We are always moving

The book of Hebrews has more to say about Christian perseverance than any other New Testament book. It is written specifically for a group of Christians who were about to quit hanging in there. Let me walk you through this book to show you what the situation was and how this writer responds to it.

Chapter 2 - What we see here is a signal that the church was starting to drift away from the truth

Let's start in chapter 2. What we see here is a signal that the church was starting to drift away from the truth.

Hebrews 2:1 ESV

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Hebrews Verse 1: "We must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." They had started to drift with the current of the world instead of rowing upstream toward holiness.

Verse 1: "We must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." They had started to drift with the current of the world instead of rowing upstream toward holiness.

Hebrews 2:3Verse 3 suggests that they were beginning to neglect the greatness of their salvation. "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" They were just not paying much attention any more to what it means to be a Christian in the real world. They were drifting and neglecting.

Hebrews 2:3 ESV

how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

Verse 3 suggests that they were beginning to neglect the greatness of their salvation. They were just not paying much attention any more to what it means to be a Christian in the real world. They were drifting and neglecting.

Chapter 3 - Drifting. Neglecting. Letting slip.

Hebrews 3:6 ESV

but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Now chapter 3. Verse 6 suggests that they were losing a grip on their confidence about the future. Verse 6b: "We are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope." "If we hold fast!" So evidently there was danger they were not holding fast to their confidence and hope.

Drifting. Neglecting. Letting slip. This is the opposite of perseverance. The opposite of hanging in there over the long haul.

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Verses 12–14 show us again what the danger is. "Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God." Their drifting and neglecting and slipping could result in a falling away from the living God. They are not "taking care" the way they should. So he goes on in verse 13 . . .

"But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called, 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Evidently their conversation was only about the world. All they talked about was the Twins and the stock market and problems at the office and at home. They had lost the urgency of exhortation in their daily conversation. Sin was starting to deceive them. And this neglect of God's guidelines was causing them drift and slip and lose their hold on joyful vibrant confidence. And that is terribly dangerous, he says in verse 14 . . .

"Because we share in Christ, if we hold our first confidence firm to the end." Hanging in there with confidence is utterly crucial if we hope to finish the race.

Chapter 4 - says that some in the church are in danger of not finishing the race

Chapter 4, verse 1,

Hebrews 4:1 ESV

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

Hebrewssays that some in the church are in danger of not finishing the race, not getting to heaven. "While the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it." Some had become so negligent and careless in their spiritual walk that they had no godly fear about what was at stake in their daily lives. They were just drifting along with the Walkman of the world in their ears feeling secure, while God's messenger was crying out from the shore that the Niagara Falls of judgment were approaching.

Some had become so negligent and careless in their spiritual walk that they had no godly fear about what was at stake in their daily lives.

They were just drifting along with the Ipod of the world in their ears feeling secure, while God's messenger was crying out from the shore that judgment was approaching.

That's what our text suggests in 5:11

Hebrews 5:11 ESV

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

In their drifting and neglect and carelessness, their spiritual ears had become dull. The Bible was becoming uninteresting. Their desire for the teaching and preaching of God's Word was fading. The energy to think and ask questions about the most important questions in the world was drifting away. And in its place was a kind of spiritual sluggishness and insensitivity.

Things of the world were becoming more exciting and attractive than the Word of God the greatness of his salvation.

Chapter 6 - suggests that this church had lost its zeal to press on in the Christian life to maturity.

Chapter 6, verse 1, suggests that this church had lost its zeal to press on in the Christian life to maturity.

Hebrews 6:1 ESV

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

The church was beginning to feel that progress to maturity and growth holiness was optional. It wasn't really necessary in the Christian life. So they were just drifting along on past attainments. And all the while becoming dull in hearing, deceived by sin, and hard in heart.

Chapter 10 - reinforces this danger

Hebrews 10:23–24 ESV

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Chapter 10, verses 23–24, show the same danger. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works." They had the idea that hope was a kind of automatic thing. It just sort of happened to you, and stayed with you. But the writer says, on the contrary, hope has wings and will fly away as soon as you let it go. Keeping hope is a very active thing.

And the same with love and good works. If we drift, we drift away from love. If we are going to be a loving community, we must stir each other up.

To Love not strife

Drifting and coasting and inactivity in spiritual things is very dangerous.

Hebrews 10:32 ESV

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

It wasn't always this way at this church. Look at 10:32, "But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings." In other words you were once so fired up about the value of your salvation and God's purpose in the world that you were willing to suffer for it.

It wasn't always this way at this church.

In other words you were once so fired up about the value of your salvation and God's purpose in the world that you were willing to suffer for it.

But now you are sitting on your easy chair with no zeal for the future and perhaps thinking that those past experiences you had are enough to make you an acceptable Christian.

But security does not come like that. Look at verse 35 & 36,

Hebrews 10:35 ESV

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

"Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised."

There it is: You have need of endurance, persistence, perseverance, hanging in there. They are making a big mistake in thinking that they don't need endurance, they don't need to hang in there.

But verse 39 makes clear what is at stake:

Hebrews 10:39 ESV

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

In other words we can lose our souls and be destroyed if we begin to go backward and don't press on toward greater faith and holiness. Hanging in there is very important.

Chapter 12 - they are tired

Let's look at one more image the writer gives us of what's wrong with this church.

Hebrews 12:12–13 ESV

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

, "Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed." The race has run on a long time and the Christian runners are tired. So their hands hang down and their knees are wobbly. They are on the brink of being totally incapacitated, if a leg goes completely out of joint.

The race has run on a long time and the Christian runners are tired. So their hands hang down and their knees are wobbly. They are on the brink of being totally incapacitated, if a leg goes completely out of joint.

Summary of the Problem in Hebrews

So now we have a sense of what's wrong with this church.

They are drifting instead of swimming against the current of sin.

They are neglecting the salvation they claim to have.

Their grip on hope is slipping.

Their hearts are hardening to the truth of God's Word.

Their conversation is losing its spiritual urgency.

Their ears are getting dull.

They are losing their desire to grow in maturity and holiness.

They are becoming weak and sluggish.

And the result of all this is that they are in danger of shrinking back from the beginning they had made, becoming hardened to spiritual things, drifting away from the living God, and losing their souls.

The opposite of all this is Perseverance—hanging in there as a zealous, growing Christian.

There are two alternatives for those of us who claim to trust Christ as Savior and Lord. One is to press on toward maturity in knowledge and faith and hope and holiness. The other is to drift slowly into indifference and dullness and, eventually, destruction. And one of the great errors of this church was that they thought there was a halfway point where they could stay as professing Christians, not pressing forward and not drifting backward. But there is no such place. That's the point of this book.

Either we move forward to the inheritance or we drift back toward destruction.

What "Doctrine" Means

1 John 2:19 ESV

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

John

Hebrews 12:15 ESV

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Hebrews 12:

Hebrews 12:25 ESV

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

Deuteronomy 29:18 ESV

Deuteronomy 29:18–19 ESV

Deuteronomy 29:18–20 ESV

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 29:20 ESV

The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.

What is a doctrine?

There is a lot at stake

explained

Some people believed they were safe due to being Israelites

This text is radically focused on the individual, over against the corporate, pointing out the danger of corporate thinking: “There’s safety in my corporateness.” That’s the danger. This is not in the text, but I would venture to say there are vastly more people in hell today because of the false securities of corporate thinking than there are in hell today because of over-individualizing the doctrine of salvation. There’s no question in my mind about that — millions upon millions of people led to destruction because they “belong” to some institution.

, “The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity.” In fact, this person’s horrific mistake is to think he is safe in his stubbornness because he belongs to Israel. Oh, how many people have perished because they think, “My family, my tradition, my trial, my church, my nation will save me.” In fact, nobody is saved by belonging to a group — any group — when their individual heart is hard toward God.

The second thing to observe from is that it’s quoted in , and it is exactly the same issue, of course. They’re inspired. The New Testament gets the Old Testament right.

Some today believe themselves to be safe due to belonging to a church.

And the issue is: an individual in the community to which Hebrews is written thinks he’s safe with no heart for holiness. He might be saying, “I’m in the new-covenant community. You don’t need holiness; we’re justified by faith,” to which the writer in Hebrews says in 12:14, “Strive . . . for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” That’s theology straight out of Deuteronomy.

That’s a warning to the whole church: Don’t play fast and loose with grace in God’s new-covenant community. Don’t think you are safe because of baptism, church membership, or eating the Lord’s Supper every Sunday.

Holiness has to do with proximity to Jesus not proximity to other believers.

We can love each other because we experience the tremendous love He has for us.

A doctrine is something the Bible teaches.

It's a teaching.

So what the Bible teaches about Christ is the doctrine of Christ

and what the Bible teaches about heaven is the doctrine of heaven. So when you hear the word doctrine, think "teaching." Bible doctrine is Bible teaching.

Notice, I don't say "Bible doctrines of heaven" or "Bible doctrines of baptism." The Bible does say a lot of different things about heaven and baptism in a lot of different places. And so in that sense there are a lot of different teachings about these topics. But when we say we are going to study the Bible doctrine of heaven or of baptism, we mean that we are going to try to look at all the teachings (or most of them) and then sum them all up in a unified way.

We forgive because we have experienced forgiveness from Him.

That is why you will only hear doctrinal preaching in churches where the Bible is considered to be an inspired unity. In other words, if I believed that all the different teachings in the Bible disagreed with each other, I wouldn't bother trying to preach on "the doctrine" of anything. But I believe the Bible is God's word, and that God is not a God of confusion or contradiction. So what it says on various themes will fit together. And we will be the wiser and deeper for trying to listen to the whole message of the Bible on its important themes.

We grow in grace because He equips us to do so.

We receive Jesus and holiness follows.

A Savior who is not strong enough to change you, is not strong enough to save you.

Holiness is the fruit the true branch yields

John 15:4-5

John 15:4–5 ESV

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:6 ESV

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

The main point for today is this: Grow forward in Christ or shrink back from Him

There is no fence riding with Christ

Are you growing?

Is your faith from man or God?

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