Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Let’s turn in our Bibles to Hebrews 10:19-25.

This morning we are going to focus on verse 23.

“Let us hold fast” is another way of saying “let us not change.”

What can we say about change?

Change

Change is often good.

Change is often good.

Babies grow up, start walking, start talking, go to school, graduate, get married, have children.

Seeds are planted, germinate, begin to grow, and produce a crop.

A beginner sits down at a piano and practices, and begins to learn, muscle memory forms, and learns how to play.

All of these sorts of changes are wonderful.

Change is not always good.

But change is not always good.

Some change is harmful.

This is the change when healthy cells become cancerous, or when barometric pressure brings tornadoes.

Husbands and wives meet someone else, commit adultery, and multiple lives are wrecked.

These are tragic, catastrophic changes.

Not all good change feels good.

Now, we have to admit that not all good change feels good.

It was good when our daughter Sarah married Elliott; we gained a son, and eventually grandchildren.

It was good when our daughter Grace entered the Air Force; she has moved into adulthood, and is thriving.

But those good, wonderful changes felt really bad at times.

Not all bad change feels bad.

And we must also say that, unfortunately, not all bad change feels bad.

Over a number of years my blood pressure got worse and worse, and I didn’t know it, because I never felt bad.

It was by the mercy of God that it was discovered two years ago; it was high enough to kill me at any time.

There is good change and bad change, but often good change feels bad, and bad change feels good.

What does this have to do with the Bible and Christian faith?

Everything.

We are urged to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,” that is, to not change in our confidence in the Lord Jesus and the Gospel, “for He who promised is faithful.”

Preservation & Perseverance

We are to persevere in our faith, and we are able to do so because God preserves us.

First Peter 1:5

God preserves His people, always.

In First Peter 1:5 we read that true Christians “are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Philippians 1:6 promises,

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 1:6)

Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith.”

I could go on and on.

It would take an hour or two to simply read every Scripture that has to do with God’s preservation of His people.

The point is that perseverance begins with preservation.

God protects us and keeps us.

Yes, we sin and fail, but He preserves us in His grace; He will not let us fall away.

I love what the Lord Jesus says in John 10,

27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

30 I and the Father are one.”

(John 10:27–30)

God preserves His people, and because He does, they will persevere.

Jesus says very plainly,

12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.

13 But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

(Matthew 24:12–13)

And Jesus emphasizes that His true disciples continue in His Word,

31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31)

Now, these sound like conditions to salvation, like perseverance is a work we must do to be saved.

But we’ve already seen that God preserves His people in their salvation.

So our perseverance is not a work that we do, but the evidence that God is at work in us.

That’s what Philippians 2:12-13 makes clear.

We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Preservation comes before perseverance, or, if you like, we persevere because we are being actively preserved by the Father.

That’s why Jude closes his little letter with a statement of praise:

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Amen.

(Jude 24–25)

Who does Jude praise for the salvation of sinners?

Those sinners, because they didn’t stumble?

No, to God, because He kept His people – every last one of them – from stumbling.

Hold On Tight

And so we are urged in Hebrews 10:23,

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; (Hebrews 10:23)

There is something for us to do: we are to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering.

Holding tightly means grabbing on and refusing to let go.

This word is used to describe both John the baptist and Jesus being arrested.

They were taken into custody, held tight, and prevented from escaping.

Doing this without wavering means without any leaning one way or another, without bending, without compromising what it is that we believe.

Beyond any doubt, every error in the church, big and small, began with the failure to cling tightly to the teaching of the Scriptures.

Personal opinion, religious dogma, cultural values, and other pressures have been brought to bear over the centuries, and have resulted in terrible perversions of the Gospel and the Scriptures.

And without any doubt, those who continue to cling to the Word of God are dismissed and insulted as narrow, behind the times, out of touch with the culture, and so on.

Most tragic changes and apostasies in the church didn’t happen suddenly, but subtly, over time.

200 years ago no one would ever have even remotely accepted homosexuality.

But 200 years ago Friedrich Schleiermacher began altering biblical doctrines to align better with the humanist philosophies of the Enlightenment.

All he did was to begin questioning the ultimate authority of some Scriptures; that’s all.

Just a little waver, hardly noticeable to many scholars, and unknown by those in the pews.

Those who disagreed with Schleiermacher were dismissed as alarmists or traditionalists or unsophisticated.

And yet, 200 years later, we find that Christians and churches that DON’T accept homosexuality are in the minority.

Almost every mainline denomination happily celebrates perversion and death – they are pro-abortion as well.

What happened?

Some Christians didn’t hold on tight, that’s all.

It was a little, insignificant waver, on what seemed to many to be a minor issue.

Beloved, we must hold fast to the confession of our faith without wavering.

Why? Because, He who promised is faithful.

The reason for holding fast is that God is faithful.

He keeps His promises.

He has never failed.

He will not fail.

We can safely cling tightly to His Word because we cannot lose.

The Father will not fail.