Lesson #21 [id4] Reminder Of The Promises Of God Series

2/18/20

Tom Lowe

Lesson #21 [ID4] Reminder of the (Hebrews 6:9-20)

Scripture: Hebrews 6:9-20 (NIV)

9Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. 10God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. 13When God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where our forerunner, Jesus has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

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Introduction:

There are many different responses to the Gospel. The point of Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13 was not to plant doubt in the hearts of the disciples. Rather, Jesus was showing His disciples how many ways the human heart can respond to the good news. The author of Hebrews does something similar in Hebrews 6:1-8. He is showing his congregation the way that many unbelievers in the church rejected the Gospel. In doing so he pastorally exhorts believers in the church toward faithful obedience and maturing in Christ.

Hebrews 6:9-20 displays the author’s confidence in these remaining believers to endure until the end and to inherit the promises that belong to them. How will they accomplish this? With faith and patience, just as Abraham did. By trusting God and persevering until the end, Christians will hold on to the hope set before us. This is what the last half of Hebrews 6 is all about.

You and I need to learn to appropriate the promises of God in our lives. We need to find and claim those promises. God never ever fails to do what He says in the Bible He will do.

“Standing on the promises that cannot fail,

When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,

By the living word of God I shall prevail,

Standing on the promises of God.”

Commentary

(6:9) Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation.

The key to this chapter is right here: “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. The writer to the Hebrew believers is saying, “I am persuaded that you are going to live for God, that you are not going to remain babes in Christ but will grow up.” The key to Christian service is a burning love for God.

The crop of God’s blessing pictured in Hebrews 6:7 is called” the things that have to do with salvation” in Hebrews 6:9. Not every believer bears the same amount of fruit (“some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty,” Matt.13:23); but every believer bears the same kind of fruit as proof that he is a child of God (Matt.7:15-20). This is the fruit of Christian character and conduct (Gal. 5:22-26) produced by the Spirit as we mature in Christ. Here the author introduces the fact that the fruit of salvation should be visible in the believer’s life.

The great hope1 for these people is that, despite their obsession with the elementary things of religion and despite their wavering under the pressures of their persecution, they were still doing some work of love for God and man. The promise is that God will not forget this. He is a just God; therefore, every good deed will be duly compensated in God’s own way and time.

(6:10) God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.