Transcript

We’re in Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 through 6 and we are in a series of messages on this text that I’ve entitled “The Pretenders” because I am totally convinced that this is a text of scripture that is warning about how deeply one can taste, partake of, be moved by the things of God, even have true experiences yet not be truly converted. If you’ll look at it again there in your text we begin in verse 4. He says, “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

Now I think you, to understand it properly you have to take the first phrase of verse 6 and add it to the several phrases of verses 4 and 5. For example, “for in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and then fallen away.” Again in verse 4, “who have tasted the heavenly gift, and then,” verse 6, “have fallen away. Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,” and then verse 6, “and then have fallen away. And have tasted the good word of God, and then have fallen away. And the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.”

By the way Lord willing, we will get to the phrase “falling away” and it is impossible to renew them to repentance and all that this means, but this morning we come to part 4 of the series. Part 4 where we are looking specifically there are the phrase in verse 5, the very first phrase that says, “And have tasted the good word of God.” Now I’ll ask you again why is it that Paul, who I believe is the human author here, why didn’t he just give us one general phrase that emphasizes you can get close, you can experience some things of God’s Word and God’s Spirit but yet be lost. Why didn’t he say that one time? Why does he say it in so many different ways in repetition here and then leave us with, and after all this — and then they fall away? I think it’s this reason. He wants you to get it. He wants you to grasp it. He wants you to not have this simpleton, shallow, easy believism concept of conversion that’s sending millions to hell. He said, “Love me with all your mind.” Salvation is very simple, but it’s not simplistic. There are things he wants you to look at and yearn for and study over and investigate. Folks, your soul is eternal. This is eternity on the line. Don’t you dare trust that your daddy said, “If you just did that, you’re going to heaven.” Don’t you dare trust the evangelist if he said to you, “If you jumped through that hoop, then you’re going to heaven.” Don’t you dare trust the pastor if he tells you, “Well, if you did this little thing, you dotted and I, you crossed a T, you’re going onto heaven,” when scripture doesn’t teach it that way. Scripture makes us look and investigate and contemplate. The scripture words are to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.

Now I want to submit to you that in modern Baptist life, Southern Baptist life in particular, evangelical life in general, there is a great failure in this area. A great failure. Moms and dads, work with us. Spend time with your children. Study the Word of God with them. Discuss these passages with them. Get Bible study material from us. Don’t just knee jerk, declare your children they’re going to heaven because they had some emotional experience at sometime in their childhood. They get emotional about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny also. Our children’s souls, and more important the glory of God demands it. The easy believism and decisionism which led to a whole new form of revivalism, I use the word –ism to note that it’s something man creates that God doesn’t do. And I think that’s why he spends such time, not just in this text, but actually in several sections I the book of Hebrews cautioning us to make sure we’re in the faith.

Well, we come to the first phrase of verse 5 where he says, “And these have tasted the good word of God,” and then you have to connect the first part of verse 6, “but they have fallen away.” Tasted the good word of God. Without question the phrase “the good word of God” means the gospel. The gospel is the good news. So they’ve tasted something of the gospel. I word it this way. This will be the title for this section. “They Tasted the Goodness of the Gospel but not the Power of the Gospel.” Now that is a key statement. Our churches are full of people who have genuinely tasted and believed. That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a good thing and I’ll talk of it as a good thing. But the power of the gospel has not changed their lives. That’s what we have here. Tasted the goodness of the gospel, but have not experienced the power of the gospel.

Now again we have the word taste like we had up in verse 4. It’s the same Greek word. It means the same thing. Geuomai is the word. The Greek word geuomai does not mean to swallow. That’s a different Greek word. It does not mean to digest. It does not mean to drink in. It only means to sample. That’s why he uses it here. He could’ve used the word for swallow. He could’ve used the word for drink. He doesn’t. Why? He’s making a point. They had a real taste of the real thing but it didn’t go into them. They did not possess the real thing. Jesus on the cross in Matthew 27 verse 34, the Bible says He tasted but He refused to drink. Tasted, geuomai. Drink, a totally different Greek word. Totally different things. Let me remind you again that Josephus used this same word. Josephus was the Jewish historian that has been proven to be immensely accurate in his historical chronicles of the first century A.D. And in this day when the Bible was being written, Josephus was writing history. And he uses this word tasted to refer to people who would hear the Greek philosophers and they would taste the philosophy but not embrace that philosophy. They would consider it, muse it over in their minds, but not commit to it. So this is the tasting that we’ve seen earlier but not embracing the gospel in true saving faith.

Now let me begin by saying something about the goodness of the gospel because the writer here uses that phrase, “the good word of God” which emphasizes the goodness of the gospel. Two sub-points I’d like to give you there. A would be it’s good because it’s holy. It’s good because it’s holy. Whatever else holiness means it means other worldly. It means transcending, infinitely beyond the realm of man and our understanding. It’s greater, more wondrous, more stupendous than anything we can grasp. It’s holy. This gospel didn’t come from man. It didn’t come from earth. And this gospel is not the result of clever and witty preachers and evangelists. It’s God’s gospel. That’s why it’s good. It’s not of us. It’s of God. It’s not of earth. It’s of heaven. That’s why it’s the good news. It came from a holy place and a Holy One. It is most pure and most perfect. The gospel has no corruption in it. Now man corrupts the gospel by adding junk to it. And that’s one of the passions of my life to correct all the manmade stuff we put on the gospel that causes us to get numbers results in churches but doesn’t make us develop more true disciples of Jesus Christ. But the gospel left without man’s corrupting, manipulating, scheming, creative, witty influences is perfect, doesn’t need us. I tell you what the gospel needs. It needs to be preached with conviction and passion. That’s what the gospel needs. It doesn’t need to be doctored up with anything else.

Now when we talk about the gospel being pure and perfect, we have to pause and remember that the law also is pure and perfect. You know we had the Old Testament law, the Old Testament dispensation. I may not use that word in a strict sense of dispensationalist. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it. But the law in its time was the approach to God. The Jews had the law. They would preach the law. They would raise of the commandments. They would insist that you honor the moral law of God and the ceremonial law of God to know God and to reach God and to obtain salvation. And then our Lord came with the good news, and that is the gospel. But wait a minute. The good news is good, but also the law is good. Romans chapter 7 verse 12 says, “So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” But the law, you see, is not good in the same sense that the gospel is good. The law by itself, in and of itself brings no profit to lost sinners. It can’t help you come to God. It can’t save your soul. It can’t cleanse you of sin. It can’t pardon the iniquity of your very nature and being. The law can’t do that.

2 Corinthians 3:6 kind of shows us the difference. Who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, meaning the law, but of the Spirit; “for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The law comes you, the letter of the law and it condemns you and exposes you. It shows the guilt of your life. But the gospel comes in the power of the Spirit and exposes you and heals you. It reveals you and regenerates you. It slays you and saves you. It has a goodness the law doesn’t have. The law’s good because it is God’s holy standard and you can’t change God’s character so you’ll never change God’s law. But the gospel’s good because it does more than the law could ever, ever do.

Well, that brings up the second sub-point here, the goodness of the gospel because it’s holy. And secondly the gospel is good because of the effect it has on sinners. We’ve already talked about the gospel reveals the Savior. Without the gospel, the good news, we wouldn’t know who He is. But the gospel reveals the Savior. The gospel reveals the way of attaining salvation through the Savior. And the gospel is a word of power enabling sinners to obtain the condition required of them by God. I want to say something to you. God is not in the business of lowering His standard. You will be judged by the almighty, holy, just standard of the Almighty God. Period. But the gospel, through the merits of Jesus Christ brings you up to God’s standard. Brings you up to the righteousness of God even in Christ Jesus. What a gift that is.

Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verse 16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The effect that it has speaks of the goodness of the gospel.

Now let’s go to our second major point here and that is a word on their tasting but not experiencing the power of the gospel. Or in brief, a word on the power of the gospel. We talked about the goodness of the gospel, but now a word on the power of the gospel. And here’s where I think the text wants us to be. The text is emphasizing that they tasted the good word of God but fell away. There was no, listen to me — there was no saving, sustaining, sanctifying gospel power in their hearts and lives, so they fell away. So they were never truly converted to start with.

Let me give you some verses that just show you, now listen to me, that the gospel and the conversion under the gospel, that is, true conversion, has power in it that changes the heart and changes the life because it changes the heart. Romans 15:13: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the gospel [Holy Spirit].” “Abound in hope by the power of the gospel,” he says. What happens? The gospel power comes into you and instead of viewing God in dread and in fear as a lost man, you have hope. It doesn’t mean you think so, or you maybe so. It means you have confident assurance that you are His and He is yours and He will receive you. That’s the power of the gospel. Without the power of the gospel in you, the only thing you have to look forward to when you see God is awful eternal wrath and judgment.

1 Corinthians 2:4. Paul says, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” He may be including here some signs and wonders and miracles the Apostles performed, but that’s not the primary emphasis. The primary emphasis is people are changed when the ministry of the gospel goes forth in power. They’re different. Their hearts are different. Their loves are different. Their grief is different. Their abhorrence of certain things changes. The power of the gospel. I want to say something to you, brothers and sisters. If there’s no God ordained power that has changed and is changing you, you have not received true conversion. True conversion is not stamping your ticket so you get into heaven. That’s there. True conversion is a power that changed you. You now start liking what before you did not like. You now start wanting to be with the kind of folks that before you didn’t want to be with. You now start wanting to hear the kind of preaching that before you would’ve scoffed at and undermined. Something changed, and it’s the power in you that changed you.

1 Corinthians 4:19, Paul says, “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.” Paul said, “There are false preachers coming in, and they’re impressive.” Paul was not that impressive of an orator or that great skilled a speaker. And these false teachers would come in with great human skills and a lot of the shallow believers would be enamored with them. And Paul said, “I don’t want to know about how powerful their words are. I want to know is there power in their ministry that’s changing lives, because that’s what the gospel does.” 2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” You know what a common, translation of the Greek for earthen vessels might be? Peanut butter jars. That’s what we are. We’re just peanut butter jars. Did your grandmother or some of you wash out the peanut butter jars and use it for tea in the summer time? I’ve had many of good meal with fresh corn and fresh tomatoes and turnip greens and pinto beans or white beans and cornbread and cold ice tea in an old peanut butter jar without the peanut butter. Well, that’s what the Bible says we are. Why? Because God’s power comes in and now we are a type of people that makes the peanut butter jar very special because there’s something in the jar. It’s not us. We’re the jar. The difference is God’s power in our lives. A power that forgives when we would normally be bitter and resentful. A power that enables you to say from your heart, “He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Couldn’t do that before. Couldn’t do that before. I was hateful and ugly and resentful and bitter and “why me?” and “I’m mistreated.” But now He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. A power has changed me. That’s true conversion. Does that mean I never struggle? No, I struggle. I whine at times. I grumble at times. But it doesn’t take long, just get me back to church, get me back to my small group. Let me have a couple of quiet times. Let me hear the choir sing and the congregation sing. And pretty soon I’m back on track because the power’s in there and gets me back on track. Amen.

You have a brother that gets resentful and bitter and “why me?” and “I didn’t get my fair whatever.” Well, guess what. This world’s not fair. You need a brother to put his arm around you and say, “Listen, I, I don’t mean to demean you, and I’m not here to slam you. I love you. But you need to repent of that attitude. You ought to go to hell and you’re not going.” We have to confront each other and help each other from time to time. Now sometimes, dads, husbands, just leave her alone. She’ll be okay in a day or so ‘cause the power’s in there. The power’s in there. Some of us who have strong gifts of prophesy and exhortation and teaching, we like to fix it now. You know what God’s taught me in twenty-five years? “I’ll do My work. You be faithful. You don’t have to fix everything.” And I said, “Whew. Thank You, Lord.” The power makes you different. 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction;” How do you know if your pastor or an evangelist is really preaching to you the true gospel and God’s honoring it? Well, you just have to look around. Are kids different than they were a few years ago, or some moms and daddies different, or some daddies different, or some lives different? Is there a deeper spirit of contrition and humility and a great spirit of love for God? Is there a new spirit of love and unity? Is there anything happening that only God’s power can make happen? Now there are seasons. There’s always seasons where it’s stronger and weaker and mountaintops and valleys. But generally, is the power of God changing people to be like God when they normally wouldn’t do that? Now you can put it on artificially for a while, but long term it takes the power of God to make us sweet, Christlike people. I’m doing this to show you that this is what the gospel does and is. It’s not this thing that we think of that a guy walks down the aisle. He jumps through a couple of little hoops. He goes back to his pew and he’s the same way he was before and generally runs with the same crowd, talks the same way, treasures the same things, has the same pursuits, has the same affections. That’s not the gospel, and that’s not gospel power. That’s why we don’t emphasize those things because I can’t find any of them in the Bible. Here’s what I want to say to you as your pastor. You are to be deeply and genuinely commended for following my leadership in these things because everything in the way of religious idols of traditionalism told you not to support me, and you did it because you saw the Word of God was true and right on these things. And I praise God’s name for you for that conviction to do what’s right.

2 Timothy 3:5: “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;” Holding to a form, now that’s what the false professor does. That’s what the pretender does. That’s what the false teacher does. They have a form of godliness. Now I’m not a strict cessationist when it comes to signs and wonders gifts. I do not think they’re normative. I do not think every time you come to church it ought to be signs, wonders and miracles. If God wants to do that, I’m all for it. And God does perform miracles, especially of healing at times. Sometimes He does that in concert with our prayers. I don’t understand all the mysteries that are there. But a whole lot of what’s being done to give that form, that outward appearance of power is not causing the congregations they’re ministering in to be more holy and more sweet and more humble and more forgiving and more Christlike than the churches who don’t have those signs and wonders and miracles. Matter of fact, if you look at some of it, you’ll find more divorce, more fornication, more adultery, more sensuality, more fruits of the flesh.

Forms of godliness, but the power that really makes people different, not perfect, not till we get to glory. But as a pattern, we’re different. And the workplace, we can deny ourselves where we couldn’t do it before. We can be forgiving where we couldn’t be that way before. We have a love that we didn’t have before. Power of the gospel makes you different.

Now let me ask you. Oh, friend, dear friend, have you been changed by gospel power or have you only tasted the good word of God? That’s the question of the hour.

The person mentioned here in verse 5 of Hebrews chapter 6 is, is the one who’s tasted the good word of God then fallen away. He probably reads the Word of God and thinks there’s some goodness in it and it speaks to his heart. He probably performs duties and services in Christian ministries or in the church. He can even find some joy and some sweetness in these things, but he’s only tasted, not been changed by gospel power. One writer said it this way. “Where these pretenders have only tasted the goodness of the gospel, the true believer feels the power in his soul.” What are we to look for then? What are some good biblical evidences that we are truly God’s and that He’s done a work in our hearts? Let me give you to those quickly.

First of all, we’ll call these our conclusions for practical application, and I’ll not spend much time on them. At least I don’t plan to. Number one, when you’re truly converted the power that converted you, the power that’s in you changes the disposition of your heart. It changes the disposition of your heart. Now I’m viewing this as the disposition being a part of the spirit of man. You see, you have a spiritual nature. And the spirit is behind the affections and the will. Affections is a word the old timers used. I really like it. But in our day you’d probably say the emotions and the will. The emotions – what you feel, what you feel affectionate about. The will – what you choose to do. But there’s been a change behind those, so that your emotions are now different and your will is now different. Not perfected because you’re still in an old flesh body that still has flesh lusts, flesh loves, flesh passions that still monkey with the emotions and the will. But there’s a new force in there, a new power that’s influencing my affections and my will.

You see, the affections love as they do, and the will chooses as it does because of the state of the heart or the disposition. And when that heart or disposition has been changed, then those two are changed. Ephesians 5:8 says, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light” Notice the difference. Where there was only a dark spirit, now the light of God has gone on. Deep in the heart or in the disposition. My affections, therefore change from unworthy objects. That’s the thing that I feel affectionate toward. It begins to change. Now listen to me. There is an immediate change, but there’s also a progressive change. So don’t just go on the immediate change. Look for that, but you have to learn the things of God and learn the truths of God to stir up the affections to be pointed toward worthy things. But if you’ve changed on the inside and the Word of God is taught and preached, and you begin to learn the things of God, your affections, what you’re affectionate toward starts going toward the worthy things of God, not the unworthy things of the world.

Have you seen something of that change in your lifestyle since your supposed conversion? The affections changing from unworthy objects to worthy objects particularly form self to Christ? What do you think the songwriter was meaning when he said, “All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is all the world to me. And the fairest of ten thousands in my blessed Lord I see.” Why do you think he could say that? Because his affections, richer sometimes than others, stronger some days… But my affections have been turned. Something’s happened back there behind them. You should see that change that’s evidence of the power of God doing a work within you.

Then of course, the will changes. The will, the choices you’re making. Choose from unworthy things to worthy things. Now in my life it was so clear, and in some ways I wish everyone could grow up a pagan like I did because the change is so clear. I didn’t go to the clubs anymore. I started going to church. That’s a big change of my will. And I enjoyed it. My choices changed to where I was gonna spend my time, and my affections had changed also.

Well, the disposition changes. And that deep disposition in the spirit that changes affects your affections, what you’re affectionate toward. It affects your will, what you start choosing in life. Not in perfection, but that change ought to be evident. Have you seen that change in your heart? That’s the power of the gospel Paul talked about over and over and over again.

Let me give you another thing to look for. And all this really comes under repentance. There’s other aspects we can look at, but for time we’ll only deal with repentance. What about a new consciousness of personal sin? This is something that’s, if you think about it and you’re converted it gets very, very clear. What I mean is individual sin. You no longer think of sin as this general, broad thing. It’s not the community’s sin and it’s not the family’s sin. It’s not my brother. It’s not my sister, but it’s me, oh Lord. I see what I do as sin. It’s me. It’s my sin against a holy God. Personal sin. Before I was converted, I understood some sin and I understood disobeying God. But it was kind of general and kind of, there wasn’t that deep, “I’m a sinner before God.”

Number three, the power of the gospel that changes you and brings about a repentance, and one of the ways you see that repentance is, you view sin as a great evil against God for which there’s no excuse. You begin as you study, as you learn, as you sit under preaching you begin to see God as the object of your sin. And this brings you anxiety and troubles your heart. “God, I’m sinning against You. I’m beginning to grasp you as a Person. I’m beginning to sense I sinned against you. And that troubles my heart.” The point here is that it’s not just the consequences of sin. Now when there’s true power that changes you and brings about repentance, it is true. You are aware of the consequence of sin, but that starts getting less and less as God works in you and just the offensiveness of your sin as an evil against the God you love gets greater and greater. It’s not just that my sin wrecked my marriage or my sin wrecked my finances or my sin has hurt my kids or my sin has brought pain in my life. Greater than that, my sin is against God, and that troubles me. It’s a good sign you’re really converted. It’s a good sign the power of the gospel has done something in your heart. It’s the person who justifies God and condemns himself. “God, You are just when Thou dost judge, and I’m wicked and unworthy.” That’s what the word confess means. The Greek word for confess means to agree with God. When I study God’s Word, when you’re under the preaching of the Word of God, as a general rule if the power of God’s changed you, that means He’s made you a repenter, then when you hear the Word of God and it cuts you hard and it hits right where you are, you know what you say? “I agree with God. God’s just and I’m wicked and wrong.” What a humble spirit the power of God puts in us to receive the corrections of the Word of God.

Number four, a fourth thing you should look for if the power has been in there, true conversion has taken place and in specific you’re now a repenter from your heart is a hatred of sin. A hatred of sin. There’s a change of mind that happens. That’s what repentance generally means. My mind is changed. Now mind is a very broad sense that includes the emotions and the will and includes the whole heart of the inner man. All that has changed, and it’s changed concerning the serious evil of sin. Sin becomes the object of abhorrence. You hate the sin you find in your life. You hate the sin you’re presently repenting of. And you hate the nature in you that brings about the sin in your life. You just hate it. You know why you hate it? Because you now have the capacity to begin knowing and learning of and loving and cherishing the God whom your sin is offensive to. The One whom your sin is against. And as you grasp who it’s against and you grasp the preciousness of God, the greatness of God, then you can’t help but begin to more deeply hate it in your life. It’s not the absence of it in your life, though that should happen progressively. But it’s the hatred toward it that’s a good sign that the power of God is in you and has changed you.

In a general sense, you can say the love of sin is gone, and you hate all the inward workings of sin and all the outward manifestations of sin. One of the things that someone said to me early on as a Christian and it’s really helped me is when you’re in a situation and the vile, selfish, self-advancing, self-pleasing desire comes up in you about that situation, maybe it’s to gain money, maybe it’s to lust after someone, whatever it is, and all the sudden the Holy Spirit of God in you catches you and all the sudden you need to say to yourself, “Isn’t that just like me? That’s why it took the death of Jesus to cleanse me. That’s what I am. I’ll take a precious, good situation and have the vilest, self, most selfish thoughts about it. God, I hate that in me.” Amen? It’s good indication the power of God’s changed you. “God, I hate that in me.” A hatred of sin.

Number five, connected close to number four, the hatred of sin, is a sorrow for sin. Jesus said in Matthew 11:20 and 21, Then He began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago” and here’s the phrase: “in sackcloth and ashes.” Sackcloth and ashes is a scriptural symbol of deep, deep sorrow. Deep contrition and deep grief. We won’t look it up, but in Jonah chapter 3, when Jonah preached repentance to Nineveh, the Bible says even the king of Nineveh put on himself sackcloth and sat in ashes in recognition that there’s a God who is true and who is holy and we must answer to Him and we’re sinning against Him, and we feel it and we’re sorry. We’re sorry. You ever wonder why Jesus said, “Blessed are they who mourn”? It’s as you walk through this life as a true child of God there’s so much sin working in the heart and so much sin that slips through and manifests in the life there is a sense in which we walk about mourning because we’re sorry that we’re so sinful. It’s a good indication the power of God’s converted you. A general pattern of a sorrow for sin.

You see, there’s no such thing as a cold, mechanical repentance. There must be a warm sorrow if true God-empowered change has happened. You see, we’re not talking about reformation. Now I believe we’re in dire need of reformation in our evangelical churches. Dire need. But God forbid we have reformation without true revival first. If you have reformation without revival you just restructure cold deadness in another form. Power of God didn’t really change anything. You see if there’s no sorrow for sin, sin that is ugly and anti-God and sin which is offensive to God, then there’s been no change and there’s no repentance. Have you noticed the God-centeredness of all of this?

Can I say this to you? A lot of preaching to get people, quote, saved focuses on the consequence of sin and that Jesus fixes consequences. That’s not the gospel. Now He may, and the result of your conversion might fix a lot of consequences that are negative. But your conversion may also bring consequences that are painful. Your family may reject you, Jesus said. Young people, you just mark it down. You’re not gonna be the popular in crowd if you really walk with Jesus. Rarely you might be, but most of the time, you won’t. If you don’t want that suffering and sorrow, don’t follow Christ. I have nothing for you that’s gonna make you Miss Cutie Cute and Mr. Macho Man at school. But if He’s not worth sacrificing for and sorrow, then don’t declare Him through baptism that He’s your Lord and Savior. We see that, and it brings a sorrow over our sin.

Number six, a purpose to forsake sin. A purpose to forsake sin. There’s an internal purpose to forsake sin that happens when you’re converted. Now you know as you walk in your Christianity, you have to, now listen to me. Listen to me. You have to fight to keep this rich and strong. Are you hearing me? You have to fight. You have to fight. You have to fight to get the Word in your mind. You have to fight to fellowship with Christians who will really challenge you and help you grow. You have to fight to be in small groups because you need the accountability. You need to fight to be under the preaching of the Word that’ll shake you out of your comfort zone again and get you back on track good. Why do you think Paul, the best Christian of all time, said, “I’ve fought the good fight.” You’re not home yet. One Puritan father said, “That’s the problem with you Christians. You want heaven now, and you want heaven then.” Oh, there’s some war now, and there’s some cross-bearing now, and there’s some struggle now. There’s some sorrow now. There’s being abandoned by friends now. There’s family that doesn’t like you because your love for God now. You’ll lose some jobs now. And more than ever before, listen to me. More than ever before around the world, our brothers and sisters are being martyred for Jesus now. And it may happen here in America. But we’re not home yet. And there’s just been such a change. Listen to me. There’s just been such a change in my heart with questions, yes. With some fear? Yes. With insecurity? Yes. Trembling at times? Yes. But this is what I want. With all the stuff that may go with it because my heart’s been changed. My heart’s been changed. So I’ve got a new purpose.

Luke 19:8-10, Zaccheus had been changed. Notice what Zaccheus did. Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor” Now he was a tax collector which means he took advantage financially of the poor. But he says, “Half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said, “Because you prayed that prayer you’re going to heaven.” Nope. Nope. And Jesus said, “You walk to the front. That’s it. You’re going to heaven!”, [Nope]. Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house,” You’re changed. You’re saved. Did you get that. “You’re different. Your purpose has changed. You’re saved.” Brothers and sisters, now, He’s not saying you’re gonna be perfect. But as a general rule, your purpose changes. You purpose to forsake sin.

Now let’s, let’s just picture this in our minds and we’ll close. First of all, when the true power of God changes you, it changes that inner disposition, I mean that deep in your heart, there’s a change, part of that change is you start seeing your sin as personal, against God. You start hating the sin you see working in your life and coming through your life. It bothers you in a deep way. You start being sorrowful for that sin that’s in your life, and as a pattern you begin to purpose to forsake sin in your life.

Now friend sitting here with me today, I want to say something to you. I have no desire to whoop up things and make stuff happen, and go talk to everyone about our numbers, but I do want to face my Lord at the judgment seat of Christ and say “Lord the best I know, we got ‘em all home safe. They’re really yours. They’re children of God. They’ve really been changed. That is a weight I carry. It’s an awful thing, but a wonderful thing. Oh, test your life, check your children. Look for true repenters. Don’t be one of those the Lord looks at. And said to the Lord first, “Lord we cast out demons in your name, we did miracles in your name”.  And he says, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.” Don’t be like these, in the Jewish congregation, who tasted the goodness of the gospel, but were not changed by the power of the gospel.