READ: Hebrews 3:1-6
“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence (Parresia - free and fearless confidence) and our boasting in our hope (joyful & confident expectation of eternal salvation, He who is its foundation).
How do we hold fast to our confidence and hope? How! - Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Hebrews 3:6 “...hold fast our confidence…” and 3:14 “...hold our original confidence firm to the end.” 3:8 & 15 “...do not harden your hearts…”
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near…” 6:11-12 “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
6:15 “And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.”
10:23-25 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” 10:39 “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,...”
Endurance! We must endure with Christ, in Christ, by the faith of Christ.
One ministry the Holy Spirit does for us is confirming our confidence and hope. He reminds us what we must not forget and encourages us what we must hold fast to our Hope.
Hebrews 3:7-11 - “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, (this very day) if you hear his voice, 8 (imperative) do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” - Psalm 95:7-11
Our lasting endurance is in Christ. What Moses could not do for the people of Isreal, Christ has done by transforming the hearts of His people and placing in them the full assurance and confidence of His promises.
Hebrews 3:12-15 - “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, (Hebrews 2:10, 14-18) if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
