On The Other Hand

We have reason to trust God

Steve Brown, my favorite radio preacher, was also a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando

And he taught courses on preaching.

One of the things he told his students was, every now and then say something in a way the congregation doesn’t expect, in order to wake them up.

I was glad to hear him say that as I do that by nature - sometimes by design and sometimes not.

But the point is, sometimes you have to jar your listeners to life.

We are all creatures of comfort.

If we are hot, we want to be cool.

If we are cool, we will want to be warm.

If we are hungry, we want to be fed.

If we are sleepy, we want to go to bed.

And the list goes on almost to infinity.

And if we can find a place that is the right temperature with food and a nice mattress

We will get comfortable and settle in.

But comfort is dangerous.

I think it would be fair to say that the folks the Hebrews was written had been comfortable but weren’t anymore.

Persecution was picking up.

It was affecting their jobs and even their friends.

And Jesus didn’t appear to be coming anytime soon.

So some of the Hebrews were starting to think that maybe they had made a mistake.

They started to doubt what they had been taught.

And obviously, some of them were seriously thinking about going back to the way they lived before - that was comfortable.

It appears they were studying the same things every time they gathered.

Remember last week, verse 1 & 2 of chapter 6 - the Pastor tells them “it’s time to quit studying the same things over and over again.

“You not only need to be beyond that, you should be beyond that already.”

And then, in so many words, he jolts them awake.

“It’s like he said, ‘What’s the matter with you people?’

‘Do you believe or don’t you?’”

And then he laid it on the line.

Hebrews 6:4–6 “For it is impossible [the Pastor said], in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”

He’s telling them, “You think long and hard about walking away from Jesus

“Because if you do, you can’t come back.”

He pulled a Steve Brown - he jerked them awake.

He jerked us awake - I’ve had a number of folks talk to me about this text.

So now that he’s got their attention, he starts bringing them up to speed.

Open you Bibles with me to Hebrews 6:9-20.

Children, you would do well to listen closely today.

If you have trusted Jesus as your Savior already, what we’re going to talk about is what the rest of your life should look like.

And if you haven’t trusted Jesus yet, listen to what your life will be like if you do trust Jesus.

Each week you get a worship guide to help you follow along.

The three words on your worship guide that you are listening for are Jesus, Know and Abraham.

If everyone has their Bibles open to Hebrews 6, hear now the Word of the Lord Hebrews 6:9-20

Hebrews 6:9–20 ESV

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray…In Jesus’ name, Amen

Look at verse 9 Hebrews 6:9 - this is the New Living Translation version:

Hebrews 6:9 NLT

Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.

It’s like the Pastor says to them, “Although you are starting to talk like people who aren’t saved, I really believe you are.

Now remember, it is not our job to determine if someone else is saved or not.

But there are indicators - fruit, if you will - that you can see in a saved person.

Fruit we should see in ourselves.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5

2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

This is exactly what the Pastor is wanting the Hebrews to do.

He wants them to examine themselves so they will know that they know that they know that they are saved.

So he mentions four things he sees in them,

Four Indicators of Salvation

Look at verse 10 Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

The first indicator of salvation - “your work.”

“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work

Now they aren’t working to be saved

They are working because they are saved.

Doing the good works Ephesians 2:10 “…created in Christ Jesus, which God prepared beforehand….” for us to do

The second indicator of salvation is -”the love that you have shown for his name”

He’s not talking about talking about Jesus.

He’s talking about showing our love for Jesus

Loving Jesus is manifested in action

The third indicator of salvation is -”serving the saints”

This is a very familiar word to the church.

It’s a form of the word that means deacon.

And it is literally translated ‘deaconing.’

You are deaconing the saints

You are serving the church.

You don’t have to be an ordained Deacon to deacon in the church.

In fact, ordained Deacons are really the supervisors who make sure the ministries the Elders put in place actually work.

Everyone though, that works in the church is deaconing - they are serving.

And the fourth indicator is, “as you still do.”

You haven’t stopped.

Even though you are doubting

Even though things are not going as you think they should

Or as people promised you they would - you are still doing.

That’s such a hard thing.

A Christian leads someone to Jesus and tells them, “if you’ll follow Jesus, he’ll change your life.

“I was awful and look what the Lord did for me.”

So this person follows Jesus but their life doesn’t get any better.

In fact, sometimes it gets worse for a while.

And they get very disillusioned

And it’s because the one who led them to Jesus failed to mention that our change happened over a long period of time.

And doesn’t look a bit like we expected it to when they were saved.

Sure there are the few people who have the dramatic salvation experience where they went from drunk to sober in one prayer.

But for the most of us, our growth in faith in Jesus has been in spits and spurts.

Sometimes with long periods of “What is the world is going on here” mixed in the middle.

Look down at verses 13-15 Hebrews 6:13–15 “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.”

Now there is a whole bunch in these two sentences, but the first thing to see is this.

The Pastor is alluding back to an Old Testament story that every Sunday School student has heard.

Abraham is about 112 years old.

His son Isaac might be about 12 at this point

And the Lord comes to Abraham and says something that makes no sense.

Genesis 22:2 ESV

He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Kill your son.

Help me understand how that make sense at all.

You think your world doesn’t make sense - dig that for a moment.

You’ve waited all of your life for a kid.

Your wife is so old having a kid is not a reality

And yet God does this miracle thing and your son is born.

Then, then, God promises you your descendants will be like the stars in the sky

And you’re feeling pretty okie doke

And then Genesis 22:2.

The Pastor wants us to understand something

Nobody’s life make sense

Study any character in the Bible and you’ll see it almost every time.

No one’s life works like a fairy tale.

As Christians, we have a certain hope that we have a happily ever after.

But it’s a hot mess getting to the ending.

The scripture doesn’t say so, but I’m 99% certain that Abraham thought God had lost His mind.

You may not say it out loud because your forebears told you that you couldn’t even think such things.

Some of you may never have let yourself think it although it was troubling your heart.

But I’d be very, very, very, very surprised if there was one person in here who didn’t think at least once

“What in the world is the Lord doing?

“This makes no sense.”

Abraham was in just that kind of situation.

Yet, he loaded up his son

He took some firewood

And he headed to Mt. Moriah.

The people the Pastor is writing too understand this.

They followed Jesus.

It wasn’t working out like they expected either.

In that case…

How do you keep going?

Let’s go back to verses 13 - 15 again.

God made a promise to Abraham - I’ll make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky, as numerous as the grains of sand on a beach.

And - I love this because this is funny to me

Since there is no one greater than God, God swore by Himself

You’ve heard people say, “I swear on my mother’s grave

Or “I swear on the Bible”

They do that because their mama’s grave and the Bible to them are powerful things to them

And they want you to believe them.

It’s kind of like a contract to us today.

If you put your name on a contract, you are agreeing that you will do a certain thing under certain terms and conditions.

If you won’t sign the contract, well, we can’t count on you to do what you said.

So God wanted Abraham to be assured God would do what He said

So He swore on Himself.

I’ve always thought that was hysterical.

Another little tidbit is verse 14

Literally it says, “blessing, I bless you. Multiplying, I multiply you.”

It’s God’s character to bless.

It’s God’s character to multiply.

So He says to Abraham - “This is what I do, so I’m going to bless and multiply you.”

So, now listen, because Abraham knew that God was good for His word, Hebrews 6:15 “And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.”

And you know the end of the story.

The Lord stopped Abraham and provided a ram for a sacrifice instead.

And Issac grew up to have Jacob

And Jacob grew up to have 12 sons who became the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel.

But now, think about this

What made Abraham trust God?

I mean a whole lot of folks swear a whole lot of things

What makes God’s swearing anything special?

There are two things about God we must believe

God has shown us who He is through the Bible.

There is a big theological word we use called immutability.

And it means simply this - God can never and will never change.

We’ll hear later in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

That’s a simple restatement of the Lord’s immutability.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit we know now, will be and will act the same now and forever.

Now, in verse 17, there is a phrase about God’s character that we hold fast to

“the unchangeable character of his purpose.”

It’s graduation time and invariably someone will post this verse for their child,

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Why do you say that with confidence?

Because you know the immutable character of God is to bless us - ‘blessing, I will bless’ remember?

And we know that God’s immutable plan for His elect is to give them a future and a hope.

Revelation 22:4–5 ESV

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

For you and I to weather the storms of life, the immutable character of God’s purpose has to live strongly in our hearts.

No matter what the demons of hell God allows to mess with our lives, we know that we know that we know that God’s ultimate plan is to deliver us into a future and hope.

And that will never change.

The second thing we know is found in verse 18, “in which it is impossible for God to lie.”

Again, immutable attribute.

If God says it, take it to the bank.

Regardless of what the situation may look like, it cannot end contrary to God’s promises.

And, as you read through the Bible you’ll see, everything the Lord says, happens just as He said.

And they keep happening, just like He said.

Now, I’ve got to go here for just a quick minute.

There are those of you who have friends in the Mormon church.

They use our Bible plus the book of Mormon - which is a problem all on it’s own.

As Austin pointed out Wednesday with the Students, Galatians 1:8

Galatians 1:8 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe the angel Moroni delivered a new gospel to Joseph Smith in order to complete God’s story.

In this book, their God is not immutable.

He has certain characteristics that are immutable.

But God is like us.

In fact, God the Father started as a human and increased in wisdom and righteousness until He became God the Father

But He is still growing and thus, can change.

That is a dangerous god to follow.

Who knows what he might decide?

Who knows what his purposes might become?

So the Mormon God is a very dangerous god in which to place your faith.

So, bottom line, Because the God of the Bible is immutable and His purpose will never change and Yahweh can never lie

Like the Pastor says in verse 19, Hebrews 6:19 “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…”

We can hold fast to Jesus no matter what life throws at us because we know His words are true.

Those who conquer, those who endure to the end WILL live with Jesus forever.

So brothers and sisters, examine yourselves.

We have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We can endure whatever comes our way.

And until then, work, love the Lord, serve the saints, and we keep on doing it, until Jesus takes us home.

Let us pray: