You ever been driving late at night on a long
road and suddenly realized you are far more tired
than you thought you were? Your eyes get heavy,
your reactions slow down, you stop paying close
attention and before long maybe you begin to
drift without realizing it. Maybe you hit those
rumble strips that shake the car on the side
of the road. Maybe your tires cross over the
yellow line for a second. Maybe you jerk the
wheel back in panic Because you suddenly realized
I am tired, and I'm not paying attention Now
imagine that happening on a dangerous mountain
road The road is narrow the turns are sharp the
fog is thick and beside the road is a steep cliff
and All along the road there are warning signs
Sharp curve ahead, dangerous shoulder, stay alert,
do not cross. There are those rumble strips that
maybe you've run over. Reflective markers and
guard rails. Now, why are all those warnings
there? They're not there because the designer
of the road wants to watch people crash. They're
there because the danger is real the warnings
are there meant to keep drivers alive and If
a sleepy driver ignores the warnings ignores
the rumble strips keeps drifting Refuses to wake
up eventually they may drive straight off that
cliff I think that imagery helps us understand
exactly what the author of Hebrews has been doing
over the last several passages that we've been
looking at. As Brother James preached about Hebrews
5 -11 through 6 -3, the author is looking at
Christians and he's saying, you have become dull
of hearing. You have become sluggish. You have
become slow. You have become spiritually sleepy.
These are people who should be mature by now,
but they can't eat meat yet. They're still drinking
milk. They should be teachers and they're still
students. In other words, they are beginning
to drift spiritually. Their attentiveness to
Christ is weakening. Their maturity has stalled
and the author knows something dangerous. Nobody
suddenly drives off a cliff without drifting
first. And then comes the warning that we looked
at last week, Hebrews 6, 4 through 8, where the
author essentially says, if someone continues
to drift, they may eventually harden themselves
against all the warnings, refuse to wake up,
and reject Christ altogether. The Cliff of Apostasy.
is real. The cliff of rejecting Christ is real.
And some people can experience the blessings
around the people of God, hear the truth, see
the power of God, taste the realities of the
new creation and the kingdom, and yet still ultimately
reject Jesus. And after hearing all of that,
you can almost feel the tension in the text.
Maybe these original readers read this and asked,
so what about us? Is the author saying that he
believes we're doomed? Does he think we're already
headed off the cliff? And that is what makes
Hebrews 6, 9 through 12 so beautiful. Because
after all the warnings, After all the alarms,
after showing them the danger of the cliff, the
author now lovingly turns to them and says, though
we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved,
we feel sure of better things, things that belong
to salvation. In other words, I gave you the
warnings because I want you to make it home.
The warnings aren't there. to drive people off
the cliff. The warnings are one of the ways that
God wakes his people up from their sleepiness,
keeps them persevering safely all the way to
the end. And this morning, we're going to see
that true believers are not people who never
grow spiritually sleepy, never grow tired, never
need the warnings. True believers are people
who heed God's warnings. who wake up, who keep
their eyes fixed on Christ and continue driving
until they reach home. So if you will take your
Bibles, Hebrews chapter 6, verses 9 through 12,
it's kind of this third part to these last three
sermons that we've been. Looking at he says 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. The first thing
I want us to look at is found in verse 9. It's
this idea that faith, faith that wakes up after
this powerful warning that we looked at, this
verse sounds shocking because he has just been
using phrases like falling away. We've talked
about rejecting Jesus. He talked about land that
bears thorns in judgment and now suddenly his
tone changes and he says, yet in your case, beloved.
That word beloved matters. This is not the language
of a cold, harsh judge ready to strike down a
sentence and condemn. This is the language of
a loving pastor speaking tenderly to his people,
people that he deeply, deeply cares about. John
Calvin referring to these warnings in the previous
verses, he says they're like thunderbolts. And
they were meant to be. They were severe because
the danger is severe, but now the author is reassuring
them. He's saying, listen, though I warned you
strongly, I'm persuaded that there are better
things concerning you than flying off the cliff.
In other words, I don't believe the cliff is
the end of your story. And this is where we need
to understand what all of these warning passages
are for. They are meant to drive true believers
not to hopeless despair, but to drive them further
into the hands of Jesus. to wake spiritually
sleepy Christians up. Like the rumble strips
in our illustration, when a tired driver begins
to edge off the road and toward the edge, those
rumble strips violently shake the car. Why? Because
they're trying to wake the driver up, to warn
them of the danger and to get them safe. And
that is what Hebrews does with these warnings.
shake the soul back to attentiveness to Christ.
And this theme runs throughout the entire book
of Hebrews. I said last week there are five,
possibly six warnings. Hebrews 2 .1 says, therefore
we must pay much closer attention to what we
have heard lest we drift away from it. The Christian
danger in Hebrews is often, is not often just
this sudden rebellion. It is drifting, neglect,
sluggishness, slowly falling asleep. Hebrews
312 says, take care of brothers lest there be
any evil in you, unbelieving heart leading you
to fall away from the living God. Hebrews 313
says, but exhort one another every day that none
of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of
sin. And that is why the warnings keep coming
again and again and again in the book because
true believers are gonna grow weary. True believers
are going to struggle. True believers are going
to need warnings to wake them up. And here's
the key. True people of God hear God's warnings
and respond to them. The people who have false
testimonies or false faith hear the warnings
of God and it does nothing to them. But true
believers, when God's Word confronts them, they
listen. When the Spirit convicts them, they wake
up. When the warnings shake them, they grab the
wheel again and they fix their eyes back on Christ.
And that is one of the differences between a
temporary false faith and genuine saving faith.
Temporary false faith can sit under the warnings
and eventually harden itself against those warnings
and against Christ. Temporary false faith eventually
ignores all the signs completely. But genuine
faith hears the warnings, hears God's word, wakes
up. And that is why Hebrews constantly says,
take care, do not drift, do not harden your heart,
hold fast, do not throw away your confidence.
The guardrails are not proof that the road designer
wants people to crash. They are proof that the
danger is real and the designer wants travelers
to make it home safely. And the author says something
really important here. He says, we feel sure
of better things concerning you. Things... related
to salvation. All of those things we talked about
last week, those four things that he said you
could be a part of and that you could experience,
those things aren't related to salvation. You
can have all of those things and not have genuine
salvation. You can taste, you can hear, you can
experience, you can participate. But now the
author is distinguishing from those things which
are just merely being exposed spiritually to
stuff, to those who have genuine faith. He says
I see something different in you. I see better
things in you. I see things belonging to salvation.
And notice he doesn't say I see sinless perfection.
Of course not. He doesn't say I see flawless
theology in you. I see outward religious performance
in you. Now what he does is he points to the
evidence that God is truly working in them. Evidence
of a changed heart and evidence of persevering
faith. Evidence that the Spirit of God is continuing
to wake them up and keep them near Christ. And
church, this is one of the most, one of the beautiful
balances in the book of Hebrews. The author refuses
to give false assurance. but he also refuses
to leave believers drowning in despair. He warns
severely, and then he comforts tenderly. Because
the goal of the author of Hebrews is not to cause
a panic, it is to cause perseverance. We talked
about this last week, we're gonna continue to
talk about it today. In fact, one of the evidences
of genuine salvation is not that you feel convicted
when God warns you, it's that you wake up to
those convictions and turn back to Christ. What
does Jesus say in John chapter 10 when he's talking
about being the good shepherd? He says, my sheep
hear my voice and they do what? Follow me, church.
They follow me. They don't just hear me talking.
They don't just hear the warnings. They don't
just hear the words. They then follow me. That
is evidence that they are my sheep. True sheep
hear the shepherd's voice. They respond when
Christ speaks. They wake up to the warnings.
And some of you this morning, maybe you have
felt the weight of Hebrews 5 and 6 a little bit
over the last couple weeks. I hope you have.
Maybe the passage that Brother James preached
from about you've become dull of hearing, maybe
last week the warnings that apostasy can be real,
maybe that unsettled you, maybe that shook you,
maybe that exposed some areas in your own life
where you have become sleepy. But I would argue
the very fact that those warnings have awakened
you, that those convictions have stirred in you
an attentiveness back to Christ, I would argue
that is evidence of your salvation. I had one
person come up to me and say, started having
to wonder, well, how am I living? But see, that's
how a Christian reacts to the text. The Christian
reads Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 6 and doesn't go,
well, all right, I'm good. They read that and
go, where do I need to wake up? Where do I need
to focus in? Where in my life have I drifted?
But that is evidence of the persevering faith
that follows after Jesus, that hears the voice
of Jesus and then follows. Does that make sense?
See, the lost person reads 5 and 6 and it doesn't
move them. It doesn't unsettle them. It doesn't
shake them. But the Christian gets shook by this
and we grab the wheel again and we go, I gotta
get back on the straight and narrow. I gotta
get back. I've been sleepy. I've been dull of
hearing. I've been sluggish. No more of that.
Thank you Jesus for waking me up. But that's
what a Christian does. That's the kind of faith
that makes it home. A .W. Pink says the warning
should stir us up to earnest examination while
the promises should encourage us to constant
and patient diligence then we get to verse 10
after reassuring the believers that he sees better
things in them the author now explains why What
evidence does he see in them that gives him this
confidence? What are the things related to salvation?
And I'll be honest with you, when I read commentaries
this week, and I read theologians much smarter
than me, they didn't actually all agree on what
the evidence is of the Christian. Some went back
to the beginning of Hebrews and started quoting
all the things. Some just stuck right here to
the text that we're dealing with today. And I
think I want to stick right here in this text
because there's a couple things that he says.
He points out their continuing love and service
to the people of God. You see that in verse 10?
For God is not unjust to overlook your work and
the love that you have shown for His name in
serving the saints as you still do. He doesn't
point to emotional experiences. Listen, emotional
experiences are good. It is good to have your
affections stirred. That is a good thing. But
those are not what we point to, to give us reassurance
of our salvation. Because I can promise you,
you can be manipulated by how good the music
is to feel something. You can be manipulated
by the preaching to feel something. And he doesn't
point to that. He points to not these dramatic
spiritual moments. He points to a persevering
love expressed through sacrificial service for
the church. And he says, for God is not unjust
to look at your work and your love. Now, we have
to be very careful. He is not saying, and we
know this, that God looks at your work and it
is your work that then gets you the salvation.
He is not saying that God owes them heaven because
they serve the church. That would contradict
the entire message of Hebrews and the entire
gospel message completely. We know that we are
saved by grace, through faith, not of ourselves,
not of our works, so that no one can boast. But
Hebrews 2 10, The very next verse, so we have
Ephesians 2, 8 -9, by grace you have been saved.
Then in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2, as Jessica
quoted in her portion of the video, we are his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good
works. In other words, good works do not create
salvation, but good works reveal salvation. And
that is exactly what Hebrews is saying here.
The author sees evidence that God's grace has
truly taken root in them and they have been doing
these good works. Loving, sincere, persevering
service for the church. Notice how personal this
becomes. The love that you have shown God's name
in serving the church. We've said this before.
How do you serve Jesus? Jesus is not physically
in this room right now, is he? The resurrected
body of Jesus is not in this room. He has not
walked through those doors. So the way that we
serve Jesus, the way that we serve God's name
is by serving his church. The ministry of the
saints is ultimately ministry unto Christ himself.
A love for God's people is a love for his name.
Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says, as you did it
unto the least of these, my brothers, you did
it unto me. I would argue that if I had the time
this morning to go and exegetically break down
Matthew 25, we think the least of these are like
the weak people. I would argue that Matthew 25,
the least of these, are the children of God.
And he's saying, When you serve my people, you're
serving me. 1 John 3, 14 says, we know that all
have passed from death into life because they
love their brothers. So one of the clearest evidences
of genuine salvation is a growing love for the
people of God. And church, that is important
because many false faith, false testimony, temporary
declarations, Could participate externally in
the covenant community without ever truly loving
Christ by loving his people But a genuine faith
The heart has changed it produces love it produces
outward service and notice notice this line at
the end of verse 10 It says as you still do there's
perseverance again In other words, this isn't
about one time you serve the church He's not
pointing out just one thing that they did like
hey you guys remember that one thing that y 'all
did that was great I'm glad you served the church.
This is a continuous moving a continuous driving
a a continuous serving of the church this is
persevering language and it fits perfectly with
our illustration the sleepy driver who wakes
up does not merely jerk the wheel for one second
and then fall right back asleep immediately He
keeps paying attention, correcting course, driving
carefully toward home, and spiritually, that
is what genuine faith does. It continues. You
have served. God has seen how you have served
the church as you still do. Of course, this is
why the New Testament constantly emphasizes endurance
and continuation. Colossians 1. He has now reconciled
If has now been reconciled if indeed you continue
in the faith stable and steadfast Jesus says
in Matthew 24 13 the one who endures to the end
will be saved Hebrews 3 14 for we have come to
share in Christ if indeed we hold our original
confidence firm to the end If you grew up Baptist
you probably heard the phrase once saved always
saved right you ever heard that that phrase once
saved always saved It's a decent phrase. If you've
truly been saved, you will always be saved. But
historically, Protestant Christians have used
the term perseverance of the saint. That if you've
truly once been saved, then the true saint of
God perseveres to the end. They will make it
to the end without rejecting Jesus, without falling
away. That's what Hebrews is laying out for us
It's really what the entire New Testament is
laying out for out for us because the Christian
life is not merely about beginning it is about
continuing and That doesn't mean that and what
that means is that true Christians will stumble
at times They will grow weary there will be seasons
of sluggishness, but genuine faith keeps returning
to Christ Keeps repenting keeps serving keeps
loving keeps moving forward And I love that God
is not unjust to overlook this perseverance.
God remembers. God knows every act of love that
is done in His name. Even the unseen things that
nobody else sees. God sees them. The quiet faithfulness.
God sees that. The unnoticed service. The work
that you do that nobody applauds. God sees that.
He knows that's part of your persevering. And
it's not that God is... This is important. It's
not that God is tallying up merits. In actuality,
you know what God is seeing when he sees you
do things in his name? He's seeing his own grace
at work in you. So it's not as if God is standing
back and going, I'm just looking for objective
work. No, what he's doing is he's looking for
the workmanship that he is creating in you. He
is seeing his own graces in you. Calvin said,
God does not so much look upon our works as upon
his own grace in our works. People can come in
the church and work, but what he's looking, what
God is looking for is his own grace in your work
to show that you. truly belong to Him. Because
ultimately your perseverance is sustained by
God's grace. You don't persevere in your own
power. You persevere because God is gracing you
to persevere. Maybe you're in here today, you
feel weary. You feel spiritually tired. The road
has been difficult and you feel exhausted. One
of the evidences of God's grace in your life
is that despite your struggle, you're still here.
You're still serving. You're still loving. You're
still ministering. You're still clinging to Christ.
You're still driving home. Because the faith
that makes it is not a perfect faith. It's a
persevering faith. That's what he's saying in
verse 10. A .W. Pink again says, a living faith
is a working faith. And where the heart has really
trusted Christ, love and obedience will continue
to follow after him. And then we get to verses
11 and 12. We're looking at a faith that makes
it home. Now the author moves from reassurance
to celebration. He's encouraged them. He's pointed
to them the evidences of grace in their life
and now in essence He says keep going continue.
Don't stop and Again, I love the personal nature
of his appeal in verse 11 because he says we
desire each one of you so he's not just throwing
this out as a Hole over the church. He's calling
each individual to persevere Your perseverance
and your faith must be personal. Every believer
must remain awake spiritually. Every believer
must keep pressing on to Christ. As he says in
verse 11, show the same earnestness. That word
earnestness speaks of diligence. Steady intentional
effort. The opposite of carelessness. The opposite
of spiritual drifting. And notice in verse 11,
the connection Back to Hebrews 5 11 There the
author said you have become sluggish in hearing
and I'm sorry in verse 12 and chapter 6 He says
so that you're not sluggish Right, so he starts
this little section off by saying you've become
sluggish So here's the warning Then he comes
back and says But I've given you all of this,
I've told you all of this so that you won't be
sluggish. I've told you all of this so that you
will keep going, that you will keep persevering,
that you won't just coast half awake, that you
won't be spiritually careless. Spiritually careless
people are dangerous people. It's what happens
on dangerous roads, you get careless. And a moment
that a driver stops paying attention is the moment
they become passive and the moment they become
careless in their alertedness and the danger
increases immediately. And that is what he's
been saying in this section. The Christian life
is not passive. It's full of watchfulness, endurance,
perseverance. Why? Notice the goal in verse 12.
To have full assurance of hope until the end.
Verse 11, I'm sorry, the full assurance of hope
until the end. What a beautiful phrase. The author
does not want fearful, uncertain, constant, panicky
believers. He wants believers who are deep, settled,
and have this enduring confidence in the promises
of God. But notice the context of the assurance
is in the persevering faith. Okay? You need to
catch this. The confidence in the assurance,
the context is this persevering faith. As believers
continue to trust Christ, they continue to follow
Christ, continue clinging to Christ, their hope
becomes steadier and stronger. Right? When you
follow Christ through the hard times, when you
follow Christ through the difficult times, when
you've fallen kind of sluggishly asleep and then
God wakes you back up and you persevere through
that and you keep going and you keep going and
you keep going, that perseverance builds a steadiness
and a discipline in you and that is what God
uses to assure you that you belong to Him. Look
what I've already brought you through. Look at
how you've persevered through this. Look at where
you're at now. That is the context of this full
assurance of hope. Like a driver keeping his
eyes fixed on the road instead of wandering distractions
all the way to the end. That is one of the most
important phrases in Hebrew. Until the end. Finishing,
not just beginning. Paul says in 2nd Timothy
4 -7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished
the race. I have kept the faith. The Christian
life is not a 110 meter sprint. It is a lifelong
marathon. It is a lifelong road of faith. And
I love how he encourages them to persevere here.
He says be imitators of those who through faith
and patience inherit the promise. The Christian
life, this kind of perseverance is not meant
to be lived alone. We've all seen these videos
online of somebody running a marathon and they
get to like the last 50 meters and their legs
are giving out because they're exhausted they
can't run anymore and they get like the jelly
legs, you all seen that right, where they're
just kind of like wobbling all the way to the
end and what inevitably ends up happening? Somebody
along that way stops, gets them up underneath
them. They don't carry them all the way across.
Those legs still move. Those legs are still jelly,
but they're helping them persevere across that
finish line. And that's what the church is here
for. We're not to be living this perseverance
alone. We can't. God has given the body of Christ
to us to help us persevere. We imitate one another.
I loved Andy's letter. I didn't know what she
was gonna say. I didn't know what she was gonna
write, but I love that she pointed out family
members and said, I see this in you and I wanna
be like that. I see this in you and I wanna be
like that. That's what the author is saying here.
Be imitators of those who are persevering. Watch
how they've persevered. Learn from them. Be a
part of their life and you too will make it through
suffering and waiting and exhaustion and trials
and difficult roads. Even when the road seems
very, very long. Maybe many of you feel so tired.
You're tired on your journey. Suffering has exhausted
you. Trials have worn you down. You feel spiritually
weak. Hebrews would say to you, the author of
Hebrews would say to you, do not stop. Keep going.
Don't fall back asleep spiritually. Keep your
eyes on Christ. Keep trusting His promises. Keep
walking by faith. Keep driving toward home because
the faith that makes it home is not a faith that
doesn't struggle. It's just a faith that keeps
going. You ever you ever heard that phrase well
done my good and faithful servant and and you
think you read that and you think well That's
just for the that's just for the elite Christians
You know that's just for the ones that crossed
the finish line in a dead sprint It's not true
It's for everybody that crosses the finish line
Even the one that's crawling across the finish
line The good and faithful servant is the one
who perseveres to the end. We're not all guaranteed
to make it to the end the same way. Many Christians
have made it to the end with their head getting
cut off, being persecuted, being tortured, being
killed, dying in some tragedy. Not everybody
dies a peaceful death on a bed surrounded by
their family With their hand up in the air going
I'm coming home Lord We all make it to that finish
line in different ways But the thing that we've
talked about over and over and over again in
Hebrews is we make it across the finish line
with the same kind of perseverance Some running,
some crawling, some being carried limping along
the way, but we make it and God says, well done
my good and faithful servant. I have seen my
grace at work in you. N .T. Wright says, what
matters is not simply starting the Christian
journey, but continuing on in faith and patience
until the journey is thoroughly finished. Today
we celebrated Andy. her graduation from high
school. And honestly, I couldn't think of a better
fitting message for someone who is standing at
the beginning of adulthood than this passage
right here. Andy, life is going to feel a lot
like that road that we've talked about today.
There will be moments that the road is going
to be clear. and it's gonna be beautiful. And
you're gonna be listening to your favorite music
all the time, all the way there. There are gonna
be moments where you feel confident and you feel
very strong. But there's also gonna be very long
nights, difficult roads, times of exhaustion,
time where distractions are gonna pull at you,
times where the world is gonna tell you that
drifting away from Christ, is just easier. One
of the great dangers in your life will not be
this dramatic rebellion. It's going to be simply
slowly falling asleep spiritually and drifting
and losing your attentiveness to Jesus. But one
of the greatest gifts that God gives His children
are passages like these, the encouraging of His
Word, the encouraging of the church and His Spirit.
to coming back to Christ. And Andy, your mom
and I are not praying for a perfect life for
you. That'd be wasted prayers. We know that's
not what God's gonna have planned. What we are
praying for is a persevering faith. A faith that
wakes up when God speaks to you. A faith that
keeps going when life gets hard. A faith that
keeps loving Jesus when the road gets long. A
faith that keeps serving Christ and loving his
people. A faith that keeps returning to the gospel
again and again and again, and a faith that keeps
driving all the way home. Not home in the house
that you were raised in, home to that finish
line where Jesus awaits. And in a lot of ways,
Andy, especially this year, we've already seen
you have to do that. We just want to encourage
you to keep going. My beloved daughter, keep
going. Finish well. Remember Paul's words that
we quoted earlier, I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,
and that is our prayer for you. Not merely a
success or accomplishment or comfort, but that
years from now, when you have children of your
own and grandchildren of your own, if the Lord
wills it, you'll be still holding tightly to
Jesus. And church, that is not just our prayer
for Andy. That is our prayer for all of us in
this room. Because the faith that makes it home
is the faith that keeps following Christ until
the very end.