Focal Point

Mike Fabarez: Our God is a God who cares enough to discipline us. To put it in two words in the book of Peter: fear God. It's very simple. That's what Peter says. Not only that, the Apostle Paul says you are to work out your salvation with, you know the verse, fear and, just in case you didn't get what kind of uneasy feeling that is, and trembling.

Dave Drewry: Welcome to Focal Point with author and pastor Mike Fabarez. I'm your host, Dave Drewry. As followers of Jesus, we'd never want to do anything that would dishonor our Savior. We don't want to hurt the person we love. And yet, Hebrews 10 says there's one thing that we could do that tramples underfoot the Son of God. Today, Pastor Mike explains how we crush the grace of Jesus when we fail to take sin seriously. Pastor Mike has titled this message, "Motivated by the Fear of Being Phony."

Mike Fabarez: If you have your Bibles, I want you to open once again to the book of Hebrews. And I want you to open up to the 10th chapter. And we left off in this text after seeing in verse 22 that our primary calling is, once we get right with God, to seek with all of our might to draw near to God. Verses 24 and 25, we need each other in that quest and that you and I ought to help each other in that quest, which brings him into another thought.

After we've received the knowledge of the truth, we know what this thing is all about, we understand the purpose of the crucifixion, we get this thing called sin and its consequences, we know what this thing means if we are to be redeemed and forgiven. We get all that. We understand it. If we keep on deliberately sinning, then no sacrifice for sins is left.

We don't have it, we're not a part of it, we don't get the benefits of it. As a matter of fact, we're left, verse 27, with only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. He then makes an argument by comparison from lesser to greater. He says in verse 28, anyone in the Old Testament, if they rejected the law of Moses, they died.

It was a capital offense to thumb your nose at the truth of the prophet. You died without mercy. No one cried over you. They said, man, he deserves it. If he's going to turn his back on the prophetic word, he should be killed. They were killed without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. That's all it took. He says if that's the way it was dealt with in the old covenant, how much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has, now again, this is all hinged on verse 26, a deliberate life of sin after knowing what this is all about.

They are trampling the Son of God underfoot. They've treated as an unholy thing, like it was no big deal, the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and who has insulted the Spirit of grace. Grace was all about the free forgiveness that comes in the shadow of the cross, that God will forgive you. You don't earn it; you get it granted to you.

All of that, he says, is grace. But you know, when you continue to deliberately sin after understanding this equation, you insult the Spirit, capital S, of grace. For we know Him who said, now quoting Deuteronomy 32, "It is mine to avenge and I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge His people." We know Him, don't we? If we do, you need to understand verse 31: it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Now, those are verses that they don't choose very often for the Dayspring cards at the Christian bookstore. These are hard words. They're serious words. They're words that speak to the depth of the sin problem. Now, salvation was all about removing the problem of sin. It was about taking the penalty of sin off my account. It was about somehow relating to a holy God and having that God embrace me even though in my life I've sinned.

How does that work? Well, that's what the book of Hebrews has been all about. Embrace Christ, our great high priest. And if you do, because of His own sacrifice, not the animal, not the blood of a bull or a goat, but because of His own substitutionary sacrifice, you can be completely forgiven. And the text says, let's get back to the core issue. It's a sin issue. And we need to realize that that's a big deal.

And you know what the Spirit of grace, because it was all about grace, thinks of that? He is insulted if we don't take sin seriously. And you know what it means? Valuing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That that was costly. My forgiveness cost a lot. We need to learn to highly value the love of Christ. And you look at this picture, and here's the writer of Hebrews saying it's like you're trampling the Son of God underfoot.

It's like you're treating as unholy the blood, this precious blood of the innocent one. It's like you're saying it doesn't even really matter. And I'm looking at that and I'm thinking, there is a real passion in the pen of this writer, is there not? And I think about the fact that there are men in this audience right now who would probably go to fist-blows with other men if their wife was insulted in the parking lot.

If somebody deliberately sinned against them, I think there are men that would physically fight other people in standing up for the honor of their wife. I think there are some moms here that would pull some hair and yell and scream and kick and yell and raise their voice and scratch a few people in the face if the honor of their children was in some way defied or someone walked over their body like they didn't care.

I think they would look at their kids and say, I love my kids so much, if you walked on him and deliberately sinned against him, I would physically go after you. I think there are women here that would do that. So what's wrong with us, Christian, when we watch people do the same thing to the Son of God? What is our response? Well, I don't want to get involved and who am I? I'm not the Holy Spirit.

And I don't want them to think I'm a holy Jesus nut and, you know, I don't know, God will take care of it. He died for us to redeem us from sin. We watch people sin who claim to be Christians, and we stand by and say, "Well, you know..." Let's learn to highly value the love of Christ. Why? Well, verse 30. Composite group: you've got real Christians in the audience, you've got phony Christians in the audience.

Two quotations. Quotations interestingly enough, and maybe your footnote will say this in your Bible, it comes from Deuteronomy chapter 32 and they are sequential verses. It's the first part of verse 35 and the first part of verse 36 in Deuteronomy chapter 32. And the first verse that starts it here says, "It is mine to avenge and I will repay." Then there's another Hebrew phrase.

And then it says in the next verse, "The Lord will judge His people." Do you see that there are two audiences in view here? You would, you can take my word for it. You go home and study it. Be good Bereans. But in that text, the first verse is dealing with the enemies of Israel. God will judge the enemies of Israel. He'll judge the enemies, absolutely. And God will repay them.

And then the next verse turns attention to Israel. And you know what? The Lord will judge His people, too. There will be accountability there. Oh, there'll be extreme accountability to the enemies of God. They will be punished with God's retribution. And then there will be accountability for the house of Israel. And the Father who calls Himself the Father and Helper of Israel, guess what? He's concerned about how Israel lives and He will judge His people.

There are two judgments in view here. A judgment that involves punishment and a judgment that involves discipline and accountability. There's a judgment to the enemies of God that involve something that He describes in verse 27 as the raging fire that consumes the enemies of God. And then there's a judgment that involves the people of God. Why should I care about sin in my life?

Well, if I don't, I'm going to have to face the judgment of God, retribution. And if I am a Christian and I struggle with sin like you do, and it frustrates me, and I'm angry about it, and I repent of it, and I'm getting a little bit more holy than I was last year, and things are getting a little better here, but I still am grappling with this. And then I see others trample the blood of the Son of God underfoot because they don't care.

Why should I care about that? Well, one reason is because I'm going to stand before God and be judged. Different kind of judgment? Absolutely. And in the Bible, here's a little helpful note: we need to recognize the difference when we see the word judgment. Because the word in the New Testament, for instance, the word *krino* is used in both cases: the judgment of God's enemy in a place called the lake of fire, and the judgment of God's people giving an account for our lives.

Christians will be judged. Non-Christians will be judged. They're different kinds of judgment. And as I often say, there's a judgment that takes place at the Orange County courthouse that's a little different than the judgment that takes place at the Orange County Fair. They're two different kinds of judgment. But there's a judgment there. And they both, there's an evaluation. One is for punishment, one is for reward.

But also more than that, and the County Fair is not a good analogy here, there will be an answering and an accountability in giving an account for every idle and careless word. I will have to answer to my Father. The Bible says if you call on God, your Father, one who impartially judges, then you ought to live your lives with fear. You ought to have that sense of respectful dread, as Spurgeon said, holy anxiety.

You need to recognize that this text, and this isn't going to take any convincing, but from 26 to 31, the reason it's not on a Dayspring card is it's not intended to leave me with a good feeling. Would you agree with that? This whole text for Christians and non-Christians is going to leave me with a feeling of uneasiness. Let me introduce another word.

The word in scripture that describes an inner sense of uneasiness is the word fear, *phobos*. We get the word phobia of it. If you stand on a ladder up high on a ladder and you have a fear of heights, then you feel inside uneasy. It's not a pleasant feeling, right? That's an unpleasant feeling. If you stand before a judge and you've broken the law and he's about to decide how long you spend in the county jail, you have an uneasy feeling in your heart.

You need to understand just how judgment has two applications in scripture, *krino*, so the word *phobos*. *Phobos* in scripture has two applications in scripture. The non-Christian should fear. What do they have to fear? Well, according to verse 27, the judgment of God. Which judgment? The raging fire that consumes the enemies of God.

But you and I, according to verse number 30, we have a judgment to face. The Lord's people have a judgment to face. And that should also result in fear. A different kind of fear. Therefore, let's sum up our message this way. Number three on your outline: we are called in drawing near to God, verse 22, to love Him, but in loving Him, we are also to fear Him. And this passage hits the nail right on the head.

It leaves every reader with the sense of, "Ooh." It's called in verse 31 dread. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. A fearful thing. What does that mean? Well, I suppose for non-Christians, it's a really fearful thing because they're going to be punished. But you know what? For us, it's a fearful thing as well, because there will be an accountability.

When I was 16, if I were to come home late after curfew, I would fear my father. And you know what that would be? An internal feeling of uneasiness, particularly if when I drove into the driveway, the bedroom light came on. Ooh. Okay. That was at age 16. At age 18, I was living in downtown Chicago. I worked on Michigan Avenue selling shoes. I would walk home from Michigan Avenue to the college dorm that was about a mile away.

And you know, when I came home late after work, I had a different kind of fear. But I was fearful of the street gangs in downtown Chicago. I was afraid. Both of them were feelings of uneasiness. One is a feeling that when it comes to God, God doesn't want me to have. When John says perfect love casts out all fear, he clarifies the fear I'm talking about is the fear of punishment.

I am not going to be, in the technical sense, punished by God. But when I came home late from my curfew, I might receive, to be technically accurate, discipline. My dad didn't bring me into the garage and beat me to get back at me. That's what punishment is. It's retribution. It's leveling the score. It's justice. My father didn't want to instill justice in my life when I came home late as a 16-year-old.

He wanted to instill what? Discipline so that I might learn to do what is right. But you know, it caused in my heart, nevertheless, when the light came on and I drove in with my loud car, hoping to cruise in, turning it off about three houses before I drove up, I was trying to make sure that I didn't have to feel that because I wanted to sneak one by him. But here was someone who, light comes on. Oh, man. Ooh. Busted. Okay. Fear.

And I know some of you didn't grow up with a dad like that because you came and went whenever you pleased. And I feel sorry for you because you don't understand the God of heaven. Because the God of heaven is not some libertarian who just lets you do whatever you want. Our God, as we'll learn in chapter 12, is a God who cares enough to discipline us. And I praise God I had a dad that cared enough about me to discipline me.

And those of you that know what that's like, you understand God a little bit better than those in this modern age of lax rules and foolish, stupid parenting. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians don't understand that. And they think, well, if God is my Father, then I don't fear Him. Well, that's not true. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that we are to fear Him.

To put it in two words in the book of Peter: fear God. It's very simple. That's what Peter says. Not only that, the Apostle Paul says if you're now a Christian and you've embraced the remedy for sin as it relates to being obedient and saying no to sin in your Christian life, here's what he says: be obedient children, not just in my presence, be obedient children all the time, and you're proving to be.

And he says, you know what? You are to, this is Philippians 2:12, you are to work out your salvation with, you know the verse, fear and, just in case you didn't get what kind of uneasy feeling that is, and trembling. And that's when the light comes on late at night. Ooh. That's a trembling fear. God expects you to fear Him. And let me just say this. Turn me to a couple of quick passages.

Let me turn to the book of Acts. Look at this text, if you would, in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. It is God's intention for every church. If you can go to church week after week and all it is is bubblegum Tylenol every week and you never get a sense of dread before the living God, if you never leave going, "Ooh. Ooh. Our God is a consuming fire," which is where he goes, by the way, in the book of Hebrews.

He says that. We approach Him, we worship Him with reverence, guess what that word is? *Phobos*. With fear and awe because our God is a consuming fire. That's how we worship Him. With respect that's so respectful that it causes me to tremble. And you know what? It is God's intention for every church if the Holy Spirit has His way with Compass Bible Church or any other church listening to this on the radio or watching it on television, it will cause your church to stand in fear of God.

Can you love God and fear God? You must. Because we're called to love Him and we're also called to fear Him. One last passage. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians, make it 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7, after this great instruction in chapter 6 about why aren't we different, why don't we step out, why don't we live for God, why don't we live obediently, why don't we take sin seriously?

He says this, 2 Corinthians 7:1: "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us," now look at this, "purify ourselves." That's a kind of exerted effort to change my relationship with sin. "Purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit." Let's be holy people. "Perfecting," I love this phrase. Are you working on that? "Perfecting holiness out of," what does your Bible say? Guess what the word is? *Phobos*. Out of fear for God. Let's do that because we fear Him.

Lewis was on to something in *The Chronicles of Narnia* and you know the story. And thankfully it was popularized by the movie, but the book was far better. And if you read the book, you remember that last paragraph in that chapter dealing with that conversation that Lucy has with Mr. Beaver about Aslan. And she's frustrated because she said, "I expected that the king would be a man."

"Oh, he's not a man," Mr. Beaver says. "He's a lion. He's a great lion." Wow. Sounds scary. Remember the whole dialogue there? She says, "He doesn't sound very safe." And Mr. Beaver said, "Who said anything about safe?" "Oh, you mean he's not safe?" "No, he's not. Who said anything about safe?" He says, "He's not safe, but he's good."

And the combination of drawing near to a good God should leave us, as Lewis tried to teach us through the words of Mr. Beaver, because here's what he says. He says this, and I love this phrase, he says if anyone can stand before the great Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or they're just plain silly. And the problem with people today in church is that I don't think we've got people that are braver than most who can stand in the face of a holy God.

I think we've got a lot of silly people who think that God is their butler, He's their therapist, and we don't stand in awe of a great and awesome God who says, I spent the blood of My Son to forgive you of sin. Can you change your relationship to it? Can you work to perfect holiness in your life? Work at it. And when you see people claiming to be Christians and they just trample over the blood of Christ, could you stand up for the honor of My Son's death? Fear God. Fear God.

If that leads us to a little doubting, if that leads us to a little self-examination, let me close with the words of Spurgeon. He said, "I would rather go to heaven doubting all the way than to be lost through deceptive self-confidence." There is a holy fear, Spurgeon said, that must not be banished from the church of God. There is a sacred anxiety, I love that phrase, which puts us to question.

It forces us to examine ourselves to see if we're of the faith. And that fear must not be disdained. Let us learn if the Holy Spirit gets a hold of our church to stand in awe and reverence for the holy God. Let's pray. God, we need Your help. We need Your Spirit to work in our lives. We need our hearts to get a clearer and more accurate biblical picture of who You are.

We praise You, God, it's of no genius of our own. It's Your work in our church. But we do praise You that we have chosen to move passage by passage through the book of Hebrews. That we're not skipping around because certainly if we were and we were trying to preach pleasant and good-tasting messages, we would certainly skip this text. But we can't if we're committed to preaching and teaching, learning and living the whole counsel of God.

But we are thankful, God, for what it can do in our hearts. So help us, Lord, to have a proper respect, a kind of respect that is so intense that when we stand before You, our knees knock just a little bit. And we recognize that You're a great God, an awesome God, a consuming fire. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And we know that the enemies, the counterfeits, will face You in judgment.

And we know that when we drive our lives into the driveway of the kingdom, the light will come on and You will walk out and examine our lives. And for that, God, we just look to that day with a bit of holy anxiety as Spurgeon put it. And we want to be careful and circumspect and questioning and looking into our lives with a bit more precision than the kind of folly and silliness that so often captivates modern Christianity.

Help us, God, lead us to another level of understanding of who You are and another level of being in step with the Holy Spirit and living up to the high calling to which You've called us to be holy as You're holy. God, we know we're in process. We know it's a process of purification, that we can't just snap our fingers or You just don't do some miraculous work that makes us never sin again.

It's a battle until the day we reach the kingdom. But between now and then, God, we want to do our best. We want to be encouraging one another and all the more as we see the day of driving our lives into Your presence approaching. God, we want to encourage each other. We want to help each other. So God, I pray that that would be the reality. And ultimately, we'd find ourselves day after day, week after week, and year after year drawing nearer and nearer to You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Dave Drewry: It's a proper awareness of our sin and our need for grace that drives us closer to the Lord. You're listening to a study in Hebrews from Mike Fabarez today on Focal Point, and it's called "Motivated by the Fear of Being Phony." Look for this message online at focalpointradio.org.

This month, Pastor Mike is recommending a book titled *The Pursuit of God* by A.W. Tozer. And it's a natural fit with everything we've been working through in Hebrews. In just a few short chapters, Tozer draws a line that most of us need to sit with. There's a difference between knowing about God and actually knowing Him. He writes with a kind of holy urgency that reminds us the time to meet with God is now.

If you've been tracking with us through this series and feeling compelled by what Christ has done, this book gives direction for how to respond today. Request *The Pursuit of God* when you give over the phone by dialing 888-320-5885 or go online to focalpointradio.org. You can also send your donation by mail. Just write to Focal Point, Post Office Box 2850, Laguna Hills, California, 92654.

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I'm Dave Drewry. Be sure to tune in tomorrow when Pastor Mike Fabarez explains how a closer relationship with God can happen when we imitate our early days of faith. An encouraging message Thursday here on Focal Point.

Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. Ever wish you could corner your pastor and challenge him with your toughest questions about the Bible, about faith? Well, now you can. Send me your questions. Head on over to focalpointradio.org and click on "Ask Pastor Mike" or send me a note on facebook.com/pastormike or twitter.com/pastormike. I can't wait to hear from you.