Absolute Assurance
Hebrews 6:9-12
Purpose: To display the richness of God’s salvation.
Aim: I want the listener to exult in God’s awesome redemption.
INTRODUCTION: Is it possible to know for sure that you are on your way to heaven? John said that he wrote his gospel, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31 NAU) Paul assured us that, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1 NAU)
So, if it IS possible to know that you are going to heaven then how can we FEEL sure that we are going to heaven?
The writer of Hebrews gives five ominous warnings (one of which we just finished looking at) to those who may be deceived into thinking that they are Christians. But he is careful to also show us that we CAN know for sure if we are going to heaven. God wants us to be confident about our forgiveness.
REVIEW:
5:10-6:8 I. A Warning to Those Who Claim to Know Christ
Vs.10-14 A. Beware of acting like an unbeliever [Claims without change]
6:1-3 B. Beware of religion without Christ [Shadows over substance]
Vs.4-5 C. Beware of missing the message about Christ [Words over reality]
Vs.6 D. Beware of belittling the Cross [e.g. the Cross isn’t enough]
Vs.7-8 E. Beware of fruitless religion [Religion that doesn’t’ change the heart is worthless]
LESSON:
Vs.9-12 II. Assurance to Those Who Do Know Christ
✔Salvation is a package deal. If you have Christ’s forgiveness then you have everything you need in order to go to heaven: 2 Peter 1:2-3 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (NAU)
But, but it is possible to have God’s salvation and not feel like you have it. In order to feel saved we must begin with an understanding of the “things that accompany salvation.”
✔Vs.9 A. Christ’s work saves us “things that accompany salvation”
What accompanies (or “belongs to”) salvation? A general answer is given in verse 7 and a specific answer is given in verses 10-12. Real salvation produces “useful” fruit (Vs.7) and it also produces love, faith, and hope toward God and other Christians (Vs.10-12).
The writer starts this paragraph with a very tender phrase, “But, beloved…” He uses the root Greek word Agape and this word is never used to refer to an unsaved person.
Then the writer says, "We are convinced" (v. 9). The phrase is used in a legal sense to refer to someone who examined a case, gathered all the evidence, and then said, "I’m convinced." The writer is saying, "I have considered the evidence and have come to the settled conclusion that you are for real." The evidence was their faith, hope, and love--the traits that accompany salvation. [MacArthur, John http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/sg1614.htm ]
Better (2909) (kreitton/kreisson from kratos = strong, which denotes power in activity and effect) serves as the comparative degree of agathos, “good” (good or fair, intrinsically). Kreitton/kreisson means more useful, more profitable more advantageous, greater, superior; greater advantage.
Of the 19 NT uses of Better, 12 are in Hebrews. Better than what? Better than falling away and being compared to a field the vegetation of which is burned. He assures them that he is persuaded better things of them than those of falling away and crucifying the Son of God. He also is persuaded that things that accompany salvation are true of them.
This echoes what he says in, Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (NAU)
"Though we are speaking in this way." This is something of an apology to the Christian reader who had been reading through the awful warning passage, encouraging them not to lose heart. To the Christian, the writer says, "Don’t think my warning to the unbelievers refers to you. I put it here because I know they’re in your midst." Only Jesus Christ knows who is for real and who isn’t, and He will reveal that in the last day (Matt. 13:24-30). The writer however wouldn’t be able to pick them all out by name. [MacArthur, John http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/sg1614.htm ]
Before we examine what comes WITH SALVATION, let’s make sure we are clear about what SALVATION IS.
✔1. Salvation begins with God’s love
Why does God love sinners? The only answer is that:
✔God loves sinners because God loves sinners.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you . . . (NAU)
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (NAU) God loved us then Jesus bore the full blast of God’s wrath against our sin when He died on the Cross.
✔2. Salvation is only for those who know they are sinners
Jesus died for sinners. Romans 5:7-8 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (NAU)
What is sin? ✔"Sin . . . consists in doing, saying, thinking, or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God" (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, 2).
Sin is a family disease that every one of us has inherited from our first parents. For that reason, we cannot spend eternity with a holy God. Revelation 21:27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (NAU)
✔3. Salvation is only for those who hate their sin
Jesus said, Luke 13:3 “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (NAU)
David said, Psalm 38:18 For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin. (NAU)
✔As we look at Christ hanging on Calvary we must hate the sin that nailed Him there.
✔4. Salvation is only for those who trust Christ’s payment for sin
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us. . . ” (NAU)
✔You must see that Christ’s death is enough to save you without adding any goodness of your own.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (NAU)
✔Vs.10-12 B. Our effort assures us
We cannot do anything to save ourselves, but we can do a lot that will assure us that we have salvation. It is one thing to be saved, but we also want to FEEL saved. Paul said that, Romans 8:1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (NAU), but HOW can we KNOW that we are “in Christ Jesus”?
These three verses give us the answer. The writer uses the same trilogy that Paul used (although in reverse order) in: 1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NAU)
The proof of salvation, here in our text, is NOT what we would expect to find. It doesn’t say: “Do you remember walking an aisle, or joining a church, or being baptized, or being nice to your neighbors” etc.
✔Vs.10 1. Christians show love for Christ by loving Christians “ministering to the saints”
If we say that we love Christ, but we don’t show love for His followers then we are liars. 1 John 2:9-11 9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (NAU)
We can gain a lot of assurance from other believers. If you aren’t sure if you are a real believer, then ask some mature believers what they think. If they say that you don’t show much love for believers by the way you live, then you have reason to doubt your salvation. If, on the other hand, they express a confidence that you DO show love for other believers then accept that as an indication that you are a real believer.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (NAU)
✔The ultimate test of our salvation is our willingness to sacrifice everything, even our lives for other believers. It is a dangerous thing to fail to love other Christians. This is why John wrote: 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. (NAU) Those who SAY they love Christians and then turn away from them when loving them is hard cannot know if they are real believers or not.
Loving other believers, after all, is a command from God Himself. 1 John 3:23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. (NAU)
✔How Do Christians Show Love for Each Other?
✔#1 They pray for and with each other
Ephesians 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, (NAU)
✔#2 They forgive each other
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (NAU)
✔#3 They sacrifice for each other
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. (NAU)
✔#4 They worship together as much as possible
Hebrews 10:24-25 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (NAU)
✔Vs.11-12 2. Christians show hope and faith in Christ by being diligent “the same diligence”
We are fooling ourselves if we say that we love Christ if we don’t labor for Christ. James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. (NAU)
What makes us willing to labor for Christ? 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us… (NAU) 3 John 7 For they went out for the sake of the Name. . . (NAU)
Peter gives us a fuller explanation of how to know that you are saved.
First he shows that salvation is a free gift to believers: [Pew Bible #183] 2 Peter 1:2-4 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (NAU)
Then Peter goes on to show how we can be sure that we have Christ’s eternal forgiveness: 2 Peter 1:5-10 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; (NAU)
CONCLUSION: Many of the Jews who originally read this letter were 2nd generation Christians. Their parents had to make a complete break with the Jewish sacrificial system and the world’s wicked way in order to follow Christ. Now, perhaps, this new generation was looking for a way to follow Christ AND the old Jewish system, or what was popular with the world.
The cost of becoming a Christian was heavy and the pressure was intense! But, you cannot mix Christ with any other beliefs because, “in Him you have been made complete” (Colossians 2:10 NAU). Any time we try to add anything to Christ’s work on the Cross we are saying that Christ’s work is not enough for us. What an insult to Christ!
✔The danger of thinking we are Christians when we are not is real, but there is also a danger of doubting the change that God has made in our lives.
✔It is the very drift and design of the whole Scripture, to bring souls first to an acquaintance with Christ, and then to an acceptance of Christ, and then to build them in a sweet assurance of their actual interest in Christ.
Thomas Brooks [Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations. Includes index of authors. General index created by Christian Clasics Foundation. (electronic ed.). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.]
Rosalind Goforth was a well-known missionary to China who, along with her husband Jonathan, enjoyed an illustrious career and ministry. But for many years, even having labored for the Lord in China, Rosalind often felt oppressed by a burden of sin. She felt guilty and dirty, nursing an inward sense of spiritual failure. Finally one evening when all was quiet, she settled at her desk with Bible and concordance, determined to find out God’s attitude toward the failures, the faults, the sins of his children. She put these words at the top of the page: What God Does With Our Sins. Then as she searched through the Scriptures, she compiled this list of seventeen truths:
✔What God Does With Our Sins
by Rosalind Goforth
1. He lays them on his Son—Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:6
2. Christ takes them away. John 1:29
3. They are removed an immeasurable distance—as far as East is from West. Psalm 123:12
4. When sought for, they are not found. Jeremiah 50:20
5. The Lord forgives them. Ephesians 1:7
6. He cleanses them ALL away by the blood of his son. 1 John 1:7
7. He cleanses them as white as snow or wool. Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 51:7
8. He abundantly pardons them. Isaiah 55:7
9. He tramples them under foot. Micah 7:19 (RV)
10. He remembers them no more. Hebrews 10:17
11. He casts them behind his back. Isaiah 38:17
12. He casts them into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19
13. He will not impute us with sins. Romans 4:8
14. He covers them. Romans 4:7
15. He blots them out. Isaiah 43:25
16. He blots them out as a thick cloud. Isaiah 44:22
17. He blots out even the proof against us, nailing it to His Son’s Cross. Colossians 2:14
