OPENING: A telephone repairman, who had been working late in an unfamiliar building got lost. Finally, he saw a woman at the end of a corridor and asked her how he could get outside.
"Dial 9," she replied.
APPLICATION: The Book of Acts tells the stories of men & women who were not pleased with their lives or than answers that others were giving them - they wanted to GET OUT of the lives they were in and GET INTO what God had to offer them.
When they heard the message the apostles preached they repeatedly asked the same question: "What must I do (to get out)?"
I. When someone wants to become a Christian here, one of the 1st things we ask is that they repeat "the good confession."
You’ll find it in Matthew 16:15-18 (read)
Jesus asked: "Who do you say that I am?" and finally Peter responds: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." That’s the "good confession."
REPEAT that good confession with me now (do it in unison).
Did you realize that when you said "I believe" you were saying some very significant things?
When you said "I believe... in GOD":
you were saying you were not an atheist, who says God doesn’t exist.
you were declaring you weren’t an agnostic, who says, "I don’t know if God exists."
When you said you believed in "the Living God" you were declaring that:
You’re not an idolater, that worships images made of wood, stone or gold.
You’re not a worshipper of dead ancestors (Buddha, Confucius, Taoism, Shintoism).
You’re not a nature worshipper (Hindu).
You’re not a fire worshipper (Zoroastrianism).
When you professed to believe in "THE living God" you were professing that
You’re no polytheist, who says there are many gods.
When you declared your faith in "The Son of the living God" you were saying you were:
Not a pantheist, that says, "all is God" (Sikhism).
Not a deist, that thinks God created the world and never involved Himself in its problems.
Not a uniformist, who believes that all things continue as they were in the beginning.
Not a modernist, who denies the virgin birth.
When you said you believed in "The Christ" you were saying:
You’re not an unbelieving Jew, who denies Jesus as the Messiah.
You’re not a futurist, who yet looks for a Messiah.
You’re not a Theosophist or a follower of the Baha’i or Mohammedan cults that
think Jesus is only one of God’s many witnesses.
When you said you believed in "Jesus" you were saying your faith was based on Jesus alone:
Not Buddha
Nor Confucius
Nor Mohammed
Nor Ma Havira
Nor Reverend Moon
Nor Satan
When you said "I Believe" you were saying you accepted the Scriptures; for faith in Jesus is the direct result of the testimony of Scripture.
When you said "I" you were declaring that this was a personal faith, neither inherited, nor forced, but fully confessed.
(adapted from an unknown source)
Jesus declared that this "good confession" was SO IMPORTANT that it was "upon this rock" that He would build His kingdom and "the gates of hell would not prevail against it." That’s part of the reason churches across the land ask their converts to repeat it.
II. But there as powerful as the "good confession" is, we can’t stop there.
Heb. 6:1-3 speaks of foundational truths as "elementary teachings" that we should eventually "leave."
What does he mean "leave the elementary teachings...?" That sounds heretical. Jesus has told us that it’s this "elementary teaching" (that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God) that is the rock upon which He would build His church!
The writer of Hebrews can’t possibly be saying that the elementary truths are unimportant! But, what else could he be referring to?
I believe that the writer of Hebrews is addressing an unfortunate trait of many church goers.
This type of church goer will
submit to "beginner classes"
say the right things,
do the right things,
and then leave their Christianity at that.
ILLUS: If you can visualize it, it’s as if they’ve been invited to live in a vast mansion and they get so impressed by the front room - that’s were they unroll their sleeping bags.
They’ve been invited to eat and drink at a grand banquet table, but they never sit down to drink of the "living water" or eat of the blessings that they’re offered. They like it in the front room. It’s comfortable there. They are in out of the rain, but they’re just close enough to the world to venture out now and again to taste of the guilty pleasures they once knew.
ILLUS: In his book "Don’t Park Here," C. William Fisher likens many Christians to a piano player. Their testimonies never change. Instead of drawing on the full range of their blessings in Christ, they concentrate on just one or two "notes." They "play middle C" again and again. In a testimony meeting or during a sharing time, they say the same old thing -- "I was saved 40 years ago, and I know I’m going to heaven." You get the feeling they’ve made little progress in all that time. Yet there’s so much to the Christian life. Fisher commented, "Why, with all the rich, wide range of the keyboard of spiritual insight and truth, do so many Christians play on only one note? Why should anyone be content to be a dull monotone when God intends his life to be a rich, harmonious symphony?" The psalmist said, "I will tell of all Your marvelous works."
III. IN ESSENSE: that’s what writer of Hebrews was saying Heb. 11:1ff
He who comes to God must believe God exists.... and MUST believe He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek. The true believer MUST believe that God is waiting to reach down... waiting to make a difference in their lives.
Without this faith we lose confidence - Heb. 10:35-39 tells us:
"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
To drive this point home, Hebrew’s writer tells us the faith stories of others. Men like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. Stories of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and standing before the walls of Jericho. Stories of even those we would overlook, like the prostitute named Rahab
Then he goes on to say that if he had the time he’d tell you about even more (vs. 32-35).
It’s when we hear those stories of faith that we realize just what kind of God we serve. When you make your confession of faith, don’t let it stop at the "elementary truth" that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Build on that confession so that others will know who you serve.
CLOSE: Sojourner Truth was a tall, strong black woman who before the Civil War crisscrossed the United States, appearing in lecture halls and camp meetings, talking about the evils of slavery and also championing women’s rights, singing Gospel songs in her powerful voice, being a prophet to both black and white.
In her Autobiography as told to Olive Gilbert, Sojourner Truth revealed an experience of God that she had as a young woman, newly escaped from slavery.
. . . God revealed himself to her, with all the suddenness of a flash of lightning,showing her, ’in the twinkling of an eye, that he was all over - that he pervaded the universe -’ and that there was no place where God was not.
After the experience, Sojourner remarked, ’Oh God, I did not know you were so big.’"
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES:
Gaining Heaven’s Glory – Rev. 21:1-8
Escaping Hell’s Fury – Heb. 6:1-8
The Resurrection: Cold Theology or Hot Reality – Heb. 5:11-6:3
Going Beyond Repentance – Heb. 5:11-6:3
My Faith Looks Up – Heb. 5:11-6:3
