Hold Fast (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. 2 .30, Friday, November 8th in real time.

Who knows when this will play? My guess, around the 20 -something. Today, 80 years ago, my mother was born,

I think in Nebraska City. She died 14 years ago.

She had me at 21 years old. That puts me at 59, 59 big ones, 80 years old.

I wish my mother was alive on earth, but she doesn't.

I remember when she was dying, I was talking to her about heaven, and then she died, and I was sitting in the room, just thinking all kinds of thoughts, and one of my thoughts was she's a better theologian than I am right now.

She would always ask me about her verse -by -verse teaching, the ladies at Omaha Bible Church, and I'll never forget it.

By the way, if you'd like to listen to some good preaching, OmahaBibleChurch .org, Patrick James Abendroth III, no,

Patrick James Abendroth, Pastor Pat, is preaching through a variety of different things, and if you want some good biblical,

Christ -centered preaching that has categories, biblical categories, that would be a good show for you.

Otherwise, you can go to BBCChurch .org. I like to listen to AG Radio, Abound in Grace Radio.

What else do I listen to? I like the old Whitehorse Inns, especially the old classics with Horton Rosenblatt and Riddlebacher.

I like, I listen to Reform Forum. Is it true that Lane Tipton's out of Westminster Seminary?

I think I heard that. I'll have to confirm, but I think that's out, or they did not renew his contract. I think something,

I think Waddington might not be teaching there anymore. Of course, Truman's out, and I think they have their own presbyteries and courts and all that stuff for the

Oliphant book. Maybe the revisions are supposed to be out regarding immutability slash mutability of God when he takes on covenants.

Anyway, there's all kinds of things going on in No Compromise Radio Land. I just got back from Canada doing the expository preaching workshop.

I was in Saskatoon, and it was pretty cold, but the men were warm. Most of those men, the pastors and elders and teachers and men that wanted to be

Bible teachers, they had a lot of beards going. They were different beards than kind of a

Nashville hipster beard, but they had beards. Those men are solid.

You want to be careful of those guys. I think I was at Fellowship Baptist in Saskatoon, Pastor Steve Flippen.

You can follow him too, I think, at Steve Flippen on Twitter. Now, you can follow me at Twitter, at NoCoRadio.

Most every comment you'll see there is from me. Once in a while, Spencer will put something on there, but most of it's me.

I don't really argue back and forth. If you want to ask a question, a clarification that needs more follow -up,

Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com, and then I'll get the email if it's just housekeeping stuff, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

One of the things I noticed is the need these days to talk about Jesus from the pulpit and not simply morality.

There are all kinds of moral exhortations in Scripture, of course, and there are calls to holiness, calls to obedience, and the real question is, how do we do that?

In what order do we do those? I guess I shouldn't be saying the real questions. Just making sure you frame it properly, and we'll talk about that in the days to come here on No Compromise Radio, among other things.

I'm in the book of Hebrews, and as you know, I sometimes come into the radio studio to work on my

Hebrews, and here's how I work on Hebrews. I've done the work. My typical morning, and this is just what

I do. Some people ask me the question, so I'll answer it today on No Compromise Radio. When I wake up in the morning,

I turn off my alarm. I don't do what

I used to do, and that is for about 18 months, I got up and the first thing I thought was, I have cancer. I don't say that anymore.

I hope I don't have cancer. I go in for a biopsy, oh, sometime in January or something like that, but I turn off the alarm, get dressed, go out and make some

French press coffee. It takes about four minutes to brew, and then I sit down with my Greek New Testament and my

English Bible and some notes and notepad and stuff like that. I like to read the passage.

I'm preaching through in the book of Hebrews, or whatever book that is, and I was reading Hebrews 10 verses 19 through 25, especially verses 24 and 25 today, and I'm not a great

Greek student. That's not my point. I'm not trying to brag, hey,

I read the Greek, but I'm just trying to make sure I understand the original language, and you can see some of the nuances there, some things that you can't see in English, and tenses and compound verbs and other things, and then

I read my little, the best thing I think the Crossway has ever done is a little

ESV, Hebrews journal. Hebrews on the left, ESV, and on the right, it's blank, and you can get those for different books of the

Bible. John Tucker gave me the one on Psalms with kind of a nice binding, and you feel like you have more liberty to write on the, kind of the journal over the text.

I do some of that in my English Bible, some in the Greek, but not a whole lot, and here I just feel like I can draw a lot of, you know, in the center of confidence,

I'll circle FID, right, for fide, fiducia, to, you know, faith, confidence, just things like that.

And then I have my English Bible, and I'll probably read something in that, and I've got some notes in case

I'm thinking about the sermon, and, you know, I might read a psalm or two,

I might read from the Gospels, and that's kind of what I do in the morning. So I get ready for work, and then

I have the Bible app on, I was listening to Colossians today. All right, one last comment

I'm working finally on, I didn't, I was not motivated for five years to do this, I'm now motivated,

I'm going to try to finish it up. S. Lewis Johnson, Discovering Colossians. It'll be a follow -up to the

Book of Romans, much shorter, four chapters and not sixteen. I am not under the gun when it comes to Zondervan, they decided not to publish it, and the reason being,

Romans didn't sell anything, and there are many reasons for that, but I didn't think it would, but at least it's out, and then we'll put it, put it, that is,

Discovering Colossians out via Amazon, you can just order it. I don't know how many chapters we'll have, maybe twelve chapters in the book for the four chapters of the

Book of Colossians, S. Lewis Johnson, from some work he did back in early 60s, 1961, 1962, but still relevant, why?

Because it is the Word of God. Now when I think about the

Book of Hebrews, he's been working up to this point where we have the hinge, what we believe, and then what we're to do, that is, how we're to behave, and you know, we have conduct and follows creed, and duty follows doctrine, and agenda follows credenda, and behavior follows belief.

That paradigm is true in the Bible, imperatives come out of indicatives. Here's who you are in Christ, union, you're adopted, therefore walk in a manner worthy.

You are quite familiar with that in No Compromise Radio, and when push comes to shove, as they say, we ought to be reminded that as we parent, and as we deal with our spouses, and those maybe who work with us, are for us at work, this is a good paradigm.

Stand up, don't slouch, no elbows on the table, don't chew with your mouth open, say yes ma 'am, no ma 'am, thank your mom for supper, don't throw peas at your sister, don't hide the green beans under your plate, look me in the eye when

I'm talking to you, oh, the list goes on. I think those are some pretty good rules, by the way, obey the first time, delayed obedience is disobedience, don't chase cars, that's what my dad always said, he used to say go chase cars.

I have to say to my kids, don't chase cars. Those are all fine, but they should stem from what that child means to me and where they fit in the family.

Now, you don't have to say it every time, oh, I can't say an imperative without giving an indicative, but we can see scripture highlights the importance of who you are in Christ Jesus.

If it was the book of Ephesians, in him, in him, in him, in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in therefore, you now have a motivation to obey, you have resources to obey, and that's a good way to look at it.

Well, in Hebrews, we've come to that point where there's the hinge, and the hinge is in verse 19 of chapter 10, therefore, brothers, that's the hinge.

Everything up to that point is covered under the therefore, therefore, brothers, in terms of having such a high priest, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean 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 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, capital

D, drawing near. What's happening here in the book of Hebrews where we have this hinge, the hinge of going from doctrine to duty, is visible by that word, therefore, therefore, and in light of all the discussion of Jesus, I guess we could summarize it in chapter 8 verse 1 as he does.

Since we have such a great high priest, what's the response? Jesus is a high priest, so what?

What happens here, since he's talking to Jewish people, hence the title Hebrews, he talks in a distinctively

Jewish way. I don't know how often I say nomenclature, but nomenclature here, the nomenclature is

Jewish, this sounds Jewish, and I would say to people, in light of Jesus the high priest, believe in him, trust in him, rest in him, rely on him.

I would say, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Philippian jailer was told, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's the language we are familiar with, and that is good language, fine language, biblical language.

But here, the language in Hebrews has been old covenant language,

Moses language, tabernacle, temple, sacrifices.

Be careful approaching the holy of holies unless you're the high priest once a year and you've done all the proper sacrifices and rituals and cleansings.

Here he essentially says, with the language of a Jew, believe. That's what he's saying, enter, draw near.

Those are our words, both are singular words in the original language, enter, draw near, two

English words but one Greek word, enter, draw near. That sounds like it's the very language of, or that's the equivalent language of believe.

You couldn't do those things except once a year if you were the high priest.

You're just a lay person, you can't do that, I can't do that, nobody gets in. Now, come right on in.

You have confidence to do that. Since Jesus has paid for your sins, there are no sins to pay for. Since Jesus perfectly lived a life born of a woman, born under law, then

God sees you, the Father sees you as perfectly keeping the law, you don't have to worry.

You don't have to think, I've got to be careful if I walk in here, I'm going to be smoked. Dear Christian, you are judicially declared righteous, right?

And you begin to live out that righteousness as time goes on.

But you are deemed, credited, perfectly righteous, you're deemed righteous and you have been credited perfect righteousness.

So see how that works? Here on No Compromise Radio, these are priestly concepts, enter, draw near.

And we don't need a priest anymore that would represent you humanly on earth because you have the high priest who's exalted into heaven.

Therefore believe, therefore have knowledge of this priest, you do because we've been talking about him, chapters 1 through 10, 18.

Then give hearty assent and agree and trust, have a volitional trust, that is saving faith.

Very picturesque, very wonderful, draw near, enter. The Jews would understand that,

Jewish language, how can rebels and sinful people approach God and have any hope of getting to heaven?

Can anyone be cleansed? Can anyone have a purification of their sin and from their sin?

The answer is yes. And you see the language that's used here that's Jewish, blood, veil, priest, sprinkled, washed.

Therefore, the question is, if you're not a believer, have you entered? Have you believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ? You can have confidence to do that very thing. And the good news is for the Christian who has, you still have this access.

Remember back to chapter 4, verse 16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That's amazing. That is really amazing. You have such assurance to approach

God. Why? Because of Jesus, not because of anyone else, just the

Lord Jesus. You can go to heaven because of Jesus. He's the advocate. He's the mediator.

He has been the substitute. Charles Simeon said this is how he came to Christ.

He was a Church of England preacher. And as I was reading Bishop Wilson on the

Lord's Supper, I met with an expression to this effect, that the Jews knew what they did when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.

The thought came into my mind, what? May I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an offering for me that I may lay my sins on his head?

Then God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Charles Simeon then said, accordingly,

I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus. And that would be by faith alone.

What a great picture. What a great picture of saving faith. What a great type and shadow we saw of that very thing in the

Old Testament. And if you have already believed, what is the next step?

If you haven't believed, to believe. If you've already believed, what does the writer go on to say? And he goes on to say, number one, believe 19 to 22.

Number two, now what? Keep believing. He uses the language of hold fast.

Do you see it in verse 23? Well, if you can't see it because you're driving, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

Keep believing. There are troubles and trials, remember, and these

Jewish people are getting persecuted. We'll learn later in this very chapter, hard struggles, sufferings, publicly exposed, reproach, afflictions, maltreatment, plundering of property.

And he says, it's all worth it because what's going to come is greater.

And we're not really in this for land or anything else. There's a more abiding possession, a better possession.

So keep walking by faith. But that's for next time or the time after that, because there is a warning passage that comes up very soon.

Believe and keep believing. And it's the language of hold fast the confession.

We've heard about the anchor of the soul in chapter six, verse 19. And now the writer wants you to know that you can rely on this high priest.

He can be trusted. His promises are true.

Dear Christian, whatever you're going through, maybe not some of the things that are happening in the lives of the

Hebrews back in 60 something AD, but whatever you're going through, keep believing. You don't have any other options.

I remember when my mother was in fact dying and I thought to myself, this is very, very hard and I've done lots of dumb, sinful things in my life, even as a

Christian. But these things in my life now that are going on, i .e. the death of my mother,

I mean, that ranks right up there as one of the traumatic experiences in life. I thought,

I don't want to speak ill of the Lord. I don't want to complain.

I don't want to say, how could you? I don't want to be a bad testimony to other people.

I don't want to mope around like life is over and Jesus is off the throne and he hasn't conquered death and he's not exalted.

Remember back in the day when Luther was so dejected, Katie Von Bora, his wife, dressed in all black, and she began to mope around the house.

He said, what happened? She said, somebody died. Who died? God died. He's like,

God died? Yeah. Martin, you were acting like God is dead. So I thought I would have a little funeral. Why do wives have to do that?

Why? Oh, why, oh why? I used to say for a long time that my wife expected me to live up to what

I preach. I think functionally she does. Of course, there's lots of truth to that statement, but she realizes since I'm preaching the glories of Christ Jesus, I could never live up to that, even though I would like to walk in a manner worthy of that calling and we'll just talk about who

Jesus is because our acceptance before the Father is perfect righteousness. Right?

And that motivates me to want to be a good dad and to be a good husband. We were in dance class last night and it was the

Foxtrot. And therefore, that was my, that's kind of our little outing now.

By the way, it's a good place to, if somebody's having marriage troubles, hey, why don't you come go to dance class with us?

Because on the dance floor, men have to lead and they have a hard time doing that in their marriage.

And on the dance floor, women have to follow, and they have a hard time doing that in their marriage. It is hard to lead people who don't always follow.

And therefore, the Bible says, for husbands, don't be bitter. And from the wife's perspective, and maybe this is harder, it's harder to follow people who aren't perfect.

And therefore, you are told, the wives, in the book of Ephesians, to respect your husbands. Isn't that interesting?

They are not symmetrical. They are asymmetrical commands because there are functional differences, even though both are image bearers and both have the same

Lord Jesus as Savior. Both are just as justified. Both will be just as glorified.

Both are adopted. And the list goes on. Anyway, the text here says, hold fast.

Make a commitment. These are all synonyms for believe. The opposite is to shrink back.

The opposite is to shirk. The opposite is to be ashamed.

The opposite is to defect. The opposite is to go AWOL. The opposite is apostasy.

That's not a good option for me. I might have a lot of options in my life, but that's not a good one.

I don't want to go down that road. I don't want to contemplate it. I don't want to think about it. I want to hold on.

I want to confess and then believe and then hold fast.

The word hold fast is from the word down and hold. Hold down.

Hold with all you've got. In a great figurative meaning here, to believe, to hold on to Jesus.

Of course, if we stretch this out too much, we'd say, well, what do you mean hold on? It's just language that says, he's holding you, so you respond with holding on to him.

And this will lead us into, later in the chapter, a discussion on the perseverance of the saints.

Hold fast. Not just hold fast, but hold fast to the confession. And so, of course, what he was talking about there is the

London Baptist Confession of 1689. Everybody hold fast to that. No, he wasn't saying that.

The truths that are contained in Hebrews 1 -10, hold fast to those truths.

And anything else you've learned about Jesus that maybe is not in this book of Hebrews, together we say, that's what the word confession, that we agree.

This is language of 1 John 2 -23. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges, confesses the

Son, has also the Father. We say the same thing. And we want to hold fast this confession.

Jesus Christ, in Hebrews 3 -1, is the apostle and high priest of our confession. So, we'll talk about this a little bit more next time.

If you're not a Christian, you need to believe. You need to enter and to draw near with confidence because of the blood of Christ.

There isn't a Savior. And if you are a Christian, no matter what, you need to keep believing, i .e.,

hold fast. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.