Unbelief: The Hoax Of The Ages - [Hebrews 3:12-19]

Once in a while, I like to study the subject of psychology, not because I believe in psychology,

or maybe they can analyze behavior, but they certainly can't change behavior into Christ -likeness.

Recently, I learned about something called attachment styles in psychology.

Attachment styles.

It's in Psychology Today magazine, and people can range from secure attachment

to dismissing avoidant attachment, to fearful avoidant attachment.

But my favorite attachment style is preoccupied attachment.

People who are preoccupied and they have a need to be close to other people, and they

cling to them.

While the psychologist might think that's something wrong or negative, I thought that is perfect

because that describes the author to the book of Hebrews.

He has an attachment style, an attachment preoccupation with the

Lord Jesus.

And he wants to cling to Him, not in a negative clingy style, but by trusting and by

believing in Him.

Take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Hebrews chapter three, because this author

has a preoccupation with Jesus.

He is absorbed with the concept of who Jesus is.

He is engrossed.

He is obsessed.

Even that word preoccupied, it means to see something beforehand.

And so everything about the book of Hebrews is about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many have called this the fifth gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and

Hebrews.

And from the very beginning, from the starting gun, as it were, there is an extolling of, a

praising of, a description of who Jesus is as a creator, as a sin

purger, as one who has been seated at the right hand of the Father.

And it just doesn't end.

It's almost like you want to stop and slow down a little bit because it's about the superiority of Jesus.

Against all comers, frankly, He's greater than prophets.

He's greater than angels.

He's greater than Moses.

He's greater than Aaron.

He's greater than the old covenant system.

He's greater than the tabernacle.

He's greater than the temple.

It doesn't matter who the author lists, Jesus is greater.

Because what every person needs in life and especially in a trial, as these people were in,

as many of us are in, as many of us will be in, is not how

do I get out of the trial, but how do I think rightly about Jesus?

How do I keep walking by faith?

Faith isn't just enough to say, I got everything right with God when I first became a Christian and I believed in

Jesus, but now it is, I must keep believing in Jesus.

And so the author paints the object of his faith, our faith, in the words

of scripture, in the Greek language.

And now we're looking at the English.

Of course, what you believe about Jesus will affect your life and should change your life.

And so later on in the book, he'll have very practical outworkings of Christ's superiority.

Chapter three, verse one.

And by the way, I have a special announcement to make this morning.

We're gonna finish chapter three today.

That is big.

I met some visitors a while ago.

They've been coming for six or seven weeks.

And yeah, you've been in Hebrews 3 .7.

We left for a couple of weeks.

We came back.

You're still in Hebrews 3 .7 and following, but we, God willing, will finish Hebrews three today.

I said to someone last week, I'm 57 years old.

I've been in better health.

This is probably the last time I ever preached to the book of Hebrews in my life.

So we're just gonna take our time.

And I've told you many times about that pastor in New England who preached Isaiah for 40 years

and died in chapter eight.

So compared to him, we are so fast.

It's unbelievable.

Hebrews 3 .1.

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling.

This really could describe the whole book.

Consider Jesus.

Think a lot about the human God -man.

Jesus, the apostle, he was sent by God to rescue us.

And high priest, he makes intercession for us of our confession.

Who was faithful to him who appointed him.

I mean, Moses was faithful, but Jesus was more faithful, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

And so in Hebrews 3, the writer's been now focusing for a while on Moses's

greatness, but Jesus is greater.

He doesn't say Moses sinned, even though Moses did sin.

But as Moses had a glory and it was a reflected glory, wasn't it?

When God sent Moses up to the mountain and that glory was on Moses's face and people were afraid to

look and he had to cover his face, that was external glory.

That was God's glory on Moses's face.

When Jesus, on the other hand, went up to a mountain, a different mountain, what was in Jesus came out of him

at the transfiguration.

And so his glory is greater.

The glory of a son is greater than the glory of a servant.

And that's what he's talking about in Hebrews 3.

And then we've been working through this warning passage that starts in verse seven.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and he's using the backdrop of Psalm 95 and the rebellion

of the Israelites in the wilderness to tell them, don't you do the same thing.

It would be worse for you because we're not talking about temporal wilderness,

we're talking about eternal wilderness, that is hell.

So what's the response?

To do something?

No, to believe someone.

Verse 12 of Hebrews 3.

There's kind of some neat bookends between 3 .12 and 3 .19 so you know exactly what's in the

center.

What's 3 .12 to 3 .19 talking about?

Do you see the connection?

Verse 12, take care, brothers.

That's the word to see where we get the word bleppo.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart

leading you to fall away from the living God.

And then what does it say in verse 19?

So we see same word as take care in the ESV, bleppo, that we who were unable to

enter because of, they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

So if you wanna look at the bookends, 3 .12, take heed so that you are not an unbeliever.

3 .19, take heed so that you're not an unbeliever.

And everything in between drives from that point and ends to that point.

Stated negatively, unbelief leads into tragedy.

Stated positively, care very much about your

faith in Christ Jesus.

Cotton Mather once said, the great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher

is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.

That's exactly what this author is doing.

Any type of rival claim, any type of competition, any type of

rivalry or allegiance to someone else, to some other system, to some other person, to

some other thing has to be destroyed.

And it can be destroyed by don't do that, it ends poorly, and it also can be demonstrated by

look at who Jesus is.

I mean, even the titles of the book of Jesus Christ in this book alphabetically, author,

apostle, captain, Christ, finisher, firstborn,

God, heir, high priest, Lord, mediator, shepherd,

and son.

Don't run to anyone else, keep believing.

And if you don't believe, you should have no assurance of your eternal life.

But the positive side is true.

Are you believing now?

Then you should have great assurance because you only stand before God on the basis

of the work of another.

Jesus perfectly obeyed, God expects perfection.

You say, I'm gonna stand before God based on my good deeds outweighing my bad.

There's no hope for you.

That's why you need to see the excellencies of Jesus because he was the one who was not just the one

who redeems us, but he's the ransom price.

God slays him in our place.

Jesus perfectly obeyed.

So everything is driving to who Jesus is.

Now, if you'll turn to Romans chapter nine, please, I want you to see where the author is

going.

And I know it's a joke and it doesn't even really mean to be a joke, but we're not gonna be there for a couple of years.

So I want you to see ahead of time, it's true, I know, where he's going.

So he's giving these warnings, but he's driving somewhere.

To where is he driving?

You can almost imagine, you know, you take your kids to a fairly long trip, they're little, and they're going someplace

exciting, the water park, or maybe at Six Flags, or maybe to the beach.

And, you know, are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Daddy, are we there yet?

Quit asking me, are we there yet?

When I put the car in park, we're there.

Now get back to your Rafi songs.

I mean, whatever you're listening to.

Where is he going?

Now remember, this system of Judaism, sacrifices and blood, the wages of sin is

death.

Something has to die.

God has instituted substitution.

I'd walk over to my children at nighttime and I would say to them, what's the most important concept in all the Bible theologically?

God, yes.

Jesus, yes.

Substitution.

Because God needs to provide that lamb that has its horn stuck,

so it's not Isaac getting slain.

God has to provide that lamb in the Passover, so the death angel doesn't kill you.

God has to provide that offering in the day of atonement, in our place, in our stead,

on our behalf.

Substitute, so when Jesus shows up on the scene, John the Baptist recognized Jesus as what?

The lamb of God.

So when you get to chapter nine, verse 11, of course, in Judaism, they understand

the sacrificial system, but it just had to happen all the time.

Verse 11, but when Christ the Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,

then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, He

entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of

goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing

an eternal redemption.

And of course, remember, we're not talking about blood types.

Was Jesus O positive or A or something like that?

We're talking about sacrificial death.

When you see blood in this kind of language, He had to die, yes, but He didn't just bleed.

It was a vicious, vicarious death.

From the blood of verse 13, goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer

sanctify for the purification of the flesh.

How much more?

See, this is greater language.

Will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to

God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Verse 15, therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised

eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed

under the first covenant.

I mean, you could ask the question, if you have to keep doing a sacrifice, how good is it?

If something has to be repeated over and over and over, is it really efficacious?

Chapter 10, verse 1, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come

instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are

continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, they would not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have

any consciousness of sins.

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year,

obviously with a backdrop of the great day of atonement.

Verse 4, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Now, see, we might not understand that language, but the Jewish people did.

I could maybe put it in modern parlance this way, for it is impossible

by giving something up for Lent to take away sins.

It is impossible to have your sins forgiven by having no fish on Friday.

It is impossible to have your sins forgiven by saying, you know what, before we go have Thanksgiving dinner, let's go to

the soup kitchen and serve.

It is impossible to have your sins forgiven by saying, I hope God just looks at the sincerity of my heart.

It's impossible to forgive sins by saying, you know what, I'm not as bad as

those other people.

It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Because mankind cannot solve the sin problem.

I'm a sinner, you're a sinner.

How can we solve our sin problem?

We couldn't, but God did, verse 5.

Consequently, I mean, if God was not a loving God, what would this word

consequently imply?

If God were not gracious, what would God do if we're sinful and we are sinful?

Consequently, He just cast everyone to perdition.

Consequently, He judged everyone.

But no, since God has great love, as Ephesians 2 says, with which He loves us.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, wouldn't you

like to eavesdrop on what the Father and the Son were talking about when Jesus is going into the world?

Remember, Jesus exists before He was born.

By the way, what did you say before you were born?

I know what you said when you were born, most likely, but it didn't really make any sense.

In eternity past, the Father sends the Apostle, Jesus, because He loves

sinners and is gonna forgive them.

We get to overhear the Son talking to the Father.

Wow, when Christ came into the world, He said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for Me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of Me in

the scroll of the book.

Why did the eternal Son have to have a body?

Because He's going to be our representative.

We were to perfectly obey the law, do this and live, but we couldn't and we fell short.

Sacrifices had to happen in the Old Testament over and over and over and over.

Will it ever stop?

I mean, I just think about my life.

If I was a Jewish priest versus a Protestant pastor,

if you ever needed help carving your turkey or butchering a cow,

you'd wanna call me.

If I was an Old Testament priest, because my job would just be slaughtering animals

over and over and over.

Kim and I years ago went to the Sterling Lake and we saw a guy with his

grandchild there and the guy looked, he just looked older and he looked normal until we saw

from the ankles down and his feet were bloody, dried blood.

I thought I'm gonna have to call Sterling police or something because I think it's like an ax murder here with

this grandkid, but what am I gonna do?

Where's Sergeant Steve Cooley when you need him?

So we began to talk and he was a butcher and he normally had his

apron on and so his apron got all bloody, but he didn't have apron for his shoes and his shoes were all

bloody.

Can you imagine the blood?

You sin, blood and death.

You sin, blood and death.

You sin, blood and death.

Isn't anybody going to obey perfectly?

And so Jesus does.

To die for people, he has to become a person.

He has to add humanity to his eternal God.

It's amazing to think about.

Christ had to be born because only his perfect law keeping and his once for all perfect

sacrifice could atone.

Verse eight, when he said above, you have neither desire nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and

offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.

These are offered according to the law.

Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will.

He does away with the first old covenant in order to establish the second.

And by that will, God, the father's will, we have been sanctified or set apart

through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

You talk about the Hebrews author preoccupied with Jesus.

Jesus is preoccupied with the father's will.

Whatever you want me to do, I will do that.

Unlike me, unlike you, unlike everyone else.

But Jesus says, I'm going to do exactly what you will.

Preoccupied with God's plan and God's decree, God's design.

Salvation doesn't originate with us.

It originates with the triune God.

And now it's being executed by the son.

If I just read you a few verses and ask you the question, who's the savior?

Would you say me?

Would you say you?

Would you say the government, education?

You realize who the savior is.

Listen, Titus two, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and

purify for himself a people for his own possession.

First Peter, knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile

way of life inherited with your forefathers, but with precious blood as a lamb

unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Or Paul in Galatians three, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse

for us for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

I draw your attention to verse 11 in the same chapter that we've been in and every priest stands daily at his service,

offering repeatedly the same sacrifices.

There's blood everywhere by the way, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice,

he sat down at the right hand of God.

Priests don't sit down, why?

Because tomorrow the next person comes in with their sin.

Tomorrow I sin, later today I sin.

All kinds of furniture in the tabernacle, all kinds of furniture in the temple, but no seats.

Job's not done.

Look at the language here, it's done.

No wonder when Jesus says it is finished, he meant it.

Waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet, for by a, you see

the refrain again, a single offering he has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified.

What other religion says, here's this event, the God -man who lives and dies, that secures

salvation.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.

Then he adds, wonderfully, if you're a sinner, I've got good news for you because of Jesus.

I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds every day.

Is that what the text says?

Maybe we've been in a relationship and we can't stop thinking about that particular sin that

that loved one has committed against us or against someone else.

And it's almost like you begin to see people through their besetting sins and you recognize

your fellow Christian, your fellow husband, our wife, our children, our parents, our brother in

Christ.

And the way you see them is you see them through the lens of their besetting sins.

That's the most ungodly thing you could do, by the way, because what does God do?

He sees a sinner and He sees all the sin and He says what?

I remember your sins, what?

No longer.

That's why we're to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.

That's why it's so nice to be able to say once you grasp this doctrine of forgiveness based on this high

priest.

God does not see me as the person who's done all those sins.

He sees me as what?

A son.

While justification is awesome and I will defend it and have been on social media.

We're in the court of God's law.

You stand before God as a sinner and God says not guilty, no condemnation because my son

has kept the law in your place and he's died for your sins and I've raised him from the dead, not

guilty.

What Hebrews will also make you think is this.

Now the judge takes off his gown and he walks around the side

of his desk and the gavel and sits down and says,

these are the papers I have to adopt you as my son.

God sees you as a son.

He doesn't remember your sins.

So as a very practical side note, if someone says to you, please forgive me

and you ought to say, I forgive you, then don't bring that up to other people.

Don't bring it up to yourself.

Think about something instead.

Don't bring it up to God.

Act like God and say, I will remember their sins.

What?

No more.

If we could grasp this by the spirit's power, it would change our church.

I don't think we're imperfectly, we're just as bad as we get doing that.

But we have a long way to go.

Someone has some sin, besetting sin, something in their background.

Friends, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church.

And if you're trusting in this Jesus who's captain, author, apostle, high priest, I

need to see you as God sees you.

The God of the great Lord Jesus sees you as son and therefore I see you as brother.

I will remember their sins no more.

I'll take that as an amen.

She said earlier when we were singing, can we go home now?

So I'll take that.

And guess what?

When there's true forgiveness found in God, what's verse 18 says?

Where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer any offering for sin.

And if there's no sin that you have, what's your entree into God's presence?

Can you saunter right in?

Yes.

Verse 19, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places, not by our own merit,

not by my own sacrificial life, but by the blood of Jesus.

It would be good for me to stop and ask, do you believe this Jesus?

Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now let's go back to chapter three.

We've been in chapter three and we wanna finish it off today.

I'd like to expand what we did a little bit last week because there's some treasures in this text that we need to make sure to understand.

He basically is saying in chapter three, verses 12 through the end of the chapter,

I want you to really take heed that you keep believing and I want you to encourage other people to believe.

That's what he's saying.

So let's just have a little review and I'll add some new information in that's important.

He first says, take care, take heed, see to it.

Take care brothers, verse 12 of Hebrews three, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart

leading you to fall away from the living God.

As I stated last week, once a lack of trust seeps into a relationship,

it's hard to keep that relationship where it's supposed to be.

When my kids were little, I would tell them, I want you to walk toward the kitchen table

and you do not stop.

If I don't say stop, just walk into the table.

But just before they got to the kitchen table, I would say repent and they would turn around and they'd walk

back.

By the way, when kids are really young and you just need them to do something, you can either try jumping jacks or that, but this at least teaches them

the lesson.

What is repentance?

If you're moving towards unbelief, the only response is to change your mind and to repent and to

start thinking this way about the object of your faith.

And if you're going the right way already, don't be tempted to look in the rear view mirror and think, remember how

good my life was before I was a Christian?

It might've, by the way, been great, but you still go to hell when you die with a great life.

How's that?

Take care therefore.

Hebrews 12, 25 translates it, see to it.

Unbelief is so evil.

Do you notice what the text says?

An evil, unbelieving heart.

The worst sin in the world isn't found on the drudge report.

It's unbelief.

God, I don't care who you say your son is.

I won't believe.

I refuse to believe.

That's the worst sin.

It says it's evil.

I mean, I've been studying this week, Christian scientist doctrine, and they don't even believe

sin exists.

Sin, sickness, and death are so to be classified as effects of error.

Christ came to destroy the belief of sin.

Can you believe that?

That's why as my friend used to say, Christian science, it's not Christian, and it's not science.

Jesus came to destroy the notion of sin.

No, he came to be a sin bearer.

What is sin?

What's the root of sin?

Now, you might say sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

That's true.

1 John 3, 4, sin is lawlessness.

But keeping your finger here in Hebrews 3, just quickly go to John 16, and I think you'll see that the root of all

sin, according to Jesus, is unbelief.

You say, well, Adam and Eve, they were prideful and they were self -righteous.

Isn't that?

No, they didn't take God at His word.

The root sin is unbelief.

It manifests itself in lawlessness and ends up in immorality.

That's true.

You might describe it as the subjective root of all sin is unbelief.

Objectively, it's lawlessness, and then it spirals into everything else.

But just listen to what Jesus said.

Why is unbelief so awful?

John 16, verse 7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away.

Boy, those would be hard words to hear from Jesus.

For if I do not go away, the Helper, we're talking about the Spirit of God, will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send Him to you.

So my Spirit, the Holy Spirit's gonna come.

And when He comes, what does He do?

He will convict the world of sin or concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

Concerning sin, what's the sin that He's talking about?

What's the big sin?

What's the root of sin?

Because they do not believe in Me.

Martin Luther said that unbelief and particularly that unbelief in

Jesus is the sin.

Is the sin in the New Testament.

He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words hath one that judges

him.

Luther went on to say, we cannot do any greater despite to our Lord God than by

unbelief.

For by it, we make God a devil.

Again, we cannot do Him any greater honor than by faith when we regard Him as Savior.

Therefore, we cannot abide a doubting heart like the Turk who doubts or the monk who in despair

runs to a monastery and says, oh, how hot is hell.

I will therefore do good works to placate God.

But by good works, we do not become a Christian, but we remain a heathen.

And Luther expresses it very definitely here when he says, quote, unbelief is the chief sin

and the source of all other sins.

Yes, it leads to lawlessness.

Yes, it leads to immorality and idolatry and pride and self -righteousness.

But at the root, do you take God at His word?

Now let's go back to Hebrews chapter three.

That's why it's such an awful thing.

No wonder Octavius Winslow says, the cause he traces all departure from God is

unbelief.

That's why it's so evil.

And I know it's hard to look at your friend and your unbelieving sister, our mother, our children as wicked and

evil, but that's what an unbelieving heart is.

And so what does the writer say?

Don't go that way because what will happen at the end of verse 12?

You're gonna fall away from the living God.

You're not gonna fall away from the dead temple or a dead person, but the risen savior who's alive, you're gonna go away

from him.

Don't do that.

It's a warning.

But now he gives the positive thing in verse 13 of Hebrews three.

We saw this too last week.

Exhort others to keep believing.

Tell them, avoid unbelief and tell them to keep believing, but exhort one another every day.

Remember the bookends, unbelief, unbelief.

He's talking about that here at the positive side.

You could translate it this way, but exhort everyone every day to keep believing in this Messiah revealed in

Hebrews, as long as it's called today, seems like that's today, that none of you may be hardened by the

deceitfulness of sin.

We walk by faith and not by sight.

We say to ourselves, when a Christian's struggling, we should come alongside and help them in temporal ways, in physical

ways, and then remind them who Jesus is.

How do you counsel other people?

It must include encouragement, coming alongside to believe in Jesus,

to talk about Jesus.

I wonder, I know it's only hypothetical, but if the Israelites in the wilderness

would have done this, encourage one another to believe, to say, God keeps His promises,

He's been faithful.

I wonder if they would have done that, how soon they would have gone into the promised land.

Again, it's hypothetical, but it's a good question to ask.

I saw a picture of somebody the other day, and they said, I'm celebrating church by myself today, and this person had their feet up on a dock,

and it looked like it was by some kind of Florida lagoon or something.

I know there's times on Sundays when you can't get to church, and something happens, and you're home taking care of

your sick child or whatever, but there's a reason why, even in the book of Hebrews, it says to people who are on the run

because of persecution, not forsaking our own assembling together,

as is the habit of some, but exact same Greek word, encouraging one

another.

How do you encourage one another?

Well, the persecution will be ended, or we'll be in heaven one day, fine, that's true, but we

can keep trusting in God.

You can keep trusting in who God is.

What's the function of a local church gathering on Sunday?

To extol God, amen, but to encourage one another, and not just,

way to go, you passed your driver's test.

That's good, but I know things are hard.

Keep trusting in Christ Jesus.

Keep believing.

Someone said to me last week, are you gonna quote the Journey song, Don't Stop Believing?

I said, over my dead body.

I don't like Journey so much.

So there you have it.

God keeps me to the end, eternal security, yes, by the means of all kinds of things, including

we all say to one another, God can be trusted, God is faithful, He's brought you thus far.

How often should I encourage?

I could ask you the question this way, how often would you like to be encouraged?

Every leap year.

Today, that's what I'm talking about, today.

Could I just give a little pastoral plea?

This is not chasing, this is not, I'm mad at you, this is just coming alongside.

I know if you have to leave right away, you have to leave right away, but if you could get here early or stay a little late

to encourage people, that would be wonderful.

We're kind of a commuter church now, so we all have to drive a long way to get here.

It's not like we can all go next door and have some fellowship.

There are people here that need not just a hug, but a reminder to come alongside, that's what the word

encourage means, and to say, I know things are hard, I love you, but God loves you.

And He's shown that by giving you the Son.

Don't doubt the goodness of God.

I think that would change our church.

He gives the warning, but He gives the encouragement.

It's better than looking into ourselves, what are we gonna find there?

But it's tricky, look at verse 13, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If I just go back to Judaism, things are gonna be so much better.

That's a deception.

Those leeks and garlic in the wilderness didn't taste so good.

You might think so.

Sin's deceitfulness.

The context here is, go back to Judaism, you'll be better off.

For us, to go back to our old life.

Hey, I thought when I came to Christ, everything would be great, my marriage would be great, my kids would be great, my neighbors would be great, my job would be

great.

It all might be worse, except your relationship with God who made you is great.

He accepts you.

That's why I don't ever evangelize by telling everybody what they're gonna get, except they're gonna get themselves

right with God by His work.

Verse 14, for we have come to share in Christ.

This is language that was found earlier in chapter three as well.

If we indeed hold our original confidence firm to the end, now you could read that and say, well, yeah,

but what if we don't?

Well, let me just give you the bar back.

What if you do?

Don't automatically turn this warning into something negative, because on the flip side, if you do keep believing,

if you don't stop believing, you have assurance, you have confidence.

You have actually, what's the text say?

Your original confidence.

Remember when you were first saved.

Boy, those were the days, weren't they?

I remember driving in the streets of Los Angeles as a sales rep, hospital, hospital, hospital, and I would listen to sports

radio or, I don't know, punk rock or whatever I was listening to.

It didn't even matter.

Finally, I thought, you know what?

Kim said they have Bible teaching on the radio.

My father was dying at the time.

I start listening to the radio and they have Bible teaching.

And the one guy I particularly like, he was a Vietnam vet and a black belt and all that, because I was thinking in my

mind, I think pastors should be masculine.

And I had all these ideas of what a pastor should be instead of just a Bible teacher.

And I remember they'd have altar calls, but it's now broadcast on

the radio and I'm in the car on the 405.

I remember one time trying to move up to the front of the dashboard, because he's like, come to the front if you want to have your sins forgiven.

I mean, I'm moving up.

There's the defrosters here.

I know I've been created to worship God.

I know I don't.

I know I've sinned.

I mean, I really know I've sinned.

I'd like to be right with God.

I remember God granting me saving faith.

It probably wasn't that moment, but He grants me saving faith.

And how did you act when you first were saved?

Specifically when it comes to assurance.

Now I know as we live our Christian life, our assurance ebbs and flows and sometimes we have less assurance, sometimes more.

Sometimes we think about ourself too much, our own sin and not who Jesus is.

But at that moment, those first moments where you were believing, did you even have any doubt?

The doubt was not there.

It was whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.

If you confess with your mouth, whoever believes in the Lord shall not be disappointed.

That original confidence.

Oh, what a day that was.

By the way, you can have that confidence.

But the confidence cannot be found when you go back tricked by the deceitfulness of sin.

I just need to go back.

You know what?

I can make more money as an unbeliever.

I could.

Okay, I'll just go back.

I had more friends when I was an unbeliever.

I did.

I got along better with my neighbors when I was an unbeliever.

I mean, whatever it is, fill in the blank.

Don't forget that first time though, when you realize God is at peace with me

based on the work of another.

I didn't do anything.

When I first realized that God chose me in eternity past, I couldn't hardly believe it.

But if you don't hold that confidence and you say, you know what?

I'm turning my back on God.

I got the raw deal.

Then you're just reflecting that you don't share Christ.

You haven't come to believe in Christ.

The evidence of salvation market is perseverance.

The ground of your salvation is Christ's perfect work.

He's the one that did it.

But the evidence, the fruit, the outworking is trust, a trust that

perseveres.

Warren Wiersbe said, the fact that we are standing firm is proof that our faith is genuine and not empty.

Notice what the text says.

Does he switch from second person to first person we?

Includes himself here.

That's interesting.

It's a statement of fact.

We're made partakers of Christ if we persevere.

Jonathan Edwards said, the sure proof of election is that one holds out to the end.

True believers hold fast to the gospel.

John MacArthur.

Now you said, well, you're gonna try to finish the chapter.

We're out of time.

Here's what the writer does.

He brings to the surface through this rolling boil, the same topics

he just covered earlier in chapter three, verses seven and following.

So we don't have to really dive so deeply into this section as we would, because he's

got this pattern of preaching where he reviews things.

He goes back to things.

You ever heard a preacher do that?

This is a sermon.

Remember Hebrews 13, 22?

It's a sermon.

And he does it by asking a bunch of rapid fire questions.

Look at verse 15.

Not all questions, but there are gonna be many in this section.

And they're right from Psalm 95 that we've looked at before.

As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the

rebellion.

Remember the backdrop of temporal wilderness, a real place to now.

We're thinking spiritual thoughts for who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

See the questions there?

One question, then the next, then the next, all with a subplot of don't be an unbeliever, keep believing.

There's a commentary written by David McWilliams, and he says this.

What needed changing for those who rebelled in the wilderness?

Was it their wilderness setting?

This is what they argued.

Our circumstances need changing.

But God answers the question, what needs changing with your hearts?

The questions continue, verse 17.

And with whom was he provoked for 40 years?

We know the answer.

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

He asked more questions, all designed for you to keep believing.

And if you're not a believer to believe the first time, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest?

But to those who were disobedient?

Certainly unbelief will lead to disobedience.

Don't go back.

The sad conclusion is found in verse 19.

So we see that God just is a

despot, and He just randomly with arbitrary things just judges people for no good reason.

Judges one day, forgives the next day.

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The outcome of unbelief always ends poorly.

The outcome of belief always ends wonderfully.

Unbelief and disobedience, close connection.

Belief and obedience, close connection.

We trust in the Lord and in light of who He is, we obey out of gratitude.

Unbelief is a wicked sin.

Therefore, if you're here today and you're not believing, while it is the worst sin in the

world, unbelief, it is not unforgivable.

Whoever believes in the Son, John 3, has eternal life.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on

him.

And Christian friend, while you want to maybe go back to the old life because there were some definite advantages,

I hear the alarm, if you got your key.

So I know I was landing the plane, but I have to do this until somebody

shuts their car off.

What if it was me?

I was preaching in a little studio in North Hollywood and there was a bunch of like motorcycle parts there, Harley

Davidson stuff.

And I had a TV show called the Narrow Gate Ministries.

And so we had a little pulpit that was built and it was hot in this garage.

All these motorcycle parts and everything.

We'd go there late at night, sometimes at midnight to film.

And I always remember because I had a suit coat on up here and a tie and my Bible, but it was so hot in there, I just had

shorts on right behind the pulpit because nobody would notice.

I'm kind of, you know, you can tell when this was because I think they were OP shorts.

And so I had the shorts on and I'm preaching the narrow gate message.

And all of a sudden it wasn't a car alarm, it was a siren from an

ambulance.

And this is one take TV.

This is not a bunch of editing stuff.

So I said, if you're listening today, you hear that siren?

That siren's coming for you.

One man said the easiest person to deceive is one's own self.

If you think you're gonna trick God and get out alive without believing in Jesus Christ, Proverbs 14, 12 is

something I need to put under your saddle before you ride out of here.

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

And might I do my own interpretation on that?

And there is a way that has been devised by God, the God -man for forgiveness.

And its end is the way of life.

Aren't you glad to be forgiven?

Why don't you encourage someone today to keep believing?

Let's pray.

I thank you Father for your word.

It is true.

It is inerrant.

It is infallible.

It is authoritative.

It has stood the test of time.

Nothing will be absolved of your word.

And we think then of the God -man who is called the word.

We're thankful for him.

And how do we say thank you?

Except to praise you, just like in Ephesians chapter one.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual

blessing in the heavenlies.

Thank you in Jesus' name, amen.