Sermon Tone Analysis

! The Full Assurance of Hope to the End

Hebrews 6:9-12

!!!! "Beloved"

     I have been keenly aware recently that we live in a day when people's feelings are the chief measure of how to love.

If feelings are vulnerable and might be hurt by a certain action, then we say, "This is probably not the loving thing to do."

Which means that we can easily be held hostage by people's sensitivities.

Good and loving acts will be rejected because the bottom line of love is not truth or principle *or even what's best for the person*, but how they will feel.

So if they can communicate that they will feel really bad, they can protect themselves from many good things.

What makes me think of this is the word "beloved" in verse 9.

It means simply "loved ones"—"you whom I love."

It's the only place in the whole book where the writer says it this way—where he calls them "loved ones."

The reason this stands out is that he has just said some of the hardest words in the book.

He has said that they are dull of hearing even though by this time they ought to be teachers (5:11-12).

He says that they are like babes stuck on milk (5:13-14).

And he holds out the possibility that some of them have had great blessings and high religious experiences but are not saved, and are like a field that drinks rain for months and never brings forth fruit (6:4-8).

!!!! *On Being Thin-skinned and Vulnerable*

     And then he says, "I do love you."

Now I point this out because we need to let the Bible shape our worldview.

We are a nation of victims and whiners and pouters to a large degree.

That is, if someone says something negative about us—no matter how constructive they may try to be—we either slump into a fit of self-justifying woundedness, or we file a harassment suit.

We are a very thin-skinned people in America these days.

Easily offended and easily provoked.

This is not good.

And followers of Jesus Christ should be different.

We don't need to be thin-skinned and vulnerable.

We are chosen by God, loved by God, forgiven by God, accepted by God, indwelt by God, guided by God, protected by God, strengthened by God—and God is more important than anyone else in the universe.

We do not have to feel vulnerable or insecure.

We do not have to be self-justifying or self-defensive or self-pitying.

We can be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, as James says (James 1:19).

We can be like Paul who said, "/When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate/" (1 Corinthians 4:12-13).

And if we can relate to our enemies that way, how much more can we handle the tough love of those who come to us with hard words for our good.

The writer to the Hebrews says, "beloved"—"loved ones"—I have spoken to you this way because I love you.

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!!!! *Taking the Risks of Love*

    A few times over the last four years or so I preached with the express purpose of asking some hard questions about spiritual lives.

This is very risky and very hard to do.

You get accused of judgmentalism, pointing a finger toward the imperfections lives.

And because of this, we do not do this as often as we should.

The writer to the Hebrews is calling us by his example to grow up and to take the risks of love.

He is also calling us to be less easily offended.

And less easily hurt.

We have a massive foundation for our salvation in the death of the Son of God and we have an advocate in heaven more powerful and more compelling than any accuser on earth.

We should be the freest of all people to listen to criticism and take it into account and not be wounded or self-pitying or resentful.

So the first thing in today's message is: let us learn how to love and be loved when heaven and hell are at stake and hard questions are in order.

!!!! *We Are Convinced of Better Things Concerning You*

    The second thing to notice in this text is why the writer is so confident that his readers are not going to fall away and prove that they were never saved.

He just said in verses 4-8 that it is possible to have great blessings and high religious experiences and never have been saved.

*It is a hard warning and he says it in love.*

But then in verse 9 he says, "/But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way."/

So he does not think that they will actually fall away and be lost.

He is hopeful.

He believes they will hear his warning and instead of resenting it and saying, "/You have no business talking that way to born- again Christians,"/ he believes they will say, "We know how fragile we are in ourselves.

Thank you for keeping us alert to the dangers of the deceitfulness of sin, and reminding us to fight the fight of faith every day."

He believes that the warnings will not drive them away in resentment, but will deepen their vigilance and earnest pursuit of assurance.

So that that is what he says in verse 9: "/We are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation./"

!!!! *His Confidence is Because of the Justice of God*

     But why does he have this confidence?

What might increase our confidence today that we will not fall away but will press on in better things that accompany salvation?

He gives the reason in verse 10.

He says, "/For [because] God is not unjust [or unrighteous] 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."/

Now this is remarkable because the verse speaks of God's justice not his mercy.

There is something about God's justice or righteousness (same Greek word) that causes this writer to be confident that the readers will persevere in faith and patience and not fall away.

"We are convinced of better things concerning you . . .

because God is not unjust . .

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How does the righteousness or justice of God give the writer this kind of confidence?

We usually think of the justice of God bringing us into judgment because our sins deserve it, and the mercy of God rescuing us from judgment because Christ died in our place.

And both are true.

But here the justice of God is the reason he is confident they will be saved and not fall away.

How does the justice of God give him that confidence?

He says in verse 10 that God's justice will not let God forget their work and the love which they showed to God's name (a good literal rendering).

And he defines this work and the love they showed to God's name (in verse 10) as their ministry to the saints in the past and their ongoing ministry in the present.

So he is saying that it's God's memory of their past and ongoing ministry to the saints and their love to his name that give him the confidence they will be saved and not fall away.

And it is God's justice that causes him not to forget this ministry and this love.

!!!! *How Does God's Remembering Assure that They will Persevere?*

Now why does God's remembering their ministry and their love assure the writer that they will persevere and be saved?

Remember he says, "We are convinced of better things concerning you . . .

*because** *God is not unjust to forget your work and love."

So it's God's remembering their ministry and love that gives us the confidence they will persevere and be saved.

*But how?* …..It must mean that when God remembers their ministry and their love, it moves him in some way to work all the more to keep them persevering in faith.

Their perseverance is dependent on God (verse 3) and God's preserving work is prompted in some way by his remembering the work they showed the saints and the love they showed his name.

So the writer is saying five things:

1) you have ministered to the saints and still are;

2) you have done this out of a love for the name of God;

3) God's justice sees this and takes note of it and will not forget it;

4) this prompts God to work for your perseverance;

5) I have strong confidence, then, that you will persevere and experience better things that belong to salvation.

!!!! *Are We Meriting God's Work in Our Lives?*

    Now here's the crucial issue for us who love the mercy of God and know that we are sinners and do not deserve to be saved in the first place and do not deserve to be kept in the second place.

We do not become Christians by merit and we do not stay Christians by merit.

The question is: how does God's justice prompt him to work perseverance in us when he sees our ministry and our love for his name?

This could very easily sound like we are meriting God's work in our lives.

It could easily be taken to mean that God looks at our ministry and our love for his name and says: "They don't need mercy; they simply need justice; and so I will now deal with them in terms of justice alone: I will give them what they deserve and what they earn.

I got them started in the Christian life with the mercy of forgiveness; but they will finish the Christian life with justice: if they minister and love, then justice demands that I give them salvation because they've earned it.

I am not unjust so as to forget their work and love.

I will give them their due—salvation."

That, I fear, is the way many professing Christians see the Christian life.

God may give us a jumpstart with mercy while we are in sin, but we are the ones who keep the battery charged and prove by our efforts that we deserve to get to heaven after that.

But this would be a massive contradiction of salvation by grace through faith.

It would be a massive contradiction of *living by faith in future grace*—which is what Hebrews is all about.

For example, look at verses 11-12,  /And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises./

!!!! *Through Faith and Patience we Inherit the Promises*