Let's read Hebrews 3, verses
12-14 again. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, and departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily,
for it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. I told you Sunday about a young
lady who made a profession of faith. And when I first heard
that, I rejoiced. I really did. That was my first
reaction. I greatly rejoiced. And then my second thought was,
I hope it's real. Did you? You always do that,
don't you, when somebody does, especially a young person, because
they've got so much to go through. They haven't gone through anything
yet. And I thought, I hope it's genuine
and I hope it lasts. But then I started thinking,
I hope it's genuine in me. I hope it lasts for me. Like
when Paul came back from preaching to the Gentiles, they all concluded,
we're going to be saved. Those Jews, you know, they said,
we're going to be saved like them. Talking about the heathen Gentile.
They didn't say, they're going to be saved like us. They said,
we're going to be saved like them. It's going to be by God's
grace. It's going to be by sovereign grace. Sovereign electing, keeping
grace, restraining grace, constraining grace. Salvation is by grace.
If I'm saved, if I hold fast unto the end, it's not due to
my might or power, it's due to Him. So, yeah, I hope it's genuine. I hope it lasts, and I hope we
all do. That's why the exhortation here. And this verse of Scripture came
to my mind when I thought about her and that. The Lord spoke it out loud to
me. He didn't, I mean, in my head and my heart. Verse 14 came
to my mind just as clearly. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. Right up front, I'm going to tell you here, okay? For your
comfort, for your peace. It does not say, and this was
for my comfort, it does not say we are made partakers of Christ
if we quit sinning. It does not say we are made partakers
of Christ if we can live a sinless life, if we never fall. It does
not say that. Thank God. It does not say if
we do this or do that, but simply if we hold the beginning of our
confidence. What's that? Jesus Christ. If you lay hold of Jesus Christ, you're a partaker. Man, that
helped me so much. Oh, that helped me. Anybody,
anybody, young or old, who lays hold of Jesus Christ by faith
is made a particular friend. And hold on to the end. So after
considering that and studying this, it gave me such hope, and
I hope it will do the same for you. Verse 1, you've got to go
back and take it in contact. He says, You know, hold on there. People's conception of holiness
is all wrong. You know that? It's not necessarily
what you wear. Because you wear black? No, sir. Because you wear a beard
or whatever, a bonnet? No, sir. That's what the Pharisees
did. I know some ignorant people do that, but that's not holiness.
Jesus Christ was the Holy One. And you could not distinguish
him physically from the common man, could you? He didn't wear
phylacteries and all that. What separates God's people,
as we've already seen before, is the truth. Our Lord prayed
that. Sanctify them. Separate. That's
what holy means. Sanctify. Set them apart through
thy truth. That's what sets apart God's
people from the world and, you know, the truth instilled in
you will regulate your conduct and make you modest and so forth. It will. It will. But the thing that really makes
people holy is the truth. Christ is the truth. He sanctified. He sanctified Himself that we
also might be sanctified. He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. Alright? He is our sanctification. We're set apart because we're
in Him. Do you remember that? Holy brethren. Brethren. That
means we're brethren by adoption, aren't we? God has one begotten
Son, Jesus Christ. We're adopted in the family.
He's the elder brother. He's the heir, isn't he? And
we get everything because of him. We're brethren, though.
He says, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus. That word apostle means messenger. Messenger. And the Lord did send
twelve messengers, didn't He? Apostles. Christ was the message. They were the messenger. But
he's called the Apostle, capital A. See that? There's one, the capital A. He
is. Because he's the messenger of
the covenant, like Malachi said. The Lord, the messenger of the
covenant shall come. The one sent by God with the
absolute truth. Peter, Paul, James, all of them,
they didn't know everything. Paul said that we know in part. Christ did. He is the truth. He is the truth. You believe
that, don't you? You've considered Him. You believe Him to be the
truth, don't you? Everything He says. You rely
on, you trust your confidence. You put all your confidence in
what Jesus Christ has said, don't you? He's the truth. Anybody
says anything contrary to what he says is a liar, right? He's
the truth. You believe that? So he's your
confidant. He's the apostle. And high priest
of our profession. High priest. This book of Hebrews,
we've been looking at it, haven't we? The high priest, oh my, all
the way through, you have to have one. They had to have one
in the old, we have to have one now. We have to have a high priest. You have to have a blood sacrifice.
You have to have a sanctuary. These three are one. Christ. He's all those things. A high
priest is the one who offers gifts and sacrifices to God for
the people of God, the mediator between God and man. God won't
deal with us personally. He deals with the mediator. Who's
that? Well, there's no man, there's
no woman. It's the man, Christ Jesus. The
God-man. The mediator. He's the high priest. And a high priest is one who
goes to God with something on behalf of God's people to make
atonement for the sins of God's people. Blood. Well, he made
it with his own precious blood. One sacrifice. Obtained eternity.
You believe that, don't you? That's your hope. That's your
confidence. That Jesus Christ is the great
high priest. who by that one offering perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Put away your sins by the blood
of His cross. Is that your hope? We sang, holy,
holy, holy, because that's our God. Right, Brother Stephen? That's the God of the Bible.
That's our God that most men don't know. We know Him. He's
revealed Himself to us. Holy, holy, holy. Then we sang,
my faith has found a resting place. Where? In Christ. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. Do you
believe that? So be still, my soul. Thy hope,
thy confidence. Where is that? It's in Christ.
Let nothing and no one shake. He's the high priest. He put
it away. He sat down. And it says, we're
seated. We're seated with Him in the
heavenly place. Done. Tis done. Tis done. The great transaction is done.
I am my Lord's and He is mine. Is that your confidence? Are you sure? Huh? Are you confident? Well, hold
right there. I can do that by His grace, can't
you? And the Scripture goes on to
talk about Christ as the Son over His house, verse 3. Well,
verse 4 says, He that built all things is God. Well, that's Christ.
He built this church. And He's the one on whom the
church is built. The cornerstone. Verse 6 says, Christ as a Son
over His own house, whose house are we if we hold fast? The continent. And rejoicing
of the whole firmament. Whose house are we? Members of
His household. Ephesians 2, verse 19, I believe
it is, says we're members of His household. Well, you know
what all was said before that. Ephesians 1 and 2. Well, we are members of his household
if we hold fast to come. Same thing. Alright? Does it interest you to be a
member of God's family? He has a family. Ephesians 3
or 5, I believe it is. 5 says, "...of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named." God has a family. It's a household of faith. Christ
is the Lord over His house. Does it interest you to be a
part of His house? His house. Well, David said this. He said, One thing have I desired
of the Lord, and that's what I'm going after, that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I want to
be in the house of the Lord. He says, well, we'll be His house
if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope unto
the end. And down in verse 14, it says
we're made partakers of Christ. Partakers of Christ. That word
partaker means to take part. Take part of what? Partakers
of what? Christ. Christ. It's to me a partaker of Him,
like a woman who falls in love with, the man falls in love with
her, and they're married, and she gets him. And he gets her. Right? When they're in love,
that's all they want, isn't it? Having food and rain, but they're
content. They've got each other. Does that interest you? To be
a partaker of Christ. The bride of Christ. To be with
Him. To be a partaker of Christ means
to be with Him. Our Lord prayed that they might
be with Me where I am. That they might be with Me forever.
It says the Lord Himself shall dwell with them. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Is that interesting? To be with
Him. To behold His glory. David, let me keep quoting David
there. David said, One thing have I desired of the Lord, and
that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life. To do what, David? To behold
the beauty of the Lord. Sounds like a man who is a partaker
of Christ himself. Christ himself. To behold the
beauty of the Lord. To take part in. Beholding His
beauty and His glory. Worshipping Him. Everybody is not interested in
that. Few people are. Do you know that?
Few people are interested truly in the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Only partakers of Jesus Christ
are really interested in one thing about the desire of the
Lord. And that is what I seek out. Most people need fleshly
entertainment. They need activities. They need
excitement. Something to see. Something to
feel. Something to do. Flesh. Now,
here's the three things that the true circumcision are called
in Philippians 3. They worship God in the Spirit. They don't need all this stuff.
They worship from the heart. by the aid of the Holy Spirit.
They rejoice in Christ Jesus. They come and they hear Jesus
Christ preached, and that rejoices their heart. Why? They are partakers
of Christ. And they put no confidence in the flesh. Not their own,
not anyone else's, not anything to do with the flesh, the outward
trappings of religion. No, no, no, no. They need truth. The truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
That's what they need. That's what it means to be a
partaker of Jesus Christ. Does it interest you to be a
partaker of His righteousness? David once again said, I'll behold
thee in righteousness. Yea, I'll be satisfied when I
awake with thy likeness. I want to be just like Jesus
Christ. Don't you? Only partakers of Christ, those
who see His beauty and His glory, want to be like Him. They want to be like Him. partakers,
participants in the same thing, worshiping the Lord and beholding
His beauty. I got here and I forgot my glasses, so I had to rush home to get
them. I got in the car and rushed home,
and on the way I saw a view of them. Do you see me? I saw Amy
going by. She looked like it. I saw Irene go by. I saw Gabe and Hannah. Where
are you going? I saw several people. Steven, I saw you all. What's
he doing? He always runs. Later that happened
for this illustration. Then I thought, man, am I glad. that I'm not heading the other
way for good. See, all these people are coming
to God's house to worship. All these people are coming here
to worship. And I thought to myself, I'm so glad that I'm
a partaker with them, that I want to be with them, that I want
to do what they do. I didn't always want that. There
was a time when I was headed the other direction just as fast
as I could. I didn't want to see these people. I hoped they
didn't see me. But now, Joseph, I'm a fellow
citizen of the household of faith. That's where I want to be with
God's people, partaking of this. Partaking of this one bread,
says He calls us partakers of the heavenly calling in verse
1. Partakers of the heavenly calling. God in sovereign mercy,
sovereign electing mercy, undeserved mercy and in grace has called. Many are called, but few are
chosen to hear it effectually, savingly. Few. Brother Mack,
few and I have heard this call effectually and laid hold of
Christ. Bless God Almighty! Everybody
hadn't heard that. I have ears to hear but don't
hear. But He gave us ears to hear. We must mean we're partakers. Now, what does it mean to hold
fast this covenant? Now, the Lord is not saying that
it depends on us, that if you hold fast, it's all up to you. Hold on now. That's what Armenians
say. That's what free will religion says. Hold on. Keep on. If you pray through, you know.
That's not what this is saying. Simply stating the fact. The Lord is simply stating the
fact. If we hold fast, if we keep holding, trusting Christ,
if we, our Lord said, keep His commandment. If you keep My commandment. That means hearing something
come from the mouth of Christ, the Word of Christ, and it's
something you don't want to lose. That's what keep means. You don't
want to lose it. You found a treasure and you don't want to lose it.
That's what it means to keep means. That's what it means. Keep. Guard
against loss. You found something, a great
treasure, and you don't want to lose it. Apparel. If we move not away. If we fall not away. Just stating
a fact. Right? Just stating a fact. If
we die in the faith, Partakers of Christ. If we, like the people
in Hebrews 11, die in the faith, then we're partakers of Christ.
That's a fact. It's not saying it's dependent on us. You hear
that? Just stating the fact. If we
hold fast, here's the fact of the matter. You know this. If
we hold fast, it's because He held us fast. Did not our Lord
say, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand? Didn't He say
that? That's my hope. It's not that
I'll hold on. He holds me. What are our children?
We have little children. You know, we carry them. A little
Sophie, she can barely walk now. She's walking pretty good actually,
but still, when we hold her, crossing the street or anything,
when we hold her, what's her hope? What's her hope? Her safety.
Her holding on to her mama or daddy. Her hope lies in the strength
of that man who's got her in his arms. That's our hope underneath
the everlasting arms. The Lord's just stating a fact
there. In fact, if we're His house, if we're partakers of
Christ, if we hold fast. And if we do, He loved us, chose
us, bought us, brought us, taught us, and kept us. He gets the
glory. We're not going to get any glory
for holding on. Like a man holding a life rope,
you know. Or holding on to somebody that
went in and got him, and he's drowning, and he lays hold. What
are we going to do, pat him on the back? Oh, you sure held tight,
Bruce. You're thankful. We're going
to praise the one that saved him. So is he. He gets the glory. And he said this to make us accountable
too. Make us accountable. And to prove His Word. Like a
parent tells a child, if you do this, if you do that, I'll
do this. The Lord proves His Word that way, doesn't He? If
you do this, I'll do that. I'm not talking about conditions
for salvation. He's just saying, if you do this,
I'll do that. Prove Me! You watch. He says, give, and you wait and
see. If I don't give, you do. He's
proving His Word. and to make us accountable. If
you don't, we say to our children, if you go here, you go there,
you're going to get in trouble. If you don't do this, don't do that.
If you do this, you're going to get in trouble. Right? So is our Heavenly Father. But
He said, if you stay here, you'll be safe. And we will. So that's why He says, if we
hold fast. What does it mean? Well, lay
hold. And Scripture says this often, lay hold. You've laid
hold of something before. I mean really, lay hold. It means
to seize. It means to grab it. Like something
you need, something you must have. Something you want. You've got to have it. Like that drowning man. Someone
comes and gets him. Man, he's a goner. So he lays
hold of that person that comes and gets him. Like a fearful
child holding on to a parent. A hungry or thirsty man or woman. There's bread and water. Give
me that. Give me that. Hold fast. Fast
means tight. Fast means not wanting to let
go, not wanting to let go lest you perish. And one illustration
will suffice. Jacob. Jacob laid hold of someone because
he laid hold of Jacob. Right? The Lord Jesus Christ
came to Jacob. He initiated this wrestling man
and wrestled with him, laid hold of him. He was never the same. And what did Jacob do? He laid
hold of the Lord. And what did he say? Here's what
it means to hold fast. What did he say? I will not let
you go unless you bless me. That's what that meant. I can't
let go. So there's your answer. Our confidence is Christ the
Lord, and we see our need of Christ and fear for our lives,
fear for our souls, see Christ as our only hope and Savior.
We hunger and thirst for His righteousness. We need Christ
and nothing and no one else will meet the need. Then we lay hold
of Christ. And he's called the beginning
of our confidence. In the beginning, when you first heard the gospel,
those of you who believe, this is written to a believer, a professing
believer. When you first heard the Gospel,
you came here, or wherever you heard it, and you felt like you
were dead, lost, guilty, dirty, worthless, helpless, ignorant. You heard the good news of a
sovereign God, sovereign mercy, sovereign grace, a complete pardon,
forgiveness of sin, Christ's righteousness imputed, justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law. You heard that and you laid hold by faith. That's just what
you need. In the beginning, you came and
you cried, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? And you heard Romans 8-1 say,
There is therefore now no condemnation of them that are in Christ. And
you laid hold of that, that hope, didn't you? In the beginning. Christ said, Come unto Me, all
ye labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Quit working,
trying to work your way to heaven, trying to do all this and that
to appease God and to please God. And some of you in religion,
you heard that, and it was such peace and rest, and you lay hold
of Christ in you. That was in the beginning. Alright? Now, tell me, how is
it with you now? How do you feel now? In the beginning
you were helpless, hopeless, guilty, dirty, worthless. Now
have you made great spiritual progress? Anybody? Gotten a victory over every sin?
Sin and sin molest you no more. Anybody? Now you've lived a good life
from then and you're worth saving. Anybody? then hold on to your confidence
that you had in the beginning. Our Lord, when He found us, that's
the way we were. And when He comes back for us,
we're still going to be. That gives me such comfort. Do you still cry, O wretched
man that I am? Paul said that when he was in
his fifties. And I still lay hold of Romans
8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation. That's my confidence. He's my confidence. The Lord is mercifully and graciously
and simply telling us, you were a sinner when I found you. You'll
be a sinner when I come back for you. You hold on to Christ
and I'll take you home. That's good news isn't it? Look to me and be ye saved. Not do this, not that. Look to
me. Look and be ye saved. Ends of the earth. Chief of setter. But what? There's no but in there. Look at verse 6 and I'll close. He says, if we hold fast to confidence,
And the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. Rejoicing
of the hope. When you first heard the Gospel,
you rejoiced so much, didn't you? Do you still rejoice? Still hope in His mercy, rejoicing
of the hope. That word partaker, I looked
it up and I had several things that went with it. One of them,
it means to eat. Like partake of food to eat. Our Lord said, except you eat
my flesh, drink my blood, you have no part in me. You're not a partaker. Eating,
as you know, involves an appetite. Appetite. Hunger and thirst. It's a sign of life if you have
an appetite. It's not a lie. And some of you
are real alive. But this thing of being a partaker
of Christ involves hungering and thirsting and appetite. Christ
in you means you have an appetite for Christ. You have a love for
Him. David, once again, David talked about the Word of God.
He said, it's my very bread. He said, it's sweeter than honeycomb. Israel, of old, of whom so much
is written throughout here as an example to us to beware. Israel, when the manna first
fell, Oh, you know, they were overjoyed. They received it with joy and
rejoicing. They went out and gathered it.
Oh, what a blessing. Look, look, just gather it. There
it is. Oh, and they said it tasted like wafers dipped in honey. You like wafers dipped in honey? They loved it. They ate it with
hunger. They ate it with relish and great
satisfaction. Forty years went by. And with many of them, it says,
they lost their appetite. In fact, they said, we loathe
this light bread. Give us something else. That's
what it meant when I said they lusted at seeding light bread.
Give us quail. I mean, give us leeks and onions
and garlics and cucumbers. We want to go back to Egypt. Is the Gospel still sweet to
you? Do you need anything else really? I grieve over the falls
of believers. The falls of temptation and sin
of my own. I grieve over those. But the
greatest grief of all is if somebody falls away and doesn't come back. Because Scripture says, Hebrews
6, it's impossible to renew them again to repent. And I grieve over it, but we
can forget about the most terrible fall into sin if people just
come back. Can't we? Rahab the harlot? Oh, yeah. And he talks about
the deceitfulness of sin, and that's the problem, isn't it? It deceives us. Sin, the deceitfulness
of Richard deceives us. Well, in the beginning, you know,
we ran here, got here, came here, came where the Gospel was to
run away from those things that tempted us. To get out of the
world. That's why we come here, park
for a little while, and we feel like, Barbara always said, I
feel like I take a bath when I come here to the Gospel. She said, I feel dirty when I
come here, and I feel clean when I leave. Well, in the beginning, didn't
we come because those things were bothering us and hounding
us and tempting us? And so we come here and we hear
about Christ, our only need, the true bread. We hear about
Him and say, yes, that's who I want. I don't need this. Don't
we? And it gave us strength to resist. Well, it's still the same. It's
still the same. In fact, The longer you live
in this world like the children of Israel, the harder it is to
resist. That's a fact. Where's the promise of His coming?
It's right there, same as where it was in the beginning. He's
coming back. The children of Israel. Moses
was gone 40 days, and he said he's not coming back. So they
started, no, no, no, no, no. Come back.
Keep coming. This is our strength. Hold the
beginning of our conflict steadfast to the end. This Gospel not only
saves us eternally, it saves us temporally. When we see Christ, hear Christ
preach, we have our affections set on things above, it saves
us from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. The deceitfulness of sin, yes it does. I can tell
you from experience. It's the only thing that does.
Not your own resolve, not your own strength, but by looking
to Him, seeing in Him, beholding the beauty of the Lord. It's
the only thing that will turn your eyes away from this world.
The only thing. Is that right? That's right.
So you hold fast this confidence, which is Christ. And the rejoicing,
I hope. And it's obvious that the Lord,
you all still rejoice in the gospel.
And that's of the Lord. It's you and not me, because
they really have heard all I have to say. I have one thing to say.
Don't we? One thing to say. Like a cook,
you know, a cook is always looking for new ways, new recipes to
prepare the same basic ingredients. Right? The same basic ingredients. New ways. If we're looking for
new text, it's the same thing. Christ the bread, Christ the
water, Christ the meat, Christ the way, Christ the truth. Do
you have an appetite? I believe you do. May the Lord
make it so to the end. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
Your Word that is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, for wisdom from
above, peace and comfort, joy and rejoicing. Lord, Your Word is our meat and drink as it speaks
of Christ. The truth as it is in Him. Lord,
we thank You for Your Word and ask that You would cause us to
desire the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow thereby. Grow in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We might look to Him, look like
Him. Lord, we pray that You would take Your Word and plant it in
our hearts, hide it in our hearts, and let no iniquity have dominion
over us. Keep our eyes steadfast on Christ and let us not look
to the right or to the left, but look straight on to Him.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Lord,
we ask that You would continue to mediate for us that our faith
fail not. That we hold steadfast unto the
end. And if we do, we'll give you
all the honor and glory for it. It's in Christ's name we met
here tonight and ask these things. Amen.