1. Title: Working Out Your Salvation
2. Text: Hebrews 3
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd, fpr the series “Nothing Better Than The Best”
4. Objectives:
-for the people to understand what it means to “work out your salvation”; to understand that the root of disobedience is waning faith, and to understand that can be helped; to understand that there is a continual danger of falling away if we choose to
-for the people to feel urged to work out their salvation – to have a concern for strong faith and faithfulness that will honor God by acting like God’s house; to feel that unfaithful lifestyles are not acceptable in the Household
-for the people to hold each other accountable and to encourage one another to love and good deeds as a way of life
5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to better understand where godly living fits into the salvation picture and to try to be more and more like God’s Household
6. Type: expository
7. Dominant Thought: Being the Household of God, the people of God have great reason to work out their salvation and encourage one another to be faithful
8. Outline:
Intro – Someone once said to a preacher, “I know we’re supposed to be different as Christ-followers. Obviously, the Church has failed at loving one another. Since people aren’t going to be able to tell we’re Christians by that, shouldn’t we at least be weird?” I’m not sure that’s the right question to ask, but there are a lot of questions out there about what makes a Christian person different from anyone else.
Today, we begin a new series through the letter in the NT we call Hebrews. It’s called that because it seems to be directed to formerly Jewish people who have become Christians.
The series is called “Nothing Better Than The Best.” There’s a simple reason for that series title. The entire letter of Hebrews was written especially to spell out the way the New Covenant is better than the Old. Chapter after chapter compares some OT person or thing to its NT counterpart. It’s going to take us into the OT a lot, and I hope it will help you to especially appreciate how the OT helps us in our understanding of Jesus
Hebrews 3
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
Moses was a great hero of the OT. He went the extra mile plus 10 when it came to patience and love for the nation of Israel under his leadership. But, compared to Jesus, his role isn’t as significant. God built the nation of Israel, of which Moses was a part. Moses was a servant to God’s people – a servant in God’s house, if you will. Jesus came as the Son in the house. Moses was faithful as a servant, Jesus as the Son.
Jesus is the Builder of His household – and (V6) we are that house! Now, ponder that for a minute. This building isn’t the House of God. In its beginning days, the Church didn’t even have buildings. If you’ve accepted Jesus, you’re a part of the House of God. The house is never greater than its builder. It is a reflection on the builder – hang onto that for just a moment.
Just like Moses was a part of God’s House in the OT, you and I are the House of God today.
I. You Are The House of God – That’s Important
It’s important because it means…
1. God has built you
Jesus told Peter “I will build My church.” Sure enough, on the day it began, Luke records in Acts 2 that the Lord added day by day those who were being saved. 1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…
The Church wasn’t man’s idea. When you and I accepted Christ, we became part of this God-mess called the Church. You can find all kinds of flaws with it and bellyache about what’s wrong in it, but the fact is God is the Builder of the Church. He has a lot of expense and work invested in His Church, and I believe, from the way He speaks of it, that He’s partial to His Church.
2. God lives in you – Jesus is there!
In Colossians 1:27, Paul refers to Christ in you as the hope of glory. Jesus promised this would happen. It shouldn’t surprise us, should it, that God lives in His house? That’s you! And that means that…
3. God chooses to represent Himself through you
Ill - It seems like I’ve always had someone that lived across the street or just 2 doors down who spent all of his time fixing up his yard. Paul Moore was an elder in the church of St. Joe, IN. Paul was a retired guy. He was good friend and a good neighbor. You could tell that Paul put some time into his yard. His grass looked like every blade had been individually manicured. Now, I’m glad that my neighbor’s yards looks nice, and I’m glad when they have time to work on it. The problem is it makes mine look worse!
We represent ourselves through the appearance of our house, in some ways. That’s why most of us at least care about the appearance of them inside and out – especially if company’s coming over.
God could represent Himself to the world any way He chooses, and the way He chooses to do it…is through you – His House. I wonder, as people on the outside look at His house, what they think of God. You go ahead and answer that for yourself right now, and we’ll go on to the next point:
II. You Are The House of God – That’s Dangerous
A few weeks ago, I was sitting at our dining room table and I saw what looked like a bird mess on the screen. I thought it was a little odd, and went outside to check. Sure enough, we’d been egged. The morning sun had already hardened the egg goo all over the house. I have to admit I wasn’t the happiest camper as I scrubbed and sprayed with water to get the gunk off before it was permanent. Turns out it was my daughter’s “friends” who did it. Wow, I’d hate to see what her enemies would do!
You need to know that there is one who’s an enemy to the House of God. He wants not just to egg it, but to bring it down. Just because you’re a part of that House, it’s a dangerous situation.
Part of this letter seems to be helping former Jews to not give up being Christians. They’re living in a society where Judaism is at least accepted by the government, but Christianity wasn’t. I imagine it would be quite a temptation to just kind of slide back into Judaism again – to go ahead and wear a yarmulke; to go ahead and keep the feasts and holy days; to go ahead and keep your faith in Jesus quiet. Oh, they hadn’t resisted to the point of shedding blood yet, but it was coming. They needed a word of encouragement to not go back to trying to keep the Law as a means of salvation. How easy it is to take what we have in Jesus and restructure it back into a list of regulations and ceremony that you keep and then you “win” heaven!
1. The stakes are high
Look again at v.7
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert…
This verse starts with a “therefore” or “so” – and it points back to what’s just before it. I think the point is that there’s a lot at stake here. This isn’t just a nation of people wandering in the desert. It’s now God’s personal Household – believers who are scattered all over the earth. The dangers are real. To score against this target would be a great victory for the enemy. He doesn’t need to concern himself with the large number of people who are on the outside. It’s the Household of God that’s under attack.
2. We can let go
Look again back over these verses:
12…a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
13…may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
14…if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first
18 to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
I won’t spend as much time on it here as we’ll hear about later in the series, but let it be enough to say that we can always let go of our faith. Each of us carries the capacity to sin and even to walk away from the whole faith relationship with God. God says it here, and life verifies it - it does happen. We can let go.
3. We can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin
Even though this letter is written to Christians, the writer has to warn them about becoming deceived and hardened. Now, if that wasn’t possible, why bother telling them?
I think we too often fail to listen to the urgency behind some Scriptures. This ch. In Hebrews is full of that sense of warning, because the devil wants to take God’s Household apart.
Ill - When the Romeros got Sally just 8 years earlier, she was only one foot long. But Sally grew till she was 11 ½” long and weight 80 pounds. By the way, Sally was a Burmese python. July 20, 1993 Sally turned on the Romero’s 15-yr old son Derek. She strangled him, as you would expect a Burmese python to do. Sin works that way. At first, it doesn’t seem very threatening or dangerous. Then, it grows until, without you realizing it, it’s big enough to strangle you.
Being the House of God can be a dangerous thing.
III. You are The House of God – That’s a Matter of Faith
Seems like there are a lot of people with ideas about what it takes to be a member of the Church. One thing’s for sure- we know it’s not by being good enough. Lilly Tomlin once said, “The problem with the rat race is, even if you win it, you’re still a rat!” We do know that, don’t we? Our own efforts to be good enough, to get ahead in the game, aren’t enough to earn heaven. Still, Paul talks about working in…
Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…
It’s a present imperative verb – it means carry out and continue carrying out, carry through your salvation. What exactly does that mean? This is the same Paul who writes that salvation is by grace through faith and not by works. “Work out your salvation”?
It doesn’t say, “set the terms of your salvation.” It doesn’t say that you’re supposed to get together with God and say, “God, we’ve got some issues here. Let’s work this out.” We don’t come to God with an agreement we’ve written up and see if we can get Him to sign it. Can you imagine what that would look like? “Lord, I’m all good with this clean living thing except for the thought life part. So, I’ve written in a clause here in the covenant.” Or “Lord, I’ve been thinking this through, I can handle the attending church every week thing, but I’m just not a person to talk very much to others about Jesus. So, I’ve put that exception in the covenant here.” Or imagine, “Lord, I’m willing to follow You, but I’ve gone ahead and removed those lines Jesus added about denying myself and taking up my cross daily to follow Him. Do we have an agreement?”
No, Philippians 2:12 doesn’t say that salvation is a matter of my personal design or that I’ve got to work out some arrangement with God until “we have an understanding.” It tells us that we’re supposed to produce “salvation life” in our lives because we’ve been saved. V12 really can’t be taken without v13
Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
The reason it’s possible for us to produce Godly living in the first place is what v13 is all about – God is at work in us – working on our wills and working on our lives to make them what He wants. That’s where our salvation is still being “worked out.”
Now, about that fear and trembling part – it’s not because we should live in the fear that we’re not good enough. We’re not. It’s because failing to follow through on your commitment to Jesus is a serious issue.
Now, I am saved by grace through (faith)
I entered into my relationship with Jesus on the basis of (faith)
God so loved the world that whoever (believes in Him) should not perish but have eternal life.
The righteous will live by (faith)
For we maintain that a man is justified by (faith) apart from observing the law.
Without it, I can’t possibly please God. Faith is the premier condition for salvation.
So where are you at if you don’t have it? Where are you at if you once had it, but chose to hand it back in? If faith is the highway you get on through which you’re saved, what happens if you choose to get off of it? Being the Household of God is a matter of faith.
Why was one whole generation of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years, until they all died, and they didn’t enter the Promised Land? We could read it right here – v16, they rebelled, v17, they sinned, v18, they disobeyed. We could go back into the OT and make a list. We could say it was because of the way they grumbled when Egypt’s chariots had them pinned against the Red Sea and was bearing down on them. We might point to that golden calf and running amok at Sinai. We could cite the rebellion of Korah and all the people who joined him. We could, like Ps 95, (quoted here in Heb 3) talk about the incident at Meribah and Massah when the people put God to the test and questioned whether or not He was even with them. We could talk about the time they grumbled against Aaron and his authority. Or we could look in Numbers 14 at the way all but a few of them were all set to not conquer the Promised Land because they were afraid and lied about it. We could review all of the times that Israel blew it in their history and say, “Yep. God had finally had enough. Ps 95 is talking about one of several times that God was angry at them.” Then, when you get to v19, it gives a reason that no one would have written in:
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Wait a second. What about all the things they did that upset God? What about all their disobedience? What about their lousy attitudes? What about the things they said and the golden calf and their going wild? Hebrews 3 tells us the problem that’s behind all that: disbelief. The opposite of faith.
If you think about it, every time there’s a choice to step aside from where God wants us, it takes a certain degree of disbelief. Eve listened to the serpent’s lie – “You will not surely die!” and she didn’t believe what God had said, so she ate the forbidden fruit. Israel didn’t believe God would give them water or feed them or protect them or lead them well, and they proceed to grumble and whine and rebel. It all goes back to their unbelief – their lack of faith.
It wasn’t enough that they had left Egypt. It wasn’t enough that they had escaped their life of slavery. They needed to live lives that showed their faith in God. There’s a whole generation of Israelites that shows how disbelief can keep people from entering the Promised Land.
So, it’s not enough to fall back on becoming God’s people – especially in God’s Household called the Church. There’s the “working it out” part to be done – the work that happens because “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” There’s the work that happens because “it is God Who is at work in you…” You had a wonderful conversion experience? Good. Now, work it out. You went to CIY and really got convicted about some things? You really believed them? Good. Now, “take care,” “be careful,” “hold fast.” Live like God’s child.
Being a part of the House of God is first and continually a matter of faith. If you enter it by faith, you can leave by unbelief. Work out your salvation – follow through on your faith.
Conclusion:
OK, so, what can you do to ensure that you work out your salvation? Here are 3 helps:
1. Do the things that make faith stronger
Since salvation is first and continually a matter of having faith, it makes sense to do the things that make faith stronger.
Romans 10:17
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Do you want to make sure you’re following through? Hear the message through the word of Christ. People who spend time in God’s word have found themselves unable to ignore it, unable to deny it. If you’d like your pygmy-sized faith to grow, start by spending some time in the Bible.
2. Hold one another accountable
v13 …encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today
This isn’t a Lone Ranger thing. More than once this letter called Hebrews is going to challenge us on the community level as a Household of people to help each other stay away from having a sinful, unbelieving heart. I don’t want you to have hardening of the heart. I don’t want you to be hurt by sin’s deceitfulness. I’m going to challenge you. We have an obligation to each other to help each other in this. How much better do you work when you know someone’s going to be checking your work?
3. Remember your previous confidence
14 …if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
Don’t forget the confidence you once had. Frequently, the Bible reminds people of what they have been through and what they have believed in the past. Sometimes, we just need reminders. God hasn’t changed, and He’s not going to. So, surround yourself with reminders.
It may be that you’re a person this morning who needs to begin that faith relationship with God. It’s hard to begin working out your salvation if it hasn’t begun yet. Are you ready to begin? If not, why not? What’s the good reason you have for saying “No” to your Creator today?
