Some people denounce victory over all sin in this life, yet they neglect the very actions essential to victory.
They don't feed on the Bible every day or pray every day or praise and worship every day or meditate every day.
They do not obey or follow or serve or witness every day.
They do not deny themselves, they do not resist temptation, they do not choose faith everyday.
In fact, the way to victory is not just an every day reality, it is an every moment reality that is possible because God enables us to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ and He enables us to salt every word with grace and He enables us to walk, every step, in the light, just as He is in the light and He enables us to love perfectly, just as the Father loves perfectly.
They refuse to mix their knowledge with faith, though faith is the victory.
Key Elements to Victory
As seen in He. 3:6-4:3
(Verses and DLG notes)
Hebrews 3:6-4:3
chapter 3
(6) 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 firm unto the end.
(7) Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
(8) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
(9) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
(10) Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
(11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
(12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
(13) But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
(14) For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
(15) While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
(16) For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
(17) But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
(18) And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
(19) So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
chapter 4
(1) Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
(2) For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
(3) For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
DLG notes...
(3:6) We are the house (family of Christ) IF WE HOLD FAST THE JOYFUL CONFIDENCE in Him, FIRM UNTO THE END. Our hope is only realized IF we continue to keep a joyful hope, trust in Christ.
(3:7-11) As the Holy Spirit warned and encouraged Israel in the wilderness to not fall away from their relationship with God, so the Holy Spirit through the book of Hebrews says that Christians must not harden their hearts, after having been delivered by grace. As there was a REST for the people of God in the wilderness, so there is a REST for the Christian who continues in faith. Notice, crossing into the Promised Land did not represent going to heaven, it represented going into a closer, deeper relationship with God that gives rest from the wilderness, the carnal struggles. The Israelite of the O.T. (Christian of the N.T.) was (is) delivered from the rule of Pharaoh (Satan) and delivered from Egypt (sin) at the Red Sea (conversion). God intended for Israel to move immediately toward the Promised Land (Christians to the Spirit filled life of entire sanctification), but because they doubted God's ability to give them victory over the Canaanites (sin and temptation) they wandered in the wilderness (continued in carnality). The promise of God to bring them into the Promised Land (heart purity) was present, but their lack of faith kept them in the Wilderness (double mindedness). God had promised full deliverance to those who fully believed, but He also promised that disbelief would keep them from entering.
(3:12-14) The Holy Spirit (through the writer of Hebrews) applied these Old Testament principles and the promises to the Church. Christians are warned about the carnal mind, the EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF that continues in the believer after conversion. The sinful nature (Old Man, Carnal Mind, Double Mind, Carnality) will lead a believer to DEPART from the living God. Christians are supposed to encourage each other to not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. AND we are partakers of Christ IF WE HOLD OUR CONFIDENCE STEADFAST, TO THE END.
(4:1-3) It is possible to come short of the promise of God, if we do not continue to believe. The promise did not benefit the Israelite, because he did not mix it with faith. Only those who continue to believe will enter into the promises of God. Likewise, the Christian has promises from God that are only receivable by active faith. The victory was accomplished by God in the past, but it is appropriated by faith today.
Key Elements to Victory
As seen in He. 3:6-4:3
(Verses and DLG notes)
Hebrews 3:6-4:3
chapter 3
(6) 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 firm unto the end.
(7) Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
(8) Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
(9) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
(10) Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
(11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
(12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
(13) But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
(14) For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
(15) While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
(16) For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
(17) But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
(18) And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
(19) So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
chapter 4
(1) Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
(2) For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
(3) For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
DLG notes...
(3:6) We are the house (family of Christ) IF WE HOLD FAST THE JOYFUL CONFIDENCE in Him, FIRM UNTO THE END. Our hope is only realized IF we continue to keep a joyful hope, trust in Christ.
(3:7-11) As the Holy Spirit warned and encouraged Israel in the wilderness to not fall away from their relationship with God, so the Holy Spirit through the book of Hebrews says that Christians must not harden their hearts, after having been delivered by grace. As there was a REST for the people of God in the wilderness, so there is a REST for the Christian who continues in faith. Notice, crossing into the Promised Land did not represent going to heaven, it represented going into a closer, deeper relationship with God that gives rest from the wilderness, the carnal struggles. The Israelite of the O.T. (Christian of the N.T.) was (is) delivered from the rule of Pharaoh (Satan) and delivered from Egypt (sin) at the Red Sea (conversion). God intended for Israel to move immediately toward the Promised Land (Christians to the Spirit filled life of entire sanctification), but because they doubted God's ability to give them victory over the Canaanites (sin and temptation) they wandered in the wilderness (continued in carnality). The promise of God to bring them into the Promised Land (heart purity) was present, but their lack of faith kept them in the Wilderness (double mindedness). God had promised full deliverance to those who fully believed, but He also promised that disbelief would keep them from entering.
(3:12-14) The Holy Spirit (through the writer of Hebrews) applied these Old Testament principles and the promises to the Church. Christians are warned about the carnal mind, the EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF that continues in the believer after conversion. The sinful nature (Old Man, Carnal Mind, Double Mind, Carnality) will lead a believer to DEPART from the living God. Christians are supposed to encourage each other to not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. AND we are partakers of Christ IF WE HOLD OUR CONFIDENCE STEADFAST, TO THE END.
(4:1-3) It is possible to come short of the promise of God, if we do not continue to believe. The promise did not benefit the Israelite, because he did not mix it with faith. Only those who continue to believe will enter into the promises of God. Likewise, the Christian has promises from God that are only receivable by active faith. The victory was accomplished by God in the past, but it is appropriated by faith today.
