If We Hold Fast (Hebrews 3:6)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Father it is our desire that we may understand your word and that you by your grace would give us the illumination that can only

00:05

Come through the ministry of the Holy Spirit Left to our own devices and in ourselves we have no ability to understand spiritual things but because we are in Christ and you've given us the

00:15

Holy Spirit who dwells within us and Quickens our hearts and our minds we by your grace are able to understand all things we pray that you would give to us that understanding today as we

00:26

Begin to study and think about some things that are difficult to comprehend and difficult to assess we pray that you would give us

00:32

Wisdom and guidance from your Holy Spirit that he would be our teacher and that we would be Students as we learn together in your word may you be glorified through our understanding of the truth.

00:40

We ask in Christ's name Amen Last week we stopped right in the middle of a verse

00:46

In fact, it was in the middle of a sentence in the scriptures as we came to chapter 3 verse 6

00:51

Where we read halfway through verse 6 that we are his house whose house

00:56

We are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end and we stopped right there at that word if and I said to you that that word and this verse is one of those verses that is seized upon by those who believe that you can lose your salvation and They use this verse and a statement like this a conditional statement and one like it down in chapter 3 verse 14

01:17

We have a similar statement there to prove that is possible for those who have been saved to Lose their salvation and to be lost and I indicated to you that verse 7 and following all the way through the end of chapter 4

01:30

Is one long warning passage? It is the second of the five warning passages in the book of Hebrew and these warning passages are as I said

01:38

Typically a turn to an appeal to by those who believe it is possible for us to lose our salvation they appeal to those warning passages because they want to show that if we don't hold fast to our faith our confidence our assurance all the way to the end that then we will finally be lost and so we want to assess these warning passages and So here's what we're going to do today.

01:59

We're going to jump right into it. I Want to lay some groundwork for assessing understanding and interpreting the warning passages as they are presented in the book of Hebrews So this is going to take a little bit of time to do that second

02:11

We're gonna look at verse 6 this conditional statement and the statement that is like it in verse 14 We're gonna deal with just those two statements and how do we understand conditional statements?

02:19

And then I'm going to give you an overview of the warning passage which goes from chapter 3 verse 7 all the way through the end of chapter 4 so that is a large chunk of material and You can probably guess that we're not going to get through it all in one

02:32

Sunday or two Sundays or three Sundays But we will get through it. I promise you that we're gonna take and we're gonna we're gonna just slowly and methodically

02:41

Deal with the issues that are in the passage and today We're just going to begin by just laying some groundwork for how we understand the warning passages and what we need to keep in mind

02:49

So let's begin with this These are not easy passages to interpret and that is true Whether you are on in the camp that believes it's possible to lose your salvation

02:57

Or whether you are in the camp that believes it is not possible to lose your salvation There are issues in all of these warning passages that are conundrums for people on both sides of this issue

03:07

It's not like these are Arminian verses that are a slam -dunk a go -to verse for those who believe you can lose your salvation and though those of us who don't

03:16

Believe that stand around the outside and wonder how is it that we need to twist this and form this to fit my theology?

03:21

That's not the case at all There are interpretive issues in all of these passages for for anybody of any theological stripe there are issues that need to be dealt with so these are very difficult passages and Consequently, that's one of the reasons why the book of Hebrews is often neglected in the preaching and life of the modern church

03:37

How often is you hear people go through the book of Hebrews? How many times have you had an in -depth study of the book of Hebrews not often?

03:42

I think that 25 or 30 years ago or whenever it was a Dave Kinney senior went through the book of Hebrews and I was a teenager and I wasn't paying attention to anything in Scripture only the girls around me at the time so I wasn't paying attention to that, but it's just you don't you don't you don't get a

03:57

Thorough study of the book of Hebrews very often because we shy away from it. It is it's it's a challenging book there's a lot of challenging things and Not the least of which are these five warning passages

04:08

Second, I think we should point out that we all know people who are on the other side of the aisle The theological aisle from us if you're sitting here today and you believe that it's possible for you to lose your salvation

04:18

You know somebody who doesn't believe that you you obviously do How do I know that you know somebody because you are surrounded by people most of which would probably say you cannot lose your salvation

04:29

Right here in this congregation now if you believe that it is impossible for one who is truly saved to lose your salvation you most certainly know somebody who believes

04:37

That you can lose your salvation right if you don't that means you swim in some pretty small circles and you really need to get out more because there's a

04:44

That is the bulk of evangelicalism today that kind of an Arminian approach So, you know somebody who's on the other side of this issue from you and this is an emotionally charged issue

04:54

People do not want to hear that little Johnny who prayed a prayer when he was four and was baptized when he was five

04:59

But is today living in hard -hearted Unrepentant unbelief with no interest in the things of God is actually an unbeliever

05:06

They don't want to hear that they want to believe that little Johnny prayed the prayer We believe it was sincere and after all once saved always saved right?

05:13

That's the hope that's the confidence once saved always saved He prayed the prayer he got in and they don't want to be told that no

05:20

He fits the group of people described in Hebrews chapter 2 and chapter 4 and chapter 6 and chapter 10

05:27

That's speaking to him on the other side of the aisle people who believe that you Cannot lose your salvation or sorry that you can lose your salvation they don't want to hear preaching that suggests it is impossible for a true believer to lose their salvation because They think that such preaching would lead to licentiousness

05:44

If you tell somebody look once you pray the prayer you're in like Flynn and there's no way you can ever lose that once you

05:50

Tell them that they're going to they're gonna go off and sin in all kinds of ways such preaching can only lead to apathetic cool -hearted

05:58

Christian profession and people sinning and living however They want after all we need to every once in a while sort of warm the feet of the people who are professing faith in Christ and remind them at any moment you can slip and fall into the perishment of eternal damnation

06:10

And if you don't keep people people fearing that damnation, then they will might lose their grip on Christ You want you want to make sure that they're scared enough to hold on to him for all they've got so that they can get

06:19

Through and you got to warn them of the hell to come there are people on both sides of this that feel passionately about it and So no matter what

06:27

I preach I'm going to offend somebody right so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go into what we're gonna talk about Let's give some principles of interpretation.

06:34

How is it that we deal with the warning passages? Let me lay out some a bit of parameters and this is intended to sort of set the table for Understanding all of the warning passages.

06:43

Here's number one. We affirm. First of all, the scripture is clear on the subject This is clear on the subject.

06:50

I don't think the scripture is confusing on this. It's not And this is where people get off the rails right at the very beginning

06:56

They'll say something like well, you know There are all these verses that say that you cannot lose your salvation and then there are all these verses that seem to suggest

07:02

That you can lose your salvation So maybe God sort of thrown all of those into the mix just to keep us wondering about it

07:08

Lest we go off into any extreme And all that is is another way of saying God himself is really confused on it

07:15

And he is unable to communicate the truth without recklessly contradicting himself. That's what that means We don't believe that scripture is clear.

07:22

The problem is not with the clarity of scripture on the subject the problem is with the ability of the reader and the hearer to understand it and to and to Interpret it in light of the surrounding context and not in light of their traditions or previously held beliefs

07:37

Second we would affirm the scripture is not contradictory in any way There's ultimately one author to this book and he is able to communicate without contradicting himself

07:47

So we don't have to sort of walk a middle road and say well God it is possible and it is not possible

07:52

And we just don't know when which is which these things are mutually exclusive Either it is possible for you to lose your salvation or it is not possible for a truly saved person to lose their salvation

08:00

But it cannot be both of those things So we affirm that scripture is not contradictory and so we want to systematize our theology and there's nothing wrong with having a systematic theology

08:10

We want to have a coherent Systematic approach to understanding what is true and to understanding truth now

08:16

Systematic theology is often disparaged in our own day because people say that look you guys like you couldn't community church

08:22

You want to have your your theology all in a little line? You want to know that this is what I believe and and keep it nice and tidy and then there's no love in your hearts

08:30

I believe that that is a false dichotomy I don't think that having good and sound and systematic and and precise theology is a is the opposite of having a love for Christ if you're

08:43

Knowing more truth causes your love to diminish might I suggest that there's the problem is not with the truth

08:50

The problem might be with you And who it is and what it is that you're loving We can have passionate affection, but there's no virtue in being passionately affectionate about error

09:00

So we want to have systematic theology we want to make sure that as we're Interpreting these passages of scripture that we're doing so in the context of the book of Hebrews in their own immediate context and in a way that is consistent with other passages of scripture so that we bring other doctrines and other passages to bear upon this

09:16

As a secondary light upon the interpretation of this passage of the passage itself So belief about the security of the believer and this is where it fits into our systematic approach to our theology

09:29

Belief about the security of the believer in his salvation is not what we would call a first -order belief in other words

09:35

We don't begin with that and then reason backwards to other doctrines in a sense our belief in the security of the believer is a

09:44

Conclusion or an inference that we could draw even if scripture was unclear about about that issue at all

09:50

It is an inference or a conclusion that we could draw just from what we understand about other doctrines

09:55

So I can reason to my belief in the security of the believer. I don't begin with that as a first -order doctrine

10:01

I can conclude that and let me show you what I mean Now this is not to say that scripture has not revealed the case regarding whether a believer is secure

10:08

It has with statements where Jesus said things like my sheep hear my voice and they come to me I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand or my father's hand the

10:18

Father who gave them to me is greater than all and no one shall snatch them out of my hand or the father's hands John chapter 10 Jesus said in John 6 all that the father's gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me

10:27

Well, I will not cast out they will come to me I will give them eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day

10:32

Every last single one who has been given by the father to the son will be raised up on the last day

10:38

That is the promise So that's what scripture reveals about that but this conclusion that we are secure in our salvation is something that we can we can be drawn to where we can come to As a matter of conclusion when we systematize the rest of our doctrine

10:50

So let me lay out that case for you in a quick fashion. I Believe in the sovereignty of God With the

10:58

God is absolutely sovereign. I believe in the precise perfect and infallible foreknowledge of God in all things

11:07

I Believe in the perfection of the work of Christ on the cross I believe that justification my righteous standing before God is on the basis of faith and faith alone alone my works

11:20

Not my adhering to anything but by faith alone I believe in the regenerating work of the

11:26

Holy Spirit who gives new life new affections and new desires and a new nature to those who believe

11:32

I Believe in divine election and predestination. I believe in the vicarious that is

11:39

Substitutionary nature of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. I believe that he perfectly fully and always

11:45

Intercedes perfectly and fully and always for those who are his for whom he died

11:50

I believe that Christ is the builder of God's building and he is building a perfect building and he cannot fail

11:55

I believe that believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit I believe that man is dead in his trespasses and sins and he is unable to respond to the message of the gospel because he

12:06

Is corrupt and he is an enemy of God and he is dead and because he is dead salvation

12:12

Faith and repentance must be gifts that God grants through the regenerating work of his

12:18

Holy Spirit I believe that Christ is able to keep those whom the Father gives to him That he will keep his word and that he will raise all of them up on the last day as he has promised in John Chapter 6.

12:29

I believe that eternal life is eternal I believe that adoption is permanent and I believe that the propitiation the satisfaction of the wrath of God that Christ provided through his death on the cross is a

12:42

Full it is final and it is a perfect propitiation from all of that I can conclude that the one who is saved by Jesus Christ is

12:55

Kept by Jesus Christ Perfectly and finally all the way to the end. That is a doctrine that I can conclude from everything.

13:02

I just listed here for you. I Believe that one is safe who is safely

13:08

One who is fully saved and truly saved is safely saved I said again, I want to want believe that one who is truly saved is safely saved

13:17

And that is what that kind of an approach is what we are dealing with here in the book of Hebrews From the book of Hebrews we find out that the death of Christ was a perfect death that it fully satisfied all the wrath of God on behalf of those for Whom he died and that having died for them

13:32

He now sits at the father's right hand and intercedes for them constantly Perfectly before the father's throne and that he is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to him

13:41

That his death is perfect His work is perfect and that my salvation your salvation Rests not in the least bit upon what we do or who we are or how we respond but upon him and him alone

13:52

Because his work is perfect now because I believe all of that. I believe that the believer is

13:59

Secure the eternal life is eternal and yet we have here in the book of Hebrews These warning passages, so how do we deal with them?

14:09

Let me lay all of my cards on the table. You haven't guessed yet if I've been in any way unclear

14:14

I believe in the security of the believer The perfect and absolute security of those who have believed so I would affirm that those who have been saved and redeemed by Jesus Christ are kept by him and preserved by him and glorified by him every last one of They must and they will be saved because Christ cannot fail to save even one for whom he shed his blood

14:42

He cannot fail to save even one whom the father has given to him and committed to his care

14:47

He cannot fail to save even one who has believed upon him whom he has welcomed and given eternal life to There is not one individual who has been graciously given by the father to the son as an act of divine election and predestination

15:00

Whom the son will lose somewhere along the line who will perish everlastingly So I believe in the full security of the believer

15:07

I would deny that those who have fallen away from the faith and apostatized were ever believers to begin with Right, so I affirm the full security believer.

15:15

I deny that apostates were ever believers to begin with Those who do not persevere to the end are not

15:22

Saints. They may go forward at a meeting. They may raise their hand They may come forward at them to the altar.

15:28

They may check a box They may you'll give the motion like this and the preacher says if you just pray this prayer pray this prayer raise your hand

15:34

They may even be baptized. None of those are the evidence of salvation None of those are you know what the evidence of salvation is?

15:39

They persevere to the end. That's the evidence of salvation Who is it that is saved the one who endures all the way to the end and does not walk away from Christ?

15:47

That is the one who is saved There's the evidence of salvation is not checking a box and raising a hand or walking an aisle or even being baptized

15:54

None of those things is the fruit of salvation in the least the fruit of salvation is godliness

16:00

Holiness and perseverance all the way to the end. So I though I affirm the security believer I do not affirm any kind of easy

16:06

Believism that says that you can pray like an angel one day and live like a devil the next and have assurance of your salvation

16:13

I reject that and I reject the the notion that one can check a box and pray a prayer and walk forward at a meeting and even reform outwardly their character and conduct for a short period of time and then totally walk away from the faith and have no interest in the things of God and Apostasize and live in hard -hearted rebellious unbelief and still be considered a believer just because some previous time

16:34

They checked a box or walked an aisle or raised their hand or even were baptized. I reject that notion the evidence of genuine and true

16:42

Salvation is perseverance all the way to the end So the promises of Scripture settle the weary heart of the true believer the warning passages of Scripture Unsettle the apathetic heart of the make -believer.

16:54

Did you catch that as important? The promises of Scripture intended to settle the weary heart of the believer the warning passages like in Hebrews are intended to unsettle the apathetic

17:04

Heart of a make -believer and that's what these passages are for So having gone through that let's look now at this all of that was sort of an introduction and you can see why

17:13

I was a little upset that we started late because here we are at the time I should be wrapping up with a conclusion and Well, I'm just getting into it.

17:20

You're just sitting there, but I'm just getting into it. Okay verse 6 Let's understand this conditional sentence I told you that we needed to lay a bit of groundwork and then look at the conditional sentence in verse 6 and verse 14

17:30

And then we would kind of get an overview of the passage. So let's look at this conditional sentence You'll read in verse 6 but Christ was faithful as a son over his house whose house we are if we hold fast our

17:39

Confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end notice the presence of the word if We are his house if you'll notice a similar statement down in verse 14 for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our

17:53

Assurance firm until the end the presence of if in both of those conditional sentences seems to suggest

17:59

That this is a condition that we must do in order to receive What is promise that is being partakers of Christ or being part of God's house now?

18:07

I would want you to notice two things about both of those passages Notice that the author is intending to communicate that the people to whom he is writing are genuine and true

18:14

Christians I don't doubt that in the least I'm not gonna make the argument that he's writing to a bunch of pagans in the congregation In this passage and that that who is who the target is.

18:22

I don't think that that is the case I think he is writing to genuine and true believers And if you're paying attention and thinking through this then you realize that I just made making my case even more difficult

18:31

By affirming that he is writing to genuine and true Christians, but I think it is He's writing to those who are partakers of the heavenly calling to those who are called

18:38

Holy Brethren To those who are the children of God He is telling us in verse 6 that and he speaks of those who are part of the house of God Remember, that's the spiritual people of God through all time

18:49

Those are the spiritual household of God that Christ is the builder of that We are part of that and he affirms that we are his house

18:56

He says in verse 6 we have become partakers of Christ a past tense event We became partakers of Christ.

19:02

So he's writing to true people not people on the fringes not professing Christians Not fake believers not wolves in sheep's clothing.

19:08

He is writing to true and genuine Christians in this passage Okay. So what about the if what do we do with this if statement because it seems to suggest

19:15

That our being part of the household of God is contingent upon our ability to hold fast to the end

19:21

Doesn't it read that way? Whose house we are if if we hold fast our confidence that most of our hope firm until the end

19:28

We have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast our assurance it is as if it is as if he is throwing in this if in the middle of that sentence in order to raise the

19:37

Possibility that those who have once Latched on to Christ and have believed and been saved might finally perish if they don't maintain their salvation

19:46

And this is exactly what an Arminian or somebody who who rejects the security of the believer This is exactly what they would say that the passage is teaching that it is all contingent upon us

19:55

They would say that God himself has given us all the grace that is necessary for us to persevere to the end

20:00

He's provided everything that we need sort of out there Second God has given us sufficient motivation to persevere to the end

20:08

He's encouraged us all the way along. He's he's and then third he has warned us about the danger of not persevering

20:13

He's provided everything we need has given us adequate encouragement And he has warned us of the danger of not doing it and now the

20:19

Arminian would step back and say but God has not done Anything to guarantee or to secure the outcome for any individual whatsoever all of that rests upon us

20:30

If I hold fast I remain part of his house If I don't I fall away and I'm no longer part of his house as if it is possible to be in a household of God and enjoy the blessings and the benefits of salvation and then to finally fall away and perish because I failed to Maintain my belief or I failed to maintain my perseverance or I failed to maintain my love and affection for Christ That is what that is the argument.

20:52

So how then do we deal with this? conditional statement There are two ways the conditional statements are used in Scripture One of them is a cause -effect relationship

21:01

One of them is to indicate a cause -effect relationship and that is how the Arminian takes this You'll notice that the in verse 6 we have the main sentence or the main part of the the main clause

21:12

That's what I mean. That's what I'm looking for whose house we are That's the main part of the sentence the clause whose house we are

21:18

We could just rephrase it to say we are his house If and this is the subordinate clause of the sentence if we hold fast

21:27

We are his house if we hold fast the main part of the sentence We are his house the subordinate or the conditional part of the sentence if we hold fast

21:36

Now the Arminian would argue and those who believe you can lose your salvation They argue this is a cause -effect relationship. The effect is we are his house

21:42

The cause of that is us holding fast So if I hold fast that causes me to be part of his house

21:48

If I stop holding fast that causes me to be not part of his house My holding fast causes me to be part of the house.

21:54

Do you see the relationship? That's a cause -effect relationship Now our our conditional sentence is used in Scripture to describe a cause and effect relationship

22:03

The answer to that is yes. So here I'm going to give you proof for the Arminian position. Now, you know how this rolls

22:09

I'm gonna give you proof and I'm gonna very quickly Pull it back, but I'm gonna argue their case for just a second

22:14

Are there conditional phrases in Scripture used to describe this cause and effect relationship?

22:20

Yes, there are I'll give you four of them Leviticus 19 7 Leviticus. That's some good reading, isn't it Leviticus 19 7?

22:26

So and I'm sure you've I'm sure you've read this you're reading through Leviticus 19 and you come across this phrase and you think to yourself

22:31

Man, that's that's great. I remember just Yeah, I remember Jim because I read this last week Leviticus 19 7

22:37

So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it's an offense It will not be accepted now Leviticus 19 is dealing with peace offerings

22:44

And here was the law for the peace offering you offer the peace offerings You could eat it that day. You could eat it the next day But if you ate it on the third day, it was an offense and it would be rejected.

22:52

So notice the conditional phrase If it is eaten at all on the third day It is an offense or to put it in the order of our sentence in verse 6

23:00

It is an offense if it is eaten on the third day eating it on the third day causes the condition

23:05

The effect of it being an offense Do you see that Romans chapter 7 verse 2 for if a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living

23:12

But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband There's a conditional sentence, right?

23:18

The married woman is bound by her husband if he lives if he dies, she's released the one thing

23:24

The conditional phrase is the cause of the effect that she is released from the law concerning her husband

23:30

Romans 14 23 Speaking of one who eats meat, but his conscience bothers him Paul writes But he who doubts is condemned if he eats he's condemned if he eats if he doesn't eat he's not condemned

23:39

You see the conditional sentence if he does this it causes this it's a cause -effect relationship one more 1st

23:44

Corinthians 7 verse 39 A wife is bound as long as her husband lives if her husband is dead She's free to marry whomever she wishes only in the

23:51

Lord So the causing of the one the effect is that she's free to remarry that is caused when her husband dies in 1st

23:58

Corinthians chapter 7 so there is a cause -effect relationship That is sometimes described in this use of the conditional sentence

24:05

Those are examples of the cause -and -effect nature of some conditional sentences in Scripture and there are a few others

24:11

But I'm cut those out for the sake of time But the question is is that the only way the conditional phrases conditional sentences are used in Scripture and the answer to that is no

24:20

There's a second way the conditional sentences like verse 6 and like verse 14 are used in Scripture And that is to describe not a cause -and -effect relationship but an evidence to inference relationship well there goes

24:33

Jim with all the big words again an Evidence to inference and inference being a conclusion in other words one part of the sentence points to the conclusion that in another part of the sentence is describing an evidence to inference

24:46

Relationship so in verse 6 the if we hold fast our confidence to the end is the evidence

24:53

That points back to the inference or the conclusion. We are his house We are his house the conclusion if the evidence we hold fast to the end

25:03

It is an evidence to inference relationship instead of a cause -to -effect relationship

25:09

So now the question is does scripture use conditional phrases and conditional sentences to describe an evidence to inference?

25:17

Relationship and the answer to that is yes Lots Let me give you a few of them back to your favorite book of the

25:23

Bible the book of Leviticus chapter 13 51 And I only bring this up because I gave you one from Leviticus for the as a counterexample

25:30

Leviticus 13 51 says he shall then look at the mark on the seventh day this to give you some context

25:35

This is in the passages that describe the laws regarding leprosy those are the most fascinating of all right

25:41

Scraping off the plaster and cleaning out the house and all that good stuff and the priests and seven days So this is regarding the law this is regarding the laws concerning leprosy

25:49

The Leviticus 13 51 he shall then look at the mark on the seventh day if the mark has spread in the garment Whether in the warp or the woof or in the leather whatever the purpose for which the leather is used the mark is a leopard

25:59

Leprous malignancy it is unclean. Okay. They bring it down if the mark has spread in the garment the mark is a leprous malignant

26:07

Malignancy now if is the condition the evidence If it is spread

26:15

Then the conclusion is it is malignant Is it the spreading of the mark in the garment that makes it a leprosy?

26:23

Malignant or is the spreading of the mark in the garment the evidence that it is malignant leprosy

26:29

It is an evidence to inference conditional phrase conditional sentence Now a bunch of them from the

26:35

New Testament John 8 31 Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him if you continue in My word, then you are truly my disciples

26:42

That's an evidence to inference it's not continuing in his word that makes us his disciples Us continuing in his word is the evidence that we are truly his that's what he's saying to John chapter 8

26:52

John 15 verse 14 you are my friends if you do what I command you now Do we become Jesus's friends by doing what he commands?

26:58

That's a con. That's a that's a cause -and -effect relationship No, we do what he commands. That is the evidence that we are his friends

27:06

The evidence that I belong to him is my obedience. That's what Jesus saying It's not our obedience that makes us belong to him.

27:12

It is our obedience, which is an evidence of our belonging to him Hebrews chapter 12 verse 8 if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers

27:20

Then you are illegitimate children and not sons All right If you're without discipline your illegitimate children or let's put it in the order of our sentence here in verse 6

27:28

You are illegitimate children what if you're without discipline, what is the conclusion your illegitimate children?

27:34

What is the end? What is the evidence of that you are without discipline? You look at somebody who sins willfully in their life and they're without the discipline of God That is the evidence that they do not belong to him because God disciplines the child whom he loves that's

27:45

Hebrews chapter 12 So it's an evidence to inference relationship another one James 2 17 even so faith if it has no works is dead

27:51

Now is it the lack of works that makes faith dead or is the lack of works the evidence of a dead faith? The lack of works is an evidence of the dead faith first John 2 verse 15 do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father

28:04

Is not in him Is it our love of the world that is the that causes the love of the father not to be in us or is our love?

28:12

Of the world the evidence that the love of the father is not in us You see these conditional sentences are used as an evidence to inference

28:18

I would argue that this exact same thing is happening here in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 6 What is the inference?

28:25

We are his house. What is the evidence of that if we hold fast to the end? Consequently if you do not hold fast to the end, what does that mean?

28:33

You're not his house This is what John says in 1st John 2 19 They went out from us because they were not of us if they were of us

28:39

They would have remained with us But the fact that they went out shows they were never of us to begin with Because they depart that shows that they were not true and genuine believers

28:48

The fact that if they were genuine and true believers, they would hold fast to the end They would stay with us all the way to the end, but John says they left

28:54

That is the evidence that they were not of us, right? We are his house. That is the inference

28:59

That's what we can conclude the evidence of that is that we remain faithful and hold on and hold fast even to the very end

29:06

And then the same thing would be true down in chapter 3 verse 14 Look at that conditional phrase. We have become partakers of Christ.

29:12

Notice this past tense. We have already become partakers of Christ This is not describing somebody on the fringes who's sort of outside and and has no real connection to Christianity who falls away

29:22

This is describing somebody who is a genuine and true believer. We have become past tense Partakers of Christ genuine

29:28

Christian. What is the evidence that one has truly been made a partaker of Christ past tense?

29:34

They hold fast their assurance firm until the end. It's an evidence to inference conditional sentence So I would affirm in chapter 3 that this is describing true and genuine believers

29:43

This is a warning given to them, but these conditional sentences do not describe a cause -effect relationship

29:48

They describe an evidence to inference relationship. What is the evidence that we belong to him remain faithful all the way to the end?

29:55

Trials come temptations come tribulations come difficulties come and those things may shake us

30:00

They may rock us, but ultimately they do not push us out of his grip We remain his because he holds on to us.

30:06

We hold on to him because by his grace we are his and That is the evidence of our salvation

30:12

The evidence of conversion is not walking an aisle and raising your hand praying a prayer Or being baptized the evidence of your conversion is will you may remain faithful all the way to the end those who have walked away?

30:23

From Christ are just giving evidence that they are not his and they never were

30:29

It's not somebody who loses their salvation That's somebody who pretends to be one of us for a period of time and for some people it can be very convincing

30:35

They can look a lot like us for a long time And then they walk away you scratch your head and say did he lose his salvation?

30:41

No, no It just took longer for that Sal having washed to return to its wallowing in the mire for that dog

30:48

Having departed for a period to go right back to its vomit because salvation is a change of nature a change of character a

30:56

Change of affections and all of that because it is so fundamentally a change those who have been changed will never go back to it

31:01

But you can take a sow and you can wash her up and move her out of the pigpen But when you open up that gate, where's she going right back into the mud, right?

31:08

You can take a dog and drag him off of his vomit, but you let go of him What he's gonna do he's gonna return back to his vomit

31:13

Why because it is in the nature of the sow to wallow in the mud It is in the nature of the dog to eat its own vomit

31:20

Sometimes I preach messages that make you hungry for lunch and other times I I preach messages that just make you think you know,

31:26

I might start my fasting today So this is an inference to evidence statement in verse 6

31:34

It's not a it's not a conditional sentence that that shows that one thing holding fast causes the other us belong to his house rather Us holding fast is the evidence that we do indeed truly belong to his house

31:47

Notice he says that we hold fast our confidence and our hope firm until the end our confidence is in Christ as Christians We have confidence in him as the builder of the house him as the

31:55

Savior the faithful high priest who intercedes for us who has? Made propitiation for our sins that is our confidence and hope here is not the act of hoping it is the thing in which we hope

32:03

And there's plenty of things just in what we've covered so far in the book of Hebrews That gives us the content of what it is that we are hoping for We are looking forward to that one who has made purification for sins and sat down at the father's right hand

32:15

Who himself is coming to? establish his kingdom surrounded by the worship of angels to restore the dominion that was lost at the fall and give it back to us and To bring all things unto subjection to himself and then give to us the heirs of the kingdom all that is his by debt by designation of the father that is the hope that is what we're waiting for the true believer will hold on to that all the way

32:33

To the very end Doesn't mean at times that he might feel like ASAP and Psalm 73 where his feet begin to slip and he starts to question

32:40

It doesn't mean that we are free from doubt. It doesn't mean that we're free from fear It doesn't mean that we're necessarily always free from anxiety, but we are always free from the possibility of falling into everlasting damnation and perishing away from Christ That we are free from that We don't have to worry about that And so we are encouraged to hold tight to him and hold fast to him and the true believer will do so all the way

33:04

To the very end now, let's get an overview quickly of the warning passage itself This is as I said the

33:10

Second of five warning passages. This is the longest of all five of them 572 words it is 33 % longer than the next largest one, which is in chapter 10

33:19

So this is going to take a little bit a while to work through as we do so methodically And there's nothing to fear by the details of the passage and as we work through it

33:26

You'll see what he is the argument that he is making and you're gonna see that it doesn't overthrow any kind of confident belief in the security of the believer

33:34

There's an Old Testament background to this passage and it is the Account of the generation that wandered in the wilderness because on the cusp of going into the promised land in the book of Numbers The twelve spies came back at the report of the

33:46

Giants and and all of the fortifications in the land and they panicked and did not believe and Demonstrated their unbelief and their unfaithful and wicked hearts by not trusting what that what

33:55

God said was true And so they turned back from that and as a punishment They were a sentence to wander the wilderness and all of them that entire generation to die off over the course of 40 years

34:05

And so that's the background for this now The that account is sort of reminisced about in psalm 95

34:11

Which is the quotation that you see in verses 7 through 11 of chapter 3 that is a quotation from psalm 97 or sorry 95 verses 7 through 11.

34:19

There's a Parallel verse numbers there, but that's just an observation Okay, so psalm 95 recounts or tells the story worships around that that that episode in the life of the nation of Israel that That incident with the children of Israel in the wilderness is serves as a background in this passage

34:37

It serves as a cautionary tale to believers today of what it means to demonstrate an unbelieving and unfaithful heart and what that looks like Amongst the people of God and I would encourage you to do two things in the coming week read numbers 13 and 14

34:50

That's the account itself and psalm 95 those three passages If you read that a couple of times over the course of the next week when you get to another

34:57

To get together next weekend. You'll have the background necessary to kind of follow along Chapter 4 might be familiar with you be familiar to you because of the mention of God's rest in verse 1

35:07

Therefore let us fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest any one of you may seem to have come short of it

35:14

So then we're gonna have to deal with the question in chapter 4. What is that rest of God? What does it mean? How do we enter it?

35:19

What are the implications of that for us today? You'll see in verse 11 that he wants us to enter in he says concluding that discussion of God's rest

35:26

Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience

35:33

So he wants us to understand what that rest is and to enter into that rest and there is a danger that having

35:39

Thought that we have entered into that rest that we might not have actually done So and that those who have not done so and have not entered that rest then would fall away

35:46

And he wants us to hold fast to that. You'll see it in verse 14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens

35:53

Jesus the Son of God Let us hold fast our confession. So this warning passage is bracketed by by that command to hold fast

35:59

We're his house if we hold fast in the middle We are partakers if we hold fast and at the end therefore let us hold fast.

36:05

He wants us to hold fast He is encouraging us to hold fast. And what is the evidence that we have held fast that we continue?

36:12

Or what is the what is the conclusion from holding fast that we are his that we belong to his house and that we are partakers of Christ This passage has a lot to say about the heart and the condition of the heart

36:22

Six out of the eleven times that the word heart occurs in the book of Hebrews. It occurs in this warning passage He is focusing upon the condition of the heart.

36:29

We are warned you can see back in chapter 3 verse 7 Actually today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts is when they provoke me and all the way through this passage

36:37

He is dealing with heart issues and we see what a hard heart looks like. It's the children of Israel in the wilderness

36:43

That's the hard heart and we are warned that is a cautionary tale for us and we are encouraged to not

36:49

Harden our hearts and to not let our hearts be hardened So, how is it then that a believer is to respond to these warning passages?

36:55

I'll give you the response of a believer I'll give you the response of an unbeliever an Unbeliever reads the warning passages and he says here's what

37:03

God has warned me about He has he has cautioned me to not do this He has cautioned me of these dangers now in obedience to my

37:10

Lord because of what he has done for me I understand that I'm safe But I'm gonna stay as far away from these things that he has warned me about as I possibly can because I want to obey him

37:18

I want to demonstrate my faithfulness my fidelity to his calling because of what he has done

37:23

So he has warned me about these things. I'm gonna stay away and he has warned me about a hard heart I'm gonna make sure that I try and keep my heart nice and soft.

37:30

He has warned me about disobedience I'm gonna make sure that I try and obey him that I strive to obey him. I pursue obedience.

37:35

He's warned me about unholiness I'm gonna make sure that I pursue holiness The unbeliever looks at the warning passages and stays as far away from as he possibly can

37:44

Against away from those things as he possibly can the result of that is that the warning passages themselves serve as the barricades that keep the children of God safe an

37:56

Unbeliever reads the warning passages and he said yeah doesn't apply to me and right across the barricade he goes Thus evidencing that he is not does not belong to Christ So the warning passages are like the on a tall on a high mountain road the the concrete barricades that they put up along the edge of the road that there to Keep you safe a believer sees those warning passages and stays away from them.

38:19

I'm gonna stay inside I'm gonna hug the inside so I don't want to get close to that. There's obviously something over there and he and he

38:24

Drives that way. I'm not believer does just totally disregards the barricade and goes right through the barricade and off the cliff

38:30

The warning passages are one of the means by which God keeps his people safe from falling away become the means of that Because the believer reads the warning passage and says

38:41

I don't want that. I want Christ I'll make sure I'm firmly in him. So I will evaluate to make my own calling an election.

38:49

Sure I will check to see if I am truly indeed in the faith. I will I will judge my fruits by what

38:54

I see in Scripture I'm not gonna rest in some faults a false standard of assurance. I want to stay safe I don't want to stay safe in the arms of Christ and that is where I want to be and that's where I want to Rest and the believer wants to rest there and stays there.

39:06

He doesn't try and push the boundaries. The unbeliever goes past the warning passages The believer for the believer the warning passages are the means of his preservation.

39:15

That's that For the believer the warning passages are one of the means of our preservation. We are kept safe because God has given us those warning passages.

39:25

I Understand that for today a lot of this has been more of an intellectual exercise than it has necessarily an emotional or a spiritual or affection

39:33

Exercise my only prayer and hope is that this is laid some groundwork and that the Holy Spirit will use this to inflame your own

39:40

Love for Christ and to keep you safe in his harm Arms away from harm and thus prove that you are part of the family of God Lord willing

39:48

We'll start next week with verse 7 and we'll start working our way through this warning passage. Let's bow our heads

39:55

Father we thank you that you have been so good and kind to us to preserve those who are yours and to keep us by your grace

40:02

We thank you that our salvation rests not upon our our grasp or our grip upon Christ, but upon his grip on us

40:11

We thank you for the warning passages that highlight for us the errors of those who will plunge past them and we pray that you would use them as a means to Strengthen our own hearts and to cause us to examine ourselves and to be diligent to make our calling an election

40:24

Sure, may you be glorified in preserving and keeping us if our salvation depended upon our strength or our abilities

40:30

Then we would have fallen away the very day that we trusted Christ We thank you that it does not so we rest in him

40:37

We are grateful for a high priest who intercedes for us even now Strengthen us in our encourage us in our hearts and in our faith and in our walk with Christ that we may give to him