Oh, come, let us worship and
bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our Maker, for He is our God and we are the people of His
pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear
His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation and as
in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers
tempted me, proved me and saw my work. Forty years long was
I grieved with this generation and said it's a people that do
err in their heart. They have not known my ways and
to whom I swear in my wrath that they should not enter into my
rest. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
3. That passage of scripture is used extensively in this chapter
from the Word of God. Verse 7 says, Wherefore, as the
Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear His voice. Now this is a message from the
Holy Spirit. That's quite a commendation,
isn't it? Today, if you will hear His voice. Now, this is a reminder to us
that the Bible is the Word of God. God the Holy Spirit wrote
every word. David wrote these words indeed,
but it was God who wrote these words today. if you will hear
his voice. Now I've entitled this message,
The False Refuge of Yesterday and Tomorrow. The False Refuge
of Yesterday and Tomorrow. Now men outside of Christ have
false hopes. and false refuges. And they can be summed up by
these two words, yesterday and tomorrow. The Holy Spirit says, forget
about yesterday, forget about tomorrow. Yesterday is what I
did. what I experienced, what I'm
hoping in. Tomorrow is what I intend to
do, what I intend to experience, what I think will happen. Now,
get rid of yesterday, get rid of tomorrow. Today, today, right
now, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Now how are yesterday and tomorrow
false refuges? Yesterday is a false refuge when
I look upon something that I did yesterday, that I learned yesterday,
or something that I experienced yesterday to give me assurance
of my salvation today. Who am I looking to right now? Yesterday I came to the doctrines
of grace. Yesterday I went from believing
free will to being orthodox and believing sovereign grace. Yesterday
I had a change in my life. I stopped drinking. I stopped
taking drugs. There was a radical change in
my life yesterday. I must be saved because of what
I experienced yesterday. Yesterday is something that I
did. Yesterday is something that I
experienced. Yesterday is something that I
learned. Yesterday is a false refuge. The Holy Spirit says
today if you will hear His voice. Harden not your hearts. Tomorrow is a false refuge. I'll be saved tomorrow. I'll
be obedient tomorrow. I'll seek the Lord tomorrow. I have every intention to do
just that. I'll do something great for the
Lord tomorrow. Somebody once said, the road
to hell is paved with good intentions. And it is. Oh, the things that
we'll do tomorrow. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." You really don't know what's
going to happen in the next 24 hours. It's mysterious, isn't
it? Thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. The message of the Holy Spirit
is today. if you will hear His voice. Now, why do men hide in these
two false refuges, yesterday and tomorrow? If I'm outside
of Christ, I'm hiding in one of those two refuges. Why is
it that men hide in these two false refuges? Well, first of
all, because they have a wrong opinion of themselves. They attach
a higher view of yesterday than God does. And they think that
they have the strength to turn things around tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to do this
or that. They don't pay attention to what
God says in His Word today if you will hear His voice. You
would make these false refuges in yesterday and tomorrow if
you hear His voice today. This comes from wrong views of
God. The Lord said, Thou thoughtest,
I was altogether such a one as thyself. Surely God sees that
experience the same way I do. No, He doesn't. No, He doesn't. Wrong views of the love of God
make men think God will be waiting to save them tomorrow. When the
scripture speaks of God like this, turn to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1, beginning in verse 24. This is
God speaking. And He says, Because I have called,
and you have refused. I have stretched out my hand,
and no man regarded. But you have said it not, all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also, this is God
speaking, I also will laugh at your calamity. I'll mock when
your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as a desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer. What you're counting on to take
place tomorrow is not going to happen. God assures us of that. They shall seek me early, But
they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of
my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their
own devices." Men hide in these false refuges
of yesterday's experience, yesterday's feelings, yesterday's faith,
And tomorrow, the things that they intend to do, men hide in
these because they have a wrong view of salvation. Now, a salvation
that does not call for faith right now, for obedience right
now, for self-denial right now, is a false refuge. Tomorrow is
disobedience. today. Do you hear that? Whatever I'm waiting for, for
tomorrow, it's disobedience today. I think of that scripture in
Matthew chapter 7 verse 20-23 where the Lord says, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. Many will say unto me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name and in
your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name? Have we
not done many wonderful works? Note their estimation of their
own works, many and wonderful. And then will I say unto them,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. And those are solemn, sobering
scriptures. Now, it's my prayer that we will
all be smoked out of these false refuges of yesterday and tomorrow,
because as Paul said, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today, right now, is
the day of salvation. And let's look back in Hebrews
chapter 3, verse 6. But Christ, as a Son over His
own house, whose house are we? Actually indwelt by the Spirit
of God, true believers, whose house are we? If we hold fast
the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end,
We must hold on. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith today, if you will hear his voice. Now understand, hearing
the gospel is hearing the voice of God. Now I've never heard
God's voice audibly, but I have heard the voice of God. You know
it's the voice of God when you know it's not the preacher's
opinion. It's not the preacher's thought. It's the very truth
of God. If you hear the gospel, you'll
hear the gospel as the very voice of God. Somebody says, well,
I haven't heard it that way. Well, then he wasn't talking
to you. Everybody he speaks to, that's how they hear. They hear
the gospel as the very voice of God. Divine authority is behind
what is said. This is God's Word. This is the
truth. This is not up for debate. The
only thing to do is bow. Now that's what happens when
somebody hears the gospel. They hear it as the very truth
of God. They hear it as the voice of
God. Now let's go on reading. Verse
7. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if you will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts. You know that's something that
scares me to death. I see so much of a tendency in
myself to harden my heart to where I can't hear. Now he says,
harden not your hearts. As in the day of temptation in
the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation.
and said, They do always err in their hearts, and they've
not known my ways, so I swear in my wrath that they shall not
enter into my rest. Now, this is a reference to what
took place in Numbers chapter 13 and 14. Would you turn back
there? Numbers chapter 13. Verse 1. Number 13, verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel, of every tribe of
their father, shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. Now look in verse 26. These men
come back after searching the land. Verse 26. And they went
and came to Moses and to Aaron, And to all the congregation of
the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh,
and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation,
and showed them the fruit of the land, and they told him,
and said, We came unto the land where thou sinnest. And surely
it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it,
just like the Lord said, it's a land that flows with milk and
honey nevertheless. The people be strong that dwell
in the land. And the cities are walled and
very great. And moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land
of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
by the coast of Jordan. Now I can see the murmuring of
the people. They're all getting scared. And Caleb stilled the
people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess
it, for we are well able to overcome it. Now where was their ability?
in God himself. You know, Caleb remembered the
parting of the Red Sea. He remembered the manna coming
down from heaven. He had to eat that very day.
He remembered the water coming out of the rock. He remembered
how the Lord dispossessed all their enemies. He remembered
what the Lord did to the Egyptians. He said, We're well able to handle
this. This isn't even an issue. We can handle this. Verse 31,
But the men that went up with him said, We be not able. to go up against the people,
for they are stronger than we." Now that's the truth. They weren't
able to go up against the people. But since when does our ability
have anything to do with our salvation? I want you to think
about that. Since when does what we can do
have anything to do with our salvation. If your salvation
is dependent upon your ability in any way to do anything, where
does that leave you? That leaves you with no hope. Let's go on reading. Verse 32,
And they brought up an evil report of the land, which they had searched
unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which
we have gone to search it, it is a land that eateth up the
inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we sought
are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants,
the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight,
and all the congregation. Lifted up their voice and cried,
and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation
said unto him, Would to God that we died in the land of Egypt,
or would to God we died in this wilderness? And wherefore hath
the Lord brought us into the land to fall by the sword, that
our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better
for us to return to Egypt? And they said one to another,
Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt. Then Moses
and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the
congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua, the son
of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephthah, which were of them
that searched the land, rent their clothes, and they spake
unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which
we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land, if
the Lord delight in us. Then he'll bring us into this
land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.
Only rebel ye not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people
of the land, for they're bread for us. Their defense is departed
from them, and the Lord is with us. Remember, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Fear them not. But all the congregation,
they'd stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared
in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke
me? How long will it be ere they
believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them?
Remember, this was called the day of provocation, when they
provoked the Lord by their unbelief. He says, I'll smite them with
the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of thee
a greater nation and mightier than they. Now back to our text. Here is God's testimony regarding
them in Hebrews chapter 3. Harden not your hearts, verse
8, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, saw my works forty
years. Now do you know what happened
after this? As you go on reading, this is when God said they're
not going to be brought into the promised land. They spent
40 years wandering, and every adult over 20 years old died
in the wilderness. And of all of these people that
the Lord brought out, how many adults made it into the promised
land? Do you remember? Two. Caleb, the faithful dog, and
Joshua, the Savior. The Savior and a faithful dog. They're the only ones who made
it into the promised land. Now look in verse 12 of Hebrews
chapter 3. The writer to the Hebrews says,
take heed, brethren. Now he's talking to people who
he counted brethren. And he says, take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart. of unbelief in departing
from the living God. Now you take heed, lest there
be in any of you this evil heart of unbelief. What is unbelief? It's not believing. It's not
relying upon His ability. That's what it is. Somebody says,
it's not him I doubt, it's me that I doubt. No! It's him that
you doubt. Every single time. It's doubting
his mighty ability to save you without your help. That is called unbelief. And he says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, not relying
on the Lord to save you. In doing so, you're departing
from the living God. Verse 13, But exhort one another
daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness. the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is so deceitful. It'll trick you. It'll turn you
inside out. And you won't know what to think.
And it will harden your heart. Our hearts can become hardened
to the gospel. And what a fearful thing that
is when we become gospel when the gospel no longer rings our
bell, where we no longer rejoice in the good news of what the
Lord Jesus Christ did. He said, take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you this evil heart of unbelief and departing
from the living God, of hardening your hearts and so on. Now look
in verse 14. He says, we are made partakers
of Christ. Now that's a strong statement
isn't it? We are made partakers of Christ. It doesn't say partakers with
Christ. That'd be good wouldn't it? But it doesn't say partakers
with Christ. It says partakers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Partakers of His Sonship. He's a Son. I'm a Son. He's the Son. I'm a Son. He's
the Son, but I'm a Son through Him. Partakers of His Righteousness,
where His obedience, His righteousness, His law-keeping is actually mine. It's not just counted to me.
It's mine. I'm not guilty. Partakers of
His Holiness. Now, some might say, partakers
of His holiness? Well, look what the Scripture
says in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 9. Furthermore, we, fathers
of the flesh which corrected us and gave them reverence, shall
not we much more be in subjection to the fathers of spirits and
live? For they barely for a few days chastened us after their
own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers
of His holiness. That's what the new birth is.
That's what regeneration is. 2 Peter 1 verse 4 says we're
partakers of the divine nature. Now, he says we're made partakers
of Christ. That's mysterious. That's inexplicable. There's no way any of us can
really get a hold of this. We just believe it. We rest in
this. I'm made partakers of Christ
if, if, that's a big if, if we hold the beginning of our confidence,
steadfast to the end. Now I am a partaker of Christ
if I hold the beginning of my confidence. Now that word confidence
is translated in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, substance. Now faith is the substance, the
confidence, the ground of things hope for. Now, what do I hope
for? Hope always has to do with something
you don't see. If you can see it, it's no longer
hope. Hope has to do with the future. It's a confident expectation
regarding tomorrow. How's that? What is the substance
of your hope? What is it you hope? Well, I
have a hope. I have a real hope that when I stand before God
in judgment, I'll stand before Him justified. That means not guilty. I was saying to my dear wife
this morning, I said, I don't feel very good
about myself. I just feel bad about myself.
And she said, well, you ought to. You ought to. That's what I am. That being
said, I have some awareness of my sin. Not near as much as I
should, but I have some awareness of my sin. But listen to me.
I believe. that I actually stand before
God without sin. That's my hope. I have a hope
that when Todd Nybert's name is called on Judgment Day, I'm not going to be looking down
in fear. I'm going to be able to behold
his face in righteousness, perfect before God. I have a hope that
my sin is not just forgiven. Now if I sin against you, well,
it's kind of funny, I can remember going to high school reunions.
And I'd see people that I hadn't thought of in many years. Hadn't
even given them the time of day of thinking about them. And then
I remembered something I did that they knew about. Or maybe
I did something not very nice to them. And I thought, do they
remember that? Sure they do. Sure they do. I
guarantee you they do. They're thinking there's, you
know. But when I'm talking about my
transgressions, I'm not talking about them just being forgiven,
where people could still remember them. I'm talking about I stand
before God with nothing to feel guilty about. Now that's the
hope I have. Perfectly conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ. Now that's my hope. My hope is
that I'm justified, that I don't have any sin. That's my hope
for tomorrow, right now. And I have a hope that everything
that happens between now and then Between this second and
when I stand before God in judgment, everything is working together
for my good and His glory. And that's quite a hope, isn't
it? This is the hope of every believer. This is our confidence. Now, he said we're made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our hope. Turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let me give a scripture to show
just exactly what this hope I have is. This is the hope of every
believer. Verse 30, But of Him, of God,
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, Wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, full deliverance. Now, I have wisdom. Christ is
my wisdom before God. I have righteousness. I have
sanctification. I have holiness. I have full
deliverance. That's my hope. Now, notice what
else he says in our text, though, in verse 14. For we are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence,
the ground of our hope, the assurance of our hope steadfast unto the
end. We're made partakers if we hold
the beginning. Now, I said this last week because
I referred to this passage of Scripture. I don't know when it was, when
I first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have a
time when I know that I went from death to life. Some may. I think it's sometimes more difficult
to somebody who's raised up under the gospel. As far as an experience
goes, we start waiting for something to happen because we've always
heard the truth. But I couldn't tell you the time
when I went from death to life. But I do know this. When I first
believed on Christ, remember he said we're to hold the beginning
of our confidence, steadfast and then. When I first looked
to Christ, I didn't have anything about yesterday that I could
hold on to. I didn't have any experience. I didn't have any
evidence that I was saved. I didn't have any evidence at
all that God had done something for me. I couldn't look to anything
that happened yesterday. And not only could I not look
to anything that happened yesterday, I couldn't look for anything
tomorrow because I had just enough understanding of myself to know
that any promise that I made God, I'd break. I've done it
before. Promise I'd do this, I'd do that.
Oh, if you'll save me, I'll quit this, I'll start that. And when
the Lord finally gave me grace to believe, I had just enough
understanding about myself to know that I could make no promises
for tomorrow. Any promise I make, I'll end
up breaking it. As a matter of fact, any promise
I've ever made, I'll end up breaking it. I couldn't hope in yesterday. I didn't have anything to hope
in yesterday. I couldn't look for something I was going to
do tomorrow because I saw something. I wouldn't do it tomorrow. You
know, when God teaches you who you are, you find out that. The
only hope that I had, the beginning of my confidence, was this, that
Jesus Christ the Lord accomplish my salvation outside of my experience. My hope at that time, the only
hope that I had, no other hope, was that Jesus Christ paid for
my sins and gave me His glorious righteousness. My only hope was
found in that song, we sang it this morning, that Christ has regarded my helpless
estate and shed his own blood for my soul. Now that's my hope. You know what? As God is my witness, I've not
progressed an inch past that. The same hope that I had then,
I have right now. And I reject all other hopes. I don't want to have anything
to do with it. Here I stand. Here I stand. That is my hope. Verse 15, while it said, today, forget yesterday, forget your
experience, forget it all. Forget yesterday. You know what
Paul said regarding the past? He said, forgetting those things
that are behind. Just forget them. Forget it. And reaching forth unto those
things which are before, but forget the past. Why, I've said
today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation, for some, when they had heard, did provoke.
Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom
was he grieved forty years? Was it not with him that had
sinned, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believe not? So then we see that they could
not enter in because of unbelief. Now what is the one sin that
prevented them from entering the promised land? Unbelief. Unbelief. Now there's a big difference
between weak faith and unbelief. Weak faith saves just as surely
as strong faith saves because it's the object of the faith
that saves. It's not your faith that saves. It's the object of
your faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that, weak faith
is just as sure for glory as the strongest faith there is.
But I'll tell you what will not enter the kingdom of heaven is
unbelief. Unbelief. Failure to trust the
Lord to bring you in. Now here's what I want to challenge
you to do. I want to challenge everybody in here. Listen to
me real carefully. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter
1 verse 12, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have, what's the next word,
committed unto him against that day. Now you let go of every
other hope. Let go of yesterday. Just forget
it. Let go of tomorrow. Forget it. Commit the entire salvation of
your soul to Him. Hands off. I commit. That's what faith is. I commit the salvation of my
soul to Him. Now, if you look to yesterday,
if you look to tomorrow, you failed to commit. Forget yesterday. Forget tomorrow. Today, believe
on Him. Trust Him to save you just as
you are right now. Don't wait for tomorrow, that's
disobedience. Believe on Christ right now. May God give us grace to do that. You see, faith is always right
now. Yesterday's over. Tomorrow, who
knows whether we'll even have tomorrow. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. right now. Let's pray together.