Hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the End

Sermon Transcript

I’d like to begin this morning with an honest confession: I am a terrible driver. I don’t know if I have always been a terrible driver or when exactly I became one, but my dear wife, who does not lie, assures me that I am in fact a terrible driver. I am not a terrible driver because I am an aggressive driver or a fast driver. In fact, my lack of fast driving may be part of the reason why Sage was born in our car on the way to the hospital rather than at the hospital itself. No, I am a terrible driver because I’m an absent-minded driver. My eyes and mind wander from what is right in front of me and things get dangerous, allegedly. Now, you may be wondering, “if Matt is a terrible driver, does he get into a lot of accidents?” No, and there are two reasons for that: I don’t drive a lot and when I do drive Andrea is often in the car. She knows me, she can tell when my mind or eyes have wandered from what is right in front of me. So, with all the kind intensity she can muster, Andrea regularly warns me that I’m driving off course or into danger. Her warning arrests my attention and protects our family so that we safely arrive at the destination that we originally planned.

Citylight Church – our passage from Hebrews this morning is a little bit like my wife: it’s a kind, yet sober warning. It’s a warning meant to keep us on course, holding firm to our original confidence in Jesus until the day when we reach our heavenly destination. The Hebrews, the original recipients of this letter a couple thousand years ago, were like a driver drifting out of his lane toward a deadly accident. When they were first converted to faith in Jesus Christ, they held strong to their confidence in the all-surpassing worth of Jesus Christ and in His ability alone to forgive their sins and bring them to eternal glory. But as the pressure of persecutions, the pressure of trials, and the pressure of temptations mounted, they began to drift out of their lane away from Jesus as their only confidence in life and in death, which is veering toward eternal destruction without Jesus. We know that same pressure. Trials, temptations, over-desires, and selfish ambitions mount up with pressure to cause us to drift from our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ and not arrive at our heavenly destination. If we’re being honest, how many of us would admit that even now we’re like a car drifting out of its lane away from holding firm to our original confidence in Christ? Well, our passage is a gift because it’s God’s kind and sober warning light and instruction manual for holding to our original confidence in Jesus until that day when he wipes away every tear from our eyes and welcomes us into eternal joy. As Hebrews 3:14 says – For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. That brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the end. Don’t drift out from your confidence in Christ and fail to reach the heavenly destination promised to all who have come to share in Christ. Hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the end. You know, they say that no one gets married planning to get divorced. But it happens. Similarly, no one begins following Jesus intending to drift and fall away from their confidence in Christ. But it happens. How do we hold firm to our confidence in Christ to the end? Our passage provides us with two ways: 1. Watch out (3:7-12) 2. Constantly encourage one another (3:13-19).

WATCH OUT

Our passage in Hebrews 3 is the present application of a past, a historical mistake. Now, my son Soren is a history buff. Unfortunately, he sometimes gets fixated on a historical theme that can be a little frightening. For example, after reading about the Miracle on the Hudson, Soren became very interested in planes that have had to ditch in water throughout history. Not always awesome to have lodged in your mind when you fly a bit like I do. But it can be valuable. Learning from the past can make you keenly aware of dangers in the present so that you watch out for them. That’s how the author of Hebrews is using history in our passage. He’s helping us learn from the past so that we can watch out, lest we repeat it.

Let’s allow the author of Hebrews to let us look to the past. Notice that Hebrews 3:7-9 is a quote from the Old Testament, Psalm 95 to be specific. King David wrote Psalm 95 around 3,000 years ago. But Psalm 95 actually looks even further back to one of the greatest breaches of faith in the Lord that God’s old covenant people ever committed, recorded in Numbers 13-14. Let me tell you the story. Around 2,000 BC, the Lord appeared to a man named Abram and promised him so many kids that his name would have to be changed to Abraham (father of a multitude). The Lord also promised Abraham that his vast offspring would dwell in a Promised Land. Fast forward to around 1,400 BC, and Abraham’s offspring aren’t yet in the land God promised, rather they are enslaved in the land of Egypt, under the thumb of the most powerful man in the world at the time. But God keeps his promises, so he brought Israel up out of slavery in Egypt through the hand of Moses and brought his people through the Red Sea on dry ground, drowning their enemies in the process. Not only that, but the Lord provided for their every need in the wilderness as they journeyed from the banks for the Red Sea to the edge of the land of Canaan, the land of promise. Summary: The people saw God’s miraculous deliverance and experienced his miraculous provision. Now they are on the edge of the land that God promised to give them and they send in twelve spies to scope it out. When the twelve spies return, ten of them discourage the people. They say that the land is good, but the people occupying it are too powerful. They say that the Lord will not keep his promise and give them the land. They refuse to obey His voice and step into the land that God promised them. Their discouragement and unbelief is contagious. Instead of trusting God’s promise and stepping into the land, they decide to appoint a new leader in Moses’ place and hike back to Egypt. They failed to hold firm to their original confidence in the Lord and the consequences were devastating. They all fell dead in the wilderness and failed to reach the land God promised his people. Numbers 14:21-23 – But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. Ok – what does God intend for us to do in the present in light of their unbelief in the past? He wants us to watch out, lest we too develop hearts infected with unbelief in God’s promises. He wants us to watch out that we don’t develop an unbelieving heart. Hebrews 3:12 – Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. The first way to hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the end is to learn from the past and watch out so that you too will not develop an evil, unbelieving heart like they did, leading you too to fall away from the living God. Watch out for an unbelieving heart that doubts God’s promises and grows calloused to God’s commands. Watch out for an unbelieving heart leading you to fall away.

Now, when it comes to the warning to watch out, lest we drift away from Jesus in unbelief and not hold to our original confidence, most of us will have one of two reactions. Some of us think, “come on, I love Jesus Christ, I trust his promises, I don’t think I’m actually in any real danger of not holding firm to my original confidence in him to the end.” Some of us don’t really think we have anything to watch out for. Friends, an unbelieving heart can happen. I mean, who would have thought that a generation of people who literally watched God part an ocean to save them would fall into unbelief in his promises and fail to ever enter the Promised Land. How many of you know someone who at one point seemed to be full of love for and confidence in Jesus Christ who no longer trusts and follows him? One of the terrifying historical events that our son Soren spent a ton of time reading about is the sinking of the Titanic. The ship was full of people who thought icebergs were no danger and the ship was unsinkable. Don’t be like them. It happens. If it didn’t, God wouldn’t warn you to watch out. To hold your confidence in Christ firm to the end, watch out for an unbelieving heart in yourself and in one another. Now, some of you have a different reaction to the warning to watch out: paralysis and introspection. You’re a little like the child who runs into the street, the parent yells watch out, and you freeze. That wasn’t the point of watching out. The point of the warning isn’t to get you to inspect your heart for unbelief. The point of the warning is to keep you believing. The point of the warning is to keep you holding firm to your confidence in Christ. The point is not to test your confidence in you, but to point your confidence to Christ. Watch out! Eternal life is promised, but it’s not automatic. We have to keep believing God’s promise of eternal life to all who are in Christ and the warning serves the promise by keeping our confidence in it. To hold firm to your confidence in Christ, first watch out, watch out for unbelief in your heart by taking it to Christ right away. Watch out.

Question: what unbelief do you need to watch out for? Me: I struggle with the sin of anger. Why? Unbelief! Unbelief in the promise of Romans 8:28. When you notice unbelief in your heart toward God’s promise or hardness in your heart toward his commands, don’t tolerate it!

Ok – if watching out is an attitude, then what action should that attitude lead to? If it’s possible for my home to be burglarized, then I should have an attitude of watchfulness, but actions flow from that attitude. Since watching out for unbelief is more of an attitude, what action should that attitude lead to so that you can hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the end?

CONSTANTLY ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER

If failing to hold our confidence in Christ firm to the end is an eternally terminal disease, mutual encouragement is the preventative measure. Hebrews 2:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. “Exhort” is a broad term to describe everything from warning one another about the dangers of unbelief and unrepentant sin to encouraging one another about the goodness and trustworthiness of Christ, all so that we will hold our original confidence in Christ to the end. Watching out for an unbelieving heart leads to constantly encouraging one another to put off sin and put on trust in and obedience to Christ. But occasional encouragement won’t do – exhort one another every day. Encouraging one another is preventative medicine that we must give to and receive from one another constantly to hold our confidence in Christ firm to the end. And we need to give and receive constant encouragement and exhortation to hold firm to our original confidence because unbelief in God’s promises and sin against God’s commands is often like a crumb on your beard; you can’t see it yourself. Sin deceives us into seeing obedience as strange and holiness as weird. We need one another. Bonhoeffer once wrote about the Christian, “He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.”

Since constant encouragement is the preventative medicine that keeps you holding firm to your confidence in Christ to the very end, I want to share with you five characteristics an encouraging church:

Consistent

To encourage and be encouraged, we need proximity and consistency. If you attend your Citygroup and/or the Sunday gathering two out of the four weeks each month, you’ll receive inconsistent encouragement, but if you’re present week in and week out, then you’ll receive consistent encouragement. And since we need mutual encouragement constantly, we need to be around one another consistently. Now part of consistency is longevity. I don’t say this to step on any toes, but it’s going to be difficult to build and benefit from an encouraging church if you move every couple years. The Bible does not say that living near your parents or moving for a new job or program is necessary to hold firm to your confidence in Christ to the end, but it does say you need constant encouragement, which takes consistency & longevity. How might you step into greater consistency with the people of God at Citylight Church?

Transparent

Consistency without transparency is surfacy. To receive exhortation when you’re indulging sin or encouragement when you’re struggling to believe God’s promises requires that others know your temptations, know your trials, and know the promises of God that you need to lay hold of. So, be transparent. When others ask what you’re going through, tell them the promises of God that you want to believe, but are struggling to lay hold of. Ask for specific prayer. Don’t wait for others to be transparent with you or ask for your transparency, instead be a builder of an encouraging church through your own transparency. But don’t only be transparent with your sins and sorrows, but your joys and evidences of God’s grace in your life as well. How can you grow in your transparency?

Eager

Imagine you had a terminal illness. Six months to live, except the doctors said that there is a medication that if you take it every day, you’ll survive. You wouldn’t just take it, you’d eagerly welcome it. Sin and unbelief are terminal illnesses that will cause you to fall away from holding your original confidence to the end, but exhortation from others is the medication. Eagerly receive it. When someone points out sin in your life and points you toward Christ or when someone encourages you about the trustworthiness of God’s promises, eagerly receive it. Sure, they may not say it just right. Sure, they might be a little too harsh or not understand you completely. Don’t be too picky about the way your brother or sister deliverers the medicine that saves your life. How can you be eager?

Ready

When you get together with other Christians, a wonderful, simple habit is to ask the Father to make you ready to encourage and exhort. Ephesians 4:29 is a verse we repeat a lot with our kids – let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Ask the Father to make you ready to speak words that build people up and give them God’s grace. Another important verse when it comes to our words is Acts 20:20 – I did not shrink from declaring anything that would be profitable to you. Ask the Father to make you ready to declare whatever would be profitable. Are you ready? Is there someone you need to encourage or exhort this week? Give them the saving medicine. Related to this one…

Biblical

The content of our encouragement matters. Let me say that again: the content of our encouragement matters. To be ready to encourage we have to be men and women of the word. If we constantly encourage one another with foolishness, that will not help us hold firm to our confidence in Christ to the end. When we give one another bad advice, demand to be encouraged in our folly, exhort one another to follow our hearts or do what we need to do to be happy, we are actually withholding the medicine that saves and giving poison in its place. An encouraging church knows God and knows what God has created people for by being people of the word. We will never be happy not glorifying God. To encourage one another constantly, saturate yourself with God’s word constantly, lest you feed one another poison rather than medicine.

Now, another word for intentionally encouraging one another is discipleship. At Citylight our mission is to make disciples. A disciple is a follower of Jesus, someone who has been made alive by the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Discipleship means helping one another know and follow Jesus together. It’s doing intentional spiritual good to one another so that you become more like Christ. An encouraging church has a culture of discipleship. To help cultivate this encouraging culture of discipleship, Citylight Church has something called discipleship groups. Discipleship groups are same-gender groups of 2-4 followers of Jesus who meet regularly to connect, read and apply Scripture, and pray for one another. Discipleship groups typically form through existing Citylight relationships. One of the best ways that you can encourage one another constantly so that we all hold our confidence in Christ firm to the end is by starting a discipleship group. Anyone can start one. Simply invite a few people, meet regularly, and start reading applying God’s word to one another’s everyday lives:

Please put a screenshot up of citylightphilly.com/discipleship

CONCLUSION

Return to Numbers 13-14 – God keeps his promise. There is a promised land to come. Hold firm.