Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: If anyone would come after me, what did he say? Let him deny himself, take up his cross. I understand in our context, your cross probably won't look like Peter's. You won't be probably skewered by your coworkers and stripped naked and crucified upside down in the parking lot of your office. That probably won't happen.

But are you willing to incur the ridicule for the sake of the gospel?

Dave Druey: Hey and welcome to Focal Point with author and Pastor Mike Fabarez. I'm your host, Dave Druey. You know, when we're mocked or criticized for doing the right thing, we tend to feel discouraged. We might even feel like giving up altogether.

Well today, Mike Fabarez provides some biblical encouragement for our fight with sin. He'll shed some light on the doubts we have when the Christian life gets hard. We're in Hebrews chapter 12, and now let's join Pastor Mike with today's message called Reconsidering How Hard We're Willing to Fight.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: We've been looking in Hebrews chapter 12 at the calling for us to fight sin, to say no to temptation and say yes to what is right. It starts to get pretty personal in verse number 4 because it kind of makes us feel bad. It almost feels like a backhanded insult like, well, you're just a minor leaguer.

Here's what he says. Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 4. He summarizes what we've been talking about. He says, in your struggle against sin, you haven't resisted to the point of shedding your blood. I mean, it's kind of like, come on, look at you. You don't even have any blisters yet. Where are the signs of your struggle to really say no to sin and say yes to what is right? I don't really think you compared to the guys we just read about in chapter 11.

It would be good for us to look at those again real quick. We get this rapid-fire list of people, and he says things like this in verse 32. What more shall I say? I don't have time to tell of Gideon or Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, or the prophets. There's a mouthful. A lot of people who did some amazing things for God, who through faith, they conquered kingdoms.

You want to talk about stepping out of the crowd and being distinctive in an ability to follow God and say I'm going to do whatever it takes? They administered justice. When the calling came, they stepped up. They're not perfect, I get it. They're not Jesus Christ. But man, they sure showed that they were willing to follow even at great personal cost.

And speaking of that, middle of verse 33, sometimes their commitment to do what's right landed them in places like the lions' den. After that list, he says being surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, come on, let us run with endurance the race set before us. Let's cast off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us.

And then he says, last week we saw it, look at Christ. He was willing to go to the cross. Talk about shedding blood for the sake of doing what's right. He could have wimped out in the garden, but he didn't. He said, I'll do the right thing. I'll go. I'll be crucified. And now he says, what about you guys? Back to you again. How about your struggle against sin? Your commitment to do the right thing? Oh, that's right. You don't have any scars. It hasn't really cost you a whole lot.

Before you throw up your hands and say, well, that's because we're living in a time that's really not hostile to the gospel. I think you'll find there's a lot that we could do to really distinctively stand up for truth that probably would cost us. As a matter of fact, it's the cost that often keeps our mouths shut. It's the pain. It's the ridicule. It's the people looking away from us when we walk into the office. And we don't want to distinguish ourselves that way.

I know maybe they're not throwing us in prison yet. How far are you willing to go to do the right thing? Are you willing to pay a little bit more of a price? There are two sides to it and there are two words here that you should circle and underline. They're the verbs that help us understand what this fight is all about.

The word that's translated struggle is at the end of the verse. It's the last word in this eight-word verse. And the word resisted in the second part of the verse is at the beginning of the verse. And he's talking about the fact that there's been no blood spilt in your resistance. And then the last word he talks about is struggle. So let's take them in order, which for us will seem like we're turning the verse upside down, but really we're putting it right side up.

First word that I want us to look at, the first component of this, is the word resisted. You haven't resisted to the point of shedding blood. That is a very defensive word. It's the most colorful use of this word in the Greek New Testament. The standard word that we usually see is a word called histēmi, and histēmi is the word to stand. Stand up to it. Stand firm. Do everything to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Stand, histēmi. He adds a compound to the front of this word, anti-histēmi. It's not antihistamine, by the way. Anti-histēmi, stand against. One word he compounds, he says stand against it. It's not just don't just stand firm. It's like lean your shoulder into it, put the shield up, and make sure that when sin's lure and the pressure of sin keeps knocking you back, that you're standing firm.

Sin, according to this passage, is like a force that is being put upon me and I have to stand against it. So the first part of this whole thing, this fight against sin, is a defensive posture. And the question for us is, how hard are we really resisting it? Number two on your outline, let's at least say this: we need to step up the resistance.

There needs to be a harder resistance in our life to the draw of sin. That is reminiscent of the call of Christ. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. There's this pain involved. There is this sense that if you're going to follow me and do the right thing, there will be a sacrifice. It will be difficult. And you need to offer yourself as a living sacrifice and, again, this is the theme of our series, holy and pleasing to God.

And do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. Do you see that? There's the defensive posture. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world. That is such a descriptive phrase. As J.B. Phillips said and many people quote it, but it's a good way to put this verse, he said, do not let the world pour you into its mold. And that's a good way to put it.

We've got to fight the pressure of the world to have it be like it. There's a defensive posture there. Compromise and sin, it's constantly pressing in on us. You cannot relax. The world's trying to press you into a mold. And if you want to personify this even further, you might want to jot down and study sometime James chapter 4. James chapter 4 could not be more poignant in this point.

It calls being conformed to the world, it analogizes it with the adulteress's enticement. Picture that. And if that brings up some passages in scripture, it should bring up the first few chapters of the book of Proverbs as the fatherly wisdom to the son is, don't give into the enticement of the adulteress. Her lips will drip like honey. She'll say things to flatter you and flirt with you, but do not go down to her house. She'll stand in the doorway and she'll look so good. Don't go there. Fight it.

And the Bible says that worldliness is like that draw and enticement of the adulteress. And by the way, that may be the temptation you're facing, not in some kind of a lustful way, but in reality. God wants you to fight it. And it may not be adultery, it could be materialism. Fight it. Do not give into the lure because the lure and the enticement of worldliness is like the adulteress saying, come on, it's better over here. It's more fun over here. You deserve more. You deserve better. Oh, God wouldn't want you to deny yourself. He wouldn't want you to feel deprived.

And whatever your temptation is, it is like that river that's pulling you downstream. Fight to walk against traffic. You have to. The Bible says it is our calling. And if you want the specifics, sometime go to Ephesians chapter 6 and re-read the armor of God. You know the passage. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Our struggle's not just against flesh and blood. That's not really it. It's about the powers of this world and this system and the spiritual forces behind it that are trying to draw us into a pattern that is ungodly. Fight it. Push against it. And the armor of God, you remember that, the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of gospel firmly fitted, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the word of God. And then after that, he doesn't even analogize this one, and pray at all times.

That's a great list. And if you want to fight the draw, you want to know what your defensive weapons are, they're there in that text. You've got to fight off this stuff. We're lightweights. And if we start complaining about how hard it feels and how much it costs us and the deprivation of my appetites and my desires, just remember we haven't really gone very far in our fight. We haven't shed blood yet in our striving against sin.

Step up the resistance. God wants us to resist even if it costs us the shedding of our blood. May not make sense, I get it. We think God would much rather have us healthy and alive and in all of our relationships. Not so. He wants us to be uncompromising.

There's another side to this and it comes first in our text, but it's really the last word of the sentence in verse number 4. It's translated in our Bibles a struggle. We have a struggle. Now, I know the context is all about this sin, but sin in that case, it seems like it's almost a reiteration of resistance, but it's really not.

As a matter of fact, this word is a word that is used usually in the context of athletics of someone driving toward a goal. And you may have heard me preach on this word before, and it's fun to say so I'll say it again, agōnizomai. Do you remember that word? Agōnizomai. It's a great Greek word used in classical Greek for the runner driving for the tape.

In our context, the football player pushing hard for the end zone. That's the picture. Agōnizomai. We get the English word agony from it. Agony, agōnizomai. And the Bible says that our quest to do the right thing not only has the defensive component of leaning our shoulder against the temptation and the draw of sin, but it's got this other component to it like a football player driving to the end zone, like a runner just pressing on toward the tape.

There is this offensive component to it. And I love too, the vocabulary of Hebrews is so great. He even compounds this one. It's the concept of anti-agōnizomai. Just drive hard against whatever you have to to strive toward the goal. Because a lot of people look at sanctification and our fight against sin as purely a defensive one.

But if it's purely a defensive one, you do recognize that the price tag is not the largest on the defensive side, it's the largest on the offensive side. In other words, if you're saying, well, I'm trying not to fall into all those sins and I'm trying to say no to temptation and I have to tell my coworkers, well, I can't do that and I'm not going to do that and won't go there with you and won't say those things. That's one side.

And they may go, oh, this crazy Christian guy. That's one side of it. That's a defensive side. Is there a price tag to that? Yes. There's deprivation inside, there's some ridicule and jeering on the outside. But you want to know why they burn people at the stake? It's not because they didn't go to parties with them. You realize that. They weren't crucifying Jesus because he wouldn't go drinking with them. That wasn't the point.

They crucified Jesus, let me show it to you. John chapter 3. Here's why. They crucified Christ not because of his defense against sin. It was because of his offense against sin. It was because he came to proclaim the truth. And here's what John chapter 3 says about this. Remember those famous verses? In verse 16, a lot of us, that's the first verse we ever learned. Look at 17 and 18, those are familiar verses.

He says this in the vernacular of our language: we often say the bottom line is. And in Greek, it's the verb krinō, and it's translated here, the final judgment is, the verdict is this. The bottom line of all of this, Christ coming into the world is this: verse 19, John 3:19. Light has come into the world. Here it comes, it's shining brightly. But men loved darkness instead of light. Why? Because their deeds were evil.

Here's another way to say it, verse 20. Everyone who does evil, underline these three words, hates the light. They hate it. They don't like it. And they will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. They crucified Christ and they burned John Huss and they burned Tyndale not because they wouldn't party with them. They burned them because they were out there saying you may not like it, but here's what God says and here's what God wants done. They held up the truth.

Number three on your outline, we not only need to step up the resistance. Number three, we need to step out to make a difference. That's part of what it means to be sanctified. It's not just fighting the battles against temptation, it's fighting the battle of the temptation of cowardice. It's fighting the battle of the temptation of timidity. And that inverted is an offensive move.

That's going in and saying, you know what? I've got to confront you on this because this just isn't right. It's going out there and holding up the light of the truth in dark places. As Paul said to the Philippians, you're going to shine like bright stars in a dark and perverse generation. And the darker it is, the brighter you shine. And the brighter you shine in a dark and perverse generation, the more persecution you'll have.

It's going to happen and it's happening more and more right now. There are things that I have to think three times about before I say them on this platform because I know it's being recorded and I know it's being broadcast across the country. Because there's coming a time in our country where I will be jailed because of the things that I say from this platform.

And all I'm trying to do is talk about what this book says clearly and forthrightly. And there are preachers all over the place that don't even want to talk about half the book anymore because it gets them in trouble. Same thing's going to happen in your workplace. You could lose your job over it. It'll no longer just be, well, I think he's kind of a little the crazy religious guy in our office. You may lose your expense account, your company car, and your pension over this issue of saying I'm going to stand up for what's right.

It's no longer about, I'm just not going to compromise, it's about I'm going to stand up for truth. It will cost you in your family. According to Matthew chapter 10, it can turn a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. It can take families and it can polarize those families. Not because you just won't go out with them and compromise, but because you're going to stand up for what's right.

You want to talk about being lightweights versus being a heavyweight. You want to talk about T-ball versus Major League Baseball. It's more about the offense than it is about the defense. It is about the agōnizomai of running toward the goal line and not just trying to protect the football, but driving the football forward. Jesus said, though, there'll be a price tag attached.

Jesus said it so well in Matthew chapter 5. Let me turn here real quickly. Matthew chapter 5, sermon on the mount. He says the problem is if your whole commitment to Christ is a defensive commitment to say no to temptation, then what good are you here on earth? That's really the bottom line. In other words, if your whole thing is I just want to be godly and not commit any sins, I don't want to do any the wrong, I don't want to transgress any of the rules, then God might as well kill you this week, take you to heaven where you can live righteously for eternity.

But he's leaving you on the planet for a reason. Why? Because he wants you make a difference. Because you are, verse 13, supposed to be the salt of the earth. You're supposed to make a positive impact. You're not just supposed to avoid the wrong, you're supposed to move forward the truth of the Bible in the world.

Matthew 5:13. You're the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? You don't put sand on your popcorn, am I right? That's no good. Why would I want that? Little gritty sand and hey, pour some sand. I know it's not that salt, it doesn't really, I don't have there's no taste to it, but put it on there. Salt has to be salty or it's just sand, right?

It's no good. And the Bible says if you lose your saltiness, look at the second half of verse 13: it is no longer good for anything except, well, let's find a place to throw it out. And yeah, so it gets stepped on, doesn't really matter because it was really no good for its intended purpose. And if that didn't work for you, the analogy of light comes back here again, verse 14. You're the light of the world. And a city, if it's filled with lights at nighttime, it cannot be hidden. You're going to see it. It's impossible to hide that.

Neither do people, on a small scale where you could, it doesn't make any sense, you certainly shouldn't cover up light, verse 15. Neither do people light a lamp and then put it under a bowl. God has inflamed your heart for the truth, he wants you now to shine. That's the point. You wouldn't hide that under a bowl. Instead, you would want to put that in a prominent place to shine.

Put it on a stand so that it can give light to everyone in your office, in your cul-de-sac, in your family. He doesn't want you to be timid. He wants you to step out and shine. That's the point, verse 16. In the same way, let your light shine before men. What is that? Smile? Should I get my teeth whitened? Learn to bat my eyes and be nice?

Here's the definition of shining before men, are you ready? So that they may see your good deeds. It's not about just saying no to sin, avoiding sin. It's about doing good things. And the world's not going to crucify you for helping old ladies cross the street. That's not what we're talking about, okay? We're talking about the kinds of good deeds that shine the truth of the gospel, the truth of God's word into places that are dark.

This is not a license to be purposefully the office jerk. That's not what we're saying, right? Just be as annoying as you can be. That's not what this is trying to say. We should be shrewd about our Christian lives, but you ought to stand up for the truth. Do your people you hang out with all week, do they really know you're Christians? Not just talking about your friends. Do your coworkers know that you're Christians?

Do your coworkers know that not only are you committed to Christ, which means you don't do some things with them, do they know by what you say that you represent the truth? The Bible says the church is supposed to be, talk about a city set on the hill, the pillar and foundation of the truth. But individually, you go to work and you're now to be salt and light.

That's a stepping out, and that does cost. And the more our culture and our country continues to slide, the more it will be that you will be distinguished in righteousness and have to pay an increasing cost for that. Hey, in your struggle against sin, hey, in your resistance against it, in your agōnizomai to move the truth forward, you haven't shed any blood yet.

So let's not complain about the splinter. Let's be willing to take up the cross. Let's be willing to say, okay, God, you have called me to this and I'm going to do it.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Jesus's call to the disciples was just that. If anyone would come after me, what did he say? Let him deny himself, take up his cross. I understand in our context, your cross probably won't look like Peter's. You won't be probably skewered by your coworkers and stripped naked and crucified upside down in the parking lot of your office. That probably won't happen, okay?

But are you willing to incur the jeers, the ridicule, the talking behind your back? Maybe even for the sake of righteousness, would you be willing to let the chips fall wherever they may, even if it relates to your livelihood for the sake of the gospel? Oh, that's just not wise, Pastor Mike, that's just not wise. Well then you're calling the whole of the Christian Church and you're calling the whole of biblical history pretty much a bunch of foolish people that should have just been more diplomatic about their Christian lives. Come on, really?

I think we're the lightweights. I know we have, as C.S. Lewis said, a chronological snobbery and we think, well, if I were William Tyndale, I probably would have worked out a better way to get the Bible. They probably would have liked me. I'm liked. I'm the employee of the month this month, you know. Really? Maybe their commitment to truth outshines yours.

Maybe it's okay for us to feel a little inferiority for an hour and let that resonate for an entire week because it might motivate us to apply ourselves a little bit more. Not trying to create a martyr's complex in you, okay? Not trying to do that. I'm just trying to get us to the place of saying I'm willing to take up my cross, especially in light of what Christ has done for us.

It's an old hymn, wasn't even ever really super popular, but it was called Take Up Thy Cross. Maybe you remember it. Third verse read this way: Take up thy cross and follow me, I hear the blessed Savior call. How can I make a lesser sacrifice when he has given his all? Just a great simple truth.

Take up thy cross and follow me. I hear the blessed Savior call. How can I make a lesser sacrifice when he has given his all? Christ's cross was bloody, it was cruel, it was humiliating. And I'm thinking in light of what he's done to take our sins and blot it out, am I ready to take up my cross, which is really small in comparison?

My spiritual forefathers, the big leaguers of the Christian life, they've given a whole lot more than I have. Can I go a little further this week? Am I willing to be deprived of fulfilling my appetites? Am I ready to say I'm going to do the right thing and stand up for what's right even if it costs me? Could cost me my job, could cost me relationship, but I'm going to let the chips fall. Step out and make a difference this week in light of what Christ has done for us.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez and the end of a message called Reconsidering How Hard We're Willing to Fight. You can revisit today's lesson at focalpointradio.org. And the Focal Point app is another great listening option. It carries the whole sermon series with you, so a quiet moment to listen is never far away.

Now here's why we're pairing today's study with a book called Sinners in the Hands of a Good God by David Clotfelter. Most of us have felt small standing before a holy God, and plenty of teaching stops right there. Clotfelter pushes deeper. He walks through scripture holding two things together that we're tempted to separate: the real seriousness of sin and the real unshakable goodness of the God who saves sinners anyway.

If a God who is perfectly just and perfectly merciful has ever felt hard to reconcile, this book meets that question head-on. This is exactly the kind of resource we love putting into listeners' hands because it doesn't just inform, it strengthens faith. And that's only possible because of donors like you.

When you give to Focal Point today as a one-time gift or as a monthly Focal Point partner, you're not just supporting a radio program, you're extending sound Bible teaching to someone who may be searching for exactly this kind of clarity. Call 888-320-5885 or give online at focalpointradio.org and we'll send Sinners in the Hands of a Good God as our thanks. Rather mail your gift? Write to us at Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California 92654.

And if today marks your first time with us, welcome. We'd love to place a free copy of Pastor Mike's new booklet, Storing Up Treasures, in your hands as well. It's a brief, clear-eyed look at what changes when eternity shapes how we live right now. Reach out at focalpointradio.org or call us at 888-320-5885. Well, I'm Dave Druey. Coming up tomorrow, we'll begin a lesson on re-examining the nature of the church and gain a better understanding of God's loving discipline. That's Tuesday on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Hi, Pastor Mike here. God's word promises it'll never return void. So I wonder, how is God's word moving in your heart right now? Drop us a line, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to be praying for you here. Just go to focalpointradio.org. And then be sure to join us again tomorrow right here as we continue to explore the depths of scripture. We'll see you then.

Dave Druey: Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.