All right, church, we come now to the preaching of the word of God this morning. If you have your Bibles, I wanna invite you to turn to Hebrews chapter three. We'll continue on in our study of Hebrews together this morning. And as you turn there, we're gonna call on the name of the Lord again, and we're gonna ask for God's help to hear God's word this morning, let's pray. Father, you are the source of everything good. And Lord, we come to you this morning in Jesus's name. And Lord, we bring ourselves and all that we are to you, Lord, as empty vessels, God, and we ask that you would fill us this morning. Lord, we pray that you would give us what we need, that you would give bread to your children, Lord, we ask that your word would be truly heard this morning and we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would address us through Holy Scripture. Lord, we ask for willing hearts to rightly hear your word and to obey what you say. Lord, you say in your word that your people are made willing on the day of your power. And we pray, may it be so today, Lord. Make us willing, make us hear your voice. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, church, there are two things that I want you to know before we dig into this text this morning. One is happening tonight, and the other happened a long time ago. Tonight around 10 p.m., some sooner and some later, every Christian in this room is going to go to sleep, Lord willing, okay? You are going to go to sleep, and during this time, about eight hours, Lord willing, you are going to lose control of everything. You're gonna lose control of your mind, It's gonna wander wherever it wants to go, and your will, okay, you're not gonna have volition for those eight hours. You're going to be asleep, and the question that I wanna pose to you this morning is how do you know, Christian, when you wake up tomorrow morning, how do you know that you will still be a Christian? You're not gonna be in control. How do you know tomorrow morning that you're going to wake up and you're still going to be trusting in Jesus Christ? We're banking on this miracle. We're banking on it every night when we go to sleep that we're trusting in Jesus and we're going to wake up tomorrow and we're going to still be trusting in Jesus. And this just gets to be a harder question the more you stretch out the time. So if you're a 12 year old girl this morning and you're a Christian and you're trusting in Jesus, that question can be stretched out even further. How do you know when you're 75 years old that you're still going to be trusting in Jesus? How do you know your faith is going to make it to tomorrow morning, much less for the next 70 years? So that's what's going down tonight. at 10 p.m. approximately. Now the other thing is something that happened a long time ago. Almost 500 years ago, the Roman Catholic Church answered this question. January 13th, 1547, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church formally responded to Protestant theology, to the reformers at the Council of Trent. and they published the canons of the Council of Trent. And one of these canons deals with the doctrine of Christian assurance, okay? This is the Roman Catholic Church's response to the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. This is their answer. If anyone says that he will for certain have the gift of perseverance to the end, Unless he learned this by special revelation, let him be anathema. Let him be anathema. I want you to know this morning that according to the Church of Rome, when you go to bed tonight, You cannot know that you will wake up a Christian tomorrow morning unless God reveals that to you like he did to Isaiah the prophet of old or a special word like God gave to Mary. So for the rest of us, the peasant Christians, we can have no assurance of salvation. In fact, if you say that you know for certain that you have the assurance of salvation, you are damned. You are anathema. Now church, that is a lie. That is an egregious lie upon the gospel and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And praise God, it is a lie. Praise God, we have assurance in Jesus Christ. God has provided assurance for his people. And one of the things that this letter that we're studying, the book of Hebrews does, is it attaches our Christian assurance to the great high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. How do we know that we're going to wake up tomorrow morning and still be trusting in Jesus, Hebrews? gives us the answer to this question because we have a great high priest who is seated at the right hand of God, who always lives to make intercession for his people. And so we're gonna see today, not only does God give us assurance through Jesus, our great high priest, we can have this assurance in the middle of severe warning passages in the New Testament that wrongly understood can unsettle our assurance in Jesus Christ. And so with that in mind, let's stand this morning for the reading of the word of God, Hebrews chapter three. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all of God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all of God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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 and our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. 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, so 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 confidence firm to the end. As it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. This is God's word to Grace Community Church this morning. You may be seated. As far as structure goes, this chapter has three relatively clean divisions. And first, the first break is in verses 1 through 6, we have this comparison in Hebrews 3 between Jesus and Moses. And then the second A portion of this chapter is found in verses 7 through 11, where we have this extended quotation of the Old Testament, specifically Psalm 95. And then the third section of Hebrews 3, verses 12 through 19, the author gives us an exposition of this Psalm 95 quotation, and then he exhorts us from the negative example of this wilderness generation. Now, we're jumping into chapter three, but where have we been in the book of Hebrews? I want you to remember for the past two chapters, Hebrews has been hammering home this theme of the superiority of Jesus. Jesus is better. And specifically the message has been for the first two chapters of Hebrews, Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than the angels. And you remember the situation that the author is dealing with in this letter is a group of Christians, the Hebrews, are being tempted to run back to the old covenant. And one of the things we're instructed about the old covenant is that's the covenant that was given through angelic intermediaries. And so one of the strategies of this author is to say, no, Jesus is better than those angels. Therefore, Jesus's covenant is better than the old covenant. That's stage one in this argument of Jesus is better. When we come to chapter 3, we enter into stage 2 of this argument. Really, it's stage 3. Jesus is better than the prophets in the introduction. Jesus is better than the angels in chapters 1 and 2. And now we're coming to stage 3, and I want you to think about why. If you are tempted to run back to the old covenant and you are being argued or persuaded with the superiority of Jesus, then one of the things you have to reckon with is Moses. You have to deal with Moses. And this is exactly what we enter into in Hebrews chapter three is the next stage in the argument. Jesus is better than Moses. Now we see this comparison begin in verse two, run all the way through verse five, and it's not just a contrast, though it is that, it actually begins with how they're similar. So notice in verse two, both Jesus and Moses are said to be faithful. They're faithful, and so you have this category, and if the category is called faithful, Jesus and Moses are in that category. They were faithful to God, faithful to the end. And yet, the rest of the paragraph shows us two important differences between Jesus and Moses, and both of these are to prove or to support the superiority of Jesus Christ over Moses. You see the first one in verse three, Jesus is described as the builder of the house, while Moses is described as the house that is built. That's the argument. Now the word house in the Bible can refer to a structure that a family lives in. or to the family that lives in that structure, household. And it's in that second sense that he's using this word house in Hebrews 3. Jesus is compared to the builder of the household of God, the family of God. Jesus built that family, that house, and Moses is merely a member of the household of God. Moses is a servant in that house. One of the things that we've already mentioned, and we're going to see this continue through the book of Hebrews, is this interplay back and forth between references to the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? Is He God or man? Well, He's the God-man. He's fully God and fully man. And this is one of the ways that Hebrews proclaims the deity of Jesus Christ, by proclaiming Jesus as the builder of the household of God. Notice in verse 4, the author says this in verse 4, the builder of all things is God. The builder of all things is God. Yet in verse 3, he says Jesus is the builder of the house. He's telling us that Jesus is God. This is a reference to the deity of Jesus Christ. Now this is part of Jesus's glory. Jesus is the one who built God's house, God's family. And I was reminded of that phrase, that promise that Jesus gave us in Matthew 16. Jesus said this, I will build my church. And that's a glorious description of the people of God. We are the family that Jesus built. We are the house that Jesus built. And who is Moses? Well, Moses is a faithful servant of God, but Moses is just a member of that house. Jesus built the family and Moses is a member of that family. Therefore, Jesus is counted worthy of much more glory than Moses. Church, this is a beautiful thing to consider. that Jesus is the builder of the house. You know, we talk about, and rightly so, we talk about, when we talk about missions, we talk about planting churches, starting churches, strengthening churches, multiplying churches, reaching the peoples, the unreached peoples, but you know what? We're just instruments in all that. Underneath all of it, what's happening? Jesus is building the house. We are just members of the house. Jesus is building his church. He is the constructor of the household of God. Therefore, Jesus is better than Moses. He built Moses. Jesus created Moses. Now the second way the paragraph shows us the superiority of Jesus is in verses five and six. You have this interplay between Moses the servant and Jesus the son. Moses was the faithful servant in God's house. Now that's almost the exact quotation of Numbers chapter 12, verse seven. Moses is the faithful servant in God's house. And so we're being called back to, like happens so often in the book of Hebrews, we're being called back to the Old Testament, to this Numbers 12 context. And what's going on in Numbers 12 is Miriam and Aaron have made a critique against Moses that, you know, you're not the only one that God speaks to, Moses. This is a critique of jealousy. And God responds by rebuking them with these words in Numbers 12, seven. He says, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all of my house. With him, I speak mouth to mouth clearly and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Now, the reason that context is important is it proves to us that when Hebrews calls Moses a servant, it's not belittling him. In fact, it's pulling from an Old Testament context that says there's nobody in the Old Testament that compares to Moses. Moses is the faithful servant in the house. He speaks to God mouth to mouth and he beholds the form of the Lord. And so this Old Testament echo distinguishes Moses as greater than every other Old Testament prophet. And yet the argument in Hebrews 3 is Jesus is greater still. Moses was a faithful servant in the house, but verse six says Christ is the faithful son over the house. Jesus is not the servant. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is not in the house, a member of the family. Jesus is over the family, the Lord of the household of God. Then look at that phrase in verse five. This is an awesome phrase. Moses' whole life is said, look at these words, to testify to things that were to be spoken later. Now, we've taught this for a long time and we've mentioned this often in recent weeks of typology in the Old Testament. Patterns, types, shadows in the Old Testament that find their fulfillment in Jesus. And that phrase in verse five tells you that Moses' entire life pointed beyond itself. It pointed to a greater Moses to come, something beyond Moses, resembled Moses but beyond Moses, things to be spoken of later. Moses was a type. Now this is explicit in Deuteronomy 18. Moses told us that God would raise up a prophet like Moses. God would put his word in that prophet's mouth and Moses exhorts us, listen to him. We talked about that just a few weeks ago in Hebrews chapter one. Now, when the book of Deuteronomy ends and Moses' life draws to a close in Deuteronomy 34, the Bible explicitly tells us that that prophet like Moses, that Deuteronomy 18 prophet like Moses has not arisen in Israel. In fact, the very last words of the book of Deuteronomy tell us no prophet like Moses has arisen in Israel. And it talks about Moses being distinct and unique in two ways. And it says no prophet who knew the Lord face to face, no prophet like him had arisen in Israel. And no prophet who did signs and wonders like Moses when he brought Israel out of Egypt has arisen in Israel. Two things that distinguish Moses from all the other Old Testament prophets. Face to face with God and signs and wonders like no other in the Old Testament. Now this remained true for centuries and centuries and centuries. and church, then Jesus came. Then Jesus came. And a prophet greater than Moses arose in Israel. In fact, John's gospel, and a sister in this church shared this with me, I think this is an awesome thing. John's gospel is framed. with this theme of Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is the greater Moses. Listen to this. The very first word in John's gospel is the word was with God, literally toward God, describing this face-to-face relation between the Father and the Son. Jesus is the word and he's face-to-face with God. And then the very last word of John's gospel is that Jesus did more miracles that were written in this book. And in fact, if the books contained all the miracles that Jesus did, not even the whole earth would contain the books that were written. In other words, John's very first words and very last words are face to face with God and signs and wonders like no other. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is greater than Moses. And so one of the ways that we could summarize as the Bible transitions from the old covenant to the new is Moses was the greatest and then Jesus came. And then Jesus came and superseded him. Moses was the faithful servant, but Jesus is the faithful son. Now there's been a battle across history of who's gonna be the new Moses figure. Who's gonna be the new leader that receives the oracles, that leads the people? Whether this be the battle, suppose this is Muhammad or Joseph Smith or some other leader bringing the oracles. In Hebrews three is really clear. The true and better Moses is Jesus. Jesus is the greater Moses. He's far superior to Moses. This is why in verse one, we are called to consider Jesus. I love that phrase, holy brothers, church, holy brothers, consider Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our confession. This is just one other way that Hebrews is saying, you must pay much closer attention to the son, to what you have heard. Now, as we come to verse six, I want you to notice a tension in this passage, and really it runs through the whole chapter. Look at verse six, I want you to notice the two things here. We are that house, so we're talking about the household of God that Jesus builds. And then verse six says, church, we are that house, we are God's house. And then we slam right into this word, if. If, we are that house if we hold fast our confidence. And so that's the tension we have The audience, the Hebrews are described with gospel status. They're described as Christians. And then we also have in the same verse, this happens again in verse 14, if and then a condition is attached to it. And so look at the status that runs through this chapter. Who are the Hebrews? Well, Listen to how they're described. Verse one, they are the holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling. They're members of the household of God that have shared in the heavenly calling. They have been called in to this heavenly inheritance. That's the Hebrews. Verse six, they are members of the household of God. Verse 12, he refers to them as brothers. Verse 14, they are sharers in Christ. They are partakers in Jesus Christ. And so it's really clear. He is addressing them as Christians. And this is not the first time this happened. The very last chapter, chapter two, the audience is the offspring of Abraham are the brothers of Jesus. You remember that from last week, that encouragement, Jesus is our older brother and we are the brothers of Jesus. And so he writes to this audience as Christians, that's their status, that's who they are. And yet twice in this chapter, verse six, And again in verse 14, this status has a condition attached to it. Verse six does this, we are God's house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope. Verse 14, we are sharers in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. And so that if and that condition can be summarized with holding fast, the condition is we must persevere to the end. We must persevere to the end. Christian salvation is not, I prayed a prayer when I was 19, something happened when I was 19, and I lived for the next 40 years, didn't really serve the Lord, but man, I'm saved. Christian salvation is I trusted in Jesus. I continue to trust in Jesus and I will trust in Jesus. I will hold fast to him to the very end. Perseverance of the saints. This is the doctrine that is set in front of us. Now, we'll come back to how the status and the condition fit together. How can these things fit together? How can we be something in the present with a condition that's future. How can those things go together? But what I want you to notice now is this perseverance in verse six, holding fast to the end, is what provokes this quotation in the next section of chapter three from Psalm 95. In other words, there's something about this holding fast to the end that the author, again, pulls us back to the Old Testament and says, this is like Psalm 95. This is like Psalm 95. And in this quotation of Psalm 95 in verses 7 through 11, the author gives us this negative example. a warning about those who fail to meet that condition. Sometimes the Bible does that, gives us a positive example, and do like this, do likewise. But sometimes there's a negative example, don't be like this. And this is what we have in this chapter. In verse eight, this is described as the rebellion. This is what he's calling us back to, remember the rebellion. And then he says, the day of testing in the wilderness. Remember the rebellion, the day of testing in the wilderness. Now, I think it's very interesting. I hope you find encouragement in this, but this story has four different audiences in the Bible. And I think that's an awesome thing. I wanna mention them to you. First, These words apply to the original rebellious wilderness generation, and we find that in Numbers 14. Okay, so remember where we were just a minute ago? We saw a Moses-Jesus comparison in Numbers 12. Now we go to an Israel church comparison in Numbers 14. The rebellion, the day of testing in the wilderness. Now, there are many different incidents from the wilderness generation that could be referred to as rebellious in nature. But there is one incident that sealed their fate and provoked God's judgment to swear an oath that they would not enter the promised land, and that incident is found in Numbers 2014 the context is this the spies go into the land of Canaan and they bring back a bad report to the people of Israel and Israel believes that bad report about the Giants in the land It was through fear of death that caused them to rebel against God to not believe God's Word and their rebellion Their unbelief and their disobedience called down God's judgment. They refused to go and fight and take the promised land and everyone rebelled except for Joshua and Caleb. This was the day of testing in the wilderness as the first audience. Many centuries later, the author of Psalm 95 saw something about that story in the wilderness generation that he thought applied to all the later generations in Israel. And so in Psalm 95, verse seven, we read these words. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah. In other words, later generations of Israel, don't be like them. Hear God's word, obey God. Many centuries later, after Psalm 95 was written, the author of Hebrews sees something in this wilderness generation. There's something paradigmatic about this wilderness generation. And he applies these same words of Psalm 95 to first century Christians. And we see these same words in our text. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Don't do that. And then notice in verse seven, he tells us that The words of scripture are the words of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit says, and that means that this morning, we're not just studying religious history, that these words are being applied to you, 2025 people of God. There's something paradigmatic about this, that today, if you hear his voice, God's word to you is do not harden your hearts. And so we have these four levels of audience that show us that this generation is a perpetual warning for the people of God, a negative example. Don't be like them. And the call is to persevere to the end. The wilderness generation fell away from the living God. They were apostate. Verse 10 tells us that this wasn't the occasional act of disobedience. Verse 10 says they always go astray in their heart. They always go astray in their heart. And so this was their lifestyle, okay? This was their character. Rebellious unbelief characterized the generation that came out of Egypt. It was widespread, it wasn't just a few of them. Look at verse 16, he says, all who left Egypt were guilty. Imagine that warning, seeing all the plagues fall on Egypt and not on you and the lamb, the Passover lamb being slaughtered instead of you, brought out of Egypt only to rebel and turn away from the living God. Widespread apostasy. And their guilt was severe. This wasn't a little thing. It was severe guilt. God swore an oath of judgment upon this generation. In verse 18, he says, they will never enter my rest. And then he tells us that their bodies fell dead in the wilderness for 40 years. They died because of this rebellion against God. Their negative example speaks to us today through the author's use of that word today. The word today is repeated in verse 7, verse 13, and verse 15. And in Hebrews, today has a specific meaning. Today in Hebrews, it describes a time when God's word is being heard. Today is the time where God's word is being heard and the invitation to respond is open to you. Today, that's today. And the warning, every time it mentions this today, the warning, the implicit warning is, church, there's a tomorrow coming where you can't respond. to God's Word. Today, God is speaking through His Son and you can respond, but there's a tomorrow coming that you cannot respond. And so today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Do not harden your heart. And so Hebrews 3 teaches us that the author sees the church of Jesus Christ in a wilderness-like situation. That's where we are. We are brought out of Egypt, we are the redeemed of the Lord, yet we have not yet entered the promised land, and he's putting his finger on situations in our life where we're in peril of forfeiting our reward, hardening our hearts, and falling away from the living God. One of the applications here is that every Christian will face times of personal testing, Times of personal testing, where you will be tempted to doubt the providence of God, the goodness of God, the promises of God, the word of God. You'd be tempted to doubt. These are the today that's being spoken about here. In those situations, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. These times of testing are dangers for your soul. And the call is to hear his voice. and not to harden our hearts. And so this is the negative example of the wilderness generation. Don't be like them. We must hold fast to the end. Now these conditional ifs in chapter three, remember in verse six and in verse 14, they're real. They're serious business, okay? I don't know about you, but I was taught a version of eternal security, okay, as a young Christian, that you believe the gospel and it doesn't matter what you do after that, okay? And the one thing that these ifs will not allow is that way of thinking. It won't, okay? The warnings are real. They're serious business. You must persevere to the end. And hardening your heart can lead you to fall away from the living God. Every Christian in the room needs to feel that warning. Every soul in the room needs to feel that warning. Today is a day to respond to the gospel, to trust in Jesus Christ. I want you to notice that this conditional language, the ifs, in verses six and verse 14, it's carefully worded in such a way that it will not allow you to think that your gospel status is a result of your obedience. It will not allow you to think that your gospel status, holy brothers, members of God's house, sharers in Christ, is a result of your perseverance. Let me explain. Verse six and verse 14, do not say, they do not say, hold fast to the end, and then you will become a member of God's house. Hold fast to the end, and then you will become sharers in Christ. That would be the result, okay? It doesn't say that. Instead, it tells us that this holding fast reveals a prior status, okay? The condition is future, but the status is already a present reality. Verse six, we are his house. Verse 14, we have come to share in Christ. That's real, okay, that is real. And that's not only for us, that was for them, that was for the Hebrews. So the ifs are teaching us a very important order here. This is the difference in peace in your soul and turmoil in your soul, this order. The ifs are teaching us that Christian perseverance evidences an already existing relationship to Jesus Christ. It doesn't create it. Your obedience does not make you a member of God's family. Jesus's blood does, and that's it. And your obedience just reveals, I'm a member of this family. Your obedience does not join you to Jesus Christ. That's a gift of grace free to all who believe. but your obedience reveals that you have been in fact united to Jesus by faith. And so perseverance is not the cause of your salvation, it is the evidence that you have already been saved. That might not sound important now, but that's life or death stuff. That's life or death stuff. And when we say that perseverance is evidence, you need to understand that it's necessary evidence. It's a real condition. This is necessary evidence. This is not, man, I'm a real Christian, and man, that'd be really good if I had some perseverance to the end. No, it's necessary evidence. Real faith produces fruit. Real faith produces faithfulness and obedience to Jesus Christ. In fact, it's so necessary that later in this letter, Hebrews 12, 14, the author will tell us to strive for the holiness without which we will not see the Lord. It is necessary evidence of true salvation. Now there's one other thing I want you to see here. When we read verses six and verse 14 in these if statements, Who do we learn is going to persevere? Who is actually going to persevere? And that order actually answers this. The members of the house are going to persevere. The sharers in Christ, they're going to persevere. We are God's house if we hold fast to the end. We are sharers in Christ if we hold fast to the end. So who will persevere? True Christians will persevere. How many true Christians will persevere? Every true Christian will persevere to the end. This is the connection. What about those who fail to persevere? This is where the Arminian, you know, theology gets it wrong. Arminian theology teaches you're a member of the house, and then you fail to persevere, and you're not a member of the house anymore. Arminian theology teaches that you're a sharer in Christ, but you don't persevere to the end, and you're not a sharer in Christ anymore. Arminian theology is I was saved, but I lost my salvation. It does not teach that. You see that? Who fails to persevere? Those who were not truly members of the house. those who are not truly sharers and partakers in Jesus Christ. This is the same that we find in 1 John 2, talking about apostasy. He says, they went out from us because they were not of us. All right, so this is really instructive. This is really instructive for us. Last thing before moving on here, I want to deal with this question, are these warnings for true Christians? Are these warnings for true Christians? And the fundamental answer is absolutely yes, but I do want to give a yes and no answer, and I want to explain what I mean by this. Are these warnings for true Christians? Yes, absolutely. There is no version of eternal security taught in the New Testament that allows you to ignore warnings in God's Word. Yes, they are for Christians. In fact, Christians are the only people in the whole wide world that will actually keep these warnings. They're the only ones that will hear it and hold fast to the end. So are the warnings for true Christians? Yes, absolutely they are. They're one of the ways that our high priest keeps us to the end. And true Christians are the only ones who obey these warnings. The answer is no in this narrow sense. The answer is no. If by are these warnings for Christians mean that can a true Christian really fall away? OK, and that's a category confusion, right? Because that's not what he's teaching here. OK, if you fall away, the author says you were never a member of the house. You were never partaker in Jesus Christ. And so one of the things, just in the way that this is worded, this conditional language is worded, is we can be confident that true Christians, Christ-elect sheep, True believers in Jesus Christ, you will never fail to meet this condition of holding fast to the end because Jesus is your great high priest. Yet that condition will not be met by you ignoring these warnings as though they don't apply to you. True Christians are the only ones in the world that actually heed these warnings. And so we have a call. in Hebrews 3, to persevere to the end. This is one of the foundational tenets of Reformed theology, the perseverance of the saints. How do we do that? How do we ensure that we're waking up a Christian tomorrow morning? How do we ensure that 30 years from now, I'm still trusting in Jesus? I think this passage gives us three applications. Three things from chapter three that undergird Christian perseverance. Number one, we persevere to the end by doing sincere heart work. And I get this in verse 12. Let's read it again. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. We are to be watchful over our hearts. We're to be guarded, watchful, sober-minded, doing heart work, real spiritual heart work is at the root of the Christian life, root of our perseverance. Now, one of the ways that I find this chapter so helpful is that it unmasks the root of our sin. Let me explain what I mean. What is sin at the deepest level? What is it? Or to make it personal, what is your sin at the deepest level, at the very root? What is it? Underneath all of your coveting, underneath all of your strife or bitterness, Underneath all of your sexual immorality, underneath all of your worldliness, underneath all of your selfish ambition, underneath all that stuff, the very root of all of it is unbelief towards God. You are not trusting God, and that is the root of all of our sin and every sin. We see this in this passage. Why did Israel not enter the promised land? And you could walk back the answers, the layer of answers, because they believed the bad report, because they said there were giants in the land, because they feared death, because they rebelled against God, because they disobeyed God's command to go take the land of Canaan. And as you work your way to the very bottom of what they got wrong, verse 19 reveals it. They were unable to enter because of unbelief. They didn't enter the land of Canaan, the promised land, because of unbelief. Unbelief is also revealed to be the root of apostasy. You see this in verse 12. We can think about people that started following Jesus and then fell away. Verse 12 gives us a paradigm to understand what went wrong. Underneath all of it was unbelief. Verse 12 says, it is an unbelieving heart that leads someone to fall away from the living God. In other words, what comes first, unbelief or apostasy? And verse 12 answers that, unbelief comes first. It's the seed, apostasy is the fruit. It's the root sin underneath all of our sins, underneath every sin. And why is this so helpful? Because it helps us to know where to fight sin at the deepest level. So we don't spend our whole life chopping off branches, but we can lay the ax to the very root of indwelling sin. We got to fight sin at the deepest level of trusting God. Helps us to think rightly about the sin of unbelief. Another way it helps us in verse 12 is it reminds us this sin, church listen, it's evil. Verse 12, take care. Verse 12, take care brothers lest there be in any of you a what? An evil, unbelieving heart. You know the battle. You know the battle. the battle towards slapping other labels on our sin instead of the biblical labels, and the temptation to think about a sin of unbelief as a little one. That's the temptation, right? And the Bible says, no, no, that unbelief is evil in your heart. That unbelief is evil in your heart. Unbelief is evil. An unbelieving heart is an evil heart. and that means Christians who swear allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord of all, we are the ones that resolve to fight unbelief as a wicked, evil sin. Listen, our entire Christian life today, as long as it's called today, we make war on this sin at the deepest level in the human heart, and this is the very center of Christian sanctification. Christian sanctification at its deepest level is a fight of faith. And it is a battle against unbelief. That is how we become more like Jesus Christ. It's so instructive, so instructive. We persevere by doing sincere heart work. Number two, we persevere by becoming meaningful members of a local church. You see the corporate aspect of Perseverance of the saints in verse 13. Let's look at it again. 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. Now that reference to one another in verse 13, is a reference to the local church. Exhort one another, other Christians, okay? And not universal Christians, okay? In your church, the ones who you actually are around, right? Exhort them, one another, and do it often. This is one of the means of grace that God has given his people for final perseverance is the church of Jesus Christ. The church is a means of grace to keep you trusting Jesus to the very end. Frequent and mutual, Christian exhortation is one of the weapons that God has given to war against the sin of unbelief, or specifically to war against this warning of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. How are you gonna fight that? Do you know this about indwelling sin, your indwelling sin? It hardens and it deceives you. That's its nature, like it can't do any, you know, like a dog is a dog. Sin's nature is to harden. That means it dulls you. You don't feel right about God. You don't feel towards God how you should and you don't feel towards your sin how you should. Why? Because it hardens you, that's what sin does. How are you gonna fight it? One of the ways we fight it is through exhorting one another. Also deceitfulness. Sin is deceitful. That's its nature. It deceives us. Means it causes us to think wrongly about God and about our sin. We don't think right. That's what sin does. It darkens the understanding. How are you going to fight it? One of the ways we fight it is through exhorting one another. It's a protection against being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now, this word exhort, you could do this study across the New Testament. I love this word. This word is an extremely broad word, okay? It's a catch-all word, right? It includes correction, but it's broader than correction. So he is not just saying correct one another every day. He's saying, encourage one another every day. Build one another up every day. Speak God's word to one another every day, as long as it's called today. Build up the body of Christ. Build others up with God's word. That's what he's calling for here. I want you to notice that this command is for every Christian, not just for pastors, okay? This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, that your life has this rhythm of exhorting other Christians with the word of God, okay? And we are to think that way as long as it's called today, that Jesus has you in this world to exhort one another. Now, I want you to think on two levels of living out this command at GCC. One is the level of attendance. and the other is the level of intentionality at church meetings at GCC. I wanna get practical for just a moment. Attendance is the ground floor of obeying this command. I hope you see that, okay? Attendance is the ground floor. If you are not consistently at the gatherings of your local church, you cannot obey this command, right? And I would add, and you are in danger of the warning that's given in verse 13, being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Why? Because you're not receiving that exhortation that protects you from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So I would argue that both of these things are going on when you neglect the gatherings of your church. Now, the first is clear enough. You can't faithfully exhort those you're not around. Clear enough. No argument there. The second part is implicit. If you're rarely around, then you are not receiving something that you need. You are not receiving a means of grace for your soul, and you are in danger of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And yet, attendance is only half the battle, right? It's not just come to church. That's not the command, come to church. No, it's do something, it's exhort one another. So it's half the battle that you're here, and then there's this intentionality that plays out in the body of Christ, that you are, Hebrews 10 will say it this way, consider how to stir one another up. Man, consider this, consider Jesus, Hebrews 3, consider how to stir one another up in Hebrews 10. Man, this is significant. This is a significant ministry for you. One of the things that we want to strive for at Grace Community Church, and we've said it this way for a really long time, is every member on offense. Every member on offense. And I do want to give you some counsel here. And I'm not talking about a visitor who's around for the first time. This is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a member of GCC of getting totally rid of this mindset of, I came to church and nobody talked to me. Okay? I came to church and nobody talked to me. I want to encourage you to flip it and get really serious about verse 13. And I want you to think about coming to church on offense, ready to exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today. And here's what I expect will happen. If you get really serious about exhorting other Christians with the word of God, number one, you'll find that other people are talking to you. But number two, you'll be so busy building up the body of Christ that you won't even notice that nobody talked to you because you're talking to them, okay? It's a shift in the way that you think. Exhort one another every day. Faithfully living this out at Grace Community Church begins on Sunday morning. I do wanna mention this, some of you, and praise God, it is a very small minority, make a habit of frequently missing Sunday morning worship. And I wanna warn you, this is a dangerous sin. We are warned about this sin of neglecting the assembling of ourselves together in Hebrews 10. This is a dangerous sin that will lead to being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now, mom with a sick baby, not talking to you, right? Not talking to you, right? We are talking about those who habitually neglect the Christian gathering, okay, as is the habit of some. That is a sin to be repented of in the Christian life. Now, that's neglecting attendance. Quite a few more of you could do better on Sunday mornings by getting to church Preferably early, I know I'm meddling, just listen, okay? Preferably early, right? But at least on time, why? To welcome visitors and to exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. Now there are reasons to be on time at church like we're here to worship God there are other reasons but one of those reasons is man if I get there early I get some really good conversations and fellowship in with my brothers and sisters and I can assure you that it's a total coincidence that I'm poking this thing on time change Sunday. Okay. I did not plan that. All right. Um, but this is part of living this out. It begins on Sunday morning, faithfully, fruitfully attending Sunday morning worship, and then it spills over into the other meetings of the local church. So we're talking about Sunday night prayer meetings. We're talking about weekly fellowship groups. We're talking about periodic kids events. We're talking about periodic ladies nights. or men's luncheon groups or one-on-one fellowship meetings. We're talking about Christian hospitality. We're talking about this is the way we spend our life for Jesus as we build up his body. We build up the body of Christ. Number three, we persevere to the end by always looking to Jesus. We persevere. We know we're gonna make it to the end. because we look always to Jesus. One of the burdens, and every preacher could testify to this, is when you preach warning passages or hard passages in the Bible, one of the burdens that happens so often is that those who should be most disturbed walk away whistling, you know, what's for lunch? and some of the most sensitive of Christ's sheep walk away disturbed. In other words, the ones that should be disturbed are not disturbed, and the ones that should not be disturbed are disturbed. And so there are always those in the church that have this battle with the assurance of salvation. And I want you to know I prayed for you this week. If that is you, I prayed for you this week. I prayed that God would fill your soul with the full assurance of faith. And I want to encourage you in this way, that you have to get to a place in your life where you can deal honestly with warning passages in the New Testament, that you don't just slide them to the side, that you can deal honestly with these, that you're being, man, these are real, these conditions are real, and you deal sincerely with these warnings, but you have to learn to deal with them in such a way that they don't crush you into the ground, that they don't crush you. And I think that the only way, there's only one way that this can be done. There's only one way that you can do this. And I'm gonna call you back to verse one. Verse one, holy brothers consider Jesus. Holy brothers consider Jesus. I think that phrase, sums up the whole message of Hebrews maybe better than any other in this letter. And the number one focus that you need to have in making it to the end is looking always to Jesus. Holy brothers consider Jesus. There are so many problems with assurance and the battle for assurance that happen right here of putting your focus on yourself and not on Christ. Assurance comes from looking always to Jesus. And so I'll just leave you with this, the same chapter that calls you to hold fast to the end. The very same chapter tells you to consider Jesus, to look always to Jesus. And I would argue that the most prominent message in this entire letter is not hold fast to the end. That is a message. But the deepest message of Hebrews is we have a great high priest who is seated at the right hand of God, who always lives to make intercession for his people. In other words, you have to learn this. You have to learn that underneath all our holding fast to the end is being held fast by our great high priest. You have to learn that. You have to learn that underneath all of our perseverance, Christian perseverance, is his priestly preservation of his people. You have to learn that. Well, how can we have confidence that we're gonna hold fast to the end? Well, it's because we're gonna be held fast by our great high priest. And so brothers and sisters, how do you know you will wake up and still be a Christian tomorrow morning, the only answer is because Jesus is your great high priest and he will never forsake you. Let's pray. Father, we come to you and we ask, Lord, that you would cause your word to bear fruit in your church. Lord, we ask that you would help us to hear your word rightly. We pray that your word would penetrate past all of our dullness and all of our hardness. Lord, we pray that you would help us to see the Lord Jesus in all his glory and all of his supremacy. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to run our race in this world, to run it to the very end, looking to Jesus. In his name we pray, amen. Church, let's stand and worship the living God together this morning.