This 10th chapter of Hebrews
is a very blessed chapter. And the 23rd verse says this,
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful, that promised. And I guess if I had a subject
for this, it would be holding on in a world that's letting
go. That's where we're at. And I'll
just begin with a brief overview of this verse. It says, let us. The writer includes himself.
The us. is the people of God. It's not
let them or let everybody. As I've often said, all the New
Testament epistles are to the Lord's people. Let us. Let us hold on. The unregenerate world around
us has nothing worth holding on to. Let us hold fast. And this word
hold has been used often in connection
with a military position. You read of a specific battle
in a specific war and how one side took a mountain And it was
very important, a very strategic location, and to hold that position
with great advantage. Hold. And by all means, must not be
driven back, must not lose that position they've already taken. To hold fast. But in the meaning
here in the Scripture and in our lives and in the spiritual
sense for you and I, it's not a position that we took. It's not a position that we won
for ourselves. But Christ took it and put in
us to hold it. Let us hold fast. And that word
fast means firmly. Don't let it go for anything. Let us hold fast what? The profession
of our faith. The confession that our faith
is not in ourselves, but in Christ. Hold on to that. And here's the thing, not this
profession in Christ in that Christ exists and that He died
on the cross. Most folks around here believe
that. But the real profession of a true believer's faith is
that Christ won the war. Our profession is this, the very perfection God required
of us, He provided for us in His only begotten Son. You either believe that or you
don't. I trust you do. And if you believe
it, here's what's next. You stop trusting in your own
morality, such as it is, and your own religious performance,
such as it is. And you stop trusting in your
own reputation, such as it is. And you stop trusting in your
sincerity, and presses of it impressive as it may be to yourself
and to others, it's nothing with God. But we trust our profession of
faith is in Him who did for us what He required of us. That
brings me to this. Why should you and I feel so
good about ourselves when we've managed to obey God in two or
three little things. When we have a Savior that perfectly
obeyed in all things. Now earlier in this chapter,
the whole chapter really, but earlier in this chapter, we have
a contrast between the old covenant and the new. Another word for
covenant is testament. Same word. Our Bible is made
up of an Old Testament and a New Testament. An old covenant and
a new covenant. That old covenant was under law. It was of God and it was God's
way for man to approach Him and worship
Him. And you know a lot of this. There
were the animal sacrifices. There were the blood offerings. There was the priesthood among
men. The tribe of Levites were priests
and one high priest. And to carry out these ceremonies
and these rituals, But verse 1 tells us that those
things were shadows, no substance. You know the difference
between a shadow and a substance, don't you? Well, if you're uptown
walking around down the street, you come to a street corner and
you see a shadow coming around the corner. Well, you look at that shadow.
Because that means there's somebody coming, the substance. But when that substance, when
that person rounds the corner, you quit looking at the shadow,
you look at the real thing. And that Old Testament system,
wonderful as it was in its day and in its way, God given, appointed
of God, was only a shadow. of good things to come. And of
course, the good things to come are in Christ. In Christ. Now, in that old covenant, they did
the will of God for that time in the capacity they were able,
but it came way short. God wasn't really satisfied. Sins weren't really taken away.
Verse 4 said that it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins. But didn't God institute that?
Yes. But it wasn't possible that the
blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Nor the blood
of any fallen sinful child of Adam. There's no blood worth
anything with God except the blood of His dear Son. Everything
came way short. Now verse 5, Wherefore, when
He cometh into the world, this He here is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God in Christ. When He
cometh into the world, He saith, and He said this back in the
Psalms, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. This is God
the Son talking to God the Father, saying, all those animal sacrifices,
all that blood, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but
a body hast thou prepared me. I've come in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, Thou hast had no pleasure." That don't
mean they weren't accepted of God when offered properly to
accomplish what they were designed to accomplish. The Day of Atonement
specifically to atone for the sins of the people for a full
year. But that's as far as it went. There was no full and final
satisfaction with God in all that. But now Christ says, verse
7, then I said, then said I, lo, I come, this is Christ Jesus,
in the volume of the book, it is written of me, this is the
Old Testament. I come to do thy will, O God. And then the Holy Spirit is pleased
to repeat that again in verse 9. Then said He, Lo, I come to
do Thy will, O God. Our Lord said when He walked
this earth, I came not to do mine own will, that is of a man
like any other man, to have fun, to be comfortable, to have a
life of ease, I came not to do mine own will, but the will of
Him that sent me. And here He is saying it, I come
to do Thy will, O God. Men did what they could, but
Christ says, I come to do Thy will. All Thy will. Perfectly
Thy will. And He did it. He did it. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. He's talking about the covenants,
that old covenant to establish the new covenant. And many today
will confess that the old is taken away and the new covenant
in Christ is established, but yet they insist on living under
the old covenant law. requiring of poor sinners what
they can't do, requiring of good, law-abiding
church folks what they cannot live up to, instead of simply telling them
that Christ has already done it. He did God's will. What was that? What did he accomplish in that?
Verse 10, by the which will, there's that word will again,
God's will. By the will of God, which Christ
did, we are sanctified, set apart. Now, when I was growing up, the
Church of God folks said that sanctified meant that you didn't
smoke and didn't wear lipstick and didn't wear makeup and all
that kind of stuff. No, no. Christ, by which will,
God's will, we are sanctified, how? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now verse 11, he refers back
to that old covenant. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. Now verse 12 is the big pivot. But this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice,
For sins forever sat down on the right hand of God." Now,
the profession of our faith this morning is in this man, this
one man, this God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The profession of our faith is
in this man. And again, not in that he existed. We know he did. Not in that he
died on the cross. We know he did. But in that he
pleased God in our behalf. That's the profession of our
faith. About everybody believes that
Jesus lived, died on the cross, died for our sins, but we've
got to do this, that, and the other to prove that it's worth
anything. Whether or not what He did was in vain. What He did
was not in vain. Because He said in John 17, verse
4, I have finished the work. He finished it. Verse 16, this is the covenant
that I will make with them in those days. He's talking about
the Lord's people, even right now. After those days, I will
put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. We have religious folk that's
all gun-ho about the Ten Commandments, taking them out of the school
and on the wall of the courthouse and all that kind. Let me tell
you something. God's promise was that He would put His laws,
He would, through His Spirit, in the hearts of His people.
And He's done it. As fulfilled, as accomplished,
as kept perfectly in His Son, He didn't put it in our hearts
for us to accomplish it. We can't. But as accomplished. As accomplished. So, and then he says, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. It's not that God's forgotten.
God forgets nothing. to forget is a fault and he don't
have any faults. But what he says here is that
deliberately he has chosen, he has promised their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. He hadn't forgot anything. Calvary
is as fresh in the mind of God right now. as if it happened this very day. He seized the bleeding Lamb.
He punished His Son mercilessly. God will never forget what Christ
did. And He'll never remember that
Christ bore our sins away. that day. That's why He'll never
remember our sins and iniquities no more. And it was then on the cross
that the justice of God was satisfied. So what is our profession of
faith? It's that Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God
without violating the holiness of God. Do you realize that any foolish
notion we have of doing anything to win God's smile on us is to
violate His holiness? For Him to stamp His approval
on the likes of you and I would be a denial of who He is. And to think that God could ever
pat us on the back because of anything in us or anything done
by us is to deny that God is holy at all. You can't wash away dirt by using
dirt for soap. Dirt attacking dirt just gives
you more dirt. So the profession of our faith
is, and I'll repeat it, the perfection God required of us, He has provided
for us in His Son. Our faith is in the person and
work of Jesus Christ. If you don't really believe that
and rest in Him, I'm going to read your future. You'll
live your whole life and die trying to perform well enough
to get God to smile on you. And the religious world will
tell you that you're almost there. You're just right on the verge
of a breakthrough to have God's favor. It'll never happen. It'll never happen. And they'll tell you this using every gimmick and every
so-called remedy that ignores the Word of God.
ignores the gospel of God. That it's the good news of God
in Jesus Christ. The profession of our faith is
not our opinion. It's not anyone else's opinion
about what it takes to be pleasing to God. Our faith is in God who
accomplished in His Son All He required for our acceptance with
Him. He secured that. He finished
that. And Paul said in Ephesians 1,
6, We were made accepted in the blood. When Christ rose from
the dead and ascended back into the glory world. He came and
died for us. We rose in Him representatively
from the dead. And He would not go back without
us. That's why we're seated with
Him in the heavenlies. Another question. What is it
to hold fast our profession? Why did Joseph hold fast? when his brothers, the whole
bunch of them, sold him into slavery. Why didn't he let go? Why did he hold fast when Potiphar's
wife falsely accused him and he was cast in prison and was
low down as a dog in Egypt? Why didn't he let go? Why did he continue to hold fast
after the butler forgot about him and he laid in that prison
for two full years? Why didn't he let go of what
he believed? Let go of the God he trusted.
He held on because God had put something in his heart. worth
holding on to. That's why I'm holding on today.
I don't look around and see anything encouraging me to honor God. No, no. I am dependent on what He, God,
has put in my heart. And the Holy Spirit verifies
it Every time I turn around, I'm not part of that. I'm in
the world but not of the world. Isn't that what Paul said of
us? Joseph couldn't let go because
God had put something in his heart worth holding on to. And then put it in his heart
to hold on. Joseph wouldn't let go and he
couldn't let go. is God. What was it Joseph knew? Well,
you can read the story back there in Genesis beginning in 37. First thing he knew is that he
wasn't his own Savior. I know a lot of people who need
to know that. Oh, they used the name of Jesus. through Jesus, by Jesus. But you're not your own Savior. And I know a lot of people who
instead of believing that and understanding that, they spend
their whole adult life running from one church to another, trying
to outdo everybody else in some new religious gimmick Never realizing
that we're all at the mercy of God all the time. And left to ourselves, in our
own intellect, in our own ingenuity, we'd all perish in our sins.
Because we'd live and die outdoing others. So what is it to hold fast Hold
firm. It's to not back up on the truth. We know to be the truth. Look
at verse 26. For if we sin willfully... Now, he's not referring to just
any sin. but the sin of letting go of
the truth." And that's what he goes on to say. If we sin willfully
after we have received the knowledge of the truth, if you forsake the Gospel, there's nothing else for you. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins. There is no other Savior. And
the one that's already come and died is not coming to die again.
You reject this gospel and you go to hell. That's the bottom
line. It's not like the old covenant.
There's always next year. No. There is no more sacrifice. Christ is it. It's Christ or
perish. How do we hold fast? To what
extent do we hold fast? How serious is this? We have
it in two words. We're still in verse 23. Without
wavering. Without leaning to the right
or left. Hold fast, remaining firm on
the foundation. Many times through the years
I've talked to preachers that would claim to believe the same
thing I believe. But they get in the pulpit and
they don't say anything of the kind. Brother Bobby will tell
you the same thing. Standing firm, fast, hold fast
on the foundation. Compromise on non-essentials,
maybe, but not on this. Never deny that you would have
perished if God left you to yourself. Never deny that you would have
perished had not God, in mercy, taken the initiative and came
to where you were. Hold fast to the perfection of
our faith. Never play around with this religious
mess that tells you you can back God in a corner by your good behavior and get
whatever you want. That's not the gospel. Another question, what is the
value of this holding fast? Why is it worth so much? And
the answer is in the remainder of verse 23. For, meaning because,
He He is faithful, that promised. That's all the reason we need
to believe God fully, obey Him entirely, follow Him faithfully,
and junk anything else. He is faithful, that promised. He cannot lie. He cannot fail. He cannot change. He is faithful. That is promised. Promised what?
Promised us what He said to us in this chapter about Christ
in the Gospel, that God has fixed everything in Christ. And that
He's not mad at us. He'd be mad at us if He was looking
at us. I mean, He couldn't look at you
two seconds. in yourself without slapping you into hell.
But he looks at his children in Christ. God's not mad at us
in Christ. That's the whole story. And that's
the profession that we hold fast to. And what is the danger this Hebrew
writer is talking about? The danger is that we have an
adversary. And around us, the whole world
is deceived and is on the devil's side. And they're screaming to you
and I every day, let go! Let go! Let go! When you're trying
to hold on. The secular world. The religious
world, all of unregenerate humanity is moving closer and closer every
day toward being as filthy and hellish as hell itself. And this Antichrist spirit is
screaming in our ears and minds to the top of their voice, every
day, what is this confidence you have? What is it worth? Why do you go to church all the
time? What is the evidence that it's worth anything? Well, faith is the evidence.
God's put it in our heart. That's the evidence. And we believe
God. We're cautioned to hold fast. Hold fast. This world is still crying and
crying every day. Crucify Him! Crucify Him! You see, this whole business
is not just about us. It's a war between heaven and
hell. And heaven won on the cross. Hell thought it had won. Satan
thought he had won, but Christ won. Christ won. But they're still crying, crucify
Him. Away with Him. We've got the Big Bang Theory.
We've got the Evolution Theory. We've got the word of heathen
scientists. Oh, and we've got all the errors
in the Bible. They've got nothing. We've got
God. We've got God. And the conviction
in our heart that it's true. God's people have more opposition
today than ever. And this world, even the religious
world, they don't mind you having a little religion. if you'll not be too serious
about it, if you'll throw God's Word out the window, if you'll
not preach such an offensive gospel that it's about Him and
not us. Let me tell you something, an
inoffensive gospel is no gospel at all. And they throw this at us. You
get sick like everybody else. Your family has trouble like
everybody else. Your children are mean as snakes
like everybody else. You cope with trouble and misunderstandings
and accusations and heartaches and sorrows every week that comes
like everybody else. What's so special about this
you insist on holding on to? Why do you hold on to it? Why
not let go? Because when we see ourselves
and that in ourselves we're just like the whole crowd, we see that Christ is the only
hope we have. So we continue. We hold on day
by day. In the face of opposition, accusation,
demonic attack, We hold on. We go on confessing ourselves
to be nothing more than what we are, yet believing God. Believing God, that's the key.
And I want to say to you this morning, you can go on beating
yourself up over all your failure to measure up. You don't know
the half of it. Or we can believe that God has
done something about it. And that's the good news of the
Gospel. I want to conclude. I want to read you something from
a man, a dear preacher, five statements. He's already in heaven, a man
that I admired very much. named Henry Mahan had a great
impact on my life. And I was never with him, but
a few times I was first with him in 1990, preached with him
in a conference. And here's what he says about
what I've been talking to you about and where you and I are
this morning as holding fast, holding on. Let me give you these
five things. Number one. We have entirely
too many fears for a people to whom the Lord God has said, Fear
thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Isaiah 41.10. Number two, we
have far too much anxiety and worry about earthly material
things for a people to whom the Son of God has said, and why
take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spend. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast in the oven, shall ye not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith." Matthew 6, 28-30. Number three, we have far too
many doubts concerning God's mercy, love, and grace for a
people to whom the Lord Jesus Christ has clearly said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6, 37. I will
in no eye, never under any circumstances cast out. Number four, we spend
entirely too much time grumbling and complaining about our trials
and troubles For a people to whom the Lord Jesus has said,
these things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have
peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." John
16, 33. And number five, we have entirely
too much attachment to this world and to this present life for a people who are looking for a city whose
builder and maker is God. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5, 1. Holding on in a world that's
letting go. I don't need to spend my time
cussing the breweries and the liquor joints on every street
and every corner and the dope in every community. the prostitutes
and the queers and the child abuse, the crooked politics and
the crooked lawyers and the crooked judges. It's all bad, but guess
what? It's in a world we don't belong
to. We belong to the Lord. Hold fast
to the profession of our faith. Hell is raging in this world. It's in the atmosphere. You can feel it everywhere you
turn. Deep-seated rebellion against
God and hatred for God. And it's as much as religion
as it is anywhere else. This world will tell you, don't
talk to us about God. And the religious world, sissified,
that long ago betrayed Christ, in the same boat with Judas Iscariot. And they'll say to us, why can't
we just get along? Why can't we just all be loving?
We're all God's children. That's not what He said. God loves everybody. He didn't
say He did. He told us a lot that he hated. So what is this that's so offensive
about this profession that we hold? It confesses we're not our own
Savior. It's the confession. It's the
profession. I'll say it one more time. All the perfection. God required
of us. He provided for us in His only
begotten Son. Amen. Thank you.