“Today is the day”
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Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter three. Here in just a minute, we'll be reading Hebrews chapter three. We're gonna start at verse six, and we will continue till the end of the chapter. And just as a reminder, the author has been arguing for the superiority of Christ. He's superior to the angels. He has become incarnate.
And as an incarnate man, he fulfills Psalm eight as an incarnate man. He's superior to Moses, and this is where the passage picks up. So if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's word
and hear this for what it is, the words of the living, the true God. Hebrews chapter three, beginning in verse six. But Christ was faithful as his son over his house. Whose house we are, if whose house we are, if we hold fast, our confidence in the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, is when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness where your father's tried by testing.
And saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they did not know my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brethren. Take care that there be not, that there not being any one of you, an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. While it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, is when they provoked me.
For who provoked him when they had heard Indeed did. Not. All those who came out of Egypt. Led by Moses and with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not? Those who sinned, whose corpses 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 they were not able to enter because of unbelief. May God bless the reading, the hearing, and the correct understanding of his word. Please be seated.
In your bulletin, there's a sermon outline with some fill in the blank. Then there's another handout that I typically give you. Uh, it's got some discussion questions. It's got some outlines and some bible verses on them. I'll refer to that momentarily. But number one on your sermon outline is warning.
We're gonna look at two different warnings this morning. Warning. An old covenant example, an old covenant example, and it begins in verse seven. And kids, this is on your handout, verse seven is on your handout, and it's something that you want to fill in the blank. And verse seven begins this way.
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, and it's interesting because that word for says it's, it's a continuous verb. In other words, the Holy Spirit is still speaking this message that the Holy Spirit wrote hundreds of years previous, that the Holy Spirit used King David to write It is still pertinent to you and I today, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today.
It if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And there's a couple of things that I want to talk about here with this first verse. And the first thing I want to talk about is the word today. And the word today is used purposely because the gospel is new Every morning. Every day Christ calls out to us This.
And I'll develop it as we go. But what the writer is doing here is he's setting up an invitation. He's setting up an invitation to respond. And the interesting thing about the word today, and it's so obvious that it's easy to miss. It's always today. It's always today. And Christ proclaims his word every day.
He does it through Christians, he does it when we sit down and we read the Bible, and today is the day. And we'll develop that further as we go. But what do I need to do today? Where in my life am I not being obedient? Where do I need to adjust my belief system? What do I need to do today to prevent hardness of heart?
The second thing that I wanna point out, and this is I find this interesting, it's just, and you might wanna write this down, just the subtlety of scripture. Yeah. You see the writers of scripture operate according to a worldview. And it's a worldview that you and I are supposed to adapt. We're supposed to adopt this worldview.
We're supposed to think of reality biblically, and in this short phrase, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, and then he cites an Old Testament passage and kids, this is in your handout too. What passage does he cite? Well, he cites Psalm 95. He cites Psalm 95. That was the psalm we read at the beginning of service, but in this short, simple passage and it would be easy to pass up.
But we see the trinity, we see the inspiration, the authority of scripture, and we also see the mechanism of inspiration in just a few words, and it would be easy to miss. In fact, one commentator. I think this will be helpful. One commentator. Put it this way, while it is doubtless true. That the author is not primarily concerned here with the doctrine of biblical inspiration, yet these few words disclose in a manner which is quite unforced, the attitude with which he regards scripture.
It just flows out of him. The biblical worldview flows out of his words. So first, the Trinity, he says, as the Holy Spirit says. And then he cites the psalm, so he's claiming that the Holy Spirit inspired this Psalm, that ultimately the ultimate author of this psalm is the Holy Spirit, and he'll use this phrase again in chapter nine and chapter 10, the Holy Spirit says.
But remember what the author already said in chapters one, in chapter one, verses one and two. It was the Father who spoke long ago. It was the Father who spoke, and it was recorded in the words of the Old Testament. So we have the So spirit inspiring it. We have the father speaking it. But how did the Father.
The father spoke through his son. So it's the words of Jesus as well. The Triune God speaks in the Bible, old and New Testament, and that was the worldview of this author and it, it was so ingrained in his mind that he could just say it and not even have to think about it. The triune God. And if the Scriptures are inspired, if the Scriptures are spoken by Father, son, and the Holy Spirit, then they come to us with authority.
But not only that, in chapter four verse seven, the author writes saying through David, and then he cites the same Psalm, so we have the triune God responsible for writing these words, for speaking these words, and yet David was the human author. God used David. God uses man, but he uses man in such a way that the finished product is his very word.
You see, we, I, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. I'll, I'll just say it again 'cause we're gonna see it again today. We like proof texting 21st century Americans. We come to our Bible and we want it to say things the way we want it to say things. It's an ancient book. It doesn't speak the way we speak, and we need to interpret it, and we need to change our worldview to understand the scriptures in terms of its worldview.
So the first thing I wanna mention about this verse is today's the day. The second thing is just the subtlety of scripture, how scripture reveals things and it's easy to pass over. The third thing that I wanna say about this passage is he cites Psalm 95. So turn in your Bibles back to Psalm 95. I wanna take just a minute and look at this Psalm.
Psalm 95 only has 11 verses, but Psalm 95 and 96 together. All the way back to the church fathers all the way back to the Jewish rabbis. These two psalms have been understood to be an invitation to worship. They are a call to worship, and as I've already mentioned, there are two different calls in Psalm 95.
In verses one and two, there's a call to worship. We've already read that one. There's another call in verses six and seven. Look at verses six and seven. Come. And by the way, that's a command in the Hebrew. And the Hebrew has different ways of writing commands. There's, there's hardcore commands like in the 10 Commandments, and then there's softer commands.
They're almost an appeal to your heart, and that's what we have here. Come let us worship. But I want you to notice something different about this call compared to verses one and two. And we've already read those, so I don't need to read 'em again. There's a, there's a call for humility. In, in verses one and two, there's a call for joy.
Come worship because we're happy, we're joyful. We're we're, we're thankful. But here, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker, for he is our God. And we are the people of his pasture. The sheep of his hand. He's a shepherd. Sheep need a shepherd. And as the church of Jesus Christ, we need a shepherd.
And when we come to church, we should come with two different attitudes. You see, he's calling two groups of people and the first group that he's calling, these are the people that are excited to be there. These are the people that are, they're at church. They want to be at church. They wanna sing. They want to express joy, they wanna worship God.
But this second group, what does he follow it up with? Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker, for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture. The sheep of his hand do not harden your hearts. So you need to ask yourself, which group do you fall into? Why are you here today?
Are you here to worship God, to actively participate in the worship of God? Are you here to learn something? Do you come expecting to learn something? Do you come expecting to dive into the word, to take what you've learned, to go home, to discuss it throughout the week, to learn something of God, to have him teach you?
Do you come excited about coming to the table, or do you need to be reminded to not harden your hearts? You see, the fascinating thing about this psalm is it fit the audience of Hebrews, the author is writing to a group of Jews who are thinking about returning to the old Covenant system, and they fit this group.
They're, they're, they're hardening their hearts. They're turning away from Christ, and he's reminding them, and there's so much more, and we'll get back to it. Look at verse eight. Do not harden your hearts. Is when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tried me by testing and saw my works for 40 years, verse 10, therefore, I was angry with this generation.
Now, there's some things to point out here. Number one, do not harden your hearts, and this is an act hardening. This is not an accidental hardening. This is the people actively hardening their hearts, actively neglecting the things of Christ. This word translated hardening is we get the word sclerosis. And you're probably very familiar with arteriosclerosis or another way of saying the same thing as atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis is the hardening of blood vessels and it's dangerous and it will kill you.
And that's the same message that the author is trying to get across. Don't harden your hearts for it will kill you. Don't harden your hearts is when they provoke me. In the day of trial when they tried me by testing, and yet they saw my works. And earlier in this book, in chapter two, verse four, the writer reminds the readers, you saw the works of the apostles.
You saw great signs and wonders and miracles. You saw the power of the Holy Spirit, in fact, sprinkled throughout all his warnings. He's going to remind the people. You've experienced this, you've seen it. Some of you have lived this. Don't harden your hearts. Don't walk away from Christ, but there's something else in this passage.
There's another one of those subtleties. Your father's tried me verse nine by testing, and they saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said they always go astray. Now here's what's fascinating in the original Hebrew. And in the Stigen, the Greek translation of the original, both texts say that generation, that generation hardened their hearts, but the writer of Hebrews tweaks it, and instead of saying that generation, he says, this generation Now, keep in mind, there are no accidental slips of the pen when it comes to the Bible.
There are no coincidences when it comes. To the Bible. The author of Hebrews has done this on purpose, and the reason he's done this is he's applying it to the current generation. He's applying it to those who are reading this book to the original Hebrews, sometime in the late sixties ad, but it gets even more fascinating because the people in the wilderness, the original story that hardened their hearts, how long did they wander around in the wilderness?
40 years. Look at the handout that's in your bulletin. There's a chart. I'm not gonna go over the whole thing, but it's a timeline and I just want you to see it. And if you have more questions, 'cause I love getting into the details, but I'm going to restrain myself. We, we can talk about it, but Jesus was crucified around the year 30 ad.
It is likely that he was actually born in four bc. We messed up the dating system. So if he was born in four BC, his ministry would've started in AD 26, 3 and a half years later, 30 ad he was crucified. The author of Hebrews is write Writing in the late sixties. In only a couple of years, and we've talked about this in the past.
In only a couple of years, Jesus is going to come on the clouds and he is going to obliterate the old covenant system. He's going to destroy Jerusalem. There will not be one stone left upon another at the temple. He will remove temple. He will remove sacrifice. He will remove the priesthood. You see all the genealogical records.
Were in the temple. We don't have them anymore. There is no way to know who is a Levite today. There was no way to know who was a Levite after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Now think about it. Jesus was crucified in 30 ad Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 ad. How many years is that? 40. He changes the word to this generation, and their period of rebellion is the same length as what we see in the Old Testament.
There's no slip of the tongue. This was done purposely. Look at verse 10. We're gonna read verses 10 and 11. Therefore, I was angry with this generation, this generation, not that generation, take this to heart. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said they always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways.
As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So a couple of things here. Number one, and we don't like to talk about this, we would rather just shy away, but it's important in these two verses, we find out that God is angry and literally that word in the original, it means to be offended and provoked.
He is angry and he is experiencing wrath, and that too is a strong word of displeasure. God is angry. And the reason that I wanna bring that up is I wanna bring you back to something that the author is gonna come back to over and over again, and that is anger and wrath in God is real. And we spoke about this, I think it was last week, but we like to say, be angry at the sin, not the sinner.
And for human beings, that's not a bad call, but I told you last week, and the text makes very clear, God was angry at the sinner. God was angry at covenant breakers. God does not sin in his anger. His anger is holy. It is righting righteous. His anger is loving for God to hate sin for God, to be angry at the sinner is Trinitarian love at its highest.
It is the holiness of God, and God is angry. And the reason I bring that up is because the author is gonna come back to this over and over again. The sin for which Jesus died has been perpetuated. God who was angry, God, who was wrathful at sin needed to be soothed. That is one of the primary messages of this book, and if we're gonna understand this book properly, and if we're gonna understand the warning passages found in this book, then we need to understand that whatever sin Jesus died for, God's wrath is gone.
Whatever sin Jesus died for, God is no longer angry, God is no longer wrathful. How does that work out in the gospel proclamation? But the other thing I wanna say about this verse is I sworn my wrath, they will not enter my rest. And we need to understand that term rest. What does it mean? And I just want to give you some handles because when we come back next week, chapter four is gonna deal with this and develop it much further than chapter three Does.
So here are some handles on what rest means. So just take this down and you can think it through this week, but the first thing that it refers to is it refers to God's Sabbath, rest, God's Sabbath, rest. And where do we read about that? Genesis chapter two, verse two. God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested And this will come out even clearer in chapter four.
And it's referred to as God's Sabbath rests and any other use of the word Sabbath. Any other use of the word rest ultimately goes back to that rest. It has something to do with that rest. So it's first meaning in the book of Hebrews would be God's ultimate rest or God's Sabbath rest. The second meaning again found in chapter four is entering Canaan.
Okay? The author of Hebrews and the Old Testament speaks of when the people entered Canaan, they entered. The rest, had they obeyed, God, had they finished the job, they would. They would've rested peacefully. The enemies would've been removed in the Bible, and the book of Hebrews refers to that as a rest.
But also in chapter four, and we'll see this next week, it refers to an eschatological rest. It refers to faith in Christ. You see entering God's Sabbath, rest. Entering what Canaan pointed to is ultimately putting our faith in Christ Jesus and resting, knowing that our sins are forgiven, knowing that we are secure in him.
You see, rest excludes worry. If you're worried you're not resting. But if you truly believe what Jesus Christ has done for you, if you truly believe what Jesus accomplished on the cross, then when we put our faith in him, we enter his rest, we enter his peace. Number two on your sermon outline is warning the danger of unbelief.
Warning the danger of unbelief. I wanna read verses 12 and 13. Then we're gonna take our time to walk through verse 12. Therefore, I'm sorry, in verse 12, take care, brethren there, that there not being any one of you, an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from God, from that falls away from the living God.
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Verse 12 begins with a command. Verse 12 begins with a warning, take care and grammatically in everything. It's, it's, it's an ongoing, in fact, a better translation would be something like constantly be on watch, constantly be on guard, take care, pay it. It lines up, if you'll remember in chapter two, verse one, the author begins, pay closer attention.
To the gospel in chapter three verse one, consider Jesus. And the interesting thing is all of these are intellectual callings. All of these are saying, think this through. Constantly be on watch, constantly try to understand and perceive the gospel message. Think this through. And one of the things I just wanna say, because I've heard Christians fall into this trap, Christianity is not a religion of blind faith.
It's not a believe despite the evidence. There is plenty of evidence for Christianity. The Christian worldview is the only worldview that makes sense of reality, and so the author constantly calls us, use your mind, engage your thinking. Consider the words of Jesus. Constantly keep watch. And then he follows it with encouragement.
Brethren, that is covenant language. These people were considered by the writer of Hebrews as being in good standing amongst God's people. We have talked a lot about the covenant, and I have argued, and I will continue to argue, that you cannot understand the book of Hebrews unless you understand how the covenant functions throughout the scriptures.
And so he calls them brethren. He's encouraging them. Be careful you're on the precipice. You're thinking about going back to that old covenant system. But I still consider you brethren. I can, I still consider you Christians. Take care. Keep vigilant. Watch brethren that there not being any one of you an evil unbelieving heart.
And literally what it says is an evil heart of unbelief. And it's important to understand both the context and the grammar. Here he's speaking to believers, but let me warn you. The Bible does not. We tend to think if the Bible uses a word, then we need to interpret it the same way every time we see it.
Okay. There are different kinds of belief, and when I use the word here that he's speaking to believers, probably a better way of understanding it is he's speaking to those who have professed faith, and the Bible will describe that as a kind of belief. But what he's warning them against is walking away from that belief.
He's talking to people that already profess faith. So when he says, be sure that there not being any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, what he's saying is, don't turn to unbelief. You profess faith in Christ. Hold on to that profession of faith. Don't turn away from that profession of faith. Now, why?
Why do I believe that? Well, the next phrase. That there be not any one of you, an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. And this is the word we need to camp out on for a few minutes. This word fall away is what comes into English as apostasy. And it's too bad because most translations, when they, when they write it, it almost sounds passive.
It almost sounds like I couldn't hang on and I'm falling away. This is an active removal. This is an active removal on the part of the one professing faith who walks away from Christ. And that's why we get the word apostasy from this word. And so you'll see in your outline there's an excursus. I wanna, I wanna stop for a minute and I want to talk about this term apostasy, because we need to understand it because throughout this book there are some serious warnings.
And the language of these warnings sounds like, and it sounds this way because it's true. He's talking to believers, he's talking to what we would call Christians. He is talking to. What I think a better description would be is those who have professed faith in Christ, those who are in good covenant standing with God, and he continues to warn them about walking away from the faith.
So what does it mean to Apostatize? What does it mean to leave the faith? And this is a hard topic. It's a hard topic for at least two reasons. It's hard because it's hard to determine when somebody walks away from the faith. When David committed his sin with Bathsheba, when David had Uriah murdered, if you were there, it would've looked like he wasn't a believer.
It would've looked like he left God. But when we read the whole story, we see that. He didn't leave Christ. He didn't leave God. He didn't leave faith in Yahweh. This was a bad time in his life. I'm not excusing him. It was a sinful time in his life. So Aposty can be hard to identify. It can be hard to determine.
But the other reason this topic is difficult is because probably every one of you sitting here knows someone who has walked away from the faith. And it's heartbreaking for Stacey and I, it's Prudence and I mention her name because if you wanna start praying for her, I would very much appreciate that.
Prudence was a single mother, had a young daughter. She came to Stacey for some questions about homeschool, and she came to faith. She came to what looked like real faith in Jesus Christ. And for years afterwards, Stacey and I walked with her and Stacey discipled her. We walked with her through the loss of an infant son,
and she, in every way possible, in every way, measurable. She looked like a Christian. She spoke like a Christian. She went to church. She was baptized, she confessed faith in Jesus Christ. And then they moved. And about two or three years ago, I get an email from Prudence. Mike, what's your best argument?
Because I don't believe in Jesus anymore. And I've talked to a bunch of pastors and they don't have a good argument. And Prudence walked away from the faith. And let me tell you, it is heartbreaking. It is gut wrenching. So this is a hard topic, but we need to define it and we need to understand it because we need to understand the text before us.
So let me give you a, a shorter definition and then we're gonna unpack it. But to apostatize is to leave something. That's what the word means. It is a moving away from some person, some thing. Okay. It is to abandon a former relationship. A former confession, A former commitment. It. And so we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean in the scriptures?
'cause we speak of apostasy all the time. What does it mean for a professing believer to Apostatize to leave the faith? And I would say that there's three options, and I'm just gonna list the options and then we'll look at each one of them. The first option is this is someone who is really saved, truly saved.
Had they died a week earlier, they would've gone to heaven. And yet they've walked away from the faith. Is that possible? Is that what this word refers to? The second option is someone who leaves the church, someone who leaves the visible church. We'll look at that one. The third option, and I think the third option is the correct option.
It is someone who is in covenant with Christ Jesus, and they are in covenant with Christ Jesus because they have professed faith in Christ Jesus and they've been baptized and then they repudiate that faith and they walk away from it. So let's think about number one. Could, could it refer to someone who actually loses their salvation?
Could it refer to somebody who actually has saving faith? And if it did, this is what you would have to believe, that if someone truly had saving faith, then God is no longer angry with them, that Jesus took all of their sin to the cross and he paid the price, including their sin of unbelief. You'd have to believe that God has sealed them, that God owns them, that God has given them the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit fills them, dwells within them, promises to protect them, and then they walk away.
You would have to believe that it had, they only died six months earlier, they'd be in heaven. Just doesn't make sense to me. So the second option is somebody who leaves the church. But again, what does that mean? What does it mean that, you know, when somebody leaves this church and goes to another church, are they an apostate?
No. You see, we make a distinction when we speak of the church. We speak of the visible church in the Invisible Church, and the Invisible Church contains real believers. The visible church contains professors, contains all Covenant members. So I don't think that fits either. But the Bible is a covenant document.
The Bible speaks in covenant language all the time, and Christians are described in the Bible as those who are in covenant with Jesus Christ. And we see an entire history in the Old Testament of people breaking covenant with Christ, with God, and being punished. And I submit to you that what apostasy is is it is walking away from your profession of faith.
It is walking away from the covenant kids. This is in your outline and moms and dads, this is every bit as important for you to be part of the church, is to be part of the covenant community. It is to be a covenant. Remember, that's not in your outline. Kids. I got ahead of myself. Here's what's in your outline.
Apostasy means moving away from something or someone. An apostate is someone who purposely and forever breaks covenant with God. Now, look on the handout in your bulletin. Again, I've, I've given you a table on apostasy and I've, I've listed on one side what it is not. I've listed on the other side what it is, and I've kind of covered what it is not.
Let me talk a little bit more about what it is. An apostate is abandoning or leaving one's profession of faith. It is a repudiation of covenant. Commitment. It is leaving the covenant. Thus, the person would've been part of the visible church, would've looked and acted like a Christian would likely have been baptized.
Now, why do I believe this? Why do I believe that that makes the most sense out of what an apostate is? Well, number one, because an apostate actually leaves something. He leaves. She leaves something of substance. The covenant has substance. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 13.
I wanna look at the parable of the sower because so often we look at that and, and we kind of walk away with the same thing. You have couple sets of believers, but some of them walk away. Well, how do we understand it? How do we understand that faith? And let me do a little bit of review before we look at it.
And specifically, we're gonna look at Matthew 13, verses 18 to 23. Because that's Jesus's explanation. He actually gives the parable in verses three through nine, and then he explains it in verses 18 to 23. But let me refresh your memory. What constitutes saving faith? And this is something that the church has talked about for centuries.
What constitutes saving faith? And I would say that there are three parts of saving faith. Number one, there's knowledge. You have to know certain things. If you're gonna believe in Jesus, you have to at least know the outline of the story. Jesus is God. He went to the cross. He died on the cross. For my sins, I need to believe in him to have my sins forgiven.
So it's knowledge, it's information saving. Faith is also belief. It's not just knowing the information, but you have to actually believe it. But last and definitely not least, probably the most important thing, and we'll see it in this parable. Saving faith is trust. Saving faith is trusting in Jesus, and believe it or not, this word trust implies permanence.
Saving faith is permanent. Saving faith is lasting, and anything that isn't permanent and anything that isn't lasting is not saving faith. The Bible talks about belief in faith in different ways, and some people believe, genuinely believe, but it's not trust. They don't trust God. They're not committing their lives to God and they fall away.
And Jesus's parable describes that. Look at verse 18, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the words of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. Now this is an example of someone who never had faith.
Okay. The text says it. He hears the words of the kingdom, but he doesn't understand it. He doesn't perceive it. He doesn't accept it. He doesn't buy into it, and the grammar is such that immediately the devil comes and he steals any knowledge of it. He steals any want, any desire of it. This is the seed that fell beside the road.
This is the seed that never had faith. This is the person that never responded to the gospel. Well, what about the next soil? Verse 20. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places. This is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. This person responds with some faith. He receives it with joy yet.
He has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arise because of the word, immediately he falls away. This is what theologians call historic faith. It's missing trust. You see, on a human level, it's easy to trust somebody and then stop trusting them because we're sinners and oftentimes we can give somebody a reason to stop trusting us, but you don't stop trusting God.
If you truly trust God, if you truly trust the triune God that never ends, it's permanent because he will never give you a reason to stop trusting. It is a permanent trust and in the text itself it says it was only temporary. This was a temporary faith or a historic faith. Look at verse 22 and the one on whom seed.
And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns. This is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth Choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Well, what does James say? Faith without works is dead. We've, we've gone over that passage. You can believe it can be called faith, but if it doesn't produce fruit, it's not saving faith.
That's this third soil. The third soil is someone who initially believed, but he falls away. He has no fruit because again, he lacks trust. He shows no sign, no evidence of a renewed life. And now look at verse 23. Here's the believer, and there's even a difference amongst believers and the one in whom seed was sown on good soil.
This is the man who hears the word. He understands it, he perceives it. This is another word. Uh, directed towards the intellect. He understands it. He perceives it, he grasps it, and he indeed bears fruit, you see, according to Jesus and according to James, that's the proof of saving faith, real lasting fruit.
And note how he describes it. He bears fruit and brings forth some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30. Not all Christians grow at the same rate. Not all Christians grow to the same extent. Some people produce more fruit than others, but we produce fruit because it's a lasting faith. You see to Apostatize is not to be a true believer.
That falls away from the faith it is to be a covenant member, one who professes faith and then falls away. You see, one of the things about the Bible, one of the things about the biblical worldview that we need to take in is the Bible. Often, more often than not, it speaks invisible terms. It speaks in ways that we can see it.
We can perceive it, we can hear it. We can touch it. But it also gives us behind the scenes glimpses or another way of, of saying the same thing as the Bible speaks, uh, in two perspectives. It, it speaks often from our perspective what we experience, but then it also speaks from God's perspective. And what does the Bible say about those for whom Christ has died?
Well, number one, and I will get into more depth here in the future, but it calls them the elect. They're called the elect. Okay? You can read about it in Ephesians chapter one. You can read about it in Romans chapter eight, nine, and 10, and, and plenty other places, John six, John 10, but an elect person, according to Romans chapter eight, cannot lose their salvation.
If you are electing Jesus Christ, you cannot lose your salvation. Listen to the words of Jesus. And ask yourself, 'cause this might be new, this might even be hard for some of you, but ask yourself, do I believe what Jesus is saying here, John chapter six, beginning in verse 37, all that the father gives me will come.
The Father has a group of people and according to Jesus, the Father gives them to Christ. And if the Father gives them, the first thing that's gonna happen is they will come. The second thing that's gonna happen is the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. I'm not gonna cast 'em out. If the father gives them, I will keep them.
Why verse 38? This is in John six. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me, this is the will of him who sent me that. Of all that he has given me, I lose nothing. Those whom the father gives to the son elsewhere in the Bible, the elect, Jesus loses none of them.
For this is the will of my father, that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him, true saving faith will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day. But Jesus uses even stronger words in John 10. In John 10, uh, starting in verse 27, this is where Jesus talks about the Good shepherd and listen to Jesus's words here, my sheep, those who belong to me.
Now, if we put this together and we, we take it in context with John six, those whom the father has given me, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish. You see a person who has been granted eternal life unless Jesus is lying to us, a person who has been granted eternal life, a person who has real, genuine saving faith will never perish.
It is impossible. So whatever Apostacy is, it's not a true believer. Walking away from the faith. It can't be. It's impossible for Jesus does not lie. Amen. My sheet, hear my voice, I know them. They will follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.
So I have a simple question. Do you believe Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus is capable of keeping his promise? Then an apostate is not a genuine believer who walks away an apostate is one who simply has confessed Christ, one who has been baptized, one who has entered into covenant with God. And then walks away from the faith.
It is one who never had genuine faith. The warnings throughout the book of Hebrews are real, and they're real for people on the precipice, but they're also, as I said last week, they're real for you and me because even as believers, we need to be warned. It's no different than when you warn your children.
You don't warn your children expecting them not to obey. The reason we warn our children is so that they will obey, that they'll be reminded of what disobedience looks like. They'll be reminded of the consequences of disobedience. And so the writer of Hebrews warns the Christians, don't walk away from your covenant commitment.
Don't walk away from your baptism. Don't walk away from faith in Jesus Christ. In John's first epistle, he writes this in one John chapter two, verse 19. Speaking of apostates, he says, they went out from us. That's what an apostate does. They leave the church. They went out from us, but they were really, but they were not really of us for, if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they were not of us.
Apostasy is real, and the author of Hebrews is warning the readers not to apostatize. Instead, verse 13, encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Are you in a relationship with another believer, not your spouse?
Because I don't think that's what it's talking about. Yes, spouses need to do this and, and, and that should be a primary relationship where we encourage and exhort and call out sin in a loving, gentle way. But are, do you have other relationships in the body of Christ? Is there someone in your life that can walk up to you, get in your face and say, you are in sin.
You need to stop it and you need to straighten up your act. Because that's what the author is writing about. These are tough relationships and they're long relationships. These relationships don't develop because you have somebody over for dinner one time. Are you working on relationships within the body of Christ?
Do you encourage other Christians? Do you go out of your way to encourage, and this word encourage? It's a Greek word that can mean encourage in a good way, but it's also a Greek word that can mean confront and exhort and call out sin. That's what biblical encouragement is. Verse 14. For we have become, for, we have become partakers of Christ.
If there's that, if there's that warning, we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. You see, the author of Hebrews defines saving faith. Saving faith is permanent. If you have saving faith, you'll hold it. It has the beginning. There's a day that you're converted to Christ.
There's a day when you put your faith in Christ and it never ends.
Are we going to allow God and scripture to define saving faith or will we let experience define saving faith? Verse 15, while it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoke me. And I just wanna wrap it up. There's a couple more verses there, but you can read those on your own.
And really the remaining verses of this chapter are commentary on what I've just laid out. And the sermon title is, today is the Day Today. If you hear his voice. And it's interesting because if you look at the text later in verses six and seven, it begins with an if warning and it turns to today. Today is the gospel invitation, and then if you look at verses 14 and 15, you see the same thing an if warning and then turns to today.
You've probably heard this, I know I've said it from the pulpit. I've said it in Sunday school, or not Sunday school, but Bible study. The gospel is a command. You see, oftentimes we speak of the gospel as an offer, as as a call. And reformed churches are really good at reminding us. No, it's a command. God commands us to come to faith, but it is an offer and we can't go so far to one side that we forgot.
It is a gracious, compassionate offer. And when the psalmist writes, and ultimately the spirit of God, the father, the son, when they write, today is the day today. Don't harden your hearts. He, he, God is speaking to everyone sitting here today. Today is the day. Don't harden your hearts. Are you struggling with faith?
Today is the day. Talk to somebody. Get help, ask questions. Are you struggling with doubts? Today is the day. Turn to Christ Jesus. Renew your faith in Christ Jesus. Get help. Find somebody that'll hold you accountable. Are you dealing with anger or hurt? Has something happened in your your life? And I've experienced this.
I've shared this with you before. I won't rehearse the story, but my son got very sick at a at a point in life and I was angry with God for years. Today is the day. Get help. Find someone to help you. Repent. Turn from your sin. Are you playing games with the gospel? Today is the day. Have you even put your faith in Christ Jesus today?
Is the day. Today is the day to do that. Today is the day to act on it. Do you need to repent from sin? Do it today. Confess your sin. Turn from your sin. Get help. Is there a relationship that needs to be restored? Today is the day. It is a constant call because it's always today, and it's never too late in Christ Jesus today.
If you hear his voice, what will you do? And every one of you are hearing, not because I'm talking, but because we're reading the scriptures and we're trying to understand what God has said. So you're, you are hearing his voice today. Will you acknowledge it and will you act upon it? Do not harden your hearts for we have a good and a gracious and a compassionate savior.
Who pleads with you? Today is the day. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I know that, that we, we covered some heavy ground there and, and Father, I appreciate that you have given us your word and that we can cover this ground with confidence. We can understand it. Father, may we never fall into apostasy. May no one in this room ever walk away from the faith, especially the kids, Lord, the baptized children, the child that's gonna be baptized today.
Father, draw our children to yourself. Draw them every day, Lord. Have your spirit. Draw them. Help moms and dads to warn their kids. Warned about the results of unbelief. Help them set good examples. Help them help the discipline around the house. Be a kind of discipline that displays the gospel. Father, draw our kids to yourself.
Father, thank you for faith. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for your word. Make us Bible readers. Make us Bible students. Make us serious about your word. Take the fear away from asking for help. We can be so proud and not look for accountability, not look for help in understanding the scriptures. Not be humble, humble us.
Lord, thank you that today is the day. Thank you that you are compassionate. Thank you that you are loving. Thank you that you want nothing more, that the angels will rejoice at our repentance, at our turning to you. Help us to really take to heart this passage in these warnings. And transform our lives for we ask all of this in the name of Christ Jesus.
And all of God's people said, amen. Amen.
