Sermon Tone Analysis

! Do Not Harden Your Heart in the Day of Trial

Hebrews 3:7-19

     Last time we saw that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses in at least two ways.

First, Hebrews 3:3 says that he is greater than Moses the same way a builder of a house is greater than the house he built.

In other words Jesus is greater than Moses because he made Moses.

And verse 4 makes the implication explicit: God is the maker of all things.

Therefore Jesus Christ is God.

Which is what the writer had said in Hebrews 1:8, "But of the Son He says, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever."

Second, Hebrews 3:5-6 say that Jesus is greater than Moses the way a son over a house is greater than a servant in the house.

The Son is heir of the house.

He owns it, rules it and provides for it.

In other words what we have in Hebrews 3:3-6 is a restatement of Hebrews 1:2, "In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, (1) whom He appointed heir of all things, and (2) through whom also He made the world."

The same two glories of Christ we saw in Hebrews 3. Christ is the Creator of all and the Heir of all.

That is, he made all things including the people of which Moses is a part, and he is the heir of all things, including the house in which Moses is a servant.

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We are the House of God, IF

    Then at the end of last week's text (Hebrews 6) the writer draws us into the picture.

He says to his readers that they (we) are the very house of God—the house his Son made and inherits—"if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end"—"Whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."

Now this "if" is a tremendously serious thing.

We are his household—we are God's people, we are God's possession and inheritance, that is we are saved—if .

This "if" is so serious and so important that the rest of chapter three is a support and explanation of it.

In fact much of the rest of this book is meant to make this "if" plain.

And here in the twenty-first century in America it is even more important that we hear it and understand it, because we are confronted by voices in books and radio and sermons and songs that use the term "unconditional" carelessly—as in the terms, "unconditional love" and "unconditional acceptance," for instance.

And very often when it is used there is no effort to make sound Biblical distinctions between what is unconditional—like God's electing love—and what is not unconditional—like God's justifying and glorifying love.

But we have it right here before us in Hebrews 3:6.

We are God's house, "if *we** hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."*

So let's get into this big "if" and then let the rest of the chapter explain this and show us why it is important.

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A Condition for Being, not Becoming

    Notice first that this condition—"'if' we hold fast to hope"—is a condition for being something now.

Verse 6 does not say: you will become God's house if you hold fast to your hope.

It says, "We are God's house" if we hold fast to confidence and hope.

So I think Hebrews 3:6 teaches that "if/ we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm to the end, we show that we /are/ God's house/."

This is what defines the household of God: God's people hope in God.

God's people are confident in God.

They hold fast to God as their boast.

That's the human trait and evidence of belonging God's household.

If you want to be assured that you are of God's household test to see if you hope in God and have confidence in God and look to God for the security and happiness of your future and the satisfaction of your heart.

Here is another support for this: in verse 1 the readers are called "partakers of a heavenly calling."

It says, "/Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling .

."/

So the writer is assuming that his readers are already partakers of God's heavenly call.

They are heaven-bound.

They are not just hearers of the call; they are partakers of—sharers in—the call.

So when he puts a big "if" on this in verse 6—*if** */you hold fast to your confidence in God/—he means: you are partakers of the call, you are the household of God, and the evidence of this is your persevering confidence and hope in God to the end.

Now jump ahead to verse 14 to confirm that this is the way the writer is thinking.

In verse 14 we have an "if" statement very much like the one in verse 6: "We have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end."

Being "partakers of Christ" in verse 14 is virtually the same as being "partakers of the heavenly calling" in verse 1.

And both are the same as "being God's house" in verse 6.

But notice the wording carefully here in verse 14, because it is a strong confirmation that we are on the right track.

It says, "We have become partakers of Christ, if we hold our assurance to the end."

The condition is future: "If we hold fast assurance to the end."

But the effect of the condition relates to the past: "We have become partakers of Christ."

So it's clear that the point here is not: hold fast to your assurance in order to become in the future a partaker of Christ.

The point is: hold fast to your assurance in order to show (prove, evidence, demonstrate) that you are a partaker of Christ.

!!!! *Salvation Can't be Lost*

    Now this is utterly crucial because it shows that this writer does not believe that you can truly partake of Christ, share in his heavenly calling and be a part of his house and then lose that salvation.

This is tremendously important because, Lord willing, we are going to see other parts of this book that could easily be taken to mean that we can lose our salvation.

But ask yourself this question: If verse 14 says, "/We have become partakers of Christ/ (in the past), if/ we/ (in the future) /hold fast our assurance/," then what conclusion should we draw if we do not hold fast our assurance (in the past)?

I believe the answer is: Then we have not become partakers of Christ.

It would be wrong to say, "If we do not hold fast our assurance, then even though we were once partakers of Christ, nevertheless now we lose our part in Christ."

That is the opposite of what this verse says.

It says, We have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast our assurance to the end; and if we do not hold fast to our assurance to the end, then we have not become a partaker of Christ.

(We never were one) Not holding fast to our assurance does not make us lose our salvation; it shows that we were not truly saved.

!!!! *Maintaining Assurance*

     Everything in chapter three (and I would argue that everything in this book) is written to encourage and empower you to be earnest and vigilant and focused in the fight to maintain strong assurance in Christ.

….Let me show you this so that you get a feel for how important this is to the writer to the Hebrews.

Over and over again the writer urges us to persevere in our hope and not to throw away our confidence, because this is the living evidence that we truly have become partakers of Christ.

For example:

Hebrews 2:1—/For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it./

Hebrews 3:6—/We are his house , if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end./

Hebrews 3:14—/For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end ./ . .

Hebrews 6:11-12—/And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises./

Hebrews 10:23—/Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful .

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Hebrews 10:35—/Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward./

Hebrews 12:1—/Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us./

!!!! */The Strength to Persevere is God's/*

/    /And as we come to the end of the book he delights to bless us and remind us that the strength to persevere to the end is not our own, but God's.

This is the point of /Hebrews 13:21./[Now the God of peace] . . .

/equip you in every good thing to do His will, /working in us that which is pleasing in His sight/, through Jesus Christ, to whom /be/ the glory forever and ever.

Amen./

The surety of believers lies not in the absence of conditions in the promises of power.

But the way we experience the power of God through Christ to work this persevering grace in us is through the warnings and promises of the word of God.

That's why the book was written.

God doesn't work in us the endurance apart from the word.

He works by the word.

Our great salvation and our great Savior (which is what this book is about) are the inspiration the Spirit uses to hold us fast.

So we must consider Jesus (3:1) and not neglect our great salvation (2:3).

That's what this book is written to help us do.

So let's look just briefly at how the writer helps us in Hebrews 3:7-19, and then we will come back to this text again next week.

!!!! *Example and Warning to Persevere*

     His main approach in these verses is with a very serious warning of the way God worked in the past, namely, in the way he dealt with Israel after they came out of Egypt and then in spite of all that power and mercy on their behalf, they tested God with grumbling and unbelief.

The result was that he gave them up to die in the wilderness and swore that they would not enter the God's rest in the promised land.

The point is that the people of Israel are a example or a picture or a lesson-book for these readers.

They had been treated with great mercy as God brought them out of Egypt by signs and wonders.

And these people had seen signs and wonders (Hebrews 2:4).

They had tasted the powers of the age to come (6:5).

The Holy Spirit had been at work in their midst and they had participated in his power (6:4).

All this is like what the Israelites experienced as they came out of Egypt.

And for a short while they were very happy and seemingly confident in God.

But it didn't last.

And that is why this example is so important to the writer of Hebrews.

He wants the professing Christians to last, to persevere.