Last week we saw how Christ has made us into a holy temple for Him to dwell in that He might be magnified in our lives. As such this holy temple is also referred to as living stones in 1Pet.2:5. Here in our text we are called Christ's house. In Eph.2:19 we are seen as members of God's household. But so as not to relegate our relationship to God as some cold and sterile building which houses His Holy Spirit we see that this household is family. We are in God's family and we together are family.

GAL 6:10 "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

But this family, this house is to be loyal to Christ to the very end. And this is why the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers to understand that "we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."

There is always the danger of people thinking that now that we're in it makes little difference how we walk together with God and His family. And so salvation becomes a sort of fire insurance for some people with that attitude. And thus the term "Once saved always saved" can be used as an excuse for sin.

With this fire insurance attitude can come a false sense of security. And simply because at some time in someone's life they walked down an isle or made some sort of profession of faith, or they signed on the dotted line that on such-and-such a date you gave your life to Christ, they have in many cases placed their faith in that event rather than on the One who says in MAT 10:22 ".....but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Many, if not most of the those receiving this letter were Jews, thus the title handed down to us, the letter to the Hebrews. This was a time in church history which was very volatile because many of the Jews who came to Christ still had much of their baggage they brought with them.

This is why Paul was so adamant not to allow anything to cloud over the one true gospel, and the reason for this is because this all has to do with life and death. The wrong message will produce a false security when that security is placed in anything man can add to his salvation which is in Christ alone.

Thus, when he wrote to the Galatian church, which was made up of many Jews, he warned them not to try and incorporate the law of Moses as a prerequisite for entering into life with Christ. They were trying to force the Gentile converts to be circumcised according to the law if they were truly to have eternal life in Christ. In addition to that they wanted the law to be the focal point in their daily activities as it related to worship and life.

Paul told them in GAL 1:6 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -
7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not to be tampered with in any way, shape or form. Again, the reason is because there is only one way of salvation and this salvation is of the Lord not of man or anything man could bring to it to make it more effective. To alter it in any way is to create a false gospel with eternal ramifications.

In turning away from the one true gospel and embracing anything other than what was delivered to us by Christ is to fall into the danger of turning away from God. This is what Paul meant when he wrote in GAL 1:6 "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel..."

The Jews who were being addressed in this letter to the Hebrews were potentially in that danger of going back to the ways of the old covenant, and thus would in fact, be turning away from Christ. This is what the writer of Hebrews refers to as the hardening of our hearts to the things of God as we substitute our ways of reaching Him with the only way found in Christ alone.

The question comes up however, can a true believer in Christ turn away from his Savior and eventually reject Him as the only way to the Father? And can a true believer harden his heart to the degree that he would fall away from the living God and be lost forever?

The answer lies in what the word of God tells us about the nature of our salvation and our God who is faithful and who is Sovereign to call us out of darkness never to leave us or forsake us, and the personal responsibility of each individual to walk humbly with his God all the days of his life persevering to the end.

Now this idea of God saving us and holding us as long as we persevere to the end, may sound like a contradiction in terms when we look at certain verses such as JOH 6:39 "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

This is very strong evidence from God Himself, that of all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they may know without a shadow of doubt that they will be with the Lord forever and that we shall not be lost, but will be raised up at the last day.

But then you come to verses like PHI 2:12 "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence -continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,..."

Or what about what we find in this letter to the Hebrews? HEB 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."

We look at these verses and it sounds confusing because on the one hand we have the truth that if we have placed our faith in Christ we will not be lost, but have the certainty of our salvation, and yet on the other hand it sounds like we have to do something to hold on to that salvation so we don't lose it. Where's the certainty there?

This issue of eternal security as opposed to the possibility of losing one's salvation has been debated for years and both camps have pointed to many verses in the bible to bolster their positions. And in the process they have often been polarized from each other and this has caused much division in the church over this issue.

I believe much of the reason for this has been a misunderstanding of how God views the whole thing. God's ways are beyond our ways and His understanding beyond ours. In our finite brains we have tried to figure out the infinite instead of simply believing what God has said.

God has very clearly said, 'I have called you to myself and I will never leave you or forsake you. I have sealed you for the day of redemption and you will not be lost.' And yet He also says that 'he who stands firm to the end will be saved.'

So which is it? Does God hold us to the end or do we have to stand firm to the end to find our salvation? The answer is both. I've used this term before but it's worth noting again. Antinomy. Antinomy can be defined as two apparently opposing truths which are each derived from correct reasoning. In other words both statements are true even though they appear to contradict each other.

Let me give you a quick example. Suppose you were trying to explain a natural phenomena in this world concerning the behavior of water to someone who knew only one fact about water. This fact that they understand is that water is wet and soft. Living in the tropics they would not know anything else.

But what if you came along and said, well it's true that water is soft and wet but it's also hard and cold. To that person you would be considered out of your mind. How can both statements be true. Now, for you and me we know how those apparently contradicting statement can be true. But with an incomplete knowledge there is no way they can reconciled.

In a sense this is the way it is with God's truth concerning this apparent dilemma. Though you and I may not fully understand how such opposing truths can be reconciled it does not mean they can't. If God teaches them we must accept them. But then someone may say, well can anyone really know if they're saved? And the answer is a resounding, yes. But can any true believer really lose his salvation? The answer is a resounding, no!

How does all of this work? The writer of Hebrews shows us as the Holy Spirit gives us insight into this whole issue of salvation and the assurance we can have in Christ. From verses 7-11 the writer of Hebrews is quoting from the O.T. with the express purpose of giving an example of how those who were called out by God rejected Him and turned away from Him.

This is taken from Psalm 95 which speaks of God's chosen people as being the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand and yet it ends with what we're about to read in our text.

HEB 3:7 "So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,
9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.'
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"

Verses 7 through 11 are a parentheses placed strategically between verse 6 and 12. Let's put 6 and 12 together and I think you'll see where the thought is going. HEB 3:6 "But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God."

The writer of Hebrews is, on the one hand, encouraging these people with the hope we have in Christ and yet on the other hand he's pointing out that it must be a sure hope, not a false hope which acknowledges Christ intellectually, but whose heart was never really turned to Him, which will be evident over the long haul.

This is what happened to Israel in the desert. They saw the wonders of God and accepted it as truth. And yet their hearts never really left Egypt and the old ways which depended on their own wisdom and strength. When they were asked to live by faith in this awesome God when the testings came, their true faith became evident. It was a faith in themselves for deliverance, not in God.

You'll notice that twice in verses 7-11 the hardness of their hearts was the cause of them not trusting God and wanting to follow Him. Again, it was not an intellectual problem. They witnessed the miracles from God with their own eyes. Their brains computed the evidence. It was indisputable. But it was their hearts which rejected the notion that God was their only way of salvation, not only from the desert but from their sins.

And in verse 13 the same thought is applied to those Jews who are being addressed by our writer. 13 "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

This was a warning to the church and its individuals that this is not a game. This is not a club we were called into by God. He has purchased our lives, we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to our King and Lord, Jesus Christ who has given us His life.

But again, the question remains. If these are true believers being addressed how can they find themselves having their salvation being jeopardized through disobedience and unbelief which is what the hardening of the heart toward God is as we see in HEB 3:18 "And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."

Keep in mind that the church as a whole is being addressed. And so the writer of Hebrews is addressing everyone who finds themselves in the called out community which we know as the church. And what we find is that there will always be those who do not truly believe and yet they still enjoy the blessings, to some degree, associated with the Body of Christ.

This doesn't mean they are necessarily trying to deceive anyone about their salvation, it's just that their faith is not a faith that will endure to the end because their faith is not placed on the Rock of their salvation.. Their faith is not a saving faith. They're content to think that going to church, meeting with God's people, listening to the word of God is their ticket to heaven. It's a works oriented, performance oriented approach to their salvation. It's not a trust in Christ alone and a surrendered life which depends on the Spirit's strength to follow Him by faith.

And what did Paul say to the Galatian church when they took this approach of undermining the Gospel as they walked according to their own understanding in replacing Christ alone with man's approach to God? "Let him be accursed or eternally condemned." Paul is not creating a judgment of his own, he's simply stating the fact that if you believe this false gospel of your works, which adds to what Christ did, then you've created a false gospel which can't save and will result in eternal condemnation.

And the message to the Hebrews is that if you would not believe God and you disobey His gospel which is by faith in Christ alone, then you have something to worry about in falling away from the living God.

It's not as though this person is falling out of salvation, because he hasn't really believed. Rather he's falling away from where God has been leading him to Himself. And in one's quest for reaching out to God they are in a sense falling into His grace as they receive the truth. The question is are they willing to embrace the truth by faith and then live in that truth to the end, or will they continue to fall away from God through disobedience and unbelief?

The point the writer of Hebrews is making is that there are only two camps. Those who truly believe and those who do not believe. He's not suggesting that one can have a true faith and then lose it. Remember, even the faith we have in Christ is a gift. There was nothing we could do to earn the gift of salvation and to suggest there's something we can do to lose it is to misunderstand the gift we have.

A gift is given by God and it is God who will keep that gift alive in us to the end. So, why warn the church in this way of holding firm until the end? I believe there are a couple of reasons. #1) There will always be those in the church who need to be challenged to quit trusting in themselves for their salvation and turn exclusively to Christ.

But I also believe that every believer must always be reminded that this gift is not to be taken for granted and that this gift of life must produce life in us so as to prove the existence of Christ's life working in us.

I quoted a verse earlier to demonstrate that we are personally responsible to endure to the end. PHI 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence -continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,..."

What I didn't do was to continue what Paul said there as the personal responsibility of each believer is coupled with the grace of God which will assure that each of us will endure. PHI 2:13 "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

And so you see the warning goes out to all of us in the church. To those who are nominal and on the fence in unbelief this warning is designed to urge them to stop the unbelief and disobeying the command to trust Christ alone for their salvation. But, this is also addressed to believers to consider their responsibility to walk with Christ and demonstrate His fruit in our lives as we trust Him daily.

The hope for those who fit in the first class of people is found in HEB 3:14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
15 As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

Today is the day of salvation for those who have hardened their hearts in unbelief. But for the believer the same holds true. Today is the day we stop hardening our hearts to the things God wants to take control of. Today is the day God wants us to trust Him for everything. Today is the day He wants us to look to Him as the deliverer that He is.

What's interesting about this is what we read in HEB 3:7 "So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,..."

The Holy Spirit of God is saying this. Our Creator and God is saying this. We might say to ourselves periodically in life, ' I wish God would speak to me and make my path straight. Here it is. The Holy Spirit says.

And what the Holy Spirit says to you and me in Christ is what we find in 2PE 1:4 "Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,
11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

You may have noticed that the list given in 2Peter is very similar to the list given by Paul in GAL 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

What both Peter and Paul are saying is that if you have been saved by Christ through faith then you have His Spirit. And if you have His Spirit, His Spirit will begin transforming your life to be more like Christ and the fruit of that life is what we find in 2Peter and Galatians. You can't make that up. Only God can produce that kind of life in Christ.

And so when Peter say's, "make your calling and election sure he simply means to say measure the life you have in Christ by His word and be assured that His Spirit is doing the work in you as only He could. On the other hand if one does not possess the fruit of the Spirit in any measure than the question needs to be asked if that one has truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with his heart or simply with his head.

This is similar to what Paul said in 2CO 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you -unless, of course, you fail the test?"

This is a spiritual gut check. But it's not as though Paul means to say, test to see if you have salvation today. And then if you answer in the affirmative you check again tomorrow as though it were some fleeting sort of salvation.

He's simply saying dwell on this salvation and consider how this new life in Christ is working itself out in your life as you submit to Christ by faith, and allow His Spirit to produce His fruit in your life. The only way someone could fail the test is by not truly believing that Christ died for the penalty of your sins and then rose from the dead. But if you've believed then there will be His fruit.

And the fruit and the desire to please Him will last a lifetime. It may be up and down at times but the desire to get back up will be there. Grieving over sin will be more prevalent than a cavalier attitude toward sin which doesn't care. In fact when we sense we grieve the Spirit it's precisely because the Spirit indwells us. But our desire to get off the path of displeasing our Lord and back on the path of turning to Him will take the day, because He will make sure it will, because you're His child in Christ.

He loves us too much to let us wander very far. This is why Paul tells us in EPH 4:30 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." It is possible for God's people to grieve Him and yet we are not unsealed. The Spirit of God Himself has sealed us for the day of redemption, which means we're gonna make it home by God's grace.

Jesus' words should encourage every child of God found in JOH 10:27 "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

If you've placed your faith in Christ for the remission of your sins then you can be assured that you have salvation and that you are a child of God and that no one will snatch you away from God. But what that should do is humble us before God and in gratitude want to grow in this grace and follow our great Shepherd wherever He leads as obedient children because we love Him. That's the mark of a true believer.

A believer will persevere to the end because God perseveres with us and will enable us to walk with Him faithfully because He is faithful to us. Paul put it this way in PHI 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

For the unbeliever it's a struggle and it's frustrating trying to make salvation happen with their supposed good works which they offer to God. Only the shed blood of Christ will satisfy the Father as we place our faith in the Son who came to take our place.

John makes it abundantly clear in 1JO 5:11 "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

There is life in no one else. And if you have life in Christ you can be assured that He has every intention of giving you everything you need to honor Him. You will persevere to the end in His grace and strength, which is a great motivation for seeking Him diligently.

Let me close with an encouragement from this letter found in HEB 10:22 "let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

We're in this fight together and together we can encourage each other to take one more step when we feel we don't have any more to give. But don't every forget, it's not our strength God wants us to move in but His. Like Paul may we say "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (PHI 4:13)