of the message is this. Today, not yesterday or tomorrow. It is today. Today. You know, true faith is looking
to Christ now. It's looking to Christ today,
right now. It's living upon Christ right
now. I don't live upon past. You know,
the children of Israel, they went out every morning when they
were in the wilderness, and they gathered manna every morning. And they were not to keep it
for the next day or hoard it up. It was day by day by day. And that's the way we live upon
Christ, day by day. Not looking back, trying to draw
something from a past that we did or a time or a present, but
looking to Him now. God deals in the present. He deals in the present, and
we must deal in the present. Too often people look to the
past when they talk about salvation. They look to a time or a place.
Salvation is looking to Christ, not looking to a time, not looking
to a place. It's looking to a person, and
it's looking to Him right now. And it's looking to Him continually,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I
know that there was a time when I heard the gospel. I know there
was a time I heard it and I believed it. But salvation is not looking
to that time. It's not looking back. I remember
back when salvation is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ right
now. Paul said this, forgetting, forgetting those things which
are past. And we look to Him now. We forget
those things which are past. That's what salvation is. Looking
back just smells of works, doesn't it? You're trying to reach back
there and grab a hold of something. No, it's Him. It's who we have
a hold of now. It's Him. Faith is always looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ now. Then there are those who look
to the future. When I have a more convenient time, I'll hear you. But right now, I really don't
have the time. Does that remind you of somebody? Look over in
Acts chapter 24. Acts chapter 24. Look in verse 24. And after certain
days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was Jewish,
he sent for Paul, and he heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness,
God's demand of righteousness, and how that Christ provided
that righteousness. Christ is that righteousness.
He reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to
come. And Felix trembled. This message
had an effect on him. He trembled. But he answered
Paul. He said, Go thy way for this
time, Paul. Go away for a while. When I have
a convenient season, When I have a convenient season,
when I have tomorrow, when a tomorrow comes that I'm not too busy,
things are not just pressing upon me. When I do not have all
these duties and offices and politics and things going on,
when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.
Do we find written anywhere in the Word of God where he called
for Paul to come back and preach the gospel to him? No. Today. Today. Presumption. He was presumptuous. When I have a more convenient...
Who said you're going to have tomorrow? Who said you're going to have
it? He said today. And he means right now at this
very minute. this very second, right now. Now, back in verse 6, the apostle
writes, let's go back to verse 6 in Hebrews chapter 3, let me
read it to you. But Christ as a Son over His
own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast, hold on, fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. He goes from speaking of the
greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He is so far superior to
Moses. He's so superior to the angels
and then to Moses. And then He stops, and it's like
He takes a pause here, a break here, and He stops to warn them
of something. He stops here to warn them about
being religious, but lost. He's speaking of Christ in chapter
1. He speaks of Him as the Son of God. He's the one through
whom He's the final spokesman. God has spoken unto us by His
Son. By Him, He created the world. By Himself, He purges from our
sins and how He's above the angels. The angels are commanded to worship
Him. He goes on and on and on with the greatness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and then he stops and he turns to give a warning.
And as we go through the book of Hebrews, this is not the last
warning. There are several times through
the book of Hebrews he warns, he gives warnings. And what he's
doing here, he's warning them about being religious, because
remember, he's writing to the Hebrews here, and he's going
to reach back in history. in their history, and he's going
to point something out to them. We'll read this here in just
a little bit. So he's telling them, don't take salvation for
granted. Don't take it for granted here.
Now, the apostle is not trying to get them or us to doubt salvation. He's not trying to cast a doubt
in our minds. He's not trying to do that. Here's
what he's doing, he's saying, this thing is so serious. This salvation is so great. It's so great. Like back over
in chapter 2, in verse 1, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let
them drift away, slip away. Which it has a nautical term
about it, which means to drift. To just quietly drift away, almost
unnoticed. almost unnoticed. And so he's
saying here, I want you to be careful here and not just presume
these things. I want you to know Christ. I
want you to live upon Christ. And then he reaches here in verse
7. And he reaches back and he tells them by saying this that
the Word of God was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The author
of this Scripture, as well as all Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit
of God. Now, God uses men to write the
Scriptures. They wrote as they were moved,
it says, by the Holy Ghost. All Scripture, says II Timothy
3.16, all Scriptures God breathed. This is God's Word. This is God's
Word. Now why is he pointing out that
the Holy Spirit said this back in Psalm 95? Why is he pointing
this out? I believe he's pointing this
out to give way to what he is about to deal with. Unbelief
among those who profess to believe. That's why he's pointing it out.
He's saying here, he's pointing it out. This is a serious matter.
And then he starts out and he says, I want you to set this
back to Psalm 95. Today, if you will hear His voice,
His voice is the voice that I pray we hear this evening. Why are
we here this evening? We're here to worship. We're
here to worship Him in spirit and truth. But we're here also
to hear His voice in the message. To hear a word from our Father. To hear from God. That's what
we're here for. Today, if you will hear His voice,
that's who we want to hear from. What He's saying to me. Listen, I want you to turn over
now to 1 Corinthians. I'll show you where he's going
to point out. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
10. God preserved Israel's rebellion
in the wilderness. our admonition. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'll show you how serious it is. That's
why he's showing how serious this is. The weight of it. Of
what he's dealing with. Look in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under
the cloud. They were all under the cloud,
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. They ate that manna, they all
did. And did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank
of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things, listen, these
things were our examples to the intent 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 of
one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed as serpents.
Neither murmured ye, as some of them also murmured, and were
destroyed as a destroyer. Now listen, all these things
happened unto them for our examples. They are our examples. All these
things happened for examples, and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore,
let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed." And here's what Paul's
basically, right here, this scripture in verse 12, is basically what
Paul is writing to these Hebrews here in these verses. Wherefore, let him that thinketh
he standeth, take heed, lest he fall. Lest he fall. Listen to the urgency. of these
words. Let me read this starting in
verse 7 back in Hebrews, back in Hebrews chapter 3. 3 Wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years. 4 Wherefore, I was grieved with
that generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts
They have not known my ways, so I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest." Don't make the same mistake. That's
what he's saying. That's what he's saying. Don't
make the same mistake. It's just what Paul said. I press
forward. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I press
toward it today. I do it today. And if the Lord
willing, tomorrow comes, we'll do it tomorrow. I believe Him
today, and if tomorrow comes, I believe Him tomorrow. And we'll
let all these other days that have passed go. We'll just let
them go. Because we're looking to Him
now, today. We know that salvation is of
the Lord. We know that God has chosen a people, and that He
will call them by His Spirit to Christ. We know that. And
we know this, listen, we know this, we know that all whom Christ
redeemed will be called by the Spirit of God, they will be brought
to faith and repentance, and they will, they will persevere
in the faith. Yet the apostle here warns, he
warns all who profess, because there are some, and with Israel
there are many, many who profess, but they enter not in. You know
how many entered in? I forget, there was like, I've
heard, you know, like two, at least two million that came out
of Egypt when Moses brought them out. You know how many of that
original group entered into the promised land? It's unbelievable. Two. Two. Now all those that were born
in the wilderness, twenty years old and under, they went into
the promised land. But that original group that came out died in the
wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb. And you know why? They did not believe God. They
did not believe God, and they died in the wilderness. That's
why he's so urgent about this. He's so serious about this. And
the matter of it is so weighty. So weighty. We must preach the
gospel. And I thought about this today
as I was going over this again. We must preach the gospel on
the radio, when I stand here, or anyplace else, with urgency,
with urgency. Paul said this, Paul said, and
this is Paul who preached God has chosen you in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He blessed you with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. The same one said this, knowing
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. Our Lord said to go out and compel
them, compel them to come in. If this house is full tonight,
I say, well, I say what we have here, but if it's full tonight,
I say to everyone, look to Him now. Look to Him now. Look today. Believe on Him today. Fall at His feet today. We don't
have tomorrow. We don't have it. We have today.
That's all we have. We have today. We should never presume that
God will speak to our hearts at any time. What Felix said,
when I have a more convenient time, that's presuming upon God. That's total presumption. That's
all it is. As though God, and this religious
world has set God forth like this, that He's just waiting,
He just wants to talk to you, He just wants to get your ear,
He wants your attention. He might speak today, And it
might not. And if he's speaking today, the
gospel's being preached today, he's saying, hear it, believe
it, receive it. And this is why he's saying it,
because there might not be a tomorrow. There might not be. The urgency
of it. We may hear the word of God preached, But yet we may not hear the voice
of God. You hear me preaching. That doesn't mean you hear Him.
I mean, I have to say, I sat and listened to preaching years
ago, and I've heard preaching, but I didn't hear Him. I didn't hear Him, I just heard
preaching. And one day I heard Him. But I tell you this, when I did
hear him, I realized this. He could just leave me alone.
That's what I heard. He could leave me alone. He didn't
have to speak to me again. The urgency of it. God commands
response today. Today. To think that I have tomorrow
is presumption. And I know this. I know because
of today's pressure. that preachers use to get people
to come down an aisle, make a decision, accept Jesus as their personal
Savior. True preachers go the other direction. We have a tendency. We have a
tendency to go the other direction. We should not abandon biblical
ways just because someone abuses it. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord. I persuade men. I persuade men. The urgency of
it. Oh, the urgency of it. And then
he says here to them, harden not your heart against the truth.
Don't harden your heart. A hardened heart is the same
as an evil heart of unbelief that's spoken of in verse 12.
Same thing. Same thing. And this was Israel's sin in
the wilderness. They murmured. They refused to
enter into the promised land. For 40 years, God fed them manna
from heaven. You know that their clothes did
not wear out for 40 years. They drank water from a rock. And you know that rock it says
was Christ. And they drank water from that rock. And yet they
murmured against God. And when it came time to go into
the promised land, they sent spies over in the promised land.
And they came back, except for Joshua and Caleb. They came back
with them. But they came back and said,
there's giants in the land. We can't enter that land. Forget
it. I mean, they went through the
Red Sea. They were delivered from Egypt.
Go through the Red Sea. Watch God drown the Egyptian
army. Feeds them. all through the wilderness,
their clothes never grow old, they do all this, and then they
come up to the promised land, and they didn't believe God.
And this was His people. That was His chosen nation. They
were a type of the church, a type of spiritual Israel. But at that
time, they were His chosen nation. And they didn't believe God.
They didn't believe God. It's amazing. They repeatedly
did not believe God. In the face of all the miracles
that they saw, they did not believe God. They professed to know God,
but now listen, in conduct, they denied Him. In conduct, they denied Him.
Now, he says here in verse 12, take heed, and what does he call
this? Because he doesn't try to single
them out. You know, God's the one who's, he said, I'll separate
the tares in a week. He's writing to all the Hebrew brethren that
have professed, that have confessed faith in Christ. They confess
to believe. So he says, take heed, brethren.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief and departing from the living God. This is serious
business. Serious business. As I said,
he calls them brethren, those who profess to believe. They
were not professing atheists. These are the ones who profess
to believe the one and only true God that he's writing to. But he knew, he knew that some,
like Israel of old, would be religious but lost. Look over in Romans chapter 10. This is who he's speaking of. In Romans chapter 10, look at
verse 9. Paul said, I say the truth in
Christ, verse 1, I lie not, my conscience also bear me witness
in the Holy Ghost. that I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my Hebrew brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain
the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving
of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, who are
the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ
came, who is over all God blessed forever. But they're lost. They're lost. Because he says
in verse 10, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayers to God for
Israel is that they might be saved, because they're not. They're
lost. They're not atheists. They're religious. They had the
covenants, the promises, the Word. They had all those. But
that nation, listen, that nation as a whole was lost. It was lost. That's serious business. Israel
saw His works time and time again. And they didn't believe Him. Paul
says here in Romans 121, listen, I'll read it to you, I've got
it here. Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God, neither were thankful. That's one of the marks of a
lost person, unthankful. unthankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Unthankfulness is a good sign that a person has missed Christ. It's a good sign. They saw God, and this is how
they saw God, and I believe this is how religion as a whole, false
religion, sees God. They saw God as one who existed
to meet their needs and their wants. God does not exist to
meet my needs and my wants. He is eternal and you and I exist,
we exist to worship Him, to acknowledge Him, to serve Him, to keep His
commandments. In Ecclesiastes 12 it says this
is the whole duty of man, to serve God, to honor Him, to fear
God, to worship Him. But religion has the other way
around, that God exists to meet our needs and wants, not someone
to be worshipped and submitted to. Beware of this kind of spirit. There's a real difference here.
One is salvation and one is false religion. Christ is my life or
Christ is a part of my life. Christ is my life and salvation.
Christ, a part of my life, is a false religion. He's my life. He's my life. Because I live,
He says, what does He say? Because I live, you shall live
also. He is my life. I draw my life
from Him. It's not because my heart keeps
beating. No, He is my life. He's my life. But He says here in verse 13,
But exhort one another daily. And this is not just for the
preacher. It's for the people also. This is for you also. He says to exhort one another
daily. Daily. This exhort means to stir one
another up. Paul said in one place, provoke,
provoke. He said, I don't want to provoke
anybody. Paul said, provoke one another to love. He says to provoke
one another to love. Stir, that's what it means. Exhort
means to stir up one another. And how's that? How do we stir
one another up? Well, we can do it, first of
all, by our own faithfulness. and love to one another, and
in speaking to one another of the Lord Jesus Christ, like those
men did on their way to Emmaus. They spoke of the Lord, spoke
of Him. The Scripture says, Love not
in word only, but in deed and in truth, of our own faithfulness and conduct. Now sin is deceitful, and sin
has a hardening effect if left alone. People usually, and I've
been around now 30 some years, around 30, 32 years, something
like that, somewhere around there, and I have watched over the years,
and I've seen people leave the gospel, and they leave it little
by little, little by little. That's how they leave it. Leave
it little by little. And I don't even think they even
realize at the time what's going on. This excuse, that excuse,
and before long they don't even need an excuse. They don't need
one. They're just not interested.
And you don't see them anymore. Sin is deceitful and it has a
hardening effect on the heart. But Paul said in one place, we
are not of them that draw back. We're not of them who draw back
into perdition. Look in verse 14. For we are
made partakers of Christ. He's speaking here now of persevering
faith. We are made partakers of Christ. If you're a partaker
of something, you're a what? Well, first of all, you are a
beneficiary. You are a beneficiary. And here's
why he's saying it. We are beneficiaries of all that
Christ has done. all that he has, all that he
is. We are beneficiaries of it. And then secondly, as a partaker,
we are united to Christ. We are united to the Lord Jesus
Christ in such a way that we are made partakers of the divine
nature. Partakers of Christ. If, if we hold the beginning of our
confidence What is the beginning of your confidence? When you
first heard the gospel and you confessed Christ, what is your
confidence? What's the beginning of your
confidence? Christ. Christ and Christ alone. Isn't
that the beginning of your confidence? When you first heard the gospel,
Christ is my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption.
If you never leave that, if you never leave Him, If you never
leave Christ alone as all your salvation in Him, Paul said,
you are complete. If you never leave that, if you
never leave that, you'll be found. You'll be found. You'll be found
in glory. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end, and the end of what? end of this life. In Hebrews 11, what does it say?
These all died in faith. They all died looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They all died looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. If we continue in the
faith, we continue looking to Christ alone for all we need
to the end of our lives on this earth. All is well. All is well. Now don't think that our perseverance
qualifies us for heaven. That's not what he's saying.
My continuing to the end is not what qualifies me. My continuing
to the end reveals that I'm born of God, that I'm one of His.
That's what it reveals. It's not the qualification. It's
the revelation that I'm a son of God. His children shall persevere. He'll see to it. He says in verse 15, while it
is said today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts
as in the provocation. For some, when they heard, they
provoked. They provoked God. They provoked
God. God spoke and they provoked Him.
Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. Some heard,
but they still provoked God by their unbelief. God told them
to go in and possess the land, and they said, No. Can you believe
that? Well, that's what happened. God
said, Go in. They said, No. Let me read it
to you out of Deuteronomy. In verse 1, 8, listen, Behold,
I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which
the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to
give unto them and to their seed after them. Then down in verse
26, notwithstanding, you would not go up, but rebel against
the commandment of the Lord your God." He said, we ain't going
there. They're people too big. They're
giants. Bigger than our God. That's what
they're saying when they wouldn't go in. when they would not go
in because they were afraid of the people in that land. They
were giant. They were saying, those people are bigger than
you, God. They provoked Him with their unbelief. Provoked Him
with their unbelief. Now here's the reason for the
warning. You have heard, this is Paul writing here, and I believe
Paul is the writer, You have heard a greater call than what
they heard. You've heard the call of the
gospel. You've heard the call of grace. That's why Paul over
in chapter 2, he said, Take heed to the things which we've heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. He said, for if the
word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression disobedient,
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape?
If we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord Himself, the Lord from heaven spoken, and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. Oh, my soul.
Just think of what we've heard. We've heard the gospel of God's
grace. We've heard of not just A land
called Canaan? We're talking about paradise
where God dwells. I'll close it up here. He said,
But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to
whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believed not? See, they didn't enter into the
rest because they didn't believe. They didn't believe God. Christ is the believer's rest. And if I'm going to have any
rest, if any sinner is going to have rest from works of salvation, you know how I'm going to have
it? I'm just going to believe on Christ. That jailer said,
what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He's our rest. Now, if
you don't believe on Him, you're not going to enter in. That's
why He says today, you hear His voice. Don't be like Felix and
say, well, for a more convenient time. Today, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not tomorrow, but today. And never, never take such a
salvation for granted. Don't take it for granted. We've
heard from God.