“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.
“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.”’” (Hebrews 3:5-11 ESV)
Hebrews 3:1-19 and Hebrews 4:1-16 parallel 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 where we read that God was displeased with most of the Israelites, when they were in the wilderness for 40 years, due to their rebellion against the Lord, their idolatry, their revelry, their sexual immorality, and their grumbling and complaining, and because they put Christ to the test by their actions, and because they would not repent of (turn from) their sins to obey God.
In 1 Corinthians 10, we are told that these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did; that we might not be idolaters, adulterers, revelers, drunkards, rebels, grumblers, sexually immoral, and those who put Christ to the test by our actions. And their actions were written down for us for our instruction so that we will not do as they did, and so that we do not end up in hell and not in heaven, like they did.
So, when in Hebrews 3 we read that “we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope,” this is not speaking of mere professions of faith in Jesus Christ, which the rest of the passage makes quite clear. For the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ died on that cross to redeem us out of our lives of slavery to sin so that we will now honor God in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living.
And the purpose of what is taught in Hebrews 3 and 4, and in 1 Corinthians 10, is to warn us that if we live like they lived that we will not inherit eternal life with God, and that we, too, will not enter into God’s eternal rest. So the confidence and hope to which we are to hold fast is that of our deliverance out of our slavery to sin, and that if we now walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living, and not in deliberate and habitual sin, we have eternal life.
For, if the Lord speaks to us through his word, and through his messengers who speak his words, and he convicts us of specific signature sins in our lives, and so he warns us that if we live like the Israelites did that we will get the same result as they did, we are not to harden our hearts. We are not to ignore the warnings from God coming to us through his Word, and through the Holy Spirit, and through his messengers. We need to believe God!!
For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, then we have eternal life. For he also said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” is heaven bound, but the one DOING God’s will.
And we also learn in the Scriptures that if sin is what we practice (obey), and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant), that we will not have eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips profess. But if we walk in conduct in obedience to our Lord in holy living, in moral purity, uprightness, honesty, and faithfulness, and this is what we practice, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24]
He Gives Purpose
An Original Work / June 9, 2012
“Listen to Me when I’m calling to you.
Obey freely My word.
Follow Me in all of My ways.
Do all that I say.
Hear Me gently whisper to you
My will for your life and future.
Give all of your life and heart to
Follow Me always.”
Repent of your sins and worship Jesus.
He’s your Lord and Master.
He died for your sins so you could
Live with Him today.
He has a plan for your life and
He gives purpose and direction.
He gives meaning to your life,
So follow Him today.
“I love you so much I gave My life for
You to walk in My ways,
Living for Me each day as you
Bow to Me and pray.
Witness for Me of your love for Me and
Of My grace and mercy,
How I died to save you of your
Sins now and always.”
https://vimeo.com/119038798
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