Hebrews chapter 3. We'll begin
our text in verse 7, but I do want to read verse 6 again to
you. The apostle says, "...but Christ
as a Son over His own house. Whose house are we?" Now notice,
"...if you hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm
unto the end." Remember, we had studied this last week, but this
is a point worth making because this is the springboard which
the Apostle uses to go throughout and exhort the believers to faith
throughout the rest of this chapter. This matter of if we hold fast,
if we continue in the faith, is not a condition of our salvation,
but rather the evidence of our salvation. In other words, salvation
is not based on you holding fast. Our salvation is based on the
work and person of Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit by
which you are given life and faith. As we shall see in this illustration,
the apostle is going to use, which is a repetition of Psalm
95, concerning the Israelites who provoked God in the wilderness. The day of provocation, you remember,
was when they had been taken out of Egypt. They had gone through
the Red Sea. They had went to Sinai. And there
they were at the promised land, at the borderland. And God said,
go in and take it. And you remember that there were
those spies that they sent out, and there were only two of those
spies that believed God. And yet, though the rest of them
did not believe, and moved the rest of the nation to not believe
God. And you remember the judgment
of God. He said, they shall not enter
into My rest. Why? Because they did not believe. And this is a picture, this,
wherefore the Holy Ghost, verse 7, as the Holy Ghost saith, the
Spirit of God uses this as an illustration to show us this
truth. Not all they that are of Israel
are of Israel. Not all they that are church
members are of the church. Not all they that say, I believe,
truly believe. He uses this as a warning. As a warning. Wherefore the Holy
Ghost gives us this illustration, so as that we should take heed. Take heed, so as not to be one
of these who have hearts of unbelief and fall away. Now, I want us
to take a minute. He says, Wherefore, as the Holy
Ghost saith. Now, why do you suppose the Apostle
used the word, used the person of the Holy Ghost here? He could
have said, God saith, or the Lord saith. But rather he uses
the word, the person of the Holy Ghost here is not accidental
because all Scripture is given by the Holy Spirit. It is the
work of the Holy Spirit of God. as He moved on those men of old
to write." This Scripture is not by accident. This Scripture
was on purpose. That's what the Apostle is saying.
The Holy Ghost saith this. It's not by accident that this
was given. And so then, let us remember
the work of the Holy Spirit. We should remember the work of
the Holy Spirit and give due praise to the Spirit of God for
His work. If you get anything today, it'll
be the Holy Spirit that gives it to you. And you know what
the Holy Spirit will give you is Christ. That's what He'll
give you. That way you know it is the Holy
Spirit because He only points men to Christ. That's His ministry.
And so then let us see by this simple logic that the Apostle,
by calling Him out by name, distinguishes Him. from the Father and the
Son in His person, showing that the Holy Spirit speaketh, the
Holy Spirit saith. That means the Holy Spirit has
a will, has a purpose, and therefore is a person distinct from the
Father and the Son. And as we see in our text, the
work of the Holy Spirit is not just in the New Testament saints.
You get this? I know that at the day of Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit was poured out, not like He was ever poured out
in the history of mankind. But I tell you, He was just as
vital in working in the Old Testament saints as He was in the New Testament
saints. The same way that we are saved
by grace through faith in Christ, by the work of Christ and through
the sanctification of the Spirit, that's how they were saved. They
were saved in the same way, looking to Christ. And so now the Holy Spirit, what
is He telling us? He tells us this. He's saying
this in this verses 7 through verse 11 is a repetition from
Psalm 95. Don't go over there, but if you
do, you'll just see it's the same thing. He's just repeating
this psalm to us. And so, believer, then let us
give glory to the Holy Ghost, the Holy Person and work, who
is the author of our regeneration, who has taken the blood of Christ
and sprinkled it upon our hearts, it is the Holy Ghost then that
dwells in us to give us faith, hope, and love for Christ. And
if we know anything of Christ at all, it is the work of the
Holy Spirit. How often have you ever been
in the point of despair? Maybe I'm the only one, but I
don't know. I don't believe so. been to the point of despair,
as though to quit, as though to go and leave. Our guilt of
our conscience has weighed us down with temptation to sin is
so great, and yet at the very moment we need Him most, you
get a sweet word of Scripture that come into your heart. Something
comes into your mind, a sweet revelation of Christ or some
sweet message. God sends some messenger with
a sweet message of grace and it permeates the dry desert of
your heart with rain of grace. Who is that but the Holy Spirit
working in you both the will and do of His good pleasure?
It's the Spirit of God. Our guilt. of conscience becomes
canceled in the sight of faith of Christ and His blood offering.
Our despair melts away into hope. And the weight of our temptations
are taken from us only to desire more of the presence of Christ.
That is the Holy Spirit. That is His work. our affections,
are in a moment turned from the empty vanities of earth and set
on eternal happiness and joy of heaven. That is the work of
the Holy Ghost. And behold, the Lord Jesus said,
If I go away, I will send the Comforter to you, and He shall
testify of me." Now, how do we know it's the Holy Spirit saith?
Well, when He speaks of Christ, and that's what comforts us,
is Christ. That is the Holy Spirit. Now,
if it's something speaking something else to you, it's not the Spirit
of God. Now, consider those vile doctrines
of the Holy Spirit, those who run around with vain babblings
and barbaric behavior and claim to be possessed of the Spirit.
We know that's not the Spirit because their Spirit testifies
of Himself. Our Holy Spirit only testifies
of Christ. Now, let us see what the Holy
Spirit is speaking to us then. To whom, then, is the Holy Spirit
speaking? Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit
saith. Now, who is Paul, by quoting
the Holy Spirit, to whom is he writing this? It's vitally important
to know this because If my wife were to address a letter to me
as her husband and write things of love and affection and someone
else picked that up, they would think, well, man, Cheryl really
loves me. No, the letter was not written to you. It was only
written to me. And so those things then that
are written in that letter are only for me. And so this letter
that is written here by the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Ghost, is
written for a specific audience. The Holy Spirit here is speaking
not to carnal or unregenerated men, but rather to brethren. Now, I want you to understand
this. This message is to brethren.
To brethren. In verse 1, he says, Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. He's writing
to holy brethren, those called of the Spirit. Look at verse
14. For we are made partakers of Christ. if we hold fast the
beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." He's speaking to
those made partakers. And I like this. It's better
translated, been made. It's past tense. He's speaking
to those who have been made partakers of Christ. And so then, holy brethren, rejoice. This letter is written to you.
These things that are in this are for you by the Holy Spirit
has written them for you. You who have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places given to you by the sovereign election of
God. Consider that all of the men of earth, you have been chosen, eternally chosen of God to be
His peculiar people. Sovereignly chosen before the
foundation of the world, made holy by the blood and righteousness
of Christ who has redeemed you, by Christ who is made to be all
your righteousness, even because you were put into union with
Him, union with Christ. Because we were made partakers
in election, and in His redemption. Even so now are you made partakers
by the experience of grace in the new birth." You see, all
of that was done before you were born. All of that was, you were
chosen before there was a world. You were redeemed before you
had life and breath in this body. And now it is manifest to you,
how? By the sanctification of the
Holy Spirit and belief of the truth. You who believe the truth,
this Word is yours. These promises are yours, given
to you by God Himself. These promises are yours. Holy
brethren. This is written to believers.
I just want to make that very clear because now I'm going to
say something that sounds contrary. It's not. Take heed. Look at that in verse 12. Wherefore,
holy brethren, because the Holy Ghost has given us this Word,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God." The Holy Spirit
by the Apostle gives saints a warning. When we are born again of the
Holy Spirit and look to Christ, we look away from any hope of
self. In order to look to Christ, you have to, of necessity, look
away from everything else. You cannot have Christ and your
works. You cannot have Christ plus anything
else. So therefore, when we were born
again of the Spirit, we look away from law, we look away from
false freewill works, religion, and we fled to Christ for our
very souls. We fled to Him because He was
the only refuge from the wrath of God. He was the only refuge,
the only mediator between us and God. Our Lord, by the Holy
Spirit, took out then at that time that stony heart. What was
a stony heart? That was that heart of obstinance
and rebellion that we could not believe. It was the stone in
the way. It was the stone that we could
not move. We could not believe. We could
not rest in Christ. We could not come to Christ.
Why? Because we had a stony heart
of unbelief and that must have been taken out of the way. And
when God gave you faith, you realized that that stone was
removed. And now you can believe, isn't
that grace? That you can believe at all is
a grace of God. It is a work of God alone that
faith is so misrepresented today to say that it's something easily
done, something made on a whim or a decision or will of man. That so degrades the faith of
Scripture. True faith is something only
God can give. And when God gives it, there's
nothing that can stop it. You remember that man that said,
Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. There
was nothing to stop that man from believing. Not when Christ
removed the stone out of the way. And we are not dead now, but
alive. We are alive unto God. The old
man was crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God. You see how I live? I
live by the faith of the Son of God, not the faith of myself. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Yet we know this too, that though
He has removed the stone of unbelief and given us a new nature that
believes, He has not eradicated the old nature within. He did not destroy the old man
as of yet, but we still carry him about as a rotting corpse
about our necks. Go to Ezekiel. I want you to
see this. This is not only the Holy Spirit reveals that in the
New Testament, but also in the Old. Give you a sense. And you should never fear to
try to seek the Gospel in the Old Testament, because it's just
as clearly in there as it is in the New. Ezekiel 36. You remember this is the promise
of God and the covenant of grace. Verse 26, He says, "...a new
heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you,
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep
My judgments and do them." You shall dwell in the land that
I gave your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will
be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn and the wine
to increase and lay no famine upon you." That sounds good,
doesn't it? Doesn't that sound good? He said,
I'm going to cause you to grow. I'm going to cause that seed
that I put inside of you to love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, all the fruits of the Spirit. I'm going to put them
in there and I'm going to cause them to grow and I'm going to
save you. Now then, what are we going to
do? Look at verse 31. And you shall remember your evil
ways and your evil doings that are not good. And you shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight for your own iniquities. Wait a second, didn't he say
he gave us a new heart, a new nature? Yes. But we loathe that
old man that still lives in us. Is it not true with you? Do you
not still loathe your sin daily? Constantly? We do. This old man that's still in
us And this should warn us not to
listen to anyone of those vain babblers who say they have no
sin. I know that we're kind of maybe
secluded, we don't get out much, but I'm telling you, this is
a very popular doctrine that men who are saved don't sin anymore. You would think that to be foolish
since John said, if any man say he had not sinned, He makes God
a liar and the truth is not in Him. So, don't believe them. Therefore, because we still must
contend with the flesh, the world, and Satan and his devices to
destroy our witness, take heed, Paul says. To believers,
he said, take heed that you As John said, take heed that you
sin not. Paul says, take heed, lest there
be any of you who have the same heart of unbelief and fall away. Now, by no means does salvation,
which is by free grace, give the objects of God's grace license
to sin. Is that not true? We know this,
that even though this old nature still dwells in us, God gives
us no license to see it. Paul says, how can we who are
dead to sin live any longer therein? So therefore, Paul says, you
should take heed because you are born again, yet you still
have an old contentious nature in you that is willing to depart. that is willing to be unbelieving
in Christ, in the things of Christ, you should take heed to that.
Take heed. Be aware of it. Wake up from
your sleep. For the enemy within never sleeps. Have you not found that to be
so? Your flesh never sleeps. Always demanding always trying
to separate us from Christ. And let us be honest that we
are more apt to give in to the demands of the body and its comforts
even when it defies the Word of God. Is that not true with you? We are so prone to align ourselves
with evil companions which corrupt good manners. We are so prone
to neglect the ordinances of Christ, such as the Lord's Table,
the reading of the Word, public worship of Christ, the preaching
of the Gospel. We are prone to neglect prayer
that brings us to the throne of grace for help. The very thing
that would help us, we neglect it. We're prone to it. And what does our neglect? yield. If you neglect the things of
God, I want you to understand this, you are neglecting God. You're neglecting the Savior
for the lust of the flesh. This warning of the Apostle is
founded upon the Old Testament example that I've explained to
you. Lest we should follow in the same path and miss the rest
of Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us this example. All of these
people in Israel left Egypt. All of them went through the
Red Sea. All of them experienced the thunder
and heard the voice at Sinai. All of them drank from the same
spiritual rock, ate from the same spiritual manna, and yet
how many fell in the wilderness? And why did they fall? Why were
they not allowed to enter into that rest? One sin. unbelief. Unbelief. And that was a physical
representation of a spiritual thing. A physical representation
of a spiritual thing. Therefore, we should read this,
that sin, this sin, unbelief, is the root of all coldness and
indifference. The root of all neglect of Christ
and His church is the sin of unbelief. Some say that unbelief
is the mother of all sins. That every sin stems from unbelief. Why do we lie? Is it not because
we do not believe God? Why do we commit adulteries or
fornications or things of that nature? Because we do not believe
God. We believe that this would bring
us happiness, this would bring us joy, and not what God said. It's simple unbelief is the root
of all sin. And the root of all unbelief
is truly that we do not believe the Word of God. John says that
unbelief is rooted in the rejection of God's record concerning His
Son. Paul says to Timothy that he
was taught of the Holy Scriptures from his youth that were able
to make thee wise unto salvation. But see, the evil of unbelief
is the single root of sin that brings eternal damnation and
shuts out the mercies of God. You know that? That this one
sin shuts out the mercies of God. Unbelief. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Unbelief is a horrible sin. unbelief of God's Word concerning
His Son is really to defy God and call Him a liar. I'll read it to you. It's 1 John
chapter 5, I think it is. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath this witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son." You see that unbelief is the most vile of sins and
it calls God a liar. Unbelief is the sin that shuts
the windows of heaven to our prayers. Therefore, all who will not believe
and trust in Christ alone, will not believe God's record concerning
His Son, has set his own self, his own logic, his own reason,
his own doctrine and philosophy above God's. That's what unbelief
is. He has made himself God. And this is certainly pictured
by those disbelieving Jews. God said, I promise to give you
the land. Nothing complex about that promise.
Go in and take the land. Nothing complex about the command.
What was the wrong? What was the thing that made
God so angry that they should never enter into His rest? It
was their unbelief. It was their unbelief. Even so,
listen, if you do not believe God, you will perish. You will
not enter into His rest. You will not enter into heaven.
You will not enjoy His presence. You will be eternally damned
if you will not believe on Christ. So then, what is the remedy of
unbelief? How is the believer in Christ
then to take heed against this vile sin? Well, believer, first of all,
is not this a vile sin? Do you not see this as a vile
sin or do you see this as something minor? Is it not vile to our own hearts
Do we not constantly say within our own souls, I believe. Lord help my unbelief. The most fearful thing then for
a believer is to depart from God. Is that not the most, is
that not the number one fear that you have as a believer in
Christ as to fall from grace? It constantly is because of the
old man that's still in us, that old man of unbelief. He is constantly
nagging at us, constantly pulling against us. And yet we confess that we are
prone to wonder, prone to unbelief. Lord, I feel it. prone to leave
the God I love, Lord, here's my heart, oh, take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above." Are you such a heart as your heart falling asleep?
Have you through unbelief become cold and indifferent to the things
of God? Because we are capable of such
things. Therefore, take heed. And pastor, what is the remedy
for such cold and indifference? Because I find myself in it so
much. What is the remedy? The apostle
says, take heed, but he doesn't leave you there just to take
heed. He gives you and exhorts you to remedy. Look at that in
verse 13, but exhort one another daily while it is called today. lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Behold then the purpose of the
local church. The purpose of the local assembly,
the cause and purpose of our assembly today, now, listen,
is to exhort one another. What am I doing to you? I am
exhorting you to continue in the faith. I am exhorting you
to believe on Christ while it is called today. Today. Now, I'm not exhorting you as vain
religion does. Vain religion is to confess Christ
once in some vain decision sometime in your past. No. No, we exhort one another to
continue in the faith today. Now, while it is called today.
All of you who have believed on Christ, I exhort you now to
believe. You should believe now. You should
look to Christ now. And this is the means by which
we exhort one another. by worshiping, praying, and praising
God together. That's important. How can you
exhort one another if you're not even in the company of one
another? You can't exhort me if you're not here, and I can't
exhort you if I'm not here, if we're not together. Go to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24. and let us consider one another. to provoke unto love and to good
works." How, Paul? How do we consider one another?
How do we provoke one another to love and good works? Listen,
"...not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more
as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, There remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking of
judgment and fiery indignation. What are you talking about? Apostasy.
Apostasy. Do you know what the beginning
of apostasy is? Forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together. That's the beginning of apostasy.
When you will not provoke one another, when you will not consider
one another, but you only consider yourself, you only consider your
own interests, your own family, your own things, and you don't
consider the things of others, that's speaking of God's people.
That's the others, not the world. God's people. You forsake that,
you're forsaking the means by which, the remedy by which unbelief
is put away. Exhorting one another. And what
do we do here? We do this by preaching and studying
the Scriptures. You know, the Apostle Peter said,
they that are born again desire the sincere milk of the Word.
They may grow thereby. Do you desire this Word? Why? Because it's how I feed, it's
how I grow, it's how my faith is increased, it's how I'm strengthened
or encouraged or comforted. Whatever I need, I get it from
preaching. I get it from the preaching of
the gospel. And we are exhorted to encourage
believers by talking with one another. You know what's very encouraging
to me is when you talk amongst one another about the gospel. I know we do pleasantries and
we do things, how's your day, how's this, how's that, but you
know what's really encouraging? when you talk about the message
or what God has done for you by that message. And you don't
realize, you say, oh well, I'm so insignificant that whatever
I have received, it's not... No, your brother needs to hear
that. You should speak about those things. Tell them what
great things God has done for you. And by that, the other one
is encouraged, exhorted. built up. We should always make an effort
to do this. This is not of the flesh, is
it? Because the flesh wants to go back to the world. But we must make an effort. We
must determine to do these things. And by doing these, we are encouraging
one another, and we encourage one another by warning one another. If you see your brethren starting
to fall, if you see your brethren, it is not with the spirit of
anger or hostility, but rather out of love, is it not great
that we should save such in one as a bran plucked from the burning,
hating even the garment spotted with sin? Look around and see who's missing.
Has anybody called or asked? concerning their brethren. Besides
me. I do. Because I know this is
part of what I need to be doing, but it's also out of love. I
do it. And I'm sure they just get tired of hearing my voice. Caught them. Encourage them. Strengthen them. Exhort them.
Rebuke them. I remember when I first started
preaching, I was very zealous, to say the least. But I came across as very hard
and cold. Nobody said anything to me, so
I kept going. And one day, Brother Cody Groover
came to me. with tears in his eyes, and he
said, Brother, you're too hard. It broke my heart, but he was right. And you see, you are the beneficiaries
of my brother's loving compassion to tell me that. And it was the
hardest thing for him to ever have to do. When I was young and a young
believer, I went away. I wasn't faithful to come to
the service of God. And my own dad came to me in
tears. He said, son, you're wrong. But look what you have because
of his labor to rebuke me. You see, we should be encouraging,
strengthening one another. Consider not just yourself, consider
one another. And by doing so, you don't realize
the benefit it has for you. It encourages you. It strengthens
you to help one another. Well, preacher, why should I
take heed? Is it not once saved, always saved? Is it not true
that salvation of all the elect is sure, that Christ has obtained
eternal redemption for us, that the Spirit of God keeps us in
the faith to the end? Most definitely that's true.
Most definitely. But how many have been so deceived
as to think their faith was genuine and only found to be liars? Would
you desire to be in that condition? It is true that all who are made
partakers of Christ were chosen by sovereign grace, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, purged from their sins, and born again
of the Spirit. They are sure to be saved. They
are sure to be forever saved. But notice, the evidence of all
who are surely saved is this, they all will persevere. in the faith. This is what Paul
is saying. Take heed, lest you be not one
of them. And this is the evidence that
you are not one of them. You will not fall away. You will not fall away. You see, faith in Christ is not
temporary. It is not generated by the power
or will of man, nor does it come second hand. All of those types of faith will
fall away. If that's your faith, if that's
what you got, it's going to go away. Man-made faith will not last. Jesus said, this is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. But I'll tell you this, in Scripture,
are there not many places where people confess to believe but
truly didn't? You remember Simon, the sorcerer
in Acts chapter 8? He professed to believe. He was
baptized by the evangelist Philip. And yet, what do we find out?
That his faith was only to gain things for himself. He wanted
that power for himself of the apostle. And Peter said, you
know, you're lost. You're lost. That scripture that
says, many believed on the Lord Jesus, but he committed not himself
to them. For He knew what was in the heart
of man. So then true faith that is given
of God is the only faith that continues. You remember the seed
of the sower, right? And the seed that fell on the
stony ground here. When the sun came up, because
it had not deftness of root, it withered away. But the same sun that causes
false faith to wither causes true faith to dig down deeper. When the son of our trials and
difficulties, when they come on us, when we are rebuked of
God, when we are chastened of God, we don't fall away. What
do we do? We dig down deeper on Christ. We hold fast to Christ. We are
more rooted in Him. That's what the son of trials
and difficulties does for true faith. And what does that do?
It builds up the fruit to God. It increases our faith. It doesn't
destroy it. I don't know how many times somebody's
rebuked about hearing the gospel or desiring to love one another,
and they're offended. And they say, I'm just not going
there anymore. Stony ground. Stony ground. What is a true believer? Forgive
my unbelief. Forgive my lack of faith and
faithfulness. And we dig down deeper. That's
what true faith does. I think it's very important to
notice that the apostle says today is mentioned. You remember
when Israel was in that land, he said today. You should go
over and do that. Take that land. That was present
for them, wasn't it? It's passed for us now. When
the psalmist wrote it, it was passed. It was present for him
when he wrote it. It's passed for us now. But it says today
and I'm glad it doesn't give a specific date. Because today
is an ever-present now. Today, believe on Christ. Today,
you are encouraged to believe on Christ. Why? Because faith
now is the only faith that matters. Take heed lest there be any of
you with a heart of unbelief. Rope one another. Encourage one
another. Exhort one another while it is
called today. Believe today. Trust today. Believe on Christ now. If you
never believed before, you should believe now. Yeah, well, preacher, I've already
believed. You know what that faith does
you? It does you no good. I'm sure many of those Jews said,
well, you know, we've already believed God. We've already come
out of the Red Sea. We've already seen him in Sinai. What is it
if we just don't believe him now? Well, you know what? They didn't enter into his rest. And so it is with many in the
church who profess to have believed but will not continue. Why then
will men not be allowed to enter into God's rest? One simple thing,
unbelief. O weary saint, burdened with
sin and trouble, will you continue? Friends, I've got nowhere else
to go. I've got no one else to cling
to but Christ. I believe Him now and I have no confidence in the
flesh. Therefore, I exhort you to believe
now and have no confidence in the flesh. May even God give us such grace
and faith to continue to take heed concerning our old nature
of unbelief, lest we should be those that are deceived. You
know, the only one that isn't concerned about his salvation
is a lost man. Now, a believer may not be concerned
for a while. He may fall asleep, true enough.
One thing about it, they never fall away. God always brings
them back. because He's faithful who promised. And so my faith is in Him who
is faithful. I encourage you to be faithful.
I encourage you to exercise yourselves in the remedy that God has given
to strengthen your faith, which is what we're doing. This is
what He's called us to do. Exhort one another while it's
called today. Love one another even as He gave
us commandment. I do pray God give you strength
and exhort you.