Hebrews 6: 9-12

⁹ “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. ¹¹ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

You and I are secure in Jesus. I am currently reading through the Torah, Genesis-Deuteronomy, and I see our spiritual patriarchs that are dealing with the flesh, multiple marriages, cheating, lying, and loving one son more than the other, as is the case with Isaac, and on we can go. Yet, they are secure in their relationship with God, not because they are good, but because God is good, and it is He who secures them. This foundation gives us a sure footing upon which to build our lives in the Lord. One of the most crippling things that we can face as children of God is doubts; we all have them. They can often come even after great victories in our lives as we walk with the Lord. Let me give you a few examples.

We often pick on Thomas for doubting the resurrection of Jesus, but in John 11:16, it was he who threw caution to the wind when he understood that going to help Lazarus could see them killed; nevertheless, he was ready to go and die with Jesus.

“Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him'” (NIV).

In the same way, we see Elijah have a great victory over the priests of Baal and lead a great revival in Israel, only to be running scared from Jezebel in the next chapter and asking God to kill him. We can get caught up in our own little worlds and forget that God loves us and is on our side. Paul, the writer of Hebrews (in my understanding), encourages us to be diligent; he calls us to stop being sluggish and reminds us that God is watching.

• Salvation is just the beginning, verse 9

There are things that accompany the salvation that we have in Jesus. These are referred to as ‘fruit’ in the scriptures. We can find these ‘fruit’ in Galatians 5: 22-23 (NKJV),

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

These are tangible areas of life that we can use to gauge our progress in the Lord.

My wife and I have a beautiful granddaughter who is about to turn one. We can see the normal progress that she should have, and it comforts us. There are some one-year-old babies that are already walking, but she is holding on and walking. She can stand for short periods by herself, and she can even feed herself small things. She is not walking, but we can see the progression. All babies develop at different times, but they develop, and if they don’t, we can see that there is something wrong. In much the same way, we can gauge our growth in the Lord by the above verses. These all happen simultaneously and complement each other.

We need to be growing in the Lord. Now, like human babies, we will all develop at different speeds, and one aspect may grow more or faster than the other, but we should see progress. Even if we cannot see progress, the desire to be more like Jesus should be in us from the leading of the Holy Spirit. Do you even want to be more like Jesus? Do you have this desire? If yes, then this is a great place to start; that desire is from God.

• God See your actions, verses 10-11

I was wondering just the other night, does God only see when I fail, or does He see when I get it right as well? We think of God more like a traffic cop; He only gets you when you are in the wrong. Wouldn’t it be cool if you got pulled over and the officer praised you for being a good driver? I have never had that happen, and we can begin to see God as only seeing when we fail.

Paul reminds us that God sees all of our good works as well and that He remembers them. This is a stark contrast to the fact that He forgets our sins, Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV),

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

God forgives and forgets our sins, but He remembers our good works. He washes us clean, and we are declared righteous long before we are permanently perfected in Jesus. Paul writes to the church at Galatia and says this in 6:9 (NKJV),

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

Don’t stop doing what is right. In our text here in Hebrews, Paul encourages us to be diligent right to the end; don’t lose hope. Whether we live for Jesus till the rapture or die and meet Him there in the Kingdom, live for Him diligently and consistently. He sees, and He knows all that we are doing. He forgets our sins and remembers our good works. One day, we will inherit the promises that God has for us. We will get new bodies, a new home, and a new perfect life; we will see the face of Jesus one day, and we will meet men like Abraham, Daniel, Elijah, and David and women like Esther, Ruth, and Rahab. We will have the answers to all the questions and see things only God’s people get to see.

One day, God will ask you and me to give an account of the life we lived once we were saved. And there, He will judge our faithfulness, our diligence, and our obedience. Are you and I ready to meet Jesus there at the judgment? This is what Paul warns us about in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 (NKJV),

“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Hebrews 6:1-8

“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, ² of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do if God permits. ⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. ⁷

“For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; ⁸ but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned” (NKJV).

I know; it seems that I am stuck. I promise you I am not. All too often, the desire to get to the end of a text overrides the need to get to the correct end of the text. We have been talking about spiritual maturity over the past few weeks, and this is a very important topic. As we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus, the world will become harder and harder for those of us that love the Lord. It is the maturity that we have in Jesus that will sustain us and help us to get through these troublesome times. One of the most important things to be sure of is to whom you belong. Am I sure, based on the Bible, that I am a child of God? The writer of Hebrews helps us out here. He deals with the topic of the security of the believer. This is a necessary topic because the very foundation of all we have in Jesus is about the eternal, specifically eternal life. Do you and I have that?

• It is Impossible, verse 4

Impossible — What we are about to explore is impossible, and as such, it offers a real sense of the ramifications in both the negative and the positive. Let us look at the negative first.

In verse 6, we can complete the sentence using the phrase from verse 4. It is impossible for those if they fall away to renew them to repentance. If you and I could fall away, walk away from Jesus, walk away from the faith, and abandon the cause, we could not be redeemed again. We would be lost forever without hope, and Hell would be our sole destination once we die.

In Luke 24:54-62, Peter denies knowing Jesus to his face. Read verse 61 for yourself. As we enter John 21:1, Peter is abandoning the ministry; he is going back to fishing for fish. He is leading some of the other apostles with him, and Jesus comes and restores him. Peter fell away and was leading others to walk away as well. Yet, Jesus came and restored him, not only as an Apostle but as the leader of the new local church there in Jerusalem. But wait a minute; this is impossible according to the text above. Peter fell away, he walked away, and so he cannot ever be restored. There is no hope for him. The scriptures beg to differ. Thus, we will need to take another look at what is impossible in the text.

• The Falling away, verse 6

This is the impossible. You and I who are saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus cannot fall away. We are held by Jesus, who is held by God, and thus we have double security. In John 10: 28-29, we have these words of security,

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (NKJV).

No one can ‘snatch’ us out of Jesus’ hands. Those that believe, put their faith and trust in Him, have eternal life and cannot stop having eternal life. Notice in verse 28, we are ‘given’ eternal life; it is not earned, nor do we get it on our own. We are ‘given’ it by Jesus the moment we are saved. It is a gift from God; as such, we did not work to gain it, and we are not able to sustain it. God does. In Isaiah 49:16, we see this verse,

“See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me” (NKJV).

God has inscribed our names on His hand; this is a sign of permanency. The custom was that women would engrave the names of their loved ones who went to war so they would not forget them. God is promising never to forget us; never to forget our names. Once we have been born again (John 3:3), we cannot be unborn. Nicodemus pointed this out; one cannot return to his mother’s womb. You cannot return to being unsaved once you are saved. You cannot fall away. You can sin, you can even forget that you are saved, but God cannot forget you. In 2 Peter 1: 8-9, we see this warning,

“For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins” (Berean Study Bible).

If you grow in Christ, that is awesome, but if you do not, it is as if you have forgotten that you were saved. But that does not change the fact that you have been ‘cleansed.’ You may be a stunted child of God, but you are a child of God, and that is impossible to change once you have it.

This kind of sure footing is the basis for true growth into the image of Jesus. We can see from the previous scripture that some can live like they are not saved, but they are. You and I should endeavor to live like Jesus and build on the eternal life we have in Jesus, build on the security we have in Jesus, from Jesus, and by Jesus. Come and let us mature in Jesus together and be prepared for the times ahead.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)
Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca