"Take Heed, Brethren"
(No. 2552)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 16, 1898.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER
23, 1884.
"Take heed, brethren, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God." Hebrews 3:12.
THIS message is not addressed to strangers far away, but to "brethren."
Paul wrote it to the Hebrews, who were his brethren according to the
flesh. It was kind of him to call them by that name. He also writes it
to all of us who are Believers in Christ, and we ought to receive his
word with all the greater intensity of attention because he writes to
us as his brethren. The term applies to all who are Brothers and
Sisters in Christ–really so–those who are quickened by the one
Spirit, made children of the one Father and going to the one heavenly
Home. The Apostle would not have us begrudge this title to any genuine
member of our Lord Jesus Christ's true Church. It is not for us to read
men's hearts–we have not the Lamb's Book of Life in our possession, so
we cannot discover whether such-and-such a man's name is really written
in it, or not, but, in the judgment of Christian charity, all those who
have joined themselves to Christ's Church are our brethren–and the
more we recognize that relationship, the better. To all of you,
therefore, who bear the Christian name, this message comes with power,
"Take heed, brethren, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God."
There are other persons who are associated with us in our congregations
who do not profess, as yet, to have passed from death unto life,
although they come up with us to the House of the Lord. They swell the
chorus of our praise, they bow their heads with us in prayer, they are,
in many respects, our fellow worshippers and they have, apparently, a
warm heart towards good things, though not yet fully one with us in the
highest spiritual'sense. We will not exclude them from this message of
the Apostle, for they are our brethren as men, even if they are not our
brethren as Christians, and the Word of God comes to them as well as to
us who are avowedly on the Lord's side, "Take heed, brethren, lest
there is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief."
You see, then, that we are, all of us, called upon to "take heed." The
word means that we are to be careful, to be watchful. True religion is
not a thing that can be acquired by carelessness or neglect–we must
take heed or we shall never be found in the narrow way. You may go to
Hell heedlessly, but you cannot so go to Heaven. Many stumble into the
bottomless Pit with their eyes shut, but no man ever yet entered into
Heaven by a leap in the dark. "Take heed, brethren." If ever there was
a matter that needed all your thought, all your prudence and all your
care, it is the matter of your soul's salvation. If you trifle with
anything, let it be with your wealth, or with your health, but
certainly not with your eternal interests. I recommend all men to take
heed to everything that has to do with this life, as well as with that
which is to come, for in the little the great may be concealed–and the
neglect of our estate may end in mischief to our immortal spirit.
Certainly, the neglect of the body might lead to great injury to the
soul, but if ever neglect deserves condemnation, it is when it concerns
our higher nature! If we do not carefully see to it, that which is our
greatest glory may become our most tremendous curse.
Brothers and Sisters, the watchword for every one of us is, "Take
heed." You are an old Christian, but "take heed." You are a minister of
the Gospel and there are many who look up to you with veneration–"take
heed." You have learned the Doctrines of Grace and you know them
well–there is little that any human being can teach you, for you have
been well instructed in the things of the Kingdom of God–but still,
"take heed." Yes, and if you were so near to
Heaven that you could hear the songs within, I would still whisper in
your ear, "Take heed." Horses fall most often at the bottom of the hill
when we think that we need not hold them up any longer. And there is no
condition in life which is more dangerous than that feeling of perfect
security which precludes watchfulness and care. He who is quite sure of
his strength to resist temptation may be also equally certain of his
weakness in the hour of trial. God grant us Grace, whatever sort of
"brethren" we may be, to listen to the admonition of the Apostle, "Take
heed."
Paul means not only take heed for yourself–though that is the first
duty of each one of us, for every man must bear his own burden and it
becomes every prudent man to look well to the matter of his own
salvation–but the Apostle says, "Take heed, brethren, lest there is in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief." You are to watch over your
brethren, to exhort one another daily, especially you who are officers
of the Church, or who are elderly and experienced. Be upon the watch
lest any of your brethren in the Church should gradually backslide, or
lest any in the congregation should harden into a condition of settled
unbelief and perish in their sin. He who bids you take heed to yourself
would not have you settle down into a selfish care for yourself, alone,
lest you should become like Cain who even dared to say to the Lord,
Himself, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Nothing can be more horrible than
the state of mind of a man whose talk is like that of Cain, who slew
his brother. "Take heed," therefore, you who are in the Church of God,
not only to yourselves, but to those who are round about you,
especially to such as are of your own family!
The text naturally divides itself into an exhortation. "Take heed,
brethren"–a warning–"lest there is in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief." And a description of the danger which would follow from a
neglect of this warning–"in departing from the living God." Lay up
those three things in your memory and heart and may God cause them to
work there for the effectual blessing of your spiritual life.
I purpose, as I may be helped of God's Spirit, to take the text and
apply it to the three classes of persons whom I indicated at the outset
of my discourse–first, to the inner Church, the true elect, redeemed,
regenerated, called, sanctified people of God. The message of the text
is for you, my Brothers and Sisters! Secondly, to the visible Church, t
o all who are, I trust, as truly saved and regenerated as the first
class are, but yet I have a fear that there is a mixture in the nominal
Church–that there is chaff mingled with the wheat upon Christ's floor
and bad fish caught in the Gospel net along with the good ones. To all
these persons I speak with great earnestness and say, "Take heed,
brethren." Then I am going to take the whole congregation and address
the message of the text to all without exception–"Take heed, brethren,
lest there is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God."
I. First, then, TO THE INNER CHURCH, God's own chosen people–to you
who are really His–the Apostle says, "Take heed, brethren." If you
dare to put yourself among that privileged company and say, "Yes, by
God's Holy Spirit I have been quickened, renewed, sealed,
preserved–and I have the witness of the Spirit, Himself, within my own
spirit, that I am, indeed, born of God–then to you comes the Apostolic
watchword, "Take heed."
For, first, dear Friend, even you may fall into unbelief Are you not
aware of that fact? Have you not been already tormented with it? I
daresay, like myself, you did, at one time, indulge the idea that old
Incredulity would soon die. You took him by the heels and you put him
in the stocks and said to yourself, "He will never trouble me again! I
shall never doubt the promise of God, anymore, as long as I live. I
have had such a wonderful experience of God's faithfulness–He has been
so exceedingly gracious to me that I cannot doubt Him any more." You
remember how Mr. Bunyan says, in The Holy War, that, after the enemies
of King Shaddai had been sentenced to death, "One of the prisoners,
Incredulity by name, in the interim between the sentence and time of
execution, broke prison, made his escape and got out of the town of
Mansoul and lay lurking in such places and holds as he might, until he
should again have opportunity to do the town of Mansoul a mischief for
their thus handling of him as they did."
Incredulity will work his wicked will upon you if he can and you must
always remember that it is possible, even, for youto fall into
unbelief–you who are rejoicing, you who have hung out all your flags
and are keeping high festival– oh, tell it not in Gath! Yes, even
youmay yet be found doubting your God! May the Lord grant that you may
be delivered from this evil! But it is only Almighty Grace which can
keep you with faith pure and simple and free from any tincture of doubt
and unbelief. Pressure of circumstances may drive you into an
unbelieving state of mind. Depression of soul, due to physical causes,
may do it–the spirit often truly is willing and believing, but the
flesh is weak–and it may pull you down. Association with doubters may
have a similar effect. Conflict for the Truth of God may make you
familiar with the poisoned arrows of skeptics and, in attempting to do
them good, you may imbibe mischief from them. The Lord will preserve
you from the positive, stark, black Egyptian darkness of unbelief, but
there are other grades and degrees of it which you may have to endure.
It is bad for a Christian to have anymixture of darkness with his light
and to have any measure of doubt mingled with his faith. Yet it may be
so and, therefore, the Spirit of God says to the people of God, "Take
heed, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God."
Note, next, that in proportion as unbelief gets into your heart, you
will begin to depart from the living God. I am not speaking, now, of
open glaring sin–you have not fallen into that and I pray God that you
never may. But, Beloved, we may have all the decencies of morality, all
the proprieties of Christian conduct and yet we may be, all the while,
"departing from the living God." The moment we begin to trust in man
and to make flesh our arm, we have, to that extent, forgotten Jehovah
and departed from the living God. The moment our heart's deepest
affections twine about the dearest creature–be it husband, or wife, or
child–we are, to that degree, "departing from the living God." To the
true Believer, in his best estate, the sweetest line that he can ever
sing is that which we sang just now–
"Yes, mine own God is He."
That is the circle which surrounds all his joy! It is the center of his
soul's highest delight. He has God for his very own! On his God he
relies and towards Him he sends out the full streams of his earnest
affection. Remember what the Lord wrote by the pen of the Prophet
Jeremiah– "Cursed is the man that trusts in man: and makes flesh his
arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall
inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not
inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope
the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that
spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes,
but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of
drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."
Brothers and Sisters, it is easy to depart from the living God
spiritually–gradually to lose that serene and heavenly frame which is
our highest privilege, to forget Him who ought to always be before our
eyes as the chief factor in our entire life, the great All-in-All,
compared with whom everything else is but as a dream, a fleeting
shadow. I bear my witness that to walk with the living God is life–but
to get away from Him is death! And that in proportion as we begin to
depart and put a distance between ourselves and the great Invisible–in
that proportion our life ebbs away and we get to be sickly and scarcely
alive! Then doubts arise as to whether we are the people of God at
all–and it is sad that such a question as that should ever be
possible! We ought to live like the angel whom Milton pictures as
living in the sun–in the very center of the orb of light–so near to
God that we do not merely sometimesenjoy His Presence, but that in Him
we live altogether and never depart from Him!
I remember a minister calling upon a poor old saint and before coming
away he said he hoped that the Divine Father would constantly visit the
sick man. But he replied, "O Sir, I do not want you to ask that the
Father should merely visit me, for by these many months together He has
been living with me and I have been living in Him." So may it be with
each one of you, my Brothers and Sisters! And that it may be so, give
attention to the message of the text, "Take heed, brethren, lest there
is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing"–in any
measure or degree–"from the living God."
"But," you say, "why should we take such heed about that matter? We are
Believers and, therefore, we are saved." Are you Believers? They who
can trifle with heavenly things are not true Believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if ever it becomes a thing of small importance to you
whether you dwell with the living God, or not, the question may well
arise in your heart, "Am I truly a Believer in Jesus Christ with the
faith of God's elect–the faith that really saves the soul?"
But, my Brothers and Sisters, if you do not continue steadfast and firm
in your faith in its simplicity–if your evil heart of unbelief begins
to prevail and you are turned aside from your confidence in Christ, and
so begin to get away from God–you will be great losers thereby even if
you do manage to get to Heaven, "saved, yet so as by fire." For, first,
you will lose your joy. That is no small thing. "The joy of the Lord is
your strength." The joy of the Lord is one of the means by which you
are to be made useful. The joy of the Lord sweetens trial, lightens
care and turns service into delight. But if you lose that joy, you are
as one who travels alone in the dark and who stumbles and falls. I pray
you, do not depart from the living God in any degree, for if you do so,
your joy will begin to get clouded, the brightness and the warmth of it
will be taken from you–and you will become faint-hearted, trembling,
timorous and sad. If the evil heart of unbelief shall prevail against
you, depend upon it, you will lose your joy.
Then you may be certain, also, that you will lose your assurance. Full
assurance cannot exist with unholiness. One has well said, "If your
assurance does not make you leave off sinning, your sinning will make
you leave off enjoying assurance." And I am sure that it is so. If we
begin to look to second causes and do not trust in God, we shall then
put forth our hand to some one sin or another. And when we do that, we
cannot be certain that we are children of God at all! That man who
feels sure of his safety and yet can play with sin and find pleasure in
it, may be assured of his own damnation! I remember, in my boyhood, one
who never talked so religiously as when he was the worse for drink. And
in public, before ungodly men, he used to boast of his full assurance
of salvation–when he was much too far gone to be assured that he would
get home in safety that night! That kind of conduct is atrocious and no
one would excuse it for a moment! We know that men who talk so only
proclaim their own shame to their own eternal disgrace. But do not let
any of us indulge even in a measure of that kind of sin. That evil
heart of unbelief will not only lead us away from a holy walk with God,
but it will also take from us our assurance if it is an assurance that
is worth having.
Then, next, it will take from us our fruitfulness. Dear child of God, I
am sure that you do not wish to live here without doing good to others.
But how can you do good if you are not, yourself, good? You cannot
bring forth fruit unto holiness unless you are watered with the dew of
Heaven and the sunlight of God shines upon you. And you will not have
either of those blessings if you live carelessly and if you fall into
an unbelieving state of mind and get away from contact with the
ever-living God. If any of you have tried this kind of life, you must
have become painfully aware what it is to have all the sap and juice,
out of which the clusters ought to come, dried up within the tree and
everything turned to barrenness because you have yourself departed from
God!
These are all serious losses to a child of God. It is no light matter
for you to lose joy, assurance and fruitfulness. But the evil heart of
unbelief will cause you, also, to lose purity. There is a delicate
bloom upon the fruit that grows in Christ's garden, where He, as the
Gardener, cultivates it with tender care. But sin comes and rubs away
that bloom and spoils the fruit. If you and I fall into sin, we shall
have to weep bitterly over it. We shall not be able to enjoy the high
privilege which belongs to those who keep their garments unspotted from
the world. Of these the Savior says, "They shall walk with Me in white:
for they are worthy." I believe that, of all fortes of spiritual loss,
one of the worst is to lose tenderness of conscience, quickness of
apprehension when sin is near–to lose a sense of cleanness of heart
and of sanctifica-tion by the Spirit of God. When those are gone, we
are something like Adam when he lost Paradise, and we turn our faces
back again toward that purity and cry to the Lord to restore it, as we
moan rather than sing–
"Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord?"
Take care that you do not lose it, for it will hardly be likely to be
restored to you in the same degree as you had it at the first.
The child of God who wanders away also loses peace and many other
attainments of the spiritual life. He is like a boy who is sent down
from the top of the class–it may take him a long time to get up again.
Or he is like the soldier who has risen from the ranks, but who has
misbehaved himself and is, therefore, made a Private again. He who once
could lead the people of God has to be very thankful that he is
permitted to go into the rear rank and to follow where others lead. He
who could talk for God boldly now has to sing very small and let others
speak. He who used to encourage others, now needs to be encouraged,
himself. He was once strong in faith and a mighty man of valor, but now
he has to use Mr. Ready-to-Halt's crutches and to go along with the
feeble ones among the pilgrims because an evil heart of unbelief has
made him depart from the living God!
This brings, of course, a loss of influence with the people of God and
with worldlings, too, for when a man has injured his reputation, it is
not soon repaired. If he has slipped and fallen, brethren weep over him
and love him, and seek to restore him, but they do not trust him as
they used to do. They are some little while before they dare to follow
where he leads the way. I have seen a man whose judgment was like that
of Solomon, whose position in the midst of his brethren was that of a
hero inciting them to daring deeds–but he has fallen and all Israel
has wept over him! Perhaps there has been no shameful sin, but yet
there has been an evident decline in spirituality and in force and
power. The Lord has left him and great Samson, though he shakes himself
as before, is fast bound in chains and his eyes have been put out.
Happy will he be if, at some future day, when the locks of his hair
have grown back, he shall be able to pull down the temple of the
Philistine lords upon them. But so far as his brethren are concerned,
he will have to be the object of loving pity rather than ofjoyful
confidence.
Do not tell me, then, that you do not lose anything by getting into a
state of unbelief and departing from God, for, in addition to all this,
such a child of God loses power in prayer. It is "the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man" that "avails much." Our Lord Jesus told His
disciples, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." But disobedient
children will find that the Father will turn a deaf ear to their
supplication. "No," He will say, "you would not listen to Me–neither
will I listen to you," for God has a way of walking contrary to them
that walk contrary to Him.
Then there very often follows at the back of that, chastisements, heavy
and multiplied. Take heed, my Brothers and Sisters, as you remember the
history of David. What a blessed life, what a glorious life, is that of
David until the unhappy day when kings went forth to battle, but the
king of Israel went not! He tarried in inglorious ease at home and, as
he walked upon the top of his palace, he saw that which tempted him to
evil desire. To that ill desire he fell a prey and the man after God's
own heart became an adulterer and a murderer! Alas! Alas! All the rest
of his life he travels on toward Heaven with broken bones and sorrowful
spirit. At every step he limps–his prayers are sighs, his Psalms lack
the jubilant notes that once made them ascend joyously unto the Lord!
He is still a true man of God and, in his deep repentance, he becomes a
pattern to us all in repenting of sin, but the brave joyous David is
not there! And at the last, though he pleads the Covenant, he has to
say, "Although my house is not so with God." There was a great mass of
heart-break packed away in those few words, more than we need to
explain just now.
What a dreadful family David had! None of us have had a family 1ike
his–that was his chastisement–his own children! What a mercy it was
for him that Sovereign Grace did not cast him away, for after he had
uttered that deep bass note, "Although my house is not so with God,"
then came the sweet assurance of faith, "Yet He has made with me an
Everlasting Covenant, ordered in al1 things, and sure, although He make
it not to grow." There came in again the note of deep sorrow mingled
with his holy faith in God. O Brothers and Sisters, I have heard men
say that a broken leg, when it is mended, is sometimes stronger than it
was before. It may be so, but I am not going to break my leg to try the
experiment! I know one who says that his arm was broken when he was a
boy and that he believes it is stronger than the other one. So it may
be, but I will not break my arm if I can help it! May the Lord rather
keep me in His hands lest I dash my foot against a stone! There is a
great deal of experience which I hope you will never have–and that is
the kind of experience which comes of an evil heart of unbelief–in
departing from the living God. Take heed that you never come to know
that sorrow!
II. Now, in the second place, and very briefly, I want to apply my text
TO ALL IN THE VISIBLE CHURCH, whether they are, indeed, God's people or
not. If you profess to belong to Christ, it is enough for my present
purpose. "Take heed," I pray you, professing Christians, "lest there is
in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God."
For, first, many professors have had an evil heart. I t is not every
Church member who has a new heart and a right spirit. Judas was in the
Church, but he had an evil heart and was a devil. It may be so with me,
my Brothers and Sisters, or with you. There are some in the Church who
have no real faith in Christ. Their very heart is crammed full of
unbelief, though they pretend that they have believed in Christ. I know
that it is so–we cannot help observing that there are unbelievers who
bear the name of Christians!
Many of these have turned aside. To our sorrow, we have lived to see it
in far too many cases. They were members of Churches, but they grew
weary of the good way. Nothing pleased them. The preacher who used to
charm them lost all his power over them. Prayer Meetings became dull
and they would rather not have anything at all to do with religion. We
have known some go back to the world for no reason that they dared even
to tell themselves–it was because of the fickleness of their
unregenerate spirits. We have seen this happen to others when they have
been strongly tempted. Satan knew their particular weakness and he
assailed them there. How many professors have given way to strong
drink! They would have a little and who could condemn them? But when
they began by taking a little, they soon took what was not little to
others–and it turned out, by-and-by, not to be little to
themselves–and he who should have been a pattern of self-denial to the
people of God has become a victim of intoxication!
Others have fallen through the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life. A man has been tempted to get gain by
dishonesty. At first the bribe did not affect him–but it was doubled,
or tripled–and then he fell. Many more have we seen very gradually
turning aside. It was almost impossible to tell exactly when they left
the line of strict integrity. It was only by a hair's breadth that they
turned aside, at first, but afterwards their apostasy was visible to
all. Some have been frost-bitten–they have grown lukewarm and then, at
last, ice-cold–and we have lost them. Some professors have been turned
aside by pride. They were too rich to join with any but a "respectable"
worldly church, or they were so learned–so conceited is the right
word–that the plain Gospel was too inferior an article for their
profound minds! Some, alas–and I fear, very many–have turned aside
through poverty. We meet with cases where the visitor in the lowest
haunts of degradation says that he has come across a woman in the
depths of penury and with scarcely rags enough to cover her, yet she
has produced a communion ticket, for in better days she was a member of
the Church, but she could not get clothes quite good enough, as she
thought. She fancied that she would be looked down upon if she came
when poor–and so she ceased to attend the means of Grace and,
by-and-by, gave up everything like a profession of religion. Oh, if
there are any members of the Church of that sort, here, I pray you, if
you ever do become very poor, do not go away from us because of that!
And if your clothes should be all rags, I am sure that none of us will
despise you! Or if there should be any who do so, I will bear the
responsibility of despising them–but do not ever stay away from the
House of God, or the company of your Christian Brothers and Sisters
because of poverty!
Why, it seems to me that the less you have of earthly good things to
comfort you, the more you need of Divine treasure and the companionship
of Christ! And you should rather seek the society of your friends in
Christ than for a moment to shun it. Yet it has been so and, therefore,
I put it to all here who profess to be followers of Christ–"Take heed,
brethren, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God."
III. Now I have only a very few minutes left in which to apply my text
TO THOSE WHO ARE SIMPLY IN THE CONGREGATION.
There is a large number of you who come to worship with us who are only
camp-followers. You are not in the regular regiments of the Lord's
Army, yet you cling to us and we cannot help regarding you with much
affection as "brethren" so far as you allow that brotherhood to be
true. We wish that you would make it truer, still, but we do not want
any of you to perish because of your unbelief. Remember, dear Friends,
that your unbelief is an affair of your heart. It is not an evil head
of unbelief, but, "an evil heartof unbelief of which the Apostle
speaks. And that is what is wrong with you. You know that you believe
everything that is in the Bible. You look with horror upon any
heretical doctrine. You love to hear the Gospel and yet you have not
received it for yourselves. I want you to give my Lord credit to think
Him no liar, but a true Savior. And if He is such, then come and trust
Him! You are fit to come to Him, for your fitness lies in your need of
Him, and I am sure you need Him. Come and do Him this act
ofjustice–trust Him! He is so strong, so true, so tender, that if you
will but commit your soul to Him, He will take care of it. If you will
bring your sins to Him, He will wash them away. If you will bring your
weakness to Him, He will strengthen you. If you will really come to
Him, He will take you as you are at this moment, for He never cast out
one who came to Him–it is not like He–He could not do it! It is no
more possible for Christ to reject a sinner who trusts Him than it is
for God to lie! It is contrary to the Nature of God and He cannot do
what is contrary to Himself!
Come, then, and do not depart from the living God by an evil heart of
unbelief. Nothing will bring you near to God but believing–and nothing
can shut you out from God and from the life and light and liberty that
there is in God in Christ Jesus–but your unbelief. Only trust Him!
That is the whole of the matter. I pray God, of His infinite mercy, to
make you "take heed, lest there is in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief," which shall get such mastery over you that you shall depart,
not only from the living God, but even from the ways of morality, till
God shall say to you, at the last, "Depart, you cursed. You always were
departing, keep on departing."
And this shall be the punishment of your sin–you shall reap it fully
developed, for Hell is sin full grown! God save us from the baby, which
is sin, that we may not know the man, which is Hell! God save us from
the seed, which is sin, that we may not know the harvest, which is
Hell! God save us from the spark, which is sin, that we may not know
the conflagration, which is eternal damnation! God save and bless you,
dear Friends, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 3:1-16.
Verse 1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
Oh, that He had more consideration at our hands! Consider Him–you
cannot know all His excellence, all His value to you, unless He is the
subject of your constant meditation. Consider Him–think of His Nature,
His offices, His work, His promises, His relation to you. "Consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
2. Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was
faithful in all his house. See how our Lord Jesus Christ condescended
to be appointed of the Father. In coming as a Mediator, taking upon
Himself our humanity, He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a Servant." And being found in fashion as a Servant, we
find that He was faithful–to every jot and tittle, He carried out His
charge.
3. For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch
as He who has built the house has more honor than the house. And Moses
was but one stone in the house. Though in a certain sense he was a
servant in it, yet in another and, for him, a happier sense, he was
only a stone in the house which the Lord Jesus Christ had built. Let us
think of our Lord as the Architect and Builder of His own Church–and
let our hearts count Him worthy of more glory than Moses–let us give
Him glory in the highest. However highly a Jew may think of Moses–and
he ought to think highly of him, and so ought we–yet infinitely higher
than Moses must ever rise the Incarnate Son of God!
4. For every house is built by some. By someone or other.
4. But He that built all things is God. And Christ is God and He is the
Builder of all things in the spiritual realm– yes, and in the natural
kingdom, too, for, "without Him was not anything made that was made."
So He is to have eternal honor and glory as the one great
Master-Builder.
5, 6. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for
a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ
as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firmly unto the end. You see,
then, that the Apostle had first made a distinction between Christ and
Moses on the ground of the builder being greater than the house he
builds. Now, in the second place, He shows Christ's superiority to
Moses on the ground that a son in his own house is greater than a
servant in the house of his master. How sweetly he introduces the Truth
of God that we are the house of Christ! Do we realize that the Lord
Jesus Christ dwells in the midst of us? How clean we ought to be, how
holy, how heavenly! How we should seek to rise above earth and keep
ourselves reserved for the Crucified! In this house, no rival should be
permitted ever to dwell–the great Lord should have every chamber of it
entirely to Himself! Oh, that He may take His rest within our hearts as
His holy habitation! And may there be nothing in our church life that
shall grieve the Son of God and cause Him, even for a moment, to be
withdrawn from us–"whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firmly unto the end." Perseverance–final
perseverance–is the test of election! He whom God Has chosen holds on
and holds out even to the end, while temporary professors make only a
fair show in the flesh, but, by-and-by, their faith vanishes.
7. Therefore. Now comes a long parenthesis.
7-11. (As the Holy Spirit says, Today if you will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation
in the wilderness: when your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My
works forty years. Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and
said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My
ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest. Oh,
that none of us, as professors of the faith of Christ, may be like
Israel in the wilderness! I fear there is too much likeness–God grant
that it may be carried no further! May we hear the voice of God as they
did nothear it, for their ears were dull of hearing! May we never
harden our hearts as they did, for they kicked against the command of
God and rebelled against the thunders of Sinai! May God grant that we
may never test Him, as they did, when they were continually proposing
to God to do other than He willed to do–something for their
gratification which would not have been right and which, therefore, He
did not do! Oh, that we might never grieve Him as they did, for they
grieved Him forty years! He bore with them and yet they bored Him. He
forgave and overlooked their errors only to be provoked by the
repetition of them, for they would not know what God made very plain.
His works were such that the wayfaring men might have read them, but
they did not know God's ways and, at last,
He banished them from all participation in His rest. Their carcasses
fell in the wilderness and they entered not into the land of promise.
"Therefore"–
12, 13. Take heed, brethren, Jest there is in any ofyou an evil heart
ofunbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another
daily, while it is called Today; lest any ofyou be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. Watch over each other as well as over yourselves.
Take heed lest sin hardens you before you are aware of it! Even while
you fancy that you have wiped it out by repentance, petrifaction will
remain upon your heart "through the deceitfulness ofsin."
14-16. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of
our confidence steadfast unto the end; while it is said, Today if you
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For
some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out
of Egypt by Moses. Not all, for there were two faithful ones. See how
the Spirit of God gathers up the fragments that remain! If there are
but two faithful ones out of millions, He knows it and He records it.