Hebrews 3:12-14: The Promise Given

Introduction: The Reality of Apostasy and the Certainty of Perseverance

0:03 Hebrews chapter 3, as we return to the third and final study in this brief portion of the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 3, and I shall read verses 12 through 14.

0:31 Hebrews 3, verses 12 through 14. Hebrews 3, take heed, brethren, lest happily there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God. But exhort one another day by day, so long as it is cold today, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we are become, or better translated, we have become.

1:06 And? And remain partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.

1:19 I should like to begin our study today by repeating the words with which I introduced the first of these studies two weeks ago. And those words are these.

1:33 One of the tragic but undeniable facts of life is that many, many who begin well the profession of the Christian faith never persevere in that profession to the end of their days. In other words, apostasy, or falling away from the profession and apparent possession of Jesus Christ, is a sobering reality. It is not a phantom. Apostasy.

2:12 Apostasy is an ugly, sobering reality. Both in the record of Holy Scripture, Old and New Testaments, and in the subsequent history of the Church of Christ, and I may make it even more personal, it has been the sad reality in the history of this Church. We have seen some who have turned away from the profession. We have seen some who have turned away from the profession and apparent possession of Christ, and no longer walk with Him, with His people, or in His way.

2:56 Now, in spite of that hard-nosed fact of biblical history, the same Scripture that records for us the possibility and the actuality of apostasy tells us that the preservation and perseverance of every true belief, the believer, is of absolute certainty. For the Apostle says in Romans 8, 30, whom He justified, then He also glorified. And so the Scripture set forth the certainty of the preservation and perseverance of every true believer, but the same Scripture set forth the necessity of the perseverance of every true believer. It is only those who continue in His way, the Word, who are His disciples indeed, according to our Lord in John 8 and verse 32. Now, these things being true, any portions of the Word of God which address themselves to the subject of the certainty and necessity of the perseverance and preservation of God's people are portions of the Word of God which touch upon our eternal interest. They are not portions.

4:17 They are not portions. They are not portions that are to be treated with idle curiosity. They are matters of life and of death. And this portion that I've read in your hearing, Hebrews 3, 12 through 14, is just such a portion.

Review of Previous Studies: Warning and Means

4:32 And I shall just touch on the heads of the previous studies and move to our study today in verse 14. I suggested that this portion can be considered, first of all, verse 12, the warning issue. Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The warning issued comes to brethren.

4:58 It comes to all the brethren, every one of us. The nature of the warning is a command to watchfulness. The essence of the warning is that we are to avoid an ultimate evil falling away from the living God and the intermediate evil which leads to it. And so the warning issued in verse 12 is a warning against falling away from God under the influence of an evil heart of unbelief.

5:31 Verse 13 is what I have called a practical means prescribed.

5:38 What is a very powerful means to avoid that ultimate evil and the intermediate evil which leads to it? Well, the activity of the heart of unbelief. The activity commanded here is mutual exhortation. The subjects of the activity, all of the brethren.

5:54 The time in which we are to engage in it, every time while the time for exhortation is yet with us. Today while it is called today and day by day. And what is the intended effect of this activity? To keep us from the hardening influence of sin's deceptive power.

6:14 It is as we engage in mutual exhortation, that we are kept from the deceitfulness of sin and thereby preserved from an evil heart of unbelief and thereby preserved from falling away from the living God. Now these things in themselves are weighty enough to call into play all of our faculties. That we would take seriously the command, take heed. Take seriously the prescribed means, exhort one another.

6:47 But the writer to the Hebrews is fully aware of our spiritual slothfulness. He is fully aware of the tremendous power of rationalization. The tremendous tendency, the frightening tendency to misplace our priorities and to count something of lesser importance than what God counts it in. So in verse 14 we have a motive in force.

The Essence of the Motive: Demonstrating True Sonship

7:12 Having given a warning in verse 12, having prescribed a practical means connected with that warning in verse 13, now the apostle or the writer to the Hebrews puts as a capstone over everything that has preceded this powerful motive by which he enforces obedience to the duties and responsibilities thus described. And as we think through verse 14, we shall do so, along the following lines. I will try to give you just the essence of this motive in a brief statement or two. Then we shall, in the second place, explain the words used in giving the motive and then the heart of our study will be an opening up of the fundamental lessons in the text. Now what is this motive couched in these words? For we are become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our comforts and keep our confidence firm unto the end. Well, the essence of the motive is simply this.

8:23 He is saying you must avoid apostasy, the ultimate evil, falling away from the living God. You must engage in every means calculated to keep you from the evil heart of unbelief that will lead you to apostasy for one fundamental reason. One fundamental reason. It is only in avoiding apostasy and using every means thereto that we demonstrate that we are truly the children of God.

9:02 Take heed. Exhort one another for, here's the rationale behind it, for we have become partakers of Christ only if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. So no matter what we have professed in the past, no matter what we say we have experienced in the past, unless we persevere to the end, we have no grounds to claim that we have ever known the saving grace of God. We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

9:38 In other words, avoiding an evil heart of unbelief which would lead to departing from the living God, engaging in the means of apostasy, the means of mutual exhortation, thus keeping ourselves from the deceitfulness of sin, is not a luxury. It's a matter of life and of death. That's the essence of the most. Now, we come to an explanation of the word youth.

Explanation of Words: The State and Activity of a Christian

10:11 And as we try to think through the words, notice in the first place the state of a Christian described in the text. Look at the words. For we have become partakers of Christ. For we have become partakers of Christ.

10:24 And in that little phrase, we have become partakers of Christ, we have a unique but beautiful description of the state of a true Christian. Sharers of Christ perhaps might be a better translation. We have become participators in the benefits of the person and work of Christ the Messiah. And though this is the only place in the New Testament where the Christian state is described in this precise way, it is a parallel passage to such phrases as are found in 1 Corinthians 1.9. Ye were called into the fellowship, into the koinonia, into the sharing, the participation of Jesus Christ. It's parallel to such words that are found in Galatians 3, as many of us as were baptized that Christ did put on Christ.

11:28 It's a parallel passage to 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So He is describing the state of a true Christian.

11:44 In these words, we have become partakers of Christ. That is, we have come into such a relationship with Jesus Christ that we are now regarded by God with all the favor with which He is regarded by God. That's the legal aspect of becoming a sharer of Christ. But it means more than that.

12:10 It means in the language of 1 Corinthians 6, He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. The very spirit of Christ has come to endure. We are now members of His body. So that we share in some measure the mind of Christ.

12:27 That's New Testament language. Christ who is our life. That's New Testament language. All of this is bound up in the little phrase.

12:35 We have become sharers of Christ. And He uses a form of the verb which means we have become at some time in the past and continue remaining in the past. In that condition. We have become and presently are sharers of Christ.

12:57 That's the state of a true Christian described. Now he goes on to describe the activity of a true Christian. Look at the text. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence earned unto the end.

13:20 If. If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence that's the activity of a true Christian described. Now the word for confidence is the same word as is found in Hebrews 11.1.

13:34 Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The assurance. The confidence persuasion perhaps would be the best way to translate it into contemporary English. It's the exact opposite of apostasy.

13:52 When a man departs from the living God he relinquishes all firm confidence in the testimony of God. In the salvation of God. In the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now he says the activity of the true Christian the one who is a true sharer of Christ is that he holds to this confidence this confident persuasion.

14:15 Now what does he do with it? He holds it. He retains it. It's the same word used in Luke 8.15.

14:21 Concerning those who receive the word into good soil. They hold it fast and they bring forth fruit with patience. Now what's the beginning of our confidence? Well it is that confidence which characterized the beginning of their Christian profession.

14:41 Now what is the confidence that characterizes a believer at the beginning of his profession? Well is it not simply this? That in his sin and need Christ has come to him in the preaching of the gospel. Christ is set before him as the only, the able, the sufficient and willing Savior of all who come unto God by him.

15:04 And the sinner, not knowing many things, there are many areas concerning himself, the world, the Christian faith, concerning which he is ignorant. But when, in the sense of his need and his desperate plight, he lays hold of Christ as he's proclaimed in the gospel, he comes to that confidence that Jesus Christ is what he said he is in the gospel, the Savior of sinners who trust in him. There is that confident persuasion of the world of spiritual reality. I am a creature made in God's image.

15:42 I am accountable to God. I have broken his law. I deserve his judgment. This God has dealt with human sin in the person of his Son.

15:51 It is a firm persuasion of the elementary facts of the gospel. Now, the activity of the true Christian is described in this language. He holds fast, that is, he retains the beginning of this firm persuasion unto the end. Now, what is the end?

The Meaning of 'Unto the End' and the Nature of Initial Confidence

16:13 Well, that's debatable. And the commentators are divided because the language oft times refers to the consummation of all things at the return of Christ. I believe that there is a prejudice in favor of regarding it here, meaning the end of one's days. But in either case, it speaks of maintaining that confidence to the place where such maintenance in a world of struggle is no longer necessary.

16:43 Be that the return of the Lord or be that death. Apostasy is a phenomena of the present age, not the age to come. So he's saying, within that framework, within that age, there must be this holding fast, this retaining of the persuasion unto the end. Now, I want to underscore again what that persuasion is.

17:08 And perhaps the best way I can do it is simply to quote from one who's been such a help to me whenever I study the book of Hebrews, John Bradford. He says, The beginning or commencement of our confidence is, I apprehend, just our first or our original confidence or persuasion. It is by the faith of the truth which I've just stated that a man becomes a Christian. These things that I've mentioned.

17:34 It is by the perseverance in that faith alone that he can obtain satisfactory evidence that he is a Christian. It is not the person who's carried about with every wind of doctrine. But it is the person who is rooted and grounded and established in the faith of the truth that manifests that he is a partaker of Christ. Continued faith in the truth, manifesting itself in those fruits of peace and joy and holiness which it uniformly produces, just in the degree in which it exists, is the only permanently satisfactory evidence that we are united to Christ and share.

18:15 In the blessings of his salvation. When the Hebrews first received the gospel as good news of a full and free salvation to sinners, their faith and hope manifested itself in a lively devotion, brotherly love, patience under suffering. Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10. And it was only in their holding fast to this, that is, their original faith and hope, that they could continue to enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that they were partakers of Christ.

18:44 Now the essential point to grasp is this. Having described the state of a true Christian as one who is a partaker, a sharer of Christ, he describes the activity of that Christian, the key activity through all his days, manifesting the reality of his union with Christ, not some advanced truth, not some esoteric insight into the mysteries of the abstruse elements of the gospel. No, no, no, no. He said it is holding to that which marks our beginning confidence.

19:21 And what was that? The fact that I am nothing and Christ is all. That I am weak and he is mighty. That I am a sinner.

19:29 That he is the savior of sinners. That I can do nothing to save myself. He must do all things. Is not that the beginning of the firm persuasion in an embrace of the gospel?

19:41 Well, what is it that keeps from apostasy? It is holding. It is holding firm to that persuasion. It is not leaving that to go to something else.

19:53 And the key issue in perseverance is not mortification, according to this text. It is not service. It is holding fast to this confident persuasion that Christ is all and I am nothing. Isn't that what gave birth to zeal in the first days of your Christian experience?

20:18 Try with such a... An almighty savior.

20:20 I've got to serve him.

20:23 Isn't it that which drove you to prayer? Such a gracious savior. I must seek communion with him.

20:31 You see, it is that confident persuasion of the greatness and the glory of Christ that was the spring of all your love, your zeal, your faith, your prayer. And what is true at the beginning is true right through to the end. And it's in the maintenance of that simple confidence in Jesus Christ that is the spring of all your graces on the first day of your Christian life to the day that you enter glory.

21:05 No man ever apostatizes until he begins to relinquish a firm grasp upon that. And when he does, it's like cutting the string that holds the pearls together. They all fall to the ground.

21:19 And when you cease to grasp that Christ is what he says he is in the gospel, then your zeal for him begins to wane. And then your desire to commune with him begins to wane. And your sensitivity of grieving him begins to wane. And then what do you do?

21:35 You see these fruits of relinquishing the firm persuasion, and you start dealing with fruits instead of roots. And you start trying to patch yourself up and work on your zeal and work on your prayer and work on this and work on that. And you just involve yourself in the muck and the mire of a self-help scheme that does nothing but get mud in your face. And up your nostrils, the tragic thing.

22:03 Whereas what is needed is to go back again to the first confidence. I am nothing. Christ is all. I am weak. He is mighty.

22:17 I am sinned. He is righteous. That's the activity of the persevering Christian described. Now notice, as we continue to examine the words, having looked at the state of a true Christian described, the activity of a true Christian described, now look at the words, now look at the intimate and inseparable relationship between the two things.

The Intimate Relationship: 'If Indeed' and Avoiding Misinterpretations

22:36 Everything in the text is bound up in the little word, if. And it's not the normal word for if. It is an intensive form of the word, if. Not the simple eam.

22:50 It's eamper. If indeed holds fast. You see what he's doing? He is tying together the state of a true Christian and the activity of a true Christian and says the two stand or fall together.

23:09 We have become partakers of Christ in reality. If indeed we are holding fast the beginning of our firm persuasion unto the end. The holding fast of the confidence is the condition which manifests the reality of our being sharers of Christ. Now notice, this may be clarified as I show how we can misread the text.

23:42 It does not say, we shall become sharers of Christ if we hold fast. That isn't what the text says. The language will not permit that understanding of it. He is not saying our being sharers of Christ is suspended out here as a reward given if we hold fast to the end.

24:03 And then being a sharer of Christ is sort of given as a reward. What would that do? Well, that would not only be a violation of the language, the grammar, it would be a destruction of the whole gospel of the grace of God. It would be saying that my becoming a sharer of Christ, having an interest in his righteousness and his salvation and his life, is a reward for something I did without the strength and power that he himself imparts to his own.

24:33 That would turn the gospel into a legal system. It's sad to say that's the teaching, of course, of the Church of Rome that has never been officially denied, or cancelled, as it's been formulated in her official doctrinal statement. Sad to say it's the de facto theology of the human heart by nature. I will do do that I may get from God.

25:00 Now the text does not say we shall become if we hold fast. But now notice, neither does it say we have become sharers in Christ and regardless of what we do that fact remains certain. Now that's the way some would like to rewrite it. Once saved, always saved, no matter what you do.

25:19 Right? The text does not say we have become sharers and regardless of what we do that fact remains a fact. No, no, look at the text. We have become sharers of Christ if you bleed that if of it's if.

25:39 This is a conditional statement. If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end, and there is rank antinomianism in our day that says if we've made the profession of Christ and had some reason to believe it is genuine, then it matters not what we do, we are safe and secure in Christ. My state and my standing have no relationship. Sound familiar?

26:09 My friend, it is just as much heresy as to read the text, we shall become sharers of Christ if we hold out. And making the reward, making salvation the reward of our perseverance. It is equal heresy to say we are sharers of Christ regardless of whether we hold fast or not. You see, the covenant of grace does not secure our salvation in spite of or apart from our activity.

26:40 The covenant of grace secures our salvation by, number one, providing a just grounds whereby God may accept guilty sinners. That's sending His Son in the perfection of His life and in the satisfaction rendered to divine justice by His death on behalf of His people. But then the covenant of grace provides that the same Christ by His Spirit will change the inward disposition of all who come under the benefit of His work upon the cross. And God says, I'll take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh and cause them to keep My statutes and to walk in My ways.

27:19 I will put My fear within their hearts so that they may not depart from Me. The covenant of grace never made provision to justify a man and leave him in a course of sinful and rebellious anarchy against God. Never, never. The Bible teaches unconditional election, my friends, but it doesn't teach unconditional salvation.

27:41 We're chosen for nothing in ourselves, but we are saved when by the Spirit's work upon us, in the mystery of regeneration, we're given a new principle that enables us to repent and to believe and to persevere. And the perseverance of the Christian is as much a condition of his salvation as any other part. Granted, God provides that that condition shall be met, but He doesn't provide that it shall not be a condition. He that endureth to the end of things shall be saved.

Lesson 1: What Constitutes a True Christian

28:15 That's the language of Jesus. In any view of this whole world, of this whole issue that will not let this if stand there in all of its force as being the central point of the text, is somehow failing to grasp the significance. Well, I've thought to open up the words after giving you the essence now for the remaining time this morning. What are the fundamental lessons contained in this text which comes as a powerful motive, an incentive, to take heed about this evil heart of unbelief that issues in apostasy, to engage in mutual exhortation that we might kept from the deceitfulness of sin? What are the fundamental lessons? Well, as time permits, let me suggest several. Number one, behold in this text a beautiful description of that which constitutes a man a true Christian.

29:15 And when I say man, I'm speaking generically. I'm speaking of men, women, boys, girls, mankind. What constitutes a person a Christian? Well, behold in this text, one of the most beautiful descriptions, he is a sharer of Christ.

29:31 He has come into an intimate life union with the Son of God, the Messiah. By faith he is united to Christ person. And in that union he now becomes a sharer in all the virtue of Christ's work, subjectively and objectively, You see, a Christian is not someone who merely accepts the truth of propositions in the Bible about Christ, finds himself associating with the people of Christ, conforming to the standards of Christ in an external way. No, here's a beautiful description of what a true Christian is.

30:13 He has become a participator, a sharer with Christ. For we have become sharers of the Christ. Is that true of you? That's how the writer to the Hebrews describes a true Christian.

30:30 Are you a sharer of Christ? Have you by faith, and do you by a present faith, cling to Him as your only hope of salvation? Do you find delight in casting the whole weight of your soul upon Christ, and Christ alone as He's offered in the Gospel? Here's a description of a true Christian.

Lesson 2: What Evidences a True Christian

30:55 Is that a description of you, sharer of Christ? In the second place, behold in this text a clear description of that which will evidence a man as being a true Christian. See the difference? The text not only gives us a beautiful description of that which constitutes a man a true Christian, union with Christ by faith, but behold in the text a clear description of that which evidences a man as being a true Christian.

31:23 Now those are two different things. What constitutes something something is different from what evidences it to be that. Now what evidence is a man as being a true Christian? Well, the text tells us.

31:39 We have become sharers of Christ. That's what we are if we're true Christians. If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end, that's what manifests that we are indeed true Christians. Holding fast the confidence does not constitute us Christians.

31:57 It is the evidence that we are Christians. You see, the truth of the Bible is not that he who has once believed is saved no matter what he does or whether he continues to believe or not. No, no. The truth of the Bible is that he who continues to believe to the end manifests the genuineness of the faith professed at the beginning.

32:23 See the difference? Let me put it more simply in the language of Jesus. John 8.32 If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

32:36 Now he had many professed disciples and he knew what was in man and he knew that many of them were false disciples. Now he says, If you continue in my word, then are you disciples indeed. You will manifest that your discipleship to me is real. The continuance does not constitute the discipleship.

32:55 It manifests the reality of it. Now you say, Pastor, you've said that ten times. Why do you keep saying it? Because I know as sure as I'm standing here, somebody's going to go out of here red up to the ears this morning and shall never darken the door of that place again.

33:07 They teach salvation by works. They're teaching you can be saved and lost. My friend, if you can go out and say that, I don't know who you've been listening to. I don't know who you've been listening to.

33:18 I am not saying that the Bible says that persevering makes you a Christian. Or that one can truly be a Christian and not persevere. No, no. The text sets before us a description of that which evidences the reality of professed faith.

33:36 Continuance is the evidence of reality. Again, the simple words of Jesus in John 10, 27 and following. My sheep hear my voice. Present tense.

33:52 And I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. What evidence is that they're his sheep? Not that they run around saying, never perish, never perish.

34:04 Hallelujah. Never perish. What evidence is that they're his sheep? He tells them.

34:11 They hear me. They follow me. That makes it manifest that they're his sheep. Any old goat can go out and create a sign.

34:22 Get some nice bright day glow spray paint. Paint on it. I'm a sheep of Jesus. They're running all over the place, barking and praying and whatever sheep do.

34:36 Forgot what they do. I know they go baa, but I forgot what you call it. Bleating. That's it.

34:45 Anyone can get a sign around his neck and go around bleating. I'm a sheep of Jesus. But my friend, the acid test is, do you hear him and do you follow him? He doesn't claim you as his own, no matter how big your sign is.

34:58 Unless your ear is open and your feet follow. And this text gives us a clear description. You see, and I speak because we have so many young Christians here. Listen carefully.

35:10 All the noble beginnings mean nothing unless they issue in continuance. That's why we don't make a lot of noise around here when someone steps into the way by profession. We make a lot more noise when he's come to a few encounters with Apollyon and with Mr. Byron and with Mr. Obstinate and some of the other characters along the way and comes off from the battle with his face still set to the celestial city. Oh, a few wounds and bruises, but the face is still set. Then we do a little rejoicing. But my friend, even then, our rejoicing must be restrained.

Lesson 3: The Strategic Place of Faith

35:47 Because we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm unto us. In the third place, behold in this text the strategic place assigned to faith. This is broken into my own understanding with fresh clarity. Behold in this text the strategic place assigned to faith.

36:18 How do we become partakers of Christ in the beginning? Well, by faith. We are granted the operation of the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith, yes. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him.

36:31 But the Father draws in a way that enables us to believe and savingly to apprehend the Lord Jesus. Now, we become partakers of Christ initially by faith. Now, he says, we make it manifest that we are sharers of Christ if we hold the beginning of that firm persuasion, firm unto the end. In other words, as we enter, so we walk all our days.

37:02 It is by faith. Faith, not a leap in the dark, but the embrace of the revelation of God in Christ by His Word. That's why in Hebrews 10 you have this kind of an exhortation. It just underscores what we're dealing with this morning.

37:22 He's telling these people who are tempted to go back. Remember the former days. Those days at the beginning of your confidence when clinging to the world of spiritual reality by faith, you endured conflict and suffering. You had compassion on those that were in bond.

37:41 You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. Why? Look at verse 34. Knowing you had for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.

37:50 He said when in the beginning you embraced the Savior, you believed that embracing Him, the whole matter of your future into eternity was secure. You had a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker was God. You held firmly to that. So when someone came along and touched your traitors, you said, well, hallelujah, they're going to be burned up in the end anyway.

38:09 He says you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. Why? You were men of faith. You had a confident persuasion.

38:15 Now what's happened? He said that's being shaken. And he says you've got need of patience. Having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

38:22 For yet a little while, and he that cometh shall come and shall not carry. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Not only be justified by faith, enter the road by faith, but he shall live by faith. And if he shrink back, that's apostasy, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

38:44 But we are not of them that shrink back into perdition, but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul. And the saving of the soul there, is the consummation of salvation. Not salvation beginning, but salvation in its consummation. And he says we have faith from the beginning until the consummation when faith is made sight.

39:06 Oh dear Christian, do you see in this text the strategic place assigned to faith? It is faith that is the spring of our perseverance, not our work. And that's where many of us err. We say oh yes, it is the entrance to the Christian life, but now having believed, now from here on in, my works are the significant thing.

Lesson 4: Certainty of Perseverance for True Believers

39:30 Not if they do not spring from faith, for without faith it is impossible to pass. And then behold in the fourth place in this text, the certain affirmation of the perseverance of all true believers. Now you see this text may look like a foreboding text on the surface, that if, if, but my friend this is one of the strongest affirmations of the certainty of the perseverance of all true believers. Look at the text.

39:59 We have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. Now why could he say that? Why could he say every single one who is holding fast makes it manifest that he is a sharer of Christ? For the simple reason that every one who is a sharer of Christ shall indeed, indeed hold fast unto the end.

40:27 It is an affirmation of the perseverance of every true saint. For part of the virtue of Christ, into which you were introduced when you first embraced him, is that virtue that will be manifest in preserving every last one of his sheep. Of all that thou hast given me I have lost, and I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. This is the will of my Father that all that he hath given me I should raise them up at the last day.

41:11 And you see the virtue of Christ into which we are introduced when we act and issue faith upon him is that very virtue, the virtue of his intersection, the indwelling of his Spirit, and all the blessings of the covenant of grace these secure that we shall persevere. In the language of top lady, yea, I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given more happy but not more secure the glorified spirits in heaven. Thank God for the affirmation that all true believers shall persevere and then finally behold in this text the necessity of diligently using all of the means ordained for our preservation. This text, remember, is a motive attached to the duties prescribed in the preceding verses. It is not to be regarded in isolation though there are many profound and helpful truths that can legitimately be extracted from the text standing in isolation. But remember the flow of thought.

Lesson 5: Necessity of Diligently Using Means of Preservation

42:24 Take heed brethren, exhort one another lest you be hardened for we have become partakers of Christ if behold in the text the necessity of diligently using all of the means ordained for our preservation. We are to take heed of the actings of an evil heart of unbelief. Why? Because that will lead to falling away from the living God and what will that do?

42:51 That will manifest that we were never true believers. This is to be the concern of every one of us. Take heed lest there be in any one of you, any one of you who says, Oh, I'm beyond that. I'm exempt from these directions.

43:02 My friend, that's the first indication that you may be in the beginning stages of apostasy. Let him that thinketh he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. It is no sign of high spiritual attainment that causes any man to blink at any warning given in the word of God.

43:23 That causes any man to blink at any means ordained for his preservation in the word of God. You see, God does not keep us apart from the means but by use of the means. Now, if you say your heart is set on a given end, the proof is that you'll use every means to attain that end. Some of you guys say, Boy, I sure want me a wife.

43:46 I don't believe you. You don't get close enough to any girl around here to ever even have to worry about the thing issuing in marriage. I have to laugh when you say you want a wife. I don't see you using the legitimate means to get you a wife.

44:01 Until I see you starting to cultivate a relationship at a deep enough level to see the true worth of a young woman, I have to say, you don't really have your heart set on that end because you ain't using the means. And notice I picked on the fellows. I know some of you girls, when you say I want a husband, I've seen you use every means legitimate and some not so legitimate. So I purposely picked on the fellows.

44:27 Here's a person that tells me I've got my heart set on good health. By the time I come to retirement, I want to be robust and healthy. And he sits around all day drinking six cans of beer and watching TV, doesn't exercise, no concern for diet. I'd say, no, you don't have your heart set on good health in your waning years.

44:48 You're robbing yourself of it by your life pattern now, right? When you see anyone who says his heart is set on an end and he's indifferent to the legitimate means, you know that he's just whistling Dixie. When you say that your heart is set on persevering to the end, then the evidence will be you use every legitimate means ordained to that end. And what are the means?

45:12 Personal watchfulness, take heed, lest there be in anyone of you an evil heart of unbelief. You'll begin to be afraid at anything that clouds the reality of simple confidence in Christ, His Word, the reality of heaven, hell, and the blood of the everlasting covenant. Anything that casts the thinnest veil over the glory and reality of these things, you'll beware of it, my friends. No matter how innocent it may be in itself, if you're afraid of an evil heart of unbelief, you'll use the means ordained.

45:47 Personal watchfulness, secondly, mutual exhortation. You'll get involved at a deep enough level with the body of God's people so that your declensions and deflections from biblical norms will be detected and your brothers and sisters will lovingly exhort you and entreat you and you'll make it evidence that your heart and spirit are open and naked and welcome such admonition. Anyone who thinks he can make it all along the road on his own steam is fooling himself. Later on he has to say to these same people in a context of urging to perseverance, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.

46:30 I never had so high an estimation of myself to think I could make it without living transparently with my brothers and sisters who love me enough and were close enough to me to point out the areas where sin and its deceptive power has begun to influence me away from my Savior, away from a life of holiness, away from a life of obedience. Brethren, sisters, these are life and death issues. Take heed. Let there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

Prayer of Application

47:10 But exhort one another, day by day, while it is called a day, lest any one be hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence firmly unto the end. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for these words that we've been considering this morning.

47:53 We believe them to be Your words given for our profit.

48:00 And we pray that by the Holy Spirit we may profit from them. O God, we confess that we are so tempted to trifle with our souls, to trifle with sin, to regard with indifference those things that cloud the clear vision of our Savior. Have mercy upon us. Give us a new dread of an evil heart of unbelief.

48:27 Give us a new commitment to this means ordained for our preservation, this mutual exhortation. And, O Lord, ever keep before us the wonderful confidence that having once shared in Christ, we shall to the end endure as sure as the promise is given. And our confidence that we shall endure does not come when we look within or without, but only as we look upward to Him who is at Your right hand, even our Lord Jesus Christ. The author and finisher of our faith and all of our confidence we would have firmly fixed upon Him.

49:09 Lord, seal to our hearts this word for those sitting here this morning who believe the lie that all is well because they once assented to the Gospel. Lord, shake them to the very foundation of their inner life. Give them no rest until, in truth, they become sharers of Jesus Christ.

49:34 O Father, hear our prayer and be pleased to seal this word to our hearts that we may profit from its instruction and that we may glorify You in our obedience to its directive. Hear us and receive our thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.