Thursday, November
06, 2014, 12:58 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “As the Deer.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Hebrews 3 (ESV).
Christ is Faithful
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 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 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 in our hope.
We learn in the first two chapters of Hebrews that Jesus
Christ is God, and is called God by God the Father. God the Father created the
universe through his Son Jesus Christ, so Jesus is our creator. He was with God
in the beginning (See: John 1). Jesus Christ is completely sovereign over all
things, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. Everything is subject
to him.
The heavens and the earth which God/Jesus created will one
day be folded up like a garment, not to be used any more as they had been. They
will perish, but God/Jesus will always remain. They will one day change, but
God/Jesus will always remain the same. One day God will make Jesus’ enemies
(the enemies of the cross of Christ) a footstool at his feet. His enemies are
truly all who reject him as Savior and Lord. They are liars, deceivers,
adulterers, gossips, murderers, thieves, slanderers, and idolaters and the
like. They are all those who never truly trusted in Christ to save them from
their sins.
In the past God spoke to us through the prophets, but he now
speaks to us through his Son. When we humble ourselves before God in repentance
and faith, and we die with Christ to our old lives of sin so that we can live and
walk with him in his righteousness and holiness, he indwells us with his Holy
Spirit who then teaches us all things. We then, as followers of Christ, become
his body and his representatives, so he also speaks through us, his servants.
Because Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we could be
set free from slavery to sin, and because he shared in our humanity so that he
could become our faithful and merciful high priest, and because he suffered and
was tempted as we are, and thus is able to help us when we are weak and when we
are tempted, we should fix (secure, position, fasten) our thoughts on him, i.e.
we should consider him in our thoughts carefully, closely, decisively and
attentively. We do this by taking him and his word seriously, by daily
listening to his voice speaking his words to our hearts, by obeying what he
teaches us, and by following him wherever he leads us.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church, his body, God’s
house. We are his house IF we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we
boast. True faith is continuous. Shallow faith, because it never took root,
gives up and deserts when things get tough, and they will. God’s grace teaches
us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled,
godly and upright lives. True faith dies with Christ to our old lives of living
for sin and self, and is resurrected to new life in Christ to be lived in his
righteousness and holiness.
Do Not Harden
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 forty 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.’”
Many church leaders today are teaching a shallow faith as
true faith, and they ignore all the scriptures which teach to the contrary. Yet,
so many scriptures define genuine faith as continuous, enduring, firm, steadfast,
persevering and that which remains in us to the end (See: John 8:31-32; Romans
11:17-24; I Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; II Tim 2:10-13; Hebrews 3:6, 14-15; 2 Pet.
1:5-11; I John 2:24-25; and Rev. 2-3).
So many are teaching a watered-down gospel which teaches
people to pray a prayer to receive Christ, and then promises them they are
saved and that they are going to heaven and that nothing can ever take that
away from them. The danger in this is that we don’t know if those people truly
believed or not, so we can’t guarantee heaven for them. Also, the guarantee of
heaven is made on the belief that the individuals prayed a prayer to receive
Christ, but the full gospel message was never given, and thus they did not know
that faith in Christ means death to our old lives of sin and it means now
walking in Christ’s righteousness and holiness in the power of the Spirit
living within us. So many people, thus, are counting on heaven based upon a
prayer they prayed, but their lives were never really Holy Spirit transformed. They
were given a false hope, and they are still lost for eternity.
Take Care
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,” 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 original
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 forty 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? So we
see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
This first sentence here sounds like an oxymoron, i.e. an
expression with contradictory words. First he calls them brothers, indicating
he recognizes them as true followers of the faith. Yet, he then warns them to
take care lest in any of them is an evil, unbelieving heart, which leads them
to fall away from the living God. Evidently there were false brothers (and
sisters) among them, and there were those whose faith was shallow and never
took root, so their hearts never changed, and thus they were still unbelievers.
So, he warns them as a whole to take care, and to examine their hearts to make
sure they are truly in the faith.
Then, he urges them to encourage one another daily so that
none of them might be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. I can’t help but think
here of Jesus’ parable of the sower. The seed was sown on four types of soil
(heart response). The second one immediately received the word with joy, but
his or her faith was shallow and never took root, so when persecution arose, he
or she deserted, never to return.
Many people today think they are saved because of some
decision they made one day at an altar, and maybe initially they received the
message of the gospel with joy, but the “faith” did not last, and they went
back to living just like they did before they made a profession of Christ. It
says here, though, that we have come to share in Christ IF we hold firmly to
the end the confidence in Christ we had at first.
Again we are warned to not harden our hearts, and we are
reminded of those who heard and rebelled during the time of Moses. Who were
they? They were the chosen of God. They were those he led out of slavery, and
who were on their way to the promised land.
We, who have been given the gospel, and for whom Christ died
on the cross for our sins, and who have truly believed, have also been set free
from slavery to sin, and we are on our way to heaven - our promised land. Yet,
there are those among us whose commitments to Christ are surface only, and profession
only, but their faith is shallow faith and still they have unbelieving hearts. They
may go through the motions, but they don’t really know Christ. So, today we are
being encouraged here, I believe, to examine our hearts to see if we are truly
in the faith. Are we relying upon some decision we made a long time ago, but we
know we never truly died with Christ to our old lives of sin and so we also know
we are not walking in his holiness and purity? If so, we need to make sure
today that we have truly died with Christ to our sin and that we are walking in
faith by the Spirit and in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. Time is running
out. Make sure your faith is genuine today!
As the Deer /
Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth
for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my
strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You…
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