and there's going to be a purpose behind it all. And so we're gonna understand, though they sound kind of scary, you guys already know exactly what they are and what role they play in studying the Bible. And we're gonna see how the rest of this passage is gonna make sense for us. And so we're back in Hebrews chapter number three, see if this works, in our finished series. So with that, we did Lord's Supper last week, and we sort of broke down chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. At least we got up to verse number 5. And then we were going to go ahead and finish up part 2 tonight, talking about what is this house that the author of Hebrews is talking about. And so but before we actually dive into what this house is and how it applies to us today and what we can go ahead and take forward the rest of the week and application, we need to do a way of review. So we'll read our passage and then we'll go ahead and do some brief reviews and then we're going to figure out what this house is, learn a little bit about Greek, learn a little bit about hermeneutics, and let you know that you don't need to know Greek to make sense of the Bible, okay? It does help a little bit, but I want to go ahead and show how well-meaning people use the Greek and totally misunderstand the Bible. And so we're going to look at the concept that a little bit of Greek is dangerous. If you know just a little bit of Greek, it's pretty detrimental to understanding the Bible. So let's read the passage and we'll just jump in. Verse number one of chapter number three, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. 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? Now we're gonna focus on verse number six here in a little bit in our study tonight. That's gonna be the key text. But before we get there, we just need to do a way of review of some things since we took a week off last week. So the first thing we need to look at is verse number one. The author of Hebrews says, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. We spent some time last time we were in this passage understanding what does it mean to be a partaker? In other words, it's a companion, it's a fellow helper, if you will, we're gonna participate in something. And so the word partakers is used multiple times in the book of Hebrews. And so the author is writing to the audience that they are partakers of what's known as the heavenly calling. And so they're going to be companions, they're going to be partners, they're going to have a participation aspect of whatever this heavenly calling is. So we talked a little bit about what is this heavenly calling, or there's a couple views on what it could be. It could be in reference to the aspect of partakers of receiving eternal life, of being saved to be a child of God. But we also talked about when we look into the context of what we read thus far, as well as the rest of the context in the book of Hebrews, in the Jewish understanding of what's known as the world to come, or olam haba, we can make sense that this aspect of a heavenly calling could be seen as their focus of their lot, their participation, their partaking in what they would consider the messianic age, or we would look at as the messianic kingdom. In other words, partakers in the messianic kingdom, the fact that when we talked about the parable of the talents, when Jesus spoke about that, depending on what you do with your talent, you can either invest it into God's way and God's will and God's word, and then you will be blessed and reap plentiful based on your investment, or you can just squander it and receive nothing from it. And so we looked at the aspect that those that live in fellowship and seek to please and serve God and fulfill God's will here now, will have a privilege of being a partaker, a partner, a companion in the messianic kingdom to go ahead and whether you become like ruler over certain cities, like the parable of the talents, or receiving certain rewards that are bestowed upon you, whatever the case is. And so the author is in chapter number three saying, brethren, partakers, companions, those that are gonna participate in the heavily calling messianic age, messianic kingdom, olam haba, He says, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession or confession Christ Jesus. We looked at the aspect again that the word apostle simply means descent one. We remember from the high priestly prayer that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father to come and take upon flesh to live the life you and I couldn't live, to die the death you and I deserve to die. He was sent. He was the sent one, the anointed, the Messiah. That's how he is the apostle. As well as the high priest, there was already a lot of discussion about that in weeks past, how Jesus Christ made an offering once, then he sat down because that role of making a sacrifice was completed once for all. We'll get into that more in chapters 9 and 10, and look at that more from a temple, tabernacle, Levitical system aspect. But we're being told here that the author is saying, consider, fix your mind upon the one who was sent for you and the one who is our high priest. We gotta remember this is because the fact that these Jewish people that he's writing to were considering to going back to the law, considering to go back to the temple, considering to go back to Judaism and not living in light of the faith of their Messiah. We then moved on, and then verse two, there's this contrast. So there's a contrast between Jesus and Moses. It says, consider Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed as Moses was faithful in all his house. And so the author makes this argument that Jesus Christ is more faithful than Moses. And so we discuss why bring Moses into the equation. Well, when we remember what Philo had written many years ago, we see the fact that it's a very common Jewish thought that Moses was the most faithful Israelite there was. And so this comparison to these Jewish people that were going to go back to the law, not only was Jesus better than the angels, but he's arguing Jesus is more faithful than even the most faithful man they're adoring. And oh, by the way, going back to the law, going back to the law of Moses, going back to the Torah, going back to the book of Moses, they would essentially be going back from Jesus Christ back to Moses. And the author is saying Jesus Christ, the apostle, the high priest, is more faithful than the most faithful person you're wanting to go back to don't forsake Jesus Christ. When we looked at the accomplishments of Moses, he had a lot of accomplishments, did he not? He was there protected by God in the early parts of his birth. He was called of God to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. He led them across dry land through the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds. He spoke to God face to face. He had received and delivered the law. He was commissioned to build the tabernacle, which will come in handy later. And he wrote the Torah. And so there was a lot of accomplishments that Moses had done while he was here. And so that is why the author is comparing him to Moses. In order to convince the Jewish believers not to go back to the law, go back to Moses, he's making an argument that this Jesus Christ is more faithful and therefore he would never forsake him and they need to go ahead and make sure that their mind consider their mind is fixed on Jesus Christ and we're going to circle back to that here in a little bit. Now this aspect of faithful it's pulling out of Numbers chapter 12 verse number 7 if we remember the fact that Aaron, Miriam, and Moses were called in front of the tabernacle, the tent of congregation, to meet with God because they were speaking against Moses, God's appointed person, and God clearly revealed to them that Moses is the most faithful in my house. This is where we get the idea, what is this house that's being spoken of? What is the emphasis on the house? And so we're gonna be looking at that tonight. If we don't understand the word house correctly, you've heard me say it once, you'll hear me say it a thousand times. If we misinterpret the Bible, we will misapply the Bible. And if the Bible was written to change our lives so that we know how we can live to serve, to please God, then we need to make sure that we're interpreting it right. Because if I think God is telling me I need to work to be saved, then I'm going to live according to that belief. But if it's a bad interpretation, we need to figure out what the proper one is. So that's why we're going to spend a little bit of time trying to figure out what is this house meaning. And when we do that, one thing I like to do is like we do with all these words, we don't do it as much as we would if we're studying the Bible. But in English, it's sort of like second nature for you. When you write a word, you read a word, you think of a word, you automatically know in your mind the different meanings that word can carry. like the word trunk. A trunk can be like on an elephant. It could be on the back of a car. It could be a trunk like a suitcase on the ground. Same like the word spring. Are you jumping like Tigger? Is it a spring like on a car? Is it a season? We automatically intuitively know the meaning of the words in English. And so when we're reading them, we automatically know what meaning is assigned based upon the context of what we're reading. Now, when we're reading the Bible, because it's been translated from Hebrew to English or from Aramaic to English or from Greek to English, we have to try to understand what did those words actually mean. One of the better tools to use to figure out what is the meaning of a word is the fact that it's a Blue Letter Bible. Okay, so if you go to Blue Letter Bible, it's a very simple app, it's a free app, You can click on the word because what you will find out is sometimes phrases in English that are made up of like two, three, or four words is one single Greek word. And therefore, if we understand what that Greek word means, we can figure out, okay, what's the best use of that? What's the best meaning of that word? And so in this passage, when we're talking about house, when you and I think of the word house, We're literally thinking of where we live, right? Our home. We go home, we live in our house, pay mortgage on our house, whatever the case is. That's more or less the only house we know of in English. But in Greek there's multiple meanings for a house. Now the Greek word is oikos and it can mean very many things like you see up here. It can be used literally or it can be used figuratively. What you see in yellow highlighted, when people are translating and interpreting and doing commentaries on this passage, those are the top three understandings of what oikos is meaning in this passage. Now, we got to remember that a word carries the meaning that the context dictates, all right? Therefore, when we're looking at this, if we take these top three, it can mean the temper tabernacle, it can mean a family, or it can mean a group of Christians or a group of believers. And so I wanna take those top three views on what this word means and what it would look like if we assign that meaning into the context of this passage. Makes sense, have I lost anybody yet? Okay, first one, if we were to look at this as a household or a family, If we were to interpret the word house, Moses was the most faithful in his house, in his family, in his household, then we would also have to carry that meaning forward in verse number six. In verse number six, when the author writes, we are his house if we hold fast. So if we interpret the word house as being part of a family, Then we have to ask the question, does that mean we're not a part of the family if we don't hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope? This would be more of a conditional salvation view, like an Arminian view, like a John Piper final salvation, that you don't truly have eternal life until you endure to the end. And so some people will view it like that, that you're not actually in the family of God unless you hold fast to the end. He who endures to the end shall be saved, Matthew 24, 13. Commonly cited, often abused and misused. If we interpret it with family, we're faced with this dilemma. If we interpret it as Christians, whose house we are, whose Christians we are if we hold fast, This is where some people get this idea that you can only prove that you're a genuine Christian if you endure. This would be more of a lordship view, that if you're truly a believer, you're gonna endure until the end. You're gonna hold fast to your confidence, to your boldness. You're not gonna shrink back to the law. If you do, you're never truly a Christian in the first place. So this is how it's interpreted based on that particular view. if we were to interpret it based on the other view of it being a tabernacle, the house being used as a tabernacle, then we see more of a fellowship idea, and we're gonna unpack this here in a moment, that if we don't hold fast, if a Christian doesn't hold fast, then we are not God or Jesus's tabernacle. And this would be more of being in fellowship, being more in communion with God. And I'm gonna explain that right now. If we took this view of tabernacle, if we looked at household and family, if we looked at Christians, believers, it doesn't really make sense of what we read so far in the first two chapters because there hasn't been a whole lot of emphasis of that. But if we look at this as in reference to the temple or in reference to a tabernacle, oikos, house, can be used in reference to the tabernacle, we can see that being contextually supportive by the passages itself. There's been a reference of Jesus being the high priest, okay, that's tabernacle language, the aspect of Moses being the most faithful in all of his house in the tabernacle, and the aspect that Moses was the one that was appointed and commissioned by God to build the tabernacle, and also this aspect of Jesus being our high priest. It's all tabernacle-ish language, and it would fit the context a lot more smoother than if we tried to understand it as a family or a group of Christians, whatever the case is. If we were to go to Hebrews chapter 8, remember, if you were to look at Hebrews chapter 6 first, this is funny, because Hebrews chapter 6, verse number 1, The author says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. What we're talking about tonight is just elementary. This is just basic Christian doctrine. Remember, he's writing to Messianic Jewish believers. They know the Torah. They know Moses. They know the tabernacle. We, not so much. But this would have been basic knowledge for the Jewish people back then. But if you were to look at Hebrews chapter number eight, verse number one, The author says, now of the things which we have spoken, so chapters one through seven, he says, this is the sum, this is the main point of it all. Then he goes on and talks a little bit about the tabernacle. The tabernacle, the symbolism and how Moses was commissioned to build it, how it's a shadow of things in the heavenlies and things like that. Tabernacle language is used all throughout the book of Hebrews. And so it would make sense If oikos, the English word house, can be translated as tabernacle, it would make sense seeing that throughout the book of Hebrews, there's a lot of this tabernacle language. And he's writing to Jewish people that are wanting to go back to the tabernacle or the temple in their days. And so it fits a lot better contextually than trying to force a view of it being all Christians or a view of it being in the family or the household of God. Like I said, it correlates with tabernacle sanctuary. It correlates with Numbers chapter 12, verse seven, when the author here in chapter number three brings up Moses is most faithful in my house. In the tabernacle, it's referenced right there in the presence of the tabernacle. Right there, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are standing at the tent of congregation, i.e. the tabernacle. It's a clear reference to the tabernacle in chapter number three. We also know that the tabernacle was designed to be pretty much the epicenter of worship for the Israelites. This is where they went to offer sacrifices, where they went to worship. When they wanted and needed to hear from God, they would go to the tabernacle. It's where they served God. It's also a place where people could be disfellowshipped from due to certain sins and uncleanness as well. Now the interesting thing is when somebody was disfellowshipped out of the tabernacle area from the community, say they were a leper or whatever the case was, they had the opportunity to get right back into fellowship once they made restitution of the uncleanness and they were pronounced clean by the Levitical priests, things like that. So just because someone was disfellowshipped from the tabernacle for a period, they could get back into fellowship once the uncleanness was gone. And so this is an aspect of fellowship, not necessarily relationship. I like what Dr. Jody Dillow says. I'm not sure if you can read this or not, but he says, when talking about the word house here, he says, but the house of God in Numbers 12, 7 is clearly not the community of the saved, but the place where they worship, the sanctuary. In fact, according to Michel, the term House of God, or Oikos Deo, was a fixed term for the sanctuary in the Septuagint. Lange observes, it is better to understand by my house, the tabernacle, including the economy that it represents. The Apostle's reference to this phrase in Hebrews 3, 2 is quite consistent with this in most all of his words, whose house we are. So Dr. Jody Dillow, who is a very big-time, a well-known theologian and scholar, argues that understanding the word house as tabernacle is the best way. Dr. J. Paul Tanner also says the author focuses on the word house as a reference to the tabernacle where priestly activities were conducted. Drawing on Numbers 12, six through eight, the author presents Moses as being faithful in all his house as a servant. Moses had been commissioned to build the tabernacle according to God's precise instructions and was faithful in doing so. And if you remember, when Moses built the tabernacle, he was the one that consecrated Aaron and the priests. And therefore, tabernacle language is all over the book of Hebrews. And so when we're looking at this word house, if we understand it as the epicenter of worship and where we experience fellowship and community with God, then the rest of the uses of the word make sense according to the context. It wasn't just a location. It was not just a building. It was the place of worship and a place of gathering for the believers. It was experiencing God's presence and fellowship. Therefore, the house would be a reference to the tabernacle, the place of fellowship and worship of the believing community, and figuratively, the place where one enjoys fellowship with God. We can look at it like this. Since the literal tabernacle in the Old Testament, as we see, is the place to worship God, the place of offering gifts to God, the place to go in service to God, the place to maintain fellowship with God, then we as believers are Christ's tabernacle. We are to serve Christ, to worship Christ, to offer gifts to Christ, to maintain fellowship with Christ, just as the priest would do during the days of the tabernacle. And so we're trying to understand what is this word house? What does this mean? What does it mean if we hold fast? You know, we are Christ's house. It's not talking about relationally as far as being part of God's family. It's not talking about proving whether or not we're a believer. It's talking about the aspect that we are Christ's spiritual house so long as we are holding fast to the hope, the rejoicing of the hope and holding fast to the confidence or the boldness. One more verse and passage, and I want to go ahead and prove this as well. Since Hebrews is written to Messianic Jewish people, one of the other books of the Bible that's written to Messianic Jewish people is the book of 1 Peter. And in 1 Peter, this is what Peter says. He says, ye, or y'all, are lively stones. Y'all are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. Ye are a royal priesthood. And so what Peter is saying is the express purpose of the tabernacle and believers as well are to offer up these gifts and these sacrifices to Christ. And therefore, if we hold fast to the end, we are partaking in that calling and purpose as believers. We're going to revisit that here momentarily. Have I lost anybody as far as the house is concerned? So we can see how there's a lot of tabernacle language, a lot of temple language, understanding this aspect of house. But we do have to deal with this warning. For whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope until the end. So it sounds like warning language, right? When we're looking at the word confidence, it simply means boldness. And this hope, rejoicing of hope is this expectation. And so we need to hold fast, we need to maintain, we need to make sure we don't lose it until the end. And we can look at until the end, until the coming of Christ, all right? Or day we take our last breath. All right, this is gonna be fun. I nerd out on stuff like this. Where are my nerds with me? Okay, I'll enjoy it a little bit. Oscar's like, no, I had a long day. All right, I promise it's gonna make sense and I promise there is purpose behind this awe, okay? Because one of the questions I get is, do you need to know Greek to understand the Bible? Do you need to know Greek to make sense of it? Do I even really need to know how to parse out the Greek or these run-on sentences in the Greek and punctuate, do I need to know Greek at all? And I'm gonna make an argument that Greek helps understanding, but Greek is totally not necessary. And I will prove the case that if you know just a little bit of Greek, that can be dangerous. That could be very dangerous to interpreting the Bible. And I'm gonna prove that. So, here we go. If we hold fast, we are Christ's house. So, look at these two statements. They are not equally the same. The top one says, if we hold fast, we are Christ's house. The bottom says, we are Christ's house if we hold fast. Surface level, just a brief glance at it, might be like, oh, they're saying the same thing. But they're totally not. The top one is what those that want to predicate our eternal life based upon conditions and works, they're going to read it like the top one. If we hold fast, we're going to be Christ's house. However, there's a problem with that. The top statement has a future look. If we hold fast, we're going to be Christ's house. Something to gain in the future. But that's not what the text actually says. The text says we are now Christ's house if we hold fast. There is a difference there and I want to show you. All right. So here we can read that the argument that some people make is that one can become Christ's house so long as they hold fast. This is the lordship view that you're only a genuine believer view if you do this. This is the view that you won't actually gain salvation unless you endure to the end. This is how a lot of people will understand the verse. All right, if we are so committed to our theology, right, If we're so committed to salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, not of works, lest any man should boast, if we're so fully committed to this, we might make this argument. We might say, if it was speaking of a future reality that we will be, then it should be written in future tense, right? We might end up saying that. This is what the text says. It says, if we hold fast, we are, according to their view, right? It says we are. But we're gonna say, because we're committed to our view, right, we're gonna say, if this is speaking of the future, then where it says we are should actually say we will be, right? If they think it's in the future, then it should be a future tense, we will be, not we are now. Does that make sense? That's just basic English grammar, right? So if we're so committed, we might make this argument. What's interesting is when you look into the Greek, it's a present tense. Indicative just means it's a statement of fact, if you will, okay? But in the Greek, it is clearly a present tense verb. Now, you would argue if it's speaking of a future, then the Greek wouldn't be written in the present tense. It would be written in the future, right? Makes sense, according to English, right? And so we're so committed to our theology This can't be talking about future tense because it's written in the present tense. If the author meant it to be written in the future, it would have been a future tense like we have in future tense as well. And so we would object to saying that. We're like, haha, I know my Greek. I opened up Blue Letter Bible. It says it's in present tense. So it's not the future. So you're wrong. That's where a little Greek can be dangerous. because that could possibly be incorrect. I bring up this verse right here, 1 John 3, 9. It says, for whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Some translation says does not practice sin. The Greek word is poeo. It means to commit. It means to do a single act. But theological biases change translations and make it say things because of it being in the present tense. They think present tense means that it continues on and carries forward. Whenever you're looking into the Greek language and the Greek verbs, time, like us, when we think of verbs, past, present, and future, time is secondary, if all, in the Greek. But because we're English speakers, we wanna fix time as primary. And so like in 1 John 3, 9, when we see this as present tense, we're like, okay, you have to keep doing it. Practicing sin, right? A little Greek can be dangerous. A little Greek, and same thing with this too. Ha ha, it should be written in the future tense if it's gonna be a will be. They're gonna come back to you and say, nope, it's prolepsis. How many people have heard of the word prolepsis? Ah, Rebecca has, yeah. That's your cat's name? Prolepsis is a literary tool, okay? Prolepsis is just simply writing something in the present tense, but it's a future reality. So it's something that will happen in the future, but it's written in the present tense as if it already happened. The Bible uses this, Joshua. Joshua 10 and God has said this a few times fear them not for I have delivered them into your hand God said he already delivered them into his hand. But yet Joshua still had to go fight the battle the next day That had not yet occurred That's a form of prolepsis That God had already delivered them. But yet they weren't delivered yet. They still had to fight the battle and We could see this elsewhere in Revelation chapter 20, and he laid hold on Satan and bound him. This is a future thing, but it's written in the present tense. Proleptic statements are, they're not very common, but you can find them in the Bible, where something in the future is written in the present tense. I bring this up because when we say, haha, it should be written in the future tense, they're gonna say, no it doesn't, this is just written proleptically. This is looking in the future but written in the present. It's been used in Joshua 10a, it's been used in Revelation 22, and it's been used in other verses in the Bible. This is totally a legitimate use of prolepsis. All right. The conditionalists could be right in this view. They could be right to say this is a future reality spoken in the present prolepsis. But we don't want to argue for the sake of what we believe theology speaks of. We want to try to understand the Bible. We don't want to try to defend a view. We don't want to defend a theological framework. We don't want to defend my position. We want to figure out what is the Bible actually saying. And if the Bible says something different than a view that I hold, guess what? I need to change my view. Otherwise, I'm stubborn. And so I point out this illustration to say that there are so many times where we're culpable of defending our view without even caring about what the Bible actually is saying, or even caring about what people that have differing views might argue. Because if we argue, that should be written in future tense, they could be totally right. No, it's prolepsis. It's all about how it fits in the context. All right, so, this is where we're gonna still argue against the conditional view of this. Once we're done looking at this, we're going to find out what it means for us today. And we will draw a clear application for us to carry forward. But I want to use this as a teaching tool to say don't defend a theology, defend the Bible. figure out what the Bible says, and then defend scripture. Don't defend a framework. If our framework has holes in it, we need to plug those holes up, figure out what's wrong, and fix it, because I want to know what the Bible says. I want to know what my God says, not what Dr., you know, Snuffy Nose says that's in my theological camp, all right? Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, he is one of the leading Greek scholars in the world today. He's written numerous books on how to study Greek. He is up there with William Mounts, if anybody knows that name, he's up there with him. In his book, The Basics of Greek, he talks about what's known as lexical semantics and linguistic pragmatics. I've lost everybody, right? In other words, he talks about the difference between meanings of words and context. That's pretty much what it is. Fancy terms for simple definitions, all right? Lexical semantics is what does the word mean and how do they relate to each other. What is the meanings of the word? Is it a past tense? Is it a noun? Is it an adverb? Whatever the case is. And then the linguistic pragmatics is what is the context? How are these words being used in conversation? Makes sense, right? Now you understand, you know, these fancy words, but you are doing this already. You're understanding the range of meanings. And then you're understanding how those range of meanings fit within your discourse, your conversation, if you will. If you're at the zoo and you're talking about a trunk and you're looking at an elephant, you're not going to think of a car, right? That's lexical semantics and linguistic pragmatics at work. You need both of them to really get a good interpretation of the Bible, okay? You can't just have one without the other. You really need both of them. You need to know what the range of meanings are for a word, and you need to know how the word is being used in the context. That's what we've been doing with this word house. Could be tabernacle, it could be a family, it could be a body of Christians. All right. When we're looking at this passage in this verse, in verse number six, we are Christ's house if we hold fast. According to lexical semantics, it could be proleptic. It could be a future reality written in the, it totally could be. However, comma, When we look at the linguistic pragmatics, when we look at the context, when we look at how this word is being used in the discourse, in the book itself, that view falls flat. Because when we see that all the language is tabernaculish, There's a reference to sacrifices. There's a reference to Jesus as a high priest, a reference of Moses building the tabernacle. The reference in Numbers 12 is in the presence of God at the tabernacle. We're understanding the context, the pragmatics. Some people will only go to the meaning of the word, the lexical semantics, and they will assign their understanding based off that, ignoring the context. That's where it says, again, a little Greek can be a dangerous thing. There's a video out there. I've actually done a reply to John 5, 24. He that heareth my words and believeth on him, a hath everlasting life is passed from death to life and shall never come into condemnation. There's somebody out there that does a video that says because it's written in the present tense, you have to continue to do these things. But that's based on very basic Greek, and it's totally wrong butchering the verse. And therefore, a little bit of Greek can be very detrimental. So, if we look at the lexical semantics, it is written in the present tense. Okay? It is written in the present tense. The context supports Bible, theological, and the surrounding context that it's talking about fellowship. We know the Bible speaks of eternal security that once a believer, once somebody believes in the gospel, they're eternally secure, they're saved, they're in the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. We know the Bible speaks of all this. We know it from cover to cover, it speaks of all that. So the Bible clearly reveals eternal security, that you can't lose salvation. And so this conditionalist view is wrong. When we understand 1 John as a test of fellowship, not relationship, we can see that fellowship is dependent upon works, not relationship, not our position, not whether we're truly a Christian or not. When we look at these things, we understand the preponderance of evidence shows that verse six says if we are Christ's house, we are Christ's house if we hold fast. It's not talking about losing salvation or approving salvation, it's talking about fellowship with God as we looked at with this word tabernacle. We didn't even talk about what's known as the identity statement. In the Greek, most often your identity statements or the phrase we are, we're identifying us, those are most often in front of those conditions, meaning that we are proving ourselves to be that if we hold fast to this condition. and being the fact that we understand house as being a tabernacle and serving as a priest. In the tabernacle, it's talking about fellowship, but we didn't get into that either. The text reveals we are Christ's house as a present reality, not something attained in the future, seen by the context, seen by the meaning of the words as well. The Bible and the surrounding context reveals relationship is not based upon continued obedience, But fellowship is. Our fellowship with God is dependent upon our obedience. Our relationship with God is not. And so I wanted to just go ahead and show how some people will view this verse and how some of us are so committed to a theological framework that we're just gonna try to defend our theology versus trying to understand what the Bible says. And those of us that know just a little bit of Greek we can be pretty dangerous to ourselves and dangerous to our interpretation. You don't need to know this aspect of lexical semantics. You really just need to know the linguistic pragmatics. You just really need to know the context. We can most often understand the words as they're written on the pages. So really, you need to just really focus on the context. People who focus on the context Get this, more often than not, translate verses more accurately than first-year Greek students, because they're so committed to trying to apply what they learn in first-year Greek that they're ignoring the context, and they're forgetting the fact that, you know, these words can have a nomic or a stative or a durative or all the other aspects. And so, just know the context. You don't need to know Greek to understand the Bible. It can be very useful, It can give a depth of scripture, but it could also be detrimental to your understanding if you just know a little bit and you try to force it there. Know the context. Know the context. All right, so what does this even mean then? We know what it doesn't say, right? We understood all that, you know, nerdy stuff. What does it actually say? All right, we are Christ's house if we hold fast. In the present, we are when we are being Christ's house, or we are Christ's house when we are holding fast. So as long as we are holding fast, we are in the present tense Christ's house. It's a present reality of functioning as Christ's tabernacle. Remember, we're trying to understand what house is. House is tabernacle. House is the epicenter of worship. We are functioning as we are supposed to function, 1 Peter 2, royal priesthood, built up a spiritual place, spiritual tabernacle. We are functioning as God's tabernacle of service, worshiping, offering gifts, maintaining fellowship, as long as we hold fast to a confidence in the hope. We are doing and living and being our Christian life as what we are meant to be so long as we hold fast to the confidence. Let's sort of revisit this. All right. Consider the apostle, high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful as a son over his own house, whose house, whose tabernacle, whose place of worship we are, if we hold fast to confidence and rejoicing to the hope firm and to the end. All that, if you want to know what this passage is saying, just a quick illustration, and it'll make sense. This building we're sitting in, it functions only as a place of worship so long as it remains standing, so long as it's occupied by God's people, So long as God's people are serving God and worshiping God, it is functioning as a place of worship. If this building gets abandoned, if all the people leave, it gets dark, it gets dusty, it's no longer a place of service, it's no longer a place where people can worship and experience God's presence or to hear God's word. If we have left, this place is not serving its official purpose. doesn't happen because God left, it happens because God's people have left. In the same way, you and I as believers, we function as God's tabernacle, we function as God's spiritual house where we serve God, where we worship God, where we fellowship with God. If we withdraw from God, then we as a spiritual house grow dark and dusty. We don't cease to be God's tabernacle. We just cease functioning as God's tabernacle. And when that happens, we distance ourselves from the place of God's presence, the tabernacle. So how do we prevent ourselves from withdrawing from this? It's not by doing anything. It's not by working. It's what Hebrews 3, 1 says, consider, fix our minds upon Jesus, who was the apostle, the sent one. Fix our minds upon Jesus, who was our high priest of our faith. The power of our confidence, the power of our boldness and our expected hope is dependent upon what we focus on. The more focused on God we are, the more bolder our faith will be. and we won't turn our back and shrink away. And so if you're to ask me three verses one through six, what does this mean? You and I as believers, we are called to be a royal priesthood. We are called to function as God's spiritual house, God's tabernacle, God's temple, if you will. We are only functioning as that so long as we focus our eyes on Christ. So this week, as we go through the week, let us fix our eyes on Christ to serve Him, to offer gifts, to worship Him, to maintain fellowship with Him, and oh, to try to be the light of Christ to a community as well. God, I thank you for this evening, and Lord, I know that was a lot, but I pray the Holy Spirit would allow just some nuggets of just wisdom and truth and practical application to be taken home and just chewed upon for the rest of the week. Lord, we're thankful for the fact that you don't forsake us and you don't leave us when we don't live in light of your sacrifice, but Lord, we're thankful for forgiveness, we're thankful for restoration and reconciliation. So Lord, we just pray that you would just allow us to live in light of the fact that we are called to be your tabernacle and just burden us to function as a well-oiled tabernacle should by us keeping our minds and our eyes fixed upon you. We thank you and we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.