Run With It: And We are His House IF

Saturday, September 25, 2021

And We are His House IF

Hebrews 3:6-15 ESV

“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.

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.’”

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.”

A “Quick Fix”

Many people today are preaching a “quick fix” gospel with an easy in, and no way out approach to our salvation from sin. All you have to do is pray a prayer to receive Christ into your heart and then you are welcomed into the family of God, and you are told that heaven is now your eternal destiny guaranteed, no matter how you live from this point forward.

But that is not the gospel Jesus taught. That is not the gospel the New Testament apostles taught, at least not if you read what they said in context. Jesus and his NT apostles taught dying with Christ to sin, being transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and they taught walks of obedience to the Lord and no longer walking in the flesh in habitual sin.

And they taught that we must continue in that faith in walks of obedience to our Lord and in the forsaking our sins firmly until the end of time. Jesus said if we continue in his word that we are truly his disciples. By the gospel we are saved if we hold firmly to the gospel. And we must continue in our faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel (Jn 8:31-32; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6, 14-15).

If You Hear Him

Many people today who profess faith in Jesus Christ have bought into a cheap grace gospel which is telling them that nothing is required of them other than some obscure “belief” in Jesus Christ which is rarely defined. They just have to “believe” and then their sins are forgiven, and they are on their way to heaven, but they don’t have to do anything.

But that also is not what the Scriptures teach. They teach we must die with Christ to sin, be changed in heart and mind, and that we must walk in obedience to our Lord and no longer in sin if we want to be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God (Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 1 Jn 3:4-10).

So, this is why we have this warning here in Hebrews 3 which is not just for the Jewish Christians of that time, but which is for all people of all time. If we have heard the voice of Jesus calling us to believe in him and to follow him with our lives, but we harden our hearts and we refuse to listen to him, and so we listen to men instead, and therefore we rebel against him, we will not enter his eternal rest, but we will die in our sins.

And God calls disobedience (in practice) unbelief, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. If we are not walking in obedience to our Lord as a matter of practice, but we are saying that we know him, we are liars who are not living by the truth, and we don’t know the Lord (1 Jn 2:3-6).

So, if the Lord speaks to our hearts, and he calls us to himself, and we choose to believe in him, but we refuse to submit to him and to obey him, then that is not belief. For the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God, is gifted to us by God, and it is founded in Jesus and perfected by him, so this faith will submit to Christ as Lord, forsake sin, and follow Jesus in obedience.

Take Care

So, there is a caution here for us. We must take care that we don’t have unbelieving hearts especially while we are convinced we do believe in Jesus. For many think they believe in Jesus because they have been sold “a bill of goods,” i.e., a big fat lie! But genuine faith in Jesus dies with him to sin and lives to him and to his righteousness as a matter of life course, and this faith continues until the end of time.

So, what are we commanded to do in response to this? We are to exhort one another every day so that not one of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. But in today’s church culture, if you take this seriously, and if this is what you practice, you will most likely be scolded for it, accused falsely of being self-righteous or legalistic, and you may be told to mind your own business or to find another “church” where you will be a “better fit.”

But don’t let that discourage you. Don’t let that take you out. We need to keep speaking the truth, for the lies are very loud and they are being spread far and wide, and many people are flocking to the lies and are rejecting the truth. But those who reject the truth in favor of the lies will not inherit eternal life with God. For if they make sin their practice they will die in their sins. So, keep on speaking the truth, for many need to hear it.

Praise You in This Storm

Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth