot less good at the receiving end of it.

See, Christians are givers and receivers. They give counsel, they receive counsel. They give love, they receive love. And we need to be both givers and receivers. We need to understand that there is a mutual responsibility.

And if you will not be a part of this, I think it might reveal, and this is going to hurt some of you, that you actually are more consumeristic in nature than you think that you are. You might be more individualistic than you think you are.

And you're giving yourself over to isolationism, which is why you won't become members of a church. Because you want to get, but you do not want to give. Well, the church is not doing such and such and such or this, that, and the other.

Okay, how are you helping in a godly way to spur other people to godliness? How are you help filling that gap that you see? By the way, this should awaken us all to the very real reality that if church is to be this way, one that promotes the truth and enables or commands one another to be so involved in each other's lives that we can carry each other's burdens and we can get in each other's business and spur one another to godliness, that the Internet church, as awesome as online sermons are, just will not do.

Sitting at home and listening to the live stream simply will not do. You've got to be here, and you've got to be here every time the door opens, because why? You can't get to know people when you see them one hour a week.

But lucky for you, Heritage has four opportunities a week for you to get to know your brothers and your sisters. Two services or gatherings for Corey on Sundays. What else? What else do we have? We've got, on Wednesdays, Fellowship Group.

We've got, every other Monday, Shepherds Institute.

That's at least four.

But there are many other opportunities that pop up during the week. Just a few brothers and sisters the other day helped a brother in our church move, and we've done that before, or helped build something.