Hebrews 3.end Part 2
August 25th 2013
Welcome, ye seekers of biblical truth!
May the True and Living God bless us as we have gathered in His name, and seek to know Him in Spirit and in Truth.
Let’s pray.
MUSIC
SILENCE
Okay, let’s get back into Hebrews chapter 3.
Last week we examined the rather long parenthetical reference the writer of Hebrew provides us.
In it we found a description of the hearts of the Children of Israel when they were lead out of Egypt by Moses and into the wilderness.
We discovered that the writer is warning the recipients of his epistle (as he is warning all believers) against the only thing that can keep us out of our destination of a promised land on high – total loss of faith.
Not the fluctuation of faith nor the ebb and flow between shores of wondering, questioning, doubting and certainty . . . but the absolute rejection of belief.
Is it possible, having been born again? Having become His child, to lose total faith?
(long beat – whisper – with a smile)
Apparently so.
We read scripture contextually and discern what it is saying. When it plainly states something, that is contextually understood, we believe it – all theological meanderings aside. Now . . .
We discovered (through the example of the faithlessness displayed by the Children of Israel) that there were situations that contribute to their faithlessness, and the writer uses their failures in the face of these situations to warn us.
Recall that in the face of thirst, hunger, the absence of Moses their leader, and the presence and fear of enemies that a spirit of unbelief manifested itself.
And we noted that how we, even today, are faced with similar enemies of our faith.
That was last week. So let’s read our text now without the parenthetical reference and see what the writer has to say:
Hebrews 3:6 says :
“But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
7 Wherefore . . .
( now verse 12)
. . . 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
(And the writer then returns to his example taken from the faithlessness of the COI in the Exodus and says)
15 While it is said, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
So, go with me back to verse 6 in chapter 3 (which we read a few weeks back). It says:
Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
This is the writers point, that:
“We are the house of Christ, brethren (and sisteren) . . . IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
And so he spends the remainder of the chapter supporting this . . . FACT.
Now, we’re going to stomp pretty hard on the topic today – because the writer does.
But the proper response (LISTEN) is NOT fear – that is part of the problem and would be the exact response the children of Israel had to things – which contributes to faithlessness!
Look at me –
People hear messages like this and some respond like this:
(TOTAL TENSED UP REACTION)
But God – God, wants His children to sit back and REST and RELAX in the fact that He is good, and present, and wanting to be our all in all.
All believers are equipped, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with the “confidence that we have been saved.”
This confidence is the one thing that separates the saved from the unsaved – from the Children of God from the creatures of God where there is no confidence without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and no “rejoicing of the hope,” which the writer says must be held fast unto the end.
Such “confidence” and “rejoicing of hope” abides and thrives in the presence of faith – and abates and declines in its . . . absence.
From Noah to Abraham, Moses to David, Isaiah to Christ, all the way down to you and I sitting here this very day, this principle is ABUNDANTLY clear throughout all of scripture.
Peter was so full of faith He stepped out onto a stormy sea and walked. But taking his eyes OFF the living Word out there walking too, and looking into the swirling dark surface below, his confidence and hope wained.
And he began to sink.
Again, it is the presence of faith that feeds this “confidence” and “hopeful rejoicing” we are to hold fast till the end while it is the absence of faith that produces uncertainty and fear . . . as we noted with the COI in the wilderness.
Just as toddlers and children are often terrified in the presence of scary situations that adults have overcome, Babes in Christ (children) are continually overcome by the beggarly elements of the world, wondering if God will be true to His promises.
But His grace is sufficient and longsuffering with us, right.
The writer of Hebrews, however, is all about moving believers from infancy and adolescence to becoming complete in Him, in becoming true Sons and Daughters.
Revelation 21 verse 7 says something interesting relative to this point:
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
The Greek word for “overcometh” here is Nee-kah-o. From it the popular athletic footware company Nike got its name (which, by the way, is really pronounced NEE-KAY not NI-KEE).
It means victory, success and KEE Kay O conveys the idea of “overcoming.”
Children, due to their lack of skill and immaturity, are overcome – by fear, doubt, uncertainty.
There are all sorts of doubts that creep in upon them and overcome them.
I love watching children when they are learning to overcome their fears and jump from a high dive, for example.
First they creep up to the end of it. Some turn tail and run back to the ladder.
Some are truly so terrified they crumble to their stomachs and wrap their arms around the end of the board, requiring a rescue team of parents to pry them off.
Then there is the every present attempt to lesson the height by bending their knees – I love that approach.
Almost always, if a parent is present, they are down on the deck encouraging them, promising them that it’s going to “be alright” to “go ahead and jump.”
Later in Hebrews the writer is going to say:
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
We know that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT seen,” and I would strongly suggest that these THINGS (mentioned twice here in this single passage) are the PROMISES of GOD.
Faith is TRUSTING in the promises of God.
The terrified child trusts in the promises of Mom and Dad that when they jump everything will turn out alright, and by and through these assurences, the terrified child OVERCOMES their fears, and in time, acts with CONFIDENCE.
Every now and again we will flip on the television and see these very same children, once terrified, standing confidently on a ten meter board in the Olympic games, boldly and confidently, and with joy not just jumping, but performing the most amazing things . . .
Spiritually speaking, this is the principle the writer of Hebrews is alluding to – do we, as His children trust His promises or do we drop and cling to what we believe is safety or refuse the leaps of faith all together and return to the ladder leading down.
Sons and daughters, due to maturity and skillful use of the Word, “overcome,” and, like Christ before them,
“hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Which caused John the Revelator to write in Revelation 21:7
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
What is truly interesting (and quite terrifying as well) is that in Revelation 21:7 where it says
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
That the next verse says :
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
It is an amazing fact that those who are found “fearful and unbelieving” will go to the second death lake of fire right along with the sorcerers, murderers, and those who commit abominations.
All the way back to Revelation 2 we read Jesus Christ saying in 2:11:
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that “overcometh” shall not be hurt of the second death.” (by the way, note that the word Christ uses to describe the lake of fire second death exposure is hurt, not destroyed. Just an insight – anyway).
Now, from the examples of the COI, we do see that our faith and trust in God will be exposed to two things:
It will be tested by and through difficulty, and in the end, He will prove His promises true.
Moses promised the COI delivery but not a journey without trials. The presence of the trial to their faith proved them without it.
No test of faith no way to know how present it is in our lives, right?
We will, in all probability trust in Mom and Dad and jump from the high dive and we will, at times, bellyflop or get water shot up our noses.
And so we find ourselves standing up there again, with promises that IF we do this or do that we will never bellyflop again.
The process of believe builds upon itself, as do the promises of God.
We will find ourselves thirsty, hungry, without spiritual direction at times, and in the presence of enemies.
The question remains – do we trust Him to see us through or do we fear – and walk from faith.
I know I told an amazing story from the annuls of our youngest daughter and the firey truck last week and I am so sorry to drag you through another family story but the point is made through it so bear with me.
I received a phone call Saturday morning around 3am.
Mary and I’s prayer for our family is probably not different from most Christian parents –that our daughters would not leave this world without knowing Him, and that He would watch over them and care for them as we are frequently separated.
Well Delaney is a school two weeks early to participate in her volleyball team’s pre-season training and the campus is virtually empty of people except for her team and the soccer teams which are being housed in a set of dorms.
While studying for a test on plays Delaney fell asleep on her bed. And from what she said the beds are set out in an L-shape (so her head is up where the head of her roommates would rest.)
About three hours after falling asleep – around one in the morning one of the girls entered the room, flips the light on the light and all chaos breaks out.
All Delaney remembers is waking up to her name being screamed over and over again and when she sort of came to her senses she found her roommate urgently telling her:
“There’s a man in here!”
Turning her head she looked straight into the face of a man who was in the bed next to her.
To add to the terror of the story this man had a prothestic leg which he stored under the bed itself.
After much “ffreaking out Delaney learned that he was homeless, came into the dorms to take a shower, and decided to bed down for the night in Delaney’s room.
She cried telling him that he had to go, feeling bad for him as she said there was obviously something wrong with him but she didn’t know what else to do.
A test? Certainly. But a simultaneous reward of safety – for which I praise God.
The question I had to ask myself, however, is what would have been my reaction had the man attacked her, raped or killed her?
Would I, could I have trusted in His promises, that all things work for good to them that believe, and with confidence “overcome?”
(beat) I can only pray and hope.
So the writer of Hebrews has pointed out that we too will be sons and daughters IF we hold fast the confidence (which is ALL based on faith) and then he continues at verse seven saying:
7 “Wherefore . . . (then to verse 12)
. . . 12 Take heed, brethren, (Wherefore, take heed brethren) lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
“Departing from the living God” would be an impossibility if a person were never part of the living God – making the instruction quite clear.
Since the writer is speaking to “brethren,” and tells them “to take heed,” in case that within any of us “lies an evil heart of unbelief” I would again suggest it is entirely possible for believers to depart from their faith . . . and therefore their confidence . . . and therefore their salvation.
“Take heed brethren,” he writes.
Be on guard in the case that we posses or might posses an “evil heart of unbelief.”
Listen – just like (just like) the COI, we too are on a journey. Those of the COI who “walked in faith” and/or did not possess “an evil heart of unbelief” overcame, with many of them listen in what we call the Hall of Fame of Faith found in Hebrews 11.
It is of interest that the moral failures and the mistakes these men and women of faith from the Old Testament possessed did not disqualify them, but that the presence of their faith and trust in God is what saved and kept them – just like believers today!
I mean, walk through some of the characters of those who are hailed as men and women of faith in Hebrews 11:
Noah? Like to imbibe a bit too much.
Abraham? Father of faith AND of Ishmael
Jacob? Total weakling man of faith.
Moses? A murderer and quite a terrible husband according to Zipporah.
The Harlot Rahab? Need I say more?
Samson? Strong in the flesh! But . . . a man of faith.
David? Adulterer, murderer?
All, who, in this society of modern Christianity would be outcast, were HAILED and Sons and Daughters of FAITH!
Well there is absolutely no difference between what God was looking for in that dispensations folks or in this one – men and women of faith!
Moses, as a picture of Christ to come. With Him as our guide today, we too find ourselves travelling through a wilderness.
We are exposed to trials and temptations. We meet face to face with deadly foes to our faith –
Atheists
Supposed “higher critics” against the Word
Godless philosophies
The will of our own flesh
The deceptiveness of sin
False prophets
Intellectualism
The things of this world
Modern scientific conjecture
Apathy
A lack of hearing the Word
Idolatry
Political and economic fears
Materialism
Not to mention bills to pay, food to buy, kids to raise . . .
We ARE SURROUNDED by opposition and challenges to our faith.
Where the nation of Israel had visible signs and miraculous wonders – I mean he appeared in a shadow by day and a pillar by night and none of their shoes wore out – we operate by the shadow and pillar from within – but it doesn’t guarantee we will abide . . . like the COI, we still sometime choose NOT God.
So even WITH God in our hearts believers are prone to apostasy, sin, and self-will? Right?
But because of Christ’s finished work does He abandon us because of our failures – like He was tempted to do with Israel? NOT in the least! The writer of Hebrews makes it clear who abandons who, saying:
“The evil heart of UNBELIEF causes us to DEPART from the living God.”
The word heart is used over 1000 times in the Old Testament but “evil heart” is used only twice.
The reason, I believe is it pictures a final and complete departure of Man from God.
The word “unbelief” here in the English is very different from the actual meaning of the word which is to “disbelieve.” There’s a big difference.
To be in unbelief is to lack faith. To disbelieve is to reject – and in the context of scripture I would suggest that this means rejecting once and for all.
From this we can see the writer is NOT talking about wavering faith (which we are all prone to experience amidst our tests and trials) but disbelief in God’s promises.
It is not saying, “I have trouble really trusting God in this area,” and saying, “I reject the idea that God will be true to this promise that He has made.”
In other words, I will not believe.
Get it?
Additionally, t he Greek word for depart is “afhistamee” and it means self-departure, self removal.
It is in this sense that the writer of Hebrews says in chapter six:
Hebrew 6:6 “If they (who were once enlightened) shall fall away (remove themselves in utter disbelief) (it is impossible) to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
Now, it seems to me, when I look around, even over the course of my relatively short life in the Body (16 years) I rarely come across men or women who fit the category of being once enlightened brothers or sisters that have turned to disbelief.
So why all this attention to the topic? Why the repeated warnings here in Hebrews, and in Romans, and in II Peter and James?
We could suggest a few possibilities in our attempts to understand.
Maybe it’s just a warning to the few who will depart from the faith and will end up on a trip to the Lake of Fire?
That maybe departing from the faith was far more prevalent and inviting in the early church due to the centuries of cultural and spiritual influence of Judaism and therefore the need was greater then than it is now? (I don’t think so)
That there are far more who depart from the faith than we might imagine. Having experienced Jesus and been enlightened, maybe they FROM THE HEART (which is where departure occurs) it is far more common than we can see and this warning is far more applicable then we might believe.
(this third point bodes well with Jesus “Parable of the Sower” and His description of those who say, “Lord Lord” and that the church will be full of “wheat and tares”).
Whatever the reason, the warning is here and clear. Additionally, look how the condition is described:
7 Wherefore, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief (better put, disbelief) in departing from the living God.
The writer says that this heart is “evil.”
Because Christianity is all about repenting and changing and being men and women of virtue we sometimes think that whether we really believe and trust God is secondary or further down the list of important characteristics – so long as our outward conduct is in line.
We cannot allow ourselves to ever forget that everything begins in the heart and mind, not with the hands.
That the presence or absence of genuine FAITH is key to all behaviors, to salvation, to producing fruits of love.
Allow me to step back from our topic of faith in God and appeal to some temporal examples to prove the point.
Imagine two marriages – one where faith and trust in each others loyalties abound and one where complete disbelief exists between the spouses.
Where trust exists there is peace and harmony and expressions of love that are readily received and appreciated.
Where no faith or trust exists there is no rest, is there? Can a man trust the affections of a wife in whom he has zero confidence she is loyal to him. Can a wife openly want to bear children if she has no confidence in her spouse that he will provide for them?
How will a child live and grow and adjust who has absolutely no faith in his or her parents to come through on anything?
How would we live if we had zero trust in our employers ability to pay us? Zero trust in the community to obey laws, zero trust that the money we take to the bank will be there when we go back? Zero trust with a medical profession that says we have a disease?
Now flip this situation over?
What if men and women lived in a world where the faith and trust (we are told to have in God) was also extended to each other . . . and it was merited?
All of us would relax more, worry would flee, and we would live in a world where everything would flow better between us.
Of course this is not the case. But my point is this is the case with God and it all starts with total trust and faith in His desire, ability and willingness to do what He says.
Without this in place, nothing else in our apparent relationship to Him matters anymore than giving flowers to a wife who does not trust us in the least means a thing.
Get it?
7 Wherefore, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Now, pay attention to what the writer suggests to his audience (and therefore to us) that we do to protect ourselves form developing such an evil heart? (verse 8)
13 But . . . exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Now, remember, this letter or epistle was written to a church, a body of believers. And the writer gives a direct prescription on what to do AS believers in the Body.
“Exhort one another daily,” and then the passage end with him returning to Psalm 95, which, as we learned last week, references the COI and adds, “While it is called to day.”
“But . . . exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Sooo . . . as believers, we are born again, into a new family.
All things become new. We inherit a new family (who we refer to as brothers and sisters). We place ourselves under new leadership(our King on High). And we have a new system or world view on living in this fallen world.
Realizing all this and more the writer tells us to exhort one another daily.
I can think of a number of applications, as believers, where this advice would be met.
Now the word exhort in the Greek is para kaleo.
The word para means “besides, with, in proximity to, in the sight of” and the word Kaleo mean to call, so the word parakaleo literally means “to call people around, beside, to the sight of” and by extension means everything in the New Testament from:
Comforting, beseeching, praying, exhorting, calling, and intreating . . . it’s the process and act of conversing and comforting in areas of faith.
Obviously, this is part of what we do when we officially gather together on Sunday. You receive instruction and teaching from the pulpit but there is more.
I can’t tell you how bless my heart is when I se people sitting and talking and crying and exhorting others to faith AFTER the teaching. That is exhortation and that goes a long way in fighting the faithlessness the world desires of every believer.
For this reason it is important that we seek to lift each other and beseech each other in love and with biblical advice, not the advice that comes from Man.
But the writer tells us to do this comforting “daily.”
I think in the early church they would meet daily, and there is really no reason why we could not meet daily to support and exhort one another – we have just gotten away from this in this modern society, haven’t we?
So while this is my full time job (which I try and do with and for people) it is also a duty of all the members of the body one toward another.
So make friends. Get phone numbers, Exhort and comfort each other daily.
Additionally, it almost goes without saying that Christian parents and grandparents ought to do the same thing to their children and grandchildren.
That teachers in the body ought to do the same, that the aged and elders of the church ought to do this with the young, and that men ought to comfort men, and women women.
All of this serves in small and big ways to help us slip from positions of faith.
The writer adds, “While it is called To-day.”
I would suggest this not only means immediately, but also that it is not an intermittent activity but a lifelong pursuit.
Our daily business.
Such instruction flies in the face of Sunday only church, doesn’t it? Such exortations cannot help but come naturally to those of faith and it is a constant business of the regenerated life and not just a duty to be performed then put away for seven days.
Verse 13:
“But . . . exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Now, it would be very easy to make an entire sermon on how “deceptive sin is,” how it overpromises and under delivers.
We could talk about all the traps – of individual specific sins. And as fun and impassioned that can be, it is religion and it is not the point.
Certainly, specific sins entrap and trick and deceive us. They deceive us because they appear so innocuous and can become an entire lifestyle.
But again this is not the context or point to the Christian. We do not focus on individual crimes of the flesh in church – that is religions game – “the do’s and don’t and you better not bees.”
In light of these passages, let me tell you why:
The context of these passages is warnings against faithlessness and this is the one of the two sins which Christians need to worry about or focus on (failing to love is the other).
Focusing on specific sins is like a person covered in chicken pox walking into a doctors office and the doctor spending an hour examining one of the pocs – failing to realize the whole body is diseased and needs treatment.
Additionally, and this is really hard for religious people to understand, but our ability, the solution to overcoming all sins of the flesh, is the focus and development of faith in God’s solution, Jesus Christ, not on the individual sins.
Show me a Christian addict, gossip, liar, pervert, thief, adulterer and I will show you a lack of faith and worst of all, a failure to love.
So when the writer says:
“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
We know where our exhortations one toward another may be!
NOT condemnation!
NOT judgment!
NOT, “I can’t believe you did that!” but
Exhorting one another to look to Jesus, to understand Jesus, to remind each other of what Jesus did for us.
To look to the cross, and to help one another remember that as his believers we die daily with Him, we were buried with Him, we have risen to new life through Him, and that our old man or woman is dead!
“That’s NOT you,” we tell someone failing in faith with a hug and a smile, “why, you’re my brother in Christ. You are a new creation and I’ve seen it! So I refuse to even recognize the person you are talking about because that is not who you are. Come on, lets read about our God who so loves us . . . come on, pray with me, my sister. For you have been redeemed!”
(Long beat)
Any questions or comments?
Let’s pray.
