Hebrews chapter 6. I'm not going
to deal with the whole chapter. I would like you to see where
the chapter is going from the very start. The first verse in
the chapter says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let's go on to perfection. not laying
again the foundation of repentance from death, dead works, and faith
towards God. This chapter starts out with
the apostle, or the writer of the book of Hebrews, saying that
we needed to go on to perfection. So the chapter's dealing with
growth, it's dealing with perseverance. And you're going to see that
here. I'm not going to read the next few verses. They talk here
about some apostasy that took place. But I want you to look
at verses 7 and 8. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
neat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
Now, there's an illustration being given here. Listen. But
that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh
unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. So, we have an illustration
of growth here that I mentioned here in the first verse. It talks
about the rain coming down, the oftenness of the rain coming
down. It's the means of grace. It's
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ coming down. And that's got everything to
do with fruitfulness. Okay? It just does. It has everything
to do with fruitfulness. And here he's talking about the
ministry of the Word and soaking up the Word of God, drinking
it in, drinking in the means, and that being the cause of fruitfulness. The fruit of the Spirit, the
fruit of righteousness, the fruit of repentance. And that always
occurs on good ground. On good ground. That's what the
ground that's been blessed of God. You see that? Meet for them
by whom it's blessed. Receiveth blessing from God.
It's talking about the blessings of God. It talks about someone
dressing this land, this particular plot, you know. God Almighty
has some gardens on this earth. That's what that's talking about.
God dressing his garden, taking care of his people, dressing
these spots, places in the earth where he's put the ministers
of the gospel. They're not everywhere. But there are places where the
ministry has been put. And there are gardens out here
in the wilderness, and he blesses these places with the ministry
of the gospel. On the other hand, there are
places in the world that are, well, they're just fields full
of thorns and briars. You see that in the verse there?
Thorns and briars. The only difference is they're
not dressed. You know, you guys, neighbors, you've got land out
back of your house. If you leave that yard alone, you know what's
going to happen. It's going to be covered with
thorns and briars. You see, what makes the difference
is this dressing that's being spoken of here. There's an owner
that's taking care of the fruitful land. That fruit, that fruitless
spot here that bears only briars and thorns, that rejected spot
is nigh unto cursing. That's that apostatized ground,
that worthless ground. You know, it's not bringing forth
anything. It's like, you remember the Lord
Jesus Christ came and saw a fig tree one day. He was wanting
figs. He came up and the tree was nothing but leaves. There
were no figs. He cursed it. He cursed it. It dried up. it withered, whose
end is to be burned." That's what's being spoken of here.
Now, back here in the text, you notice that? Now, these things
that are being spoken of here refer back to what you read in
verses 2 through 6, which we're not going to deal with tonight.
But look at verse 9. But, Beloved, we are persuaded better things
of you, and things that accompany salvation. Though we thus speak,
we are persuaded better things of you. You know what he's saying
there? You're not the briars and thorns that I've been talking
about. That's what he's saying. I'm
convinced that he that called you to faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ will accompany that call with things that accompany salvation. That's right. A regenerating,
active work of grace in the heart of believers. You know, that
happens. When the Lord is doing something
for somebody. This isn't just something completely objective.
There's something that takes place in the heart of man. There's
a new creation. And God Almighty is involved
in making us fruitful. These are things, I like what
he calls it here, things, unpersuaded, better things than you. Things
that accompany salvation. That's what he's saying. This
is what I expect to see in you. A saving work of the Spirit.
A new creation, a spiritual mind. That's what I'm persuaded, obviously,
and you. Look here at verse 10. For God's
not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which
you've showed towards His name, and that you've ministered to
the saints and do minister. God's not unrighteous. It wouldn't
be right. That's what he's saying. For
the Lord to forget your labor of love. Your labor of love. what He's already done in you,
what you've done for Him. It wouldn't be right. He'll use
all means to supply your needs and comfort you. You know, I
just have to say this this evening. I don't believe in rewards in
heaven. I really don't. But I do know the Lord rewards
His people down here. I do believe that. He rewards
them here. Let me show you something. He's not unrighteous to forget.
You know, I've heard people talk about how they have a thankless
job. You ever heard that expression? I've got a thankless job. I'm
telling you, that's not the case of the Lord's people. We don't
live thankless lives here in terms of, you know, when we're
striving to live for Christ, it's not a thankless thing. Ephesians
2, what I want you to see here too, Ephesians 2.10, there's
a work in us And yet the work is a work we do. We're involved
in it. It's a work. It doesn't spring
from us. It really doesn't. It's all of
grace, but yet it's our work. You ever read that Ephesians
2, 10? For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. They've been ordained and we are His workmanship, but
we walk in them. We walk in and I want you to
see that there's a scripture teaches this. Look at Matthew
10. He's faithful and just. To all whom he's called to those
whom he who walk in his love, he's not unrighteous to forget
their labor of love. Look at Matthew 10, 40, verse
10, chapter 10, verse 40. He that receiveth you receiveth
me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He
that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive
a prophet's reward. He that receiveth a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous
man's reward. And whosoever shall give a drink
unto one of these little ones, just a cup of cold water, only
in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall know
what is his reward." The Lord recompenses kindness. He does
that now. Kindness to them is kindness
to me, he says. Support of their work is support
of mine. Just to give a cup of cold water
in the name of a disciple doesn't even go unnoticed. And that's
back here in the text. He says, you minister to the
saints and you do minister. What I want you to see is that's
an evidence of the fruitfulness that we were talking about. As
he tends his people, they become kind. They become kind. An evidence
of good works. And back here, look at chapter
10, Hebrews 6, excuse me, verse 11. And we desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
until the end. That's my desire, that you, all
of you, would show the same diligence, exercise faith, love, ministering
one to another, forgiving one another, showing mercy, trusting
Christ, not only just to keep up the hope of eternal
life, but he says here that you might grow to the full assurance
of hope, a full assurance of hope. He's telling them to become
confident, a full assurance of hope until the day that you're
called, and be diligent in this thing, to attain a full assurance
of hope. You know, spiritual life isn't
something that's presumptuous. You know, you don't become... How can I put this? Have you
known some great men of God in your life? They didn't get that
way. just by being presumptuous in
their lives. They sought the face of God Almighty. And they sought His grace. And
they sought His blessing. And he's talking here about diligence.
And I love it too because what he's doing here is he's telling
them to put away all doubtful thoughts. You're going to see
that here in a minute. Concerning the Lord's promises in Christ.
And just leave off all their wavering and their unsettled
lifestyle. Leave it for good all the days
of their life. That's what he's saying here.
And verse 5 will tell you, look at verse 12, that you be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promise. Be not slothful. Don't become
disinterested. You know, that's a danger. I've faced it a number of times
in my life. There are just times in which you You find yourself
becoming disinterested. Changes occur and you get careless
in spiritual matters. It says here, don't you be slothful. Don't you get lazy. That word
is slow. Don't you get slow. I got up
this morning. I'd taken some medicine before
I spoke this morning. I was telling Todd I felt like
I was in another country. He's saying, don't get slow in
spiritual matters. Don't get slow. You'd be diligent. And you'd be followers of them,
listen, who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Oh, inherit the promises. And I'm going to tell you something.
Every inheritor will inherit through faith and patience. Every
one of them is going to inherit through faith and patience. Perseverance
here. Faith believes, patience perseveres
against all odds, through the fire, through the water. When
thou goest through the water, remember that verse in the fire,
you're going to go. It perseveres, it perseveres. And he says here,
I'm going to give you an example of this. For when God made a
promise to Abraham, verse 13, 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. It always helps
me to have an example, and we have one here. We have an example
here of a man that believed God. And I'll tell you, he had a right
to. Look at Genesis 22. Genesis 22,
verse 16. This is right after Isaac had been let down off the
altar. Verse 15 says, The angel of the
Lord called Abraham out of the heaven a second time and said,
By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast
done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thy 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
upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gates of his
enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." That's the
promise that he just quoted. And when the Lord gave this to
Abraham, he used words. They seem like he multiplied
his words. Over and over, surely in blessing
I will bless thee and multiply. He keeps using these words. Why? He wants Abraham to be absolutely
certain. I mean what I'm telling you.
And here in our text, when Paul quotes this, did you see this?
Paul didn't repeat all that. When God made a promise to Abraham
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself
just saying, surely, blessing, I will bless thee and multiply
no more. Let's just summarize it. Surely, I'm going to do this.
Surely, I am going to do this. That's the summary of what God
said to Abraham. And that's what I mean when I
tell you that Abraham had the right to believe God. He had
the right. He had God's Word on it. And
not only that, he had God Himself taken oath voluntarily. Voluntarily
taken oath. A pledge of deity. This is the
way it's going to be. Now, I guess the question is,
why wouldn't Abraham have assurance? Why wouldn't he go through life
carrying himself like the man of God that he was? He had a
right to. He really did. Have you ever
read what it says about him? I want to show you a verse here.
Let's see if I can find it for you. Romans. Look at Romans chapter
4. Now, I know Abraham made his
mistakes. He really did. He's another man
just like us all. But when you read about him in
chapter 4, verse 17, this is, Therefore it was said of him,
verse 16, that it might be by grace to the end that the promise
might be sure to all to see, not to only those which are of
the law, but to them also which are of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all. As it's written, I've made thee
a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God,
who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be
as though they those things which be not as though they were, who
against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb,
and he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God." Now here's my example.
Let's grow this way. Let's grow. Let's go on to full
assurance of faith. And look at Abraham there. Why
shouldn't he believe? And I like that song that says,
What more can he say than to you he has said? I love those
words. What more can God Almighty say
to you than what he's already said? Now, he has the right, he has
the right to be certain, but look here at verse 16. Verily,
men swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to
them to end all strife. Back in our text. Get around somebody that wants
to settle an issue, they'll say, I swear. It may not mean much
anymore among men. At one time, it was an end of
all strife. An oath for confirmation was
an end of all strife. And I'll tell you, if that's
true with men, how much the more so is that true with God Almighty
who took an oath when He made a promise. And that's what the
Apostle Paul says next. Look at this. This is what I
want you to see. This isn't just something that
was for Abraham's sake. This is something that's for
the sake of every person in this room who's a believer. Listen
to this. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed
it with an oath. He wants me to understand something.
He has confirmed this with an oath, the immutability of his
counsel. He is willing more abundantly
for me to have this promise. Who's this to? Well, this is
something for the heirs of promise. I love that. Heirs of promise. have got an unchangeable promise
that's been left to them. Taken, an oath by God was taken,
and I'm just saying here, why shouldn't I be more assured,
more certain, more full of faith, knowing these things? Resting
in the immutability of His counsel. And who's that security for?
Well, it's for the heirs of promise. It's not for the heirs of merit.
It's not for the heirs of the law. It's for the heirs of promise. I love that verse. You know what
it takes to be an heir? You just got to be born. That's
it. I've seen a lot of people sit
around at the reading of the wills and you wondered why they
were left anything. Well, they were just part of
the family. Part of the family. We've been
born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man.
We've been born of God. We are the heirs of promise.
And God Almighty is more abundantly willing that we should have this
assurance of the immutability of His counsel. He's confirmed
it with an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible
for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. who fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope which is set before us." Whee! I love that. Who's this for? Well, this strong
consolations for those who fled for refuge to lay hold on the
hope. I love that. Who fled? You know who flees
in this world? People that flee are people who've
seen the danger. There's a law we can't keep. There's a life we can't live. There's a perfection we can't
produce. There's a just God whose wrath
we deserve. We flee. We flee for the Redemption. And this may be referring to
the Old Testament picture, too, in Numbers 35. Look at this. Now, I'm not going to spend a
whole lot of time on this, but I want you to see this verses
24 through 29. I think that's where it's at. The congregation shall judge
between the slayer and the revenger of blood, according to these
judgments, and the congregation shall deliver the slayer out
of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall
restore him to the city of refuge where he has fled. And he shall
abide until the death of the high priest, which was anointed
with the holy oil. And the slayer shall at any time
come without the border of the city of refuge where he has fled,
and the revenger of blood find him outside the borders of the
city of that refuge. The revenger of blood shall kill
the slayer. He will not be guilty of the blood, because he should
have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of
the high priest. But after the death of the high
priest, the slayer shall return to the land of his possession.
What that's about is in the Old Testament Israel, there were
six cities that were put up, established by God to be cities
of refuge. They had to keep the roads clear
going to them. And if you were out running in
the field and an axe or something, flew out of your hand and hit
a man and killed him, and there was nobody there to witness it,
you were free game. If that guy's brother wanted
to kill you, his brother could. He was a revenger of blood. The
only shot you had was to get yourself to a city of wreckage,
and you'd just take off as fast as you could heading for the
city of wreckage. And if you got there before the revenger
of blood got you, you were allowed to live in that city as long
as you stayed in that city and stayed there until the day of
the death of the high priest. That's how long you were allowed,
and you were safe. Now, if you went outside that
city, you left that city, the revenger of blood caught you
outside, he could kill you, and he wasn't required of your blood.
I'll tell you, that's a picture, a picture of those who fled to
Christ here. We fled to Christ, and we have
no right to life outside of him. We have no right to peace and
security outside of him. And we can live in peace and
security in this city just as long as he's the high priest.
And that's great news, too. Because he's a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek. So, I'm telling you, it's talking
about fleeing to him. We've fled to him and we're not
going back. We've fled to him. We've laid
hold of the hope that's set before us. The hope that's set before
us. I'll tell you. And he is willing,
more abundantly, that we might have strong consolation. You see that? That by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation. Our consolation lies completely
in Christ Jesus. That's exactly it. You know,
you'll lose consolation if you ever start to look at yourself.
You really will. You start looking at yourself,
you'll lose consolation. Matter of fact, you can't even
really look at the providence that occurs in your life and
gain any great comfort. If there's one thing I learned
from the book of Job is that you can't look at providence
and find any great consolation. You know, I like what one old
man said, when providence frowns, the promise is still smiling.
That's right. And that's the point here. He
hath said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? He didn't make these promises
that we're reading about here in a hurry. You know, sometimes
we do that. We make promises in a hurry. We don't do it deliberately. He knows that all the circumstances
that would affect this are known to him. And he has no reason
to ever back down. Infinite wisdom has made this.
And his oath. You notice that? Two immutable
things. His oath. Why did he give us
this oath? Well, there's only one reason.
To prevent our unbelief. To prevent our unbelief. Swearing. Blessing. I will bless you. And
what he's saying here. The writer of Hebrews is saying,
just let's grow up in faith, let's get rid of this puny faith
we have, we go through this life where we're constantly doubting
this one who's made these great promises. You've got every reason in the
world for strong consolation, every reason. We're not in jeopardy,
we're not up and down, believe it or not. I know we go through
different circumstances in life, but God's throne has not moved.
It's a strong consolation, and we need strong consolation because
we go through this life, we're going to have lots of trials
and tribulations. That's been promised to us. In
this world, you'll have tribulations. But the victory is ours in Christ.
And look at verse 19. Now, this is a hope that we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth
in, and that within the veil. anchor that's being spoken of
here. Do you see how everything the apostle's talking about is
meant to settle us down? Do you see that? To settle us
down. He's talking about an anchor. He's talking about getting over
this unsettled lifestyle. We've got a promise and an oath
firmly holding us here. And it's kind of a metaphor,
you know. Our life is like a life at sea. And every anchor I've
ever seen has got two hooks on it. The ones I've seen on them
sides of them big ships, his oath, his covenant, his promise
and his oath. I tell you, an anchor will keep
you. Most folks don't realize it's not much, you know, it's
not much use leaving the house with an anchor on a calm day.
Most folks can get away with that. But when you get out a
little ways and a storm comes, pulling anchor is a wonderful
thing to have. It keeps you from wrecking. It
enables you to defy the winds and the waves. It acts as a comfort,
you know. It acts as a comfort. Now, I
may not think there's rocks or reefs within miles of where I'm
at, but if I'm being blown around out in the ocean, I'd much rather
have an anchor down. I don't know where the rocks
and reefs are. My comfort is having that anchor, that anchor.
And an anchor also keeps you from losing your headway in life,
you know. You come so far by faith, and
then to just get caught in a storm, be blown back. There's an anchor
that's being spoken of here. His oath, his covenant. His promise
and His oath, holding us to immutable things. I love that word, unchanging. Unchanging. Made of the strongest
steel that could be found in existence. And you know our faith,
our faith is made of, well it was created by God too. It's the gift of God, it's the
same sort of material, His oath and promise. There are times
in life when you're in a storm and you just feel like you're
rocking, and I've been in some storms, and you can see the chain
slack up, and then all of a sudden it'll get tight. It's good to
know that it's the Lord that made this, gave us this faith,
and that anchor that's deep down below the waves. It's secure. It's secure. It's just secure. You know, the real work takes place,
it isn't really the chain, it's the anchor. It takes place out
of sight. You ever been in a storm and
deep, in a deep sea? That's a serious place to be.
And I talked to a friend of mine who used to be a scuba diver,
and she told me that she used to go down, upon occasion, in
a little storm, she'd go down, they'd have her go down and check
the anchor. And I guess, you know, if you're in shallow waters,
you can do that, but in deep waters, you can't check the anchor. You can't check the anchor. Troubles
come and break over the bow, and we find ourselves Find ourselves
in great trial and tribulation. I tell you, there's no way we
can always see clearly the promise and the oath of God, but it's
still there. You know, the clouds were out today. I didn't see
the sun. It's still there. You know, I guess it would be
great if you could have a Somebody on the ship go down and make
sure that the anchor was secure. But I'll tell you, it's greater
that someone else is within the veil to do that for me. That's
what verse 20 says. This anchors within the veil
whether the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a
high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. I love
that. There's somebody tending my anchor. There's somebody tending my hope. He's a person. Jesus, he's called
here, a forerunner. You know, no Old Testament priest
could ever have done this. You know, our forerunner has
gone within the veil. He's a forerunner. In the Old
Testament, the priest went within the veil. Three hundred and sixty-four
days of the year would pass. Nothing would happen and that
man would go in one day of the year. And he went in by himself
with blood and nobody else went in with him. He was no way a
forerunner. I have one who was a forerunner.
You have one that's a forerunner that's gone within the veil.
The man Christ Jesus. A forerunner. You know, they
say John the Baptist was a forerunner of Christ. Yeah, he was. What'd
that mean? It mean he came announcing the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is our forerunner. He has gone within the veil.
He's announcing our coming. He is the Lord. He's a forerunner. He's taken
possession of this land, heaven itself. Like Christopher Columbus
stuck that flag in down in South America and claimed that place
in the name of the Queen. I'm telling you, we have one
who's claimed heaven for us. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go, I'll come again and to see you unto myself, that
where I am, you may be also. I'm telling you. A forerunner
is also a predecessor, you know. He's the firstfruits among the
dead, is what the Scripture calls it. There are others that are
going to come up out of the ground and join Him. It says here He's Jesus. I like
that. You know, I always refer to my Lord as the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if you've ever... You
said under Henry T., you learned that long ago, that Paul, or
the Apostle Apollos, or whoever wrote this, says it's Jesus who's
gone with him. I like it, because what he's
pointing out, he's making it plain to you. We're talking about
another man. A man. There's human nature in
the presence of God Almighty. That strong consolation is a
man in glory. Tending the promises that have
been made to us. We're going to be heirs of promise. That man is a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. He's entered for us. You know,
we've already talked about that this morning. Isaiah 53 for us,
that's what it says here for us. For us.