Keep the Faithfulness of Christ in Focus

Transcript

GR 1678
02/17/2013
Keep the Faithfulness of Christ in Focus
Hebrews 3:1-6
Gil Rugh

We're going to Hebrews 3. Always feel like you're making progress when you move to a new chapter. And we're going to look into the first part of Hebrews 3. We begin a new section in the letter to the Hebrews with chapter 3 but it flows rather seamlessly in emphasis. You'll note the first word of Hebrews 3 is “therefore.” So it ties to what he has been saying and it builds upon it. It's a further step. He's demonstrated in the first two chapters the superiority of Christ to angels, both in His deity and in His humanity. And as chapter 2 concluded verse 14 said, “therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same.” Christ became a man so that He might accomplish redemption to set man free from the power of sin and Satan and death. And we're reminded He didn't partake of the nature of angels, He doesn't give help to angels. He became flesh and blood to die for human beings. What a great demonstration of God's love that His Son would become a man to provide salvation for humanity.

Verse 17, He had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest, that He might make propitiation for the sins of the people. He became a man to be the Savior, to deliver us from the consequences of sin, the power of sin and Satan. That necessitated His becoming a high priest. That has its background in the Old Testament and Hebrews will go into some detail in talking about the high priestly ministry of Christ and the distinction between the high priestly ministry of Christ as a priest after the order of Melchizedek in contrast to the order of Levi, which was the priestly line of the Old Testament.

But foundational, the high priest had as his responsibility to represent man before God and to bring a sacrifice before God that would satisfy the demands of God's righteousness and holiness so that man might be spared the consequences of his sin. So Christ had to be made like His brethren, He became a man, flesh and blood, so that as high priest He could offer the sacrifice that would be a propitiation. We talked about that word propitiation, one of the great theological words of the Bible. And key to keep the key concept in mind, it involves turning away the wrath of someone. God turned away God's wrath from us by offering the sacrifice that God's righteousness demanded. “The wages of sin is death,” Jesus Christ became a man to act as our high priest to offer the sacrifice which would be acceptable by God and to turn away His wrath from us. Because as we looked at in Ephesians 2, we were ”by nature children of wrath,” all of us, there are no exceptions here. But by God's grace He has provided a Savior and He brings forgiveness to each and everyone who will place their faith in Him.

Therefore, Hebrews 3 begins, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” You can see out of what he has just said in Hebrews 2, he addresses them as holy brethren. He's building on the work that Christ has done as High Priest, making propitiation for our sins. We are now holy brethren.

Back up to Hebrews 2:11, “for both He who sanctifies (referring to Christ) and those who are sanctified (referring to believers) are all from one.” We talked about that word sanctified, the word saint, the word holy. English words are all from the same basic Greek word, a word that means to be set apart, to be separated. Those who are sanctified are those set apart by God from sin for Himself. Christ is the One who sanctifies by the work that He has accomplished. Thus we are saints, holy ones, those who have been set apart from sin for God. So he can address them as holy brethren. And he brings two concepts here together, two truths. The first is we are holy because the God who has called us to Himself is holy. And He has provided the cleansing in Christ for us to be cleansed from our sins. As Isaiah said, “come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, though they are red like crimson, you can be washed and be whiter than snow, white like wool.”

So we are holy. And we are brethren. We belong to God, we are part of the family of God. We are God's household. And that becomes a concept that is going to be developed into subsequent verses here. Holy brethren, those that are not only part of the family of flesh and blood, but we are now part of the family of God as those set apart by God for Himself. We are the partakers of a heavenly calling. The heavenly calling, it's a heavenly calling because it comes from the God of heaven. Remember Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.” Heaven, the dwelling place of God, where God manifests His presence among His creation and for His creation. He has called us out of our sin to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And that salvation is a complete package. So we are partakers of a heavenly calling because the calling comes from God, the God of heaven, and it will culminate with our entering into the glory of God's presence in heaven with our glorification. So it's a call from heaven to heaven because it's the call that comes from God for salvation. And so we have come to partake of that calling from God and enter into the salvation He has provided.

It's to that group that the writer is addressing his comments. “Holy brethren, partakers of the holy calling, consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” As this was written in Greek, it has a little different order of words. In Greek you can arrange your words, they don't have to come in a logical sequence like we do in English. Words have a different ending and that tells you no matter where they are in the sentence, where they fit. So you can arrange them to give emphasis. Here the word Jesus, the name Jesus is put last. So literally it says, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, to draw stress on Jesus, His human name as we talked about in our study in Hebrews 2. “You shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.” He commands them here and that word translated consider means to give careful attention to, focus your mind upon and reflect upon Jesus. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.

What his concern is here, and this will become clear as we move along, these believers are losing focus. They need to draw the attention of their minds and focus on Jesus, who He is and what He has done. Because remember this is a congregation of believers, some of whom are giving consideration to turning back from following Christ and returning to Judaism. They need to stop and think and reflect upon and give careful consideration to who Jesus is, what He has done. If you do that, you realize that can't be done. And he's going to focus on that strongly before we are done. Anyone who turns back has never been one of the holy brethren, has never been a partaker of the heavenly calling, because it will be true of those who have truly entered into God's salvation that they will remain faithful to the calling that God has given them.

So he says, focus your attention on Jesus, He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Now if we read this in English it seems strange, He is called the Apostle. This is the only time that Jesus is called and Apostle in the New Testament. You say, why would he call Him an apostle? Peter was an apostle, Paul was an apostle. There are other apostles. Why would Jesus be called an apostle? We come back, an apostle means one who is sent. The Greek verb for being sent is apostello. So you can see the word apostle, we have a noun that just comes out of that verb. An apostle is one who is sent. And so those who have the office as we would refer to it as an apostle, the gift of apostleship as Paul did, Peter did, James did, John and others. They were called apostles because they were sent by God to represent Him. Jesus is the One sent from the Father to reveal the Father most fully and make Him known. We saw that as we began the letter in Hebrews 1.

Come back to John 3. And there are many references and John in particular refers repeatedly to Jesus as the One sent from the Father. We're going to John 3. Jesus refers to Himself this way. We're not going to look at all of them but just a few of the references where Jesus is said to be the One sent. In that sense He is God's Apostle, He's the Sent One. We have John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Then note verse 17, “for God did not send His Son into the world,” there is our word, our verb. He didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, “but that the world through Him might be saved.”

You come down to John 3:34, “for He whom God has sent speaks the words of God,” referring to Christ. He is sent by God. Come over to John 5:36, “but the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John,” referring to John the Baptist who testified on behalf of Christ. “For the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do testify about Me that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has testified of Me.” Verse 38, “you do not have His word abiding in you for you do not believe Him whom He sent.” See this is just repeated emphasis that Christ is the One sent by the Father. So He is the Apostle of our faith, of our confession. We recognize as those who have experienced His sanctifying, saving work that He was the One sent by God, the Son of God sent to this earth to become man for our benefit.

Go over to John 20, and you'll see this connected to the apostles as we know them. John 20. After the resurrection Jesus has risen from the dead, the tomb is found empty, then He appears to the disciples in what we call the upper room where they are closed in because of fear that the persecution that brought about the crucifixion of Christ might envelop them. But look at verse 21, “so Jesus said to them,” He's addressing His eleven disciples, the ones that we would know as apostles through the rest of the New Testament. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me so I send you.” So you can see the connection. We talk about the apostles, they are ones sent by Christ so they are called the apostles of Christ, the ones sent on behalf of Christ to represent Christ, to make Him known. The Father sent Christ, in that sense He is the Apostle of the Father, the One sent to represent the Father and make Him known more fully.

He is also called, back in Hebrews 3, not only the Apostle but “the High Priest of our confession.” And that's what we had at the end of Hebrews 2 that we've already referred to. “He had to be made like His brethren in all things,” Hebrews 2:17 said, “that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest.” Why did He have to become a High Priest? So He could offer the sacrifice to make propitiation for our sins, for the penalty for sin is death. So He became man so He could function as our High Priest and offer the sacrifice which would be His own body, and this will get developed later in Hebrews, that satisfies the demands of God's righteousness. He's the High Priest of our confession.

Turn over to 1 John 4, written by the Apostle John who also wrote the gospel of John and the epistles of John—1, 2 and 3 John. And he also wrote the book of the Revelation of John. 1 John 4:10, “in this is love not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son,” there is His role as Apostle, the sent One, “to be the propitiation for our sins.” There is His High Priestly ministry. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Propitiation connected to His High Priestly ministry as we saw in Hebrews 2:17. So this verse by John in 1 John 4:10 connects Christ as Apostle and as High Priest, the One sent, the One functioning as High Priest by offering the sacrifice that turned away God's wrath.

Come back to Hebrews 3. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, what we acknowledge to be true and agree with God is true, the truth concerning Christ. He is the One sent from the Father, that's His person. His work, to be High Priest, to make propitiation for sins. That's the substance, if you will, of the truth concerning Christ. That's our confession, the basic word means to agree with, to say the same thing. And we have come to agree with God. We enter into His salvation, we agree with God that we are sinners, we need a Savior. We believe your Son was sent from heaven to be the One who would offer the sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. And we are placing our faith in Him. That's our confession. Jesus Christ is God's Son who is the Savior in whom we believe. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. That's what our confession is, that's what we believe. Romans 10 says that “with the heart man believes, with the mouth he confesses.” I declare what is in my heart, I believe the truth that Jesus is sent from God to be the Savior by offering this sacrifice.

Back in Hebrews 3 we move to verse 2 which continues as a continuous sentence, but we being it, “He was faithful to Him who appointed Him.” What He wants them to consider carefully is the faithfulness of Christ and the uniqueness of Christ in His faithfulness. And what he is going to do is compare Him to Moses. So with Hebrews 3 we come now from considering the superiority of Christ to angels to considering the superiority of Christ to Moses. Seems like we've stepped a step down, we've talked about the superiority of Christ to Old Testament prophets and the message that they gave in the opening verses of Hebrews. And then we talked about the superiority of Christ to angels in Hebrews 2-3. Now we talk about the superiority of Christ to Moses. We misunderstand. In Jewish thinking there is no one greater than Moses. In fact in our Bibles only Jesus and David are mentioned more often than Moses. In Jewish thinking Moses stood in a category by himself. I mean, he was the deliverer of Israel from the bondage in Egypt, he's the one who would speak face to face with God on the mountain. He is the one to whom God gave the revelation of the Law which governed the life of the nation Israel.

So for these Jewish believers it didn't seem maybe so bad to go back to Moses. Could you find a greater personage in Israel's history than Moses? Who was used in greater ways than Moses? And the revelation of the Law so crucial to Israel's life was given to Moses on the mountain. We're not abandoning God, we're just considering going back to Moses. What he's going to show is Moses was faithful, but there is an unfathomable chasm between Moses and Jesus.

But he's going to first draw a comparison that is favorable. Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him. Who appointed Him? God appointed Him. He was faithful. And you'll note the comparison, as Moses was in all his house. And the comparison is not going to be Christ was more faithful than Moses. Christ was faithful even as Moses was faithful. It was an honor to speak of Moses that way. Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him, even as Moses was in all his house.

Come back to Numbers. We usually haven't been going back to all the verses, but this verse is not quoted, but it is the background for what is said here. Numbers 12. The context here, one reason or another there comes trouble in Israel and even Moses' own family begins to turn against him. Numbers 12 opens up, “then Miriam,” who is Moses' sister, “and Aaron,” who is Moses' brother, “spoke against Moses because they didn't like his wife.” We have a lot of family squabbles over those kinds of things, marriage partners. But they didn't agree since she was a Cushite and not a Hebrew. And then they said, Moses, you're not the only one God has spoken to.

Suddenly, verse 4, “the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, you three come out to the tent of meeting.” That's can't be good. You have the voice of God come from heaven and summon these three people and say, I'm going to meet with you. And we meet at the Tent of Meeting. So the three of them came out. And the Lord comes down manifesting His presence with the pillar of a cloud. And He said, verse 6, “hear now My words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak to him in a dream.” This is going to be the contrast. God spoke to different ones in dreams and visions but Moses is different. “Not so with my servant Moses, he is faithful in all my household.” There is where the statement Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him even as Moses was faithful in all his household. That statement, “he is faithful in all My household” is what the writer of Hebrews picks up. He'll pick up the first part of this in a moment. We won't come back, but keep it in mind. “Not so with My servant Moses.” Moses was a servant who faithfully served the Lord in God's household, God's household here being Israel, the people that He had called to Himself. With him I speak mouth to mouth, openly. So he is on a level above all the other prophets and those who receive revelation by virtue of the fact I choose to communicate to him without an intermediary involved as with the others. The verse we want is verse 7, “not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My household.”

On your way back to Hebrews stop in 1 Corinthians 4, we're just going to pick up a statement here that gives the principle for all servants of God entrusted with responsibility in God's household among His people. Verse 1, Paul says, “let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” I'm a servant, I'm entrusted with the responsibility in the house of God. I'm a house steward, a servant in God's household. And in this case moreover it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful, one be found trustworthy, faithful. So those that God entrusts with responsibility in His household are to be faithful in carrying out His desires for His family. That's the point. Moses was faithful as one entrusted with responsibility in God's household. That's to be true of anyone entrusted with the household.

You come over to Hebrews now. The particular contrast to be drawn and comparison is with Christ, the Son of God. Remember His humanity has been emphasized at the end of Hebrews 2, showing Christ is superior to angels in His humanity, Hebrews 2:5-18, Jesus being His human name. That's how He was referred in Hebrews 3:1, He, Jesus, was faithful to Him who appointed Him as Moses was also in all his house. House or household is going to be the key word in these first six verses. It will be used seven times in these six verses. So we're talking about the functioning and responsibilities carried out in the context of God's people, as Moses was in all his house, so Christ was faithful. No putdown of Moses for faithfulness. Comparison—Christ was faithful, Moses was faithful.

“But,” verse 3, “for He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.” Now here is the important contrast. Christ was faithful to the Father who appointed Him, even as Moses was faithful in God's house. But there is a difference. Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Why? They were both faithful. By just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. Well we can understand that, the one who built the house, remember we're talking about God's family, has more honor than one who is just a servant in the house.

Well, verse 4, “every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is God.” So in the human analogy of the building we can appreciate. We still look back on buildings that may have been built by a well-known architect. We say, this was built by this architect in 1921 and it's being maintained. And he's given honor as the builder. There may have been a number of people who lived in that particular house, but the builder gets honor for being the builder and the construction. And of course building the people of God, that's a work only God can do.

You'll note the deity of Christ stressed here. That takes us back to Hebrews 1 where it was said of the Son, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Because we're told in Hebrews 3:3 that “Christ has more honor than Moses like the builder of the house has more honor than the house.” And “every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” So he brings the deity of Christ into play here without developing that aspect as he did in Hebrews 1. He is the glory of the builder, and the builder of all things is God. And that was brought to our attention back in Hebrews 1:2, “in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages and everything in them.” The builder of all things is God, and that was the work of God the Father through God the Son. So He is worthy of more honor, more glory, Jesus, because He built the house. Moses is a servant in the house. Now Jesus was faithful as a man, He came to do the will of the Father. But you understand that there is more glory associated with this One sent by the Father because the One sent by the Father is the Son of the Father. He has a unique role, He is Son. That's why he started at that point in Hebrews 1:5-14, the deity of Christ.

“Now Moses was faithful,” verse 5 picks up, back to the faithfulness. Not attacking Moses in any way. He is honoring Moses for being faithful in what God called him to do and be. “Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant.” And we saw that in Numbers 12:7, My servant Moses, “not so with My servant Moses,” My servant Moses. “He was faithful in all his house,” God's house. We saw that in Numbers 12:7, Moses is faithful in all My house. So the house talked about here is not Moses' house, it is God's house. We saw the reference in Numbers 12:7.

He was faithful in all God's house as a servant. It was God's house, He built it, Moses was faithful in it. A good testimony to him. As a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. Moses was used of God to even give a message about what God would do and accomplish at a future time. So Moses is a servant among God's people and used by God to tell what would happen at a future time. Those things which would be spoken of later, that ties us back to Hebrews 1:1. “God after He spoke long ago in the fathers and in the prophets in these last days has spoken to us in One who is a Son.” So Moses is one of those used to testify about things that would be revealed later.

Come back to Deuteronomy 18:15, and here Moses is speaking. “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like Me from among you from your countrymen. You shall listen to Him.” Verse 18, “the Lord says, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you.” He is speaking here to Moses to pass on to them. “I will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which He shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.” So Moses testified of what was to be spoken later. Jesus is Prophet, Priest and King, combining all three offices in one Person. Moses said there will be a prophet like me, but He is greater than me. He is superior. And God denotes the finality of it. Those who don't respond to Him then will bear the consequence and be dealt with by Me.

Come back to Hebrews. Now you see what he is saying. You're talking about going back to Moses, well Moses talked about the coming of Jesus as the superior and greater One of revelation and the One in whom all would have to believe or come under the judgment of God. That's what he means when God says, “I Myself will require it if they don't hear Him.”

So “Moses was faithful in all his house,” Hebrews 3:5, “as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken. But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house.” So here is the great contrast. The similarity—Moses was faithful, Jesus was faithful; the difference—Moses was faithful as a servant in God's house, Jesus was faithful as a Son over God's house. Now obviously the Son is superior to the servant and the servant serves in the household. But the Son rules over the household. Now you can see what he is doing. How can you talk about going back to Moses? You see why he commanded them, and that word consider in verse 1 is a command, and aorist imperative. You must give careful thought and consideration, focus your mind on Jesus. You consider who He is. He is a Son, He's over the house. You want to go back to the servant who functions in the house. Anybody can see that. You tell the son who is over the house, no, I'm not going to follow you, I'm going to follow the servant in the house. It's not an option. The servant functions under the authority of the Son who is over the house. If you turn away from the Son, you can't find refuge in the servant. It's the Son who rules over the house, the servant serves in the house.

So it's true, Christ came and was a servant carrying out God's will. He was faithful, but He is faithful as the Son carrying out the will of the Father. And Moses was faithful as a servant. Moses was in the family of God, Jesus as Son is over God's family. What a contrast. The Jews were thinking, I'm going back to Moses, we hold Moses in high esteem and high honor. We do, as a servant who was faithful in the house. But you cannot compare him in that sense to the Son who was over the house, who built the house as God.

Now note here how he draws this to a point which then he'll develop with quotes from the Old Testament you can see beginning in verse 6. “But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are.” So you see we're talking about a spiritual house here, God's people. In the Old Testament it was Israel, in the New Testament it will be the church. But they’re people who belong to God that have become partakers of that heavenly calling. Whose house we are. This picture of God's people being a house or a household. 1 Timothy 3:15 talks about the church which is “the pillar and support of the truth,” the household of God. This is God's family, God's house. We still use that reference, we refer to the house of so-and-so, often maybe in royalty. That's the house, that's the family. That's what we are talking about, this is God's family. The writer here says, whose house we are. He has addressed them as that, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. Talks about our confession of Jesus in verse 1. So we are God's house.

Come back to Ephesians 1:22 then we're going into chapter 2, “He put all things in subjection under His feet, Christ, and gave Him head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” There the church which is God's household today, which we saw when I quoted 1 Timothy 3:15, the church which is God's household. And Christ is head over it. Well the Son is over the house.

You come down to Ephesians 2:19, “so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are of your fellow citizens with the saints.” Fellow citizens with the saints. Remember we started out Hebrews 3:1, holy brethren, part of God's family, with the saints, the holy ones, fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household. We're talking about God's family. We have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone. So the cornerstone which is key for the structure. Then the apostles and prophets of the New Testament like Paul and John and Peter gave fuller understanding of the person and work of Christ. That's what we're being built on. “Christ Jesus being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” We are as God's people being built and developed and growing into maturity. Each of us are like a stone or a rock in the building added and the building is alive. So you have this mixed metaphor, we are God's family and this building of God in which He dwells. And 1 Corinthians 3 says that the Spirit of God dwells in the church at Corinth as well as in 1 Corinthians 6 in the individual believer in the church. So that's what we are gathered together. We are God's household and then all believers around the world and all the local churches comprise God's household today in the world over which Christ is head. He is Son over the house.

Come over to 1 Peter, this is the only other reference we'll look at on this, but it is similar. Verse 4, “and coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men,” so here a living stone, talking about Christ, He is the cornerstone, choice and precious in the sight of God. “You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So you see the living building that the church is. It's not this physical building, it's the living people in it who belong to God through faith in Christ. And we are being built up and brought to further maturity as we have talked about in other studies in our relationship to the God who has called us to Himself. His family is to be maturing and growing.

Come back to Hebrews 3. There is a difficult statement at the end of verse 6, “whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” This becomes a repeated thrust in the book of Hebrews. Having made a profession of faith in Christ, having talked about a time in your life when you trusted Christ doesn't in and of itself mean that you belong to God's household because he conditions it here. We are his house if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope until the end. This becomes a major theme in Hebrews. He'll come back to this same similar statement in verse 14, “for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

If we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope. In other words these Jewish Christians who have claimed to trust Christ put their faith and hope in Him now are talking about maybe they'll go back to Judaism. You know what the writer to the Hebrews says, if you have truly trusted Christ, if you have truly experienced His salvation, if you have been truly born into God's family, you will not go back, you will not turn away. Now don't get confused here. Some people think a verse like this means that if you have trusted Christ and become a child of God but then you become unfaithful you lose your salvation. But that's not true, that's contrary to what the Scripture teaches in so many passages. Nor is it saying that your salvation depends upon your faithfulness and that brings it to completion. What he is saying is those who have truly become part of God's family will remain faithful to Him. And anyone who does not remain faithful never was a part of the family. That can be a hard saying, but it is true. The Scripture repeatedly warns about it. Faithfulness in the commitment to Christ is the sign of genuine salvation. I will be saved if I have truly trusted in Christ because I will remain faithful to Him. You say, I know people who have seemed to give clear evidence, we talked about the parable of the soils not too long ago. Some of the seed of the Word of God fell on shallow ground and immediately it sprang up. And people received the Word of God, Jesus said, with enthusiasm. But over time pressure comes, persecution comes and they wilt and there is no fruit produced and they are gone.

Turn over to 1 John again, 1 John 2:18, “children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that antichrist is coming, now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour.” Many false Christs, many opposed to Christ come and some of them had been part of these churches because look at verse 19. “They went out from us,” they had professed faith in Christ, they had professed to be part of God's family, God's household. They went out from us, they left us like some of these Jews in the letter to the Hebrews are contemplating doing. Some had already done it. We'll see when we get to Hebrews 10. “But they were not really of us,” they weren't really believers, they didn't really belong in the family. They just look like family members for a time. “For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” There is no alternative, when a person is truly born into God's family and experienced the power of God's salvation there comes with that a durability and an endurance. Doesn't say it will be easy. That's what these Hebrews are facing—persecution, opposition. That's why Jesus said “if you love your family more than Me, you can't be My follower. You have to take up your cross and follow Me.” Pressure will come, trials will come. Count the cost. That doesn't mean I am saved by saying, I'm going to do this. But understand when you hear the gospel and say, I want to place my faith in Christ, you understand your life is no longer your own because you've been bought with a price. And if that truly happens in your heart, you can never go back, you are now God's child. There are certain things you will do just by virtue of the fact you've become a partaker of the divine nature, as Peter says.

John goes on in verse 19, “they went out so that it would be shown that they are not all of us.” It does sometimes happen. It’s happened in our church. Now be careful, don't go out and say, Gil said anyone who leaves Indian Hills, that means they were never saved. Sometimes God leads them to another church, He wants to use them there. But when people turn away from Christ and the truth in Him and the truth of His person and work, they really realize where they are. How long?

I've shared the story before. Years ago we had a man who was teaching in this church, he was a good teacher. He was doing the doctrine of salvation. He prepared a whole syllabus, I still have it, on the doctrine of salvation to teach. He came in and went over it with me, I thought it was wonderful. There came a point in time when that man came and sat in my office, laid his copy of that syllabus on my desk and said, I don't believe any of this. It's just stuff I learned. And 30+ years later (and he lives in another state) he is an apostate. Makes no profession to have any relationship with Christ. God knows the heart but over time things become revealed. And when those who turn away from Christ, they reveal what? And we say, they're just not walking with the Lord? I'm not saying Christians don't sin and sometimes we get confused and sometimes we wonder whether they are genuine or not. But over time it becomes clear. Any of us can stray, any of us can wander. We are sheep, we are prone to that. But in God's salvation He has built His life into us. The fish keeps swimming in water and if he gets out and walks down the sidewalk you say, he probably never was a fish. We have to analyze what he was. Maybe it was someone in a scuba suit that looked like a fish. But a fish will keep doing what a fish does, and if you are born into God's family and you are God's child and you are part of God's household, you will continue.

I was watching a crow at the top of the branch, I don't know how they keep their balance. I'm getting to the age I have a hard time keeping my balance on flat ground. He's up on this stick crowing away when I came into church this morning. Don't tell me he used to be a grizzly bear. You don't turn away from God if you truly belong to Him, that's all I'm saying, we don't turn away. That doesn't mean we don't stumble, doesn't mean we lead a perfect life.

What the writer to the Hebrews is warning these professing believers is you have to stay true. If you are contemplating returning, then the way Paul put it in writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13:5 is “examine yourselves to see if you are really in the faith. For don't you know, if you truly belong to God the Spirit of God dwells in you.” How can you be talking about turning away from Him?

Come back to John 8 and we will be done. Look what Jesus said, verse 31, so “Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him. They have declared, yes, we believe in you, we believe you are the Messiah, we believe you are the Savior. He said to them, if you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” We somehow have gotten the idea that if a person makes a profession of faith that means they are saved. And no matter what else happens in their life….well, I remember when I made a profession or when they made a profession. The test of reality is durability. True believers will persist, and that's by the grace of God and the provision of God in the salvation He brings to my life. It is not a testimony to my own power, but the supernatural work of His grace.

So there is no place else to go, there is only one Savior. And we commit ourselves to Him and that means when trials come, when opposition comes we stay the course. And sometimes we have to refocus and set our minds again on Him and contemplate Him and remind ourselves of who He is and what He has done. And we have no choice but to stay faithful.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the power of the salvation that we have experienced in Christ, the reality of it. Lord, it is an encouragement and a comfort as well as a challenge to know that true believers will remain faithful. Thank You, Lord, for Your love for us, Your provision for us. And I pray, Lord, if we have doubts, pray for those who may be contemplating a turning away, that they might consider the reality of a relationship with Christ and what it means. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.