This song by Don is a very powerful
song. It covers the whole of our salvation. Amazing. I was lost, I didn't
know it, rushing madly to my end. But my God, who is rich
in mercy, would not let me die in sin. You see, that is our
salvation, because God did not let me die in sin. Hallelujah, God has saved me.
He saved me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit
called me, I'm saved by sovereign grace. This is amazing. This is what we believe, isn't
it? Here in this song, as in scripture, you see the work of
God and you see the result of that work in us. God's work is
to send his Son, Christ died, the Spirit called us, but the
work that he does produces faith in us and by that faith we latch
hold on to Christ. And now that latching hold is
the result of God's grace. But that's the way grace works.
It causes us to cling to Christ. Jesus asked his disciples after
the explanation of how he is the bread of life and we live
upon him and him crucified by faith. He asked his disciples,
will you also go away? And they didn't just say, well,
you know, God, you're gonna, the Lord, you're gonna have to
do everything. They said, no, where else will we go? You have
the words of eternal life. You see, that's what faith implanted
in the heart does. It responds in kind. The truth is that we're saved
by God's work in Christ alone, and he has to make that known,
and faith says so. It says what God has revealed
is true and comes to us that way. I just wanted to point that
out. Because when we sing, I oftentimes have these, as I'm sure you do
too, these thoughts of how the song reminds us of the truth
that we hold dear and believe. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your mercy
to us. Thank you for sending your only
begotten son to be our savior. And thank you that he did all
the work and he then sent your spirit by your will to call us
and to bring us to yourself, to bring us to yourself and our
savior, our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know, Lord, that if you save
us, we will look to Him and to Him alone. And we know if you
don't save us, you must condemn us. And so we seek your mercy. We can't save ourselves. We can't
turn ourselves. We can't believe of ourselves.
You've told us in your word. It's not of ourselves. It's of
you. So we come to you with your word in our hand. asking you
to have mercy upon us by looking to Christ and receiving him for
us in all things. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We're going to look at Hebrews chapter 6 today to continue on
from where we left off last week. I hope you can hear me okay. Thank you, Tom. I'm glad. I know you're serious
and I'm not trying to make fun of it, but I'm glad. Hearing
the gospel is a very blessed thing. You can hear the news,
you can hear the rock radio, you can hear the birds, but none
of that will save you. You can hear politicians, you
can hear your own thoughts. None of that will save you. You
must hear from God. So to hear from God, from his
word, is to hear the words of life. And yet we're still dependent
upon the spirit of God to give it to us, aren't we? A lot of
people heard Jesus when he was on the earth. But Jesus said
this, many are called, but few are chosen. That humbles us,
doesn't it? We think if our salvation somehow
depended at least a little bit on us, it would be more certain.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It has to be all of
God. But I want to look at these words
in Hebrews 6 with you, and I want to try to give you an explanation
of these things, but I want to give that explanation at a detail
level that I hope as you are a believer in Christ would firm
up, cement that faith that he's given to you so that you would
be strengthened in it and grow in it and your hope in Christ
would be increased. so that you would see that what
God has said to sinners and what you have laid hold upon is the
very truth of God's word. But at the same time, I have
to give the warning that's given here that if we don't find our
salvation in Christ entirely, in Him alone, that we face the
most awful, horrible, imaginable consequences of that. So let's begin here. I just want
to read through the first nine verses again of Hebrews chapter
six. And when I do, I want you to
see, as I tried to point out last time, that the sentence
that begins with not laying again the foundation of repentance
is a parenthetical explanation of what he said in the very first
part of verse one where he says, we have left, or as it has in
the King James Version, leaving the principles of the beginning
of the word or the doctrine of Christ. So that parenthetical
part that begins with not laying again the foundation of these
different six things, these six different things, that we'll
see there, it picks up in verse three as, and this will we do
if God permit. I just want to read through this,
though, with that as a preliminary reminder to you that the apostle
writing to the Hebrews here is intensely interested in pressing forward
to reveal Christ as he was meant to be understood from the Old
Testament, but couldn't be understood until he came and made himself
known and did the work that the Old Testament foreshadowed. If
we see Christ in this, then we realize that God is warning us
here and exhorting us with great comfort, because warnings also
bring with them comfort from God. It's like our Father. Don't
do that, son. Don't go near that snake. If
he bites you, you might die. So we're warned, and it's comforting
to be warned that our Father cares so much for us. And he
points us to the right, the only salvation there is. So let's
read on. Chapter six, verse one. Therefore, this is the third
part of the same title, leave the shadows, go on to Christ. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, or having left the beginning of
the word of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. And therefore, by faith in Him,
we are to go on to that perfection, seeing that our perfection is
in Christ, and that is mature faith, growing in this greater
and greater confidence and hope in Christ and in God because
of Him. So let us go on to perfection,
not laying again the foundation or a 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. See how dependent we are here
on God enabling us to understand and be persuaded of the truth
of the things concerning Christ. if God permit. God has to open
the door. God has to open our hearts as
he did Lydia. God has to give life where there
is none. He has to birth us and he has
to keep us. So he acknowledges that if God
permit. But the desire of the apostle
to go on to Christ was so strong and that desire itself was of
God. And you can see that obviously
God did permit because the rest of the book of Hebrews is God's
permission unfolded here. Thank God that God did permit
this. Then he says in verse four, and
these are verses that cause every one of us undoubtedly great concern,
because it seems as if those who have trusted Christ might
fall away. But that is not what they're
teaching, but I will read it just as it stands. He says, 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 crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh and put him to an open shame. Now these are
stern and fearful words, aren't they? Impossible to be turned again
to repentance. Those who were once enlightened
have tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come. If they shall fall away, is it possible, Lord,
that I should fall away? Unless thou hold me fast, it's
possible. But God will hold his sheep fast.
Them also, Jesus said, I must bring. and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd, he will not let his sheep go. But these warnings are still
there, and we will deal with them here in a moment. Verse
seven, for the earth, and now he's given us a metaphor here,
a description of what it means to hear the gospel over and over
again, and the result of that gospel. He draws the analogy
from the earth. He says, for the earth, which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, the gospel like
rain is preached to us, it comes upon us over and over. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs,
meat or fitting for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing
from God. That's a blessed ground that
brings forth fruit to God. fruit to the one who sows in
it, fruit to the one who tends it. God causes the rain to fall
and that water produces the fruit. What a blessing from God that
is. But, verse eight, but that which beareth thorns and briars
is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. Now he's not saying this for
the farmer. He's saying this for the believer.
He's saying to warn us. If we hear the gospel and it
brings forth fruit to God, that's a blessed ground. If we hear
the gospel, and it falls like rain upon us day in and day out
in our life, and all we bring forth are thorns and briars,
then, like the ground that's rejected, we will be rejected,
whose end is to be burned. Here we see the torments of eternal
hell. But look at verse 9, and here
begins the bandaging up of those who were wounded by the words
in verses four through six. Beloved, what a blessed word
that is, loved of God. We are persuaded better things
of you and things that accompany salvation. Here the apostle is
saying that though he gives this warning to the Hebrews, he's
convinced that they are of that saved band, that they are the
Lord's people. though we thus speak. And I am
going to end it there. He goes on, he talks about their
own ministry to the saints in love in verse 10. He talks about
how he desires them to be diligent to the full assurance of hope
to the end in verse 11. and he exhorts them to diligence
in this faith and he goes on to show them the example Abraham
how he was patient through God-given grace of faith to believe God's
blessing that he made that he promised to give would be sure
because it was in Christ and it depended upon God's faithfulness
and then he ends it in verse 20 that the forerunner the Lord
Jesus has entered into heaven and he is the anchor of our soul.
And so all these words are meant to comfort those who have been
made to tremble. And we should be made to tremble
when we see that these things that are spoken of in verses
four and five and six. I don't want to fall away. I
don't want to fall away. I don't want to leave my master.
I don't want to be left in unbelief. I want to be saved by sovereign
grace. Don't you? Is this the longing
of your soul? Is this the great desire of your
soul that the Lord would bring you to himself? This is the fruit
of God's work in us. But if we hear the gospel, this
is what he's addressing here in chapter six and in the book
of Hebrews in general through many warnings, if we hear the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if like some of the Hebrews
we're tempted to add to it or go back and lean and trust and
find our salvation or our assurance or ourselves to be more sanctified
By what we contribute, as they did under the law, or we trust
in those outward physical earthly temporal things as they did under
the law, then we're proving that Christ is not enough for us.
It's like the parable Jesus gave of the four soils, or the four
grounds. The sower went forth to seed,
he cast the seed upon the ground. Some of it fell by the wayside.
The birds of the air took it away, and it didn't bear fruit.
Some fell on the thorny ground, but when the seed was sprung
up, the thorns choked that seed, and it didn't bring forth fruit.
And some fell on the stony ground. When it sprung up, it had no
depth of root, and so it withered when the heat came. But some
fell on the good ground, and that seed brought forth 30, 40,
60-fold in fruit. And if you recall the meaning
of that parable, it gets back to the very heart of God saving
grace towards us. Because what causes us to bring
forth fruit to God? Well, we know it's the Spirit
of God. But how does he do that? Well, we know it's through the
Gospel. the rain that comes oft upon it. But how do we know,
as Pastor Fortner wrote in this hymn that we just sang, God the
Spirit came in power, gave me life and set me free. He revealed
my blessed Savior and created faith in me. How do we know the
Spirit of God has given me life? Because he has revealed my blessed
Savior. and he's caused me to lay hold
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the parable of the sower
and the seed and the four grounds teaches us that until God plows
our heart and makes our sin, drives us to Christ by revealing
Christ to us, then, like those other grounds, they might have
had the seed fall on them. They might have even had that
seed spring up, and it appears as if it's going to be a real,
true plant that brings forth fruit. But until God makes Christ
all of our salvation, Convincing us that we are nothing, because
that's what the plowing does, and that God has to do it all
in Christ, and has done it all, then we can't bring forth fruit
to God. God has to do this. We're saved by grace alone. We
say that all the time. But let me underscore it. We
are saved only by God's work, and that work is not dependent
on what He finds in us, but what He finds in His own self, in
His own will, and His own Son, and in the power of His own Spirit,
graciously given. And if we're that dependent on
God, and Christ, and His Spirit to save us, what will we do?
When we're convinced of it, like that soil that was plowed by
the Lord, we will go to Him again with His word. This is your work. I am without strength. I'm a
sinner. I have been an enemy of God. I'm the one who is ungodly
that you must justify. You must do this, Lord. And I'm
entirely dependent. And like the publican, we come
waiting and depending. and looking to Christ, and we
don't go elsewhere. We're convinced that salvation
is in Him alone. So let's go into some of these
details here that are found in this passage of scripture. in Hebrews chapter 6, and I want
to deal with these six things, the beginning of the Word of
Christ. The six items here enumerated
are first, repentance from dead works. Repentance from dead works. Now I touched on this last time,
but remember in the Old Testament, how did they worship God? Well,
they brought an animal because they couldn't worship God unless
they were accepted by God. So they brought an animal. And
they confessed their sins over that beast. And then the priest
would slay the beast and sprinkle his blood and they were cleansed.
But not truly cleansed. They were only cleansed ceremonially. They were cleansed according
to that shadow, that figure of the truth. But if they only came
looking at that beast, confessing their sins over that beast, and
expecting God to accept them because of a slain beast, then
they didn't have the faith of God's elect. They never had an
understanding of how God must forgive and remit our sins in
the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. So we need something
more. We need more than the faith,
he says here, he calls it faith toward God and repentance from
dead works. We need more than those things.
We have to go further. When we repent by God's grace,
it's a result of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to us.
when Jesus came and preached the gospel. He did this in Mark
chapter 1. It says after that John, John
the Baptist, who was the end of the Law and the Prophets until
John put an end to the Law and the Prophets, when he was put
in prison, i.e., the end of the Law and the Prophets, it says
in Mark 1 that Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. Two words there, kingdom and
gospel. Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. Up until this
time in history, the people of Israel, what did they think of
the kingdom? They thought of it as the nation of Israel. This
is God's kingdom. I mean, we have kings here. Look
at David and Saul and who knows who else. All the kings. This
is the kingdom of God. They were wrong. It wasn't. God
promised that the kingdom of God would come, and when Jesus
came, he says, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand. And he was preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. In other words, the king, Christ,
was come now. And he was bringing in the kingdom.
What is that kingdom? Well, it's Christ in us, the
hope of glory. The kingdom of God doesn't come
by observation. The kingdom of God is within
you, Luke 17, verse 10. And so when the kingdom of God
comes to us, it's Christ coming to us by his spirit. And without
that birth by the spirit of God, we can't see, we can't enter
the kingdom of God. But having seen Christ in him
crucified by the work of the spirit of God in us, trusting
Christ alone, then we have entered. And so the Lord Jesus comes preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. This is something, it's new. The gospel had been preached
before, but it was so shadowy and hidden by the figures that
none could see it plainly until Christ came. And God intended
it that way in order to exalt his Son as the one through whom
in the last days he would speak the complete revelation of the
gospel. Now, when Jesus came, he says
this, the kingdom of God is at hand. I'm the king, and I'm bringing
into my kingdom God's elect by my redeeming blood, sending forth
my spirit to bring you in. So he says, repent and believe
the gospel. Now, first thing we think of
is, okay, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to
repent and believe the gospel. And we try to do that. And what
do we find? It seems like the very sins I
try to stop pop up somewhere else. And I go back to the old
ones. And so we conclude. We look at the performance of
our life and we conclude, I have failed to repent. I must not
believe the gospel. Therefore, there's no hope for
me. Isn't that the way we act? Woe is me. I must not be a Christian. And so we give up, don't we? Because we had always, we had
never left dependence on ourself. We had never seen that our repentance
and our faith, even the gospel, especially the gospel itself,
all are of God. And so the warnings come again.
And we think, well, there it is. I've left it. I'm lost. And I was never saved. Then there's no hope because
I tried and failed. Do you ever feel that way? How
many times have you felt that way? But here the Lord comes
telling men to repent. Why would God tell us to repent
and believe what we don't have the power to do? You see, that
question bounces around in your head. It must, doesn't it? You think, I just don't have
the strength to do this. What is the solution here? Well,
in the Old Testament they had the same problem. They looked
at that slain beast and they could see no further than the
slain beast. They couldn't see to Christ.
They couldn't see how God really remitted sins. And so they were
stuck in this concept of repentance from dead works. Now the words
dead works are only used one other place in scripture and
it's in Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews chapter 9 he says
this, In verse 14, how much more? Let
me read verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. I'm going
to pause. Redemption means what? It means
that a payment of ransom has been made, and by the payment
of a ransom, a debt was paid, and the guilty, the lawfully
imprisoned debtor, is set free. I think one of the most endearing
explanations of redemption comes when Joseph's brothers stood
before him, and they were all guilty, and he could hold them
all captive, and he had accused Benjamin of taking his cup, and
Judah steps forward and he says, take me instead of the lad. and
let these, let him, the lad, and these, my brethren, go up
to their father again in peace. For I became surety for him."
And so Joseph wept at that point. Here Judah was presenting himself,
take me, the offering of himself to Joseph. instead of Benjamin,
and he pleaded for Benjamin's release. That's redemption. Christ
came, he gave himself a ransom for many, and because of that
ransom paid to God, we're set free, allowed to go up to our
Father in peace. Here he says, verse 11 again, but Christ, being
come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of
this building, it was his own body that was the tabernacle,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered once. into the holy place, heaven itself,
having obtained eternal redemption for us." He obtained it. Our
release from God because the full offering of the Son of God
was accepted for us. Now listen, for if the blood
of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? What were dead works?
It were the works done under the old covenant. All of the
offerings of the beasts and the ceremonies they would go through,
washing their bodies and expecting God to accept them having been
washed only on the outside, having become part of a nation because
of their birth to Abraham. and having come and worshipped
according to the old covenant. And that's as far as their faith
went. And they thought that by their
turning from their sins, in light of these things, God would accept
them. But they didn't see Christ clearly. Not these Hebrews. They had once
seen him. They had left these things, but they were tempted
to go back to them. Some of them hadn't seen him
in this way. And so Christ has to come and
purge our conscience from these dead works, these works that
are done under the old covenant that can never make us right
before God. They can't make us right because
God was never satisfied with them. He says in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. And then the Lord Jesus said,
I come to do thy will, O God. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. But they couldn't be accepted because God couldn't
accept them. And they couldn't be accepted
because it was not the work of the Spirit of God to offer them.
And looking only to them was not faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So those were just dead works. And a view of God in that light
causes us to repent with a view toward gaining God's acceptance.
as if by what we do we can earn what only Christ could fulfill.
And so this is the fundamental thing here, is that they needed
to go further than this. They needed to see that the repentance
from dead works means that we no longer come to God expecting
him to accept us under the performance of the old covenant ceremonies,
doing those things, that we don't expect him to accept us by considering
the offerings of slain beasts, but we expect him to accept us
because he accepted Christ's blood for us and has made full
remission of our sins. And so we see this throughout
scripture. In Luke chapter 7, remember the
woman came to Jesus and broke the alabaster box and wept over
his feet and washed his feet with her tears and dried them
with her hair because she had been forgiven so much. What was
she doing? She was expressing her love for
the Lord Jesus. Why? Because she had been forgiven. And Jesus said, the one who has
been forgiven little loves little, but he who has been forgiven
much loves much. And the principle is that we
love God because he first loved us. So we repent seeing our remission,
the remission of our sins in Christ. It turns our hearts. It causes us to lay aside the
dead works by which we thought we could come to God, and lay
hold on life obtained for us by the justification that's in
Christ by His shed blood. And it frees our hearts. Forgiveness
brings repentance. But forgiveness is given through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's all bound up together.
And hence, as I mentioned last time, it says in Acts chapter
5 and verse 31, for this reason God has exalted the Lord Jesus
Christ as a prince and a savior to give, give, give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sins, remission of sins. Repentance,
like faith, is not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. And when
we are frustrated in our own attempts to repent and believe,
it's meant to bury our nose in the dust, realizing that we are
without strength. But in due time, Christ died
for us, the ungodly, those without strength, sinners. And this teaches
us through, it's a repeated lesson that we learn. We turn over and
over again. God turns us, and he has to turn
us, or we can't be turned. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 31,
in verse 18 and 19, I'm going to just read this to you. He
says, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, thou
hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed
to the yoke. I was like a rebellious animal
who wouldn't, who didn't know what the yoke was for. And so
he prays, turn thou me, and I shall be turned. For thou art the Lord
my God. Surely after that I was turned,
I repented. After that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. What is this saying?
God turns us, then we repent, you see. The work of grace in
the preaching of the gospel brings us as the publican to our knees,
asking God to receive us for Christ's sake and for his blood's
sake. alone, and when we are convinced that's the only way
God can save us, then we see the forgiveness of sins in what
Christ has done, and our hearts are turned. Then we believe the
truth. We believe the gospel. In Hebrews
chapter six, he goes on, he says, not laying again the foundation
of repentance. We don't learn repentance from
the Old Testament ceremonies and the slain beast. We learn
repentance by seeing in Christ the full remission of our sins
and seeing that the work of repentance in our heart is a work of God
and his grace alone, just like faith. And so we are turned. by the barrier of our sin and
offense to God has been removed by God in the death of His Son.
And that turns us. This is God's work. And we bring
forth fruit to God. The gospel does that. And we
say like those in John chapter six, when Jesus asked them, will
you go also? Will you go away also? Oh Lord,
where else will we go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we are sure that you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. And that's what God does. Now, faith towards God. This is another phrase here in
Hebrews chapter 6, faith toward God, and it refers to a faith
that the Israelites had, but it was a limited faith. A faith
in God as the God of Israel under the old covenant. That was a
basic teaching. That was the principles. You
need to have faith in God, but they didn't have faith in Christ.
There was a whole nation of people who understood some basics about
God. Let me read this to you. In Deuteronomy,
where the law was given, listen how the law taught them the very
basics. He says in Deuteronomy chapter
5, Moses called all Israel, verse
1, Moses called all Israel and he said to them, Hear, O Israel,
the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day,
that you may learn them and keep them and do them. He says in
verse 2, The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb,
Sinai. The Lord made not this covenant
with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here
alive this day. The Lord talked with you face
to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. That was
Sinai. And I stood between the Lord
and you at that time to show you the word of the Lord, for
you were afraid by reason of the fire and went not up into
the mount, saying, I, this is what the Lord said, I am the
Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from
the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. And he goes on, verse 8, Thou
shalt not make thee any graven image and likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a
jealous God. And in chapter 6, he also says
this, in chapter 6, He says in verse 4, Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy
might. What did they believe? Well,
they certainly believed that Jehovah God was the only true
and living God. They believed that. And they
believed that he showed himself to the nation of Israel. They
believed that they were God's people because they were born
to Abraham. And they believe that he appeared to them in these
visible ways under the old covenant. And so when Paul, in Acts chapter
24, if you want to turn there, when he preached to Felix and to Agrippa there, in
Acts chapter 24, and he's telling them about how the Lord saved
him, he says this, In his defense, because they had accused him,
the Pharisees had accused him, they were trying to get the king
to kill him, keep him in prison at least. He says this in verse
14, Acts 24, 14. He says, but this I confess to
thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers. He was talking about the gospel
of Christ. He says, he goes on, Paul says,
believing all things which are written in the law and in the
prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also
allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. What's he saying here? That the
Israelites themselves taught that there would be a resurrection
and they had hope in God. They had hope in God, they believed
God, but it was a limited faith. It was a faith that didn't go
far enough. Their hearts were not actually circumcised because
they didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told the
Pharisees, you search the scriptures because in them you think you
have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me and
you will not come to me that you might have life. Remember? And then in John chapter 1, I'm
just pointing out these words to you so that you see that what
I'm saying here is a limited faith under the old covenant. He says in John chapter 1, that
the Lord Jesus Christ, in verse nine, was the true light which
lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world
and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He
came to his own, the Israelites, and his own received him not. But as many as received him,
those that did receive him, to them gave he authority or power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but of God. Of his own will, of God's own
will, were born of God through the word of truth of Christ.
But here, these people, they came to God thinking like they
did when they came to John the Baptist, that they were the children
of Abraham. And John the Baptist said, no, God is able to raise
up stones to Abraham. Remember Adam and the garden?
There were two trees. The tree of life, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. And what did Adam do? Did he
eat from the tree of life? Never did, did he? Have you ever
wondered why not? Why didn't he? What is the tree
of life? Well, in 1 John chapter 5, it
says this life, eternal life, is in his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. The tree of life represented the Lord Jesus Christ. But Adam didn't go to Christ. He didn't know the Son of God.
He didn't know that life was in him. He was still untaught
these things. And it wasn't until he fell by
eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that then the
tree of life became eternally important to him. And so the Israelites had faith,
but they didn't see Christ in it. They didn't see the Son of
God. When he came, they didn't know him. He came to his own,
his own received him not. So they had this kind of faith. In Matthew 15, it says, this
people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me
with their lips, but their heart is far from me. That was a description
of Israel. Because they didn't have the
faith of God's elect. Titus 1, verse 1. They didn't
have the faith of God's elect. They didn't have the faith of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Galatians 3, I mentioned
this last time, until faith came, they were under the schoolmaster.
So they couldn't have had this faith in Christ because faith
hadn't been revealed in Christ yet. So it was a nation born
of Abraham, but not born of God. They had a national faith towards
God. It wasn't until in the gospel
The Lord Jesus Christ was revealed as the Savior and the High Priest
of His people who purged their sins and was king over God's
kingdom and therefore in came faith by the Spirit of God in
Christ as that one who was eternally appointed and promised and anointed
to save His people from their sins. In the New Testament we
read these things. In Galatians chapter 2 we read
the faith of Jesus Christ and the faith of the Son of God.
In Galatians 2.20 he says, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. In Ephesians 1.15 he
says, your faith in the Lord Jesus. And in Philippians 3.9,
by faith of Jesus Christ, and Colossians 2.5, your faith in
Christ. And in 1 Timothy 3.13, the faith
which is in Christ Jesus. And so, in the gospel, Christ
and him crucified, risen and reigning and interceding, having
fulfilled our salvation in himself for us, and bringing in the promise
of eternal life by what he did. is the object of our faith. In Acts chapter 3, turn to Acts
if you would please, Acts chapter 3 and see these words. Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ saves. This is a dominant message of
the gospel. Look at Acts chapter 3 and verse
15. Well, in verse 14 it says, you
denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be
granted to you, verse 15, and you killed the prince of life,
Christ, whom God has raised from the dead whereof we are witnesses.
And they were wondering how they made this man who couldn't walk,
to walk. In verse 16, Peter says, and
his name, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one you killed, the one who
was the prince of life, his name, listen carefully, through faith
in his name, who he is, in his offices, in his work, through
faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom you now, whom
you see and know. Yea, listen, the faith which
is by him hath given this perfect soundness in the presence of
you all. It was faith from Christ as a gift and faith in Christ. He gives faith and that faith
he gives is faith in himself. Now that's entirely different
At least that's a completely not seen before, newly revealed
understanding of the Old Testament, isn't it? Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at Acts chapter 4 and verse
10. In verse 9 he says, if we this
day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by
what means he is made whole. Verse 10, be it known to you
all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
He's talking about the risen, Almighty Christ, our Mediator,
the High Priest, who has purged our sins and entered heaven and
now sits at the right hand of God and has sent His Spirit to
enable the preaching of His Gospel and to work miracles to confirm
that Gospel and the healing of this man, Him. Christ crucified,
Christ raised, even by him doth this man stand here before you
whole. This is the stone, Christ is the stone, which was set at
nought of you builders, you considered it empty and not worth anything,
which is become the head of the corner of God's building, of
his temple. Verse 12, neither is there salvation
in any other for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. What is he saying here?
The faith of God's elect is faith in Christ, the only one by whom
we can be saved. The faith that is in him and
by him, you see. And so this is throughout the
book of Acts. It's always directing us. In
Romans he says, whoever shall confess with their mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God has raised him
from the dead, they shall be saved. It's always that. He says
in Acts 26, verse 18, those who are sanctified by faith that
is in me. And so, salvation through faith
in Christ. And that faith that is not of
ourselves, that faith in Christ is the gift of God. It's given
to us from God because of His grace, not by our works. And
it is impossible for us to have it unless it is given to us to
direct us to the Lord Jesus. Jesus told Nicodemus, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of
Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. That faith is faith in Christ
crucified, and that is the evidence of the new birth in our lives.
All of the blessings of the Gospel are connected with faith in Christ.
And faith is saving only when it rests in Christ alone. Justification,
our life, resurrection, all of God's promises are being adopted
as God's children and placed among His sons. Our eternal salvation,
eternal glory, all of these are received in one way alone by
the grace God gives to look to Christ as all of our salvation
and rest our eternal hope in Him. This is a supernatural operation
of the Spirit of God. That's what should concern us.
If we do not have the repentance unto life, which causes us to
look to Christ alone. We forsake and abandon things
like being born to Abraham physically, or being part of a nation outwardly,
or practicing a religion that can be seen and touched and handled. We serve a risen and yet invisible
Christ, but to faith we see Him there. We're convinced of it. Are you? Are you convinced Christ
is King? that he rules this world, and
that by his rule in heaven, he's granted to you that faith in
himself, given it to you so that his name is the only name you
trust to save you from all your sins. Remember what Jesus said,
no one comes to the Father but by me. That's John chapter 14,
verse 6. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. He says in Matthew 11, 27, all things are delivered
to me of my Father. And no man knows the Son, but
the Father. Neither knows any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. That's where
faith comes from, the Son. He makes known the Father by
making himself known. In these last days, God has spoken
to us in his son. And so he said, Jesus said these
words in that same text of scripture. He says, come unto me. He that eateth this bread, who
eats of my flesh and my blood, is in me and I in him. It's faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can talk all you want to,
as he's trying to, as he's saying here in this very short words
in Hebrews chapter six, talk all you want to of faith toward
God. You can boast of it. But if God hasn't given you faith
in Christ, your faith will not save you. And so he says, we
have to go on to perfection. Jesus alone is the Lord, Jesus
Christ. He's the Christ of God. He's
the only mediator. Full assurance of faith is faith
that holds Christ alone as its sole object, the faith of a sinner,
seeing and resting on Christ as my Savior and trusting no
other. And so the Apostle here is directing
his readers to look away from religion. away from self to Christ. We look at our repentance, we
find it inadequate. We look at our faith, we find
it inadequate. We look at our performance as a Christian, we
find it inadequate. What's the problem? We're considering
ourselves. Abraham did not consider his
body now dead. He didn't consider his performance. He said God himself will provide
a lamb. That's what he told Isaac. And
God did, didn't he? So we look away from ourself,
from our religion. We look to Christ, who is the
sum. He's everything in our salvation,
our life. We don't, we might have anxiety
over things in this world. I had some anxiety this morning
when I couldn't get the sound to work. But that isn't, that's
not a deal breaker for us, is it? As they say. We might have
trouble with the government and their politics. We have good
reason to be troubled by that. But Jesus said, I've overcome
the world. You're going to have some tribulation in this life,
but I have good peace. I've overcome the world. It's
not merely faith in God, because he can't know God, but in the
Son. So Adam didn't eat of the tree
of life because he didn't know the son. God hadn't revealed
him. He knew God as his creator, but he made the fatal mistake
of trying to go beyond Christ and living on the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, which is depending upon our works.
That's the way the knowledge of good and evil comes, through
the law, is the knowledge of sin. So what is the faith of
God's elect? How do we know we are the elect
of God? What is the evidence that we're born of God? It is
faith in Christ crucified, looking away from my curse-bitten and
sin-laden and condemned state and condition of my soul to the
Lord Jesus Christ, uplifted, cursed by God's law, in the place
and for the eternal salvation of his people. And all who thus
look away from all else, even away from their ruin and misery,
because that's what those sin, those curse-bitten Israelites
had, ruin and misery with no hope, no remedy. But when we
see Christ as all to God for us in our salvation, that's the
evidence of being born of God. Such an attitude and dependence
is the action of the renewed heart and of the spirit of a
man resurrected by the spirit of Christ. dwelling in him. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood dwells in me, and I in him." John 6, 56. Such a man
comes to God as a sinner at all times because he has a God-given
sense of his need for Christ alone, don't we? And in Christ
alone, such a sinner finds his need and finds his all. Such
a man has not only been born of God, but he's kept by the
power of God unto salvation. And such a man will be brought
to repentance over and over again to learn again and grow stronger
in the conviction and confidence and assurance that Christ is
enough and that he is all. And unless God saved me by him
and because of him and for his sake and for his glory alone,
then I must be condemned. Is Christ enough? Is He? I like that question. Someone
asked, is Christ enough? And the answer they gave, which
is a right answer, He is if He is all you have. Isn't that simple? Do we need to come to God? Are
we like that ground plowed where we're feeding on Christ continuously
in our lives? We might drift, we might slide
backward, as they say, backslide. We might fail, we do. We might
find ourselves weak in faith, but it's not the strength of
our faith, it's the strength of the one we believe who saves
us. Are you convinced of that? We have to be, and so over and
over in our lives we're brought to that point. We do come by
God, to God, by Him. We do if we come as sinners without
strength and helpless and hopeless except for the grace and merits
and salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
power over life and death and he's strong enough to deliver
us from Satan and his kingdom. And so we look to him, don't
we? This is the faith of God's elect. Okay, so I spent a long time
on that one on purpose because I didn't want you to go away
with that doubt. If you're the Lord's, then you'll
find it the sweetest thing you could ever know. that the Lord
Jesus Christ can save sinners like yourself and he must do
it alone. Let's pray. Lord we pray and
we thank you that this gospel that you've brought to us through
the lips of our Savior through his life and in his sufferings
and death and now in his place exalted in glory that it would
be that word that you give to us to turn us in our heart to
lay hold on eternal life in him, we would find a full assurance
because he is all of our salvation and he cannot fail. And he saves
sinners to the uttermost who come to God by him. And yet we know, Lord, that even
this faith cannot be of ourselves. Our turning to you cannot be
of ourselves. You must bring us, You must give
us this faith and You must hold us fast in it and continue us
and bring us at last to Yourself and present us in the presence
of Your glory with exceeding joy, faultless and without any
sin. Find us in the Lord Jesus. And
don't leave us looking at these outward things of religion or
the performance that we can come up with. Help us to look much
further, to look to our eternal savior. In his name we pray,
amen.