Sermon #29                                                       Hebrews Notes

 

          Title:            Our Strong Consolation

          Text:            Hebrews 6:11-20

          Readings:     Bob Duff and Rex Bartley

          Subject:       The Certainty of Every Believer’s Perseverance

          Date:            Tuesday Evening – October ,2000

          Tape #         W-4a

          Introduction:

 

          The Apostle Paul is urging us to go on in faith, trusting Christ alone as our Savior. He is urging us to persevere unto the end. That has been his purpose since the opening words of chapter 2. He has been urging us not to let Christ and his gospel slip from our hands. He has told us plainly that some have fallen away, and that if any fall away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance.

 

          Having given us these warnings, he assures those who truly trust Christ that they shall indeed persevere. That is what the Holy Spirit tells us in our text tonight.

 

Proposition: All who are truly born of God, all who trust Christ alone as Savior and Lord, all who look to Christ’s blood alone as the atonement for their sins, all who look to Christ’s obedience alone for their righteousness before God, shall continue to trust him unto the end and shall be with him in glory.

 

          Every believer, every sinner who looks to Christ alone for salvation and eternal life, can and should sing, with Toplady…

 

“A debtor to mercy alone,

Of covenant mercy I sing:

Nor fear with His righteousness on,

My person and offering to bring.

The terrors of law and of God,

With me can have nothing to do;

My Savior’s obedience and blood

Hide all my transgressions from view.

 

The work which His goodness began,

The arm of His strength will complete;

His promise is yea and amen,

And never was forfeited yet.

Things future, nor things that are now,

Not all things below, nor above,

Can make Him His purpose forego,

Or sever my soul from His love!

 

My name from the palms of His hands,

Eternity will not erase:

Impressed on His heart it remains

In marks of indelible grace.

Yes, I to the end shall endure,

As sure as the Earnest is given:

More happy, but not more secure,

The glorified spirits in heaven!”

 

How can this be? How can any of s be sure of grace? How can anyone be assured of his salvation?

·        Our adversary, the devil, seeks to devour us.

·        Our temptations are many and great.

·        Our trials are many and heavy.

·        Our hearts are sinful and our flesh weak.

 

          Yet, our text tonight speaks of “the full assurance of faith.” What is the basis of this assurance? The text speaks of men and women in this world having “a strong consolation” and a “hope as an anchor of the soul.

 

          The title of my message tonight is Our Strong Consolation. Hold your Bibles open on your laps, as I preach to you from Hebrews 6:11-20. I want us to look at each verse in this passage, line by line.

 

(Hebrews 6:11)  "And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end."

 

          Paul opens this section, dealing with “the full assurance of hope” by urging us to diligence. To many that might seem strange, but not to a believer. Nothing so inspires diligence in the life of a believer as the assurance of his hope in Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-11, 19-20).

 

          As old John Trapp put it – “A man may as truly say the sea burns, or fire cools, as that certainty of salvation breeds looseness.”

 

          The Apostle urges us to continue in faith and love, and in serving one another, with the desire that we might all arrive at “the full assurance of faith” in Christ.

 

          Two things are obvious. (1.) Some true believers do not enjoy the blessed peace of “the full assurance of faith.” (2.) It is both possible for us to have this assurance in this world, and we should seek it.

 

What could be more blessed and more inspiring to my soul in this world than a well-grounded full assurance?

 

·        Of our interest in the love and grace of God? -- I am loved of God.

 

·        Of our interest in the covenant of grace,  its blessings and promises; in God in it, as our covenant God and Father; in Christ? -- I am chosen of God.

 

·        Of our saving interest in Christ as our Substitute and Redeemer? -- I am redeemed.

 

·        Of the Holy Spirit’s work of grace in us and of our fitness by grace for the possession of eternal glory and happiness in heaven? -- God has saved me.

 

·        And of possessing this blessed assurance "unto the end"? -- God keeps me.

 

(Hebrews 6:12)  "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

 

          Let us not be slothful concerning our souls and the things of God, but diligent, following the examples of those who have gone before us into glory, who through faith and patience have inherited the promises of God in Christ.

 

          Grace, salvation, and eternal life in and by Christ are things bestowed upon sinners by the promise of God. This is stated here, to show us that salvation is not by our works, or merits, but is entirely the work and gift of God’s free grace in Christ. It is a gift that shall assuredly be obtained by God’s elect. It shall be obtained by that faith and patience which God gives to his people by the power and grace of his Spirit.

 

This gift of grace is expressed in the plural number, "promises",  because it is the great, all inclusive promise of God. It is described as an inheritance because the whole thing is our in Christ, as the sons of God, as “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.”

 

Yet, this is a promise that shall be obtained after much trouble, after faith has been tried and proved, through “patience,” as illustrated in verses 13-15 in Abraham.

 

(Hebrews 6:13-15)  "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, (14) Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. (15) And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

 

          The apostle used Abraham as a pattern, because he was the father of all believers. The promises God made to him of blessedness and of being made a blessing, are ours, for all the promises of God are in Christ, and are yea and amen in him.

 

          The promises referred to here are found in Genesis 22:16-17. This is the place where God’s promise was enforced with his oath. This promise to Abraham was made by Christ himself, the Angel of the Covenant, who swore by himself because he could swear by none greater (Isa. 45:23).

 

          When the Scriptures speak of God swearing by himself, it is a display of his condescension. He condescends to our weakness, assuring us, by his oath, that his promise is good.

 

          All who are chosen of God, all who are called by his grace, all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are hereby assured that all spiritual blessings are and shall be ours in Christ (Eph. 1:3-6).

 

(Hebrews 6:16)  "For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife."

 

          The oath of a man is given to put an end to strife, doubts and questions, about what he has promised. How much more shall God’s oath put an end to all our doubts and questions concerning his promise of grace in Christ?

 

(Hebrews 6:17)  "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath."

 

          The counsel of God, as the term is used here, is his everlasting purpose of grace in Christ, his purpose of grace, his eternal decree concerning the salvation of his elect (Rom. 8:28-31). This is, like God himself, here declared to be a matter of absolute immutability. It is an immutable thing because of…

 

·        The Unchangeableness Of His Person.

·        The Sovereignty Of His Will.

·        The Unsearchableness Of His Wisdom.

·        The Omnipotence Of His Arm.

·        The Unconditionality Of His Grace.

·        The Suretyship Engagements Of His Son.

 

Note: The words, “confirmed it by an oath,” suggest the interposition of a Mediator.

 

(Hebrews 6:18)  "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”

 

1.     Here are two immutable things: (1.) the Decree of God, and (2.) The Oath of God.

 

2.     Here is an assuring, blessed fact: “It is impossible for God to lie.

 

3.     Christ is our “strong consolation”. -- Not our Experience, --- Not our Feelings, -- Not our Holiness, -- Not Even our Faith, -- But Christ.

 

4.     Believers are men and women who have fled for refuge unto him, like the man slayer in the Old Testament fled for refuge to one of the cities of refuge. – The names of the cities was typically significant (Ex. 21:13; Num. 35:6, 11, 14; Deut. 21:2, 9; Jos. 20:1-9).

 

·        Kedesh signifies "holy", as Christ is, both as God and man, and is made sanctification to his people.

 

·        Shechem is "the shoulder", and Christ has not only bore the sins of his people in his own body, on the tree, but he bears and carries their persons, and has the government of them on his shoulders, where they are safe and secure.

 

·        Hebron may be interpreted "fellowship", and the saints have not only fellowship with Christ; but with the Father through him.

 

·        Bezer may be rendered a "fortified place." Christ is a stronghold, a tower, a place of defence, whither the righteous run, and are safe.

 

·        Ramoth signifies "exaltations"; and may fitly be applied to Christ, who is exalted at God's right hand, and who will exalt those that trust in him in due time.

 

·        Golan may be translated "manifested." Christ the Son of God has been manifest in the flesh, to destroy the works of the devil; and he will be revealed from heaven in a glorious manner at the last day.

 

          The words “lay hold upon” are very strong. They mean to laid hold firmly, as with a death grip. When Satan would pull us off of Christ, we hold him fast. It is our faith in Christ, our hope in him that the fiend of hell would destroy. – His messengers are preachers who cunningly try to get us to takew refuge somewhere else.

 

(Hebrews 6:19)  "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."

 

          Our hope is fastened within the veil. It is a sure and stedfast hope. Our ship may be tossed to and fro, but it cannot be wrecked.

 

·        Christ is the Pilot.

·        The Scriptures are the compass.

·        God’s promises are the tackling.

·        Hope is the anchor.

·        Faith is the cable holding it.

·        The Holy Spirit is the Wind that drives it.

 

(Hebrews 6:20)  "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

 

          As the high priest in Israel entered into the holy of holies once a year, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest has gone into the Holy Place. There he has taken possession of Heaven as our Forerunner...

1.    with his own blood.

2.    having obtained eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12).

3.    to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2).

4.    as our Forerunner.

5.    as a Priest after the order of Melchisedec. – An order of Righteousness. – An order of Peace. – An Everlasting Order. – An Unchangeable Order.