Holding Firmly to the End
0 Amens
Holding Firmly to the End
Hebrews 3:1-19
July 29, 2007
Series 3 Sermon 7
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was
faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s
house. 3 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. 4
(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the
things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house
as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our
boasting in our hope. 7 Therefore, as
the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where
your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for forty years. Therefore
I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their
heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not
enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care,
brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you
to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long
as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness
of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence
firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For
who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left
Introduction
One of God’s creations that I am personally fearful of are snakes. I hate snakes. I know there are some people that love them and let them crawl all over them and have them as pets but I personally think those folks might possibly have a screw loose. I want to get about as close to a snake as it takes to get a good shot at him. In my opinion the best snake is a dead snake. There is just something about them that makes them seem sneaky and deadly to me. They can hide in small places and jump out on you when you least expect it. They can be in a pile of sticks or behind a log that you step over. They can even coil up on your front door step and get you when you walk out your door if you are not careful. Snakes are not all dangerous but they all can sure make you hurt yourself.
On Monday the family went to the Explorium in
Some snakes are dangerous and they pose a great threat to people if they are in the wrong place. But do you know what the most dangerous thing in the world is to a Christian? No it’s not persecutors or even other religions. The most dangerous thing in the world to a Christian is the sin of unbelief. Unbelief can rob you of your spiritual vitality. It can rob you of the joy of your salvation. It can rob you of intimacy with Christ. It can rob you of your church and it can even rob you of your family.
We walk daily through a world that is rotten with unbelief. Unbelief is all around us and is a result of the Fall. As a matter of fact the sin of unbelief played a pivotal role in the Fall. One of the children’s catechism questions has to do with why Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. The answer is very simple, they did not believe what God had said. God told them when they eat the fruit they will die. Satan tempted them and told them a lie and they preferred to believe that. So when you tell people the Gospel and they do not believe just understand that they just like you because of sin are predisposed to unbelief.
When we sin, we are exhibiting the sin of unbelief. God has given us His Law and if you are a Christian He has written these on your heart and He has told us plainly that there are consequences to sin and we sin anyway not believing what God has said.
Context
As I have reminded you as we have moved through this letter to the Hebrews, the writer is exhorting and commanding this group of believers to press on and hold onto Christ even though some have fallen away because of the great trial with suffering and persecution they were having to endure. Thus far the readers have been reminded of the deity and humanity of Christ and how He is superior to angels, prophets, and all of the priests of Old Testament Judaism. God has spoken fully and finally in His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, and those who have received Christ as Savior and Lord should pay much closer attention to what they have heard, the Gospel message. They had been reminded that to walk away from Christ for momentary relief of suffering was to bring themselves under the righteous judgment of God.
This morning in our text the writer calls the reader’s
attention back to the Old Testament specifically dealing with a very important
event in the life of the nation of
10 As Pharaoh drew near, the
sons of Israel looked , and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and
they became very frightened; so the sons of
Then they watched as the
Exodus 15 is a celebration of the victory and then another complaint session. The Israelites were now thirsty and they were near the bitter waters of Marah. They grumbled against Moses again and the Lord showed Moses a tree to throw into the water and the water became sweet. Then they were led to another area with springs of water and date trees. Then we have chapter 16. All of the provision that the Israelites had experienced at the hand of God and yet they still did not trust. Listen to verses 2 and 3 of Exodus 16.
2 The whole congregation of
the sons of
Then the Lord provides manna for the people to eat, enough for all of them to be filled everyday. Just a chapter later the Israelites are complaining again. The test of thirst is upon them. Instead of praying and trusting knowing that God had continuously provided for them they grumble and complain some more. Listen to Exodus 17:1-3.
1 Then all the congregation
of the sons of
This is a very significant event in the history of redemption. The writer of Hebrews is calling our attention to this event. He does so in three ways.
1. First by calling our attention to Moses. Notice the first two verses of Hebrews 3.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was
faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s
house.
It was as natural for a First Century religious Jew to
revere Moses and hold him in high esteem as it is for a southerner to like
grits with butter and sweet tea. That is
just the way things are. Moses is the
quintessential personality in Old Testament Judaism. He was the one who led
2. The second way the
writer calls our attention to this event in the life of
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the
wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works 10 for
forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They
always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in
my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
There are two significant events in this text. First is the fact that
8 "Take the rod; and you
and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before
their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for
them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink."
9 So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; 10 and
Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them,
"Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this
rock?" 11 Then Moses lifted up his
hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly,
and the congregation and their beasts drank. 12 But
the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
"Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight
of the sons of
3. The third way the writer of Hebrews calls our attention to this event is in his summary and purpose of this chapter. Look at verses 15-18.
15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who
were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left
The progression of sin in this passage is stunning. It is here as a warning to all of us. We all stand in danger of falling into unbelief. Unbelief is the serpent that will strike you if you leave the narrow path. These Israelites had seen so many miracles that they no longer had any affect on them. Like them, we can hear and be exposed to the things of God so much that when we encounter trials in our wilderness the things of God become of no effect in our unbelieving sin riddled hearts. Look quickly at the progression. First there is the danger of a hard heart. Look at verse 15.
15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion.”
The command is to watch over our hearts. The question is, can this truly happen to any
of us? Look at verse 16.
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those
who left
The greatest leader in all of Old Testament history led the biggest bunch of hard hearted sinners into the wilderness who witnessed miracle after miracle and yet still rebelled. So exposure to the things of God, to miracles and to the Word of God does not guarantee a soft pliable heart. It could have the opposite affect and harden a heart. So what happens as a result of this? Look at verse 17.
17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those
who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
This is a reference to the events at
18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to
those who were disobedient?
There was blatant sin with the Golden Calf and then there was disobedience. The people were told that they were to go into the Promised Land and conquer it. When the spies returned they rebelled against the Lord and refused to go in. The Lord was going to kill these people in the wilderness but Moses interceded. But there was still punishment. Already Moses could not enter the land. Now the Israelites could not. Listen to Numbers 14:20-24.
20 So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word; 21 but
indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 "Surely
all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and
in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened
to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the
land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see
it. 24 "But My servant Caleb,
because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring
into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of
it.
All of this hard heartedness, sin, and disobedience that led
to this great punishment had its root in one fertile soil and we see that in
verse 19 as the writer sums up his argument and tells us what this chapter is
all about. Look at verse 19.
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Let me ask you this morning about your spiritual condition. Are you teetering on the edge of unbelief? Has God shown Himself mighty in your life in many ways and yet now as you endure a trial are you wondering if God even cares or can help? Have you abandoned heavenly and biblical ways of dealing with trouble for worldly man centered ways of coping and handling a situation? Has unbelief crept into your life and is now taking root? If so, you are in great spiritual danger. You are on the ragged edge of losing rewards and possibly even showing your faith to be illegitimate.
Maybe this morning your faith is strong. You are glorying in a recent victory the Lord has worked in your life and you are thinking that nothing could shake your faith. But let me warn you, the enemy, Satan, moves about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and what he would like to do is to destroy your faith and help you slip off into unbelief.
So what can we do to avoid this terminal illness of
unbelief? What are some things that we
can do, that we can put into action that we can appropriate in our lives in
order to not fall into the same sin of unbelief as the children of
This congregation that the writer of Hebrews was writing to
were standing on the ragged edge of losing their reward because of their
unbelief. They were about to leave
Christianity and the trials with persecution for the obsolete religion of Old
Testament Judaism for the momentary comfort that it provided. The choice was
clear for these people. Leave
Christianity and its trials and persecution and go back to Old Testament
Judaism because the persecutors were coming from there. The imagery is stunning in this passage. Why in the world would you go back to the
cruel task masters of Pharaoh in
But the danger is there. How do we avoid it?
PNP
This morning from our text I want you to see the first of four ways we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief. This morning we will see that:
1. The first way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is by having the right focus. (1-6)
Next week we will see the remaining three. These state:
2. The second way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is take constant careful inventory of the condition of our heart. (7-12)
3. The third way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is by encouraging others and being encouraged by others. (13)
4. The forth way we can inoculate ourselves from he danger of unbelief is by perseverance in the face of difficulty. (14)
Purpose
My prayer for you this morning is that you will both hear and heed these words and appropriate them into your lives so that you do not fall away into unbelief in a time of testing or if you are at present living in the condition of unbelief that the Lord will use His Word proclaimed to draw you back to Himself and strengthen your faith.
Some of you may be thinking right now, “My faith is too strong. I am too focused on Christ already. My faith is the joy of my life. There is no way that I could possibly fall away. I believe too much already.” It happened to the Israelites who witnessed all the miracles. Moses lost the opportunity to go into the Promised Land. So if it can happen to them, it can happen to you. And we have the additional New Testament warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
RPNP
So look with me at the first of these four ways we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief.
1. The first
way we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief is by having the
right focus.
Look with me at verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
The first thing the writer does is to remind the readers who they are. First they are holy brothers. Which is very important because whom Christ justifies He also sanctifies. So if you are not pursuing holiness in your life and you are seeking to know how much you can get away with and still call yourself a Christian you do not fit in the category that the writer of Hebrews is addressing. Peter told his readers that they were to be holy as God is holy. Holiness is a high calling and we must as believers strive for personal and corporate holiness. That means there is a desire to walk personally in a manner that is pleasing to God and also to walk as a church in a way that is pleasing to God. There is a reason for this. Look at verse 1 again.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
Before the writer of Hebrews starts his exhortation he begins by reminding them that they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ not because they are smarter or more intelligent than everyone else but because they have received a heavenly calling. The Lord Jesus said in John 6 that no one could come to Him unless the Father draws him. The writer is preparing these believers for the exhortation by reminding them of who they are and why they are who they are. They are holy brethren and they are that because God Himself has called them to faith in Christ. Now the instruction begins. Look again at verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
Notice the word “consider” in verse 1. It is an imperative verb and thus it is a command for us. We are to consider Jesus. As a matter of fact, the way the writer constructs this sentence, the word order is intentionally disrupted so that Jesus is in an emphatic position. Even in reading the sentence the writer wants our attention to fall on the Lord Jesus. The word translated “consider” is a word that means “to consider attentively, to fix one’s eyes or mind upon.”
It is important to remember why we are to do this. The original readers of this letter were in great danger of drifting away from the faith and back into Old Testament Judaism. They, because of intense persecution and trials, were seeking momentary reprieve from great difficulty brought on by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week in chapter two we saw that in the midst of trial and persecution and trouble we are to look to Christ for help because He Himself was tempted and suffered and so He is more than capable to come to the aid of those of us in trouble. What is obvious here is that the readers were failing at this. They were so caught up in their present circumstances that they were loosing focus on who the object of their faith was and that was the Lord Jesus.
This morning we are commanded to consider the Lord Jesus. We are to consider His sinless life, His sacrificial death, His resurrection, His promises to us as His people, and we are to consider His present ministry as High Priest. We are to consider that He is mighty to save and that because of our heavenly calling He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. But Christ never promised that the Christian life would be easy. He told us that the world hated Him therefore it would hate us. He told us that when we are reviled and persecuted for His name’s sake that we are blessed. But trouble, trial, and persecution can cause us to loose sight of our Lord. Circumstances that are often difficult can cause us to consider everything else but our Lord.
Remember the Israelites?
They saw all the wonderful miracles in
I would venture to say that many times in each of our Christian lives unbelief has sabotaged us seeing the miraculous hand of God at work in our lives. The reason for that is that many of us have this idea that life is supposed to be a walk in the park and things are supposed to go our way all the time. But the truth is life does not go our way and there just a few walks in the park but much of the time it is one difficulty after another. That is why to avoid the sin of unbelief we are to consider, to look intently at the Lord Jesus Christ. When we take our eyes off of our Lord and place them on the surrounding circumstances that are overwhelming us that is when we get in spiritual trouble.
Remember Peter in Matthew chapter 14? The disciples are out on the
Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You
on the water." 29 And He said,
"Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and
came toward Jesus. 30 But seeing the wind, he
became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save
me!" 31 Immediately Jesus stretched
out His hand and took hold of him, and said* to him, "You of little faith,
why did you doubt?"
We can look to or consider the Lord Jesus because of who He is and what He has done on our behalf. He has proven Himself faithful and worthy of glory by all that HE has accomplished and His obedience to Father even unto death. Look again at verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers, you
who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of
our confession,
The writer of Hebrews has previously affirmed Christ’s deity as the Son of God and has affirmed His humanity as the one who took on human flesh in chapter 2. And the reason for affirming His humanity was to show that the Lord Jesus Christ is our merciful and faithful, perfect High Priest. Now the writer affirms that Christ again is our high priest but also the apostle of our confession. What is our confession? That salvation is found only in Christ. How does Christ serve as the apostle of that confession? Because of chapter 1. An apostle is a sent one. The Father sent the Son with a mission.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many
portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has
spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom
also He made the world . 3 And He is the radiance of
His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by
the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The word for confession in our text is the compound Greek word, homologia. It means to say the same thing. It was a corporate confession of faith in Christ and trust in His finished work. Now the writer reminds us of why we can “consider Jesus.” Look at verses 2-6.
2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, (Remember Christ’s high priestly prayer before His crucifixion? John 17:4 says, I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.) Read on with me.
just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 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. 4 (For every house is built by
someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all
God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken
later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.
The writer of Hebrews affirms Moses as a man who is worthy of our honor. We look at Moses as a hero of the faith. But even as a hero of the faith he does not compare to Christ in receiving glory. The reason for this is because of personhood. Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but Christ is faithful over God’s house which includes Moses precisely because He is the Son of God, the builder of the house. The illustration is clear in verse 3. If you see a magnificent structure you don’t say to yourself, wow that building did a great job of building itself. No, you give praise to the designer and builder.
Illustration
The Gateway Arch is a great example of this. It is a magnificent structure and an engineering feat. But the film that tells about the uniqueness of its design and the problems that had to be solved in its construction doesn’t say anything about how the Arch did this wonderful job. Instead the narrator of the film talks about the design of the engineer and the obstacles that his team and the builders had to overcome to make this structure secure for thousands of people to go in and out of on a daily basis. The builder gets more honor than the building.
The temptation for these readers was to leave Christ to go back to Moses and the Law. But the writer highlights the ridiculousness of leaving the house and its builder for a mere servant. After all Christ is the perfect one. Moses murdered a man and because of unbelief ultimately was not allowed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. He had to be submitted to God just as we do. Christ is God and is in the house of God as the Son. He is the builder of this New Testament house.
By the way, as a side note, when Christ and Moses are compared and Christ is worthy of more honor than the servant Moses, we can see that all of the Old Testament inaugurated by Moses, mediated by angels is inferior to the New Testament first declared by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The New Testament makes the Old Testament Levitical law obsolete.
But a tendency of New Testament teachers and leaders was to want to go back to Moses. Think about the debates over circumcision. What about those who Paul warned Timothy about who wanted to become teachers of the Law? There is a proper use of the Law of the Old Testament and that use is to show us our sinfulness so that we see that we must have a Savior. That is why the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior in its words and in its rituals.
The writer of Hebrews affirms the high standing of Moses. But he also shows that Moses is inferior to Christ. The greatest illustration of this comes from Matthew 17.Listen as I read verses 1-8.
Six days later Jesus took* with Him Peter
and James and John his brother, and led* them up on a high mountain by
themselves. 2 And He was transfigured
before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white
as light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking
with Him. 4 Peter said to Jesus,
"Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three
tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one
for Elijah." 5 While
he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice
out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am
well-pleased; listen to Him!" 6 When
the disciples heard this, they
fell face down to the ground and were terrified. 7 And
Jesus came to them and touched
them and said, "Get up, and do not be
afraid." 8 And lifting up their eyes,
they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
Standing on that mountain was the Law represented by Moses,
the Prophets represented by Elijah, and the Gospel which is Christ. Moses and Elijah were men to be honored but
Christ is the One to be worshipped.
Peter put them all on the same level which was amazing for a first
century Jew to do, but God the Father corrects Peter’s mistake. "This
is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"
So when we consider Jesus, when we place great time and effort in thinking upon and meditating upon what a great Savior we have in the Lord Jesus Christ we can begin to be inoculated from the sin and danger of unbelief. When we take our eyes off of the Lord Jesus and start looking at the overwhelming circumstances or the storm clouds that start to rise in the distance we begin to think like the world and we lose our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Submission to Christ is also trust in Christ completely.
But this is hard. Remember the rich young ruler? Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He was asking what he needed to do to have the most valuable of all possessions. The Lord Jesus told him ultimately that he must sell all that he had, distribute the money to the poor, and come follow Him. This would take great faith. It would take much considering of Christ because to give up your security, to lose all that you had gained in your life and to now walk with nothing in your pocket or your hand and simply trust in Christ for all that you need was the most difficult proposition for this young man.
And it is still difficult today. We live in a wealthy society that finds it very difficult to part with the ways of the world for Christ. Unbelief is rampant and even in the church. People think, act, walk, and talk just like the world. We can quickly move from doing things the way God has told us to do them to looking at the world and doing things in ways that seem to work better. But this is the sin of unbelief. When the Bible tells us how we are to do something and we shun that for the ways of the world, in essence we are saying what the serpent said to Eve in the Garden, “Has God really said…” This is the deception of our day.
But, when we consider Jesus, we see that His ways are higher than our ways and we bow before Him in humble obedience and faith in Him as our Lord. We gladly accept the circumstances and trials that He leads us through because we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. We know that God is in the process of conforming us to the image of His Son and will be faithful to complete that task in us. We look to Christ as the Lord of all and our Lord and we hold onto Him as tightly as possible.
When you are enduring a trial the natural thing to do is to
fall back on sinful, man centered and man comforting patterns. But in those times, it is imperative that we
grab on to Christ and listen as He leads and guides us through this present
difficulty. Plus there is a promise in
the rest of verse 6. Look at it with me.
And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our
boasting in our hope.
So in the midst of trial we are to do two things to inoculate ourselves against the danger of unbelief. We are to continue focusing on Christ and we are to remain in the house by holding fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord willing next week we will see the last three ways that we can inoculate ourselves from the danger of unbelief.
Conclusion
This morning are you holding fast to Christ? Are you clinging to Him and Him alone? Is it in your personality to fall back into old patterns when faced with difficulty?
Then I pray you will take what you heard this morning to heart and consider Jesus, who is faithful in God’s house and who is faithful to help those who are being tempted. I pray that you when faced with personal, family, financial, or spiritual difficulty will look past the problems to the only One who can see you through that problem and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. When you are tempted to lose faith and you are besieged by the enemy and you see yourself sinking in the waves and the wind, you must keep looking to Christ for your salvation. True faith is in Christ and true faith is a gift from Christ and that is why we need Him desperately.
I will close with the words from a hymn we sang last week by Isaac Watts. The title is “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Lets pray.
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