Let us turn to the chapter we've
just read here in Hebrews. Familiar words, I'm sure. Hebrews
6. And I want to direct you for
a while to what we read in the 12th verse. Hebrews 6.12. That ye be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. That ye be not slothful. but
followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the
promises. And previous to this, of course,
we have a very solemn passage. We read through the chapter,
but there, those words at verse 4, 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 crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him
to an open shame but though thankfully he is able to go on and say in
verse 9 but beloved we are persuaded better things of you and things
that accompany salvation though with us speak. And those things
that accompany salvation. And surely this is what we have
in the words that I've just read for our text in the twelfth verse. The inheritance of the promises
of God. We desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto
the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. And so to take up that
theme of inheriting the promises and to deal with it in a threefold
fashion, three points. First of all to say something
with regards to the promises that are being spoken of the
promises mentioned here at the end of the verse and then see
how the apostle goes on at verse 13 for when God made promise
to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself
we are to think of the promise then in terms of of Abraham it
was to this man that God did give that great promise concerning
the Messiah, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying
I will multiply thee. He quotes there at verse 14 really
simply from the beginning of the promise. We find the promise
when we go back to the 22nd chapter there in the book of Genesis,
that remarkable chapter that It tells of how Abraham is commanded
to go to the Mount Moriah and to sacrifice his son, his only
son, Isaac. But Isaac, of course, such a
remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. Remember the words that we have
there in that chapter. The words that he's quoting here
in Hebrews 6. God blesses him. Verse 16, By myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, that is
not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will
bless thee, and in multiplying thy will multiply thy seed, as
the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the
seashore. And thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. because thou hast obeyed my voice. And the significance of that
promising, how is it that God is going to bless and multiply
blessings? It is in terms of Abram's seed.
In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Now,
Isaac was the seed in the sense that he was the son of promise,
but as I said, Isaac is a definite type of the Lord Jesus. We have
the words of the Apostle there in Galatians 3.16 where it's
all narrowed down to the Christ, to Abraham and his seed where
the promise is made, he saith not unto seeds as of many but
as of one and to thy seeds which is Christ or the promise to Abraham. sent us in in the person of the
Lord Jesus, who is himself Abraham's seed. And these are the promises
that are being spoken of here in our text tonight, all the
promises of God. In Christ are ye, and in him
are men, to the glory of God by us. What is the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it not the great promise that
God has given as we've said before the words for gospel and the
word for promise is very similar in sound in the Greek here of
course from the word for the gospel we get our words
evangelical the great evangel is the gospel,
the promise of God. And as I said, the word gospel
is really so similar in sound, it's a synonym. We have to think
of the gospel in terms of the promise of God. And so here we
have those who are inheriting that great promise, all the promises,
that center in the Lord Jesus. And all those promises as we
see here in the context have been confirmed. God has confirmed
them by an oath He has sworn by Himself. Verse 17, God willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable
things, these two unchanging things, the promise and the oath,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who were fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us." Oh, what a confirmation that God should swear by himself.
But God has not only sworn by himself, the promise has also been ratified
and sealed in the blood of the Lord Jesus. He is the Mediator
of the New Covenant. The Law was given by Moses. Moses
is the Mediator of the Law. But the Gospel is given by Jesus
Christ. He is the Mediator of the New
Covenant. He is the Testator. And now the
Testator is dying. Where a testament is there must
have necessity, we're told, be the death of a testator, in order
that this testament might be brought into being. And so we have the promise of
God, we have the oath of God, and we have the ratifying of
it all in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. This is what
we're considering then, the promises. and those who are inheriting
these promises. The great promise of the Gospel.
What is that promise? Well, Abraham there in Genesis 22 which
is the passage that the Apostle is appealing to when he makes
reference to the blessing there in verse 14 of the chapter There,
in Genesis 22, we don't only see the Lord Jesus, as it were,
in the type of Isaac, but we also see that Abraham is brought
to witness what pardon is. When we read at the end of John
8 the words of the Lord Jesus to the Jews, remember what he
says there your father abram rejoiced to see my day and saw
it and was glad what is the lord referring to is referring to
genesis 22 the day of christ but what do we see there it's
not only that Christ is there, as it were, in the type of Isaac,
but we see sacrifice, we see substitution, because Isaac is
not killed, it is the ram that is killed, and Isaac is freed,
Isaac, as it were, is received again from the dead by his father. It's a remarkable chapter. We
see the Christ, we see the pardon of sins, and isn't this what
the promise is all about? That God will provide himself
a burnt offering for a sacrifice. And so by the shedding of blood
there will be the forgiveness of sins, or the great promise
of the gospel. is that pardon that is in the
Lord Jesus. And we have that great text,
we refer to it many a time there in Jeremiah 50 and verse 20,
in those days. And in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.
For I will pardon whom I reserve. Or there is pardon for those
whom God has reserved for Himself. He has made choice of the people
and He has sent His Son to pay the great price of their redemption. This is the provision then that
is made in the promise of the Gospel. And it's all, as it were,
prefigured and typified, as I said there, in that 22nd chapter of
the book of Genesis. The very opening book of Scripture
sets before us the wonders that would come to pass in the fullness
of the time when God sends forth His Son, made of a woman and
made under the law. But there's not only pardon,
there's every provision made in the Gospel. There's provision
for our temporal lives here upon the earth. David can say, I have
been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The promise is, bread
shall be given him, and his water shall be sure. And the Lord Jesus,
of course, spells these things out so very plainly in the course
of his ministry, the language that we have there in his Sermon
on the Mount. Remember the end of that sixth
chapter what the Lord is saying. He says at verse 30, Wherefore
if God so clothed the grass of the field which the day is, and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you? O ye of little faith! Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. You see, the Gospel has promised
not only of the life that now is, but also of that which is
to come. And so there's not only the provision
of temporal needs, but God has promised every spiritual need
shall be met, as thy days. So shall thy strength be, is
what God says to Israel, a typical people, a type of the true spiritual
Israel there in the Old Testament, as thy days. so shall thy strength
be. And that is God's promise to
all those who are true Jews. For a Jew is not one which is
one naturally, but spiritually. And when is strength needed?
Well it's needed of course when there are trials and troubles.
In the midst of those we are made to feel something of our
own innate weakness. We have to learn our complete
and utter dependence upon the Lord God. And remember how we
see Paul proving this, as he tells us there in the twelfth
chapter of 2 Corinthians. When God says unto him, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I
strong. As thy days, so shall thy strength
be. And how the promise is so perfectly
suited to the condition of the people of God. how it fits all
of the circumstances of their lives. You can think about in
carpentry, the mortise and the tenon, they fit together so perfectly. That is the craft of the carpenter,
to make sure that the joints are perfect. And how does he
make the joint perfect? Well, he takes his tools, he
takes his chisel, and he forms the mortise and the tenon. and
so it is with God trials come and what the trials do they make
the promise sweet oh this is what God has promised to his
people then in the gospel that he will meet all their needs but there's not only provision
there's not only that great pardon of every sin there's also the
promise of preservation the Lord preserves his people when we
come to the end of the book remember that great promise in the final
13th chapter as he refers to Joshua on the borders of the
promised land about to go into possession of that land and God
said I will never leave them nor forsake them that's what
God has said Here in chapter 13 verse 5, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. And what a promise is that because I'm sure many of you are aware
there are actually five negatives in that verse and it's just the
end of the verse really, the end of verse 5 in that final
chapter. I will never No, never. No, never forsake. That's how it's brought out in
the Hymn 329. Now we're to rest then in the
great promise of God. The certainty that He can never
forsake His people. There's a blessed hope then in
the Gospel. This is what The Apostle is speaking
of here, at the end of verse 18, he speaks
of the two immutable things, speaking there of course of the
promise, the promise of the Gospel, the confirmation by oath in the
Gospel, in which it's impossible for God to lie, so we have a
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope The hope set before us. In hope, says Paul to Titus,
of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the
world began. First of all then, this is the
promise that is being spoken of. In the second place, let
us consider those who are to be the inheritors, those who
are to come into the possession of this promise. He says that
ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promise. We're told quite plainly, aren't
we then, just how they become the inheritors. Two things. There's faith and there's patience. We know that that is the way
of salvation, by grace are you saved through faith. and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, or the significance
of faith. But then when we come to examine
the scriptures, and we've said this many a time, we have to
recognize that there are different sorts of faith being spoken of.
We know that there's a faith of the demons, the devils. In that sense, even in hell,
which is their abode, there's no unbelief. In many ways, that's a significant
part of the torment of the lost when they go to that dreadful
place. They know that God is, and yet
eternally cut off. And yet God made the man in his
image after his likeness, made man to have fellowship with his
God. and to be separated forever and ever and ever. And yet those
demons, they have faith. The words of James, remember,
addressing some who obviously he was in doubt of, they'll believe
us, there is one God, he says they'll do us well. The devils
also believe and tremble. We see them trembling at the
ministry of Christ. Let us alone, what have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God, or they knew
the Lord Jesus. Not surprising then that when
He is here upon the earth there's a great deal of demonic activity. Such a significant part of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus. And yet the devils believe. That's
not the faith that's being spoken of in our text. And then also,
as we've said on other occasions, there is a faith that is natural. Not all men are atheists. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. But it's more than theism, the
faith that's being spoken of here. It's not just a general
historic belief that there is a God. It's more than that. It's not the faith of demons.
It's not historic faith. And it's certainly not that faith
that is spoken of in those solemn verses that we have at the beginning
concerning the impossibility of salvation for some. They were
enlightened. They tasted the heavenly gift.
They were partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted the good word of
God, the powers of the world to come, they fall away. Some
have a temporary faith. Some have a temporary faith.
I know that maybe some people backslide. Well, the backslider
will be restored. But there are some who make a
profession, but it was never a genuine profession. They fell
away. their faith was but temporary
and passing but no it's not that faith that we have here it's
saving faith it's justifying faith it's that faith that endures
it says those who through faith and patience or endurance inherit
the promises. Well what is this faith? Well he says doesn't he in the
text be followers followers of them and then immediately
in verse 13 he goes on to speak of Abraham and Abraham is the father of
all them that believe he's a great example of what
faith is Abraham and Sarah and true faith of course is that
faith that centers very much in the word of God it's the believing of the word
of God believing the truth that he said before us in the scriptures The Lord says to those Jews in
that 8th chapter of John, My word hath no place in you. And
we're told, aren't we, how the word preached did not profit
them. Not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. Maybe not just to hear the words,
or to be familiar with the word, or to study the word. It's got
to be the mixing of faith, the believing, those things that
are recorded in the Word of Scripture. It centers in God's Word. It
centers in Him who is the Word of God incarnate. It centers very much in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how it is, a faith that
justifies. That was the faith of Abraham. What says the Scripture? Abraham
believed God. And it was counted unto him or
imputed to him for righteousness. Now what was it that was imputed to him for righteousness? Well, we find the answer there
in that fourth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. It's at
the beginning of the chapter that we read of Abram's faith
Verse 3, what saith the scripture, quoting again from Genesis, Genesis
15, 6, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. But what is it that was counted
or reckoned or imputed to him for righteousness? Well, we find
the answer when we come to the end of that chapter. The thing
that was imputed, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform,
and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. The
thing imputed to him for righteousness is the promise. It's the promise that the faith
centers in. And the faith, as I've said,
centers very much in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
thy seed, which is Christ. It is always important that we
remember the object, the object of faith, saving faith. It's
Christ. And it's there that all the salvation
of the sinner is. It's there that the sinner finds
his justification. even as we come together tonight
it's there in heaven before the very throne of God that our righteousness
is nor when God looks upon the face
of his anointed one how he is pleased to receive us as our
faith centers in him how do they inherit the promises through
faith through faith and patience but as we've already intimated
the word Patience here more literally
means endurance. In fact, the verbal form of the
words is used in verse 15, where it's translated by two words,
patiently endured. After he had patiently endured,
He, that is Abram, obtained the promise. That's how Abram came
into the possession of the promise. All the endurance of patience,
waiting and waiting and waiting upon God. And that's not inactivity
in the soul, is it? There's a great deal of exercise
in the soul that's truly waiting that he might inherit the promise
of God. And now, of course, he goes on
to speak of these things. Look at what he says at the end
of chapter 10, verse 36. You have need of patience, endurance,
that after you have done the will of God, you might receive
the promise. For yet a little while, indeed,
a child will come and will not tarry, with an assurance that
our prayers will be answered. now the just shall live by faith
that's justifying faith but if any man draw back my soul shall
have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back
unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the
soul and then of course after that we come into chapter 11
and all that is declared there concerning faith and the patience
of faith. A remarkable chapter. We read
not only of the faith of Abraham, but the faith of Sarah also.
Verse 11 in chapter 11, Through faith also Sarah herself received
strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when
she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Isaac, the son of promise. Therefore
sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many
as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the
seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were
persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. All there is is the
enduring. The enduring unto the end. That
is faith. He that shall endure unto the
end. Thou, God, dost try the faith of his people. The trial
of your faith, says Peter, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearance. of Jesus Christ. They are the inheritors, and
the manner of their inheritance, the way whereby they come into
these glorious possessions through faith and patience, inherits
the promise, or the promises, it's a plural, all the promises. And then, finally, we have here
a precept, That's how the word or the verse
begins, isn't it? Word of command. Be not slothful. Be not slothful, but follow us.
Oh, there's a following, you see. There's action. What are
we to do? We're to take every opportunity
to hear the Word of God. But not only to hear the Word
of God, to pray over the Word of God, to plead, the Word of
God, to plead all the promises of God. Aren't these the things
that accompany salvation? He says at verse 9, Beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. He's spoken of those who have
fallen away. We're not to fall away, we're
to continue, we're to seek to pray, with the spirits and with
the understanding also. Be not slothful, but follow us. He says at the previous verse,
we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope unto the end. Oh, not just hope, not
just the assurance of hope, but the full assurance of hope or
woe to them that are at ease in Zion. We're not to be at ease.
And the Lord will not leave His people to an easy way, an easy
life. He'll stir us up. He'll cause
us to cry and to seek that we might truly find Him and know
Him. That ye be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Well, the Lord be pleased to
bless His words to us tonight and to help us in all our prayers. Well, we'll leave it there. We'll
sing now our second praise in the hymn number 82, the tune
Wareham 431. Rejoice, ye saints, in every
state. Divine decrees remain unmoved.
No turns of providence abide, God's care for those he once
has loved." The hymn, 82, tune 431.