For those of you who don’t
know me very well – I am a HUGE baseball fan.
Baseball is my sport and the love of it has been a part of me since I
was in the 5th grade. At the
Major League level, baseball is a sport with coaches that can and will help
with almost any aspect of a player’s game.
The “Hitting Coach” has his own ideas of what will make a hitter more
successful at the plate. Many of them through
the years have become famous for coming up with hitting techniques that have
been adopted by many players. A lot of
those players have improved dramatically by using a particular coach’s
technique. Charlie Lau was one of the
most famous – he was never a good hitter himself, but he came up with
techniques that made many players considerably better when they started using
them. Five players that come to mind are
George Brett, Greg Luzinski, Mark McGwire, Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk. Brett and Fisk have both been inducted
into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Consider this: what if Lau’s hitting
style was “guaranteed” to make any hitter considerably better if they used
them? If that was true, then I would say
that almost 100% of the Major League hitters today would be a Lau Disciple at
the plate. But what if there was a player
that really believes what is said about Lau’s hitting discipline: he knows
exactly how to do it, knows that it will help him, has seen the success that
other players are having – but still does not want to make the commitment to
using it himself. Wouldn’t that be
crazy?
This illustration reminds me
of the study that I went through with a college student that I was mentoring a
few years ago. We studied through the
book of Hebrews. Hebrews was written to
a Jewish community perhaps somewhere near Greece that had been evangelized by
New Testament apostles and prophets. The
overall theme of Hebrews is the superiority or preeminence of Christ: He is
better than anything in the Old Testament – any prophet, priest, king, or ritual.
He is better than anyone and everything
else.
This book was mainly written
to Hebrew Christians – those who had come out of Judaism and received Jesus
Christ as their personal Messiah and Savior.
Because of their belief, they suffered persecution from their families
and were tempted to go back into some of the old patterns and practices of
Judaism. The book was written to give them
confidence as they floundered in their commitment, and to encourage them to courageously
live out their new relationship in Christ. The primary message of the book was written to
these Hebrew Christians.
But, weaved in and out of the
book of Hebrews are warnings to two other groups of people in the same location. One of those groups was Hebrew non-Christians,
those not convinced of the Gospel or of Jesus being the Messiah. This book was written to show them the truth
of Jesus being the Messiah and that salvation was only through Him.
The last group reminds me of
my illustration about the ballplayer who knew what Lau taught, believed it, knew
there was a guarantee with it, but didn’t commit to it. They were Hebrew non-Christians who were
intellectually convinced that Jesus is who He claimed to be, but were not
willing to make the commitment of faith in Him – even though they knew that Jesus
Christ gives a real “guarantee” of salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal
life.
A real-life illustration of
this concerns my brother Norm and myself back when we both still lived in Southern
California in the 1970’s. We were raised in a wonderful Christian home by two
loving parents who loved the Lord and taught us His love. We went to church all our lives and were very
involved in church in many different ways as kids and teenagers. My brother was the president of our high
school youth group at the church we attended in Spokane, Washington.
Later on, we were both
married to wonderful Christian ladies and lived in the Los Angeles area. Norm
and his wife attended Grace Community Church where John MacArthur was and still
is the pastor. Cathy and I were still attending
a smaller church where we were married.
One Sunday afternoon my
brother called and asked if we wanted to come with them to Grace Community that
evening for a baptismal service. I said
“Sure… is anyone we know getting baptized?”
He said “Yeah, I am.” I was
shocked – I had accepted the Lord at the age of 10 at a summer camp in
Arizona. I assumed my brother had made a
decision at some other time in our youth.
He and I were even both baptized at that church at the same
time. But he said – “No, I have been
sitting under MacArthur’s teaching through Hebrews and realized that I had been
a fake all these years.” He said he was
convicted by MacArthur’s sermon on “The Tragedy of Rejecting Full Revelation”
from the sixth chapter of Hebrews.
Here is part of what my
brother heard that convinced him:
“… (Those) who have, on the
outside, made a profession of faith in Christ, but who are not real
believers...They know the truth. They believe it. They even follow some of the
patterns of Christians, but they aren't for real; and they are warned
periodically through the Book of Hebrews that they better be for real lest
having heard the Gospel so much and become so familiar with it, they find
themselves falling away into an evil heart of unbelief, and it is impossible
for them to be saved.”
Let this be a warning to all
of us to search our hearts and ask ourselves if we are really convinced and committed
to Christ as Lord and Savior. Or, are we
one of those who are “intellectually convinced” but not willing or ready to
make that step of “commitment.”
