Things That Accompany Salvation

Transcript

GR 1688
05/05/2013
Things that Accompany Salvation
Hebrews 6:9-12
Gil Rugh

There was an article in the morning paper that maybe some of you saw, Famed Evangelist's Son Follows another Path. And this is the son of Jim and Tammy Bakker who at one time had a popular TV program, The PTL Club and so on. This son, Jay Bakker is 37 years old. This articles says, Bakker is not just here for memories, he is in Minneapolis now. After nearly seven years as a pastor of a popular New York church, Bakker has moved to Minneapolis to start a new congregation in a bar. His move, don't get excited yet, his move reflects Minnesota's growing prominence in the emerging church movement, an unconventional, broad-minded brand of Christianity that questions traditional religious labels and practices. He is covered in tattoos and piercings, looks more like a hipster than a minister. And is quite different in style and beliefs from his evangelical parents. Bakker is liberal-leaning on social issues and a fervent gay rights supporter. He has married same sex couples in New York where the practice is legal. Bakker said he and his wife were drawn to Minneapolis for a number of reasons, chiefly the thriving emerging church presence. Leaders count nearly half a dozen Twin Cities area congregations. In Minneapolis, he says, I've seen so many intellectual believers. People are open minded. I'm excited to dive into that and see more of that in the city. In Brooklyn members of Bakker's Revolution Church met at Pete's Candy Store. Now Pete's Candy Store is a hip bar, so it's a bar, it's called a candy store, where Bakker delivers a sermon from a stool or talks about religious questions he is wrestling with. As many as 75 people attend. People can talk about most any religious subject. Members of emerging church congregations like Bakker's often have become disillusioned with institutionalized religion. “For some people they've been so hurt by the church that the fact that they can have a beer or drink in order to come back to church is a baby step,” he said.

This is a reoccurring emphasis among a number of these young people who have now become adults, raised in evangelical situations, now they want to talk about “they were so hurt by what happened in that evangelical church.” What else can I say? They've been so hurt by what happened in those churches that they've decided to start their own thing. You go to the bar, can have a beer and a drink and talk about religious things. I think you probably would have been able to do that ever since they had bars. You can probably talk about anything you want at the bar over a drink. Right? So now it's a church because you are talking about religious things.

Bakker fell into alcohol and drug abuse but eventually he and a group of friends formed a Revolution Church in Arizona in 1994. If I figure this out right, he would have been about 17 or 18. That was considered among the first emerging churches in the country. And a man at Davidson College who is writing a book on the emerging Christian movement says, “Bakker has become the antithesis to the seeker megachurch. The emergent church movement is a reaction to what many perceived to be the excesses of conventional Christianity.” In Bakker's latest book entitled Faith, Doubt and Other Lines I've Crossed, he writes of his doubts about the existence of God and where he is now on his faith journey. He says, “doubt is something that needs to be embraced with faith because doubt is an element of faith. Faith is not fact, it's like hope.”

Something missing in this article, you'll note, is any mention of the Bible, any mention of Jesus Christ, any mention of salvation in Him. I think this is a sad characteristic that is true, I don't know that I should say of all, but of the vast majority of what are called emergent churches, emerging churches, the emergent village, whatever name they like to give to it. Young people that have been raised in Christian churches, biblical churches, but have never experienced the saving grace of God through faith in Christ, and they are frustrated. The truth of the Word of God has never penetrated their heart and they know something is wrong, so it must be the church. I'm not a fan of much of the megachurch movement, but that's not the problem. It's not, if we can get out of this kind of building and go to the bar and have a beer while we talk about it. Now we have a biblical church. Those things aren't the issue, the issue is the truth of the Word of God. And as I've tracked some of these, even those that start out to seem more biblical, the drift always carries them further and further away from the truth of God because what they are reacting against is biblical Christianity. And that's what troubles them and bothers them, and they are trying to come up with an alternative but there is none.

We are in the book of Hebrews, and the book of Hebrews is written to Jewish believers going through struggles and trials. In this we see the writer's concern for the spiritual condition of those he is writing to. And in that concern we'll see a concern for the fact that some of them may have never truly come to trust Christ. So they don't understand the seriousness of the issues. And some of these Jewish Christians think that maybe going back to Judaism would be an answer. The writer to the Hebrews is showing that Jesus Christ is God's provision. All God's work and plan for the salvation of mankind centers in the person and work of Jesus Christ, there are no alternatives.

He started out this what we call a warning passage, a strong exhortation in Hebrews 5:11. It will run down through Hebrews 6:12. He began by sternly rebuking them for their lack of maturity. He says, “I would like to explain to you more of the depths of the truths concerning Jesus Christ's high priestly ministry according to the order of Melchizedek, but you aren't ready for it. But you should be. But you have become,” he says at the end of verse 11, “dull of hearing,” sluggish in your hearing. You are not interested in these more serious things of the truths concerning the work of God. You have not developed to the point of handling them and being ready to grapple with them. You are immature, you are child-like. By now you ought to be teachers and you have need for someone to teach you. And it's this lack of maturity that has allowed them to think that a return to Judaism could be a possibility. If you really had any kind of depth to your understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ, you would know that that's not even a remote possibility that God's work centers in Jesus Christ.

So this lack of maturity exposes them to confusion and the possibility of being turned aside from faithfulness to Christ. We looked in our previous studies in Ephesians 4, and there the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and exhorted them concerning the importance of growing in the Word of God and their understanding of it “so they are not like children, carried about with every wind of doctrine that comes along.” That's what happens when we are not rooted and grounded in the truth of God's Word, when we're satisfied with a superficial grasp of matters pertaining to salvation and so on. We think, this sounds good, that might be a possibility, that could have some advantages. And of course everything the devil brings to the attention to draw us aside from faithfulness to Christ has a certain amount of truth dribbled into it so that it can have an appearance of being genuine.

Back up to Galatians 3. Paul is writing to these churches in Galatia that he had been involved in leading to Christ. But do you know what? They have been influenced by people who have come and taught them, you need to turn to Judaism and the Law and circumcision. What you have in Christ is not complete. Not the same exact issue as we have in Hebrews, but it's the same kind of problem—is Judaism a necessary part. The Hebrews in the book of Hebrews are thinking of turning back to Judaism. These Galatians are thinking and being challenged to mix in Judaism, the Law and so on in their Christianity. Note what Paul says to them in Galatians 3:1, “you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I taught you clearly about the finished work of Christ. Someone has come along and put you under a spell, you fools? This is the only thing I want to find out from you, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now perfected by the Law? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?” You'll note these are believers who have suffered for their faith in Christ, similar like the Hebrews we are studying about have suffered for their faith in Christ. Now they've come into a state of confusion about whether what they have in Christ is sufficient and final.

Turn over to Galatians 4:8, “however at that time when you did not know God you were a slave to things which by nature are no gods, but now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things,” remember we saw those elemental things in Hebrews 5:11ff, we “turn back to the things of Judaism, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again. You observe days, months, seasons and labors. I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” Do you know what Paul is saying? I'm really concerned. Maybe you never really trusted Christ at all. All my labor among you in bringing the Gospel to you came to nothing because you didn't truly trust Him. You know this is the same kind of concern we have seen in Hebrews 6. He addresses those who maybe really have not trusted Christ.

Verse 16, “have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Verse 19, “my children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” Remember Hebrews 6:1, the writer encouraged those Jews, “let us go on to maturity.” Here Paul says to these Galatians, I am in labor over you, I'm concerned that you come to true salvation and grow to maturity in Christ. I could wish to be present with you now to change my tone, I'm perplexed about you. Something is wrong. I mean, did you truly trust Christ? Do you really understand the finality of salvation through faith in Him and Him alone? Then how can you be talking about turning to Judaism? Makes me wonder, were you really saved?
Come to Galatians 5:1, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm. Do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.” This idea that you have to go to a bar and have a cigar and a beer to show your freedom, that has nothing to do with what the Bible is talking about here. “Behold I say to you, that if you receive circumcision Christ will be of no benefit to you.” Now note this, very similar to the passage we studied last time in Hebrews 6, “again I testify to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law, you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by Law. You have fallen from grace.” You see the warning of it. If you turn to the Law, turn away from Christ to the Law as necessary for your salvation, you have cut yourself off from any hope of salvation. You have cut yourself off from the grace of God. You are lost forever.

Now you come back to Hebrews. And after strongly rebuking them for their immaturity at the end of Hebrews 5, you move into Hebrews 6. And in the first three verses he exhorted them, “let us go on to maturity,” leaving behind those foundational things, the things associated with the Mosaic Law, the Levitical system. And if you don't go on, and you do turn back, you will be lost forever. That was the strong warning in verses 4-8. This is serious business. Don't be confused here and consider carefully the situation you are in, having been exposed to the truth of Christ. If you find that insufficient, if you turn away from Him, you will be lost forever.

I want you to note here the connection clearly between the statement in verse 3, “this we will do if God permits.” If God permits, He is sovereign in this. And then remember if you were here for our previous study, the first word in the Greek text as this was originally written is the word that we haven't carried in our English translation until down in verse 6. It is translated, it is impossible. So as the Spirit of God directed this originally written, we had verse 3, “this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible in the case of those once enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift and then have fallen away to renew them again to repentance.” So that's the point. If God permits, we will go on to maturity if God permits because for those who turn back He will not permit them to come again to repentance. They cannot be renewed to repentance, warning them of the seriousness. They think, I'll turn back to Judaism but maybe sometime in the future I'll decide to come back to Christ. Maybe after the pressures are past, the persecution is over. You understand God is sovereign in this process. We sometimes act like we do God a favor if we come and trust in Him, we do ourselves a favor if we bow before Him. You understand He is sovereign here. You don't say, I'll turn back and then maybe, probably I'll come back after the heat is off a little bit. You understand, we'll go on to maturity if God permits. And the very next word is it's impossible for those who have had this full exposure and then fall away to be renewed to repentance. Very serious business. God is sovereign here.

That's why He says, “Today is the day of salvation,” now is the time. You don't dabble with God and say, I'll give you some consideration. We don't put it in those terms, but here is your opportunity. We saw what happened to Israel when they rejected God's promised blessing to enable them to go into the Promised Land and enjoy what He had promised. They chose no. He said, all right, you come under judgment. They decide, now we'll repent, we will go in. He said, no, you won't, the door is closed, opportunity is past. We say, I don't like to think of God like this, I like to think the door is open all the time. Well, we need to think like God thinks. The door may be open today. You choose to close it and say, I'll come back another day; you understand God is sovereign. He is exhorting them on the importance, you better settle this today while you have opportunity.

Now with these kinds of seriousness and his addressing them, you might get the idea he thinks this is a congregation like the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3 that is primarily a church of unbelievers. But that's not the case. So he begins verse 9, but, in contrast to what he has been saying, “but beloved.” Strong term of affection. The first nine times this word beloved is used in the New Testament, it is used of God's love for His Son, Jesus Christ, His beloved Son. The rest of the times, the other 51 times, it is used of believers in the New Testament. So here he addresses them as loved ones, believers in Jesus Christ. “We are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation even though we are speaking this way.” So he has addressed them strongly, but he is convinced that by and large the congregation is composed of believers. Like I would address you. By and large I believe I am addressing a congregation of believers. And we approach the Scripture and give the serious study to it as we expect believers to. But I'm also aware there can be unbelievers mixed in among us and address them. So he's addressing this congregation but it indicates that what he has said prior marked out unbelievers. Let's not get confused on the passage but verse 9 makes clear, “we are convinced of better things concerning you.” That word better we looked at earlier when we began the study of Hebrews, used repeatedly through the book. So he gets better, is superior. Here the things are better things, in contrast to those who don't have salvation and those who do. And the things that characterize your life are characteristic of those who have experienced God's salvation.

So even though we are speaking this way, loved ones, I think that you are believers. He has also drawn a contrast in the way he refers to them. Back in Hebrews 5:11 for example, the last statement there, “since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers.” So there regarding maturity and the need to go on to maturity he speaks directly to them, you. Like I would speak to you as a congregation, you who are followers of Christ. Then he says in Hebrews 6:1, “let us go on to maturity.” He includes himself with them that they may continue to grow and mature together. Then you'll note when you come to verse 4, he gives the warning about those who would stop short of faith in Christ and thus turn away from Him, in the case of those. And then when you come to verse 9 he comes back to speak of you. Though as the group he is firmly convinced and that word in verse 9 that says we are convinced means to be firmly convinced, it's a perfect tense. It has been his ongoing conviction regarding them and it's the conviction he has maintained. You are characterized by better things, the things that would characterize you as those committed to the Law and the Levitical system, the judgments of God and so on. Convinced of the things that accompany salvation, these are true of you even though I am speaking this way.

And the things that accompany salvation are going to be unfolded in verse 10. This is why I am convinced of better things concerning you, not just because you give a testimony that twenty years ago I placed my faith in Christ, I made a decision for Him. I know I haven't lived for Him. I'm contemplating returning to Judaism, but I know I'm saved. The writer says, “no, the things that accompany salvation are the characteristics of your life.”

“For God,” verse 10, “is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” God is not unjust. Of course He is not, not unrighteous. Remember Abraham was confident to come before God when He was speaking about His impending judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham was interceding on behalf of Lot. And he said to God, “shall not the judge of all the earth do right, do justice?” You know that would be true. He is asking, praying according to God's will that God would function according to His character. God is not unjust, He wouldn't forget your work and the love. In other words they have been active in what they have done in their service for God, the love they have demonstrated toward fellow believers, which is a result of their love for God. They have lived their life up to this point as believers with the desire to please God. Your work, the love which you have shown toward His name. His name is all that He is. They've done it because of their love for Him, their commitment to please Him. And God won't forget that, He's not unjust to forget it. Of course He wouldn't, “this is the way” the writer puts it, “that I am convinced of your salvation and I think that God has recognized the evidence of His work in your life in ministering and still ministering to the saints.”

You know a form of the word we often refer to, we get an English word from a form of this deacon. It's to be serving. Isn't it interesting that when he wants to draw out what is the manifestation that God that demonstrates your salvation, it's their service to the saints. We still have people who want to claim to be believers but don't think they have to fellowship with believers. Well, I can worship God at home, I don't have to go to church to worship God. No, we can worship Him all the time, but true believers fellowship with believers because that's God's plan for His children, that's a mark of salvation. When we get to Hebrews 10 we're going to find out that some have abandoned the fellowship of believers which reveals their character. And the writer will encourage them in Hebrews 10 “not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.” How are you going to be serving the saints when you cut yourself off from the fellowship of the saints? Interesting what he brings out here—their commitment to serving one another. This is what God sees as a demonstration of their love, their work for Him. This is done for Him, not because it is convenient, not because it is not work. It's because we are servants of God and so we serve His children.

We live in a day where having kids is passe. People want to have sex but they don't want to get married, they don't want to have any obligations. I still can't figure out how women keep falling for this foolish line, that as though they are free now when the man is getting everything he wants. But that's another line. And then you have kids. And of course kids are trouble, they are a bother. If I were in on the council of God I would have exhorted Him to skip to grandkids and pass the kids. But in God's plan . . . And families are trouble. I mean, we are. Parents are trouble. I mean, I'm getting older. You know what that means for my kids. I mean, I tried to impress upon them at an early age, when I went to the cradle and said, “you will always be responsible for me. You must take care of me in my old age.” We're just family but we serve one another.

Now we are God's family, we serve one another. God is observing and that pleases Him as a demonstration of our work for Him, our love for Him. And He says this in both the past and present—in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. So this has been an ongoing activity of these in the past. And we've seen that, we jumped ahead to Hebrews 10 and saw examples there of how they cared for one another in past persecutions, visited fellow believers when they were imprisoned and helped meet needs and so on. And they are still doing it. So that confirms with the writer and he says that God has seen it and He won't forget it. Tells something of the security of the believer before God. This marks them out as belonging to God.

Now we don't want to go on a sidetrack here, but you see God is not unjust to forget your work and the love. We sometimes talk about Roman Catholics, they use this verse to indicate that works are a necessary contribution to our salvation. And it really doesn't have anything to do with what the verse is saying, but they get this out of the verse, so that in their system your salvation is never complete. That's why you have to keep going back for the sacraments to keep receiving means of grace because you are not fully saved. That goes on. That's what he is talking about here, you have to be careful to get works in the right order. God is seeing their work, He is seeing they are serving one another. But this is not something they are doing to maintain their salvation. This is not something they are doing to make their salvation more complete. They are saved, they belong to God. This is a result of God's work in their lives.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. Look at Paul's statement in verse 10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” It's all of grace. “I am what I am by the grace of God,” Paul says, “And His grace toward me did not prove vain.” Did the grace of God prove vain? What's the evidence of it? “But I labored even more than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God with me.” You see this is what we have when we talk about our lives as believers. It is all of God's grace in His work in our lives, but we must apply ourselves with all of our effort. But that's no credit to me because it is God's grace that enables me, He empowers me, He is my sufficiency. That's the combination we have. So it is all a credit to God's grace but it doesn't mean I can sit back and say, “if God would have wanted me to do it, He would have motivated me.” I look in the Word. Does it say this is what He wants me to do? Then I need to get about doing it. I don't want to do it in the energy of the flesh. You better apply every ounce of your physical energy to doing it. That's what Paul says he did—I labored more than all of them. That's not done in the work of the flesh as we think of it, our fallen, sinful self. But by the grace of God I gave it everything I had. That's why he wrote to the Corinthians earlier in 1 Corinthians 9, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others I myself would be rejected.” I discipline myself, I apply myself with all my energy and all my effort. But I recognize that what happens to make it effective and enables me is God.

We have to be careful, I just can't think, if I feel like doing it, that must be the Spirit's moving. If I don't feel like doing it, it must not be the Spirit. Paul says, “I discipline my body.” The word there means to beat under the eyes until they are black and blue. My body doesn't tell me, my body doesn't feel like it. Well I determine what God would have me do and then I make my body do it. It's the grace of God.

Come over to Ephesians 2:4, “but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in transgressions made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast.” No part of my salvation is brought about by my works, my effort, what I do. It is all a testimony to God's grace. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, as those who have been made new in Christ now that live out the plan of God for them.” We were created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That's God's pattern for us as a part of His provision for us in His grace that now we should live lives that are pleasing to Him.

This is what these young people raised in an evangelical situation have missed. They think we have rules and regulations and they want to be free. We're talking about being free in God's grace to do what God has commanded me. What did Jesus say? “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” I was reading and they say, all they can think of are the laws and the regulations, the rules I was under. Well, you missed the grace. And His commandments are not burdensome for those who are dwelling in the splendor of His grace that works in our lives. If you are here as an unbeliever and we talk about the commandments of God and what God requires and you say, it's just a burden and rules and regulations. No, you don't understand. This is what the God who loves us and His grace that He has bestowed upon us enables us to do because this is what pleases Him and this is what is best for us. We're not telling people that this is what you do to get saved. You can do nothing but cast yourself upon the mercy of God, believing that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. He died, He was raised. The only salvation is in Him. But those who experience God's transforming grace have a desire to live for Him, have a desire to obey Him, a desire to please Him. That's what we're talking about.

Come over to Philippians 2:12, “now then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.” He expects obedience, he is giving them the truth of God. It has to be obeyed. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” He doesn't say, work to be saved, but the salvation you have now is to be worked out, is to be lived out, is to be worked. For it is God who is at work in you. You see that combination again, when I as a believer expend my energy to do what God tells me to do, it is God's work that is being accomplished in and through me. It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

So to refuse as a child of God to obey God would be to stifle the work of God, to refuse to allow Him to do what He wants to do in and through me. So the person who hasn't trusted Christ, it just sounds like burdensome and so they are looking for freedom. So for them freedom is the ability to drink or have a cigar or have a drink or not have to be . . . I mean, they don't understand grace at all. I don't care whether you have a cigar or you don't, I don't care whether you have a drink or not. Don't get on that. But you know the point. That's not the issue. They don't understand grace and what freedom in Christ is. Now I am free to be and to do everything that God wants me to do. I am now free to have God do His work in and through my life. That's freedom, that's what we are talking about. We work out our salvation, the salvation we have in Christ now is lived and now I'm not free to do what I want. I've settled it, now I know I'm not going to hell but I'm going to heaven, now if I don't obey God that doesn't matter. It does matter and if you've truly been saved it will matter to you. And if it doesn't matter to you it's an indication you were never saved. The Scripture couldn't be any more clear.

Come back to Hebrews, verse 11. “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence.” That word desire is a strong word, we have a strong intense desire, that you show diligence, zeal, passion. Spoodame, zeal. They had become dull, sluggish. I want you to demonstrate zeal. Each of you show the same diligence. You know, each one. He wants each one to come along, those that may not have trusted Christ, we want you to come along. We want you to trust Christ. Those of you who have trusted Christ, we want you to come along and show the same diligence. What he has been talking about, what has characterized those believers up to this point. I want each one of us, I don't want to leave anybody behind. We have an intense desire that each one of you show the same diligence to reach the full assurance of hope until the end, to realize the full assurance of hope. That absolute certainty, full assurance of the hope that we have, that all of God's promises will be realized. God will do what He has promised. What a confidence.

What happens as a believer matures? They develop more and more of a settled certainty in God's Word and the promises God has given. I am more certain and more settled on the hope that I have in Jesus Christ than I have ever been in my life. He wants them to have that stability because you see without that in their state of immaturity, now they are in danger of being blown about by every wind of doctrine. Confusion has overtaken them and this is not a good way to live as a believer, this immaturity because now life is confusing. How often have you had a less mature believer, probably a young believer and they'll say to you, how can you be sure? And you say, how can you not be sure? God has said it, that's His promise, that's my hope, that's what I'm looking for. Do you know what happens as you lose that focus? Then we get centered in more and more here. Now the difficulties with family, with friends, the possibility of persecution, the losses that may come, may be in prison. What will that mean for my family? We could lose the possessions we have and what will we do. I've lost focus on my hope, what God has promised for those who love Him.

And full assurance, we don't have time to go through the verses on what God says about that confidence, that assurance. We will take one, Colossians 2:2. In Colossians 2, and Colossians 1 ended, “we proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete, perfect, mature in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power which works mightily within me.” So you see Paul is laboring, striving, intense physical toil, draining labor. But it's done according to the power of God which is working powerfully in him. “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf. For those who are at Laodicea, for those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance, settled confidence of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you by persuasive argument.” You see we have to mature so we have that settled, fixed confidence and certainty, the promises of God. No, I'm not going back to Judaism. But think of what it's going to cost you if you don't. No, I think of what it would cost me if I did. I have the promises of God, I'm pressing on. I want you to come to that point of stability in your Christian life.

That's what I want for us as a congregation of believers, to have that settled stability. Yes, doctrines come and go and ideas come and go. We have a settled, fixed confidence. Persecution comes. I've saved all my life for this and I could lose it all. We ought to realize we lose nothing. The world focuses attention on those who have much in this life. True believers in Jesus Christ have their focus on the treasure they have in the life to come. Jesus said, “don't store up treasure for yourselves on earth. All kind of destruction can overtake it. But have treasure in heaven where nothing can affect it.”

You hold your firm assurance, come back to Hebrews 6, until the end, until the end. It's not enough to begin, “well, it's not enough to run well, you must finish well.” Some of you watched the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I like it because that's one sporting event you just have to watch two minutes and get it all. You notice some of those horses took off out there and they were way out front. You get halfway around the track, I'm looking at those horses and say, they have it in the bag. Do you know what? None of those horses that were out front at the halfway point or around there ended up anywhere near the front. They ran out of steam, ran out of gas. We're not in a 100-yard dash, we're in a 25-mile marathon. We have to finish well.

That's what Paul says, “I'm careful, I want to finish well.” Then in 2 Timothy he can say, “I finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me . . . .” Think of what it cost Paul—everything. I mean, he is writing at the end of his miserable, persecuted, suffering life, languishing in a Roman prison, awaiting execution. And he says, “I finished the course, I kept the faith. And now I'll receive the reward.” Do you think he has any regrets today? I don't think so. To the end, that's what these Hebrews needed. To the end, to the end, to the end. Sometimes we hear Christians say, I've done my part. What do you mean, you've done your part? Did God tell you you're dying tonight? Or that you are finished? I mean, we're done? He'll tell me when I'm done, I'll open my eyes in the glory of His presence and I'll say, I have finished, here I am. I may be lying in a deathbed as Paul was, so to speak, and I'll know that I have finished the course. We need to be able to look back and say, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith. I was faithful to Him until the end.

Verse 12, “so that you will not be sluggish,” there is our word. Remember when we were back in Hebrews 5:11, the word translated dull—you have become dull of hearing, nothros. One Greek word translated dull in Hebrews 5:11, translated sluggish in Hebrews 6:12. “All this I'm writing to you is so that you can come to maturity and have that settled confidence and assurance in the promises of God, the hope you have in Christ. “ You won't be sluggish. That sluggishness, that dullness, that loss of interest is a result of losing our focus on Jesus Christ and the wonder of His person and the wonder of His work. And he is saying you need to get refocused. What do I do to shake out this lethargy, this lack of interest? I just lost the interest. Someone passed on, someone who used to attend, I just found it easier to get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and read the paper and not have to bother going to church. We all fight lethargy, it just is characteristic of us. We wind down and pretty soon we think, I earned the rest. And there is nothing wrong with taking a rest, nothing wrong with taking a vacation. There is something wrong with quitting, we can't quit. We can take a break to get refreshed, we can take a break to strengthen ourselves again for the task before. But we can't quit.

“So you be not sluggish.” So he hasn't given up hope on them. He rebuked them strongly for their immaturity and their lack of interest in the serious things of God's truth, but you don't have to stay there. I don't want you to be sluggish, but I want you to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Imitators, we get the word mimic from this word, we just carry it over with a little change, mimetes, mimic, to pattern yourself after them who through faith and patience, longsuffering, ongoing endurance inherit the promises. Isn't that what it's about? Inheriting the promises. It's not what I get in this life, not how much relaxing time I get in this life, not how much retirement I get in this life. It's the promises, the promises. We get so caught up in the thinking of the world that we begin to conduct ourselves like the world and then our Christianity becomes washed out. The example of those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises. We're going to get a whole list of those in Hebrews 11 who by faith and endurance, patience inherit the promises. And that's the transition we're going when we pick up verse 13, “for when God made the promise to Abraham.” Let's talk about Abraham, his faith and patience which enabled him to be an inheritor of the promises.

Is that our focus? Do we have that settled stability, come what may I am disciplining my body by the grace of God, I am applying myself with all my energy to faithfulness to Him, come what may. That's the mentality we want to have so when whatever comes, comes, I have already planted my feet. I will not go back, I will not turn aside. But it's going to be painful, it's going to be costly. I have committed myself to Christ, I have taken up my cross, I'll follow Him. Isn't that where we have to be. That's what the challenge of this writer is to the Hebrews and this congregation and to us by the Spirit in our congregation.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of the work that You have done for us and in us through the finished work of Your Son Jesus Christ. Lord, we are awed to consider again that the work of salvation has been completed in Him, the fullness of revelation has been given in and through Him. We have in Him everything necessary for life and godliness, our salvation is complete in Him. How richly blessed we are to have that grace that saved us to be the same grace that works in us day by day, week by week, month by month to enable us and empower us to apply ourselves with all our effort and energy to be faithful to you until we are privileged to come into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ. And we praise You in His name, amen.