Stay the Course: The Urgency of Knowing Christ - Hebrews 1:1-4

2:58We're asked the question: how does God speak to people? Me. That question can be answered right here today. It's through a method that we can know who God is. It's through a method that we can know what he's up to and how what he says applies to our everyday lives. That's the book of Hebrews. It's through this method that we can know God. We know the author addressed three categories of people in the book of Hebrews. He addressed those who are fully converted Jews, meaning they were genuinely saved Christians. There's another group he addressed here, and it's Jews who had heard the gospel. They'd been exposed to the gospel, and they displayed a marginal interest in the gospel and who God is, but they weren't yet saved. They were still listening. And then, third, there were Jews who had heard the gospel and had somewhat been exposed to Christ, but they were high-handedly rejecting him. And so we see in the book of Hebrews that the author is interacting with these three categories of people. The book of Hebrews is a book of exhortation towards discipleship. It's an exhortation of shepherding. And I think at EBC, we could do well to understand a little bit more about discipleship, a little more about shepherding, to understand God's heart for the people, God's heart for the nations. When this letter was written to the church, the church had only existed for about 30 years. And you have to think that the first readers of this book, they They probably never saw Jesus, most of them. They never heard Jesus speak. And so the author wants to tell us how we hear from God in this text. Hebrews tells us that what we know about God is by what he communicated to us through the fathers, the prophets, and the New Testament apostles. We must read this letter with a kind of sense of urgency that the first readers would have read it. Again, they hadn't met Jesus face to face, most of them. And there was this urgency. They wanted to know how God speaks to them. And so do we.

5:11This was a time of emperor worship, and it was mandatory. If you did not worship the emperor, there was a serious price to pay, up to and including death. And this is the society that these believers lived in. And so you got these three categories. Are you going to keep living for Christ? Are you going to just listen to the message and think about it later? Or do you hear the message and just say, I'm out of here? That's John chapter 6. We'll look at that tonight. Come back. He wants them to know how God speaks to them.

5:45We know that what they went through was a serious bit of persecution. They endured heart-wrenching periods of great pain and suffering, persecution, and even. Seizure of their properties, which they willingly gave up. They placed an infinitely higher value of God's glory on God's glory than their temporal belongings and life. We can learn from that, can't we? It's about God's glory. It's not about me or my stuff. He starts out the book saying, God. The focus is on God.

6:27I'm certain that if you and I were among these first readers, you would have been wondering, maybe more than scratching your head, you would have been asking the question, where is God in all of this struggle? I've given my life to Christ. I refuse to bow down to the Emperor and worship Him, and I'm suffering for it. God, where are you? You ever feel that question welling up from your heart, your soul? You ever pray that God, He would answer you in times when you most need Him to resolve issues in your life, your most heart-wrenching circumstances? God, where are you?

7:10They were being held to account for their faith, and it was hard back then. It was very hard. In times when there seems to be no way out, no possible way of escape. Well, that's a portrait of these Christians as they agonized, but their afflictions had not yet included death. But martyrdom was looming on the horizon, that's for sure. And that's why this text is so important. It starts with God. The purpose of today's message. Here's what I want you to be thinking about as we go through the text here: your knowledge of Christ must be accurate. And there's a reason so that you do not fall away from the living God. Think about that. Is your knowledge of Christ, what you know about him, is it true? Is it reflective of the Scripture, or is it just, I think I think what is, I think I'm right. What category of the three do you fall into?

8:13Well, place your focus, your thoughts, on two truths that will keep you from falling away from the living God. And here's really just kind of how I'm breaking up the text here. First, the majesty of Christ demands our attention. The majesty of Christ demands our attention. We see that in verses 1 through 4. And then we're going to get to verses 12 through 13 and chapter 3 in a moment, but it's the magnitude of your salvation must be cultivated. It must be cultivated. You just can't, you know, pray some prayer and think that life is good and you're going to heaven, and that's it. That's not how the Hebrews were addressed here. That's not how the people in John 6 were addressed. There's something beyond just utterances of words. The majesty of Christ demands our attention.

9:00It certainly does. Verses 1 through 4. The majesty of Christ can be understood by knowing three characteristics about him. Three of them. Here they are. I'll just put them on the screen. We'll go through each one of them individually, but suffice it to say, the first one is knowing Christ through what he says. It's in verses 1 and 2. And then knowing Christ through what he does. Verses 2 and 3. And then knowing Christ through what he has become. You see that in verses, well, actually, just verse 4. So let me just take these one at a time. Knowing Christ through what he says. Take a look at verse 1. Let me just read it. Verse 1. I'll read it again. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways. According to verse 1, we have a clear proclamation from the Holy Spirit about how God communicates to us. If you want to know God, then you need to know how he communicates to you.

10:02So how did he speak? How did he do it? How did he speak to the prophets? How is he speaking to us? That's the question. First of all, the writer defines really two time periods, doesn't he? Two time periods. Do you see it in the text there? That demonstrate when he spoke to us? Glance down at verse 1 again. You'll see it there. It's so clear. Verse 1, notice again that God spoke to us long ago. Long ago. He's writing this. In the first century, it was long ago from even then. Notice verse 2 has an indication of when God spoke to us. When? Second one is in these last days. He's speaking through his son. If you're going to have an accurate knowledge of Christ so that you don't fall away from the living God, then you must know something about who God communicated to long ago and also in these last days.

10:57Good news is that the text tells us God spoke long ago, or who he spoke to long ago. It's right there in the text again. He spoke to the fathers and the prophets. The text also tells us that there were many methods by which God spoke to us long ago. It says in many portions and in many ways God spoke to us. We need to keep in mind that God spoke to the fathers in the prophets in the Old Testament books. There's 39 of them. But how did he speak to us through them? Here's some examples. God spoke directly to people like Adam, to people like Noah and Moses. God used men to communicate for him to us through poetry, through visions and dreams. We can read about it in the scriptures. He even used the donkey to speak to Balaam, didn't he? That's how God spoke. You can read about it in the text. It's so fascinating to look at these. Even evil dictators like Nicodemus, who admitted that God and his kingdom is Everlasting to Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, God wrote a message on the wall about the coming destruction of his kingdom. These are many portions, and in many ways, that God spoke to us. There are so many more. That God spoke to the fathers through the prophets is also long ago doesn't mean that he no longer speaks to us through these prophets. All we have to do is pick up the text, right? Paul tells us he still speaks to us through the Old Testament. It's true. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, such a familiar verse if you've been around the church for more than an hour, right? All scripture is inspired by God, profitable for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. He's referring to the Old Testament. It's inspired by God. Well, there's a second period of time that God spoke to us, and it's there in verse 2. It's in these last days. It's in these last days. The Old Testament fathers and prophets, they received parts and portions of God's word, of God's communication, but none of them received the full and complete revelation and the communication that the Lord received.

13:17Who is it? Verse 2. In these last days has spoken to us in who? In his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom. Also, he made the world. In these last days, he spoke to us in his son. He's still speaking to us in his son. We take out our Bibles and we can read them and we can say, He's speaking to us. Do you see how God speaks to you? He speaks through Jesus. God uses His Son to speak to you because His Son, as we see in this text so clearly, is superior to everything. God uses His Son to speak to you because His Son, again, is much more magnificent, much more superior than the Old Testament prophets. That doesn't minimalize what they said or what they wrote, but He's speaking through His own Son. You say, Well, I don't hear Jesus speaking to me.

14:17I mean, Jesus might say, If you don't hear me speaking to you, are you opening the pages of Scripture every day? You've heard me say this before, but I want to hear him speak out loud. Well, read out loud, and you'll hear him speak to you. John 6:68. I love this. Peter says, You alone have the words of eternal life. Jesus, where else would we go? Jesus asked him, Do you guys want to leave me? He says, You have the words of eternal life. Where else would we go? Jesus has the words of eternal life. Read it in the scripture.

14:57Let me give you a few short lists. Or a short list of some things that God tells you through Jesus. You already know them well. He says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall what? They'll receive mercy. To Nicodemus, and by extension to us, he says, You must be born again. Do you hear him speaking to you when you read that text? You must be born again. Jesus tells the false teachers that they're like ravenous wolves in Matthew 7.

15:29He tells you that you will be hated because of his name. And here the Hebrews are in a land of required emperor worship. They're hated because of Jesus' name. Jesus says, if you believe in him, you must deny yourself and take up your cross daily. Jesus tells us to forgive not once, but 70 times seven. Jesus is speaking to us today through the scriptures. In other words, never stop forgiving. Isn't it interesting? When he was on the cross, he's about to die, and he prays a prayer of forgiveness for the people right in the very act of killing him. And in Acts chapter 2, we see more than 3,000 people among those who put him on the cross, repenting of their sin and coming to Christ.

16:19God answered his prayer. What else does Jesus say? He says in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but Through me. Jesus also speaks to us through his New Testament apostles. He sent them. They are his ambassadors, and so they speak on his behalf. Glance back again at Hebrews 1:2. Notice, in these last days, he speaks to you. How? Through his son. We said that the majesty of Christ can be understood by knowing three characteristics about him. We've already seen that we can know Christ through what he says. Now it's through what he does. What he does. And we can see that here. You can know Christ's majesty by really understanding six things, what he does. And it's all there in the text. You know, those, my mother used to wear this. It was kind of embarrassing. The sports buttons, you know, that's my boy. The pictures, you know what I'm talking about, all right? So it had the ribbon on there with a gold, you know, that's my boy, or maybe something that was cool about the kid, or that's my girl. Well, my mom wore those things, and I got to thinking as I read this text, I'm thinking, you know, we're still in the Christmas season. What would Mary say about her son on that button if she could, right? Look at the text. That's my boy. He created the universe. How do you compete with that?

17:50That's my boy. He's heir of all things. That's my boy. He shines forth God's glory. That's my boy. That's my boy. His character is exactly like God's character. Wow. That's my boy. He purifies people from their sin. That's my boy. His power sustains the world. Right. Wow. Or what about the rest of the chapter? That's my boy. He's not an angel. He's better than the angels. That's what this text is about. It's a presentation of the superior nature of who Christ is. That's the majesty of Christ. Take another look at verse 2. Jesus is the creator. This speaks of Jesus' deity, doesn't it? Jesus is God. Look, if you ever have the cultist at your doorstep and they say to you that Jesus isn't God, take him to the creation passages of all places. The word world in the NSB or universe in the NIV is helpful in that text, but another translation could be ages. But even ages doesn't quite paint the picture of what the author is saying here. This word is, in the Greek, it's ionos, or you might say the eons of time. Past, present, and future, but it also means space. It means physical universe, not just the earth, but not just the visible heavens, but the whole created universe. As you read your Bible, your thoughts should fly immediately to the first sentence of the Bible.

19:23God created the heavens and the earth, but we see right here in Hebrews that Jesus is God. He created the heavens and the earth. He created him. Everything. Well, how could this be? Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28, was written over 700 years before Jesus. Do you know what it says? Isaiah 40, verse 28. I'll quote it for you. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord. That's Yahweh, capital L-O-R-D in the Hebrew, Yahweh. The everlasting God, the Lord, Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. And yet we read throughout the New Testament that Jesus is the creator. In John 1, we just, Pastor just read it a moment ago, we find that Jesus created everything.

20:16The Apostle John writes, all things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing. He didn't use an exception clause there. Nothing came into being that has come into being. Colossians 1.16, we find this about Jesus, by all things. By him, all things were created, both the heavens and the earth, visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. All these things tell us that Jesus is Yahweh of the Old Testament. We see this again tonight. Please come back tonight as we look at the bread of life again in John 6. We see it so clearly. That he created bread right in the palms of the hands of the disciples to hand out to 15,000, 20,000 people. He's the creator.

21:09What else does Jesus do in Hebrews 1:3? Jesus, see it right there. Jesus at this very point in time is radiating God's glory. He is radiating God's glory. Well, what does radiating God's glory mean? What is that? Let me explain it to you this way: the sun radiates light, doesn't it? The moon is a reflection of light. It doesn't radiate light. The moon reflects the light from the sun. So you say, well, so what? Who cares? Again, there's some cults out there that don't want you to believe that Jesus is God, and so we see that he radiates God's glory here. They don't want you to think that. They want you to think that he's like the moon. He simply is a reflection of God's glory. But it's so much more than that. He radiates God's glory. We can understand his majesty, the majesty of Christ, because he radiates God's glory. What do we know about this radiating light? Is it seen elsewhere in Scripture? Of course it is. This is the kind of light that Saul probably saw in Acts chapter 9, verse 3, when he was on his way to extradite some Christians from Damascus down to Jerusalem, 135 miles to the south. And all of a sudden, God stops him. Jesus stops him, and there's this light that blinds him. That's the kind. Of light we're talking about. He radiates light. He doesn't reflect it. This is the kind of light in Matthew 17 that is radiated from Jesus when he's transfigured right in the presence of Peter, James, and John. He radiates light. When Jesus' face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.

22:53There's another thing that Jesus does in Hebrews 1.3. You can see it in the text. Hebrews 1.3, Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature. The exact representation. The word representation speaks of a minted coin. It speaks of a mint or a mold that ensures the exact representation of itself. Notice that Jesus is described in the way that he represents God. In John 14, 9, he says this, John 14, 9, he who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? He's saying, you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He's the exact representation. Do you know Jesus? Do you know him? Notice what else Jesus does in Hebrews 1.3. Do you see it there? He holds up all things by the word of his power. That's my boy. He's all-powerful.

23:54He's all-powerful. The word upholds tells us that Jesus is upholding. He's bearing. He's caring. He's sustaining everything. Do you know him? Is he your comfort? Is he your guide? Follow along with this. Jesus not only created everything, he's God's exact representation. He's upholding and caring and sustaining and cleansing you. When you think that the world is falling apart all around you, remember that if you know Christ, you know God Almighty. He has you firmly shielded by the grip of his hands, and no one can snatch you from him. Nobody. We know this from John 10, 28. Nobody can snatch you away. Remember, we said that the majesty of Christ can be understood by knowing three characteristics. Well, what's the third one? Knowing Christ through what he's become. Isn't that interesting? Knowing him through what he's become. Verse 4.

24:54Having become as much better than the angels, he hasn't inherited a more excellent name than they. That's my boy. He's not an angel. He's better than them. He's inherited a better name than them. He outranks the angels, which means he outranks the messengers of God. Watch how God presents his son as superior to the angels. I'm just going to scrape the tip of the iceberg here with chapter 2. And I want you to see how he's greater than the angels. He's not an angel. He's greater than them. Watch this, verse 5.

25:30Which of the angels did God ever say? Now, I want you to notice something here. You're going to see three, or excuse me, seven rhetorical questions that the author of Hebrews mounts up and he says, To which of the angels has he ever said these things? There's seven of them. And the immediate answer to each one would be no answer. Jesus is greater. Jesus has become much better, much more prominent than the angels. Verse 5: For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. That's a quote from Psalm chapter 2. And again, I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. And when again he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God worship him. Angels didn't worship angels, but they worshiped Jesus.

26:21And of the angels, he says, Who makes his angels wins and his ministers a flame of fire? But of the Son, he says, Your throne, do you see it there? The Father is saying to the Son, your throne, O God, is calling Jesus God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning, what did he do? He laid the foundation of the. Foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. Speaking about Jesus, they will perish, but you remain. They will become old like a garment, like a mantle, and you will roll them up. Like a garment, they will also be changed, but you are the same. Your years will not come to an end. To which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? The answer is: he didn't say any of this to any of the angels. Jesus is superior to the angels, to the messengers.

27:34Jesus is God, he is superior to the angels. Here's the takeaway: knowing Christ by what he says and does and who he has become is the perfect motivation for really cultivating a relationship with him, isn't it? That brings us to the second significant truth. To keep you from falling away from God, to keep you falling away from the living God, the magnitude of your salvation, it must be cultivated. It must be grown. It must be one that is watered and nourished. Jesus says he's the bread of life, and you must eat from the bread of life. We see that in John 6 again tonight. Turn over to chapter 3 with me, Hebrews chapter 3. I'm just going to read from verses 12. Through 14.

28:34Let me just introduce it by saying this. We saw the theology of who Jesus is. Now we're going to see the practical application of what do we do with who Jesus is. Watch this. Take care, my brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another. Day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

29:16Remember, I said that Hebrews is a book about discipleship. It's about shepherding. In this text, we see a snapshot of the importance of encouraging others for God's glory. We call that shepherding. We call it discipleship. I want you to think about this. Starting late January and into February, we're going to spend some time in the evening services. I'm going to stretch a little bit here. I want you to be here. I want you to see God's heart for shepherding. I want you to see God's passion for loving one another, for discipling, caring, and shepherding for one another. You're going to see that it's not just the pastors. It's not just the elders who do shepherding and discipling. You're going to see right here in this text that it's all our responsibility. Please come and be a part of that as we encourage others to walk with Christ. Well, the writer gives us three directives about the urgency about discipleship. There's three of them. You can see it right there on the screen. First, we're going to look at an observation of danger. There's the danger here. We're going to look at it. We're going to see an exhortation to take action. And then we're going to talk about holding fast to the truth until when? Until the very end. Until the very end. So the words that are in that text there, you see them in verse 12, the words, take care. Take care. You may not see that in your text, but this is a command. It's an imperative. You could also say, see to it.

30:45Look, see to it. In fact, the word is actually a word that talks about looking and seeing. And it's a command. He says, do this. This is like the yellow road sign screaming, caution, there's danger ahead. Though you may not see the train barreling down the tracks, you're probably seeing some lights. You're probably hearing bells and whistles going off. And it's a deafening horn commanding you to watch out. That's how this passage starts out. Watch out.

31:19Take care. And stop thinking of yourself. Think about others. That's what he's saying here. Watch out. What must your observation tell you from the text? That among you, that among you, you are to notice and to take notice of people amongst you as having an evil heart, an unbelieving heart. It's a command. Look for it. Encourage them. Second, a good shepherd exhorts to take action. Exhorts to take actions. Do you see the words there? Right there in the text? Any one of you?

32:05It implies they're all exposed to the gospel and all are key on this word, professing believers. They're exposed to it. They're hanging around still. They're not like the people in John 6 later on who took off and left. They're still hanging around. And he says, we see here that we must observe that the words aren't supported by their unbiblical actions. Their words aren't supported by their unbiblical actions. Talk is cheap. You're to notice that their Christianized words don't resemble the believing heart in verse 12. Rather, it resembles something else, an unbelieving heart, a heart that's falling away. Falling away from what? The living God.

32:52The living God that we read about in chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. You're to shepherd them. You are to teach them. You are to care for them. You are to urgently take action and encourage them. That word encourage, I love this word. I'm sure you've heard this Greek word before. Para-kaleo. It's used of the Holy Spirit to be an encourager. To be an encourager. Kaleo means to call. Para means to call alongside. Put it together: it's call somebody alongside yourself and encourage them. It means to comfort, to exhort, it means to warn.

33:38It means to reprove. I'll make a bold statement here. A parent who doesn't warn his or her child about these things is a lousy parent. And a fellow believer in Christ who doesn't walk with their brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling is a lousy Christian. That's why he's calling the one and others here to encourage one another. Notice verse 13. The believers are good shepherds as they encourage who? One another. As we encourage each other. I love this church. Nobody leaves the doors here when it's all done. We pray, and it's like an hour later, you go home. But we all stay and we encourage each other. Not an hour. You can stay an hour if you want. Look, shepherding and discipleship. Is not the only responsibilities that pastors and elders do. I've said this before, it's the responsibility of all believers. This passage is addressed to more than pastors and elders, it's addressed to all of us. Notice verse 13: that discipleship and shepherding is a regular occurrence. In fact, it's a daily process. You say, Yeah, but how many days does God want me to watch out for other people?

34:56Do you see the answer in verse 13? It's so clear. He says, Day after day. Literally, what that says is, each and every day, encourage people, exhort them, admonish them. You say, Yikes, for how long does God want me to stand alongside other people and encourage them? That, too, is in the text. As long as the particular day you're living in is designated today. That's pretty clear. Be an encourager every day for the rest of your life. If you're a Christian, this is what you've signed up for.

35:34Get off the sidelines and encourage one another. Shepherding, discipleship. The goal is the living God. You say, well, why do I have to do all this? Why do I do this? Once again, your answer is found in verse 13. Sow that. Do you see it there? Sow that. So that none of you, that includes me and you, Will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The wickedness of sin. Do you see that? The last part of verse 13: sin is deceitful.

36:13Eve saw the fruit on the tree, and she's like, Man, I've got to get me some of that. It's deceitful. Don't touch it. In our Ephesians Sunday school class, we just looked at the text that commands us to not be deceived. Don't be deceived. Don't be suckered in by the allurement of sin, because those who do fall away from who? The living God. There's another reason to not be hardened against God by the deceitfulness of sin, and it's found in verse 14. And that really brings us to the third urgency of discipleship: to hold fast to the truth until the end. We shouldn't be hardened against God by the deceitfulness of sin, and there's a reason there. It's because we're to hold fast to the truth because we have become partakers of Christ.

37:12There's a caveat there. There's an exception there. Not everyone has become a partaker of Christ. This is made so clear. I keep referencing John 6 because as I spent time in this text this week, my mind was going back and forth with John 6. Remember, and John 6, there were people who were called, Jesus called them disciples. That means they were learners. They were being taught by him. It doesn't mean that they trusted him or believed in him.

37:43It's no different in Hebrews here. In John 6, and in Hebrews, there is that kind of people who are just kind of sitting there, taking in all the information, but not assimilating it in their lives. In John 2, there were people who believed in Jesus in John 2, 23 and 24, but Jesus says he wasn't entrusting himself to them. In other words, he wasn't believing in them. What is it about the belief systems that the people in Hebrews have, and John 6 has, that is not saving belief? Doesn't that scare you?

38:19Are there things I believe about God that aren't biblical? Are there things that I believe about God that I can't prove from Scripture? Am I wrong about my thoughts about God? That's who he's writing to here in Hebrews amongst those people. Verse 14 tells us this only applies to those who hold fast to the assurance, confidence, conviction of the truth firmly until when? When? How long do they do this? I love it. Until the end. Until the end. Until your very last breath.

38:57Until your very last breath. Stay the course. Stay the course. It's clear that Emmanuel is growing. We are a growing church. We're a vibrant church, and we can expand our facilities, and we can make our buildings look better, and we can have soccer fields, and we can have this or that all day long, but unless we're prepared to cultivate the growth of God's people and their lives and their homes and their places of work, then we've failed. This text is so important. Day to day, every single day, encourage people in their walk with the Lord. It's vital that we shepherd one another, encourage one another for a reason so that people's hearts aren't heartened by the deceitfulness of sin. It's so alluring, isn't it? So alluring.

39:43Worse that any one of us would fall away from the living God and lose their salvation. That's not what he's saying here. They never had it. They were exposed to the truth. They sat in the pews, they sat in the comfortable chairs, and they listened along for days, weeks, months, a lifetime. They never knew him. They walked away from the living God. And that's why I'm asking you to be here for our shepherding series. It's going to start late January. It's going to go into February. And we're going to look at specific texts in Scripture that talk about the importance of shepherding, of discipling one another. We're going to talk about some practical ways to do it. You say, I don't know, I've learned. Wanted to do this all my life. I keep hearing the same message, pounded over and over again, but I don't know how.

40:37And you need to come. You need to be here Sunday nights, late January through February. We're going to talk about this. Well, what have we learned today from this text? Your knowledge of Christ must be accurate for a reason so that you don't fall away from the living God. And it's not just about you. It's not just about me. It's about the one sitting next to you, behind you, people you haven't met yet to not fall away from the living God.

41:08We looked at two significant ways to keep from falling away from the living God. The majesty of Christ demands our attention. In these last days, he speaks to you through Christ. He speaks to us in the Old Testament through various portions and in many ways. Pick up the Old Testament. The gospel is there. The magnitude of your salvation, it's got to be cultivated. You have to grow in Christ. You have to challenge others to do the same. Encourage them. Be a friend. Love people because as you love people, you express your love for God. Let's pray. Father, you are the one who is indeed magnificent, and your Son is preeminent. You have spoken to us. You've given us these books and the Bible so we can hear you talk.

42:01We can trust the authors because you sent them and you inspired them. The words that we have are authoritative. They are inerrant and we can trust in them. Lord, we dare not trust in our own little inklings and our own God told me this or God told me that. We can go to your word and we can hear directly from you rather than being sent astray by something we think we hear that's not backed up by your word. Lord, would you lead us to be those shepherds, those one-and-oh's that you've called us to be, that we would love people because we love you and walk them through this process, Father. Because you're the living God.