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The River ChurchSermons

Hold Fast

Josh Combs · Sunday, 16 August 2026 · 39:42 · 4,404 words

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The sermon, based on Hebrews 10:23, encourages listeners to hold fast the confession of their hope without wavering. It explains that hope rests on Jesus’ once‑for‑all sacrifice, his resurrection, and the promise that he will return to save those who trust him. The message warns against doubts, persecution, worldly cares, and false teaching that can loosen that grip. Listeners are urged to cling to the gospel, trust God’s faithfulness, and, if they have never believed, to confess Jesus as Lord and trust in his resurrection for salvation.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

hold 58 fast 31 hebrew 30 waver 16 confession 16 hope 24 angel 8 greater 9 persecution 7 jesus 53 sown 4 grip 5

Topics

Hope 6 Faith 4 The Gospel 4 Sin 2 Government & Authority 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Judgment 1 Assurance 1

Scripture referenced 24

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Hebrews 10 0:34 Hebrews 10 0:41 Hebrews 10 1:21 Hebrews 9 4:13 Hebrews 10 6:33 Hebrews 3 9:03 Hebrews 3:6 9:03 Hebrews 3 9:13 Hebrews 3:6 9:20 Hebrews 6 9:35 Hebrews 6 9:37 Hebrews 6:18 9:41 Hebrews 3 10:07 Hebrews 6 10:10 Hebrews 10 10:11 Matthew 13 13:59 Romans 8:28 15:10 Matthew 13 15:30 John 3:16 21:39 Hebrews 13 23:21 Hebrews 13 23:23 Hebrews 10 30:14 Philippians 1 30:54 Hebrews 13 31:07

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:34. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Zach, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

We are so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

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There you can ask questions, submit prayer requests, and even support the River Church financially.

At the end of the day, we just want to connect with you and be a blessing in any way that we can.

You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews chapter 10 is where we're going to be today.

If you don't have a Bible, I want to encourage you to share with someone sitting next to you.

You can take out your phone and download a Bible app or the River Church app.

There's a Bible feature there.

But as much as I possibly can, I want to beg you and encourage you to be following along in the Scripture.

So thankful that you are here.

So thankful to be with you.

If you're a guest, I want to welcome.

I'm honored to have you here with us today.

If you're watching online, I certainly want to welcome you as well.

If I don't know you, my name is Josh Combs.

I'm the lead elder of the river.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 23.

The Bible says,

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be spending some time in Hebrews,

looking at these different phrases that begin with let us.

Now, the book of Hebrews is a letter written to Christians, Hebrew Christians,

who were leaving traditional Judaism, the sacrificial system, the dietary restrictions, the law, and so forth.

And they were coming to faith in Christ.

And because they were coming to faith in Christ,

they were being persecuted by the...

The Jewish leaders, the folks that they had left to come to salvation in Christ.

And so the entire book of Hebrews is all about the supremacy,

or you'll see this word often in the book of Hebrews as you read it,

the word better, that Jesus is better, or Jesus is greater.

Jesus is greater than angels.

There seems to be some false teaching that was invented,

dating the church early on that said,

okay, Jesus, we're not going to make him the son of God.

We'll just make him kind of an angel or a kind of extra special angel.

And so the writer of Hebrews, who is anonymous,

begins his book by saying, oh, no, no, no, no.

Jesus is greater than all the angels.

Well, the Jews had a hero in Moses.

He was the one who went up on the mountain in the Old Testament, met with God,

and God gave him the Mosaic law, as we know.

The law, the covenant.

He gave him the plans for the tabernacle, which would later become the temple.

All those things given to Moses, an incredible figure in the family of God.

And Moses began to be revered, almost worshipped in many ways.

So the writer of Hebrews has to say, not only is Jesus greater than the angels,

Jesus is greater, better than Moses.

The book continues.

Jesus introduces a better covenant, a better agreement with God,

Jesus is the ultimate and perfect sacrifice.

He is a permanent, eternal, better high priest,

meaning a mediator between us and God, the go-between.

If you turn back just to Hebrews chapter 9, last couple verses there,

my opinion really summarizes the argument or the point that the writer of Hebrews

is making for the first nine or so chapters.

And just as it is appointed for man to die,

once and after that comes judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

will appear a second time, not to deal with sin,

but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Every person is going to die.

Every person is going to stand before the judgment seat of God.

So Christ, key word here, having been offered once.

So Jesus is not,

perpetually sacrificed over and over and over and over again.

All of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament

and even the animal sacrifices that were happening at this time

when Hebrews was written in the temple in Jerusalem.

What the writer of Hebrews is saying,

listen, Jesus is not the perpetual sacrifice.

Jesus is a once for all time sacrifice.

And he took upon himself the sins of many.

He rose from the dead.

Here's the,

the promise and will appear a second time.

Jesus is coming back and he will come back.

Not this time to die for sin or to deal with sin as the writer of Hebrews says,

but to save,

to rescue those who are eagerly waiting for him.

So Jesus greater than angels,

Jesus greater than Moses are angels.

this Moses awesome.

what did the covenant of the Old Testament have a purpose?

Did the law,

have a purpose?

All of those things are great,

but they point us to the greater.

And that is Jesus,

the absolute name above all names that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God,

That's the message of Hebrews.

I think I'm done now.

Let's pray.

So going back now to Hebrews chapter 10,

the first let us command that we're going to look at is because,

because of Jesus,

because of his death,

because of his resurrection,

because of the truth,

the promise that Jesus is coming back to rescue his people.

Let us a call to action.

Let us do these things.

And I think it is important to note that the Bible does not say,

let you or a singular pronoun there.

It uses the word us.

Let us,

this is a people of God.

This is a people of God.

This is a together.

This is a community.

This is a church thing that we are called to do together.

Let's look at the first hold fast of this series.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope,

meaning hold on,

hold on tightly or hold on with all our strength.

Sailors in the 1600s.

One of my favorite tattoos I've ever seen is a sailors.

They,

many of them would have the phrase,

hold fast tattooed across their knuckles.

They were superstitious,

believing it would help them hold on to the ropes or when they were climbing up

or setting the sails,

it would help them hold on tighter.

The Bible says to hold on tight,

hold on with all our strength.

A great commentator of the book of Hebrews,

a guy named John Owen says,

this command is there because there is the guarantee,

if you will,

of great difficulty,

and opportunity.

Opposition against this holding.

So meaning hold fast,

it's going to be hard.

It's going to be challenging.

You hold on to something because someone or something is trying to pull you away

or you hold on to something because someone or something is trying to pull you away from it.

So the Bible says,

let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

Hold your spot in chapter 10 and just slip back to chapter three for a moment.

Hebrews chapter three in verse six,

this challenge to hold fast.

It's been talked about several times in the book of Hebrews back in chapter three,

but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son and we are his house.

If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope,

go over to chapter six.

Now Hebrews chapter six and verse number 18.

so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,

we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

So in chapter three,

then chapter six,

and now forward to chapter 10,

you are seeing this phrase hold fast and you're seeing another word show up all three times.

It is the word hope.

Hold fast to hope.

What is hope?

Hope is the expectation of future good.

It's the expectation that that good is coming or that what has happened will be redeemed.

And as Paul says in Romans eight,

28,

well,

God will work all those things for good to those who love God,

to those who are called according to his purpose.

So we hold fast to what we hold fast to the confession of our hope.

Now confession is different than we would imagine confession to be in like a courtroom setting.

Someone who commits a crime confesses to the crime or in a Catholic sense,

maybe you grew up Catholic.

You go to confession.

What the Bible is talking about here when it says to hold fast our confession,

confession is our declaration,

a declaration of truth,

a declaration of belief,

a declaration of identity.

To the original recipients and readers of this letter,

they had grown up with the law,

the 10 commandments and the 600 plus laws that God gave to Moses.

They grew up with the sacrificial system.

They grew up with all those things.

And now they've come to faith in Jesus,

realizing that Jesus is the once for all sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

And that they've come to faith in Jesus,

that Jesus died on the cross,

that he was buried and that he rose from the dead.

So they have confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord.

They believed in their heart.

God really did raise Jesus from the dead.

They have been saved.

So that means moving on from their old life.

That means moving on from the old traditions.

They have confessed a hope,

an expectation of future good.

Now the writer of Hebrews says,

hold on.

Hold on to it.

Do not let go of that.

Because there are going to be some things

that are going to try to pull you away from that.

It's going to be like,

well, Jesus is great.

What if he's just an angel?

Or, you know, Jesus is great.

But what if he's like, you know, like Moses?

You're going to want to hold on to this too.

And what happened was,

is they began to hold on to the grace,

the gift of God and salvation,

and also kind of be like,

maybe I should not eat those things.

Like I used to eat those things.

I used to because maybe God wants that some too.

And so they began to hold on to this

and hold on to this.

And what the writer of Hebrews is saying,

listen, hold fast to Christ.

Hold on tight to the confession you've made

that Jesus is Lord.

And that is the hope that you have.

Hold on to Christ.

And do so, verse 23,

without wavering,

without wavering,

without loosening the grip,

without maybe being distracted by something else.

Hold your spot in Hebrews.

Let's go back to the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew chapter number 13.

Hold on to the confession of our hope.

Do so without wavering.

There's some things that try to pull us away.

There's some things that try to pull

what we're holding on to,

that hope that we have in Christ away from us.

There's some things that often make us waver.

And let's just say what the wavering is.

Sometimes it's doubt.

Sometimes it's questioning.

Sometimes it's laying in bed

and wondering where God is.

Or has God forgotten you?

Or does Romans 8, 28,

all things work together for good,

apply to this madness that I'm facing?

So there's this wavering,

this loosening of the grip.

Maybe there's something else

that I need to hold on to.

Matthew chapter 13,

verse number 18.

Jesus has told a parable,

a story early on,

and now he's going to give

the explanation of that parable.

It's a parable of a sower,

a farmer spreading seed in the ground.

Verse 18, Jesus says,

hear then the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom

and does not understand it,

the evil one comes and snatches away

what has been sown in his heart.

This is what was sown along the path.

So Jesus said, going through the field

or these hardened paths

that people would walk on.

Some seed would fall on that path.

The bird would come and eat that seed

and take it away.

That's the same as a hardened heart.

The seed of the word of God

falls on that heart,

but Satan comes and quickly takes it away.

Verse 20, as for what was sown

on the rocky ground,

this is the one who hears the word

and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself,

but endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution,

arises on account of the word,

immediately he falls away.

So this is the person just,

it was a shallow soil.

So it was very warm.

So things grew in it very quickly.

Jesus says, there's no root.

There's no depth to what's happening there.

It's all surface level.

So the person hears the gospel.

Here's the truth about Jesus.

Here's about the resurrection

and has a strictly emotionally,

emotions only response.

There's nothing wrong with being emotional

in your response to the Lord.

But in this case, it's only emotions.

There's no depth.

There's no root.

And when persecution comes,

I want you to see this,

on account of the word,

the truth of God's word.

This has always been the case,

but I would say we're seeing this

in our generation at warp speed.

We're seeing this really fast

because the truth of God's word,

says God created the heavens and the earth.

And when a young man or a young woman says,

I believe God created everything.

When persecution comes

because they're standing on the word,

is their root or do they fall away?

Do they give up?

Do they silence?

Do they walk away from that conviction?

You think about the conviction.

So today God made man and God made woman.

There's no other genders or no other sexes.

And God decides whether you're a man

and God decides whether you're a woman.

That's what the Bible says.

But the reality is they're going to be high school,

middle school, college age, young men and women

who are going to have to stand firm

on that conviction, that truth of the word

and not waffle, not waver because of persecution.

You have to stand there.

Now, God made man and God made woman.

And then God puts man and woman together in marriage.

Here's the reality.

There's no other version of God.

There's no other version of God.

There's no other version of marriage.

It's one man and one woman.

That's what God has decided.

Now, the government can say what the government wants to say.

But at the end of the day, it's all God's.

It's his universe.

He upholds it by the word of his power.

And he has says there's man, there's woman,

and this is marriage.

There's nothing else.

Sometimes you're going to be persecuted for that.

And not just online, but in your family.

Now, please take a stand in truth and love.

But you're going to find out

if there is depth to your conviction.

You're going to find out

if you're going to hold fast to the hope,

the confession of the hope that you have,

and whether you or I are going to waver.

Sometimes it is tribulation or persecution

because of the word that causes people to waver.

As for what is sown among the thorns,

this is the one who hears the word,

but the cares of the world

and the deceitfulness of riches

choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

So this is the one,

the seed goes in and it starts to grow up.

It's wonderful,

but there's a thorn bush growing next to it.

And I've seen this in my garden.

I've seen this along the fence row.

I've seen where the thorn goes in there

and it chokes out the good plant.

It takes all the sunlight.

It takes all the nutrients from the ground.

It takes all the rain.

And what we wanted to grow is choked out.

This is the person who hears the word,

but they have some things.

They have some things growing in their life,

the cares of this world.

Paul had a friend, the apostle Paul,

had a friend whose name was Demas.

He traveled with Paul.

He ministered with Paul.

But in Paul's last recorded letter

towards the end of 2 Timothy,

Paul says,

Demas, in love with this present world,

has deserted me.

He wavered and he let go

because he loved the world.

He loved the things of the world.

When you're sitting here right now,

you love,

you love the world.

I'm not saying like John 3, 16,

God so loved the world.

Talking the world's ways,

the world's things.

but you're thinking,

sometimes I like to get drunk.

but a little sexual sin will be okay

because I'll make up for it on Sunday.

Love the world.

And not just love the world,

but love the world's applause.

Love the world's approval.

I love when grownups try to pretend

to high school students

that peer pressure and acceptance

doesn't apply to them.

Like, well, when you get my age,

you don't really care what people think.

That is such a lie.

That's why people live in the houses they live in,

drives the cars they live in.

They drive.

That's why they have the jobs.

That's why they take the vacations.

That's why they're posting all over social media.

If they didn't care what people thought of them,

they wouldn't have social media.

But clearly we care.

We want that approval.

We want that applause.

We want that, all right, they're doing okay.

Paul says,

Demas, he left me.

He bailed on me.

He wavered and he fell away

because,

he was in love with this present world.

Some things that make us waver,

some things that make us consider loosening our grip

are when there's persecution or trials or tribulation,

but also things of this world that tempt and allure us.

Go back to Hebrews,

Hebrews chapter 13,

Hebrews chapter 13,

verse number nine.

The Bible says,

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings,

for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,

not by force,

but by the power of God.

It says,

which have not benefited those devoted to them.

He's referencing the Jewish dietary laws,

some other things that were added.

There's another thing that often causes people

to loosen their grip on the hope,

the confession that they have made in Christ.

And it is false teaching about the gospel.

Now, by God's grace,

there are a lot of people sitting here right now.

We all don't have to agree on everything.

That's okay.

We are,

we are allowed some variance of opinion about what the Bible says,

but we are not allowed an opinion of difference on what the gospel is.

The gospel is the death of Jesus for sin

and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And the Bible says,

whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

That's the gospel and the saving response.

Anybody who adds anything to the gospel,

well,

you need to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart.

God raised him from the dead and get baptized.

Baptism's great.

It has a role.

It's a,

it's a purpose.

We're going to celebrate that.

I believe at the 11 o'clock gathering,

it's a public declaration of faith in Christ.

But if anybody adds that to the gospel,

they are teaching something that is strange.

Paul would say in Galatians one,

they are distorting the gospel.

Others would say,

you,

you need to confess Jesus.

This is Lord.

You need to believe in your heart.

God raised Jesus from the dead and you need to speak in tongues.

We can have a disagreement about what speaking in tongues is.

That's okay.

But if you add that to the gospel,

I'm sorry,

but we're fighting.

I'm not doing that.

Gospel is the confession of our hope.

Over the last few weeks,

been a joy to have my phone off and to read and to dare into the abyss for a little bit.

Just quietly rest.

And think about some things.

I do need to confess to you.

I drove in the parking lot several times in excitement that it's done.

My wife mocked me over that one,

but I was excited over the last few weeks.

I would try to find a different church to go to on Sundays and not that I'm anybody important,

but if I show up at someone's church,

I don't want to,

I don't want to be acknowledged.

I just want to sit there preference for me.

I want to open a hymn book and I want to sing.

Some hymns.

I just want someone to preach the Bible and then the moment they say amen,

I am disappearing out of that building.

Now some of you do that.

Don't do that.

Okay.

I get to do that.

You don't get to do that.

So just visiting,

I don't want to create a scene or be weird or anything like that.

So I go to this church and we sang some great songs.

My gosh,

it was awesome.

We sang it is well with my soul.

We sang the song.

He will hold me fast.

I'm like,

this is,

they were just a while and now you may hate that stuff.

I love that.

But it was just absolutely wonderful.

Pastor got up there,

preached a great message,

got done.

I'd love to tell you.

That's the first time I've walked into a Bible believing church.

Pastor got up and never mentioned the death of Jesus for sin and the

resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And I tell you what we hold fast to it.

It's not a set of moral beliefs.

What we hold fast to isn't a church name.

What we hold fast to isn't a

denomination or a pastor.

What we hold fast to is our hope is different than everyone else's hope.

Our hope has been eternally secured because our savior died.

Well,

all people die,

but our savior is different because he did not stay dead.

He rose from the dead and our savior is different because he doesn't just offer to one class of people or one country of people.

He says to the whole world,

come to me,

all you who are heavy laden,

I'll give you rest.

That's our Jesus.

That's our hope.

And we must always hold fast and never fail to declare that anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord and believes in their heart,

God raised Jesus from the dead will be eternally saved,

That's what we hold fast to.

Let's go back.

To Hebrews 10.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Let's not let persecution or things in this world or false teaching or other things pull us away from a holding on to a clear commitment to the gospel because he who promised is faithful.

Paul says in first Thessalonians,

he who calls you is faithful.

He will surely do it.

Philippians 1 6 says,

I am sure of this,

that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite promises in all of the Bible,

Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number five says,

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I'll never leave you.

I'll never abandon you.

I'll never forsake you.

He who promised is faithful.

One writer said,

the more we spiritually ponder the dependability of the,

the more we will be a promiser,

the more will our faith be strengthened.

The more we realize that we have to do with one who cannot lie,

the greater confidence shall we have in his.

My favorite hymns says this,

says,

I could never keep my hold.

He must hold me fast for my love is often cold.

He must hold me fast.

This is the beauty.

We are because of Jesus to hold fast.

The confession of our hope and to do so without wavering.

And here's why,

for he who promised is faithful.

And what did he promise?

I will never leave you.

I will never forsake you.

And yes,

we are holding fast to Christ,

but here's the wonderful truth.

When our grip seems shaky,

he is holding us.

He's holding you.

I'm going to ask you across the room,

just to bow your heads,

to close your eyes.

Maybe there's some things in your life that are drawing you away,

causing you to waver.

Tell the Lord right now,

he already knows.

Say to him,

there's some things of the world that catch my eye.

Pleasures of sin.

I know it causes death,

but there's some pleasures of sin that draw my attention.

Maybe for you,

it's more philosophical or more intellectual.

there's some doubts about things that I have.

Just don't know the answer to it.

Faith is not the absence of questions.

Faith is going to the one who,

who can answer those questions with all of our questions and doubts and fears and anxieties.

Maybe you're here right now.

Maybe you're watching online.

You don't know the Lord.

You have never taken hold of Christ.

The Bible says that God loves you.

God sent his only son to die on the cross,

pay the penalty for sin.

Jesus did not stay dead.

Jesus rose from the dead.

And the Bible says,

if you,

not your spouse,

not your parent,

but if you,

you will confess with your mouth,

Believe in your heart.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

You will be saved.

That is the good news of the gospel.

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