The book of Hebrews is a wonderful
book, and I hope that you, in your own time, refer to it often
because it contains such a revelation of our salvation by God's design
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I've entitled the message today
really just from the words of chapter three and verse six,
if you continue, That's the title of the message. And I don't know
about you, but it strikes me when I read the Bible, anytime
there is an if in scripture, I get concerned. Do you share
that reaction? Hopefully this message will not
leave you in a state of uncertainty, but
also not leave you in a state of self-confidence if you continue. That's a warning, really, and
that's what the book of Hebrews does this. We saw this in chapter
2, where it said that, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation? And we see it here again in chapter
three, God uses the example of the Israelites who did not believe
God and therefore they died in the wilderness and never entered
Canaan. And they wandered around before they died for 40 years.
Terrible tragedy, but a much worse tragedy awaits those who
do not heed this warning here in Hebrews three. And just before
we pray, I just want to mention this because God's word is true. There's no possibility that it
can fail. And in scripture, whether we
like it or not, God warns us. He brings warnings to us. I don't
know about you, but if my dad ever warned me when I was a kid,
it had an impact on me. I knew something was coming and
I didn't want that. So it made me, it just changed the look
on my face from giddy to grave. That's the way God's warnings
do. They put us in a state of sobriety and they're meant to
do that. We are to fear the Lord, and
yet in God's grace, he arrests us in our complacency and our
presumption in order to bring us to see what he sees, how he
saves, and therefore praise him for his great salvation. That's
what the book of Hebrews is designed to do, is to arrest these people
who had known the Old Testament scriptures, and yet had not,
and had heard the gospel, and yet some of them were tempted
to leave Christ and go back. Just like in the wilderness,
the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt, some of them, most
of them, wanted to go back to Egypt. Can you imagine that?
They thought the wilderness journey was too difficult. So they, in
their hearts, turned back to Egypt. And when they arrived
at Canaan, God brought them that far. That first generation refused
to believe God. They neglected, they turned away
from the testimony that God would bring them into Canaan. And they
thought that that must only happen if they did their part. So they
couldn't believe God. And they never entered that rest,
but perished in the wilderness. And so all these warnings are
really meant for us, to arrest us, to see our great need of
a Savior, and to see that Christ alone is our Savior. No one is
left out of this warning. And so it is in Scripture. And
we wanna look at this in the time to come. I will point you
also to remind you, last week we talked about how Christ is
the son over his own house. And we talked about what that
house meant, that it was actually the people of God. And we also
saw that the example of the children of Israel and Moses and all that
happened to them were examples for us. a testimony to us, as
it says in verse six, or verse five, that Moses was faithful in all
his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after. So all that happened, and Moses himself and
the children of Israel were a testimony to us. These two things are a
phenomenal truth. But the verse six where it says
if you continue is also brought to bear on us. So we wanna look
at these things and continue to the end of the chapter today,
Lord willing. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word that you have faithfully given your word. You haven't
held back. You've told us what we are in ourselves and warned
us that unless we flee to Christ, we will be exposed. to the awful
judgment of God that must come upon us because of who we are,
what we are, what we've done in our rebellion against God.
And you've told us of our helplessness before God, that we can do nothing
to repair ourselves or to rescue ourselves, that you must rescue
us. For this you've held up even
through Moses, the testimony that Christ alone is all of our
salvation. So we pray we would be given
grace to see him as such, and come to you only by him, and
you would receive us for his sake alone. And you would give
us this grace to hold fast, and hold firm, and hold on, and uphold
us in this to the end. We ask these things for Jesus'
sake, for your glory's sake, in his name we pray, amen. Hold your place in Hebrews chapter
3 and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I want to read one verse there,
2 Corinthians. It's just before Galatians. This verse in 2 Corinthians I
referred to last week, but I didn't read it. I want to read it this
week. It says in verse 9, Paul said to the Corinthians, we have
the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead. We have trouble in our
lives. That trouble is designed to teach
us something. And here it is, to not trust in ourselves. In
verse 10, after he said, we are to trust in God which raiseth
the dead, he said in verse 10, who delivered us, that's a past
tense, who delivered us from so great a death. That's what
eternal damnation is, so great a death under the wrath of God.
And doth deliver, that means in our present experience, he
does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. And now back to Hebrews chapter
3. And I read that verse to show you that God is teaching us that
salvation is not as it's normally referred to in our present world,
an experience that occurs at a moment in time when we make
a decision or exercise our will or do something religious in
order to prove to God that we're worthy of salvation or that we
ought to be saved. And therefore, we have this experience.
And whatever that experience, entails we think of that as our
salvation. And we look back on that, and
most of the religions of today, they look back on that and say,
see, you were saved when you were 12, therefore all is good,
and now you can live at peace with full assurance. But that's
not true. Salvation is not a one-time,
not a one-shot event. It is something that God does
throughout our lives. The children of Israel prove
this to us He says in scripture that many of them, in 1 Corinthians
10, all of them were delivered out of Egypt. All of them passed
through the Red Sea. All of them went through the
wilderness. They all saw Moses strike the rock and the water
flowed out, and they all drank of that rock, of that water from
that rock that was smitten by Moses. They all ate that bread
that God gave from heaven. They saw God deliver them from
Egypt without a shot. No one fought, only God fought
for Israel through one man, Moses. God did all of this and yet those
same people came to Canaan to enter into Canaan and most of
them, except for two, Joshua and Caleb, and then of course
Moses and Aaron and Miriam, they all perished in the wilderness.
because they did not believe God. So that's a strong warning. It teaches us that our wilderness,
the wilderness that Israel went through is like our experience
in our life after we realize that we were redeemed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that our salvation is not
just that one time experience we had, but it's our entire lifetime
until we enter into glory. And Hebrews 2.10 where the Lord
says that it was good to him, it became him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory.
That's Canaan. Canaan represents eternal glory. Deliverance from Egypt represents
our salvation by the redeeming work of Christ. Coming through
the Red Sea represents God delivering us from the judgment that comes
on our enemies. by the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that through the gospel, because the rod of Moses is a picture
of God's gospel coming to us, telling us about what Christ
did. And by his gospel, the power of God to salvation, we're saved.
But many people hear the gospel, and many people trust in their
initial experience to some degree, and they think that all is well. But when God's word comes to
us, And he shakes us to our foundation because he warns us, as he does
here in Hebrews 3, when we truly are given grace by God, we, as
the song we just sang tells us, we realize we're sinners. Sinners
under a condemnation for what we've done and who we are and
have no hope unless God delivers us by his grace and mercy. And as a sinner, knowing that
we are prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the
God I love, we come to Him and say, Lord, receive me for Christ's
sake. And that's the intention of God. Using His warnings is
to drive us, to cause us to flee back to Christ, to seek refuge
in Him alone, at all times, to come to Him, to His throne of
grace, and find mercy and grace to help in time of need. So our
life is an experience of this. It's always bringing us to the
experience of death, as it were, as the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians
1.9, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in the living
God, who delivered us from so great a death. He does deliver,
and He shall yet deliver. That's our hope. Faith doesn't
see our salvation as an experience, but as in Christ and in God's
grace to us at all times. So I say that by background to
remind us that what is said here of Moses and Israel and the wilderness
and Canaan is not just a historical lesson that's interesting to
us as children and as adults, but it's about our life and salvation
before God. So now let's read this in Hebrews
3, verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, God's call to us in the gospel is a
heavenly calling. Consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. This is so important. We must realize this. As we have
been delivered from Egypt, as it were, from sin, from death,
from Satan and the wrath of God, consider our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, and this is the
way we walk. It's considering him. He says
in verse two, who was faithful? Christ was faithful to him that
appointed him, as Moses was faithful in all his house. Christ is faithful
in all of his spiritual house, as Moses was faithful in all
the physically descendants to the man named Jacob in scripture. They were called the House of
Israel. Moses was faithful in that house, but that was not
the people of God. Only those who are the children
of promise, who are Christ, are the people of God. Verse three.
For this man, Christ, was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath built the house hath more honor than
the house. Remember what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew
16? He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell
will not prevail against it. It doesn't matter. Unleash hell's
fury. He cannot stop. The devil with
all of the demons of hell will not stop the Lord Jesus Christ
from building his church. That's what the house is. And
so he's the builder of the house. He says in verse 4, for every
house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
Christ is the one who created all things. He did it all by
himself, and he did it for his glory, for his own purpose. And
he's the one who built the house. He is God himself. God himself
built all things and built this house, the church of God. Read
Revelation 21 sometime, and you see this house pictured as a
city. and as a city with foundations
of these precious jewels and these walls and the beauty of
the city. That's the house. Remember what
Jesus told his disciples when he was about to go to the cross?
And we often wonder what these things meant in scripture, but
when we see these things tied together, it explains it for
us. In John chapter 14, he said this to them, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. This is building the church of
God, isn't it? Gathering together his elect, redeemed people by
his spirit through the preaching of the gospel out of every kindred,
tongue, people, and nation, and saving them. They're his house. And so he builds this house. It's the church. Hell's gates
can't prevent him. And he also built all things
because the Lord Jesus Christ is God. Now in verse 6. I'm sorry, verse five. And Moses
verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony
of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as
a son over his own house, whose house are we, there it is, we're
his house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm to the end. I'm going to read this to you
from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I'm sorry, chapter 10. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 10, it says this. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, which was called manna, and did all drink
the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, that rock was Christ, and with many
of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the
wilderness. Now, these things were examples
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as
they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were
some of them. As it is written, the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let
us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in
one day, three and 20,000. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were
destroyed of the destroyer." Verse 11. Now, all these things
happened to them for in samples, and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. You see?
And then the next verse is also germane. Wherefore, let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Alright, so here
we see the history of Israel laid out and the Apostle Paul
is teaching us that these things have a spiritual interpretation. The spiritual meat was manna.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of heaven sent by the Father
for us. If we believe on Him as our sin-atoning
sacrifice, as the one by whom alone God accepts us, and we
come to God by Him in faith, trusting Him, then it's like
the children of Israel who ate the manna in the wilderness.
If we drink of Christ by faith, taking of him in order to quench
the thirst of our souls so that we might be found by God in him
and receive that drink from God's own throne as the rivers of water
flow out from the throne, the love of God flowing to us in
Christ, then we're drinking from Christ as these people did of
the rock. Moses was told by God to smite
the rock. Christ was cursed under the curse
of the law for us. And Jesus said to Nicodemus in
the Gospel of John, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. We look to
Christ, and seeing Christ as the serpent was cursed, lifted
up on the pole, so Christ was cursed to bear the sins of His
people. We look to Him. As the serpent-bitten children
of Israel were instructed, look to the serpent. We look to Christ.
He's our life. All that looked lived. All these
things teach us about our salvation in Christ alone. They wandered
in the wilderness. We live our lives in this world.
God tried them. He allowed their enemies to come,
and then by trusting God, God suppressed and destroyed their
enemies. All these things happened to them to teach us these things.
Many of them fell, and therefore we're to not leave or forsake
Christ. but to cling to him, and not
think that we can survive this wilderness journey on our own
strength, but only by the grace of God. And so continually coming
to Christ and taking from him. Amazing, isn't it, that the history
of Israel, think about it, these people lived and died, generations
of them lived and died as an example to us. In other words,
their lives were lived with scant information about the truth of
the gospel in order to teach us in fullness the complete revelation
of Christ in the gospel. Can you see the privilege we
have, the advantage we have here in this day? You see how God
has spoken to us in these last days in His Son? The fulfillment
of all of God's revelation in Christ is now made known to us
in the gospel. If these people did not survive
because they turned away from what Moses said in the wilderness,
how much less shall we survive if we turn away from Christ?
That's the warning, you see. And it's a stern warning. Every
individual in this world stands before God. And only in Christ
is there safety. from the just condemnation we
deserve for our sins. And we're to learn this from
Scripture through these people. Moses represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Israelites represent the
elect of God, the Church of God brought out of Egypt, out of
sin and Satan, as it were. by the redeeming blood of Christ.
And all these things are to point us to this. If God spent 1,400
years of history to teach this to us, how important is that
lesson? If God sent his son and by his
own eternal counsel and will determined to slay his son for
his people, how important is this message? If there is salvation
in none other than Christ, how important is this message? If
our eternal souls hang in the balance, how important is this
message? If God's glory depends on him
fulfilling his promises to his people in Christ, how important
is this message? You see, this is not something
to trifle with. And so God turns the contrast up, the heat up,
as it were, in this message here to warn us, don't take this with
a grain of salt. This is your life. This is your
life. That's what Moses told them when
they heard the law. How much more when we hear the gospel? And so he says, if you continue
to the end, verse six, Christ is a son over his own house,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Holding fast. We're gonna read
on here and see how this is repeated again through the history of
these people. Look at verse seven, wherefore.
Wherefore, considering this, he says, wherefore, as the Holy
Ghost saith, now the Holy Ghost saith means God's spirit himself
spoke these words. But they're written in scripture
because scripture is the word of God himself. That teaches
us the, the preeminence of scripture. It teaches us the certainty of
it. It's not man's word, it's God's word. Scripture is the
word of God breathed out by God himself and recorded under the
guidance of the Spirit of God through men. And so it's not
the writing of a man, merely, it's the writing of God through
men. And so he uses these words here to teach that. Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith, Not only did he write this in scripture,
but he himself spoke this. This is the spirit of God. Today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness. There was a time,
in Psalm 95, when God reiterated His warnings to the nation of
Israel, and He said, today, if you will hear His voice. And
He's speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. As we just read
in 1 Corinthians 10, they all drank of the rock, the spiritual
rock, and that rock was Christ. Remember the cloud in the wilderness?
When they left Egypt and came through the Red Sea, the cloud
hovered over them. And the cloud went over the nation
of Israel all the time they were in the wilderness for 40 years.
In the daytime, it was covering the heat of the sun in the desert.
was not fully on these people because the cloud overshadowed
them. It was behind, it was above, and it went before them. And
then at night, the fire of the cloud was there to give them
light and to chase away the wild beasts. And this cloud was a
picture of Christ. He is our shield from the heat
of the justice of God that should come upon us. And He's our guide. He's with us. The presence of
God is with us in the cloud. And the fire of that cloud by
night guided us to push back. The light of the gospel gives
us confidence in Christ by which we're saved. And we overcome
the wild beasts of hell, as it were. trusting in Christ. It
says in 1 John 5 that we overcome through faith. We overcome by
the blood of the Lamb in Revelation 12.11. So we overcome through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that in this cloud.
But what he's saying here, therefore, in verse 7 of Hebrews 3, as the
Holy Ghost saith, if you will hear his voice, he's speaking
to us that the voice we hear from God is the voice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In these last days, God has spoken
to us in his Son, by his Son. If we do not hear His voice,
then we reject the voice of the Son of God, we reject the testimony
of God Himself, the Holy Spirit. So he says, it's a solemn warning,
today if you will hear His voice, today. Do we hear His voice? If we hear it today, don't presume
that you're going to hear it tomorrow. If you hear it today,
don't trust what you heard yesterday. You live by faith on Christ today. We don't live on a faith we had
yesterday or the faith we're going to have tomorrow. We live
on Christ day by day. They were given manna from heaven
every morning. We must have Christ daily. Psalm 86, I'll read this to you. It's one of my recently made
favorite Psalms. In Psalm 86, I've read this to
you before, so you'll probably recognize it. He says this, bow
down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. We never get beyond this. Never. Don't presume. 1 Corinthians
10, we just read this. Don't take heed, he says, lest
you also, don't, how does he say it? He says, let him that
thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So he says, bow down
thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve
my soul, for I am holy. Holy, how? By the blood of Christ. O thou, my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. When Job was under the greatest
afflictions of his life, he lost his children, his servants, his
house, even his own wife, told him, why don't you curse God
and die? He said, have we received good from the Lord's hand, and
shall we not receive evil also? And he said, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him. We trust God even though the
circumstances of our life give us every reason to be concerned,
not only about our safety in this world, but especially the
safety of our souls. We say, Lord, I'm trusting you
to save me. Verse three, be merciful unto
me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily, you see. Today, if you
will hear his voice, we hear the gospel today. Isn't it God's
grace that we do? This state, this county, this
nation is trying to suppress us from hearing the gospel. They're
trying to suppress us. They're using the cover of whatever
they want to use in order to keep us from assembling together,
from hearing the gospel. But by God's mercy, we still
hear it, don't we? Today. Don't presume it may not
be tomorrow. Believe Christ today. Flee to
Christ today. Don't presume that later in your
life you'll have an opportunity to change your mind. That's assuming
that you can change your mind. The gospel teaches us that repentance
and faith are the gift of Christ from his throne in glory because
he overcame sin and rose for our justification. You must trust
him today. If you hear his voice, harden
not your heart. Our hearts are naturally prone
to hardness. Pharaoh's heart was hardened
and he hardened his own heart. Romans 1 says that God just simply
gives us over to our own desires and we perish. We come under
a deeper and deeper delusion and deception because we are
left to ourselves God says in Romans 9, verse 11, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. And that hatred is simply leaving
him, leaving Esau to himself. Don't presume. Don't harden your
heart. Come to God as a sinner. A sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
The publican cried. Here in Psalm 86 3, I cry unto
thee daily. I need him. I need him now. And I need him to save me today. I need your mercy. Let thy mercies
come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation. And so we have to hear Christ's
voice in the gospel today. He goes on in Hebrews chapter
3. He says, Harden not your hearts
as in the provocation, because the Israelites provoked God with
their unbelief in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works
forty years. After they came out of Egypt,
they stood before the Red Sea. They said, Why did you bring
us here, Moses? And God said to them, and Moses
said, Lord, why'd you bring us here? And God said, why are you
standing still here looking at the Red Sea? Hold your rod up
and see the salvation of the Lord. And they walked through
the Red Sea on dry land. And every trial in the wilderness,
they provoked God. Moses was up on the mountain.
They said, Aaron, make us gods. And Aaron took their earrings
and their necklaces and all their jewelry, cast it in the fire,
and he made an idol. And they said, these be thy gods,
O Israel. And they delivered you out of
Egypt. And they served and they worshiped this idol. And Moses
came down. And God says, I'm going to destroy
them all. And Moses pleaded with God, interceding for Israel.
He said, Lord, if you destroy them, then your enemies and their
enemies will say you couldn't bring them through the wilderness.
They were too sinful. You promised to, but you couldn't.
And the Lord had caused Moses to intercede that way. You see,
he saved them for his name's sake, for his own covenant with
his son, for his promises to his people. He saved them for
his glory. But don't tempt God, because
many of them, most of them fell, and God raised up another generation.
He says, when your fathers tempted me, and proved me, and saw my
works forty years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation,
and said, they do all way err in their heart, and they have
not known my ways. They didn't know God. They did
not know God. They took the law. They said,
we can do this. All you've said is fine and good
with us, and we're going to keep it. And right then, they exhibited
what we all do naturally in our heart. We have this confidence
before God that we can save ourselves by fulfilling God's conditions,
by our own sincerity, by our own good works, by our own determination,
by our own will, by our own decision. All these things, something from
us. We look to ourselves, we trust in ourselves, and we forsake
the truth of God and thinking, like idolaters, the work of men's
hands, we trust in what we can do and try to come to God that
way. So he says, so I swear in my
wrath they shall not enter into my rest. You can't enter into the rest,
the Canaan, the promised land, the eternal glory, everlasting
life, by something you do. How can we enter then? Only by
what God has done in Christ. That's the only way. He says
in verse 12, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Departing. Unbelief is departing from God. It's forsaking Christ. What is
the opposite of unbelief? It's faith. And this reminds
us of what it means to come to God. Look at Isaiah chapter 55. I want you to consider this with
me. Isaiah. Chapter 55. These people, like us, were prone
to hear the truth and then turn away from it. Isaiah 55. Remember the song we just sang,
a sinner is a sacred thing, God has made him so? Here you see
this in Isaiah 55. I often ask the question, what
does it mean to come to the Lord, to seek the Lord? Listen to this,
Isaiah 55. Ho, that means attention, listen
to me, like a street vendor. Hey, ho everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And now he's going to describe
those who thirst. He says, and he that has no money,
nothing to buy with, come ye, buy and eat. Ye, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price. Don't come with what you
offer to God. You come as an empty-handed,
ruined, rebellious sinner. needing God's mercy. Verse two,
wherefore do you, or why, why do you spend money for that which
is not bread? That's what we're, we're self-deceived.
I'm going to labor, I'm going to get, I'm going to accumulate,
and I'm going to spend it on something to satisfy my desires. And he says, why? Why do you
spend your money for that which is not bread? Especially false
religion. We labor in order to make ourselves
pleasing to God. You're laboring and spending
the results of that labor on what will not feed you, will
not give you life. And it's also true in our lives.
We labor, we spend our energies, our waking moments, and our thoughts
at night, even, on how we can get in order to please ourselves. And he's saying, why? And your
labor for that which satisfieth not. Now, here's what he tells
us to do. Hearken, or listen, give your
ear. Remember what he said in Hebrews
3? Today, if you will, hear his voice. So he says here, hearken
diligently unto me, as if your life, your eternal life, depended
on it. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is
good. What is the food of the soul?
It's God's word concerning Christ. How do we take that food in?
Through the spiritual ears God has given to us. Hearken diligently,
that ear of faith, that eye of faith God gives to us is the
mouth by which we take and eat and consume the bread of life.
I remember when I was teaching Sunday school with my kids when
they were younger and I would draw some pictures to help the
kids understand. I drew this face, no eyes, no
mouth, just ears. That's where the food comes in,
when God speaks to us. It's through our ears, but not
through our physical ears, through the ears God gives to us. So
he says here, hearken diligently. God has to qualify us. God has
to give us ears. Like we read, Rommel read it
a couple weeks ago from Ephesians chapter 5, I think verse 14,
he says, awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.
rise from the dead. How can you do that? How can
you obey that command? God's Word comes with the power.
God tells us to hearken, to hear, and diligently, and He Himself
convinces us by His Spirit, these things are true. This is necessary
for your eternal soul. So He says, incline your ear
and come to Me Here and your soul shall live. And I skipped
over verse two at the end. It says, hearken diligently to
me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come to
me. Here and your soul shall live. How are we going to live
to God? Because spiritually we're dead. God's word comes to us
and raises us from the dead. And what is that word? He tells
us. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. The sure mercies of David mean
God's mercies in Christ. David was the king in Israel. Christ is David's son. And he
is the king God promised to sit on the throne forever and ever,
the throne of heaven over his people. Verse 4. God says, behold,
I have given him, Christ, for witness to the people, a leader,
like a captain, and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt
call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not
thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for
the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. God is saying,
consider Christ Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our profession.
Look at him. God has made him a commander
and leader to the people. hearken diligently to him. That's
the one with whom God has made a covenant of mercy with. Verse
six, listen carefully. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. This is what the message God
is telling us to hear. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Today, call ye upon him while
he is near. And that's when he's near. It's
in the preaching of the gospel. So what does it mean to seek
the Lord? What does it say here? Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him. We bring the needs of our soul
to him and we don't pretend. We open up, as it were, we tear
open our heart and we confess what we are. We say what we've
done. We say why we've done it. It's
all wrong. And we admit that God is just
if he were to judge us. And we come to him daily like
this. What does it mean to seek? It
means to come and to call. And how do we come to God? Think
about this. You're gonna go into your father's
room. You've done something wrong.
When you go into your father's room, let's say, or maybe you
go into the room of your boss at work, or maybe you're going
to a job interview, or maybe you're going into the courtroom
to answer for some crime that you've been accused of doing.
What do you do when you come into these areas? In your mind,
you're thinking, how will I be received? How will the judge
clear me? How will this court system and
the law accept me? Will the interview go well with
me? And you think, how can you act or speak in such a way that
the judge or the one interviewing you or your own father will accept
you? Don't you? Isn't that coming?
When we come into the court of the judge or into the throne
room of the king or whatever, we're always thinking, what's
the king or the judge going to think of me? How is that judge
or king going to think of me in order that I might be received?
Isn't that the way we come? We consider what the one is thinking
that we want to be received by and accepted by. What does God
think in order to receive me? What does he think of in order
to accept me? What does he consider? You see,
that's coming to God. We come to God and we ourselves
consider, that means we think about and look upon and depend
on and rely on what God is going to consider in order to receive
us. And what is that? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's only one way that God
can accept a sinner. It is if he, God himself, is
pleased and provides and accepts Christ for that sinner. And so
the publican in the temple prayed, God, Be merciful. Look upon the mercy seat and
the offering of Christ there and receive the propitiation
Christ himself for me. And this is the way we come to
God. Seek ye the Lord. Jesus said,
no man comes to the Father but by me. And so he says here to
the wicked, seek the Lord. Isn't this the most wonderful
news that God has given us warrant? He has given his own word to
us. You seek the Lord. That means at all times, no matter
how filthy and foul and helpless I am, and how hopeless it seems,
I can seek the Lord. God himself has told me to. But
He also instructs us how to come, looking to, considering, considering
what God will receive, that He would look upon Christ for me.
And we come to Him that way at all times. And then we're also
taught and instructed that in our coming, it wasn't because
we moved ourselves to come. He says this in Isaiah 65, in
verse 1. He says, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me. In other words,
look upon, consider me. Behold me to a nation that was
not called by my name. So we are instructed to find
that not only does God give us warrant at all times, which is
a great comfort and instruction to us, and he tells us how to
seek him through Christ alone, coming to him knowing that God
can only accept us because of what he thinks of Christ, but
we also see that in our coming, it's because God himself draws
us to himself, to show us that Christ is our only hope, and
to hold us fast to Christ as our only hope. Now, I'm going
to read a little later in the book of Hebrews with you. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10 to see this laid out for us so clearly.
Hebrews 10 is much later, but we need to make sure we're on
the right track by looking at what God unfolds later. In Hebrews
chapter 10, he tells us, just as we read in Hebrews 3, 5, that
the law was a testimony, here in Hebrews 10, he tells us that
the law was just a shadow. A shadow of things that were
true. Remember what a shadow does? If I hold my hand up here
in the light, you can see my shadow on the ground. The shadow
has no substance. It's just a shadow. It doesn't
weigh anything. It doesn't accomplish anything. You can stomp on it.
You can throw paint on it. It doesn't affect the shadow.
But the hand is the true thing. And so he says here in Hebrews
10, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come, meaning
it pointed to as a testimony to Christ, was true, and not
the very image, not the substance of the things, can never, with
all those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually,
make the comers They weren't too perfect. The comers would
come. How? They would think that God accepted them because of
the sacrifice. Did he? No. Because the sacrifices
were just a shadow. They weren't the real thing.
It was like they were pretending in that, but they weren't pretending
because God gave them that to instruct us how we would come.
Verse two, for then, if those things would have accomplished
that, then would they not have ceased to be offered because
that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience
of sins? When our sins are truly cleansed from us before God,
our conscience is clear. And only Christ's blood can do
that, verse 3. But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. Wherefore when he, Christ, comes into the world, he said,
Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. He's going to offer himself.
for us in our nature, with our sins in His own body on the tree. And this is what God's will was
from eternity. And so when He comes into the
world, He thanks God that He can do this. Verse 6. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure,
not even a little. Then said I, the Lord Jesus Christ,
lo, I come, in the volume of the book, Scripture, it is written
of me, to do, actually accomplish, thy will, O God, and finish it.
Verse 8, above, when he said, sacrifice and offering, and burnt
offerings, for sin, which thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure
therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I
come, to do thy will, O God. Who did the will of God? Christ.
He, Christ, takes away the first that he may establish the second.
Not the old covenant, but the new. Not the law, but the gospel. Verse 10. By the witch will,
by the will of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. How are we made holy? Through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Verse 11, for every high
priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, Christ,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, that is himself,
he sat down on the right hand of God, because it was all done,
verse 13, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever them
that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, And in
their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin." In other words, because
Christ has put away sin, sins are remitted. God doesn't remember
them anymore. And therefore the covenant is
fulfilled. God writes the gospel on our heart. and in our minds
and our sins and iniquities are remembered no more so we come
to God through Christ. Listen, verse 19, this is the
verse I'm trying to get to. How do we come? How do we seek
the Lord? How can we be accepted? What
does God teach us? Listen, he says, diligently unto
me. Hear that your soul may live.
Listen, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession,
the one who offered and the one who offered himself. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to come into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We say in our heart, we think
in our mind, we pray in our prayers when we come, Lord, receive me,
considering only what Christ has done. You provided, you determined
to receive him for sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. and everyone so taught of God,
though he trembles in his own self, considering that he might
fall away, like those Israelites of old, in unbelief, yet he comes
at all times to God for grace, for mercy, daily, knowing that
God receives him only for Christ's sake. And this is eating and
drinking, hearing in our souls and eating and drinking for our
life upon Christ and coming to God. We don't just come once,
we come daily. We need it daily. We need daily
forgiveness. And so he says, come into the
holiest, the very presence of God, boldly, openly, without
hiding, expecting God will keep his word. David prayed in 2 Samuel
7 25, Lord, do what you have said. That's what God by faith
teaches us. We're persuaded that God is true,
that he sent Christ to save sinners, and this is our life and our
living. And Jesus said the same thing
in some sense in Luke chapter 9. Look at Luke chapter 9. In
Luke chapter 9, a man comes to Jesus, the one who came into
this world to save sinners, and he says this in verse 57 of Luke
chapter 9, and it came to pass that as they went in the way
a certain man said to Jesus, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever
thou goest. Jesus said to him, foxes have
holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man doesn't
have a place to lay his head. You want to follow Christ? He
doesn't have a place to lay his head. He doesn't have a home.
In other words, he came into the world without a house. He didn't live in a house. He
stayed wherever he could. He goes on. And he said to another,
follow me. And he said, Lord, allow or suffer
me first to go and bury my father. I'm going to wait to follow you
until my father is gone and I can take care of all the things he
needs at home. No. He says, verse 60, Jesus
said to him, let the dead bury the dead, but go thou and preach
the kingdom of God. Verse 61, another said, Lord,
I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which
are at my home, my house. In other words, let me go tell
my folks goodbye. No. You follow Christ. You see, as
sinners, it's necessary that we find our greatest need and
our only help in the Lord Jesus Christ. We flee to Him at all
times. We follow Him. We abide with
Him. We want to think the way He thinks, don't we? We want
to go in His way. We want to be found in Him alone.
We want to know God by knowing Him. Follow me, he says to these
people. Jesus said to that man who said,
I need to go say goodbye to my folks, no man having put his
hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of
God. Look at John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. He preached this great sermon
here in John chapter six about himself being the bread of life.
And in verse 66, it says, and from that time, many of his disciples
went back, John 6, 66, many of his disciples went back and walked
no more with him. Then Jesus said to the 12, will
you go away also? Will you also go away? How about
you? And Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. Hearken diligently unto me and
hear that your soul may live. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. Go to God at all times through
the blood of Christ, considering that God must and will only accept
you because of Christ and don't think to bring anything. Don't
bring your money, don't expend your labor, don't make an idol
out of your sincerity or out of your decision or about your
resolve to do it better. Don't think that God will accept
you by looking forward in time to see how you're going to perform.
He knows that you're nothing but sin. When we were enemies,
God reconciled us to himself by the death of his son. Hold
to what God has said. Like Onesimus took the letter
from Paul to Philemon, his master, and said, read this. When Paul said to Philemon, he
said, receive him as myself. That's the way we come to God.
Lord, receive me for Christ's sake, you see. To turn away from
this is to go back to depending upon what we can do to make God
happy with us. It can't happen. God has determined
and provided and accepted Christ alone for sinners. And he tells
us here, don't leave that. Don't think about going back
to Egypt, your sin and your slavery to the deceptions and the pride
of your heart. And don't think about going to
a law that you can keep in order to please God. You go one place
at all times. Throughout your life, go to Christ
alone, come to God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in doing this, you don't make yourself the household of God,
but you give evidence to the fact that you are a living stone
carved out by God and inserted into that temple. It's his house. He built it. And we're just the
stones that he puts there. Let's pray.