Before the ships come into the
port of Houston, they have to take on a pilot to direct them
through the channel so that they will not end up in a bad situation. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is our pilot to pilot us through this world. Thank the Lord for
that. If you will, open your Bibles
tonight to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Therefore leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and
of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on
of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment
And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, put him
to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward
his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. The title of my message tonight
is Better Things. Those two words are found in
verse nine, better things. The writer of this epistle was
persuaded of better things concerning those to whom he wrote. Now we saw last week in chapter
five and verse 12 that he chided them. He chided them for when
at this point, they ought to be teachers, it was necessary
that they be taught again the first principles of the oracles,
that is, the word of God. Notice that in verse 12. For
when for the time you ought to be teachers, at this point in
their Christian experience, they should have been at a place where
they would be teachers And yet, they needed to hear again the
first principles of the oracles, the word of God. They needed
to grow. They needed to grow from feeding
upon milk, which is fine for babes, but they needed to grow
and come to the place where they could use meat as all of those
who were of full age. Verses 13 and 14. For everyone
that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is obeyed. But strong meat, you see, they
should have been at the place where they could have used strong
meat. Strong meat belongs to them that
are of full age, those who have matured. Now the writer in verse
three of chapter six shows how that this growth will take place,
as far as he was concerned, with God's blessing. And this will
we do if God permit. We are taught in the Word of
God always to preface our plans and what we think we are going
to do with those words if God will. Remember, James tells us
about making our plans and saying we're going to go into a particular
place and live and go into business and do this and that, not remembering
that our life is but a vapor, that we should always preface
our plans with, if the Lord permit, if the Lord will. And the same
is true of teaching the word of God. The teaching, the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be a blessing if the Lord
permit, if the Lord wills. Now I have five divisions in
the message tonight. First, First, we will look at
the scriptures teaching on the preservation of the saints. I
want us to do that first. We will look at the scriptures
teaching on the preservation of the saints. And we will do
this because, as I'm sure you know, some teach from verses
four through six of these verses, Some teach that a child of God
may lose salvation, that a person may be given eternal life that
turns out only to be temporary. Some people use these verses
to teach such foolishness, that a person may be given eternal
life that turns out to be only temporary life. What do the scriptures
teach? After everything is said and
done, that is what counts. It's not what I think, it's not
what you think, unless our thinking is in line with the word of God.
But what do the scriptures declare? Before we look at several scriptures
which show this to be a lie, that a person is not able to
lose his salvation or her salvation. Let me remind us of this, that
those who teach this all believe that salvation is not by the
grace of God, but rather by works. The scriptures reveal unto us
that salvation is not mostly by grace. It's all by grace. We do not contribute anything
to our salvation. We provide the center, God does
the saving. It's all by His wonderful grace. And look with me in Ephesians
2, just a moment, where this is revealed in this passage,
words that I want to point something out to us, very familiar passage
to all of us. Ephesians 2, and beginning in
verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Now that's it. For by grace are
you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. Someone said, well, is that speaking
of grace or speaking of faith? It's speaking of both. Grace
is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Faith is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. But notice, not of works,
lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And the point I wanted to make
from this passage is simply this, salvation is by grace and not
of works, not even, now listen, salvation is by grace and not
of works, not even the works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Salvation is not by works, period. Not by the works before regeneration
and not by the works that we are to walk in after grace has
made us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Salvation is by grace,
period. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Now let's look at three places
in scripture. There's many others, but let's
look at three places. that tell us that when a person
is saved, he's saved, she's saved. They're not going to lose their
salvation. Turn back with me to Jeremiah
chapter 32 and look at this declaration concerning the new or the everlasting
covenant. And that's the covenant that
the apostle is going to be dealing with in Hebrews as we go on,
the Lord willing. But in chapter 32 and verse 40,
Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse 40, this is part of the everlasting
covenant, the new covenant. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. Now that's God's will. I will not turn away. It's not
dependent upon man. This is God's declaration. I
will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts. Now notice that they shall not
depart from me. God puts his fear in our hearts,
in the hearts of those to whom he reveals Christ, those who
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. God puts that fear in the hearts
of his people that they shall not depart from me. They shall
not depart from me. All right, another passage, if
you will, in John chapter 10. John chapter 10, beginning at
verse 24. John 10, verse 24. Then came
the Jews round about him and said unto him, how long dost
thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any pluck them
out of my hand, My father which gave them me is greater than
all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Christ's sheep Believe in him. These Jews that came to him at
this time, he told them, you believe not because you are not
of my sheep. His sheep hear his voice, believe
in him, and are given eternal life, and no man is able to pluck
them out of his hand. And then, if you will, in Philippians
chapter one, And as I said, I know that you're
familiar with many other scriptures that declare this same truth,
Philippians chapter one and verse three. I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you
all making requests with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you. Who begins
the work of grace in the heart of God's people? God does. God does. He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now, having said that, having
looked at these verses of scripture, which clearly tell us, and there
are many, many more, that salvation is of the Lord, it's God's purpose,
and a person is not saved and then lost. Having said that,
does this mean that everyone who makes a profession of faith
in Christ is saved and will not fall away? Does this mean that
every person who, if you were raised in a environment like
I was, that every person walks down a church aisle and shakes
the preacher's hand and goes through whatever they have to
do, that everyone that does those things will not fall away? No, it doesn't mean that. And
it also, let me say this, it doesn't mean that those who are
saved and those who are in the hand of God will never fall into
a state of what we call backsliding. It doesn't mean that. No one
can slide back from where he has never been. But Christians,
all Christians, may be guilty. What I think of backsliding is
just a cold heart just an indifferent spirit for a time. And all believers
may experience this. Look back with me to another
passage in Psalms chapter 89. This Psalm speaks of the covenant
that God made with David and with David's greater son, Some
of these things refer to Solomon, of course, and some to David's
greater son, but if you look in Psalm 89 and verse 30, if his children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod. and their iniquity with stripes.
Now notice, nevertheless, I thank God for this word, don't you?
Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant, my covenant,
his everlasting covenant, will I not break nor alter the thing
that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever,
and his throne as the sun before me. So the word of God clearly
tells us that eternal life is just that, it is eternal life.
That salvation is of the Lord, It was purposed and planned from
old eternity, and we experience the saving grace of God in this
life, and we are in the hand of God, and nothing is able to
separate us from His love. Now, the second thing, we will
look at the descriptions given of those who fall away from their
profession of faith." Here in this passage, here in Hebrews
chapter 6. At the descriptions, given of
those who fall away from their profession of faith. And notice
that I said who fall away from their profession of faith. They
do not fall away from their being in the grace, in the state of
the grace of God. First of all, here are those
who were once enlightened. Can a lost person be described
here? Of course. Of course. A person who was once enlightened,
a person who has what we call head knowledge, or what Paul
called in 2 Timothy, a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof. They had knowledge in their head,
But they did not have a new heart, enabling them to believe unto
righteousness. They are just that. They are enlightened. And second, here are those who
tasted of the heavenly gift. Now the heavenly gift is Christ. But thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift. The unspeakable gift, the heavenly
gift. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. And here are some people who
tasted, tasted. Do you eat everything you taste? Sometimes you taste something
and you don't want to imbibe it. You don't want to take it
in. And these are people here who tasted of the heavenly gift. The truth about Christ's precious
blood and His righteousness alone to justify was not to their liking. They tasted it, but it was not
to their liking. They wanted a gospel that gives
them part of salvation, that allows them to boast of their
works. They only taste of the heavenly
gift. And third, here are those who
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Now, every person who
sits under the sound of the preaching of the gospel may be said to
be a partaker of the Holy Ghost. Judas, remember Judas, one of
the Lord's disciples, he may be the best example to show us
of how a hypocrite may be a partaker of the Holy Ghost. It seems from
all indication that he preached when the Lord sent the 12 out,
Judas went out, he was one of those 12. He preached, he worked
miracles, and he did that by the power of the Holy Spirit
just like the other disciples. Remember the night when the Lord
Jesus Christ told his disciples, one of you shall betray me. They didn't all say, well, there
he is right there. I knew it all the time. I knew it all the
time. He never did preach. He never
brought a miracle. No, Judas was a partaker of the
Holy Ghost. And many people who hear the
gospel, who sit under the sound of the gospel, where the Holy
Spirit blesses his word, may be partakers of the Holy Spirit,
but not have the experience of the new birth. Here are those
who have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come. Again, you notice how we see
this two times. Tasting, tasting. But it doesn't
speak about drinking. Drinking, but no tasting. Not relishing these things, but
just merely tasting them. They may have tasted just enough
of the good word of God to reject it. to reject it, to say, no,
that's not for me. They may well have heard enough
of the world to come to believe, yes, there is a world to come.
There is a hereafter. And to know that in eternity,
the righteous are going to be rewarded and the wicked are going
to be punished. And as Robert Hawker said, they
may be like Balaam. And this is what he said, though
sufficiently convinced of those solemn truths, Balaam was, sufficiently
convinced of those solemn truths as now and then to send forth
a wish to die the death of the righteous. Remember, he put forth
that wish, didn't he? He wanted to die the death of
the righteous, yet never awakened According to Robert Hawker, and
we know it's true of Balaam, never awakened by grace to live
the life of the righteous. Yes, from time to time he had
a desire to die the death of the righteous, but never, never
the desire to live, never the desire by grace to live the life
of the righteous. Now, it's foolish to take these
words and teach that men and women who experience the true
grace of God may fall from grace. Men may, and often do, fall from
a profession, a profession of faith, but no one who experiences
the saving grace of God ever falls from God's grace. Look with me in 1 John chapter
2. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 19. They went out from us. In other
words, they were part of us. They were part of us. They had
tasted of the heavenly gift. They were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost. They tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the world to come. They went out from us. They had been part of us, part
of us outwardly, but inwardly they had never experienced the
grace of God. For if, notice, for if, there's
that word again, just like we see it there in Hebrews 6. For
if they had been of us, they would, no doubt, have continued
with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. There's only one way of salvation. And when people deny that way,
even though they had professed to believe in Christ, then there
is no hope. There is no salvation apart from
Him. And notice back in our text tonight,
the third part of my message, look at this illustration that
the writer gives of the rain. the rain and false professors,
verses seven and eight. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs,
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which bare thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh
unto cursing whose end is to be burned. Now when you read
those two verses, it reminds me, and I'm sure you as well,
of the parable that our Lord gave of the sower. The difference
is, of course, in the parable of the sower, it was the seed
that was sown, but here it is the rain. The seed, of course,
is the gospel, represents the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is the rain that represents
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, there are two lessons as
we look at this illustration. First, the fault. The fault does
not lie in the rain. It's not the rain's fault because
some ground brings forth good fruit and some ground brings
forth thorns and thistles. It's the same rain. It's the
same gospel that is preached, the same seed that is sown. The
fault does not lie in the gospel, but in the nature of the soil
where the rain comes down or where the seed is broadcast. The same rain fell upon the soil,
and on some soil it resulted in good fruit being produced,
but on the other soil, nothing but thorns and briars was produced. And number two, False professors
will be severely judged. Notice, to be burned. The end is to be burned. Now, fourth, I want us to look
at the better things that accompany salvation. Notice that he says
that in verse 10, but beloved, beloved. Beloved of God, first
of all. loved of God with an everlasting
love. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. What are the things that accompany
salvation? There are three things, my friends,
that always accompany salvation, always. You say, what are they? Faith, love, hope. Always, always accompany salvation. And I thought of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, our Lord said concerning
him, this day of salvation come to this house. And what do we
see when salvation came to that house? Well, we say, first of
all, faith. When the Lord Jesus Christ looked
up at Zacchaeus and said, come down, the scripture says he came
down and received him joyfully. What is faith? To as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name. And then we see love
in the case of Zacchaeus because He said, half of my goods, half
of everything I have, I'm going to give to the poor. And hope. Look in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, Paul writing back to this group of believers where
he had preached the gospel. Verse 2 of chapter 1, he said,
we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of
you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing here your work
of faith. There's faith. And notice that
is your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. your work of faith. Now back
in our text tonight, you see, he said, but beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak, for God is not unrighteous to
forget your work, your work of faith, your work of faith. that which accompanied salvation.
And we may look at your work as God's work in them. God works
in them, both the will and to do of his good pleasure and faith
is a gift of God. It may be called their work because
it was wrought by them Not because it was wrought by them, but rather
because it was wrought in them. It was given to them, but exercised
by them. That's something we speak of
sometimes, that faith is a gift of God, but you must believe. Repentance is a gift of God,
but you must repent. And this is something that accompanies
salvation, it is faith. And that's what the apostle,
the writer here says, that we're beloved, we're persuaded better
things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we
thus speak. And the first thing he mentions
is when God is not unrighteous to forget your work. I believe
that represents the faith and labor of love. which you have
showed toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints
and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope.
Hope, there it is, hope. Those three graces, we call them
cardinal graces. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says,
now abideth faith, hope, love. And the greatest of these is
love. But these graces always accompany
salvation. Person saved, he believes in
Christ. He loves God and he loves his
neighbor. And he has hope, he has an expectation. That's what the word hope actually
means, isn't it? He has an expectation and it's
a good hope through grace. We expect tonight That if we
go home and close our eyes and don't wake up here in this world
in the morning, we expect to be with the Lord. We have a good
hope. And the last part, the fifth
thing, we see here there is an exhortation to these believers. Believers who ought, believers
who ought to have been teachers. We saw that at the beginning
of the message. Here were believers who ought
to have been teachers by now, but they weren't. They were still babes eating
milk. And the apostle exhorts them
to be diligent and not slothful in the use of the Bible. of means. Notice in verse 12, that you
be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promises. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here this evening. I know you folks well enough to
know that you know that a person is not able to lose their salvation. Man, working in my house, I've
told you this before, but several years ago, working, doing some
work in our house, and he found out I was a Baptist preacher,
and he said, oh, you believe in once saved, always saved?
And I said, well, it depends on who does the saving. If you mean God, when God saves
someone, yes, it is forever. He doesn't, halfway save someone. He doesn't. And Charles Spurgeon
said, if it wasn't all of grace, if God carried us just to the
very threshold of heaven, one step between us and heaven, and
then he told us, you make that last step, we'd all perish. No, he saves us fully, completely,
perfectly by grace. It is God's work and all the
glory. belongs to Him. Let's sing a
verse or two of a hymn.