Hebrews chapter 6, title of the
message, Persevering Faith. Persevering Faith. You know,
back in verses 7 and 8, the apostle speaks of rain coming down on
good ground and producing fruit for the farmer, producing a blessing. He has cleared the field, and
plowed the field, and fertilized the field, and planted, and God
gave the increase. And he was able to partake of
that fruit. While the same rain, falling
on bad ground, ground that's been unplowed, untaken care of,
left alone, all that ground produced with thorns and thistles. And
that's really what he's comparing some of the Hebrews that he's
writing to here, the Hebrew brethren. There are some in there that
are just tares among the wheat. They're just tares among the
wheat. There will always be tares among the wheat. We know that
from the Scriptures. And there will always be those
whom the Lord does save, and He makes good ground out of them,
and He gives the increase Paul said, I water, and another one
plants, and another one waters, but God gives the increase. And
then God makes a good ground out of it, and when He does that,
there's fruit. There's evidence of it. There's
evidence of it. The rain in verse 7 and 8 represents
the gospel. It comes down. He's representing
His rain, the grace of God, the gospel of God. And when the gospel
comes in power to a person, or to a people, to a congregation
as it has here. It always produces fruit, the
fruit of the Spirit. It will always produce. It will
produce faith and repentance, genuine faith and repentance. When the gospel comes in power,
that's what it will do. That's the effect it will have.
It will produce faith and repentance. It will produce love. It will
produce joy and long-suffering. It will produce perseverance.
Patience? It will do that. It will always
produce that which God sends it to produce. God said, My word
shall not return to me void. It will accomplish the very thing
that I sent it to accomplish. Now in verse 9, the apostle let
the believers know Those who truly believe God, He let them
know that even though He's been writing to them, it was such
doubt. In one place He said, you ought to be teachers by now,
but you're babes, you're so immature. But He lets them know that He
did see some fruit and that He did believe. That He did believe
that God had done a work of grace in many of them that He was writing
to. that there were things that he
saw that gave good evidence that the work of grace was at work
in them. Look here in verse 9, But beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak, though I have thus been speaking or
writing about these things, and writing in such a manner, he
said, He said, I'm confident, I'm confident, I'm persuaded
better things of you. I believe God has saved you.
He said, I believe there are many among you that God has saved.
And I have seen evidence of it. I've seen evidence of it. And
he tells of that evidence in verse 10. He said, For God is
not unrighteous, to forget your work and labor of love, which
you have shewed toward his name, and that ye have ministered to
the saints, and do minister." Their work of faith and labor
of love was a result, now listen, it's a result of the work of
the Spirit of God in you. If I do anything, if you do anything
that is genuinely good, That's the work of God in us. That is
the work of the Holy Spirit in us. That's what he's saying here
in verse 10. Their work of faith and labor
of love was resolved of the work of Spirit of God at work in them. Now, it is called their work
because they were the instrument that God used. God calls it our
good works because we are the instrument through which the
Holy Spirit works. Look over in Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. Look in verse 8. "...For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves." That's not of yourself. Faith is not of yourself. It's
not something you produced. It's something God produced in
you by His work. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. In verse 10, "...For we are His
workmanship, Every believer is the workmanship
of God created in Christ Jesus. We are His workmanship. We are
a new creation. Did you get that? Created in Christ Jesus. We are
a new creation created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now apart from Jesus Christ,
there's no such thing as good works. There's no such thing.
Every work And I know that the unbelieving world would disagree. They would say, well, I know
people that have given to charity and done all kinds of good things. And we're going to see Sunday,
Lord willing, there are going to be many who will say, Lord,
we've done many mighty works in your name. We've done many
great works in your name. And he doesn't say, well, I know
that, but no. He says, depart from Me. I never
knew you. I assure you this, if there's
a good work, God will remember it. You can see this here back
in the Scripture when we go back here. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained. Listen, over in the margin it
says, which God hath before prepared. God prepared this. He's prepared
it, He's ordained it, and He's bringing it to pass through every
believer where He puts them, where He has put you. And He's
ordained every good thing you'll do. And He's at work in you bringing
it to pass. Ordained that we should walk,
that we should walk in them. He says here, and I go back to
here. He said, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor
of love. You know, we are. We are unrighteous because we
do that, don't we? Somebody does something for us and we forget
it. We forget to show gratitude. don't we? We forget to show gratitude,
give thanks. We forget it. But not God. God's
not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which
you have showed toward His name. And here's how they did it. Here's
how they showed their love to God. And here's how we show our
love, our genuine love to God is this way, in that you have
ministered. You've looked after, you've taken
care of the saints and do minister, and you continue to do it. You
continue to do it. God forgets our sins. Aren't
you glad of that? You know, I can't forget them.
You know, I told somebody one time he was wanting to tell me
something that they had done. I said, don't do that. I said,
because I can't forget it. I did. I was telling someone
not too long ago, they were telling me something, and I said, take
it before the Lord. Take it before the Lord. You
know why? He can forgive and He can forget. He's cast all our sins behind
His back. You know God doesn't remember
one thing against me? I can look back for years. I
can look back as long as I can remember back, and I can bring
up things that I've said and done. But you know what the worst
of the things are? It's things that I don't think
are sinful. I told my dad, I was visiting
with him this week, and my dad said, he said, I'm just one of
the chief of sinners. He said, you don't know what
I've done or said. And he started naming off some
stuff, and I was like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I stopped him. I said, wait a minute. I said,
you know what the worst thing there is? I said, you know what
the worst sin there is? That's the reason I put that
little article in the Bulletin, is self-righteousness. You're looking
back and you're saying, well, I got drunk one time, or I did
this one time, or I've, you know, you've done some pretty bad things,
but I've never heard you say, I've never heard, and people,
I've not heard people say this. I've never heard, I'm so self-righteous,
I can't stand it. I'm so self-righteous. You know, God said that you are
smoke in my nose. You know who He said that to?
Self-righteous Israel. He said that to those who thought
they were holier than thou. That's what He said. You said,
stand by yourself. I am holier than thou. The worst of sin is self-righteousness. It's self-righteousness. God
forgets our sins, but not any good work done toward His name.
Not any. He never forgets it. Never. What is it the Lord says? Let
me think here. He says, I was hungry and you
fed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited
me. You can say I was in the hospital
and you visited me. And they said, Lord, when did
we ever see you hungry and naked and in prison? as much as you've
done it to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to
me." He never forgot one of them. Never. It's like that woman,
when they would throw money into the treasury, there was a woman
threw a penny in. And she's the one He recognized. He says, she has given all that
she has. These others threw in from out
of their plenty. They had plenty, you know, they
just took a pocket change, took a little pocket change and tossed
it in there. He says, she gave everything she had. Everything. God never forgets that. That's
what He's saying here in verse 10. God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor. Here's what he doesn't forget. The motive by which you did it. Your work and labor of love. You know, for a believer to help
one another or to help anybody truly, to do it truly, it's just
an act of love. It's an act of love. And that's
the motive. That's a motive to do it. Because you love them. Now the
apostle tells them and us, because everything he tells them, he's
telling us. In verse 11, "...and we desire that every one of you..."
Now he's getting personal. "...every one of you and every
one of you in this room this evening, we desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end." And here's what he's saying.
He urges them to use the same diligence that they used towards
one another in taking care of one another, demonstrating their
love to one another because of their love to God. He said, you
take that same diligence, now listen, in realizing, in realizing
the full assurance of hope until the end comes. You use that same
diligence in realizing there's nothing wrong with assurance.
It's like we're not supposed to feel like we're saved, or
I don't mean the feeling part, but there's nothing wrong with
assurance. There's everything wrong with
doubt. Everything's wrong with doubt. There's nothing wrong
with believing Christ. I fully expect And I'm not saying
I'd ever doubt. I'm not saying that. But I can
say that I fully expect that when I die, that the Lord will
receive me. Totally based on His grace and
His person, Jesus Christ, who took my place, lived for me,
died for me, rose for me, ascended on high for me, intercedes for
me, and prepared a place for me, and I'm going to be there.
based on that, and based on God's Word. We'll get to this in a
minute. But it's impossible for God to
lie. Now He said, come to me, all you that labor and heavy
laden, I give you rest. Is He telling the truth or is
He lying? He's telling the truth. You come to Him. You come to
Him sincerely. If I come to Him sincerely, I
promise you, He'll do that." He said, I'll give you rest.
We should seek, now listen, we should seek not only to know,
but to grow in a full assurance of hope. Not a wish, but a full
assurance of expectation. We should fully expect God to
do what He said He'd do. That's what faith is. It's just
taking God at His Word. Taking Him at His Word. And we
should grow in a full assurance of hope. There's no virtue in
doubting. There's no virtue in it. We should know our standing in
Christ, whether it's real or whether it's not. We should know
whether the hope that we have in Jesus Christ is a real abiding
hope or it's not. We should know. Now why are we
to give such diligence? Here in verse 12, "...that ye
be not slothful." See, they had become spiritual sluggards. That's what happened. They had
become spiritual sluggards. And he's saying here that you
be diligent, diligent to seek and to know the Lord and to know
your hope and the steadfastness so that you will not become spiritual
sluggards. And I won't have to write like
this to you again. They'll have to. But be followers,
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Take Abraham as an example to
follow. God tried that man. He tried him as, you know, when
I look at the men in the Word of God that's been tried, Job's
the first one that comes to my mind that no one's been tried
like except for Jesus Christ. You know, he was forsaken of
the Father. Job was never forsaken of the Father. But as far as men, like men and
women like you and I, Job and then Abraham, Abraham, offer
up your son Isaac, your only son. I want you to offer him
up on the altar." And you know, when Abraham drew the knife back, he drew that knife back. He was
going to cut him open. He was going to kill him. Kill
him right there. Offer Him up like He would a
sacrifice, like they would the lambs. He was going to do it. And God stopped Him. God stopped
Him. Look at His trials. His trials
were difficult. They were difficult. But the
Scripture tells us over in Romans chapter 4, I think it is. Look
over in Romans chapter 4. Let me see here. Let's start in verse 16. Therefore
it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise
might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things
which be not as though they were, who against hope..." Abraham was an old man when God
made him this promise about his seed, which was Christ. He's
speaking of Christ. But he was going to have a seed,
which was Isaac. He promised him a son. God promised
him a son. Who against hope believed in
hope? He believed in the God of hope and the God of all grace,
that he might become the father of many nations. Abraham believed
that was going to happen, just as sure as God said it. according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body." Now, Dad,
he didn't look in the mirror and say, you've got to be kidding
me. I'm an old man. My body's dead. But he didn't consider that.
What he considered was the fact that God said it and it's going
to happen. And when he was about a hundred years old, Neither
yet, he didn't even consider yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He didn't consider her either. He didn't say, look at both of
us. You can't be serious. That's what my granddaughter's
all the time. You serious? Seriously. That's what she says
to me. Seriously? He didn't say that. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief. He never doubted God's Word. He took God at His word, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what He had promised, He was able to perform. Are you
fully persuaded that what God has promised in Christ, forgiveness,
pardon, life, are you fully persuaded that He's able to perform that?
Are you fully persuaded that God is able to raise you back
up out of the grave when they put you six foot under or whatever,
are you fully persuaded that God's able to do that in Christ?
Are you fully persuaded that you will be able to stand in
God's presence wholly? and without blemish and without
spot." Are you fully persuaded of that? Abraham was fully persuaded
that what he had promised he was able to perform, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone. He didn't write this just for Abraham, that it was
imputed to him, but for us also. to whom it shall be imputed,
if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our
justification." And what he's saying here, what the Apostle's
saying here, he says, follow their example of endurance. The
trials and the heartaches that come your way, and you say, it's
just too tough. He said, when those times come,
look at people like Abraham, look at people like Job, who
with patience endured all these hardships. Where are they now? Where are they now? You know,
it won't be long and we'll lay down and we'll blow out that
last breath. And we blow out that last breath.
I was thinking a while ago when I was looking at this, I was
thinking, when I blow out that last breath, I'm going to blow
out all the sin and the heartaches and the troubles. That'll be
the last of them. That'll be the last of them.
And that won't be long. It won't be long. Follow their example in endurance.
You see, God made a promise there in 13 and 15. Let me read them
to you. And when God made a promise to Abraham, He promised him this
seed and the Son and this seed that was Christ. Because he could
swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing
I'll bless thee, and multiply I'll multiply thee. And so after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. God promised Abraham a son. He'd
be a father of a nation. He'd possess a better land. He
promised him that. And because God could swear by
no greater, there's none greater than God. He swore by His own
greatness, His own name, His own person. Abraham proved his faith when
God swore to him this oath. Abraham proved his faith by packing
up and leaving his native land. By faith, listen, by faith, when
God made this promise to Abraham, by faith Abraham saw all that
God promised him. The Scripture says he looked
for a city whose builder and maker is God. That's what he's looking for.
What city am I looking for? Where am I looking to dwell?
He's looking for a city, a place to dwell, whose builder and maker
is God. Abraham never quit because things
got too hard. He never went back. He never
went back. You know, faith, genuine faith,
is to believe God every day until He comes. If I quit believing,
I never did believe. I never did believe. And so after he had patiently
endured all the trials, all the heartaches, all the disappointments,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Right now, Abraham is well and
alive and enjoying the promise, isn't he? He sure is. He's enjoying the
promise now. Now God willing to show every
believer the unchangeableness of His purpose, bound Himself
with an oath, He swears. Does God have to swear? Does God have to swear upon His
name that He'll do something? You know God doesn't have to
do that, but He did it for the heirs of salvation. He did it
for us so that you and I would have great comfort. Because of
this oath, we who have fled for refuge... Remember those cities
of refuge in the Old Testament? Someday we'll have to look at
them. We have fled to Christ from the
curse of the law, from our sins. Because of this oath, we who
have fled for refuge have a strong consolation, strong comfort,
strong encouragement to hold fast our profession to the end.
I have a reason to keep on keeping on. I have a strong reason to
keep on keeping on because God swore by His name They'll do
just what He said He would. And the Scripture tells us that
there's, in verse 18, that there's two immutable things. And you
know what they are? Here they are. The promise of
God, which is His Word, His Word. He's given us His Word. He's
good for His Word. And His oath, God cannot lie. It was, as it says, in which
it was impossible for God to lie. God cannot lie, nor can
He break an oath. The Scripture says, Let God be
true, but every man a liar. But God's true. God will not
break an oath. He will absolutely not break
His covenant. It won't do it. It won't do it. And because of this, you and
I have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope. Let this be our aim, let this
be our goal, to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul. keeps us steady, keeps
us grounded. I said to my youngest son, I
said, you need to make sure you take those kids, grandkids, to
church. I said, without having some understanding
of the gospel, without having some understanding of God, there's
no foundation. There's no foundation. I said,
even if the Lord never saves them, they have some kind of
foundation to start with. Apart from that, you don't have
a foundation. But the believer now, we have in Christ an anchor
of the soul. It keeps us anchored. We're not
drifting out here. The human race is, as far as
the human race is concerned, as far as they are concerned,
they're just drifting. They're just drifting. I'm not. I'm on the rock Christ
Jesus. You're not. You're on the rock
Christ. You're not drifting. You're not driftwood. You are
settled on the rock Christ Jesus, who is the anchor of our soul.
And here, listen, this anchor will not slip. It will not break
because it's of God. And it says here, it's both sure
and steadfast. It's steady. It's steady. It's unchangeable. It's sure. It's solid. And listen, it enters
into that within the veil. My anchor, my anchor is not down,
you know, they got a ship that's on water, they throw the anchor
down in the water. Our anchor is not down. Our anchor is up
there. Our anchor is in the Holy of Holies. It's entered into
the veils. Our anchor is in the veil where nobody was allowed
but the high priest but one time a year. No one was allowed to
go in there. If they went in, they would die. They even tied a rope onto the
high priest's leg and if he died in there, they could drag him
out. Because they couldn't go in there. If they did, they'd
die. But our Lord Our hope...that's the way Paul calls Christ in
1 Timothy. Jesus Christ, our hope. Our hope
is in the veil. It's in the Holy of Holies. He's
entered right in and He's taken us in there with Him. He's taken
us in there with Him. He says in verse 20, and I'll
close, whether the forerunner is for
us, entered." He went in there for someone. He didn't just go
in there and say, who's going to show up? No, my friend. He went in there for us, a people. He went in there for a people,
God's elect. Even Jesus, that despised Nazarene,
that one they said, we will not have this man to reign over us, He's there right now. There's
a man in glory representing us. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. The believer's anchor is a person. God incarnate. God incarnate. Even Jesus Christ. What is a forerunner? And I close
with this. Just let me answer this question. What is a forerunner? A forerunner
is one who goes before, one who prepares the way, One who prepares
a place for those coming after Him. The Lord said in John 14,
I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there you may be also. I think, and I don't know, but
I think if I were laying in the bed and I was about ready to
die, I think John 14 would be the Scripture I would ask someone
to read to me. "'Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to Myself, and that where I am, there you may be
also." I remember that one portion of Scripture stays with me. It
just stays with me. But if I lose my mind, like my
dad said the other day, he said, if I live long enough, I may
lose my mind. I said, what are you worried about? You won't
know it. I said, what are you worried about? I said, you won't
know it. Mom just started laughing. She'll know it. She'll know it. But anyway, He knows who He prepared that
place for. He knows every one of them. I have a place prepared
and waiting for me in the presence of God. All right, that's all I got.