Keys to Successful Living: 12 Ways to Discover God's Best for Your Life (2 page)

I
N
COVERING
THIS
very important topic of godly intentions and the keys that help us succeed, let us look first at the background of the Hebrew believers to whom these encouragements were written. I believe that an understanding of the culture of these believers provides some lessons for us as Christians today. Then we will explore each of the keys in the chapters that follow.

In many respects, we have inherited the special privileges that were enjoyed by the early Hebrew believers. But we have also inherited the special problems that go with those
privileges. You see, the Hebrews, as the very name indicates, had a different background from all other New Testament believers. All of the other epistles (perhaps with the exception of those of James and Peter) were addressed to believers who had come from non-Jewish backgrounds. In other words, they were written to Gentile believers. But the epistle to the Hebrews was specifically and primarily addressed to believers from a Jewish background. That Jewish background gave them many advantages—many special privileges—that were not enjoyed by the Gentiles or the pagans from other nations and backgrounds.

Three Advantages

What were some of these advantages? First of all, these Jewish believers had been freed for many centuries from the awful iniquities of idolatry and false cults. The Law of Moses, by which they ordered their lives, abounds with warnings against these two practices, which are both abominations in God’s sight.

In addition, they had a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures—the special, unique revelation God gave through His Word in the Old Testament to the Jewish people.

And finally, Jews had familiarity with the Temple, its sacrifices, the forms of worship and the beautiful liturgies. These represented many advantages that could have strengthened and purified their faith. But the sad truth is that many of these Jewish believers had not made proper use of these benefits.
That is why the writer of the letter had to bring some sad and solemn words to them:

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:11–14
NIV
1984

Is that not a tragic condition to be in? To be slow to learn, when you have that special background? The condition described in these verses is what I call “the tragedy of arrested spiritual development.” These people should have been mature grown-ups. Instead, they were still spiritual infants, not able to take more than milk. I believe the same is true of many, many professing Christians in our world today.

The Hebrews were in that condition because they had failed to do what the writer said. They had not, by constant use, trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. They had not applied themselves to the study of Scripture. They had not given sufficient priority to spiritual pursuits in their lives. As a result of this condition, the epistle to the Hebrews contains more solemn warnings of the danger of falling away than any other book in the New Testament. That in itself is a remarkable fact.

Warnings about Falling Away

Here are five brief quotations from five different passages in Hebrews that contain these solemn warnings.

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?

Hebrews 2:1–3
NIV
1984

The two dangers cited there are
drifting
and
ignoring
. The second warning is found in Hebrews 3:

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

Hebrews 3:12
NIV
1984

The great danger here is
unbelief
. Next, we see the third warning:

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Hebrews 6:12
NIV
1984

The danger here is
laziness
—spiritual laziness. Here is the fourth warning:

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 10:35–36
NIV
1984

The danger here is
failing to persevere
—not holding on. Finally, the fifth warning:

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

Hebrews 12:25
NIV
1984

The danger here is
refusing to hear God when He
speaks
. It is truly remarkable that people who had inherited spiritual privileges had to be warned of these terrible dangers.

Today’s Christians

Through these verses, we see the condition of the Hebrew Christians—the Jewish believers—at the beginning of the New Testament age more than two thousand years ago. Today, in a certain sense, the shoe is on the other foot. It is not primarily Jewish believers who are in danger, but believers from non-Jewish backgrounds—people from so-called Christian nations. These are people who have been “born” in the Christian church. They are people who automatically
call themselves Christians without ever stopping to consider what that means.

Look at the fact that many professing Christians today enjoy the same kind of privileges that the early Hebrew Christians enjoyed. First, they have been delivered from idolatry. Well, that is true of multitudes of professing Christians. They have no thought of deliberate idolatry.

Second, the Hebrews had knowledge of the Scriptures. That is also true, to a degree, of many professing Christians today. In some measure, they know the Scriptures—the Old Testament and the New.

Third, the Hebrews were familiar with the services at the Temple. I find many, many Christians who are in some measure familiar with church services, religious terminology, forms of prayer, and ceremonies—all of which probably contain within them some tremendous gems of spiritual truth.

Yet it is a sad fact, using a well-known phrase, that many times “familiarity breeds contempt.” We become so used to certain practices that we take them for granted. We fail to appreciate what is available to us. This means that we need the same warnings the Hebrews received—warnings against drifting, being negligent, being lazy, presuming on God’s grace and taking privileges for granted that are extremely precious and important.

This description in Hebrews looks strikingly like multitudes of professing Christians. Could it possibly be a picture of you? If that is the case, I would suggest to you that the remedy is just the same as it was for the Hebrew Christians.
That is exactly why—in the epistle—we have the phrase
Let us
twelve times.

Those twelve
Let us
phrases address the spiritual condition that was the particular problem of the Hebrew Christians—which, almost by inheritance, is the particular problem of multitudes of professing Christians today, especially in Western cultures.

With that sober warning ringing in our ears, then, we turn our attention to each of the
Let us
statements in Hebrews. I believe that these twelve keys can open the way to the successful future God has planned for you. Let’s get started.

L
ET
US
.
These words indicate resolution—individual decision—as well as steps we take with our fellow believers. Taken together, these
Let us
statements give us twelve keys that open the doors to success in all that we do. Let’s begin, then, with the first key.

If we did not understand the spiritual condition of the Hebrew believers to whom this letter was written, which I covered in the last chapter, this first key could really take us aback. But in the light of that background, we can see that it is appropriate—in fact, absolutely necessary.

Can you see why the first key is “Let us fear”? It is because of the presumption of the Hebrew believers—because of their false security, because of their laziness, because they had not availed themselves of all the privileges and blessings offered to them.

The writer to the Hebrews also gives them a specific example of why they should fear. This example is taken from the past history of the people of Israel. It is based on the experience of the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land—and what God said to them during that journey. The quotation is actually from one of the psalms. It is what God said to Israel in connection with their attitude and their conduct in their time of wilderness wandering.

So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert [or wilderness], where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is
why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’”

Hebrews 3:7–10
NIV
1984

What we read here is a remarkable fact. God brought that whole generation out of Egypt by many miraculous wonders; nevertheless, because of their subsequent conduct, He was angry with them. Then the Scripture goes on—and this is God speaking: “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest’” (verse 11
NIV
1984).

Immediately following that statement by the Lord, we see the application in the admonition given:

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

verses 12–15
NIV
1984

The essence of this warning is: “Do not harden your hearts.”

Hear God’s Voice

In what, exactly, did Israel’s generation fail? I think the above passage makes it clear. There was one basic failure—they
did not hear God’s voice. They were content to get things secondhand through Moses.

Those Israelites, who so angered God, had only a form of religion. They had the Tabernacle, the Ten Commandments, the priesthood, the sacrifices and the various laws of ceremonial cleanliness. But in all that, they missed the one essential. They were so satisfied with externals that they missed the one pursuit that could have saved them from disaster. The one factor that could have carried them through to God’s rest for them.

What was that? They failed to hear God’s voice.

Lest we think that we are removed from their experience, look again at the first key: “Let
us
fear.” In other words, this injunction is not restricted to the Israelites in the wilderness. The Israelites are merely put forward as an example and a warning to us. That warning applies still to us today. “Let us fear.”

How do we accomplish this? We stay very much on our guard; we are careful not to make the same mistake the Israelites made in the wilderness. Their mistake was to focus on externals and, thus, miss the real, inner, essential practice of hearing God’s voice.

The principle illustrated by this warning runs all through the Bible. The one basic essential for a right relationship with God is to hear His voice. Jesus says the same to us as His disciples in the New Testament: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

I believe that is perhaps the clearest and simplest description of true Christians found anywhere in the New Testament.
When Jesus says
My
sheep
, He is speaking about those who truly believe in Him, those whom He acknowledges and accepts—being Himself the Good Shepherd. He makes two very simple statements about them. First, “My sheep hear My voice.” Second, “They follow Me.”

Do We Hear His Voice?

That is true of all real Christians. They hear the Lord’s voice and they follow Him. It is not possible to follow the Lord if you do not hear His voice. The pattern Jesus gives of the ancient shepherd and his sheep is clear: The sheep follow the shepherd because they hear his voice. If they did not hear his voice, they could not follow him.

The essential element, then, is to hear the voice of Jesus and to follow Him. Stating it another way, the danger is making the same mistake the Israelites made in the wilderness. What was that error? Becoming preoccupied with externals—with religion, ceremonies and laws—but missing that basic, inner, essential component: hearing the voice of the Lord.

I urge you today to consider the importance of learning to hear the Lord’s voice. This does not mean that you learn a set of religious rules. It does not even mean that you read your Bible every day, though that is good. Nor does it mean that you say your prayers every day, though that also is good. Hearing the voice of the Lord means having that intimate,
personal relationship with the Lord where He can speak to you directly and personally, whether through the Bible or some other way.

Jesus never said, “My sheep read the Bible.” It is a good habit to read the Bible
if
you hear the Lord’s voice. But many people read the Bible without hearing the Lord’s voice. They miss the essential factor.

I want to make this promise to you: If you will begin using this first key, you will be a better person by the time you have learned how to use all twelve of them. Let us fear making the same mistake Israel made. Let us cultivate the practice of hearing the Lord’s voice.