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Transcript 201A
Do Biblical Warnings Apply to Believers? [Heb 3:12-19]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have some verses here that I would like to know if I am understanding correctly. First I would like to let you know that I think they mean. And then you can tell me what you think they mean.
In Hebrews 3:12-19 – now this says that Christians are to be watchful that they not allow unbelief to occupy their hearts, in falling away from the living God. If, as some infer, it is impossible for children of God to quit believing, to fall away from God, then the inspired writer is giving here needless warning. Now in verse 13, continuing the thought expressed in the previous verse, he counsels us that if we are to partake of the blessings of Christ, we must hold firm our confidence unto the end. If, however, there is no way for a child of God ever to lose his faith, then this verse would also be needless.
The writer continues by showing that the ancient Hebrews, who typified God's children under the New Covenant, were not allowed to enter Canaan's rest, because of unbelief and disobedience. These Jews had left Egypt believing in God and obeying His will. But in the wilderness they quit believing and obeying. Therefore they were kept out of the land of Canaan. What is the reason for the inspired writer's use of this illustration?
Hebrews 4:11 says, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." And I'll take my answer over the air.
HC: Let me ask you a question, if I may. What you have just said makes abundant sense, and it sounds very logical when you read this passage. But let me ask you a question. What were you saved from?
CALLER: From sins, past sins.
HC: What do you mean, you were saved from sin?
CALLER: From past sins.
HC: I know, but if you were drowning, and somebody jumped in and rescued you, and then afterwards they asked you, "What were you saved from?" you would say, "Well, I was saved from drowning."
Now what does it mean to be saved from your past sins?
CALLER: Well, sin is a transgression of the Law.
HC: It's a transgression of the Law. But what do you mean that you are saved from your past sins?
CALLER: I was saved from the past sins of my life before becoming converted to the Lord Jesus Christ.
HC: I know. But what do you mean, you were saved from your sins?
CALLER: Condemnation of sin.
HC: Oh, okay. In other words, from the condemnation that comes from your sin. All right. In other words, when Christ went to the cross, what did He do for you in relationship to your sin?
CALLER: When He died on the cross, and when I accepted Him, then my past sins have been washed away.
HC: I see. In other words, He just died for your past sins.
CALLER: Past sins.
HC: All right. In other words, He didn't save you from all of your sins.
CALLER: Well, as soon as I was baptized, all my past sins were washed away.
HC: I know, but according to what you're saying, when we understand that He saved us from condemnation, we know that the wages of sin is death. The penalty for our sins is eternal hell, isn't it? Now you're saying that Christ only paid for your past sins. He didn't pay for all of your sins.
CALLER: He paid for those, too, under certain conditions.
HC: Oh. I see. Well, I'm asking you these questions in order to guide you, in order to help you think this out. You see, the reason that we're in trouble with God, the reason that our sins are even mentioned, is that our sins are what make it certain that we're going to go to hell. We're under the wrath of God because of our sins. The Bible declares, "The wages of sin is death." And the death that God has in view is eternal damnation.
Now when. Christ came, to go to the cross, the Bible says He became sin for me. That is, He took all of my sins. He stood guilty before God, as if He was the sinner. And He was found guilty, because He had taken my sins. And He was condemned. And He paid the penalty for all of my sins. He endured the equivalent of an eternity in hell.
And therefore the Bible can say that I have been saved, or that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. My sins have all been paid for.
Now the question rises then, if all of my sins have been paid for (because this is what salvation is), what kind of a sin do I have to commit to again come under God's condemnation, so that I'm going to hell? What sin could it be, if all of my sins have been paid for? There's no sin that I could commit that would make me go to hell. This is an impossibility, that I could lose my salvation.
Now one mistake that a lot of people make in reading the Bible is that they see this word brethren, as we find it here in verse 12, "Take care, brethren," and they immediately think that it means that everyone in the congregation is born again. Now they're all brethren. But the Bible teaches very clearly that there's no congregation where everybody is born again.
You read about the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. And the first mistake that is made by many is that they read this word brethren, or holy brethren, and they immediately assign that phrase to only born again people. They fail to realize that God has His church in visible form as well as invisible form.
Now the organized church, which is composed of believers and unbelievers, all who are members (and only God knows who are the believers in any congregation), is a holy church. It is God's church. And corporately every member of that church is a citizen of the kingdom of God. And in that sense they are holy brethren. The word holy means set apart. It doesn't necessarily mean that one is born again. Now sometimes in the context we know that the word holy is referring to someone who is born again. But it also can refer to those who are in the congregation, who are set apart for the service of God, because they have officially joined the church congregation. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they are born again.
CALLER: Don't you remember, back in Acts, where the 3,000 were born again? These people didn't join. They were added to the church by the Lord.
HC: Now that's a different matter. Those 3,000, the Bible says, were saved. They were saved, and they were added to the congregation. But everybody who is added to the congregation is not born again. These 3,000 were, because the Bible says so.
CALLER: Then how do you know which ones?
HC: We don't. We don't, but God knows. We know in our own heart whether we're born again, if we examine ourself in the light of the Bible. But we can't look at the other fellow and say, "Now I know that you're not born again." That's God's business. But we read Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, and you'll find that every one of those churches was beset by sin.
CALLER: So you're trying to say that when he's talking about these holy brethren here, that they're not born again.
HC: I'm saying that he's talking about the congregation, about the church. And within that church there are those who are born again, and there are those who are not. But God is coming constantly in the Bible with warnings to the congregation. And He's warning them, now make sure that you are saved. And so He gives an illustration, of Israel of old.
Now you'll notice the reason why Israel perished in the wilderness. They perished because of unbelief. They did not have faith. Now faith is the vehicle that God employs whereby we are saved. It also is a gift of God, too. But the nation of Israel did not have faith.
CALLER: Couldn't you have faith and then lose that faith?
HC: No, not true saving faith. Faith is a gift of God, and it goes all the way to salvation. And then our sins have been covered, and we have eternal life. We can never lose that salvation. That's an impossibility.
This is talking about those in the congregation who have heard the way of salvation. They know the way of salvation. They have been blessed of God, because they are present in the congregation. But they have never surrendered their life to Christ. They have never hung their life on Christ. This is really what faith is, that they have implicitly trusted in Him as their personal Lord and Savior.
And as a consequence, the day comes, just like the day came with Israel, when they go after other gods or they fall away. They fall away from the congregation, as a matter of fact. And we see this happening in every congregation. There are those who are members for a while, and then finally they go back into sin. They were never born again.
Now this has got to be the way to understand this, because under no circumstance does God teach that we can lose our salvation. That would nullify, would negate, everything that the cross is, that Christ became sin for me, and paid for all my sins. We have to begin with, what is salvation? What did Christ save me from?
And once we understand that, and the awful price that He paid to save me from the wrath of God, the fact that He became our substitute in enduring the wrath of God, once we have all of that into our minds, then we read these other passages, and we can begin to understand how to read them.
Now also in this passage, if you read verse 14, for example, just as it stands, it very clearly is teaching that our salvation is dependent upon our works. It says, "For we are partakers in Christ if we only hold our first confidence firm to the end." In other words, Christ has done all that He could. He provided for our salvation. Now it's up to us to work and be pleasing to God. Otherwise we're going to lose our salvation. Now that's what this seems to teach.
CALLER: Yes, if we hold our confidence unto the end.
HC: Yes. But that's contrary to what the Bible teaches.
CALLER: Why does it say that then?
HC: Because God has written the Bible to foster unbelief.
CALLER: Why did He do that?
HC: Why did He do that?
CALLER: Why would He do that?
HC: Because of what we read in Mark 4, where Christ speaks of parables. The apostles asked Him, "Why do you always speak in parables?" And He said, in verse 11, "To you has been given the secrets of the kingdom of God. But for those outside everything is in parables?" Why? So they would understand more clearly? No, just the opposite. "so that they may indeed see but not perceive. They may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn again and be forgiven."
CALLER: Is God a respecter of persons?
HC: Not in the sense that there is one chosen nation, or that only certain kinds of people can be saved. But He is a respecter of persons in the sense that only those who come with a childlike trust in God, who just in utter naive faith abandon themselves to the idea that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is to be interpreted by the Bible, we are to let the Bible interpret itself, will begin to understand the Bible. And so only those who endure to the end are the saved ones. And the only reason they're enduring to the end is that they have eternal life.
In other words, our works are a result, a fruit, a proof, the evidence of the fact that we have become born again. Under no circumstance are they the cause, are they the reason for. They are always the evidence or the proof. If we don't have works in our life, it indicates that we don't have faith. Whatever we think is faith is a dead faith. It means that we have not really become born again. We haven't entrusted our life to Christ, if the works are not there.
And only those who are born again will hold fast their confidence to the end, only they. And the reason they will is that no one can snatch them out of Christ's hand. The reason for this is that they have been given eternal life.
And so Hebrews 3 can be read by someone who is isolating it from the rest of the Bible, and it can be used as a proof text for falling from grace, or for being saved by our works. But when we arrive at that conclusion, then we are contrary to everything else the Bible teaches about the nature of our salvation.
And so immediately we have to say, "Well, wait a minute. We've somehow gotten on a wrong track. That's the wrong conclusion, because it won't agree with everything else the Bible says about salvation." We have to read this passage over again, and look at it more carefully. Maybe we understood wrong. We have to examine to see just how God wants us to understand these phrases, you see.
CALLER: Isn't it true that the two most important commandments are to love God with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself? And Christ says, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments."
HC: Yes, but we don't do that because we're meriting something. We don't do that because we're trying to become worthy. We don't do that because we're trying to insure our salvation. The moment we do any of this, then we're under the Law, and we must keep the whole Law perfectly. And no man can do that. It means that we're under the curse of the Law, and we're headed for hell.
CALLER: Christ is a mediator between us and God, to appeal our case constantly, because we're constantly sinning all the time. So we go to Christ in prayer to ask for forgiveness of our present sins, that we are committing daily.
HC: No. Christ paid for our sins at the cross. He became sin for us.
Now here is a child and his father. And the father dearly loves the child, and the child the father. And now the child disobeys Father. He has done something that is wrong. Now there is an estrangement that has developed between the father and the child. Now the child is not going to be disowned by the father. The father loves the child, and he would never disown the child. But the child finds that he can't talk to the father, because his sin stands between him, his disobedience stands between him and his father. And so he can't stand it after a while, and he says, "Father, forgive me. How could I have done this?" He's not going to be disowned. He's not going to be disowned. He just walks in this estranged way.
And so it is with a born again believer. Our sins were paid for at the cross, and we, if you are born again, and you commit sin, this is a very heavy weight on your heart. You feel very oppressed "How can I have done this? I have offended my Savior and my Lord." Now there's no fear at all, that now I'm going to lose my salvation. That has been put to bed long before, because we have eternal life. But there is this feeling of oppression, this feeling that I have offended my Savior. And so you can't wait, finally, to go to the Lord and pour it out. "Oh Father, forgive me. How could I have done this? I don't want to live this way. Strengthen me that I won't move in this direction of sin anymore." This is the forgiveness that the born again believer is looking for.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you. Good-by.
HC: Thank you. Good night.