Book of Hebrews chapter six. Writer is assuring those that
are trusting in nothing but the Lord is all their righteousness
as all their sanctification as all their justification before
the throne of God. He's assuring them. He has spoken
about how that some could not handle the meat. They had to
have the milk. and how he had to end up just
preaching the same thing to them again and again because they
wouldn't grow, they weren't growing. And then he talks about how some
were apostates, they were not really believers and they had
kind of crept in and that's the reason they never grew is because
they weren't alive, they weren't believers. And so we see that
it's impossible for the believer to fall away, impossible as we
heard last week, impossible why? because the Lord is the one that
keeps us. And this is what the writer is assuring right here
to those who are like us that are looking to Christ as all
of our justification before the throne of God, all of our wisdom,
all of our righteousness. It's those just like us who have
left the old covenant of works, left the old covenant of the
law. And you'll see in Hebrews, as we already have, it'll continue
going from one covenant to the other, going from the old covenant
and the new covenant. Now the new covenant of grace
far surpasses the covenant of works. It's the everlasting covenant,
never had a beginning, never had an end because of the It's
of the Lord. It's of grace. Now, the covenant
of works, on the other hand, came to Moses and the children
of Israel on the Mount of Sinai, the law. And many of these Hebrews,
and like many people today, they want to flee back to the law
as some part of their justification or some part of their sanctification
or some part of their redemption. And the Lord's caused the writer
here to give assurance to us who are looking to Christ as
all of those things. We're not returning back to the
law, we're not returning back to Sinai. No, we've been persuaded
of the Lord, better things, better things, he says these words,
better things that were spoken previously, that have been spoken
previously. He said, I'm persuaded of better
things in you, better things. We are persuaded of the things
that accompany salvation. Now this morning, I've titled
this message, A Distinct Difference. And this, if you would, best
way I could put it to you, is going to be something that a
lot of preachers, they get wrong. They get wrong when it comes
to working unto the Lord. They just get it wrong. They
do it, they say, yeah, well, salvation's all of the Lord,
but after you're saved, you have to work as part of that salvation
to do this and to do that. And this is what's being addressed
here. We don't work for any part of
our salvation, do we? Because we have been saved, we
work because we have been born again. And what is that work?
Well, let's read our text and we'll find out. Hebrews chapter
six, verse nine. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation. Though
we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forget your work
and your labor of love, which he have showed towards his name
in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And
we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. There is a very distinct difference.
There's a very distinct difference in working for salvation and
in working because of salvation. There is so many people that
are working for salvation, they think. They think. But I would
remind us what the scripture says, for by grace are you saved
through faith, in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God,
not of works, unless any man should boast. That's simple,
isn't it? That's very simple. There's a very distinct difference
in working for righteousness and working because Christ is
your righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
So what work is he talking about here? Well, he called it a labor
of love. He called it the ministering of the saints. This is the work.
This is the work that the Lord's given us what we are doing right
now. You didn't come here to see me
this morning. I mean, we wanted to see each other. I understand
that but you didn't come to hear about me. I'm not going to get
up here and tell you about how faithful I am. I'm not going
to I'm going to tell you how patient I am. That's what the
writer here says is those who are by faith and patience obtain
the promise. But you'll notice in the very
next verse, in verse 13, he says, for when God made promise to
Abraham, Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
He doesn't draw attention to himself and say, hey, look at
my labor of love. Look at my patience. Look at
my ministering. He says, no, consider Abraham.
Consider our father, Abraham, and how that he obtained the
promise of the Lord. And that's it right there. It's
the promise of the Lord unto salvation, not by works that
we do, but by the works he has done. There's a difference between
working for righteousness and working because Christ is our
righteousness. And what is that work? It's the
labor of love unto him, unto each other, the ministry, the
ministry of the saints, the ministry of the gospel going forth. We
labor together in that, don't we? We labor to, this isn't Caleb's
church. Now you may hear some people
say that this weekend because I'm the pastor. They see me whenever
they pull up sermon audio. This isn't my church. This is
God's church. That's our hope, isn't it? It's not my church. It's our church unto him, but
it's his church. And so what has he given us in
having this church, his church? Well, we are to minister his
gospel without apology, without hesitation, and in love, in love. And that, brethren, is something
that most churches, if they do believe in the gospel to some
degree, they preach a condescending gospel that's, Paul said, if
I speak with tongues, if I speak with the tongues of angels, if
I do all these gifts, and yet I have not charity, I am become
but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. No, we speak in love,
don't we? Why do I tell you the truth?
Because I love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't
tell you the truth. I'd lie to you. I'd tell you maybe what
would make you feel good, maybe make you feel more empowered
or more prepared to deal with life. But you know, the gospel
does those things to the Lord's people. It cuts the flesh, but
it builds up the new man. It's the refreshment. It's the
it's the water in the manna. And we've got to have it. And
we are giving it forth in love, aren't we? There's a obvious difference
in attempting to perform acts to pretend to progressively become
sanctified. and working because Christ is
our sanctification. I hear people talk about, that's
a bigger thing now, I think, than it was years ago. People
talk about getting better. I keep hearing about that. Well,
I'm getting better. One man told me this week, this last week,
he said, well, I'm good to people. That was his words, I'm good
to people. found out I was a preacher and a pastor of a church. And
as soon as somebody finds that out, or they find out that you
attend church, they immediately will show you their righteousness.
And he told me his immediately. He said, I do good to people.
And I thought, well, what does that mean? And he said, I try
to do all the right things. I don't cut off people in traffic. I try to give people things. And I thought, that's well and
good. Oh, that's humanitarian. That's
all that that is. And what is your motivation in
that? I thought that. What is your motivation? And
it was for righteousness before God. We don't do anything, brethren,
we don't do anything for righteousness before God. Anything that we
do unto him is done in love because he is our righteousness, because
he is our sanctification. We're not getting better. We're
getting worse. Thanks be to God, he is our sanctification. Everything God required, he provided
in his son for his people. Now the apostates mentioned earlier,
and like many or most today, They believe that there are things
that accompany salvation. And the writer here actually
talks about that in verse nine. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though
we speak thus. But what they mean by things
that accompany salvation is keeping the law or performing ceremonies
or living a certain way or doing something that accompanies salvation
in their mind. They hold to those, whatever
they've done, whatever they've been taught of men as part of
their salvation, some part of their salvation. And we talked
back in the men's study this morning, do you know what all
that comes down to? Pride. pride. That's the root of it
all. Our motivation is not to be seen of the Lord because of
what we do. Our motivation is we see Christ
and desire Him to be exalted. That's why we minister one to
another. Who do we point each other to? If I call you or you
call me, do we not Do we not immediately start talking about
the Lord being seated on the throne? If you call me and tell
me something's troubling to you or I call you and tell you something's
troubling to me, who do we point each other to? Well, you know,
whenever I was dealing with that one time, I dealt with it this
way and I did a really good job because I'm really smart and
I'm really strong and I, no, we don't do that, do we? Who
do we point each other to? Him. Him. And the writer calls it a labor
of love. I love you. I'm going to point
you to Him, not me. Don't look to me. We look to Him, don't
we? That's what we do one for another.
That's the ministry that He's given us here together. Just
pointing each other to Christ. A bunch of beggars telling another
beggar where to find some bread. That's what we are. A bunch of
beggars just telling other beggars where we found bread. Best bread
you ever have. Those who are thirsting to death
telling someone who's also thirsting to death where you found some
water. That's the labor of love, the
ministry. Here in verse nine, the writer's
declaring that things that accompany salvation are the result of salvation
and not a prerequisite to it. Things that accompany salvation
are the result of salvation and not a prerequisite to it. What
does that mean? It means that God's not requiring
me to have these things that come with salvation in order
for me to be saved. No, if I love the brethren, it's
because God first loved me. If you love me, if you love the
brethren, because God first loved you. He gives that love one towards
another to his people. As a matter of fact, there's
no prerequisites. Did you know that? There is no
prerequisites that God requires of you or me to be saved. God doesn't require anything
for you or for me to be saved from us, nothing. Somebody said,
well, you have to believe. How can a dead man believe unless
they're made alive first, given faith to believe God? God doesn't
require, there's no prerequisite whatsoever that God requires
of you and of me in order to be saved. He provides it all. He's only pleased with what he
provides and he provided it all in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
is not the cause of your salvation, it's not the cause of my salvation,
it's the result of salvation. The Lord saved us, then he called
us. Gives us faith, therefore we
believe. Most men preaching have it backwards to get some glory,
a work that they do, a prayer that they pray, a part in it
somehow, and it's not true. It's not true because it gives
man some kind of glory. I can glory in a moment of time
where I experience something or I can glory in something that
I did. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Lord's the only
one good. He's the only one worthy of praise. He's the only one truly due honor
and glory. You and I are not due that. We
don't deserve that. He does. He does. Believer knows that good works
accompany salvation. Love one towards another in the
ministry of the saints. The apostate believe that good
works are the cause of rather than the result of salvation.
Aren't you glad you know the truth? The Lord's not requiring
anything as a prerequisite for you to be saved. And after you're
saved, God's not requiring anything of you that he has not provided
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about the vine. how that the Lord grafts us in.
He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Somebody said,
well, that's just a metaphor. Well, no, that's actually true
100%. That's really what happens. You
and I are dead and trust passes it in sin, spiritually speaking,
and we're united unto him. We're united unto him. In scripture,
in John chapter 17, he calls it being made one with him. That's
literal. That's not a metaphor. We're
one with him. Therefore, we produce his fruit. Now, we don't see
it. We don't see it, but being in Christ, the Lord sees the
fruit of Christ. Isn't that glorious? Everything
required. Not one thing left undone. God's not looking to you and
I to break a tie. or to lend him a hand. The distinct
difference is this, brethren, those in false religion believe
that one must do a work to become righteous, whereas the true believer,
the elect of God, believe that they do the work, whatever the
work is for the ministry, because Christ is our righteousness,
and we do it unto him. I think about someone, I can't remember who
said it now, is either, I believe it's either Henry Mahan or, well,
if I don't know who it is, I guess I shouldn't say names, should
I? I can't remember. But he made this statement. If two angels
were sent from the Lord to come down to earth, and one was told,
I want you, the Lord says, you're going to preach, I want you to
preach the gospel, And to the other angel, Lord said, I want
you to sweep the streets, physically sweep the streets. You think
either angel would care which one did what? No, no, why? Because it was a task given to
them by God, by God. How much more you and I the task
that's given unto us, we do unto him in love because he's not
just our Lord, he's our savior. He's our redeemer. He saved his
people. Unto which of the angels did
he save? Yeah, he elected some of them,
but he didn't give his darling son for angels. He gave them
for his people, for this, for who we are, his people, his elect. Everybody gets nervous when you
start talking about works. At least that's been my experience.
They're looking for something that I might say. I'll get emails
after this. Something I might say to put
you back underneath the law. That's not gonna happen. The
work that we do, the good work that the Lord's given us is this
ministry. It's the gospel going forth. And every time we give,
every time we come here, we're in this together. And we do this
in love, one towards another unto him. That's our motivation.
I love him. I want to hear about him. That's the same with you, isn't
it? You love him. That's why you
do it. Why don't you just stay home on Sunday morning? Somebody
say, why do you go to church all the time? I've got to hear
about him. I love him. Why do I love him? Because he first loved me. Because
he first loved me. I never look to my love and think,
OK, I love him enough now. It's always I wish I loved him
more. Wish I loved him more. The difference, brethren, is
that the self-righteous believe that their works are the cause
of their justification, whereas the redeemed of the Lord. We
work unto him because Christ is our justification. We never
one time do a work as part of justification, as part of redemption,
as part of sanctification. Any work that we do unto him,
it's unto his glory completely because of what he has already
done. And I've already told you what works I'm speaking of, what
accompanies salvation as it's mentioned here. It's the labor
of love, it's the ministry of the saints. Are we not ministering
to the saints right now, this morning, together? That's exactly
what we're doing. That's exactly what we're doing. The Lord said these words one
time to his disciples. I love how about everything he
told the disciples, they're so much like us, he asked them,
He spoke to him one time and he said, how long must I put
up with you? Paraphrasing, but it's really
what he was saying. How long must I put up with you
and your unbelief? It's like, you've seen all these things. But he
said these words. He said, when I was hungry, you
fed me. When I was naked, you clothed
me. So whenever I was sick, you came,
you visited me. And he gives them about six or
seven different things like that. And they said, Lord, when did
we feed you? When did we come visit you? When
did we give you to drink? When did we clothe you? Said,
as much as you've done this unto the least of these thy brethren,
you've done it unto me. You've done it unto me. Is that
not our motivation is to tell each other about being clothed
in the righteousness of the Lord, His righteousness? We see one
another hungry. We give each other bread. I know
that's physical too. I believe that's physical too.
But he's talking about the spiritual side of it. When we talk to each
other, do not encourage each other in the gospel and pick
one another up and say, look to Christ, he's still seated.
He's not the God of calculations. He's the seated successful redeemer
of his people. Look to him. That's the labor
of love. That's the labor, that's part
of the ministry, it is. He says these words in verse
10, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of
love, which you have showed towards his name, and that you do minister,
have ministered to the saints and do minister. Now, as I was
studying this, I was really trying to figure out how to bring this
out. I want to understand. I don't just want to say words. I want to know what it is the
Lord's saying here. And what the Lord gave me and
gave me peace on this is when he says here, God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love in order for him to forget
something. And he says, he's not going to,
but in order for him to forget something, it has to exist. So
this work and labor of love exists in the church and it exists in
the church by the ministry. It does. And You think, well,
if we preach, well, you should love better. Well, you should
love more. You should minister more often. You should do that. Now we're
starting to make it a law again, aren't we? Now we're starting,
what's the consequence if I don't? That's what my mind goes to.
You're saying I don't love enough. What's the consequence? No, we
declare the gospel one to another, and we are constrained by the
love of the Lord. We don't preach one to another
should be this or should be that. No, we just declare him. We just
declare him, and if we're the Lord's, we will love. We will. We know you've passed from death
unto life. Why? Because you love the brethren. You love the brethren. Calls it the ministry of the
saints. writer makes a very interesting
point I want to examine in verse 11 and 12. We desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end. That ye be not slothful but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Now the next verse is when he
says, for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater he swore by himself. Doesn't And I said this already,
but he doesn't say, look at my faithfulness, look at my patience,
look at my works, look what I have done. And that's so important
because if you hear a preacher that declares those things to
you, look at what I have done, look at what I'm not doing, look
at what, look at how much I love, look at how much, how faithful
I am. They're not declaring the gospel.
Love does not, the love of Christ does not point to self. If you
love one another, if I love you, who am I going to point you to?
Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what love of the Father
does. It points us to him. Love is selfless unto the Lord. It's always unto the Lord. Look
at what I did. That's always drawing attention
to self. But look what he did. That's
always drawing attention to him, isn't it? Now he could have said
Moses here. He could have gave us Moses as
an example, but that would have coincided with Sinai and the
old covenant. So they would have started thinking
about that old covenant again. He said, Abraham, which is the
father, he's called the father of all of Israel. He's called
the father of the Jews. And we know that that's what's
literal, but it's also spiritually speaking, he's the first one
that the scripture says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted
unto him for righteousness. Abraham believed God because
the Lord gave Abraham faith and that's the whole point is he's
not taking us back to the law and say okay Here's your love.
Here's your faithfulness. Here's your labor in the ministry
now go back to the law No, he's saying go to Abraham and what
what do we go to Abraham? To Abraham it's his the promise. It's the promise that was given
it's not works whatsoever. That's what he's pointing us
to is not works unto salvation, but it's the promise that was
given unto Abraham. He's saying you've received salvation
by grace alone. You've received salvation by
grace alone. Abraham believed God. We have
to often ask ourself why. Why do you believe? Why do I
believe? Because God said believe. That's
our hope, isn't it? Not because I've worked, not
because I see myself getting better, not because I'm not doing
this or that, but because God said believe. If I am to believe,
the Lord's gonna have to cause me to believe. If I am to work
unto him in love, Lord, you're gonna have to give me that love
towards you and towards the brethren. Otherwise, I will draw attention
to myself. I'll make it about me. That's
just how we are, isn't it? Now, either we are singularly motivated by love
that glories in nothing but the Lord or Our works are altogether
false. And that's as clear as I can
be this morning. If we are working to draw attention to ourself
at any point, then it's a false work. But if we working in love
one towards another none to him, he gets all the glory in it.
He gets all the glory in it. That's exactly what the labor
of love does. It glorifies Christ alone. That's the distinct difference.
Do we see that? That's the distinct difference.
It's not that we work to obtain salvation. It's that any work
that we do unto the Lord, unto each other in love, is because
he's already saved us. He's already wrought our salvation
on the cross of Calvary. When he died in our place, and
I get, there's, I was talking to Donny Bell last night, we
were talking about substitution. And there is nothing, I love
everything about our Lord and about our gospel, what the Lord's
given us. But there's nothing else that excites me more than
substitution. I'm talking about the literal,
the Lord Jesus Christ becoming me on the cross of Calvary so
that you and I, his people, could be made the very righteousness
of God. A complete swap, if you will. He took our place as our substitute,
as our surety. And he's given us the love that
he has towards his father. In the new man, he's given us
love, one toward another and unto him. Do you love his gospel? Do you love this truth? If you
do, it's been given to you. If it's not been given, I've
got family members that hate it. Why? Because the Lord's not
giving them the love. They don't have the love towards
the brethren, towards the gospel. Lord, give me that love more. Cause me to love it more. This is our ministry brethren
bestowed upon us. We work unto the Lord for his
glory. I was asked a couple weeks ago, why don't you have, I get
an email every once in a while like this and they'll say, my
name is so and so we're looking for a church and the next question
is, what do you have for the kids? What ministry groups do
you have? This one said, do you have a
puppet ministry? I guess that's a thing. And I, my response,
I was, I was kind of patient with them. But I, I said, we
preach the gospel. We have a Sunday school class
for the young ones up to five years old, and then after that,
they can come in the adult, in here. I'm sorry, I said that
wrong. So I said I had nursery up to
four years old, and then the five-year-old and up, they have
a class on the first hour on Sunday morning, I said, but we
preach the gospel. We preach the gospel. And the response
was, is that all? I thought you don't understand
what you just said. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to everyone that God calls us to
believe. That is the power of God unto
salvation. What else do you want to hear
me say? Nothing. Tell me about our Isaac. Tell me about our King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Tell me about Jesus Christ who
successfully redeemed his elected sinners. Tell me how he's not
frustrated. He's not upset. He's not he's
not he's not angry with his people. He's satisfied with the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He sees the blood.
And he sees his people in love, covered by that blood, being
found in Christ. What other message gives hope? We're gonna look at hope next
hour. What other message do we declare that points us to Christ? There is none other. It's him,
and we declare this in love, one towards another. That's all
we offer. That's it. I've got nothing else. We labor in love to tell how
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. We labor in love to tell what
the angel declared. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. We labor in love to tell it is
finished. He is seated. When he had by
himself purged our sin, he sat down on the right hand of God. This is the distinct difference.
Of our love and the ministry unto the Lord, we tell men and
women the truth. In closing, I want to say this,
we can't add to or take away anything from the finished work
of Christ. Number one, we are sinful, so we can't add to or
take away from the finished work of Christ. But if you're a believer,
you can't because you are constrained by love. You are kept by his
power. You won't add anything to or
take away from it because you're his and you love his gospel.
He's the one that did that. He's the one that did that because
our substitute made us alive unto him. Born of his seed, producing
his fruit. Now we can't see it, but he does.
We labor in love, one towards another unto him. That's the
result of salvation. It's not the cause. It's not
part of it. It's just that he says live,
and we breathe him. And we breathe him. That's the
distinct difference. That's the distinct difference in works
when it comes to the gospel versus works for salvation. We don't
work to be saved. Any work that we do one toward
another and unto him is because we've been saved. Amen. Let's
pray. Father, cause us to understand
these words more and more and grow in you. Cause us never to
add to or take away from your finished work. Cause us to believe.
In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.