Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Hebrews chapter 6. Now it is very evident from our text
we read just a few moments ago that believers should always
have a strong consolation, a strong comfort or assurance of salvation
in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to have that.
That's obvious. But it's also evident from our
text and from what we know about ourselves that God's people don't
always have such strong consolation, do we? We don't always. So, since
it's possible to have this strong consolation, this strong comfort
and assurance of salvation in Christ, it's possible to have
it. Our test gives us some ways to seek it. Now, are you interested
in having the strong consolation in Christ? Does that interest
you? Well, the writer to the Hebrews tells us he desires that
we have it. Verse 11 says, and we desire
that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope unto the end. So if you desire to have this
strong consolation, this full assurance of hope unto the end,
let me give you five ways to seek it. Number one, don't be
slothful. Don't be slothful about seeking
the strong consolation in Christ. Verse 12, he says that you be
not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. Now that word slothful means
exactly what you think it means. It means lazy or indifferent.
I read somewhere this week that slothfulness clothes a man in
rags. That's true, that laziness clothes
a man in rags. If you're slothful, if you're
lazy about working a job, you're not going to have a very good
paying job, are you? You're going to keep losing jobs. you know,
not have very many means. And I'm looking at people who
are not slothful. You all are not a lazy people.
You're hard working people. You care about doing a good job.
I know you. I see some of you at work. I
hear about you. You care about doing a good job.
You're not lazy at all. Some of you work more than one
job. And that leads you to promotions and better opportunities and
things you get. And I'm so thankful that God's given you that work
ethic. I'm thankful to see our children learning a work ethic.
Y'all teaching them to work and the value of work and this is
so good for you. Well, now listen, have that same
attitude about spiritual things. Don't be lazy and indifferent
about seeking spiritual things. Don't be lazy about seeking Christ,
but be diligent about seeking him. And you will if you need
him. I mean, you're diligent about
working because you need food, you need clothes, you need shelter,
you're diligent about work. But be diligent about seeking
Christ because you need him, because you must have him. Don't
think, I'll put that off till tomorrow. I got more important
things to do today. No, seek Christ diligently. Because I promise you this, the
more you see of him, the more comfort, the more assurance that
you'll have of salvation of him. So seek Him diligently. Seek Him diligently with all
you've got. Seek Him like your life depends
upon it. Because it does. It does. Alright,
second, if you would have this strong consolation. Seek Christ
with faith and patience. That's what he says here at the
end of verse 12. Be followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promises. Now seek Christ because you believe. Faith is just believing Christ.
Seek Christ because you believe Him. I tell you, we have assurance
of salvation if we believe Christ. Now you know in your heart, you
know if you believe Christ or not. You know that. You know,
I remember Brother Henry saying, you know if the light's on or
not. You know if you have faith or not. Well, if you have that
faith in Christ, you have a strong assurance of faith because God
only gives that faith to people He saves. Anybody who believes
Christ can be assured of salvation in Him. God's given you faith.
Look at Ephesians chapter 1. Believe God. Believe Him because
of who He is. You know, and God in His mercy
and grace and consideration for our weakness has given so many
promises in His Word. There are too many promises for
us to read them all. Let's just read a few. Believe
God in every promise of salvation that He gives because there is
such assurance of salvation in these promises. Ephesians 1,
let's begin reading in verse 2. Grace be to you and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made
us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure with his purpose in himself,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. Here's a summary of what God's
promised His people in these verses. God has promised His
people grace and peace. He's promised them every spiritual
blessing. He's promised them everything
He has in His Son. He's promised to give to His
people. God promised His people. He chose a people to save. He
elected those people and he predestinated them to be holy and without blame. God promised to take those people
and to make them without any sin. God promised he would redeem
those people by the blood of his own son. He promised to forgive
all the sin of his people under the blood of the sacrifice of
his own darling son. And God has promised he will
reveal himself to his people and in his people. through the
preaching of the gospel. God knows His people. He's going
to see to it, they know Him. God's going to work out all of
their salvation by His sovereign will, not theirs. So He gets
all the glory of it, and He's going to bring every one of them
to glory. Wow! What promise! That's God's promise to His people.
Isn't that glorious? But here's my question. I love
reading these promises of God in scripture, don't you? But
here's always my question. How do I know if that's for me?
How do I know are those promises for me? How do I know that I'm
going to inherit all these things? Well, all these promises are
yours. If you believe God, if God's given you faith in Christ,
all these promises are yours. Cause look what he says in verse
13, in whom you also trusted. after that you heard the word
and the truth of the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.
God's given you faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit's given you that.
And that's the earnest. That's the down payment that
all the rest of this inheritance is going to be fully yours. one
day. You know that all these promises are for you. If you
have faith in Christ, you believe him, then seek Christ by faith
because you believe him. But now here's the thing about
faith. The writer puts in our text, puts faith and patience
together. This thing of faith in Christ
is not a one time thing. Well, I believed on him. I'm
here for years ago, so I have to worry about it no more. Faith
in Christ is to keep believing Christ. No matter what happens. No matter what happens. Faith
in Christ requires patience. It does. Because God's going
to test it. It requires patience to keep believing Him. And the
example the writer gives us in our text is Abraham. Look here
at verse 13 of Hebrews 6. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. saying, surely blessing, I will
bless thee and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so after he
had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Now, Abraham, we
all know about Abraham. Abraham believed God. We know
that about Abraham, don't we? Abraham believed God from the
moment God called Abraham, told him, get out of your father's
house and go to a land I'll show you. From that moment until the
day Abraham died, Abraham believed God. Now, Wasn't always perfect. Abraham's the father of the faithful.
He's no different than you and me. His faith wavered. Sometimes
it wasn't so strong, was it? But Abraham believed God. And
it took patience. Oh, the patience. It took Abraham
to keep believing God. God called Abraham, said, Abraham,
get out of your father's house and go to the land I'll show
you. And Abraham got up and left. But do you know the only plot
of land Abraham ever owned was the place he's going to bury
him, Sarah. He never owned any of that land. He sojourned on
that land, just as a stranger on it, living in tents. He never
owned any of it on that land that God promised to give his
seed. But Abraham never owned any of it. And that was just
fine by Abraham. Because he wasn't looking for
something in this earth. He wasn't looking for a city
in this earth. He wasn't looking to build a city, name it Abraham. He was
looking for a city who's builder and maker was God. But that took
patience to wait on, didn't it? And then while he is wandering,
God blessed him. Blessed his nephew Lot who went
with him. But Abraham and Lot had to part ways. Their herdsmen
couldn't get along. They got too rich. Too many cattle,
too many sheep, whatever it was they had. And Abraham believed
God. He told Lot. Now Abraham could
have told Lot, this is what I'm going to do because I'm the senior
one here. But no, he didn't do that. He
told Lot, you take first choice, and I'll take what's left, what
you don't choose. Well, Lot chose all the best of everything, and
Abraham took what was left over. That took patience, didn't it? That took faith to believe God,
let Lot take what he will, God will provide. That took patience,
didn't it? And then poor old Lot, Lot didn't make a very good
choice, did he? And then Lot got carried off,
and all the people of the town he lived in got carried off captive
by these kings. And Abraham just took a few fellas
and went down there and whipped them and took all those captives
back, took all the spoils, just a few fellas. And he just whipped
them, just took it all back. It's called the battle of the
kings. And after that battle, the king of Sodom wanted to give
Abraham all the spoils. He was so glad to get out of
there with his neck. He said, you just let us go with our wives
and our children and clothes and our back and you can take
the rest of it. It's all yours. And I'm telling you, it was a
wildly wealthy spoils. It would have made Abraham just
richer than we can think. And Abraham said, no, sir. I'm
going to take a shoelace. I'm not going to take a shoelace
from you unless you say you made Abraham rich. I lift my hand
to God. God will provide. Y'all just
take it. That took patience. Imagine somebody
offering you $100 million. Stick out my hand, Jude. Abraham
said, no, I left my hand to God. I'm not even going to take a
shoelace from you. That took patience. And then,
oh, you ever known a couple that
wants a child? Oh, that's all they want is a
child. And they can't have one. It just consumes them, doesn't
it? I think from what I read, it
was even worse in Abraham's day. It was just a sign of God's blessing.
You have a child. Abraham and Sarah had no children.
God called Abraham one evening, and he said, Abraham, I'm going
to give you a son. You look up at the stars. Can you count them?
That's going to be your descendant. So you'll see, you won't even
be able to count them, Abraham. 25 years after that promise, Abraham
didn't have a son. And in that time, Ishmael had
been born, but Ishmael wasn't the son God promised with him.
Now he was the son of flesh. Abraham had to wait until he
was 100 years old. But he had to sin. But he had
to patiently wait, didn't he? Oh, he took patience. He believed
God, but it took patience to wait. And then, Ishmael, that
was Abraham's way. That was the way of the flesh.
That never should have happened. But Abraham loved that boy. Oh,
he loved him. God told Abraham, you listen
to your wife, Sarah. Go back to our lesson. You're
here for the lesson. What did God tell Abraham? You listen
to your wife, Sarah. Abraham said, I don't want to
listen to no woman. No, he didn't say that. God said, you listen
to her. You cast out that bondwoman,
her son. Hmm. Abraham did it. That took patience,
didn't it? Faith. Faith to believe God.
And then, and then, Oh my. You ever think, Abraham started
to think, uh oh, every time God called Abraham, he thought this
is going to be tough. Every time God called, God called
him one day. He said, you take that son, my
only son, Isaac, who you love, and you go to a place, I'm going
to show you, and you offer him there for a burnt offering. Abraham got up the next morning
and started walking. Walked for three days, and God was silent. Three days, and God was silent.
The patients keep walking. Keep putting one foot in front
of the other one, didn't they? And they got there to the mountain.
Isaac knew a sacrifice. He said, my father, here's the
wood. Here's the fire. Here's the question. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? I think that about every message
I preach. I look at my notes and say, where's the lamb? If
lamb's not there, better throw him away and start over. Where's
the lamb? God took patience. Can you imagine Abraham's heart?
He said, my son, God provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice.
Patience did. Oh, that broke his heart. Abraham
went to top of that mountain. Here's that promised son. This
is the son God promised him that All the nations of the earth
are going to be blessed in this son. All your descendants are
going to come from this son. And Abraham had to tie him down
on the altar and had to draw a quarter that had to cut his
body in pieces and burn it and stand there and watch while that
body burned with fire. And Abraham fully intended to
do it in his heart he did it. I know he didn't physically do
it in his heart he did. And we know from scripture Abraham
was going to do that. He believed God. He didn't know
why this was happening. He believed God. That God raised
him from the dead. Somehow God's still going to
keep his promise. He patiently endured. And finally, Abraham obtained
the promise, didn't he? Well, you and I will too. We will seek it by faith and
patience. I'm going to take faith and patience.
And you know what? There's absolutely no reason
that we wouldn't trust God, that we wouldn't just keep waiting
on him patiently. There's no reason for us not
to. We should always know God's going to do what he said. Look
at verse 16. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God willing more abundantly to show under the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath. that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the whole set before us. Now, there is no reason for any
believer not to have full comfort, full assurance of salvation in
Christ, because God promised it. God promised it. But you know what he did then?
Then he confirmed it with an oath and swore he'd keep his
promise. Now look back at Genesis chapter
22. This is the specific instance of all the promises God made
to Abraham. There's only one that he confirmed
with an oath. And it's after Abraham lifted
up that knife to slay his son and God told him, don't, don't. And Abraham looked behind him
and saw that ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And he
offered that ram up in the stead of his son. And that's the day. that our Lord spoke about. He
said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. Oh, he was glad. Abraham
didn't just see his own son, flesh and blood being delivered
there. Abraham saw the gospel in that. There's one coming who's
going to die as a substitute for sin, that's going to let
his people go. That's what made Abraham glad.
He saw the gospel in that. In Genesis 22, verse 15. And
the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the
second time. and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
because thou hast done this thing, has not withheld thy son, thine
only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying
I 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 God
repeated the promise that he made here, that a blessing I'll
bless thee, multiplying I'll multiply thee. But he confirmed
it by note. He said, Abraham, I swear to
you, I swear by myself that I will do this. See, God's promise to
Abraham wasn't just that Abraham would have a son, although, boy,
Abraham was glad for that, wasn't he? But this was God's promise. Messiah is going to come through
that son. The Savior is going to come through this son. And
all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed in him
because he's got a people and he's going to save a people from
every kindred, every tongue and every people on this planet.
Then we know that we know this. Salvation is coming to God's
elect. We know this because God, who
cannot lie, promised it. Now, if God promised it, it's
going to happen. Do we know that God promised
it? It's going to happen. Then I have a question. Why did
God confirm it by an oath? I mean, if you already promised
it, it's going to happen. So why would he bother to confirm
his promise with an oath? God's word alone is always enough. Here's why he did it. Here's
why he confirmed it with an oath. This is precious. So that his
people, God confirmed it with an oath so that his people would
have strong consolation of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
took pity on the weakness of his people. Aren't we weak? Oh, we're so weak. Our faith
is weak. We say we believe God, but it's so weak. We say we learned
something, but we forget it. Our mind's so weak. We're so
weak. And rather than get mad at us
for our weakness, God took pity on the weakness of his people,
and he confirmed it, his promise, with an oath. He did it because
we need to do that. You know, we need to do that
with each other. You go to a court of law, and
there's some doubt about the case, isn't there? Otherwise,
if there was no doubt about it, you wouldn't be in court. There's
some doubt about the case, and a witness comes to testify. And
they always put their hand on the Bible, and they raise their
right hand, and they promise, they make a note. I'm going to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help me God. But why does that witness put his hand on the Bible?
Because that Word is greater than him. That Word is the greatest
thing there is. It's God's Word. That Word is
greater than me. And when he does that, he puts his hand on
the Bible and he promises, he swears. Not just I'm promising
to tell the truth, but I swear I'm going to do it. I swear my
word is true. Well, that's supposed to make us believe his testimony,
isn't it? Supposed to. I've been on a jury and I saw
a man do that and I didn't believe a word he was saying. But it's
supposed to put an end of all strife A man's word alone is
not good enough. You can't do business with just
a handshake of somebody's word anymore. Somebody's got to swear
it by an oath and sign, you know, all this paperwork and stuff.
Because we need that from each other. We don't need that from God. His words are good enough. His
word is true. But because He had compassion
on our weakness, He promised it. He swore it with an oath.
And he couldn't swear on the Bible. He couldn't swear on something
greater than we can find lots of things greater than us swear
on. God can't find anything greater than himself swearing. So he
swore by himself. He swore by himself because he
knows the weakness of our faith, the weakness of our mind, the
weakness of our body. We say we believe the gospel,
but how often have you wondered? Can that really be true? I reckon it can be true, but
could it be true for someone like me? I don't feel that way. That's our
weakness. But in compassion for our weakness, God swore an oath.
I'm going to keep my word. I'm going to save my people from
their sin. Aren't you thankful for the tenderness
of the Lord? He's so considerate to us, to
his people, how patient he is with his people. God gave His
people strong consolation that they will receive the salvation
He promised by giving them not one, but two, immutable. That word immutable means unchangeable. God gave His people two unchangeable
foundations. We saw on the news last week
about this house. It was built on a hill and it was raining
and the rain softened the hill and gave way. The foundation
of that house was down in the wind. If you believe Christ, your foundation
never gonna do that. This is an unchangeable foundation,
two unchangeable foundations, God's promise and his oath. Salvation that God's promised
his people cannot fail. It cannot. He gave us not one,
but two unchangeable foundations. Then we who believe him must
have a strong consolation. Because God can't fail to do
His will. I mean, I've made promises I fully intended to keep, but
situations came up. I couldn't do it. That'll never
happen to God. Nothing can happen outside of
His control, outside of His will, to make His will change. And
nothing will happen to make God ever change His mind or to lie
to us. So we have strong consolations. God will save His people and
He will glorify Him. If you want this strong consolation,
seek it by faith and patience. We ought to believe God. All
right, here's the third thing. Seek a strong consolation of
salvation in Christ by grace, not by words, by grace. Verse
12 in our text says that we inherit through faith and patience, inherit
the promises. We inherit them. We receive them
as an inheritance. Somebody else earned, somebody
else worked for it, somebody else earned it, somebody else
stored it up, and somebody else gave it to us freely, without
us having to work for it at all. That's an inheritance. We will
inherit the promises. Look at verse 17. We're in God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel. Safe people are people who inherit
salvation. They're heirs of God. in joint
heirs with Christ. See, Christ is the one who earned
all this. Christ earned the salvation of his people. He earned the
righteousness of his people by obeying the law for them. He
earned acceptance with God. He earned peace with God through
the blood of his cross. He earned all that for his people
and we get it freely. God's given him everything because
he earned it and his people inherit it freely because we're joined
to Christ by faith. We're joint heirs. Joint heirs
get whatever Christ gets. Christ gets it all, doesn't he? And his people do, too. Christ
is the one who earned a perfect righteousness from his Father.
Every believer's going to inherit a perfect righteousness. Christ
earned acceptance with God, and that's what every believer will
inherit. Christ earned eternal life. And
every one of his people is going to inherit that life because
we're joint heirs with Christ. We receive it by grace, not by
works, not because we earned it by grace, without our works. Look at Galatians chapter three. You read the first part of this
chapter to open the surface. Now look at verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now why would the
Son of God endure that? Being made a curse, suffering
and dying upon a cross, showing everybody He's bearing the curse
of His people. Why would He do that? That, verse
14, the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Now, brethren, I speak after
the manner of men, though it be a man's covenant, yet if it
be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. And he saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. This I say. that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul. It never was by law. It was always
by grace. It was always by faith. The law
came later that it might make the promise of none effect. For
if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more promise. But
God gave it to Abraham by promise. See, there it is. It's by promise. Everyone who's in Christ, everyone
who believes Christ will receive every promise of God, just like
Abraham did by grace, by grace, not because we earn it by grace,
because God promised it and God keeps his promise. We don't have
to do anything to make God's promise happen. It just does
by grace. So if you have this strong assurance
of salvation, don't seek it by what you do. Don't do that. Don't
seek it by keeping the law. Don't seek it by being a moral
Pharisee, because you'll never find assurance in anything you
do. It's not there. There is no assurance in the
way we live our lives. There's no assurance in saying,
look how strong my faith is. There's no assurance in saying,
look at my patience. That'd be laughable. My family
would just laugh out loud if I would tell them, look at my
patience. They'd just laugh out loud. There's no assurance there. There's
no assurance in saying, oh, I know the right doctrine. There's one
place we find assurance of salvation in God's grace to helpless, hopeless
sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's assurance for somebody
like me, because it's for sinners who are helpless and are hopeless,
who need the Lord Jesus Christ. Then seek salvation by grace,
not by your works. And you'll have a strong consolation
of salvation. See, here's the question. If
you would have strong consolation, assurance of the salvation in
Christ, this is the question to ask yourself. It's not, am
I strong enough? It's, am I weak enough? It's
not, am I good enough? It's, am I bad enough? It's not,
well, have I done enough? No, the question is, have I done
nothing? Have I done nothing? Am I needy
enough because I can't do anything for God that I need grace? Well, you have strong consolation
because salvation is by grace and seek it by grace. All right,
here's the fourth thing. Seek. If you'd have the strong
consolation of salvation in Christ, then seek it by fleeing to Christ,
your refuge. Verse 18, back in our text. that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation. Now, here's the people who have
a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us. Now, I don't have any doubt that
the writer here is referring to the cities of refuge. Whoever
the writer to the Hebrews is was well-versed in the Old Testament. He speaks, he preaches the gospel
to us from the Old Testament, clear thought to a letter. He's
talking here about the cities of refuge. You know what they
were. If you were out working in the field, you accidentally
killed somebody. You know, you didn't mean to.
The axe head flew off in the air or something. You didn't
mean to. Well, their family could still kill you. That's called
the avenger of blood. You know, you did something that
caused the death of their family, well, they could kill you. And
the law would never say anything about it. And the only way you
could be safe from that avenger of blood is if you got to one
of those cities of refuge. You got inside the wall of the
city of refuge, the avenger of blood couldn't touch you. Well,
if that was you, something happened, you accidentally killed somebody.
Can you imagine how urgently you would be trying to get to
that city of refuge? You'd be fleeing, wouldn't you?
Fleeing to that. You wouldn't stop and delay along
the way. You wouldn't stop and smell the
roses along the way. You wouldn't think, huh, what's
over here, and turn over there, and go over there and see what's
over there. You wouldn't do that. You'd have one objective. Get to the
city refuge. You would have a strong consolation
of salvation. Flee to Christ with that same
urgency, like your life depends upon it. Because I'm telling
you, it does. The only place you'll find life
is in Him. So flee to Him. And don't delay. Don't think, well, I'll start
tomorrow. No. The avenger of blood is coming.
Flee to Christ. Don't turn and think, well, what's
over here? What's over here? What are these folks doing? Don't
do that. Don't look at them. Just have tunnel vision on Christ. And whatever it takes, you get
to Him. I mean, whatever it takes. If you've got to be like the
woman with the issue of blood and crawl on your hands and knees
so you can get to Him in His garment, that's what you do.
If you're too little to see Him and you need to climb up on a
tree like Zacchaeus did, you shimmy up that tree. And when
Savior comes and He says, get down, you shimmy down. Whatever
it is you've got to do, you get to Him because there's life in
Him. The only hope there is for a
guilty sinner is in Christ. The only righteousness there
is, the only sanctification there is, is in Christ because He's
the only Savior. And if you would have strong
consolation in Christ, It's just like faith and patience. That's
not a one-time event. It's a continual desire of the
heart. That was the Apostle Paul's desire.
He said, this is it. This is all what I want. That
I might win Christ and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is the law. I don't want it by words. I want
it by grace. But that which is through faith of Christ. Oh,
that I may be found in Him. Because if I'm in Christ, and
the Father looks at me, you know what He sees? ends in the end. He sees his son. He sees his
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. If I'm in Christ, he
loves me. He well pleased with me. I am
just as loved, just as accepted by the father as the son himself,
if I'm in Christ. And I tell you what's better
than the city of refuge. You know, if that man was in
the city of refuge, That Avenger of Blood could have camped out
outside that city for a long time. And you just always looked
over the wall and said, there he is. If I step foot up this,
I'm dead. You get to Christ. You get to Christ. The Avenger
of Blood won't be looking for you no more. Justice is not even
looking for you anymore. Christ is already satisfied.
You just get to Him. And then here's the last thing.
If you would have strong consolation, make Christ your hope. He says
at the end of verse 18, who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope set before us. This word hope is not a wish. Yesterday I was wishing Ohio
state would win and I was pretty sure my hope wasn't going to
come true. I don't know if it'll happen or not. That's not the
hope that a believer has. The believer has an expectation. Now listen to me. Assurance of
salvation is not presumption on God. It's not presumption
at all. Not if God promises it's not. It's not presumption if
Christ already fulfilled it, is it? No, it's done. Then you
come to Christ expecting him to save you because he's able
to save to the uttermost. You come to Christ expecting
him to save you because you're a sinner and he promised he came
to save sinners. You come to Christ expecting
to be cleansed from all of your sin because His blood cleanses
us from all sin. You come to Christ and lay hold
on Him. And the word there has to do
with not letting go. It's the death grip. Hang on
to Him and you, just like Jacob, I will not let you go. I will
not. I don't have another hope. I won't let you go. You imagine
drowning. Somebody throws you a life preserver. You're going to grab a hold of
it? I bet you you are. You're going to grab it with
a death grip, aren't you? But now listen, you're not going
to be saved because of how strong your grip is on that life preserver.
You're going to be saved because that life preserver floats. Somebody's
pulling it. And you have an expectation of
being saved from drowning. because that life preserver is
going to take you ashore. Now lay hold on Christ that same
way and don't let go. You're not going to be saved
because your faith is strong enough. You're going to be saved
because Christ is the Savior. He's got the strength. He's got
the compassion. He's got the love to save sinners. Now you hang on to Him. That's
your assurance of salvation. If I'm joined to Christ, I can't
be lost. Verse 19 talks about this hope,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil. See, this Christ
is the anchor of the soul. I'm no seafaring man, but I know
this about a ship. If that ship's dropped anchor,
an anchor's grabbed hold of the rock, that ship can't move. As long as the anchor doesn't
move, that ship cannot move. Well, Christ is the believer's
anchor and he ain't moving. He's sure and he's steadfast. We can expect salvation in him,
can't we? We can expect salvation in Christ because he's already
in heaven. Verse 20, whether the forerunner
is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now if Christ is already in heaven,
he's already behind the veil. We're anchored to it. Then we
are too. The believer is going to enter. Christ is the forerunner. He's entered into heaven. Well,
if there's a forerunner, that tells us more runners are coming,
aren't they? Well, Christ, the believer, has
an expectation of salvation because of our union with Christ. Christ
is already in glory. You who believe are too. Because
we're joined to him wherever the head is, the body is, the
body's following because the forerunner is already there.
So it's not presumption. You don't think if I have a strong
consolation, strong assurance of salvation, I'm presuming on
God. No, that's not presumption at all. Matter of fact, it's
wrong. It's wrong not to come to Christ. To not come to Christ and say,
well, I don't think you can save me. I know you said you would.
I don't think you will. I don't think you can. I don't
think it's for me. It's wrong not to come. You come to Christ.
It's wrong not to trust him. It's wrong not to have the strong
assurance. You see, our right to come to
Christ and our right to believe God is God's commandment and
his promise. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. because He's all of us then.
Doesn't say all men everywhere. He commands us to be. Then come to Christ and repent.
God promised that all who come to His Son will be accepted and
never passed out. Then one more time, right now,
I'm coming to Christ. I'm coming to Him. I believe
Him. I expect salvation to Him because God promised it. And
He commands me to come. I'm coming. I hope God will make
you do the same thing. Come to Him. If we do, we'll
have strong assurance of salvation. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
this glorious message of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
we thank You, You've given us Your Word to reveal. You've given
us the written Word to reveal Your Son, the incarnate Word.
You've given us Your promise that salvation is in Him. And how we thank You that You
take pity on our weakness. You remember our frame. You know
we're but dust. We're just nothing but dust.
You took pity on us and confirmed Your promise with an oath. You
swear by Yourself You will keep Your promise and save Your people
from their sins in Christ our Savior. Father, how we thank
You. And we pray you give us the faith to lay hold on him
and the patience to keep holding, to keep looking to him. You bring
us to the end and we inherit the promise. It's in the blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his glory, we pray and give
thanks.