An Encouragement to Persevere

Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back to Hebrews chapter 6 where we were earlier in our scripture reading will be in verses 9 to 12. I'll mention a few other verses. You can write those down and go back and study them as you go back and study what we're learning. I do say this often, but I think it is good for us to study what we study together on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Make that a part of your personal Bible study and prayer time.

Now for two weeks we have been in this third warning that is found here in the book of Hebrews and I think most of us know that this warning started in chapter 5 verse 11 and it continues all the way to the end of chapter 6. A rather long and lengthy warning. Now we have seen that the author of the book here had been explaining the high priesthood of Jesus in the order of Melchizedek, but the author had a problem which caused him to stop that teaching and give the warning. But actually the author didn't have a problem. It was the church and the people there that had a problem.

Simply these in this congregation could not and would not receive this teaching, so the author had to give them this warning concerning apostasy and he had to correct and teach them to get them to a place where they could receive this teaching. Now before we continue in this warning and the teaching within and around this warning, I want to point out something that I have seen really all throughout this situation. I want us to see how clear these things are and how cloudy these things can be. Really all at the same time. Now let me explain what I mean. These people and these problems here are very, very clear. Real simple.

The church was comprised of only two kinds of people that truly saved and those who were not saved. We can say it like this, "There were only wheat or weeds in the congregation." Many of you know I am referencing that particular parable that teaches on the wheat and the tares or the wheat and the weeds. That is found in Matthew 13 starting in verse 26. But these people and these problems are very, very cloudy. These things are very unclear. Yes, this church was comprised of only two kinds of people, but it can be very hard to tell who is who and what is what. We can say it like this and studying all of these things like we have been.

The weeds in this congregation can look just like the wheat and the wheat can look just like the weeds. So that means that when we are studying these things and identifying who is who and how these believers and these non-believers were acting and living within this church, it can be clear at times and it can be very cloudy and confusing. I am sure that some of this congregation who were truly born again but they were terribly immature and digressing in their faith and in their walk like we see and study in chapter 6 verses 1 to 3, at times I am sure that they did not look like real and true Christians.

And I am sure that we could have expected some of them to apostasize easily and quickly, but they did not. And I am sure that some of those in this church who were not truly born again but they professed Christ and they experienced the things we see as Christian listed in chapter 6 verses 45, in many ways I am sure they look like real and true Christians. And I am sure that we would have never thought that some of them would apostasize but some did. Now notice how that applies to us today. You see in the church today when looking at many in the church today it is very clear and it is very cloudy. Within the church today it is simple.

There are only two kinds of people, the true Christian and the lost who merely profess Christ even if they do that. But with some at certain times it can be hard to tell the difference. And when we see someone who looks like a strong Christian, even a very strong Christian for years when we see them fall away it is a shock. But it should not surprise us at all because of what we are learning here. And on the other side we see some who are truly born again but at times they flounder in spiritual immaturity and spiritual digression and we would expect them to fall away but they do not.

And this should not surprise us because of what we are learning here. So the lesson for us right here is this church, the church here on earth even at its best is imperfect. Of course we should not expect sin, we should not expect and accept sin and sinfulness and spiritual slothfulness in the church, no. But we understand that the church here on earth will always be imperfect. Now before we get into our verses and the author's encouragement here I want to remind us of what we have already seen. Now I have a purpose here, this is not review for review sake.

In chapter 5 verse 11 to chapter 6 verse 3 we saw that the author confronted and warned the spiritually immature within this church. These were true believers but because they had allowed themselves to become spiritually lazy they had become spiritually dull. So the author called them to move out of their spiritual digression and out of their spiritual immaturity. He called them to and towards spiritual maturity and he warned them of apostasy because even though they were true believers the temptation and the pressure to go back to Judaism and the old covenant was very very real for them.

Then in chapter 6 verse 4 on to chapter 6 verse 8 we saw how the author confronted and warned those spiritual impostors within the church. They were not true believers but those who merely professed Christ. And even though they had experienced a whole long list of legitimate Christian things he warned them that if they apostatized by going back to Judaism and under the old covenant they would never again have the opportunity to repent and believe. Now at this point there is one thing we need to make sure we see with all of this teaching and with both groups in dealing with all of them we have seen that the author was very blunt very bold.

We have seen that he even shamed them as he confronted them and taught them. But here in verses 9 to 12 we will see a tremendous change in the author's approach. He begins to express hope and confidence. He begins to encourage them and to tell them that he had confidence and hope that his warning and all of this teaching would produce positive fruit, positive results spiritually in all of them. So with that in mind let's go back and read our verses and then I will share with you how we are going to break down what we have here.

Verse 9 the author says, "Though we speak in this way," speaking of what he has just taught, "yet in your case," speaking of who they were and what they were, "beloved we feel sure of better things, things that belong to or accompany 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, but 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." Now out of all of these verses I want to make four observations and all of this centers on how the author was encouraging them.

First we see he expresses a confidence in their future. That's out of verse 9. Second, a confidence in God for their future. That's out of verse 10. Then third he expresses a desire, a very strong desire for their perseverance. That's in verse 11. And then in verse 12, fourth, he expresses a strong desire for their strength. So number one, the author gives us a confidence in their future. That's out of verse 9. We see a confidence in their future. Now as the author shifts to this encouragement, he does something that we need to see. First he reminds them of his warning.

The English Standard has this reminder at the beginning of the verse, but the New American and other translations have this at the end of the verses. The English Standard says, "Though we speak in this way, yet in your case." Now the New American, again, it's at the end of the verse says, "Though we are speaking of this way." Now simply as the author was moving into his encouragement, he was reminding them of their situation and his warning. He was emphasizing the seriousness of their situation and the bold, blunt, and confrontational warning and teaching he had just given them. But he shifts and he expresses two things.

Notice he expresses his love for them. Now all the translations that I reference and we study together use the word beloved. But this is a unique word in that it is not found anywhere else in the New Testament. And this word here in the original simply means esteemed, worthy of love, and esteemed, loved, and beloved. And here I think we can see the shift. The author had been very confrontational and here he shifts into showing them the tender love and concern that he had for them. He wanted to show them how he felt about them and the place that they had in his heart.

As one writer said it, "He did not want any doubt in their minds and hearts how he felt about them." Now before I move on, there is a lesson that we need to see here. I believe that a pastor should love his people. I do. Now when I say that, I don't mean that you belong to me, no. But I believe that a pastor should love his people and I believe that a pastor should express that love to his people. And as I have pastored you and served you and lived life around you, I express my love for you. I express my appreciation for you. And if I have that and if I have not done that as I should, I want to do that. I love you, each and every one of you.

It is a pleasure. It is a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to pastor you and serve you. And I love each and every one of you. And you know what, as we serve together and love one another, we find ourselves expressing that verbally. Many times I'm on the phone with people in this room and I hear you see things like this, "Pastor, I love you." And I say those things back to you. But notice he expresses his confidence in them. Look at what the author said to them.

He said, and I'm reading the New American now, "But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you." And this word "convinced" is simple, it simply means to be persuaded. In this word "better" here, this speaks of what is more useful or more advantageous. So the author was saying that he was convinced, he was persuaded of better things, even more useful things for them. And notice what this applied to. The New American says, "Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation." The English Standard says, "Things that belong to salvation." But what is that term?

Things that belong to or accompany salvation. What does that mean? Now these are not things that lead to salvation, but things that accompany salvation. That is why the New American and the King James used the word "accompanied." So what the author was simply saying is simple. He loved them and he was telling them that he loved them. And he was telling them that he had no doubt that better, more useful and advantageous things pertaining to their salvation and the Christian life would come out of their lives. Now, as I do often, I want to ask you to step back and see what the author says here and how he applies this to these individuals.

He has just told them that he loved them and he believed in them. He assured them that he had confidence that better, more useful things which accompany salvation in the Christian life was in their future. But a question, how does this apply to those believers who were plagued by spiritual immaturity? He was loving on them and he was telling them that he believed that his warning and the teaching around this warning would produce Christian fruitfulness, maturity and Christian progress in them. And all of that would produce things in and through them that accompany true salvation and the true Christian life.

But how does this apply to those non-believers? Those who were really threatened by apostasy. He was loving on them as well and he was telling them that he believed in them that they could come to a place of true saving faith and not apostasize. And he was telling them that he believed that better and good things pertaining to salvation in the true Christian life would be and could be a part of their lives if they would come to saving faith. Now an application for us here at Grace Life Brookhaven, I want to ask a question that we all need to ponder and answer. What is accompanying our salvation? We profess to be Christian.

I don't believe anybody here would raise your hand and say, "I'm not a Christian. I reject Christ and Christianity." Well if that is the case, what is accompanying your professed salvation? Albert Barnes says the author was confident the proper fruit of holiness would accompany their salvation. Now this week as I was pondering over these things and I was pondering over what Barnes says here, this term proper fruit, I thought about something from my childhood and my past. Every now and then I will mention when I'm preaching and teaching the farm that my grandfather had that I got to enjoy most of my life.

But as a kid I'll never forget coming into the second gate really getting in on his property. To the left there were two very, very old large pear trees. You know being the engineer and the smart man that my grandfather was, he engineered a way to get those pears down without bruising them. See if you knocked them out of the tree and they hit the ground it bruised them. So in his infinite wisdom he took a very large metal coffee can and he took a very long cane pole and he wired that can on the end of that cane pole and he would put it up into the top of that tree and he would put that pear into that can and he would jug it.

You know what it means to jug something? Well the pear fell in the can, he lowered the can down and there was your pear. And when I was a kid I would eat some many that I would get sick. I wished I could go back and eat a few of those pears today. Now what is my point? Why do I use that illustration? We always got pears off those pear trees because those were pear trees. So in your life as you claim to be Christian my question for you is this, what is the fruit of your salvation? What is the fruit of your salvation?

If the fruit of your salvation and Christian life has been fruitfulness, Christian fruitfulness, well then let's make sure that we are fruitful and more fruitful producing more fruit as we should. But if the fruit of your salvation or your professed salvation and your professed Christian life has not been Christian fruitfulness then you need to examine to see if you are truly born again. Just like the writer, the author of the book here, I have great confidence that God will and is, he will and is producing more fruitfulness in your life. So the author here tells us of his confidence in their future.

And then number two, we see a confidence in God for their future. The author gives us a confidence in God for their future. Let's go back and look at verse 10. Notice a transition. He says, "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." Now here the author is continuing to express his confidence in them. We have seen that he was confident, he was persuaded that they were destined to better, more advantageous things which go along with which accompany salvation in the true Christian life. To Bar-Barnes' term, he was confident in more fruitfulness.

But here he shows them the source of these things and in doing so he reminds them of three things. First, God's character in his recognition of them. Here he says that God is not unjust. And this simply means that God is not one who violates what is just and what is right. God is not unjust but right and righteous. Therefore he does what is right, he does what is right and just. And the author was not only referring to what God does but who God is. He was and is speaking of who God is and he is referencing his character. He is saying that God is right. He is just and he is fair.

So he acts righteously and he does what is right and just is fair. That is what he is, that is what he does. And he was saying that if God is right and just and fair and he is and he does what is right and just and fair and he does, then he will not overlook what they have done. Now look church, right here there is something we need to see. And I am speaking straight to a brother, straight to a sister that is sitting here this morning. You may be down, you may feel like you have served God for years and because of certain circumstances you may feel like God has forgotten you. Look child of God, do not hold on to that thought.

That is not coming from God, that comes from the enemy. The writer of Hebrews says that our God, your God, our God is not unjust so as to overlook your work. He does not do that. And I say do not give in to that defeat. But look to our God who can be trusted and who never ever overlooks his own. But notice he says that God remembered their work. Now this is not referring to some kind of works in relation to salvation. We know that the author did not believe in any kind of a works to gain salvation. But this work referred to some kind of work that was commendable to God.

This speaks of some kind of work or works that were noteworthy, commendable. But what were these works? One scholar that I read says this was ministering to other believers. Another scholar that I read said that these works were pertaining to obedience in the Christian life. Another scholar that I read says that these were labors for the Lord and for the Lord's saints. Well, what were these works? Well, we do not know specifically. But whether these were works pertaining to obedience in the Christian life or works towards others, it does not matter. These were good works. These were works that God approved of God could commend them for.

But then also, he says God remembered their love. Now here it is obvious that the author is referring to a love for two things. First they were commended for their love for God's name. Now this can be overlooked by us in our time. But in their day, this would have really, really gotten their attention. In their day, the name of a person really summed up all that that person was. Their name truly represented them and encapsulated all that they were. I give you an example that we know. Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter.

His new name was Peter and that name in the original, that meant small rock or a piece of a larger rock which represented who Peter was. Peter's new name summed up all that Peter was and all that Peter was to be. He was to be a rock of a man or a small piece of the rock. That's Christ Jesus. So here the author was saying that they had a love for the name. Of course, this is referring to God. So they loved God's name, but that represented the fact that they loved God. They loved who God was and they loved him personally. And then second, they were commended for the love of the saints. Now listen to the last part of verse 10.

I'm reading the verse again. The writer says, "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." Here the author was pointing out that they had served the saints and they continued to do so and they did this out of a love for the saints. Now the author does not point this out, but we need to see this. Notice how he commended them for their love for God, their love for the saints, which turned into serving the saints. Now notice, we need to see what we have here.

A true love for God always, always turns into a love for God's people and that love turns into serving God's people. And we see this in other places in the scripture. First John 3.17, John says that a person who shows no compassion on his brother in need does not really love God. And he goes on to say in chapter 4 verse 20 that anyone who does not love his brother, they cannot love God. And speaking of these things in this letter and this congregation, Leon Morris, the Bible scholar says, "By this test the readers come out well. They have served others and continue to serve them." Let me repeat that.

Morris says, "By this test, the test of love, the readers here come out well. They have served others and they continue to serve them." And this may be a little of a shock for you. It was for me. From what we have seen from them lately, we may not would expect them to be commended at all. But right here we need to ask a question. Does our love for God produce a love for and service unto God's people as it should? Let me repeat that. Does your love, does our love for God produce a love for and a service unto God's people as it should?

Look church, if we do not serve each other as we should, then that means something is off in our love for our Lord. So the lesson here for us is this. If we have a heart to love and serve others, if we have a heart to love and serve brothers and sisters and we do serve them, that is indicative of a love for God. And I will be honest with you here, there is no such thing as a true Christian who does not love and serve brothers and sisters in the church. That doesn't exist. And that is because there is no such thing as a true Christian who lives disconnected from a church.

And if there is a true Christian who is disconnected from the church, they are in a very, very sinful, a very serious and unhealthy place. But let's take a step back and see what the author was and is saying here. He was expressing to them that he had full confidence in their future, not because of what they could do in their strength and ability, but because of God and His work in them. And he was reminding them that God had not forgotten them. He remembered their works, their love for him, their love for others which produced serving the saints. So the author was telling them that he was confident in God for their future.

And notice church, this kind of sounds like the perseverance of the saints, does it not? That is the saints persevering in God only because God perseveres in them. And look church, the confidence that we have in our future should come from the fact that God is and will be persevering in us. But the key to it all is if we are born again and not just a professing imposter of a Christian. Now at this point the author makes a bit of a shift. We'll see it rather easily. He moves from his confidence in their future to expressing certain desires that he had for them. And here in the rest of the verses he expresses two desires.

So number three in our outline we see a desire, a strong desire for their perseverance. The author is giving a strong desire for their perseverance. Let's read verse 11. He says, "And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end." Now here I want us to see several things. First the author had a strong desire and he expressed it. Now all the translations that we study say the same thing and we desire. And this comes from a very, very strong verb in the original which means to long for, to seek after, to desire, and to do so strongly. So the author had a desire but a strong desire.

Second the author had a personal desire. In verse 9 he had already addressed them as beloved, communicating to them that he loved them. And here he says, "We strongly desire each of you," which means that he did not have just the congregation in mind but individuals in mind and individuals we assume that he knew. So the author had a strong desire and a personal desire here. But a question. What is this all about? What does he feel so strongly about? Third, this is a strong and personal desire that they would persevere. I like how the New American reads and I'm reading verse 11.

The New American says, "And we desire that each of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end." Here the author refers to the same diligence which tells us that they had diligence before and he reminds them of this past diligence and tells them that he strongly desires that they have the same diligence now until the end. And this diligence means a lot. It speaks of perseverance and earnestness, a forwardness, and all of these things with speed. But think of their circumstances for just a minute.

They had not fallen into a possecy like we see in verses 4-8 but they were terribly immature in their faith as seen in verses 11-14 chapter 5. They had become spiritually lazy which produced a spiritual dullness that we see in chapter 5 verse 11 and they were even babies in the faith in chapter 5 verse 13. And I say this because we would not express a strong personal desire that they persevere. We would strongly express a great frustration with them. I don't know about you but I would. But back to verse 11 and notice what this tells us.

"At one time they had been spiritually diligent in persevering in their faith and then their walk with God but they had allowed themselves to slip into spiritual laziness and that produced a spiritual dullness." So this tells us that the author strongly desired that they return to diligence and return to perseverance that they once had and a diligence and a perseverance that they knew. But what does this perseverance pertain to? The English Standard says the full assurance of hope until the end. Now scholars tell us that this is difficult to understand.

One scholar says this means something like and he's paraphrasing to show the same diligence to the fullness of the hope until the end. So what the author was and is saying here is this. He wanted them to possess a hope that was developing and being more fully developed. And this hope was and is simply a firm and living certainty of God's ultimate and total victory in all things even until the end. And what that meant for this situation and these people is this. These and this congregation had this hope but the author had a strong and personal desire that this hope would grow and grow and grow and become more mature even until the end.

Now let's take a step back and notice what the author was saying here. He was expressing a strong and a personal desire that these that he was writing to would persevere in the same perseverance that they had before. It seems that they were not what they should be. That is why he gave them the warning and the teaching around the warning in the first place. So here he was expressing a strong desire that they persevered in their diligence and in their perseverance as they once had to the point where their hope grew and grew and grew until the end. Now this leads me to a question. And I'm speaking to believers.

Is our diligence, is our perseverance growing and growing and growing? Or was there a day when our diligence and perseverance was stronger? And if so then we need a revival of our perseverance. If so then we are like these believers here in the book of Hebrews. We have allowed spiritual laziness to come in. We have become spiritually dull. And you know I've thought about it. The ones who are prone to this kind of sin and error are the more mature. See we get mature, we grow and we become more and more mature and then we become comfortable. And when we become comfortable then we become lazy. And when we become lazy then we become dull.

And when we become dull what happens is we don't persevere like we once did. So we strongly, he expressed a strong desire for their perseverance. And then number four, he gives a strong desire for their strength. A strong desire for their strength. Let's go back and look at verse 12. So that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patient inherit the promises. Now we have already seen that this is a strong desire and a personal desire. And to me the author does everything but call out their names in a good way. That's what the Apostle Paul did, meaning many times in his letters.

But here we see the author's strong desire for two things. First that they may not be sluggish. Now we have already seen how the author called many of them out for their spiritual laziness and dullness. But here he points it out again. He said that he writes these things so that they may not be sluggish. And this speaks of that which is slow, that which is dull, that which some had become. So he had this strong personal desire that they would not be sluggish but that they would be strong. And then second, that they would imitate others. Now here the writer hints of what he will cover thoroughly over in chapter 11.

And that is imitating other strong believers and those who had gone before them. But here the author called them to look around them and to imitate or mimic or copy those genuine strong believers who had lived the true Christian life before them. In our day we would call them mentors. And there's nothing wrong with using that language. And notice the three characteristics that he pointed out in those to be imitated. And we see the same thing in different translations. First faith, they possessed faith. And this faith is that which is the foundation of Christianity. This is basic and foundational to true Christianity.

And without it there is no faith. Then second, patience. They possessed patience. And this patience is an endurance. It is a steadfastness. It is a long suffering. A patient perseverance in the faith in good times and in bad times when it is easy and when it is difficult even when it seems impossible. And then third, longevity. Which is what this inherit the promises means. Simply these are the ones who live the Christian life faithfully until the very end and they inherit the promises of eternal life. I like what one writer said here. He says this inherit points to a secure possession.

So we had a strong and personal desire that they would imitate or mimic those who had lived the true Christian life well all the way to the end. Now take a step back and notice what the author is saying here. He expressed a strong personal desire for spiritual strength in them. That is the opposite of being sluggish and dull. And what did he do to energize them in this work? What direction did he give them? He called them to imitate certain true and strong Christians who had proven themselves by being faithful and to the end. Now notice something church. And we desperately need to see this today.

These were not flashy believers to be imitated. Let me repeat that. These were not flashy believers to be imitated. Having faith and maintaining faith, exhibiting patience, long sufferingness and enduring in the faith, and doing those things in good times and in hard times until the end. That's not flashy faith folks. This is faithful faith. But this is a faith worth imitating and this is a faith commended by God. And for us, notice we should imitate and mimic certain Christians in our life. Do we imitate conference speakers?

You know there's a lot of talk today about conference speakers and our emphasis on conference speakers as a result of Steve Lawson's immorality. Do we imitate conference speakers? Do we imitate famous authors? Do we imitate the most popular Christian leader on our favorite social media platform? Look folks, I'll be honest with you, a lot of these so-called Christian leaders on social media, if you got up close to them you might find out they don't even go to church. Now I'm not against a conference speaker. I'm not against a famous author. I'm not against necessarily some Christian who is a leader on social media.

But the point I'm trying to make is we can't know those people and they can't know us. And look Grace Life, we are to find those who possess and live the true Christian faith and who have done this patiently, steadily. They have persevered in the faith in good times and in bad times all the way to the end and we find those people where? In the scripture. And we find them in church history because they have died and history has told us what kind of a Christian they were. And look we should find those kind of brothers and sisters, those kind of mentors in the life of our church.

And look folks, if you've been a born again Christian for 10 years you should be a mentor to a new believer. Look if you've been a Christian for 20 years you should be a mentor. If you've been a Christian for a lengthy period of time you should be one that a young person, a child, someone new in the faith can look up to. And so my question for you is this, who are you imitating and are you living a life where someone can imitate you? So this strong personal desire for their strength. Now as I close notice what the author was giving this church simply an encouragement to persevere. That's the title of the message.

An encouragement to persevere. And I conclude by addressing two people and this will be very short. For those of you who are not born again you've never come to saving faith. You may profess Christ. You need to come to Christ for saving faith just like those in this church who were not born again you need Christ and you need salvation so that you can truly be a Christian so that you can truly persevere in the faith like we see here. And then for those of us who are true believers this is an encouragement that we must take to heart.

We must know and understand this encouragement so as to persevere in a great way, not in a flashy way, but in a faithful way. When it is easy, when it is hard, all the way to the end. So the title of the message is an encouragement to persevere. Let's pray, I want to commit these things to the Lord and then we will transition into partaking the Lord's Supper.