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I want to welcome you to take out your Bible and turn with me to the book of Hebrews. And this morning we're going to be looking at verse 6. Have you ever heard somebody say, boy, I just couldn't live without this, or man, I couldn't live, I couldn't survive without that, whatever it may be.
And oftentimes those things that we say that about are fairly superficial in nature. One person I know says, well, I just couldn't survive without chocolate. Another person says, well, I just can't live without my coffee.
I'm touching on some nerves on that one, I think. And children often say, well, I don't know how anyone ever lived without cable television, or cellular phones, or video games, Internet. How did you live before MapQuest?
You know, how did you get anywhere before GPS systems? But when we really distill it down, most of the things that we say we couldn't live without are really just things that we enjoy living with. And we like to have them.
But they're really not essential to life's continuation. They're just niceties. This morning, however, we are going to talk about some things that we cannot live without. And I want to make a point, and I'm sure it's this way in the worship folder.
I'm not sure if it's this way, or it is this way on the screen as well. But you'll notice I put the word live in quotation marks. Because I want you to understand that what I'm talking about this morning, when I say that there are four things you cannot live without, I'm talking about eternal life.
I'm talking about real living. I'm talking about the type of living that not only is God honoring and God glorifying, but it also has its end with eternity in the presence of God. That is real living.
And there are four things that you cannot live, and we say live eternally, without. And so this morning, we are going to examine those four things. And we're going to see what they are beginning again.
We're going to... I'm going to ask you to stand, because we read the word of God standing. We read the word of God on our feet, because we give it its due honor and reverence in our lives. We're going to read just verse 6.
Now, you know we've been doing a verse-by-verse study of the book of Hebrews. And part of chapter 11 is we've been doing character studies. We've been looking at the characters that are mentioned in chapter 11 and doing studies in the Old Testament.
But today is different, because today we're just going to look at verse 6 by itself, and we're going to seek to understand its meaning. Hebrews 11, verse 6 says,. And without faith, it is impossible to please him.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Our Father and our God, as we examine the text of Scripture this morning, I pray that you would first and foremost keep me from error, as I am a fallible man and capable of teaching error.
And I pray, O God, that you would also open the hearts of the congregation to hear your word and understand your word. And I pray that as we study the word together this morning and we look at the various texts on this issue, that you would give us confidence in the truth, that not only what we're hearing is the truth, but Lord God, to take that truth and to live confidently in it.
We pray this, O God, and for your mercy, as we worship together by studying your word in Jesus' name. Amen. The word without is translated 315 times in the English Standard Bible, which is the Bible that I'm preaching out of this morning.
It's the one that's in the pews or in the seats. I guess we don't have pews. So the word without is 315 times in the Bible. It's a very common word. It shows up in both the Old and the New Testaments, and it simply means to be apart from something.
The root of the word in the Greek language means an expanse or a space. It's often used to describe a coast or a field. We use it in the English language a lot. As I noted earlier, we often talk about things we can't live without.
We talk about things, that means things that we couldn't live apart from. If we didn't have them, we couldn't live without them. Well, in examining this word, I found that the writer of Hebrews uses it often.
In fact, he uses it 12 times in his letter. And four of those times he uses the word to express something that a genuine Christian cannot truly live apart from. A genuine Christian cannot truly live without four specific things.
And we got to Hebrews 11, 6. And I saw this word without and it was so it was so pronounced. It says, and without faith, it is impossible to please God. And I saw that word without it really stuck out to me.
And I've been waiting for this for this verse for us to get here so that I could talk about this word without. And then I could talk about the four verses in Hebrews that deal with this word without. And the four things we can't live without, if you're writing notes and you want to make little headings for your notes, I'll go ahead and give them to you now so that you don't lose them later when we're making our interpretation.
The first one, we cannot live without the shedding of blood. And the verse in question there will be Hebrews 9, 22. We cannot live without faith. And that is Hebrews 11, 6, our verse for the morning. We cannot live without discipline.
And I'll explain it when we get there. But that is Hebrews 12, 8. Finally, we cannot live without holiness. That is Hebrews 12 and 14. So those are the four that we're going to look at this morning and we're going to do it hopefully in the time allotted.
I don't want this to turn into a two or three part message, as many of mine often do. I don't want this to become that because next week is Resurrection Sunday. And, of course, we're going to have the focus of the theme of the service next week.
So I won't be able to just simply tie this in the next week. So let's look at these four things together now. The first one, I said, we cannot live without the shedding of blood. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews 9, verse 22.
It was our opening passage for the morning. Hebrews 9, 22 says this. I'll wait while I hear Bible pages turning and I want to make sure that you're there before I begin reading because I want you to read with me.
Hebrews 9, 22 says, Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without, there's the key word, that's the word that ties all of these passages together, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
One of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith is the concept called substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement means that a substitute dies in the place of one who deserves death so that that person who deserves death might be freed from their penalty.
That's a basic definition of substitutionary atonement. I deserve to die for my sins. The wages of sin is death, the Bible says, and I am a sinner and you are a sinner. And as such, we have earned only one thing from God.
We have earned punishment. We have earned death. We have earned the right to go to hell. That is exactly what we have earned from God. The wages of sin, I'm a sinner, what I'm owed, wages what you're owed.
If you work all week and you get a paycheck at the end of the week, that's what you're owed for working. And the wages for my sin is death. We understand that. However, Christ, by his own will, chose to take my sin upon himself.
The father chose to send his son and his son went willingly. That's my point. The son came willingly. It's not as if God struck the son and the son was unwilling to be struck. The son was willing. He came willingly to be struck for my sin, willingly to be crucified for my sin, willing to take upon himself my sin and take my punishment.
That I could be made right with God. This is why Jesus is called a mediator between God and man. Because I cannot go to God on my own, I cannot climb up to God's righteousness, there's no way. This is why the passage says, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.
Without the shedding of Christ's blood, without Christ taking the punishment of God on himself, I would not have any ground for the forgiveness of sins. I would not have any ground to say I'm right with God apart from Jesus Christ.
Man centered religious systems reject the notion of atonement and instead replace it with a merit based system. They almost always say that our good works somehow, someway will outweigh our bad works.
And that's how we're going to get to heaven. That's how we're going to be made right with God. However, I want you to consider an analogy. Imagine a criminal. Let's say the worst crime probably any of us would be able to imagine.
How about a child abuser? You know, child abusers are ones that even in jail, even the other jail inmates don't like them because it's such an atrocious crime. And imagine a child abuser is brought before a judge and the judge says to the child abuser, well, I know you did it.
It's clear you did it. And all the evidence points to the fact that you did it. You even admit to it. But I also know that you were active in your church, that you gave money to the poor, that you worked with the Boy Scouts, that you that you went and worked at the homeless shelter and that you did all these good things.
And because your level of goodness outweighs this badness, I'm going to set you free. How long would it take for that judge to get disbarred? Not long at all, he would be booted from the bench as soon as the gavel hit the wood, because that's not how justice works.
Justice does not work on the basis of your goodness outweighing your badness. Justice works on this basis. If you do bad, you deserve to be punished. That's how our justice system works. That's how the justice system of God works.
The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. How is the gift of God through Jesus Christ? Because by dying on the cross, Christ took the punishment that was deserved by us sinners.
Upon himself, God's wrath was propitiated. That big word simply means it was satisfied by the work of Christ. So without that shedding of blood, I would have no right to stand before God. But with that shedding of blood, I have forgiveness of sins.
That is why the first point is you cannot live without Christ's blood. You cannot live without shedding of blood. I don't care what religious system says otherwise. I'm not here to impress Muhammadites or people who follow John Smith or any of these other people.
I'm not here to impress them. I'm not here to try to find a mutual ground with people. I'm here to say the truth of the matter is Jesus Christ alone saves. And there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we will be saved other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no forgiveness of sins. Without Jesus Christ, let's look on to number two, we cannot live without faith. I said John Smith a minute ago and I met Joseph Smith, the Mormon leader. Please forgive me.
I just caught my mind. All right. We cannot live without faith. Look at chapter 11, verse 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
One of the most fascinating things that I hear people say, and it's not fascinating because it's good. It's fascinating because it's sad. But one of the most fascinating things that I hear people say is this.
Well, I know that Mr. and we'll just use a generic name. I know Mr. Smith is not a believer. I know Mr. Smith is not a Christian, but hey, Mr. Smith is a good person. Now, if by that you mean that Mr. Smith lives a basically moral life, that he seems to do equity equitably in his work, that he pays his taxes right and he doesn't drive too fast or doesn't forget to wear a seatbelt.
If that's what you mean by saying Mr. Smith is a good person, well, then most of us agree that that's probably the case. However, if what you mean is that Mr. Smith is pleasing to God. Then you're dead wrong, because the Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God.
It's not hard to understand. Mr. Smith cannot please God if Mr. Smith does not have faith. This passage is undeniably clear without faith, it is impossible. The word impossible means in the Greek impossible.
OK, just to make sure we understand, it's one of those things is not real hard to understand. It means it can't be done. It's not possible. I said something one night and I got I got some cold looks because I don't think people understood what I was saying.
But I want you to hear this because this is hard to hear. But I said something one night. I said, did you know that everything a believer does? I'm sorry. Refresh. Everything an unbeliever does is sin.
That sounds hard to understand. Wait a minute. You mean even when they do good things, that it is sin? The Bible says for whatsoever does not proceed from faith is sin. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
If you're not pleasing God, what are you doing? You're sinning. And the unbeliever who rejects God, his son. Sorry, rejects God and his son cannot do anything at all to please God. Thus, everything they do is sin.
This is hard to hear, but it is nonetheless true. The Bible declares that there is none good. No, not one. Jesus himself declared there is no one good save God alone. And that is the state of man prior to faith.
There is no way to have goodness and to reject faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've heard it said, I believe even religious leaders have said. Well, the good Muslims and the good Hindus and the good Taoists, they're all going to go to heaven.
But I challenge you to find a good Muslim, a good Mormon, a good Taoist, a good anybody, because it is impossible to please God. Apart from faith in his son, Jesus Christ. Number three, we've seen so far we cannot live without the shedding of blood.
We've seen so far we cannot live without faith in Christ. And by live, I mean live eternally. We cannot we cannot say we have eternal life. Without these things, and the third one is is is more peculiar, probably I'm not sure how many of you have actually looked at this passage very, very much, but in Hebrews chapter 12, verse eight.
Number three is we can't live without discipline. Now, what I mean by discipline, I want you to hear this because Hebrews 12, eight is is so important. It says, if you are left without discipline in which all have participated, and that phrase all there means all believers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
The King James Bible actually uses a word that we don't use often in our modern dialect. Some people consider it a cuss word, but it's the word bastard. It simply means an illegitimate child, and it says, if you are without discipline of which all have participated, then you are not a child of God.
That's what a dynamic equivalent would be. And it might surprise some of you that I included this on the list of things that you can't live without. But I but I think this passage is important because the word here illegitimate, it says something about who we are.
I've heard people say we're all sons of God, we're all children of God. The Bible says we are born into God's family, born again into God's family. We are born sinful, wretched people. But when God, the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart, we are born again into the family of God.
Jesus came into his own and his own received him not, but to as many as did receive him to them, he gave the power to become children of God. Why would we have to become children of God if we already were?
It doesn't make sense, and that's because it's not true. People who say we're already children of God just by birth, that's not true. You have to be born into God's family. And when you are born into God's family, you become a child of God.
And you are now subject to the discipline of God. And sometimes it ain't fun. Now, there's some debate about how God's discipline of believers operates and how it works and some of the nuances. I want to say this because I'm preaching verse by verse through Hebrews.
When we get to chapter 12 in a year from now or whenever it is, when we get there, I'm going to deal with more on the aspect of how the discipline operates. But I do want to, while we're here today, just make a couple of quick remarks from the Old Testament and from the New Testament.
And if you want to jot these down, Proverbs 3, 12 says this, for whom the Lord loves, he reproves even as a father, the son in whom he delights. So that's the first one that the Lord loves us. So he reproves us.
He corrects us. Revelation 3 and 19, God is speaking to those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. It's actually Jesus speaking. Those whom I love, I reprove, I correct. Deuteronomy 8, verse 5.
Know that in your heart that as man, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord, your God disciplines you. Absolutely true. Job 5, 17, Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves. Therefore, despise not the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal.
You see, God disciplines us and then God raises us back up. God reproves us, corrects us, but then he also restores us. You see, why would God have to reprove a believer? Because you are still in your flesh and you still fight a battle with sin.
Is there anyone in here who can say to me that since they received the Lord Jesus as their savior, they have not committed one sin? Is there anybody here who could say they've only committed one? All right.
Just asking. Because that's what the discipline is for. God disciplines those of us who are his. It's the same way that I discipline my children, the same way if you're a good parent, you discipline your children.
A father who doesn't discipline his children is not a good father. And God is a good father. And God disciplines us as his children. Now, I do want to make another point about this verse. It says if you are without discipline, then you're illegitimate.
Meaning if you're if you're not being disciplined, then you are not a child of God. It's kind of a funny illustration, but I'll use it anyway. If I walk outside and my son is is is is cutting the crazy with some kids from the neighborhood, OK, if he's being if he's being a typical 10 year old with other kids in the neighborhood and they're doing something bad, I'll say I'll say Medford, because when he's in trouble, that's what he's called.
It's Cody when he's not in trouble. But I use this first. I say, Medford, come here and he'll know that he's in trouble and he'll come on up. And when he does. He might say to me, well, the other boys were doing it, too.
What's my response? I don't care. They are not mine to correct, but you're mine and you will be corrected. Now, that's not an exact parallel to the way God deals with us, because all things belong to God.
And we couldn't say that. But there is a relationship God has with the believer, the relationship of father to son that he doesn't have with the unbeliever. And he says, why do I discipline my son? Is it just because I want to be mean?
No, it's because I want to restore my son, I want to take him from that bad thing that he's done. I want to discipline him. And then I want to. Sorry about that. But I want to put him right back on the right path because I love my son and I want him back to the right direction.
And that's the way God is with us. He disciplines us. He reproves us to put us back on the right track. And the Bible says, if you are without that, then you're not his. If you are without the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Spurring you to righteousness, if you are without that discernible, conscious nature of the spirit bearing witness with your spirit, what is right and what is wrong. So I tell people, people say to me, let's just take, for instance, somebody who's just living in a sinful lifestyle, whatever it may be.
I'm not pointing any particular sinful lifestyle, but they're living in a sinful lifestyle. And I'll say that this is something that's offensive to God. And they say, oh, God doesn't care or oh, God understands not to judge that person's heart.
But I can tell you this, they're not living under the discipline of God. And if you are not participating in that discipline, living in a sinful situation, a sinful condition, then you are not his finally.
And number four, we can't live without holiness. Look at chapter 12, verse 14. Turn there with me. And as I said, I'm really doing a cursory look at these verses. I'm not seeking to really dive into them deeply because I'm going to get to them later as we go through.
I just wanted to show how these four things connect. We can't live without holiness. The chapter 12, verse 14 says this, strive for peace with everyone. That in itself could be a sermon because that is our job to strive for peace with one another and for holiness.
Notice the word strive there. That that command to do this, it connects to both strive for peace and strive for holiness. It's a strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness. If you're reading the New American Standard Bible, it'll say sanctification.
That's important because it's it both come from the root word hagios in the Greek holiness and sanctification. It's the same root. It says and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now, this could be understood in two ways.
You could say that the holiness that the apostle who's writing this is talking about, the writer of Hebrews, you could say that the holiness he's talking about is he's talking about the holiness that we receive from Christ, the positional sanctification that we receive from Christ when we believe on him and we're placed as believers in the kingdom of God.
And that's the sanctification, the separation, the holiness he's talking about. But there's also what we call progressive sanctification. The sanctification in our lives, the holiness that comes in our lives, that growth in holiness being conformed to the image of Christ.
That is what we have been predestined to. According to Romans 8, 28, we've been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That is the case. And in this case, I would argue and contend that that's the sanctification.
That's the holiness that's being spoken about because it says we're to strive for it. We don't strive for positional sanctification. That happened as soon as we were given rebirth. We were taken from the kingdom of the world and placed into the kingdom of God.
That we don't have to strive for that. That has already occurred. But if we are believers, we are to strive for holiness. We're to strive for holiness in every way. And beloved, this is something that I can tell you has been lost on the modern church, the idea that we should be striving to be holy, that we should strive to be righteous, not self-righteous, not prideful, but holy and beloved.
If we are not striving for holiness. I would ask the question, then, has our heart really been changed? If we are not striving to be conformed to the image of Christ, can we say that we have the spirit of God living within us?
When I say there are four things we can't live without, what I am saying is that the book of Hebrews describes four essential things that a person who has been given the gift of life will have. A person who has been given the gift of eternal life will have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to their sins.
Without it, there is no forgiveness of sin. A person who has the gift of eternal life will have faith. Without it, a person cannot please God. A person who has the gift of eternal life will experience discipline because if they don't, they are not a son of God or a daughter of God.
And a person who has the gift of eternal life will experience sanctification because this passage clearly says without it, a person will not see the Lord. These are four straightforward statements from God's word.
And my question for you is rather simple. Are you living without these four things this morning? Are you living apart from Christ? Are you living devoid of faith? Are you living deprived of discipline?
Are you living without sanctification? Beloved, if you are, be confident in my words that no matter what prayer you have prayed or what aisle you have walked or what pool you have been dipped in. I know that you are not in Christ, but rather you are lost and I encourage you, repent of your sins.
Trust in Christ and through this, you will experience both discipline and sanctification. Without these, we will not see the Lord. Let us pray. Father, as we come now to the close of the message, I pray, O Lord, that the word of God has been rightly handled, that the people of God have been edified.
And Lord, that if there is one here who has never heard the gospel, that they have been challenged by the truth. And that your Holy Spirit would do his work, which only he can do. In bringing about the conversion of their hearts, Lord, we love you, we thank you for all that you do for us.
We are truly unworthy of your mercy, yet you give it and we thank you for that. We thank you for your grace. We ask that now, as we come to our conclusion, that our worship would not conclude, but would continue throughout this week.
In Jesus name we pray and for his sake, Amen.