Hebrews chapter three, we're gonna begin from the first verse. In fact, we're gonna read the whole of Hebrews three, the whole chapter. So let's begin at verse one. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who having heard rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? "'Now with whom was he angry 40 years? "'Was it not with those who sinned, "'whose corpses fell in the wilderness? "'And to whom did he swear "'that they would not enter his rest, "'but to those who did not obey?' "'So we see.'" that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So we'll end the reading there at verse 19, and trust that the Lord today will speak to each of us for his name's sake. Let's now ask his help. Let's ask the Spirit of God to work in all our hearts. Let's pray. Father, we sit here on a particular day in the year 2018. And Father, in this assembly, our people of eight or nine decades apart in age, and yet Father, this moment in time, every last one of us is living a life, the only life that determines our eternity. Oh God, I pray that you will not let this hour be wasted. Oh, Father, I ask you today that you will, in mercy, speak to each of us, because our souls are at stake. We are weighed in the balances. And so, oh gracious God, I pray that you will today open your word to our hearts. Father, that the reason that the Holy Spirit has given us this solemn truth in this chapter would be made clear to our hearts, Father, that we would hear him today, that Lord, he would not just, as it were, be speaking to a generation gone by to whom this epistle was originally addressed, but to us, as your word says, upon whom the ends of the world are come. And so, Lord, I ask you today, send your spirit. May he speak to us today for eternity. And Lord, may it be reflected in each of our hearts in time. So receive our thanks and our praise, oh God, as we depend upon you to fulfill your gracious promise that we have one who teaches us, even the Holy Spirit, and that he will teach us this day for Christ's sake, amen. Well, when we began this series of studies in the book of Hebrews, I said that there are going to be particular times where we would have to stop and give attention to some major themes and truths touched on in this book. And today is one of those occasions. And I've reminded you repeatedly that the people to whom this book was written were discouraged, they were disheartened, they were decidedly under attack, and as a result they were contemplating leaving Christianity, leaving Christian faith altogether, And so the author of this book again and again, and there are two sides to this, again and again he gives warnings on the one hand, and then encouragement on the other to seek, to thwart that purpose, that purpose of jettisoning the faith. Well, he wants to show them on the one hand, and in the most solemn way he can, how much they are risking. What is at stake with their souls? And then on the other hand, he wants to show them how much they are missing. That if they're not thrilled and filled with the wonder of what God has done for them in the Lord Jesus, then they're not getting it. They're not seeing him. They're missing what God has given him, which includes everything in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And folks, we need to hear this as much as the original audience did. Our souls are weighed in the balances. And I don't know if you've noticed or not, but we live in an incredibly dangerous world. The risks are tremendous. Have there ever been? You think of the things that we have, just take technology, that not long ago were unthinkable. We couldn't begin to fathom what could be possible and what could be done. And yet now it is done. And with those things has in many cases come an arrogance and a self-sufficiency that kind of sets God on the shelf. Who needs them? I got my iPhone, you know. Our hearts, our souls, they're at risk. And the devil has just made his bag of tricks, as it were, fatter and fatter, in a sense, in terms of how much he can distract us from what really matters, from what is eternal. And so, again, this is truth that we can't just read saying, oh yeah, those Hebrews. Because this is us. This is us. The devil, in every generation, as that roaring lion we read about in scripture, walks about seeking whom he may devour. And he will not bypass you. He will not leave you untouched. You are targeted. And I'll tell you, you'd a lot sooner be targeted by the worst terrorist organization on the planet, by the mafia, or anything else, before targeted by the devil. And yet you are, and yet you are. And that is a solemn reality. You see, the devil is always seeking to work on these two frontiers that I just mentioned in our hearts and in our minds. He wants us to downplay, on the one hand, to cause you to forget the eternal risk to your never-dying soul, so that you waste your life gratifying your flesh and ignoring your soul. And when I say gratifying your flesh, don't read sin. I might just be talking about Facebook, you know? Or just something else that just takes the attention of your life and it can be on the surface as harmless as anything you can imagine. And yet, if it's that tool in the hand of the devil, I tell you, it goes from being harmless to the most harmful thing you've ever touched. It goes to being the category of an idol. It's Dagon, you know? It's an idol. And so again, the devil targets that side of things. But he is also seeking to convince you that the greatest thing, if not the only thing, that Christianity has to offer you is a get out of hell free card. Which, of course, you can pick up sometime later when it's more convenient. He wants to distract you so that you're distracted right out of reality. We like to use that expression, people being out of touch with reality, but that's easy to see in somebody else. It's hard to see in you and me. And yet we have blind spots, every last one of us. I think I might have told you at one point, I don't remember, but I won't ever forget it because it was such a graphic picture for me. And that was a pastor that I knew. had a man in his church who was a pig farmer. And he went one day just to visit him and see his operation. And so he's just following him around and watching him do what he has to do. Well, on that particular day, they were slaughtering some of the pigs. And so he went over and opened a pen and got a pig walking behind him. And the pig is walking behind him, and then he's walking up a ramp, and the next thing you know, he's dead. His life is over. And the pastor says to him, I don't get this. He says, I thought animals generally had this sense of impending doom that made them rise up and say anything but go in that place. And he said, well, I would say generally that's true. But he said, what you don't know, and he opened his hand and his hand was full of beans. And he says, what you don't know is that as I have walked from the pen to the slaughterhouse, I have been dropping beans every few feet. And that pig has been so busy gobbling up the beans that he was dead before he knew it. And what a picture of the way the devil can distract us so that days are past, weeks are past, years are past, as it were, without ever looking up to see where we're headed and what's going on for eternity. You see, the devil is so good at this work that he does. And what's at stake in this elaborate game of deception, because that's what he is, the arch deceiver, that the devil is playing with you is nothing less than where you spend eternity, and the choices are only two, either heaven or hell, as well as whether or not you will live a life here on earth that gets to taste and see that the Lord is good. The one he wants for you, the other he does not. Now what it is in this passage that leads us to think about such important truth is actually strikingly a two letter word. It's the word if. Look at chapter three, first at verse six. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are. All right, so this is talking about whether or not we are part of the house of Christ. The house that will last forever. The one house, you know, which will transcend earth and be a part of heaven. Whether or not we are part of that house. So he says, whose house we are if. What? Raising the question that it might not actually be true for everyone to whom I'm writing, the author would say. If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end, that's the if. If you go on, if you go on faithfully, if you go on steadfastly, if you go on in a way that is true blue, that is real and that it is in vital touch with the living God. But that verse six is not the only place that says this. Look at verse 14. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. All right. So here are these two mighty ifs asking this question, you know, you can tell me whatever you want about what you're doing today and what you believe and who you are, but I wanna see if that stands the test of time. If that if question ever comes to be a question over you. So, These two ifs, and by the way, and you may remember from our study in Colossians, we took some time because there's a very similar statement in Colossians chapter one that says the same thing. If you continue steadfast, rooted, and grounded in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that if is there as well. And it opens to us a theme a theme underneath really a very solemn warning. And so we need today to step back and kind of explore what the if means for our souls and for our lives. And so what I want us to consider this morning is the risk of ultimate betrayal. And by that title, I'm not talking about being betrayed, I'm talking about being the betrayer. So there are three things that I want to examine today. The danger, the disease, in a sense, underneath the danger, and then the antidote. And so let's begin with the danger. And I think first we need to understand what these verses are not saying, and then what they are saying. Because the word if has caused many believers to ask, wait a second, are you telling me, does this language mean that I can lose my salvation? I understood that that couldn't be the case, right? I've been taught that the Bible teaches that once I am saved, I am always saved. That it teaches an eternal security of the believer. And I would answer very quickly, yes, that's true. But the New Testament teaches us what that belief is actually going to look like in a true believer. And that's why I believe the best way to explain the doctrine of eternal security is to use the language of the old theologians, that what the Bible teaches on this subject is the perseverance of the saints. All right, now what do we mean by that? True believers, and I think, Here's kind of a summary of what we're saying and what the scripture teaches. True believers remain steadfast in the faith unto the end, all right? They continue in faith, they hold fast to true doctrine, they walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, they manifest growth in grace and in holiness. Now, that does not mean they won't ever fall into sin and stumble. Does not mean they will never backslide, but it only means that they will always in the end return and and they will hold fast in the end they will I have mentioned a couple of times a passage in Ezekiel where you look and when you boil down what God is saying there and warning his people, it's this. It's not how you start, but how you finish that counts with God. So in other words, the issue is that those who profess this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't finish perfectly, but they finish clinging to Christ. They finish looking to him. They finished persevering, staying in their faith. The Bible teaches this in a number of ways and in a number of places and it teaches that those who might profess to be Christians at one point but who ceased to follow the Lord Jesus that they only proved that they were not really saved in the first place. For instance, First John chapter two is one place where we see this. Listen to these words. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. Now a true believer cannot lose his salvation, but the question is this, who are the true believers? And that's where warnings like these come in. So Hebrews says if, because all true believers do continue to believe, but he says this because he knows that there are some who appear to believe at first. They look the part, they sign up, they get excited, they talk the talk. but some of those eventually turn away from following and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know this is true. You see evidence of this. You see examples of this. So we have, for instance, the Lord Jesus said, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. In other words, the Lord Jesus warns that the worst thing you can do is in a sense have a presumptuous, cocky, know-it-all attitude about faith in Jesus Christ. If you think you stand, you take heed, lest you fall, says the Lord Jesus. Peter, Peter talks about this in the sense that our lives are always seeking to take God seriously and to walk in his way. And in 1 Peter 1, he says, we, God's people, we pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. In other words, we don't get to this place where we walk in a cocky fashion as if we saved ourselves. No. We pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and trepidation that anything that can be done in terms of sin, I could do. I could be the one who did that. That I, in the right circumstances, what I really mean is the wrong circumstances. could be the one who stumbles and falls and does what maybe in a sunnier day would seem unthinkable. But because of a period of attack by the wicked one perhaps or neglect of my soul or many other things conspiring together, there comes a day when that temptation is greater than I am. and I stumble and I fall. So Peter says, no, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. I remember, and I don't talk nearly as much about him as I used to, but some who were here in my first stint as pastor of this church would remember I loved George Mueller. I just... I collected at one point, I imagine there are new books have come out and I probably don't have them, but I had obtained everything that had ever been written either by or about George Mueller that was in print or could be obtained. And what I loved about George Mueller was just the simplicity of his faith. That he modeled, even as he cared for 2,000 orphans, that he modeled childlikeness of faith. That he just said, God said this, he made a promise to me, and he hears and answers my prayers. I just don't know enough to distrust him. I just don't know enough to doubt the word of the living God who cannot lie. And so he just trusted the living God. But I remember how striking it was when I noticed that when he was talking about the ministry of the gospel among those orphans, that he would never say this or that child was saved. He would always say, oh, of this one, we are hopeful of salvation. Of this one, we see encouraging evidences of grace. In other words, George Mueller knew that he's not God. He knew that he doesn't have the ability to see into a soul. And he knew that some who appear to start well don't end at all. They don't finish well. And so the language that he used always took that into view. This week in my Bible reading, I was in Mark chapter 14, and I came across words that were very familiar to me. As a matter of fact, I have penned in my old Bible a sermon outline that someone, I think, if I remember correctly, I think this was one that Dr. Paisley told me was one of his favorite sermon outlines of all time. And so, you know, it's an important text. But you know how it is, sometimes you're reading something and you see it in a way you never saw it before. These are the words that I read in Mark 14, 21. The son of man indeed goes just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had never been born. Now those words in their context are talking most specifically about Judas Iscariot. It were good for that man if he had never been born. But folks, who can betray Jesus Christ and those words not be true? Any who betray Jesus Christ, it was good for that man if he had never been born. That's true of all who reject him. That's true of all who turn away. And remember, they might have started really well and done amazing things because the Lord Jesus Christ himself says there is gonna be a people who say, did we not cast out devils and do wonderful works in your name? And Jesus is gonna say, depart from me, you who work iniquity. I never knew you, I never knew you. See, because in the end of the day, the reality is made clear. You see, the danger is very real, and it is eternal. Here in, we're reading in Hebrews chapter three, but Hebrews chapter two actually gave us a warning that we took some time considering here a few weeks ago. Look back at chapter two in verses one to three. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Not lest those words drift away, lest we drift away. That's the danger. That's the thing that's at stake. And then verse two, for if the word spoken through angels, the old covenant word that he had been talking about in chapter one, if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, Everyone, no exceptions, because God is a God who is infinitely holy and infinitely just. But verse three, then he concludes that statement by saying, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And isn't that an interesting word, neglect? And drift away? It doesn't talk about just, you know, in a sense, an intense rebellion. That language doesn't give you that picture. It doesn't talk about, in other words, spitting in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and saying, forget it, I'm gonna do what I want. It talks about drifting. It talks about neglecting. It uses language that seems to presuppose a pretty slow and gradual and probably unintended pathway. That's what it's talking about. And so again, our enemy, the devil, is walking about seeking whom he may devour. He is very good at what he does. And folks, over the course of my life, and you as well, as I've mentioned already, I certainly have known so many people, including ones who were part of this church at one point, who've drifted away. You would have never thought it at one point, but they've drifted away. They are no longer care to own the body of Christ, care to say in any sense that they're part of it. And as we're gonna see in a minute, according to scripture, if you're not following Christ now, you cannot be counted as a Christian no matter what has happened in the past. and we're gonna see that in just a minute in the word of God, but it's what you're believing now. John's gospel, whenever it talks about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, including John 3,16 and many other really important passages that we love to use to minister the gospel, it uses the linear tense in the original language, meaning this, it is believing. If we would try to reflect that and how we translated it, that's what we would say, is believing. So the ones who are saved, the ones who have everlasting life, according to John's gospel, are the ones who are believing now. Not who did once. The ones who are believing now. Those are the true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we could ever say the danger is real, that's a nice expression, but it's on this issue, that's true. And we must take these ifs to heart. Now all of this says to us that the only way to walk before God is in humility in this life. Remembering that the scripture says our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and therefore there's no room. No room for presumptuous, cocky assurance that we could never, ever be the ones to fall, that that's somebody else. That's just not the way to think. And so the time to believe the Lord Jesus, the time to follow Him is always right now. The only time you can be a Christian is right now, and may the Lord make it so. But let's move on then to the second thought, and that is we have this danger. Now, what is the disease? How could we fall prey, as it were, to the devices of the devil? that would lead us into this danger. How does this happen? How does a person fall away? Well, I think we get an indication in Christ's parable of the sower. And so if you will, put your finger here in Hebrews and turn to Mark chapter four, the gospel of Mark and chapter four, and let's begin at verse three. Mark four and verse three. Now this is a well-known passage. It is the parable of the sower. And so let's begin at verse three. Jesus Christ says, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, Mark four three, and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it. All right, so that's the first kind of ground. But when the sun was up, it was scorched and No, verse five, excuse me. Some fell on stony ground, here's the second kind, where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed, third kind of ground, fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some hundred. He who has ears to hear, Christ says in verse nine, let him hear. So here's this image. Christ, in a sense, gives us four different kinds of ground and says the Lord is casting the seed on this ground. And so later on, however, he is asked by his disciples about the meaning of this. So let's skip to verse 14. And so the Lord Jesus explains it. He gives an exposition. Verse 14, the sower sows the word, and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. Verse 16, these likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones among, sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. but these are the ones sown on good ground. Those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some 30 fold, some 60, and some 100. So the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am this sower. I have come to sow the gospel, the word of the living God. The first kind of ground, yep, the devil is successful right from the get-go, he just plucks it up. Just plucks it up, it never gets anywhere. The last kind of ground, oh, that's the best. Brings forth 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. I mean, it just finds good lodging, it's well-watered, and they bring forth fruit. But there are two kinds of ground in between those. In the one case, well, it's stony ground. It doesn't have a whole lot of earth. And so that stony ground, what happens? It begins to grow. It looks like all the other plants, all right? but then the son scorches it and the Lord Jesus interprets that as when there's opposition afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. In other words, if your Christianity, your Christian experience begins to cost you in some way, it begins to be too hard, too tough. If you begin to have to pay a price, whether that's in a public way or in a private way, When it's not gelling with your lifestyle and you don't want to put that kind of effort into it. When it takes something, as it were, from you. You say, I'm not in for this. I didn't sign up for something this difficult. I'm out of here. Then the third kind of ground. Similarly, it's the ground where the weeds choke up with it or grow up with it. And those weeds choke the word and it doesn't bring forth fruit to salvation. And verse 19 tells us what those weeds look like. The cares of this world, which we cannot escape. The deceitfulness of riches, which a thousand things in our world are constantly pressing upon us. And the last one, The desires or the lusts of other things, for other things, entering in, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Idols of every kind. In other words, where other things become more important than God, where they are talking louder, they take up our free time, they populate our dreams as it were. and we're too busy pursuing this or that, and what happens? Those idols choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. So we ask this question, what's the disease look like? And it may look like a hundred things, and it may look like something different to every single person in this church. That thing that the devil would know is your hot button, that the devil would know is the thing where you were most likely to be tempted and to be distracted. That might be different all across this congregation, but the devil knows what it is. And that's what he will zero in on. That's what he will go after. And he's too smart to direct you, to attack you directly. In all likelihood, the attack that he is gonna bring is gonna be very indirect and it's gonna be very gradual. It may come because you're tired, because you are fatigued. It may become because you're overwhelmed or you're just discouraged or the time pressure is just demanding so much of your attention that you can't give. the attention that your soul needs. It may come because you're distracted by hobbies or just the constant onslaught of the world's thinking begins to twist how you think about life. Or constant temptation after a while just knocks down all your defenses. It may come in a thousand different ways and it may come, the first way, what it may look like at first is I'll read my Bible tomorrow. That's good, I'll be fine. I'll just read tomorrow and tomorrow becomes the next day, which becomes the next day. And your soul doesn't get fed. And so gradually that you don't notice it, spiritual weakness takes over. Suddenly things that didn't irritate you, they're irritating you a whole lot now. Suddenly things that you didn't find tempting before are very tempting right now. Suddenly there's just, that if you could see the you of this point and the you six months before, there would be a striking difference, but it didn't happen in one jump. It happened in a very slow and gradual process of demonic deception into your heart. So you see, the devil is so clever to work that way. And I tell you, one of the great ways that the devil can work is he can make our Christianity, and I hope you understand what I mean by this, it's where our Christianity's by rote. In other words, our Christianity goes with, we show up at church at certain times, we do certain things, we don't do other things, and after a while, it's just motions. And we've lost sight of the person of the Lord and the heart of love that just couldn't calculate anything, but I wanna do something for my Lord. Suddenly that moving is not there. And so next thing you know, we're going through the motions. Our hearts lose touch, our emotions are entirely out of the equation, and my Christianity becomes merely just the team that I'm on. It's kind of my worldview, or my political perspective. I'm on the Christian team, while my life is really taken up with pursuing how I define fun, or pursuing a relationship, or an achievement, or financial security, or anything. More than him, I lose sight of all of that. And so the devil, that's one of the ways in which he most effectively works. And it's an especially effective, tactive of the devil when we can look around and see everyone else doing the same thing. And I confess, I look back on things in my life, And it wasn't so much that the world was doing certain things that wound up tripping me up, it's that they were being done in the church. It was, well, if he doesn't have a problem with it, it must be okay. It must be okay. And that's not a question any other Christian can ever answer for me, you understand. Because as he stands before God, it's not me standing before God. I mean, there are things that I know people don't have particular difficulties with that I have recognized, no, I'm weak in that area, and I do have a difficulty with that. I'm not, I can't go there, I can't do that. Because for me, that is one way that the devil can tempt me and make me stumble. Oh, what a powerful weapon the devil has in the influence of the crowd, even when that crowd's Christian. and we must always be on guard against that crowd influence. Folks, we need to remember that we're gonna stand before the Lord someday, and when we do, nobody else will be standing with us. You know, there won't be anybody else who we can say, well, he did it. That won't be in the equation. That won't be anywhere to be considered. And so you see, there are a whole array of things that the devil can use to take our attention off Christ. And that's where the disease is. Anything that he can bring in to distract us from him, to make something what we live for, what we seek, what we pursue day by day other than Him. So what do we do? Well, that brings us to the final thought and that is the antidote. Because here in Hebrews, in these two verses that we have looked at that have stopped us because they use this word if, Well, these two verses actually have this amazing description, like begin at verse six. But Christ is a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. It tells us something to do. It tells us to cling, to hold fast to something it calls the confidence. Look back then at verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Now, so it uses this word confidence here, and it tells us that we may have a confidence in Him that we can look to, and that while we may never, you know, we have every reason to fear ourselves, We may have absolutely complete confidence in him. And you see, that's one of the major points of this whole book of Hebrews. Fix your attention on him and it will be well. Look at the Lord Jesus. Cultivate your relationship with him. and it will be well. Now, what's interesting is our English translation gives the same word confidence in verse six and verse 14, but it's actually two different words in the original. The first word for confidence in verse six, is a free and fearless confidence, a cheerful courage, a boldness, an assurance. Those are defining words for that particular word. A free and fearless confidence. In other words, if I am looking at him, if I am trusting him, if I am meeting every temptation of the devil with, you know, look at him. He's worth my life, He's worth my soul, I'm sticking with Him, I'm clinging to Him. In that we can have free and fearless confidence. And then in verse 14, the second word for confidence has the idea of a foundation, like a rock, a firm foundation. And so it is a steadfastness of mind, a firmness, a courage, a resolution, a confidence and assurance. In other words, the Lord Jesus will give me the best things that I can have for time and for eternity. I am not going to look elsewhere other than him. I am trusting him. I am looking to him. And so folks, it's a powerful thing to keep your soul where it ought to be, is that he tells us, verse six, we hold fast the confidence, and then notice this, and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. There's a rejoicing. Now that is, It's not what you expect in a warning passage, is it? The word rejoicing. I mean, you think, okay, I gotta white knuckle this. I've gotta grip my teeth. I gotta make sure I do this. So the last word you expect to see in this context is rejoicing. And yet rejoicing is exactly what he means. This rejoicing, and remember I've pointed this out from time to time in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we are actually commanded to rejoice for the sake of our souls. It's not optional, and it is a powerful thing to keep our souls where it ought to be. And the lack of it is one of the most dangerous things of all. Deuteronomy chapter 28. If you will turn with me there, Deuteronomy 28. Because in Deuteronomy, and remember these are the last words of Moses, this is him preaching to the children of Israel, telling them the things that they need to keep in heart and mind in order to follow God in the future. Because he's dying, he's turning it over to Joshua, they're going into the promised land where they'll be a nation, that has gracious promises God gave them. But chapter 28, Deuteronomy 28, at verse 45, Moses is giving some warnings. Now listen to his warning. Deuteronomy 28, and he's already spelled out these horrible curses that will come upon God's people if they forget God. And so verse 45, moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments, his statutes, which he commanded you, and they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder and on your descendants forever, because, notice these words, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. Where did you stumble? Where did you depart from Him? When you stopped rejoicing in His goodness. When you stopped looking at Him and longing to know more and seeking to experience all the wonders of His person and what He's done in this world. When you lost sight of that and you stopped rejoicing in that, that's where the trouble came. That's where you were caused to stumble. And so you lost sight of whose you are and who you are and what you have and where you're headed and all that he has promised. Those things are worth pursuing, seeing how good he is, seeing how much he loves us, seeing what his love means, going back and in the word of God, going all the stories and putting yourself in those stories and saying, yes, yes, this is what he will do for me and my need. Going back and looking at all his promises, and if you have to, putting your name there in your Bible. I've known people who do that, so that they get the idea, wait, this promise is not just a promise for the group. It's a promise for me. And I'm going to own it as my own. And one lady who put T and P in her Bible margins, you may remember, who, you know, T was for tried. She would take the promises of God and she would have put a T when she came to one of those promises that promised some grace that she needed that particular point for her life. And she'd put the T. And when God had proven his grace and faithfulness, she would put the P. And so all through her Bible were the letters T and P, that the promises of God were by her personally tried and proven. And so we may do that. And so we may fill our hearts with that rejoicing that keeps us going in the right direction. Folks, we may do as David did. David in the blackest hour encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And we have a whole book full of glorious pictures of his love, of his goodness, of his kindness to us, and of his promises for every need. And in the end of the day, he is all we need. May the Lord give us grace to find our satisfaction in him. If we're not finding it in him, then let us go and say, Lord, you see the weakness in my heart. You see the things that I'm missing. You see the things that I don't see. Oh God, you said that I could be anxious for nothing, but let my request be made known unto God. Lord, I want you to take over my heart. in a greater way than has ever been true. I want to rejoice in you. I want to see how good you are. I want to believe your love with childlike trust. And we come and we pour out our hearts and we hear his promise that if you ask, it will be given. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, it will be open. And so we may come and we may seek all the grace. We may ask him to fill us and thrill us with his love and with his goodness. You see, the antidote is not trying to walk in perfection. We don't white knuckle it because this if is in the Bible. We don't, as I say, screw up the intensity of our effort. But living every day looking at him, confident in Him, rejoicing in Him, knowing that every sin is forgiven for His sake and that He is ever living to intercede for you and asking the Father on the basis of His finished work for everything you need, inside and out. And He has promised in His word that He will answer. And you know what He added to that? That your joy may be full. His joy, our joy is on His heart. Our joy is His purpose. Our walking in confidence in Him, He wants to do because He wants us to try and us to prove all the goodness of His promises. So may the Lord do that in all our hearts. And may the Lord give us grace to walk humbly with our God, but earnestly, because we have an enemy. We're under attack. And yet we have the victor of all victors. Let's bow in prayer. Let's all pray. Oh, Father, we do bless you and praise you today for your faithfulness and goodness. We thank you, Lord, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and he does always prevail. And so, Lord, we pray that as as sheep are wont to do. Lord, when they have recognized their own frailty and they will not leave the presence of the shepherd, they do anything to stay near to him. Oh, Father, let that be us. We do live in a dangerous world and yet we thank you for your grace and your goodness that will prevail over all your enemies. So we ask you, Father, that you will give us the joy of ever growing. in who Christ is and what he has done and what is true for each of us. So receive our thanks and praise we ask in Jesus name. Amen.