Some things taught in this book
that are as clear as the noonday sun and cannot possibly be misunderstood
except deliberately. Certainly the Word of God clearly
teaches us that there is a people in this world chosen by God Almighty
whom he determined to save from eternity called God's elect,
a people for whom Jesus Christ died, a people for whom justice
has been satisfied, a people for whom atonement has been made,
a people redeemed by Christ's precious blood whose sins have
been put away. Those elect sinners shall in
time be made willing to come to Christ by the effectual, irresistible,
almighty power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. And they, believing
on Christ, have life everlasting. Every center in the world to
whom faith is given is saved forever. Every sinner in the
world who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ revealed
in scripture, who trusts the Son of God, every sinner in the
world to whom God has given eternal life, It is promised they shall
never perish. Those things are emphatically,
clearly, incessantly taught in this book. There's no question
concerning them. And those believing sinners calling
Christ Lord and Savior, born of God's Spirit, will indeed
persevere to the end. They will continue believing
Christ. When they leave this world, they
will have lived in faith and they will die in faith. That's
true of every child of God. And yet the scriptures hold glaring
examples before us of many women who made a profession of faith.
who appeared in all things outward to be born of God, who appeared
to be brethren, who appeared to be saints of God, who after
a while departed and walked no more with the master. And these
men and women who died with false faith, faith but not a God-given
faith, Faith but not a spirit wrought faith. Faith but not
a faith that arose from a new heart, a new principle of life. Faith but not that faith which
is the operation of God. They stand as beacons to warn
us. And we have an example of this
in Hebrews chapter 3. Here the intention of the Holy
Spirit is to show us the necessary perseverance of God's elect in
the faith of Christ. The example used is that of the
children of Israel. They left Egypt by the hand of
God, came across the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his armies were drowned.
They saw the miracles of God one after the other. God fed
them with manna from heaven, gave them water out of a rock,
delivered them out of the hands of enemies for 40 years, and
brought them at last to the very edge of Canaan. And they perished
in the wilderness because of unbelief. Now that does not imply
that all of those who perished in the wilderness were lost people. Certainly not. Aaron was not
a lost man. Moses was not a lost man. Well,
what does it imply then? These stand as glaring examples. many who profess faith, who leave
behind certain aspects of worldliness and are sanctified somewhat,
at least outwardly, by religious profession and by religious deeds.
And they go away, but they come short of life everlasting. Now let's begin in Hebrews chapter
3 and verse 6. But Christ as a son over his
own house. Now look at this. Whose house
are we? If. Don't neglect the if. If we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Wherefore? Now notice that the next words,
the next several sentences, are in parenthetical brackets. That
is, they are put there, these parenthetical statements are
put there to give explanation to the context. So let's skip
through the parentheses, we've looked at those earlier, and
come down to verse 12. Whose house we are, if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end.
Wherefore, wherefore, since we are Christ's house, if we continue
steadfast unto the end, holding firmly the confidence of faith
in Christ. Take heed. Take heed. Say in the center's
prayer, making a profession of faith, joining the church, having
a little religious refuge, a little change in your life, may not
be anything but a delusion. Take heed. Take heed. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. Just a few minutes ago, Lindsay
read Psalm 139 to us. In the last two verses, David
says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know
my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me. Much
better rendering would be see if I'm in the way of wickedness.
There's no question there's a wicked way in me, but am I in the way
of wickedness? and lead me in the way, in the
path everlasting. All right, look at verse 13.
But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Now
look at verse 14, we'll focus our attention right here. For
we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. Now there are three things
I want to direct your attention to this evening. First, we have
in this verse of scripture a very great privilege. And then secondly,
we're given a solemn warning. And then finally, a strict test. First, here is a glorious, glorious
privilege of grace. We are made partakers of Christ. What a mouthful. We are made partakers of Christ. Here is a privilege that is and
could only be accomplished by the grace of God. This particular
privilege, though it is taught and implied throughout the Word
of God, is stated nowhere except right here. The text does not
say we are partakers with Christ. That would be great. The text
does not say we are partakers of the great rich benefits of
God's grace in Christ. That's wonderful. And those things
are so. But the text goes further. It
includes this and much more. Here, Paul tells us we are made
partakers of Christ. Partakers of Christ himself.
Now that's a privilege no tongue can describe. We are one with
the Son of God, members of his body. Bone of his bone, flesh
of his flesh. This is what Paul's talking about
in Ephesians chapter five, when he talks about marriage and husbands
and wives, he said, now I'm just using that for an illustration.
What I'm talking about is Christ and his church. And he says,
this is a great mystery. A great mystery indeed. This
is a privilege that we cannot begin to comprehend, much less
explain, and yet it's the privilege of every true believer. The moment
a sinner believes on the Son of God, that sinner is so vitally
and really joined to Christ that he becomes partaker of Christ,
becomes one with Christ. To be a partaker of Him. What
on earth does the Holy Spirit here tell us? To be a partaker
of Christ means that I have a share in all His merits. More than
a share. All his merits are mine. I'm married to him. Sinful though
I am, vile, wretched, unclean, I come to the fountain filled
with blood, and I'm washed in Christ's precious blood from
all my vileness, wretchedness, and uncleanness, made as white
as snow. And I am, at that moment, believing
on Him, partaker of Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son. The Lord Jesus
Christ is mine. Being united to Him, all that
is His is mine. That which Christ did as my substitute
is actually mine. Now you don't understand substitution.
You don't understand the gospel doctrine of substitution until
you understand that everything Christ did in the room instead
of his people, we did in him. He stood before God not only
in our room and place, but being our substitute, he stood before
God as our covenant federal head, our representative so that what
he did, he did for us and we did in him in the sight of God
Almighty. Pastor, what does that mean?
That means that if the wrath of God fell on Christ as my substitute,
then the wrath of God fell on me in Him and it's all gone. That means that the Lord Jesus
took my sin upon Himself and put it away. Then my sin is gone. That means that if Christ paid
the debt that I owed, then I have nothing that is owed yet to God
Almighty in His law and justice. Can you get hold of that? I owe
God himself nothing in the court of heaven. Nothing. All the debt
owed for my sin, all the righteousness required is fully given to me
in Jesus Christ the Lord. This is exactly what Tom Pleyton
meant when he said Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owed,
sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Since
my debt has been paid, since in the person of my substitute
Jesus Christ, I have paid all that God's law required. God
cannot now in justice require that I pay more. Payment God
cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. Justice will not allow it. You
see the ransom, the redemption, the salvation of God's elect
is as much a matter of strict justice as it is a matter of
infinite grace. If justice is satisfied, the
prisoner must go free. If the debt has been paid, the
law cannot charge us with the debt. If righteousness is established,
the law must deal with us in accordance with righteousness.
We are partakers of Christ's sin-atoning substitutionary work,
and his righteousness as well has become ours. His name is
Jehovah Sidkinia. the Lord our righteousness. Not only are we freed from the
penalty of sin, freed from the dominion of sin, by Christ's
atoning work and the power of his grace, but we are rendered
righteous before God by his obedience as our representative, so that
what he did in compliance with God's will, he came and said,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight
to do thy will. Oh my God. He didn't do that
for himself. No, He did that as a public person.
He did that as a representative man. He did that for someone. The Lord Jesus completely, fully
obeyed the will of God in every aspect of His will as our representative
and established perfect righteousness for His people. So that now the
righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us in justification. Exactly the same way. Now listen
carefully, this will help you, I'm sure. When Christ was made
to be sin, He didn't commit any sin. He couldn't commit any sin. He knew no sin. No sin was found
in him. He had no transgression of his
own. He was made to be sin and dealt with accordingly. In the
court of justice, he was slain for sin because he was made to
be sin, though he never did any sin. That's exactly, Bobby Estes,
how we're made the righteousness of God in him. You can't do anything
righteous. Don't have the ability. Don't
even know what it is. Can't be done. Not by you or
me. We have nothing but corruption
within us. So that even if we desire to
do it, we can't do it. But we have been made. by a lawful
judicial transfer. His righteousness has been made
ours and God deals with us accordingly. It's called free justification.
Not only that, but being made partakers of Christ, wearing
the sparkless garments of God's dear son, we stand before God
almighty, holy in Christ the Lord, accepted in the beloved,
in whom ye are accepted. Accepted. That word accepted,
it's, Properly translated accepted is properly translated favored.
This is what it means. It means God Almighty looks on
you all the time with an approving smile. Accepted in the beloved. Accepted how? Just like Christ
is. From when? From eternity. How
come? Because of his perfect obedience.
How fully? Just as fully as he is. God Almighty
looks on his people in Jesus Christ the Lord and declares
these are my beloved sons in whom I am well pleased. Not only
that, being made partakers of Christ by faith in him, we live
in him and feed upon him. His life is our life. It's our daily bread. It sustains
our souls. His blood is the wine that makes
glad our hearts. He's our meat and our drink.
And still there's something deeper here. The Lord Jesus Christ is
himself our life. We live upon Him, just like the
walls of this building set on the foundation, just like a branch
draws life from the vine, just exactly like a wife is joined
to her husband, just exactly as these members are joined to
this body and this heart and this head. We are one with Jesus
Christ the Lord, truly one with Him. We're so really and truly
one with Christ. that we are partakers of him
in his destiny as well. When our Lord comes again, his
holy ones will come with him. The fact that he is risen from
the dead is the earnest and promise of our own resurrection. And
in the day of his appearing, we will rise and participate
in all the fruition of his mediatorial accomplishments. Let me see if
I can say this and say it clearly. Our Lord Jesus, when he was praying
in John 17, said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Now Lindsay, in his eternal deity,
we talk about him laying aside his glory. He didn't lay aside
his glory. When he was on the earth, he was still sitting on
the throne. He didn't lay aside his glory. Not at all. He covered
it. He hid it from men. But he didn't
lay it aside. He never ceased to be God Almighty.
Well, what's he talking about then, restore to me the glory
which I had with you before the world was? He's talking about
the glory agreed upon and given to him as our covenant surety
and mediator before the world began. I know that because in
verse 22 of John 17, he says, the glory which thou hast given
me, I give it to them. I have given them my glory. But as God, he says, my glory
I'll not share with any man. The glory which he possesses
in his essential character as God, no man can possess. We will
never become gods, but the glory which he earned, all the glory
which he now possesses and shall forever possess as the God-man
mediator on the basis of his perfect compliance and obedience
to the will of God, that glory he gives to every one of his
people fully and completely. so that now we are heirs of God
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ if we are made partakers of Christ. Let me stress this. This work
is the work of God's free grace. Our text does not say you have
become, it doesn't say we have made ourselves, but rather it
says we are made partakers of Christ. Of him are you in Christ
Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. The Lord God made us partakers
of Christ in eternal election. He made us partakers of Christ
putting a new nature in us, making us partakers of the divine nature
in regeneration. He has made us partakers of Christ
as we lay hold of him with a God-given faith and are united to him with
a living faith. But secondly, here's a solemn,
solemn question. A question for all who profess
faith in Christ. A question for you and me. We
are made partakers of Christ if. If. Are we made partakers of
him? This I know. Many think They
are made partakers of Christ who are not. And there's nothing more to be
dreaded than a false faith, a supposed righteousness, a counterfeit
justification, a spurious hope. It's not enough for a professor
or for us to be professors of faith in Christ or the servants
of Christ or preachers of Christ or apostles of Christ. We must
be made partakers of Christ. I don't know how on this earth to say as solemnly, as alarmingly as it ought to
be said, there is such a thing as false faith by which multitudes
are deluded. Multitudes. A false faith described
in Hebrews chapter 6 as being greatly enlightened. A false
faith described in Matthew chapter 7 as being able to cast out demons. A false faith described in Matthew
7 again as preaching in Christ's name. A false faith described
in Matthew 25 as being greatly secure like those five foolish
virgins. false faith by which many women
delude themselves and are deluded of Satan into a carnal sense
of peace when they have no right to peace. Deluded with an assurance
which is no assurance at all. Deluded with a confidence which
is no confidence at all. I know preachers these days try
their best, they go out of their way, they bend over backwards
to try to give folks assurance. Give them assurance, give them
assurance. Over the years I've had lots of folks come to me,
I don't have any assurance, don't have any assurance. And I can't
give you any. And I'm not going to try. I'm
not going to try. Folks say to me, well, I don't
doubt his salvation or her salvation. I know they're saved. Do you
now? Do you now? Whose heart have
you read lately? Whose soul do you look into?
Oh no, I would not dare to presume to give assurance to that dear
lady there who is as remarkable as any human being I've ever
met in my life. I wouldn't dare do it. The only person, Ralph
Bonner was exactly right, he said the only person who will
try to convince a lost sinner he saved is another lost sinner.
That's the only person. We're not trying to convince
men they're saved. I'm here trying my best to expose
every refuge that you build, which may be a false refuge,
and destroy it if God will enable me. So let's bring our faith
to the scriptures and see what the scripture says. I recognize
that sitting in this congregation tonight, there are three groups
of people. I'm positive there are. Small as this group is. In the church of Christ, there
are always tares and wheat. I can't distinguish the one from
the other, neither can you. We ought to quit trying. In this
congregation, as in all others, there are goats as well as sheep.
There's just no question about that. Our Lord said that's the
way it's gonna be. So there are at least three groups of people
sitting right here. Some who hear the word. Some
of you sit and listen and listen, but you never listen. You hear
the word, for whatever reason, you come to church. I don't know
why. Come to church and listen, but
it rolls off your back like water off a duck's back. Has no effect.
And you become more and more hardened to it. There are others
who hear the word and profess to believe it. Like those stony
ground hearers, they hear the word and they receive it with
joy and they just delight in it for a little while. Like those
who receive the word sown among thorns, they receive it and it
grows for a little while. Seems to prosper greatly. They're
baptized, but they're not baptized into Christ. They eat the bread
and wine of the Lord's table, but never eat and drink of Christ's
blood and righteousness. They come to the service of communion,
but never commune with the master. They follow Christ for a while. But after a while, they quit. And I'm gonna tell you something. Faith in Christ. is no more and
no less than a servant following his king. It's no more and no
less than a master, a disciple following his master. It's exactly
what it is. Faith is not a nod of your head.
Faith is not the believing of a certain set of doctrines. Faith
is not saying, I believe in this historic fact or that. Oh no,
faith in Christ is the willing surrender of a man's soul to
Christ the King. That's exactly what it is. It
is the confidence of a believing heart in his Lord. And then I'm
confident there are some here who believe the Son of God. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yours is not just a profession.
It's not just something you've said. Not just an experience
in religion. You believe God. Pastor, how
can I know which it is? Here's a strict test. We are
made partakers of Christ, if. Isn't it a remarkable thing?
Remarkable what he says here. If, if, if we hold fast the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end, that person and that
person alone is partaker of Christ who holds fast the faith he had
at the beginning He stands upon the same foundation in his old
age as he stood upon in his youth. He has the same hope, the same
faith, the same confidence that he had at the start. Turn with me to one text of scripture,
one text of scripture, Hebrews 11. The one thing he says, if we
hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast to the
end. Isn't it remarkable that he doesn't talk about, he doesn't
talk about something you do. Isn't it remarkable he doesn't
talk about something you quit doing or something you started
doing. He doesn't talk about your graces. He doesn't talk
about your, what preachers and religion calls your evidences.
He talks about the evidence. evidence. Look at Hebrews 11.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. What is it? It's the beginning
of our confidence. Here's the test. What is your
faith? What is it? I promise you, I
promise you, Every religious person, Calvinist or Arminian,
every religious person, free will or free grace, it doesn't
matter, every religious person who has a profession of faith,
who does not know Christ, grows beyond this. He grows beyond
it. Sooner or later, he begins to
arrive. Sooner or later, he begins to
attain. Sooner or later, he begins to
get a little better. The believer is a man or a woman
who continues just as he began. What did Paul say? As you receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. If we walk with God, we walk
with God just like Enoch did, by faith, by faith. What was the beginning of our
confidence? I came to Christ as an empty-handed
beggar, looking to him for everything. With no merit, looking to him
alone for merit. With no virtue, trusting His
virtue alone. With no righteousness, calling
the Lord my righteousness. With no strength, trusting Him
alone for strength. As a guilty, vile, wretched,
hell-deserving sinner, I simply look to Christ my God as my all. And that's all. That's all. That's all. Do you understand
what I'm saying? That's all. Is there any correspondence
with you between the beginning of your confidence and the present
confidence of your soul? Thank God there is. I am still
a poor sinner and nothing at all. And Jesus Christ is still
my all in all. And that's it. That's it. Where's
your confidence? Where is it? I promise you it's
not in two places. It's not in two places. I believe
in Christ and I've begun to, that's what I said. I believe in Christ and Christ
is all. He's all my wisdom, all my righteousness,
all my sanctification, In all my redemption, I come to Him
as a sinner, trusting Him for all. God help you to do the same. Amen. All right, Lindsay, you
lead us into Him, please.