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0:53Hebrews chapter 3, beginning in verse 14. For we have become partakers of Christ 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 as 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 with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that he would not enter, that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient. So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

1:55Well, the day was May 15, 1982. A young 30-year-old woman named Marty was part of an expedition to climb Mount Everest. And if successful, she would become the first American woman to summit Mount Everest. However, just as she was nearing the top, one of her fellow teammates wanted to pass by her, and so she leaned back to let him go by. But she was unaware that her harness was not firmly secured to the fixed rope. She plunged 6,000 feet to her death, and her body was never seen again.

2:57You see, Marty thought that she was. Securely attached to the safety rope, but she wasn't. And she learned all too late that she wasn't attached to the safety rope. You know, Scripture repeatedly warns us that there are many so-called Christians who think they are secure for eternity, but they are completely unattached to Christ. And one day they will plunge into an eternal ruin. Jesus Himself told us about this event, Matthew 7:21. He says, This, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?

4:10And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Such souls are going to go off the eternal cliff, and they will never be seen again. The whole Subject of our text this morning is about connection to Christ. Who is connected to Christ and how one stays connected to Christ. Beginning in the Christian life isn't enough. You must end in the Christian life. Well, our text this morning continues this flow of thought that was already started in the previous verses. We looked at them last week. Look at verse 12. Take care, brethren, that there not be any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

5:18There's a real condition. There's a thing going on in our hearts. There are principles that are working upon temptations and things going on in this world that are working upon our heart, and their purpose is to harden our heart so that we turn away from the living God. And you are to take care. That's the exercise. Make sure that such an unbelieving heart is not in you. Such a heart is not attached to Christ. And last time, because of this condition, the writer goes on to encourage us. Look at verse 13. 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.

6:10We are to encourage one another. We are part of that preserving ministry. God has not put our salvation in our hands. He is the God of our salvation, the author of salvation. He is the finisher of salvation, but he uses the church as a means to preserve his saints. Much of what our text is about this morning. You play a critical role to the person sitting next to you and in this room. You can think about from the vantage point of our text this morning. You can think about the church having two ministries: an urging ministry. We are to urge people to have faith and to keep having faith. But there's also a warning ministry, a warning ministry against the dangers of unbelief. That's what we do. We urge, we encourage, we warn. Look at verse 13. But encourage one another day after day.

7:21Encourage, you be strengthening one another because there are these forces in this world that are preying upon and acting upon. Your fellow brothers and sisters, encourage one another. Be strengthening one another. And so our text, beginning in verse 14, goes on to expand on what that encouragement ministry looks like. The church has an encouraging ministry. And there are two ways in our text this morning that expands on this idea of encouraging one another. How are we to encourage? Well, there are two ways. We are to urge each other to keep having faith in God, and we are to warn each other about the danger of unbelief. And this is what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church, verse 7, just as the Holy Spirit says, he quotes Psalm 95 and brings us to this point that we need to encourage one another to continue in the faith. And we encourage one another in two ways.

8:37It's not advancing. If you could please advance the slide. Look at verse 14. Two ways. Look at the first of two ways to encourage one another to be partakers of Christ. Look at verse 14. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast. The beginning of our assurance, firm to the end. Notice we are to urge one another because we are to urge one another to keep having faith because, look at this word, because Christ's estate belongs to those who believe in him. Look at the word partakers.

9:25We have become partakers of Christ because Christ's estate belongs to those who believe in him. What's a partaker? A partaker is someone who shares in, who has an interest in. It's partners. A companion, a partner. In Luke 5, you remember when the disciples were out on the boat and those early days of Jesus' ministry, and he's calling disciples to himself. And there are partners. They've got this boating industry. You've got James, John, and the sons of Zebedee, and Simon, and they were partners. They were partners in the enterprise, but they were also partners in fellowship. So when you're talking about being a partaker with Christ, we're talking about a common interest in the things of Christ and the fellowship with Christ, partners with Christ, companions with Christ. Wow. Now that's something.

10:27To be a partner with Christ. Well, that is our heavenly calling. Look back at chapter 3, verse 1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. We are partakers in this heavenly calling. And what is that heavenly calling? To be a companion, a sharer, one who has an interest in Christ's estate and all that belongs to him. That's what it means to be in partnership with somebody. You know, heard one person say one time when they got married, everything is yours is mine, and everything that's mine is mine.

11:16Well, in a state with Christ, you can imagine everything that we have is his, and everything that he has is ours. Let that set in, for we have become partakers of Christ. Our heavenly calling is to share with Christ all things, and this is what we have in common with each other. We are all sharers with each other in all the things that belong to Christ. That's saying a mouthful, that's what the gospel is about. And that's your heavenly calling that's extended to you to become a partaker in Christ.

11:58It's an estate. An estate that's so vast it defies comprehension or our ability to even articulate what all this involves to be a partaker, a sharer in Christ, to be a partner with him. Well, I can tell you this, it certainly includes his possessions. To be Christ's estate involves his possession. And you were made a partner in that. And what does he own? He owns the world. He owns everything in it. He owns the universe and all it contains. It's his.

12:36He created it all by him and it's for him. And we are part of that. That's the estate. It includes his possessions, but it also includes his person. His person, he is perfect humanity. We become sharers of that perfect humanity. We share his likeness, his character. We share in the way he trusts in the heavenly Father. That's what we are partakers of. We're partakers of this incredible estate, not only his possessions, but also his person. Our character, everything is shaped by him.

13:22But I can tell you, his estate is more than just his possessions and his person. It includes his power. Power. We share in his very spirit. That's what it means to be a partaker of Christ. All that constituted Christ in his person and his relationship to God and his connection to the spirit of God. All that. He's forever creator. We're forever creature. But he has given us his spirit so that we can share in his power, so that we can steward his possessions, and so that we can be transformed into his person, his image.

14:17But it also includes something else worth mentioning. We share in his eternal favor, the estate of Christ. We share in his possessions. We share in his person. We share in his power. And that is forever because his eternal favor is forever upon his companions. What a treasure. What a treasure. Some think that being made a partner in a great firm is of special value, but being made a partner in Christ's estate. Dwarfs anything that this world can offer.

15:08Are you part of it? Christ's estate is the greatest inheritance to humanity. It is the inheritance that God set out before time thinking when he was going to create the world, create the universe, and create man and put them together to fellowship man and woman and all that would come out of that union. The great inheritance is Christ's estate. And it's everything that is necessary and beneficial for humanity to delight in God forever. That is Christ's estate. And we, for we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm to the end.

16:03That's why one of our urging ministries, part of the urging others to keep having faith in Christ, is so important because Christ's estate belongs only to those who believe in him. Do you believe in him? But it also, we can continue to urge one another to keep having faith in Jesus because Christ's estate belongs only to Jesus. Only to those who keep believing in him. Look back at verse 14. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm to the end. A lot of confusion, misunderstanding of the word if here. The word if probably would be good to translate it if indeed, for we have become partakers of Christ, if indeed we hold fast. But this word is not signifying a condition, but a proof.

17:10It's not a condition to be met, but a proof that will follow. In other words, what this text is not saying, it is not saying that one must hold fast to the end in order to become a partaker of Christ. Rather, it is saying the one who is a partaker of Christ will evidence such partaking of Christ by holding fast to the end. And the word order of this makes us truth evident. The verb we come to first, for we have become partakers. The verb comes first before the condition.

17:57Perfect tense. It's not. A future tense. If it were a future tense, it would say something like this. We will become partakers if we should hold fast. That's not what it's saying. The tense is a perfect tense, a completed action. In which case, it's better to understand it like this. We have already become partakers of Christ if indeed we hold fast. That's what the tense means. We have become. We have become something we were not. We have entered into a new state of being. We have already become partakers of Christ if indeed we hold fast. So we urge people to keep having faith in Jesus. And this is what the writer of Hebrews is going to do throughout this thing.

19:01You don't understand this, you're going to get confused. But this is going to over and over. You've got people that are thinking about turning back, just like they did in the wilderness, turning back to go back to Egypt. The Christian demands are too much. And so they're turning away. They're tempted to turn away from the living God. And the way that we counteract that is to urge each other to keep having faith in God. You see, only those who already have the Spirit of Christ can keep trusting God through adverse circumstances.

19:43We can keep trusting God, but it's more than just that we can keep trusting God because we have the Spirit of Christ, but that we will keep trusting Him. It doesn't mean there's not going to be some bangs and bruises and falling out and being flattened on your face at times, but the one who really has saving faith, it's like Peter said, Where should we go? Who else has the words of life? We can't go anywhere else.

20:14And so, even in our low times, we find they are temporary because deep down, our soul knows only God is our refuge. And so, the believer doesn't stay down, does not apostasize. Since we are of Christ, let us keep believing in him. You see, the very essence of being a partaker of Christ, the very essence of Christ's likeness, is trust in the Father's will no matter what is thrown at us in life. He shall. Showed us that on the cross. You can trust your heavenly Father all the way to the cross. And then he tells us, you need to, if you can't follow me unless you take up your own cross and you follow me, guess this is going to be life. Learning how to trust in your heavenly Father, trusting in his goodness and his sovereignty throughout all and not defecting from him. And God, why did you do that? God, I'm done.

21:32So we have an urging ministry. We are to encourage others to be a partaker in Christ by urging them to have faith initially. Put your faith and trust in God. But then our ministry doesn't stop there. It comes alongside our brothers and sisters throughout their life and encourage them to keep, to urge them to keep putting their trust and faith in God. Listen, there are many heart-hardening temptations that are coming against the people in this room. And they are coming against us incessantly, day by day. And what sin wants to do is to harden our hearts against God.

22:31And you're going to see some horrible things in this world. Some things that are perplexing are going to come against you. They're going to feel like you got Pharaoh in hot pursuit on one side and a Red Sea on the other side, and there's absolutely no way out. And you may look up to heaven and say, God, why did you bring me here to die? That's going to happen. Stuff like that, you're going to come into a wilderness. Lord, where's the provision? Did you bring us out here to die? God, are you really against? God, are you really good? God, do you really know what you're doing?

23:10Listen, there's a lot of things that we face every day. And sometimes they're large things. Loss of loved ones, loss of important places or positions or things necessary. Sometimes it's small things. Lord, I broke my toe. But if you're not dialed in, that broken toe, somebody might be struggling with a much more sinister issue. God, why did you allow this to happen to me? A hardening effect. That's what Satan is after. It gets you to apostasize and to say to the world around, God is not good. God is not worthy to be followed. Therefore, I'm turning around.

24:14Be watchful. Be caring for one another. Be a caring person in the lives of your brothers and sisters. Urge them to look to God and to keep looking to God and to keep exercising faith in Christ. You are put here to preserve your brothers and sisters in the faith. That's his means. That's the means that God has used. That's why you need to be part of a church. Let us encourage one another to persevere to the end. We have an urging ministry. Second way we are to encourage others to be partakers of Christ is to warn each other about the danger of unbelief. To warn each other about the danger of unbelief.

25:18Look at verse 12 again. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil or unbelieving heart that falls away from the Living God. Take care, brethren. Make sure there isn't an unbelieving heart among you all. Yeah, you've got to look at your own heart, but also make sure that this body here at this church that there isn't an unbelieving, an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away. You see, what falling away really means, it clearly means, is turning away. It's the word apostasize. To fall away is to apostasize, and it has a deliberate action to turn away.

26:03And it's clear that the fundamental problem of the Exodus generation that we've been talking about these last few weeks was unbelief. Look down at verse 19, the conclusion of this thought. Verse 19, so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. And we're going to look at that verse here in a minute as we come to it. But it's important to notice at this point that the sin of unbelief was the root of all their other transgressions.

26:40You see, unbelief is dangerous. Don't let your heart be unbelieving, even for a moment. As quickly as an unbelieving thought comes in, you turn from that. It is. Dangerous. You see, it was unbelief that ultimately becomes the failure of this Exodus generation to enter the rest that God had for them. But unbelief is dangerous, it gives rise to many other sins. An unbelieving heart gives rise to a procrastinating heart. Look at verse 15. While it is said, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me. Today, that's what the Spirit has said. He's citing Psalm, going looking back to Psalm 95, and he's going to keep referencing Psalm 95 and the exhortation there. Today, if at this moment you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts. Today is the day of faith. Today is the day of response. And those who think they can put a relationship off with God succumb to the deceitfulness of sin. Listen, you who might be thinking or are accustomed to, well, I'll get to that.

28:16I'm going to obey God. I'm going to respond to God. Yes, I really need to get my life right with God, and I'm going to do so in the future. Let me tell you something. Let me ask you something. If you. Harden your heart today, why in the world do you think it would be softer tomorrow? There's a deceitfulness in procrastination. And you know why you procrastinate? Because you don't believe. An unbelieving heart gives rise to a procrastinating heart. Are you attached to Christ?

28:56Well, you tell me. What's the state of your heart? Is it, do you routinely procrastinate a relationship with God? Delayed obedience is disobedience. Respond immediately if you hear his voice. Those who sin by putting God off will suffer the consequences of a hardened heart. That's what this preacher is telling us. Today, respond today. But here's the good news. The good news is that each day is fresh because I think we've all been guilty of this putting things off. But each day is fresh, and in God's mercy, he strives with us.

29:52You do not have to be hardened this day. Today, if you hear his voice, listen, his mercies are new every morning. And today, if you hear his voice, you can render heart obedience, so do so. You can render to him heart obedience instead of heart stubbornness. Do so. Even as I'm preaching, be repenting and saying, God, I hear your voice. God, forgive me. God, I am a procrastinator, and God, forgive my unbelief. Because only an unbelieving heart would put God off even for a moment.

30:34And today means, it doesn't mean later today. It means now today. Oh, beware of that procrastinating heart that foolishly puts off a relationship with God or puts off obedience to God. Such hearts are in danger of greater hardening. But that's where it starts. Procrastination. Second, an unbelieving heart also gives rise to a rebel heart. An unbelieving heart will give rise to a rebel heart. Look at verse 16. For who provoked him when they heard? Indeed, did not all of those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? So there's a question, rhetorical answer, a question. Who? Who provoked him? Well, he's a Obviously, got the Exodus generation in mind. We've spent a lot of time talking about that so we don't have to go down and rehash all that. Who provoked him? That Exodus generation.

31:40They provoked him. What does it mean to provoke? It is to rebel. It really means to go in an opposite direction. Hey, come with me this way. No, I'm going this way. You wouldn't know anything about that, right? Especially you who've raised kids, you wouldn't know anything about that. No, to provoke is to go in a different direction. Psalm, look back at, look at Hebrews 3:9. This condition is a condition of the heart. Look at what he says. Verse 9, citing Psalm 95: where your fathers tried me by testing me 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. They were always going astray in their heart, and so they never knew God's ways, but they wanted their own ways, and so they rebelled. But notice, notice when they rebelled, they provoked God, they rebelled against him after they had heard the good news. News. The good news that God wanted to deliver them from Egypt, and they saw his great deliverance. The good news that God desired a relationship with them. The good news that God had promised to bring them into his resting place, and yet they refused.

33:21But at the core of their rebellion, was unbelief. Unbelief. And the consequence of that unbelief invoked God's wrath. But that's what a rebel heart does. It persistently tests God. What about your heart? Do you constantly put God on trial? Do you put him on trial in the courtroom of your own heart? And this is what unbelievers do. They look at, you see, this whole generation, they kept going in from one thing, what kind of a God would bring into this place and do this to us? What kind of a God would allow this? What kind of a God this? God, what kind of God are you? That is an unbeliever sitting in judgment upon the living God.

34:08And it doesn't come from faith, it comes from unbelief. Third, an unbelieving heart also gives rise to a sinful heart. Look at verse 17. And with whom was he angry for four years? 40 years. Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Again, question, with whom? Well, again, that Exodus generation he's using as an analogy. 40 years. That's how that rebel heart persisted. You see, a person who keeps sinning against the Lord inevitably is going to suffer the consequences of God's anger. For 40 years, they persisted.

35:01And they sinned. Look at it, was it not with those who sinned? There's a particular sin in mind, it's a high-handed sin. This is what we've studied, looking back at Numbers 13 and 14. It was that great rebellion at Kadesh Barnea. You remember when the spies went into the land and they returned? God said, Look, I've given you this land, and they came back. He said, No, he hasn't. I read this to you before, but to bring it back fresh in your mind, listen to this high-handed rebellion that took place when the spies returned. They didn't like the report of Joshua and Caleb, and the nation was swayed. The whole congregation was swayed by the evil, unbelieving report of the other spies. And this is what it says in Numbers 14 and verse 2: All the sons of Israel grumbled. That's a lot. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? And so they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. That's what apostasizing looks like: a defection, a turning away.

36:46But a sinful heart is inevitably going to manifest itself by sinful deeds. I mean, how often do we doubt God's competence or his goodness? How often do we refuse his way and choose our own? That comes out of a faithless heart. There's great danger in an unbelieving heart. So today, if you hear his voice, you quickly repent of your faithlessness and hear. Fourth, unbelief. Gives rise to an unrepentantly disobedient heart. An unbelieving heart will give rise to a disobedient heart. And that's where this all culminates. They were disobedient. They wouldn't go in. The Exodus generation, they would not do what God told them to do, so they did not reap the benefits of obedience.

37:59Listen, you cannot persist in disobedience and reap the reward of obedience. That violates the law of the harvest. Paul says in Galatians 6:7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Do not be deceived. Yes, God's grace is given and it is free. We don't earn salvation. We don't earn a good standing with him. That is given to us. That is the gospel. That is the good news. But don't be deceived in thinking that the gospel isn't something that needs to be obeyed. It is. You must obey the gospel. Gospel. Paul speaks of a day, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter says something very similar. He says, 1 Peter 4, 17, for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

39:38You see, the gospel is you are to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You are to come to him with your needs, with your filthiness, so that you can be cleansed. Yes, the gospel is good news, but you must obey it. You must come to Christ. You see, the bodies of the Exodus generation, verse 18, they died. Sorry, verse 17. The bodies of the Exodus generation died in the wilderness. Why did they suffer those consequences? Well, they suffered several consequences. This is the danger of their unbelief. They suffered a hardened heart, a rebel disposition, and a disobedient life.

40:28That's the danger of unbelief. And because they didn't believe God, they experienced his judgment. The sin of unbelief. Look at verse 19. Here it is. So, the conclusion of the argument. So, we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. We don't talk a lot about the sin of unbelief, but it's the mother that gives birth to all the others. This is the real danger facing humanity. This is the danger facing you and me, and this is the danger facing people in this room.

41:13This is why we are to urge people to keep on having faith, and we are to warn people about the danger of unbelief. I wanted to point out a couple things. Look back. So, we see that they were not able to enter. Who are the they? The they refers to 600 plus thousand men. Listen to the result of the census that God commanded Moses to take. Result is in Numbers 1:45. So, all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their father's household from 20 years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel, even all. All the numbered men were 603,550.

42:07They, that's the they that didn't enter. Notice, we see that they were not able. Not able. That is, they didn't have the capacity to enter. They were without power. They were void of ability. You see, the sin of unbelief ruined that generation. It shackled them to a life of hostility with God and it buried their bodies in the desert. That's what unbelief does. They didn't respond to God because of unbelief. So what are he saying? See, they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.

42:53Look, if you don't believe him, you're not going to obey him. They didn't believe him. And so their unbelief gave rise to a procrastinating heart, a rebellious heart, a sinful heart, and a persistently, unrepentantly disobedient heart. And this is what a hardened heart looks like. Unbelief hardens the heart, and it will ruin you. But think with me. For a moment, these numbers are staggering. Are they not? Two out of the 600,000 plus entered the rest. They all saw the same things.

43:47Two wide is the path that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way to life. And few find it. But this isn't just about them. And it wasn't just about David's generation when that Psalm 95 was written. And it's not just to the Hebrews' generation where this text is used to exhort them not to turn away and go back to Judaism. It's to us today to not abandon Christ in any situation we face. You will never be a partaker of Christ if you do not believe in him.

44:43And you'll never respond appropriately to one you don't believe in. And you know why that is? Because the sin of unbelief is a sin against the light. That generation sinned against the light. The light. God kept putting his wondrous displays before them, but they kept refusing to believe God's self-revelation of himself. And even when it was so obvious that God was good and he was going to deliver on all that he said. And as a result, they invoked God's anger. And God said, Enough. Your bodies are going to die in the wilderness.

45:38This sin is really a fundamental element of what Christ termed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In Mark 3:22, the scribes, after Jesus had performed a great miracle and was casting out demons, the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by Beelzebub, and he casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons. And then Jesus goes on later in Mark 3:27, he says, This, no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, Never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. Listen, you cannot persistently go on sinning against the light because there isn't any other light to give.

46:44If you call the Holy Spirit evil, if you say, God, the one who's good, you've brought us out here to die, you're really evil, there is no salvation for you and cannot be because you sin against the light. And there isn't another light, they reap the consequences. And we who continually, persistently sin against the light, will go off of an eternal cliff. Well, I want to warn you against the unbelief that is persistent, even in this room, even at this very moment. Because I fear that today many and maybe some of you will simply dismiss this warning. Well, that doesn't apply to me. You know why? Because I have this theological protection. Once saved, always saved, therefore, this warning doesn't apply to me. Or maybe that was, those Jews were really bad, but he's really not talking about me today.

48:03You see, the Exodus generation also had their own theological protections as well. Oh, he called us out of the world. He obviously liked it. We're favored. God would never. You see, we are to believe the warnings of Scripture. They do apply to us. But what does a believer do when he hears a warning? There's a pit over there. I'm not going to walk close to it. That's what a believer says. And that's how the warnings are used in Hebrews. Don't get close to that. If you saw a pit of alligators over there, you'd say, yeah, I can go over there and jump in and not be hurt. No, you stay away from it. And that's over and over what the writer of Hebrews is exhorting. Believers believe the warnings and they make sure that they heed the warnings. That's what a believer does.

49:08Only two of the 600,000 entered. They did not believe him. You will never be a partaker of Christ if you do not believe him. And if you are not responding appropriately to him now, it's because you lack faith in him. Listen, this sin of unbelief is the real danger that faces humanity. It's what faces us. It's what gives rise to a procrastinating heart, a rebel heart, a sinful heart, a disobedient heart. And this is the danger facing you and those around you. And that is why we are to advance each other in the faith. And God has put you in this body here. Or if you're thinking about joining, understand that this is what we're about. We are about urging each other to keep having faith in God, and we are to warn and to keep warning each other about the danger of unbelief.

50:12Are you connected to Christ? Have done with all pretenses of Christianity and embrace the true Jesus Christ. Be connected to Him, or you will plunge your soul into eternal ruin. Jesus gives us these words: No one in Luke 9:62, no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. No one who's constantly looking back is useful, suitable for the kingdom. They don't have saving faith. You see, a good beginning is not enough. Heaven is for those who trust God's word above all other voices. There are no other gods.

51:12There is no other place for our profession to be tested either than in this world. So expect trials. Expect things to come against you. Expect things to tempt you to thumb your nose at God and say, God, I will trust you even though you slay me. Let us encourage one another to persevere in such faith. Let us come alongside. Let's be his hands and feet. The good news is to be a partaker of Christ is to be part of the estate that God promised to Christ. The benefits are incalculable. And yet we know some of us, and that's my prayer that all of us here, that's why I'm talking to you this way this morning. It's my prayer that all of us come in this door will enjoy Christ's estate with him forever. And we know there are going to be many. Listen to what Jesus himself said, Matthew 25, 34. Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Of the world. You see, the response to the gospel is faith. The kind of faith that is moved by the glory of Christ. And the kind of faith that is constantly moving toward the glory of Christ.

52:47Oh, there's a wonderful, wonderful day to come. A rest so wonderful that is even available now. Let us believe and keep believing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the glory that you have revealed of Christ. Light. Oh, have you shown your light into this world? You've shown your light into our darkened souls, Father. And it is our desire here to move toward the glory of Christ and to keep moving to the glory of Christ and to keep trusting His will and His way, trusting our Heavenly Father.

53:37Father, we thank you. Do in us what only your Spirit can do. Because if it were up to us, Father, we would defect and turn. We need your Spirit. We confess our unbelief and we ask you to help our unbelief that there not be found in any one of us a heart that he is not. Is hard against you. Soften our hearts by your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.