Now the first verses here of
chapter 6 we looked at last week, Paul showed us how it is impossible
for a child of God to lose the salvation that Christ has purchased
for us. Now in the verses we begin to
look at today, beginning in verse 7, Paul exhorts believers to
persevere in the faith, to not be indifferent about our faith,
to not be indifferent about following Christ. Even though you can't
lose your salvation, don't be indifferent about it. That's
basically what he's teaching us here in these verses. In verse
7, he writes, For the earth, which drinketh in the rain, that
cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by
whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which
beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing,
whose end is to be burned. Now, rain falls on all of God's
creation. He causes his sun to shine on
all of his creation, believer and unbeliever alike. Some of
that ground bring forth crops that feeds men, and that's blessed
ground. Without it, we'd starve. Some
ground, rain falls on it, the sun shines on it, but it doesn't
bring forth any fruit whatsoever. Not only does it not bring forth
fruit, it brings forth briars and thorns and thistles. Good
thing, therefore, is to be burned. And Paul uses this as a picture
of salvation. The rain that falls is the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the water of life. And where the gospel is preached
and the power of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit grows.
Always you see joy, repentance, faith, meekness, gentleness,
goodness, patience. Those fruits of the Spirit grow. And those people who had the
gospel preached to them, who the Spirit comes to and gives
life and causes this fruit to grow, they are blessed of God. They're ground that's been prepared
by the Holy Spirit. They have hearts that's been
prepared to receive the word, to receive the seed, which is
the word of God. And they drink in the rain. Believers
don't just taste the gospel. You know, we've got our little
puppy You see something new and he'll lick at it to kind of get
a taste of it to see what it's like. You don't just have a lick
at it. You drink it in. Soak it in. That's what believers do. They
soak in the gospel. And they bring forth fruit. Fruit
for the glory of God and for the good of others. You don't
bear fruit for yourself. It's for the good and enjoyment
of others and for the glory of our Savior. But the same gospel
will never produce fruit in an unbeliever. This won't do it
because they're not being prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive
it. Now they do produce a fruit of their own, but all it is is
thorns and thistles that God will burn up one day. And I thought
this this week. Where does it rain? It rains
where God sends it. God will send rain here, but
not send it there. Men can't make it rain. You know,
they'll do rain dances or they'll try to see the clouds, but you
cannot make it rain. It rains where God sends it.
He's sovereign over the rain. It'll be a drought over here
and just a few miles away will be a flood, depending on where
God sends the rain. And the same thing is true with
the gospel. Where's the gospel preached?
Where God sends it. There's many places in this world
where there's a drought. But here there's the gospel.
Now be thankful and drink it in. Don't take these things for
granted and make use of it to produce fruit for the glory of
our Savior and for the good of our brethren. Now verse 9, Paul
says, But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things
that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Paul says we're
giving you a warning about this now, but I'm persuaded of better
things of you. better than thorns and briars
and thistles. I'm persuaded of you, the fruit
of the Spirit. I'm convinced of that because
I see evidences that you are objects of God's mercy. I'm thankful. And if God has saved you, if
He's the one that saved you, He will cause fruit to grow.
God's not going to plant an unbearing tree or a barren tree. He's going
to plant trees that bring forth fruit. If the Holy Spirit dwells
in a person, here's what I can guarantee you. There will be
fruit of the Spirit, to one degree or another. There will be fruit
of the Spirit, some more, some less, but you will be able to
see it. And Paul says, I see those fruits
in you, fruits that accompany salvation, and I want that to
continue. And I want that to be said of
us, don't you? I want that to be said of me,
that I can see the fruit of the Spirit in him. As you go out
in the world, our lives should bear witness to the fact that
God has done a work of grace in our hearts, that we are objects
of mercy. Paul goes on in verse 10, he
says, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor
of love, which ye have showed toward his name. In that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister. Now you know this
work. that Paul's talking about here
is not something we do that's totally righteous and completely
holy, that makes God owe us something. You know better than that. In
this flesh, it is impossible for us to do anything righteous
or good or holy because it's always tainted with sin because
that's what we are by nature. However, Scripture is plain to
teach believers that we are called to a holy life and to good Look
over to Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them. So we are called to a life of
good works. And God's work of grace in you
and for you will always produce works of love and faith by you. You can't help it. It just has
to follow. And the definition of good works,
invariably, are ministering to God's people. ministering to
God's children. That's what the Lord said in
the day of judgment. As much as you've done to the
least of these my little ones, you've done it unto me. It's
ministering in these works of love and faith towards God's
people. Now, really, they're God's work,
aren't they? It's God which worketh in us
both the will and the do of His good pleasure. But they are called
your works because you do them. They're done with your mind,
with your ability, with your faculties. And Paul says you've
done them. You have ministered. You are
ministering right now. You do minister to God's people.
But keep doing it. Now don't quit. You persevere
in this matter too. Look back in Galatians chapter
6. In Galatians 6 verse 7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not." Now don't quit, Paul. That's what he's saying. Don't
quit. Don't get weary in well-doing. And the Lord is not unrighteous
to forget those things. And you'll reap, Paul says, in
due season. Maybe in this life, maybe not.
I don't know. Certainly in the life to come.
But the Lord is faithful and just to remember those things.
So he says in verse 11, And we desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto
the end. Now these Hebrew believers They had shown diligence in ministering
to God's people, to each other. And Paul says, I want you to
show the same diligence in ministering to each other to the end. I want
to see the same diligence in loving one another, forgiving
one another, being faithful. I want to see the same diligence
in you trusting Christ and following Christ all the way to the end.
I don't want to see it end. And that's what every believer
will do. They will persevere to the end. But don't be stagnant. Be diligent about this, not becoming
stagnant. Paul says, I want you to continue
to continue to grow in grace. To you grow to a full, confident
trust and hope in Christ. That you keep growing until the
Lord calls you home. And he's talking here about diligence. In these next verses, he's got
some things to say about this matter of diligence. We are to
be diligent. about the gospel. Don't just
take a casual attitude about following Christ. You don't take
a casual attitude about following your Redeemer who saved you from
your sins. A believer is not to be careless
about our walk in this life. We're to be diligent about this
matter. And a believer's pilgrimage through this world is going to
take diligence. And it's going to take patience.
And that's what he tells us in these next verses. In verse 12,
he says that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. He says, don't be slothful. Don't be indifferent. Don't become
lazy about this matter of the gospel. Don't become indifferent
about hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
greatest story. that's ever been told. Don't
become indifferent. Don't become gospel hardened
to where it doesn't break your heart, to where it doesn't give
you joy and you find all your comfort and hope in this gospel.
Don't become indifferent about it. And prepare yourself. Andy and Andrea and I were talking
about this last week, and Andy's in the hospital. It's amazing. If you'll prepare yourself for
the service, spend time in prayer, It's amazing if you ask God to
bless you, then He will. It's just amazing. Spend time
preparing your heart to come worship. Read the Word and don't
just rush in at the last second. You know, you run down the stairs
and you rush in the door and you're all breathless. And expect
your mind to be clear to be able to worship. Prepare your heart
and your mind to hear the Word and to receive a blessing. And
don't indifferently listen to the Gospel. Actively listen.
Think about what's being said. Don't just, you know, kind of
listen with one ear. Think about what's being said
so that you can learn and grow thereby. You won't be deceived.
Don't be slothful and lazy and indifferent about ministering
to each other, about having fellowship with one another. And follow
the example of the saints that we have in Scripture. They inherited
the promise by grace, didn't they? It's by grace. It's all
of God's grace. But they went through many dangers,
toils and snares to get there. And that took faith and patience
to endure. So don't become lazy. It's going
to take some patience. It's going to take some diligence.
Just ask Abraham, the father of faith. Look what he says about
Abraham in verse 13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself,
saying, surely blessing, I will bless thee. and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained a promise. Now when God made promise to
Abraham, he swore by himself because he could swear by no
greater. And Abraham wisely believed God. Look back in Genesis 22. Here's where this promise was
made. 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. For because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thine only son, that in blessing
I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of 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 promised Abraham a son, and
he saw him. He promised Abraham a land for
a nation of his descendants to live in. Most importantly, the
Lord promised him The seed that will come from Abraham that will
bless all the earth. Yet Abraham spent his entire
lifetime as a nomad. Wandering around in tents, never
owning the land that he lived on. But he still received the
promise. He saw everything God promised
him. He saw his sons. He saw his grandsons. He saw, our Lord said, by faith. He saw my day and was glad. He saw that Savior that God promised
and was glad and rejoiced in it. But I'm telling you, it took
patience. Abraham endured trial after trial
after trial a long time. It took diligence. He endured
these things patiently. Abraham, Scripture says, believes
God. We didn't just believe Him once.
Faith is not a one-time act. I believe God, present tense. I'm still believing Him and will
continue to believe Him. And that's what Paul's telling
us. You keep believing. Don't waver now. Don't let your
faith waver. Because we have good reason to
have good hope and continue to believe God. Look at verse 16
back in our text in Hebrews 6. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Now when men, you and me, we swear an oath, we always swear
by the greater if you're called as a witness in a court of law.
Witnesses always promise to tell the truth and nothing but the
truth, the whole truth. Then they get up on the witness
stand and they tell what they know. Now why do we believe them
when they get up there telling that? Because they swore by the
greater. They put their hand on the Bible
and swore by the greater. And we believe them because they
swore by the greater. It's an end of all strife. And
this is a serious matter. Because if you've sworn by the
greater, get up there and tell a lie, they'll put you in jail.
It's a serious matter to swear by the greater. And it's easy
for men. to swear by the greater. I mean,
it's easy to find something greater than us to swear on. You swear
on your mother's life or something. You know, she's always greater
than us, what we think. She's, you know, better and sweeter
and kinder than we are. It's easy to find somebody greater
than us. But there's nothing greater than
God for him to swear by. So he swore by himself, by the
greatest. And we would, hence, because
God swore by himself. My friends, the matter settled.
And we'd be wise to be like Abraham and believe God today and tomorrow
too. Keep believing him no matter
the circumstances because God's going to keep his promise. Look
at verse 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath. Now I looked at that statement
this weekend, this week. What an amazing statement about
the character of God Almighty, that He is willing to comfort
His people, that He is willing to have us rest in Him, to rest
in His promise. He's so willing that He confirmed
His promise of salvation in His Son with an oath. Not only does
He declare it in the Gospel, He confirms it to us with an
oath. He confirmed His promise to sinners like you and me, with
an oath. Look back at Psalm 138. Psalm
138, verse 2. I will worship toward thy holy and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness
and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name." Now this is serious business. When God
swore by Himself and made an oath, He staked the reputation
of His name on keeping the promise of salvation in Christ. God put
His glory on the line to keep His promise. And if He doesn't
save His people like He promised, if He loses one for whom his
son shed his blood. If he loses one for whom Christ
suffered and died for, he loses his glory. He ceases to be God. He's staked the reputation of
his name on it. But God's promise of salvation
in Christ is unchangeable. It's immutable because God's
unchangeable. He's immutable. I change not,
the Lord said. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed." Because I change not. God never needs to change
His counsels because He never makes a mistake. I devise plans. I mean, I put plans in motion.
Oh, man, I sit at work and I'm so proud of myself. I come up
with this plan. And I've got to change it because I made a
mistake or unforeseen circumstances come up and messes up my plan.
God never makes a mistake. His counsels never need to be
changed because he never makes a mistake. He's all wise. He's
all good. He's all knowing. So he never
needs to make a mistake, never a change. And he's willing to
abundantly show this to his people, to his children who he calls
the heirs of promise. Believers are heirs of this promise
of salvation by the new birth. No longer are you children of
wrath, even as others. Now you're children of God and
joint heirs with Christ. And this promise now is sure. That's what Paul's teaching us.
It's sure. But don't get lazy about it. Don't get indifferent
about it just because it's sure. Don't get impatient. That's the
hardest thing in this world for me to do. Don't get impatient. God will perform his promise
in due time, now he will. Now verse 18, he confirmed it
by an oath, Paul says, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. Now we know all of us are born
sinners and we need refuge. We need refuge from our sin.
We need refuge from the curse of the law. We need refuge from
God's anger and wrath against our sin. And believers who run
to Christ find eternal refuge and security in Him. Christ,
David said in the Psalms, is our strong tower. He's our tower
of defense, our shield and buckler. And we can have a strong, sure
consolation and confidence in Christ. based on two unchangeable,
immutable facts that God gave us. His word and His oath. Now, one would be enough, wouldn't
it? From God, one would be enough. From me, one wouldn't be enough.
But from God, one ought to be enough, but He gave us two. Because
He's willing to abundantly show this to His people. It's impossible
for God to lie. So it's impossible for Him to
break His promise. Therefore, it's impossible For
anyone for whom Christ died to perish, they will receive this
promise. And what Paul is referring back
to here is fleeing to Christ, like that Old Testament manslayer
would flee to the city of refuge. You know, he didn't mean to,
it was unintentional, but he killed a man. You know, the head
of his axe flew off and he killed a man. Well, he'd run to the
city of refuge, so that man who was killed, so his relative wouldn't
come and take vengeance on him and kill him. He'd run to the
city of refuge. And once he's there, he's safe.
But we have a much stronger consolation and confidence and security in
Christ than that manslayer did in that city of refuge. You know,
once he got to that city of refuge, there'd still be a trial. Now,
the avenger couldn't touch him, but there'd be a trial. And even
if he is found innocent, He'd have to go back to that city
of refuge. And he'd have to stay there until there was a new high
priest anointed. Well, that could take years. In the meantime,
if he ever left the city of refuge, if he left the borders of that
city, and the avenger saw him, the avenger could kill him. And
the law wouldn't touch him. So he had to stay in that city
of refuge. And if he was judged that that killing was intentional,
then they'd kill him. He couldn't go back to the city
of refuge. But believers in Christ will never face judgment because
Christ was judged in our place as our substitute. The law can
never come back on a believer for whom Christ died and take
vengeance on us for our sin because the law satisfied its vengeance
on our substitute. And we go free. Just because
a person was in that city of refuge now didn't mean they didn't
kill somebody. They're there because they did
kill somebody. In Christ, we are not guilty. Isn't that good
news, to be not guilty? And you know, a person could
be in that city of refuge and die, waiting for freedom, die
of old age or whatever. But no one in Christ will ever
die eternally and not see the freedom that Christ purchased
for you at Calvary. You will have it. It's God's
promise. We have a much better consolation
and security than an Old Testament picture of the city of wreckage.
Now, verse 19, this hope that we have a strong consolation,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which enters into that within the veil. God's children have
a hope and a confidence that is sure and steadfast. It's unchangeable,
just like our Savior. Christ, himself, is our anchor. And He will never let us slip
away. Never. He's gone behind the veil
into heaven itself to appear before the Father for us. And
as long as He's there, we're secure. We're safe in here. Our
anchor is fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The eternal Rock of Ages. It's fixed on His person. It's
fixed on His blood. It's fixed on His righteousness.
Fixed on his faithfulness. The reason this is secure is
not our faithfulness, even though you be diligent. Now, don't be
slothful about our faith. But our security is not in our
faith. It's in His faithfulness. Because He's unchangeable. And
believers need an anchor this good, this secure, this steadfast. Because we will be tossed around
like a cork on a sea in this life. But we won't become shipwrecked. We read about some, Paul wrote
about some who've made a shipwreck of the faith. You won't be that
way. Not if Christ died for you. Why? Because He's our anchor. And He'll never slip. So, verse
20, Paul says, Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made in high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
Now, believers are running a race. This life is a race. Paul says,
I've run my race that was set before me. Christ is our forerunner. You're not blazing a trail. He's
our forerunner. Every step we take, He took first. He blazed the trail for us. And
He has already run the perfect race. Absolutely perfect every
step. And He's entered into heaven.
for us. He's opened the way for us for
all of His people to follow. And right now, He's there as
our eternal High Priest, interceding for His people, preparing the
place for when He calls us home. And we will receive that promise. We will receive the inheritance.
Believers for whom Christ died are sure to follow Him there. But be diligent. At the same
time, be diligent about following Him. It's hard to imagine someone
for whom Christ died, a sinner, vile, dead like we are. God reveals Himself to us in
mercy. Gives His life. Sheds His love
on completely unlovable sinners like you and me, that we'd ever
take it indifferently, isn't it? That's why He warns us. Don't take this for granted.
Don't be indifferent. Alright. The Lord bless you.