Sermons
“Why I Left the Lord”
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I'll be reading Hebrews from chapter 10, starting in verse 19 to 453, and I'll be reading from the New King James version.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of the faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice of sins for sins.
But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses's law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace.
For we know him who said vengeance is mine.
I will repay, says the Lord, and again, the Lord will judge His people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
This week will mark 2 milestones in my life.
Debbie and I were married on May 2nd, 1980.
And so at the end of this week, on Friday, we will complete 45 years of wedded bliss.
That's what it says in the outline, and you know Debbie writes the outlines.
So you don't have to ask her.
In 1980, May 2nd also fell on a Friday.
And we were married and stayed that evening in Champaign Urbana, Illinois, and then drove down to Benton, Illinois on Saturday where I began preaching full time.
At the Crawford congregation.
And so, on Saturday of this week, I will also complete my forty-fifth year of preaching full time.
Like many of you, when you have those kinds of milestones come up in your life, sometimes you're tempted to kind of look back over the past and And reminisce about things that have happened and good things, bad things.
And so, in recent weeks, I've been thinking about some of the people that Debbie and I have worked with over those years.
Every time we moved from one congregation to another, we left close friends behind.
I preached funerals and weddings for their family members.
We work side by side in the gospel with many of these people.
But unfortunately, over the years, we've also experienced the heartache that comes from watching brothers and sisters leave the church and go back into the world.
The most common metaphor that we use to describe one another in a local congregation is brothers and sisters.
In fact, we'll sometimes refer to people as brother so and so or sister so and so.
And that metaphor calls to our memory, our remembrance, the fact that we belong to a common spiritual family.
And when someone leaves a family, whether physical or spiritual.
There's heartache.
It's traumatic.
Today, I want to share some of the reasons that I have been given over the years for those who left the church.
Not everybody leaves the church in the same way, you're probably well aware of that.
Sometimes the leave taking is rather sudden or unexpected maybe is the better way to say that.
No one seems to be aware of that member or that family's impending exit, they just leave.
And sometimes the only sign of their decision to leave the congregation is that they just suddenly stopped attending or showing up for worship or congregational Bible classes.
And then someone calls upon the absentee or absentees to inquire about the absence or to encourage, and they're informed that, oh, we have no intention of continuing as members of that congregation.
With others, the process of exiting is a more gradual thing.
It may be a rather lengthy process.
In fact, they don't seem to be as involved as they were in the past, and they begin to miss occasionally.
Then the absences become more frequent until it seems they're hardly attending at all.
And then finally when asked about this pattern of absences.
They revealed that they have no further interest in being a member of the church.
And so they just kind of gradually slip away, sometimes without a whole lot of notice by others.
Now, I fully realize that sometimes the reason that a person or a family might leave a congregation is that they're going to go and become members of a different congregation.
It may be a job change or a change of location, or it may just be that they feel that they can be of more benefit to that congregation than say the congregation of which they were currently a member.
Legitimate reasons.
For leaving one congregation and going to another.
But that's not what I'm talking about today.
I want to talk about people who have decided to leave the church.
Sometimes when the exit is sudden.
It's prompted or motivated by some event in the congregational life.
It may be that there's some sort of controversy.
Uh, it may be a controversy or some division.
Over doctrinal matters or sometimes it's just differences of opinion.
And one of the things I've noted over the years is that the people who seem to suffer the most in those kinds of situations are young Christians.
They may be all aflame with their passion for Christ.
They, they obeyed the gospel and then they are just absolutely distraught because they see older Christians, and I mean people who have been Christians much longer than they have, not necessarily age-wise, older people.
They see those people acting in ways that they even they understand or not the way a Christian should behave.
I have seen In the past, young Christians, just destroyed by what they perceived.
To be sinful behavior on the part of people that they had looked up to.
And who had even in some cases mentored them.
Hurt feelings sometimes happen.
Somebody said something to me that was hurtful and Or maybe I didn't get included in some social function.
Now my feelings are hurt.
Now, it may be that someone's being too sensitive.
I think that's a possibility.
But instead of expressing their feelings and continuing to develop relationships, they just leave the congregation.
I'll go someplace else.
I think another reason that sometimes people leave suddenly is their sin has now become widely known.
It may even be that they have made a public declaration of their sin, a confession.
But the shame for their sin is just so difficult to bear.
They feel like everyone's watching them, looking at them, and remembering what they had done.
In 2 Corinthians, the 2nd chapter.
In verse 7, Paul alludes to the discipline that had been carried out by the Corinthian congregation.
Against one of their members.
And Paul cautions those individuals about what comes next when discipline is actually effective.
He says in verse 153, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.
It's important not only that we encourage people to confess sin, but that we accept them as forgiven individuals once they do that.
Hopefully we do that.
But it seems to me that it's probably more common that people leave gradually.
And I have over the years.
Heard several reasons given for leaving the church.
After a more gradual exit.
There are just too many hypocrites in the church.
I know that's almost a cliche, but I've heard that said to me.
Well, I, I just, uh, I don't want to be associated with hypocrites.
Some who leave, I think.
Feel the need to find something wrong with the congregation.
So that they can justify their own actions and so they, they're gonna pick on the other members, whatever flaws and failings they have, so that they feel justified in not associating with that group anymore.
So there's too many hypocrites in the church.
Well, it's quite possible that a local congregation might have some members who are hypocritical in their behavior.
The Pharisees, we learned from Matthew chapter 23, were often guilty of hypocrisy.
Jesus characterized them as a group that way.
He calls them hypocrites and blind guides several times in Matthew chapter 23.
In the sermon on the mountain in Matthew the 6th chapter, the verse 16 verses 18 verses are concerned with doing good and praying and fasting and Jesus cautioned the disciples that he was speaking to.
about playing the hypocrite of doing things only to be seen by others for the praise of others.
I think Jesus' warnings suggests that's a legitimate danger for those, even those who would try to serve God.
In Galatians the 2nd chapter.
In verses 11 through 14, Paul rebuked another apostle, Peter, as you recall.
Because he played the hypocrite on one occasion.
The fact of the matter is we are not perfect people.
We're forgiven people if we belong to the Lord's church, but we're not perfect people.
We're all in at various uh points in the journey toward moral perfection, but we won't reach that.
John wrote, if anyone says that he has no sin, the truth is not in him.
He's a liar.
We all have flaws.
But that reason, there's too many hypocrites in the church, just doesn't make much sense to me.
Oh, I freely grant that hypocrisy is a sin that will keep some people.
Out of the kingdom of heaven.
But I also believe that going back into the world, rejecting the Lord will also cause people to forfeit eternal life.
I think some who make this charge, well, uh, there's too many hypocrites there.
I won't be hypocritical.
I think that makes them feel like they've taken the moral high ground.
Well, I'm open about my rejection of the Lord.
These people are pretenders.
But you know, on the final day of judgment, what will be the difference?
In those two groups, as far as their eternal destiny.
That doesn't make much sense to me.
The hypocrite and those who leave the church will end up in the same place.
Well, sometimes I've heard, well, the people there are unfriendly.
They're not very friendly.
That may be a true statement.
I have recently been talking with some folks who talked about visiting a congregation and from the time they entered the building to the time they left to the building, not one person there spoke to them.
None of the members I've gone to congregations where there seemed to be very little friendliness.
I don't think that's true of this congregation.
But when someone says that, well, that church is not very friendly.
I'm always tempted to ask, are you friendly?
Do you make the effort to try to be friends to others, to be friendly to others, visitors and other members as well?
Are you expecting everyone else to make the first move toward friendship?
Leaving the Lord's church because other members are not welcoming suggests that maybe one's religion is more about being served than serving God.
Well, here's another thing that I've heard multiple times over the years.
Well, the church there has no special programs for fill in the blank.
No special programs for the young people, no special programs for divorcees, no special programs for single mothers, no daycare service during the week.
So I'm not gonna continue to worship with that congregation.
They'll relocate with the church that offers better benefits.
I believe that congregation should take into account the needs of various groups among the members.
I think there are certain needs that perhaps single parents have that maybe not other families have.
I understand all of that.
But I think the needs can be met with teaching as opposed to providing social services.
And I believe that leaving the church because social services are lacking again suggests that one's religion is more about being served and serving God.
And the bottom line is, That's not the mission that God gave to the church, the collective group of con of Christians in a particular location, is to offer social social services.
Well, another thing I've heard, although not very often, is I just don't agree with the teaching of that church.
Typically, when people have been members of a congregation and they've been there for a little while anyway, this is not the kind of thing that you hear.
And I'll tell you something that I'm not sure I've ever heard, and that is someone say this and then point out in the scriptures what teaching is wrong, that's being done.
In fact, When you begin to ask questions about, well, what is it that The teaching that you don't agree with, what you usually find out is that they just don't agree with what the Bible says.
They don't like what the Bible says, and if you teach that, then they don't like the teaching of that church.
Well, then your problem is not with the church.
Your problem is with the Lord.
The correct path.
If I believe that something being taught is unscriptural, the correct course of action is to point out the air.
To the one doing the teaching, or to go beyond that, perhaps the elders of the congregation depending on the circumstances.
Well, here's another one that I've heard.
More than once.
Well, I just don't believe anymore.
I just don't believe anymore.
And and my question is, well, what caused you to believe in the first place?
Why did you become a Christian in the first place?
We're talking about members of the church who just decide to leave.
I don't believe anymore.
What caused you to believe in Jesus in the first place?
How has that evidence changed?
Since you became a Christian.
You know, the correct path there would be to strengthen our faith, not leave the church.
We strengthen our faith through a study of God's word.
Paul says in Romans 10:153 that faith comes from hearing the word of God.
If someone says, well, I don't believe anymore.
The question is, well, have you considered the evidence again or are you rejecting what you once accepted?
Just recently, within the last couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to give a lecture.
In an area of study on the subject of Presbyterianism.
And in order to prepare for that lecture, one of the things I did was I, I went into the website of one of the local Presbyterian churches, and they streamed their services.
So they had saved the service and their services are very orchestrated by the bulletin that's printed each week.
So you could follow in their bulletin and at the same time, watch the congregation and particularly the speaker as they went through the, the schedule of worship that was given in the bulletin.
And something I found interesting was there were several occasions where the whole congregation was encouraged, apparently, they understood this is the way you do things.
They were encouraged to repeat, to read along with whoever was at the pulpit and reading.
They read together a creedal statement.
We believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
We believe there's a triune God.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, and, and on it went, it was a pretty good size paragraph that the whole congregation repeated together.
They were resigning their convictions.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we ought to practice that.
But I would suggest to you that in our songs, we do exactly that.
We sing together about convictions that we have, the songs that we sing and the lyrics.
Many of the lyrics are expressing biblical principles.
Things that we believe about God, about heaven, about our lives as Christians, about the promise of eternal life.
And so I would ask, as was already asked this morning, are we actually thinking about those songs, about what we say we believe.
Or we just kind of singing songs that we know by heart, and we can think about other things at the same time.
Have you ever wondered why our confession of faith is verbal?
In Romans 10:9-10, Paul talks about how with the mouth confession is made on salvation.
Why is it that God wants us to confess our faith verbally?
Well, have you ever thought about why at weddings, there's a, a verbal exchange of vows?
I've preached a number of weddings and I've attended a number of weddings that I wasn't preaching.
I don't believe I've ever heard the officiant at a marriage ceremony say, well, uh, you guys, have you decided that you're gonna uh be good husbands and good husband and wife?
And if so, then let's just move on to the reception.
You ever hear that?
If you did, raise your hand.
Nobody And so what happens in these ceremonies is that we verbally express our, our commitment to our spouse, our future spouse.
We don't say, I already did, we say we, I do.
And the reason is there are witnesses there.
And I think there's a, there's a greater solemnity when we are verbalizing what we believe.
I wonder if that's why God wants us to sing together.
Hymns, songs, spiritual songs and songs.
But I, I have to tell you, I really firmly believe that when someone says, I don't believe anymore, I firmly believe that sometimes that's just an excuse.
The real reason for leaving is a love of the world.
Over time, The pull of the world has become stronger on this person.
And the faith that this person had has become weaker.
Maybe they needed to rehearse their convictions.
Periodically In 236 John the 26nd chapter in verses 26 and 29, John made this observation.
He said, do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.
John says if you love the world, you can't love God.
They're opposed to each other.
And so as the world, the love of the world becomes stronger, then people leave God.
I don't believe anymore.
The truth of the matter is that sometimes being a member of the Lord's Church is interfering with worldly interests.
And so somebody decides to leave the church.
Do you remember one of Paul's companions by the name of Demus?
He's mentioned a couple of times in Paul's writings.
In 245 Timothy 215:103, Paul described Demus as being in love with this present world.
Well, as Paul said in Galatians 210, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
But sometimes people feel the pull of the world.
And they gradually move away from the Lord and back into the world.
Well, the last The thing that I've heard, and I've heard this a couple of times over the years.
Well, I was never truly converted.
I was just baptized to please and fill in the blank.
My parents, my spouse, my friends, I didn't really believe and I think that's a possibility.
But I've noticed that sometimes it seems that that reason for leaving the church is often in conjunction with congregational discipline.
Someone's about to be disciplined and they proclaim themselves not to be a member of that congregation.
I never really was converted to Christ.
My response to that is what's keeping you from obeying God's law now?
If you didn't obey the gospel in the past, what are you going to do now?
Well, sometimes what they do is decide just to leave the church.
Some of these reasons for leaving the church, I think are focused on the temporary, the physical, you know, what's the church doing for me?
I don't like the things that are going on in this congregation right now.
And they suggest those reasons suggest that someone has really lost sight of the big picture.
We are preparing for eternity.
There are big stakes involved here.
And yet people act like, well, I'm just gonna leave the church because it's, you know, it's no big thing.
You may have noticed that the sermons entitled Why I Left the Lord.
But I've been talking about why I left the church, but I want you to understand that in many cases, those are the same.
When someone decides to leave the church, a lot of times, it's not because they're going to another faithful congregation where they can be of more use.
They're not going to a congregation where maybe the teaching or the, the membership is more along their age, uh, group, whatever, not any kind of reason like that.
They're leaving the church because they're gonna stop serving the Lord.
Why I left the Lord is really what we're talking about.
But the Lord's will is that we meet with other Christians.
You're familiar with this passage.
It was read for your consideration again this morning.
Hebrews 245:215 through 25.
The author of Hebrews has really finished his argument concerning the superiority of Christ and His covenant.
By the time you get to Hebrews 10 and 19, which is where the reading today began.
And from that point on, he's going to engage in encouragement of his readers to, to persevere, to be Faithful to the end.
And so he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stir up one another, to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The fact that the Hebrews author criticizes those who had stopped meeting together clearly suggests that that's what God intends for us, is that we encourage one another to love and good works as we come together.
I'm gonna continue that same reading in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 26, and this is the rest of our scripture reading this morning.
The writer says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
The idea of sinning deliberately is this constant pattern of sin.
This is talking about someone who's decided to reject the Christ.
The Old Testament, New King James version used or King James Ver used to talk about sinning with a high hand.
In other words, rebellious, not a sin of ignorance, not a sin of weakness.
It's a sin by someone who says, I don't care anymore.
And the author says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
But a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Now listen, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses, that's the kind of person we're talking about here.
There's a comparison being made, but that's the kind of comparison we're talking about.
That person dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot, the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace.
We are talking about Christians here.
They're the only ones who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And when a Christian Who has been bought by that blood, forgiven of his or her sins, decides, well, I'm just gonna leave the church.
I'm just gonna leave the Lord.
The writer of Hebrews says there's no more sacrifice.
There's no Plan B, as we've sometimes said in classes.
You reject Jesus Christ as your savior.
There is no other name given among men under heaven, whereby we can be saved.
For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay.
And again, the Lord will judge his people.
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And I guarantee you that in most cases when people just decide they're gonna leave the Lord, they are not thinking about falling into the hands of the living God.
They're thinking about how much more free time they're gonna have on Sundays and Wednesdays, and people won't be bothering them about their behavior, about their lifestyle.
They'll have all the freedom they want in this world.
But we need to think about what it is to fall into the hands of the living God.
Peter wrote that when you leave the Lord, And go back into the world, what you've become is a slave again.
It's like the one who has been released from slavery and then turns right around and goes right back into the slavery.
Peter said in 2 Peter 453 and verses 20 to 22, and incidentally, Peter is talking here specifically about the teachers who were enticing, seducing other Christians to go back into the world.
But what he says applies both to those teachers, those false teachers, but also who were Christians, but all So those who are seduced by them.
He says, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
Have you ever wondered why?
Why would it be worse?
You were a slave before you're a slave now.
The destiny in both cases is the same.
Here's the difference.
When you were a slave before, you heard the gospel, and you responded to the love of God and you sought forgiveness, and you were forgiven.
Now you've gone back into the world.
What will anyone offer you to come back to the Lord?
You've rejected the only thing that God puts forward.
For our salvation.
The only plan that he has, for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
What is the true proverb says has happened to them.
The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire, rather vivid picture.
Of what happens to the people who decide to leave the Lord and go back into the world.
It's like the dog that vomits and then turns right around and eats that vomit.
Or the hog that's come out of the, the mire, a mixture of feces and urine and food and mud, it's been all cleaned up and washed just like we're washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, unstained, unblemished as a result of that precious blood.
And then we go right back into the mire.
And make ourselves dirty again.
The pull of the world is constant.
On all of us.
It may be stronger for some than others, but the pull of the world is something we have to acknowledge and deal with.
We need to constantly remind ourselves of the reward that awaits us if we are faithful to the end.
In Hebrews the 10th chapter verse 36.
A little bit further along in the reading toward the end of the chapter, the writer says, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
In Galatians 6 chapter 6, verse 9, Paul writes and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap.
If we do not give up.
You know, I wish.
That I could say that I'm confident that everyone here who's a Christian will make it all the way.
To heaven But my experience has been over the last 45 years.
That there will be casualties in a congregation of any size.
Now, I'd like to prevent that if I can do so by teaching and preaching.
But my observation has been that unfortunately there'll be some.
Who will go back into the world and they'll forfeit.
Eternal life.
Will it be you?
Will it be me?
As I thought about the Christians.
that I have known over the years.
who have fallen away.
I also remembered some who stumbled.
But ended up coming back to the Lord.
I can think of some specific cases.
Successes, people who were restored.
God receives sinners.
In Luke 15th chapter, there are three parables told there, and you might think that the theme of the chapter is the chapter of lost things, and I think that's a fair analysis of the chapter, but there's another theme in that chapter, and it may be the more dominant theme, and that is the joy at recovery.
Because in the first two parables, there is joy at the finding that which was lost.
And in the third parable, it is even more specific.
It's the Father who is overjoyed because the prodigal son has returned.
Jesus said in Luke 15:10, just so I tell you, there's joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
I don't know how many times I've offered a public invitation at the end of a sermon or a class or something of that nature in the last 45 years, but I guarantee you it's been a lot.
Encouraging people to obey the gospel.
And I will tell you that in most cases, there has been no visible response.
We'll go sermon after sermon after sermon and nobody responds to the invitation, at least in any kind of outward way.
That's not to say that people don't.
Talk to God and ask for forgiveness of their sins because of the teaching that gets done here by me and others.
But it is to say that most of the time there's no visible evidence of any response to the gospel invitation, but I continue to hope that those who need forgiveness of their sins will in fact respond.
There's a verse in Luke 15 in the parable of the Prodigal Son.
It says that as the son who had decided that he had made a, a wrong turn, that he needed to return to his father's house, and as he journeys back, the verse says his father saw him a long way off.
If you think about that verse, what it suggests is that the Father not only joyfully receives the son when he does return, but he has been looking for him.
He's been expecting him.
Hoping That he would return.
In that parable, the Father clearly, I think, represents God.
Who is hoping That if you need to obey the gospel.
That you will consider doing that this morning.
Maybe you're already a Christian.
And you've been feeling the pull of the world also.
And you realize that your life hasn't been what it needs to be, and it may be that you need to confess before the members of this congregation things that you have done.
And seek forgiveness.
If you need to respond to the invitation, I hope and pray that you will do it this morning.
We stand to invite you as we sing.
- 2025.04.27A-WhyILeft.mp3 (11.86 MB)
