FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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True Faith Perseveres

By

Rev. Todd W. Allen

Villa Rica 1/11/04

 Heb. 3:1-19 (NASB)
 

¹Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; ²He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. ³For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. ⁴For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. ⁵Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; ⁶but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

⁷Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

  “Today if you hear His voice,

⁸  Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

  As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

⁹  Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

  And saw My works for forty years.

¹⁰ “Therefore I was angry with this generation,

  And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

  And they did not know My ways’;

¹¹ As I swore in My wrath,

  ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

The Peril of Unbelief

¹²Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³But 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. ¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, ¹⁵while it is said,

  “Today if you hear His voice,

  Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

¹⁶For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

I am thankful for the Reformed teaching on the Perseverance of the Saints Chapter 17, Please turn with me to page 858 in the Trinity Hymnal.

I. They, whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.

II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.

III. Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal            judgments upon themselves.

God's electing grace and faithfulness are never in doubt. This is not to say that God's promises are unconditional. God's promises are received and obtained through faith. Faith itself is a gift, and that gift is not a dead faith that is buried in the ground. The life of a man of faith reflects his belief in God's gospel promise; it shows forth his convictions. It is a living faith that expresses itself and endures trials and tribulation.  

The Israelites seemingly came out of Egypt full of hope but that hope soon turned to doubt and unbelief when they faced their first test. ¹⁰As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. ¹¹Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? ¹²“Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. ”Ex. 14:10-12.

However their unbelief seemed to turn to faith

after God demonstrated His miraculous deliverance at the Red sea and all the pursuing Egyptians were drowned. When they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea, and saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians:  the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. (Ex.l4:31).

But how long did it last? ²²Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. ²³When they came to ^Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. ²⁴So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”  25Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.

And then when they came into the wilderness of Sin, they murmured again against Moses and Aaron, saying, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Ex. 16:3
            This time Moses told them plainly that their murmurings were not against them but against the Lord, so God sent them manna and quail. But it was not in answer to faith but to quell their murmurings.

 Again, they did not obey the Word of the Lord about the gathering of the manna ¹⁹Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” ²⁰But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. Ex. 16:19-20 

The next thing we read is that they pitched in Rephidim and when there was no water there, the people tempted the Lord again and murmured some more. They repeated their complaining all over again saying, Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” ⁴So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.” Ex. 17:2-4. The Lord instructed Moses to strike the rock Horeb, and water came out of the rock.

But this was their pattern. The majority of the peop1e never entered into a life of faith, though they saw God's power, though he gave them great and precious promises, they continued on in unbelief.

 In Hebrews God warns against the possibility of imitating the Israelites in the wilderness. There was in most of those Israelites an evil heart of unbelief even though they were numbered among the children of God and had seen his signs and wonders in Egypt and afterward. They went through the motions of religion but their hearts were untouched by the Word of the Lord. What were the evidences of their unbelief?

 First of all they murmured against Moses.

Secondly, they tempted God to prove himself; this is a far different thing from faith. Faith trusts God in difficulties and makes use of prayer and entreaty as recourse, but unbelief accuses God of unfaithfulness and powerlessness, or even worse, of treachery.

Thirdly, their unbelief demonstrated a hardness of heart toward God's word. Disobedience goes with hardness of heart. When there is hardness of heart only the rod and the threat of punishment brings about whatever obedience there may be.

We might think of the stories we have heard of the French Foreign Legion. The men who join up with the French Foreign Legion do so because they have a need to flee some problem, but they never submit to authority out of love for the service or love for the flag or love for their country. They submit because they must or else face something worse.

     God said of that generation, ¹⁰ “Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’;¹¹     As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest.’” ... ¹⁶For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.    (Heb. 3:10-11, 16-19).

Another characteristic of unbelief is that it believes only what it sees. So long as God manifested his provision, they hushed, but just as soon as a problem arose that called for trust in God they would begin to murmur and complain.

People who have taken steps to begin the Christian life are likewise admonished: ¹Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. ²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. Heb. 4:1-2.
     The example we have of unbelief in the wilderness happened to those to whom the gospel had been preached. The promise given to us is the promise of the Gospel, that by believing in Jesus Christ we are promised the forgiveness of sins and an eternal home in heaven. The promised land of Canaan prefigured the perfect rest and peace and freedom of the kingdom of God.

(See the spy episode in Numbers 13:15-33)

After the children of Israel came to Kadesh the Lord told them to go in and see the land of Canaan, which He was giving to them. Each tribe was to send one man to view the land. It was at that point that faith was presented to them once more. They are again offered the Gospel promise of God’s rest. But instead of looking at the promise of God and who stood behind it they looked at the problems. They saw the giants in the land. And once again they reacted in fear and not in faith. After they had heard the evil report of ten of the spies they cried all night and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in the wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. (Num. 14:1-4).

The scripture tells us that the reason the word preached to those Israelite in the wilderness did not profit them was because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. The Christian is a person who hears the promise of God in the gospel and then forsakes the world and trusts God  through every difficulty and trial in this world.

What would be the parallel to unbelief today in the church?

1. It would be those who return to the world. They are then the same as those Israelites who wanted to go back to Egypt.

 2. It would be those who murmur and complain against the Lord for the problems and vexations and cares of this life. 

The believer in Christ perseveres. We cannot enjoy the assurance of our salvation apart from continuance in faith, love and obedience. Peter says ¹⁰Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 2 Pet. 1:10      

Hebrews 11:13 sets forth true faith.  Of the men and women of faith listed in that chapter, it says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

 The faithful listed in Hebrews 11 saw the promises from a distance and were persuaded that they were true and they embraced them. They were willing to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In other words they forsook the world and all its allure to seek after the promise of God. Whatever interfered or blocked them from holding to the promise of the Gospel was shunned. They took a stand for the Word of God even in the face of various trials, tribulation and persecution. 

            Perseverance is of God, but the Word of God exhorts the child of faith to join battle against all unbelief and to keep on keeping on.  

When Handel wrote the "Hallelujah Chorus," his health and his fortunes had reached the lowest possible ebb. His right side had become paralyzed, and all his money was gone. He was heavily in debt and threatened with imprisonment. He was tempted to give up the fight. The odds seemed entirely too great. And it was then he composed his greatest work--Messiah. Could we not say of Handel that the Spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet?

            (1) We need to distrust our own hearts and trust God to help us live the life of faith.

            (2) We are to be mindful of the attraction of the world to draw us away from Christ (1 In. 2:15)

            (3) We are to be on guard against temptations (Mk.1: 13, Matt 26:70, 72, 74)

(4) We are to remember that we still have remnants of corruption in our hearts that can weaken and demoralize us.

            (5) We can easily neglect the means of grace and in this subtle way harden our hearts.

  Hymn #402 “Abide with Me: Fast Falls the Eventide”