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(upbeat music) - Welcome to our last day, day five of our Look Through Hebrews
chapter three. We're going to look at verses 14 to 19 in just a moment. Before
that, let me remind you of what we've walked through this week.

We've been talking about what it takes to be faithful, a lifetime of
faithfulness. What does that take? Well, this chapter has told us you focus on
Jesus.

That's what it takes to be faithful. It's told us you make a choice. That's what
it takes to be faithful.

You follow Him, you endure in Him. You don't let your heart be hardened, but you
choose to listen to Him today. That's what it takes to be faithful.

And then in these last verses, verses 14 to 19, the writer of Hebrews is
inspired by the Spirit to actually go back and go over what we heard before. He
really wants us to get this. So he's going to go back and just say, okay, let me
just go over this one more time so you really get this.

You'll hear some familiar things as I read through this. We have come to share
in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has
been said, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in
the rebellion.

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of
Egypt? And with whom was he angry for 40 years?

Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom
did God swear they would never enter His rest if not to those who disobeyed? So
we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.

As you look through these verses, I want to bring out three words, three phrases
in one case that focus on how you and I can live the power of faithfulness in
our lives. Understanding these words, behind these words is the power to live a
faithful life. The first word, strangely enough, is the word if.

If we hold firmly till the end. We've come to share in Christ if we hold firmly
till the end the confidence we had at first. If you want to live a faithful life,
you gotta understand that word if and what it means.

Notice carefully the wording here. It's a strong confirmation of what we talked
about earlier, the fact that this is talking about whether you're a believer or
not. We have come to share in Christ.

We've become partakers, that's the word here, in Christ. He says there's
something that's already happened in our lives if something happens in the
future. There's something that's already happened in our lives if something
happens in the future.

We know, by the way, that we're going to live who we are. We've come to share in
Christ if. The effect of this condition relates to the past.

But the result of it is in the future. So because of that, because it's saying
we have already come to share in Christ, it's a done deal. If we live this out,
to me, again, these verses, to take them to mean that you can somehow lose your
salvation would cause you to have to write out verses in the Bible that purely
and clearly point to the security of our salvation.

But to take these verses that point to the security of our salvation to mean
that you're a believer, even though there's no evidence at all of belief in your
life, would cause you to have to write out these verses that point to looking
for the evidence, the fruit of our salvation. Now remember, we've looked at this
this week. The fruit of your salvation is not perfection, it's growth.

Now remember, the fruit of our salvation is not perfection, it's growth. The
fruit of our salvation is not being like some other person. We make this mistake
sometimes that I've got to look like that person in personality.

It's individual. The qualities are the same. You have hope, but it's lived out
in individual personalities.

So don't think you have to have their personality to show the fruit of
salvation. The fruit of our salvation, we're told here in this chapter, begins
by partaking in Christ, and it results in courage. It results in hope.

It results in a new kind of life. So when you understand this word if and what
it means, and you rest in that and what it means, and you don't try to make the
fruit of salvation work on your own, but you realize it all comes from him, that
gives you security. Gives you the kind of security to live for a lifetime of
growth, a lifetime of faithfulness.

A second phrase to understand, to live out the power of faithfulness, is the
phrase, harden your hearts. The truth of the matter is, you can fix your
thoughts on Jesus, or you can harden your heart against God. In life, it's
pretty much one or the other.

You cannot live outside one of those two choices. You can't live in between
those two choices. It's one or the other.

I either do what God is telling me to do, or I don't do it. And you think, well,
I'm just waiting to do it. Well, then you've hardened your heart.

That's what this is all about. If you don't do it today, if you say no to God
today, that's a hardening of the heart of some kind. When we think about someone
who's hardened their heart in the scriptures, if you're a student of the Old
Testament, one of the first people that comes to mind is Pharaoh, how he
hardened his heart against God, and because of that, all those plagues came
against Egypt, and because of that, his whole army was doomed to destruction.

But the Spirit of God here inspires the writer of Hebrews to turn to the people
of God, as an example of those who hardened their hearts, rather than the
Pharaoh of Egypt, the people who rebelled in the desert. It's a great example of
how a hardening of heart happens. They're set free from Egypt.

They cross dry ground through the Red Sea, but once they get on the other side
of the Red Sea, they're out in the desert. They have a time until they get to
the promised land, and in that time in between, in that time when it's not all
perfect, they start to grumble. They start to harden their hearts.

It didn't happen all at once. It just happened day after day after day. One
choice led to another choice led to another choice.

The grumbling led to more grumbling, led to dissatisfaction, and finally it led
to accepting the report of the spies and saying, "We won't go into the promised
land. " Well, here it is. You got one of two choices.

Either you do what God says, you go into his promised land, or you live out here
in the desert. There's no in-between. That's what happens when you harden your
heart.

You realize there is no in-between. One choice led to another choice, and a
pattern was set in their lives that lasted for 40 years. It's an example, it's a
very strong example to us of the truth that what you do today matters.

Throughout scripture, we're taught this important truth about our hearts. We're
taught, and we'll see it again here in these verses, that our hearts are kept
from hardening by listening. You want to not have a hard heart?

You want to not be stubborn? Our hearts are kept from hardening by listening, by
listening to God's word. If Pharaoh had listened to what God said through Moses,
his heart wouldn't have been hardened.

If the people of Israel had listened to what God was saying to them out in the
desert, their heart wouldn't have been hardened. And these verses say, today, if
you hear his voice, if you hear his voice, listen. Don't harden your heart.

Our hearts are kept from hardening by listening. Just like the arteries of your
physical heart are kept from hardening by eating right, the arteries of your
spiritual heart are kept from hardening by listening right. This tells us that
what you do today matters.

What you do about what you've heard from God today matters if you're going to live
a lifetime of faithfulness. And that brings us to the third word for a lifetime
of faithfulness. If, hardening of heart, third word is today.

Today, be faithful today. Because I just have to be honest with you at the end
of this week of looking at faithfulness, faithfulness for a lifetime, the truth
of the matter is you can't be faithful for a lifetime 'cause you're not living
your whole lifetime today. The only way you can really be faithful now is by
being faithful today.

Faithfulness for a lifetime is built one day at a time. You can't live it all
out now. You can't decide it all out now.

All you can decide is to be faithful today. So here in these verses, today if
you hear God's voice, don't harden your heart against him. He says this twice in
this one chapter within just a few verses of each other.

I'm thinking the Spirit of God is saying, don't miss this one. If you want to
break through the familiar in your life, the comfortable in your life, if you
want to break through a rebellion in your life, you've gotta act today on what you
hear. If I get a thought as I'm going through the day, if I get a thought as I'm
sitting in church, if I get a thought as I'm listening to this, as I'm reading
God's word, I choose to begin to act on it today.

You may not be able to complete the action today, but you can begin to act on it
today. And so you're reading God's word or you're listening to a message or
you're just walking through your day and somehow a thought comes from God, I
should really reconnect with my brother. I should reconnect with my family.

I should really apologize for this. I should really begin to dream about this. I
should begin to do something about that.

I would strongly encourage you, not I, the scripture would strongly encourage
you, the Spirit would strongly encourage you. Do something about it today. If
you wait until next year or next month or next week or even tomorrow, it becomes
something in the past.

It becomes less urgent and it often never gets done. Today is this incredibly
powerful word that makes all the difference for faithfulness in our life. You
act immediately and that spontaneity is what breaks through the rebellion in our
hearts.

That spontaneity is what breaks through the familiar or the comfortable in our
lives. So the question is, what do you need to do today? That's the question.

A thought that you have right now, what do you need to do today? That's the
first step in being faithful. I hear from God, what do I need to do about it
today?

Now oftentimes, the first step can be prayer. You might not be able to do
anything else right now about it. You can begin by prayer, by talking to him.

So let's do that right now. In prayer, I just invite you to say before the Lord,
Lord, I want to hear from you. I say that, I pray that with a little bit of
anxiety because part of me doesn't want to hear from you.

Part of me is stubborn. Part of me wants to live my own way. But in the depth of
my heart, I want to hear from you because I know you have what's best for me.

I know you have life for me. Lord, when I hear from you, help me to act on what
I hear. Not to run away from it, not to wait on it.

Not to make excuses. So Lord, whatever you have to say to me, maybe it's about a
relationship. Maybe it's about a ministry.

Maybe it's about joining a church, being baptized, connecting with the people of
God. Maybe it's about letting your word become more a part of my daily life. I
begin with prayer and express my willingness to you.

And I ask Father for the spiritual strength to act today. To not put it off. To
do something about it today, this day.

Lord, I want to live a lifetime of faithfulness before you. But I know I can
only do that one day at a time. So today, today I choose to listen to you and I
choose to act on what you have said.

In your name, I choose this. Amen. Next week, we're going to talk together about
what it means to enter God's rest.

This is one of the most spiritually encouraging, anxiety-reducing truths in all
of scripture. So I'll see you next week for Hebrews chapter four.