Endure To The End

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, and we are doing new shows again. I guess there�s 1 ,500 to 1 ,800 shows that you can pull up and listen to if you like to listen to them.

That�d be great. Otherwise, these are new shows. My suggestion, 24 and a half minutes goes by faster at 1 .5 speed. That�s how I listen to podcasts. I try not to listen to sermons that way, though, because I need the pause.

I need the selah, the stop and let that sink in, if in fact that�s what selah is. Probably the best description of the selah, S-E-L-A-H, you see at the end of some of the phrases in the Psalms. I think it�s someplace else, too, maybe Habakkuk.

It�s in the Word Commentary. I can�t remember which one. There are three volumes, I believe, on the Psalms, 1 to 50, 51 to 100, and 101 to 150. Leslie Allen did one. I forgot who the other guys were. Where is it?

Oh, you know what? I think I�ve sold them all. Yeah, they�re on Lagos. Anyway, that�s the best I�ve ever done, selah. Stop and let that sink in. Anyway, we�re glad you listened. We appreciate it. When I ever meet someone or get an email and they say, �We listened to your show I�m thinking, �Wow, somebody listens.

We don�t have any way to measure. We can measure downloads from the website, but the rest you just don�t know. So when you are listening, I�m encouraged. Thank you. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies, etc.

Hebrews 3:6 and the Call to Hold Fast

We are talking on No Compromise Radio a lot about the book of Hebrews because it is so Christ-exalting. I just have to move my Asian, medley, lightly seasoned, perfectly cooked in the bag, 200 calorie, bird�s eye, frozen, fresh vegetables.

Now wait a second. When it says fresh, frozen, frozen vegetables, fresh, frozen, so that means they�re fresh, then they freeze them? How can they be fresh, frozen? And in fact, what would frozen, fresh mean?

Fresh, frozen, frozen, fresh, how do you say that? When my mother was younger, I was younger, she drank fresca, tab and fresca, and she drank Diet-Rite Cola, maybe that�s why we all have cancer, I don�t know, probably.

Hebrews 3, 6, but Christ is faithful over God�s house as a son, not just a servant compared to Moses, and we are, are, are his house if indeed we hold fast our confession and our boasting in our hope.

Last time we looked at this and we acknowledged that many people think, see, look at these conditional statements, if, if you do this then, and it seems to put the man-centeredness on salvation, it seems to highlight that, doesn�t it?

And what we have said is, how do you read this? Well, if you continue, it shows that you have real saving faith that God gave you. If you don�t continue, it shows that you haven�t because real faith does persevere.

It�s not salvific, it�s not meritorious, it�s not your own work that you would somehow stand before God and say, I did it on my own. But these people received this sermon, this exhortation, Hebrews 13, that it�s called, and then they wondered, you know what, there are some people they don�t follow anymore, some people they do follow, some keep believing, some don�t, how do we measure this?

And so this preacher says, listen, if you keep following Jesus, it shows the validity of your faith. This is an evidence, this is a fruit, this is a result of, this isn�t the cause of, this is not the condition of, this is not the ground of, this is a result of, that�s the way to do it.

The whole theme of this is, look at how great Jesus is, keep believing in him, rest in him, don�t have an unbelieving heart, chapter 3, verse 12, it�s all about belief. I could say, keep believing to the end and you shall be saved.

If you truly abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, if you abide in my word, you�re truly my disciples, John 8, 31. This has nothing to do with you can lose your salvation, this has nothing to do with can God keep a Christian, don�t turn your back on Jesus.

If you�re listening today, there�s no other hope. Things are bad, things are difficult, family relationships, some maybe are listening overseas in the Middle East, as bad as things might get, there�s no other hope, there�s no other salvation, there�s no other forgiveness found outside of Jesus, don�t let go, don�t stop believing.

That sounds dumb, that�s like an intro to a song of a band I don�t like, I�ll have to eat those things over there later. He says, if we hold fast our confidence and our boast in our hope, what do you think he�s talking about?

Hold fast to what? Hold fast to whom? What�s the Christian�s hope? Well he�s just got done saying in chapter 1, the son of God, eternal son, he�s divine, Jesus is divine. Chapter 2, he�s not only divine, he�s human, he�s 100 God, 100 man, fully divine, fully human.

Not fused into one monophyte type of weird thing, he has not morphed into something, he is, as the eternal son, added human nature. And so he says hold fast, and he said hold fast to our confidence, what�s the confidence?

He just talked about it in chapter 2, the confidence that you have access to God through the Father, through Jesus, that�s your confidence. He also says hold fast, what? Our boasting in our hope, what�s your hope?

Your hope is Jesus perfectly obeys the law and dies as a propitiatory sacrifice. You have to hold fast, but you hold fast is basically like a synonym for keep believing that the only way you have access to the Father is through Jesus, and the only way you have a right standing in God�s eyes is because Jesus earned that for you.

That�s what he�s saying, yes, he says hold fast. That is your responsibility. Hold on. Now let�s just take a look at that word hold or hold fast, it�s two English words but I believe it�s one Greek word, well it is one Greek word.

In the old days, hold fast in the ancient days, pre-Bible days, pre-New Testament days at least, it meant something like to keep, it meant to retain. If you had some things that you learned, some teaching rules, well don�t forget those, retain those, keep those.

In secular writings, students retain the knowledge for the test, right? It�s a body of teaching that you keep. And here in the book of Hebrews, you want to hold fast, you want to have a tight grip, a white knuckle grip.

That�s the objective for the writer, for the reader as the writer exhorts him to say or her to say in light of who Jesus is, this is my response. Hold fast. Now if you go back far enough, you can see that this term hold fast has some nautical derivations.

And even in Acts chapter 27 verse 40, Luke says, casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea while at the same time they were loosening the ropes of the rudders and hoisting and the foresail of the wind they were heading for, holding fast for the beach, holding their course towards or toward the beach.

By the way, that�s just a pet peeve of mine, people say towards, see I just did it. See I am, I am you. If you write me, info at nocompromisedradio .com and you are the first one to write me and say I know the movie from where that sentence comes from, I�ll send you a free sexual fidelity book.

I am you. Our family, we could watch that show over and over and over and over. I am you. Stop saying that. That�s kind of like, you know, if one of the kids is dating, courting, getting to know somebody and they watch that show and they don�t like it, then there�s no hope for them in the NoCo family.

I am you. Stop saying that. If you Google it, it doesn�t count. You have to know. So I want you to tell me, I didn�t Google it, this is the show and I like the show and I�ll send you a free copy. First one.

If I get 20 of them, I can�t do it and we�re on a strict budget around here. Remember the slogan, if you don�t ask for money, you don�t get money? Well, we don�t get money. We get some. We get some. I think we have 13 people who give on a regular basis to No Compromise Radio and I appreciate it.

Hold fast. So let�s put those ideas together, you know, regarding the nautical and the beach and all that. You�ve got this body of teaching. Hold on to it. Like you�re driving to the beach, you can�t let go.

This endurance isn�t the cause of your salvation, it�s the evidence of it. You show that you truly are a Christian if you persevere. That is the idea. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, a simple trust, right, a knowledge, assent and trust, that is saving faith.

And that saving faith will enable you to persevere. We are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope. And the writer, I almost said Paul, but the writer adds himself to this.

Like he�s a Jew talking to the Jews. The people of God, we, he adds himself, final perseverance of the saints. The author includes himself. You do not become the house of God by holding fast, but you show that you are the house of God, people of God, by holding fast.

Evidence of saving faith is holding fast. God uses these warnings to help people stay the course, stay orthodox. You have sensitive believers, you have weak believers, you have strong believers, you tell them continue to the end.

Hold fast. You've got convictions, beliefs, truths about Jesus, hold on to what you believe. Hold on to the object of your faith, confidence in it. And I know there's a conditional if. But the conditional if has nothing to do with, oh, see, you can lose your salvation.

Did we not just say on No Compromise Radio? If you are truly a believer, you have simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it will evidence itself in perseverance. So if people say that they believe and then they walk away from the faith in five years, you can say, you know what?

They didn't keep themselves? No, you say, well, they obviously didn't have a saving faith because Christians must persevere in the faith. Christians must continue. This if should not make you unsettled.

It should not make you lack assurance. It should make you say, I better not trust in anything else, anyone else except the Lord Jesus Christ. He is more faithful than Moses. To make sure your hope is grounded in Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection alone.

Are you trusting in Jesus Christ? Well, what about the people that say they believed and then they walked away? They got baptized, they walked away. They were a church member and they walked away. Well, you are in God's house.

You are his house if you hold fast, if indeed you hold fast. Anything in particular to hold fast to? And as we have said, you hold fast to your confidence and your boasting in your hope. Those are the two.

And so let's look at the first one, holding fast our confidence. This confidence must be that you have access to the Father through the work of the mediator, Jesus Christ, to use the words of 1 John 2, the righteous.

You'll see four times in Hebrews 3, 4, 10, and 10 as well, two times in chapter 10. Boldness or confidence. And when you study the New Testament, it could signify confidence like, well, let me just read John 16, verse 25.

I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. Chapter 18, verse 20, Jesus answered him, I've spoken openly to the world.

I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where the Jews have all come together. I have said nothing in secret. This word confidence could mean a self-confidence that lends itself to speak freely before God, before other people.

That is one way you could translate it. One writer said within the New Testament, it can signify both an internal attitude of confidence, like, you know, I'm trusting on the inside, but then it also could include a clear expression of public speaking.

So that's what I gave you in chapter 16 and chapter 18 of John. So we regularly think, here's my point, I should have said it a different way. We should have said, you know, I'm confident. This is this internal feeling that I have and trust, fide, confide with confidence, with trust is confidence.

But it can then manifest itself externally. My internal confidence can manifest itself externally as I speak openly. That's the idea. The grounds on which believers have boldness are what, themselves?

How can you be so confident that you hold fast in yourself, in the world? You're so confident on the inside that you even talk on the outside about who God is. Well, the only way you can do it is through the sacrificial death of Christ, his atoning death.

The object is Christ Jesus. That's your confidence. And not only that, you hold fast to the confidence, you hold fast to boasting in hope. What does that mean? The hope in which you boast, that's the best way to phrase it.

What you're boasting and are glorifying in, that's what you should hold fast to. The object of your boast. Listeners hold fast to their boast by holding fast to what God has done for them, yes? Instead of cowering, going back, you are certain.

When it comes to hope, God's going to keep his promises, especially those that are found in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's essentially saying, Christ is faithful over God's house as son, and we are his house if indeed we hold fast to our belief in Christ Jesus, who gives us access, and then we have our hope in what God promised for those who believe in the work of Christ.

Hold fast to believing that God said, God meant what he said when he said, you are right in my eyes, simply by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the context here in Hebrews is interesting because Moses didn't shrink back, Jesus didn't shrink back, don't you shrink back?

Moses was faithful, Jesus was faithful, you respond with faithfulness, not because it saves you, but because you are saved, therefore, be faithful. Hold fast. Christian, persevere in the faith. He wants Christians to persevere, they're getting persecuted.

What does it mean to follow Christ Jesus, to believe in him? You better think about it, and you better think about Jesus, and then you should follow. Don't say, I'm unsettled, hey, Christian, if you're following, you should have confidence and hope.

Don't turn your back on Jesus. You need to have this confidence, this boast. Keep trusting, keep believing. Spurgeon said, you see then that the apostle had first made a distinction between Christ and Moses on the ground of the builder being greater than the house he builds.

Now in the second place, he shows Christ's superiority to Moses on the ground that a son in his own house is greater than a servant in the house of his master. How sweetly he introduces the truth that we are the house of Christ.

Do we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the midst of us? How clean we ought to be, how holy, how heavenly, how we should seek to rise above the earth and keep ourselves reserved for the crucified.

In this house, no rival should be permitted ever to dwell, but the great Lord should have every chamber of it entirely to himself, O that he may take his rest within our hearts as his holy habitation, and may there be nothing in our church life that shall grieve the Son of God and cause him, even for a moment, to be withdrawn from us.

We are his house in which he dwells with delight, in which he finds comfort and rest. We are the household over which he rules and in which he is the delight and the joy of us all. May our church ever be such a house so well ordered that when the Lord comes into it, no when he ever dwells in it, he may never be or not be grieved in his own house.

Whatever trouble a man has, he hopes to find solace at home, and so let the house of God be the house of Jesus, the place where there is peace, obedience, love, and holiness. I could say where there is perseverance.

Make sure you're home when Jesus comes to the house. Hold on to your profession. What does that show? That it saves you? No, that you are saved. It will show that you're saved if you keep believing. It is a proof of the reality of your faith if you keep believing, keep persevering.

This is very important to understand the difference between ground and evidence. The ground for your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sin bearer. He is the perfect obeyer of God's law. The evidence of your salvation is, well, it could be fruit, could be holiness, could be love, and it is perseverance.

When Luther started to write as a Christian, he was writing when sanctification and justification were mixed, were blended together. Love was the fruit and evidence of justification and salvation. Grace was also redefined, Clark said, R. Scott Clark.

Luther and the Protestants found that the medievals had departed from the biblical definition of grace as God's free favor toward sinners and had turned it into medicine. They had found that some of the fathers and many of the medievals had downplayed the effect of sin so as to be able to teach our ability to cooperate freely with grace.

And so what was going on? Protestants said the necessary consequence of justification is our sanctification. And so what you have to do is you have to say good works, sanctification are necessary consequences of your salvation.

But you don't do good things to be saved. You don't persevere to be saved. You persevere because you are saved. See that? Good works, perseverance, love are necessary consequences of justification. And so what happens?

Because you're saved, persevere. Because Jesus is who he said he is, persevere. These people are on the run, remember, in Hebrews, and they're on the run for their lives. Yes, well, pretty close and probably eventually, yes.

But the text only tells us in Hebrews that I think that they're losing their houses and their possessions. They can only go back and get back in the synagogue and the smells and the bells and the marble and the incense and the trumpets and the gold and the opulence and the extravagance that certainly Solomon's temple was revamped by Herod, of course.

Your entrance into glory is not grounded on perseverance. Your evidence into glory is an evidence that you have been saved. So when it comes to thinking this way, ground of your salvation, Jesus. Evidence works love.

The necessary consequence, I know, but we can't mix up those categories. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.