On to Maturity Part 10

Music Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Genuine faith does not remain alone and hidden.

It produces evidence of itself the more it matures. Today, Pastor Rich looks at how a mature faith in Christ will manifest itself both out front and behind the scenes. Rich speaks from today's text, Hebrews 6, 9 through 12.

If you were to look in Matthew chapter 13, you would read of a parable that the Lord Jesus gives of those who were listening to him at the time. It is the parable of the wheat and the tares, where one is going, one has a master owns a field, a field of wheat, and he says at night, enemies come and they sow seeds of tares in the wheat field. And when the wheat starts growing up, then the tares start growing up with it. We don't know exactly what a tare is, but it is obviously something that looks like wheat, but it is not wheat.

It is not the product of God's work. And so the workers in the field come to the master, the owner of the field, and say there are tares among the wheat. Should we uproot them?

And the master says, no, let them grow up together. The time of harvest will come. We will harvest the wheat and put it into the barns, and then we will harvest the tares and burn them. What a challenge for us today to understand, and I think this is something that the writer of Hebrews understood, and as he was writing this, I think he understood that he was writing to a mixed group of people. He was writing primarily and directly to the church, but as he was writing to the church, he recognized that within the church, there are those who were tares among the wheat.

They looked like the wheat, but they were not wheat. They looked like believers, but they were not believers because they were still yet considering their options. And some of them had already gone back and abandoned Christ and considered him guilty and had gone back to Judaism and said, I want nothing to do with Christ. I'm still looking for the Messiah. And we learned last week that the author of Hebrews informed them that if you're looking for reconciliation to God and a means apart from Jesus Christ, then you have no hope because he is it. So the wheat is the real stuff.

The other, the tares, looks like. But it could be people that are only dabbling in the faith or they're trusting Christ on their own terms. And the author of Hebrews realizes that he is writing to a mixed group because he does use the word beloved, agapetoi, beloved. So he is speaking to those who are in the family.

His writing is directly to those who are family members in the family of faith. Meanwhile, he addresses and speaks about those who are either waffling on the fence, considering their options, or some that have already abandoned the faith because they have decided that following Christ is too hard for them. But he says that we are confident of better things. Now he is addressing specifically Christians, those in the faith. But beloved, verse nine, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation. In other words, better things for you, better than what is in store for those that are headed for the burn pile. Now this that he mentions, things that accompany salvation, now he is speaking to believers. And he is making a point here, he is making an argument. He says for those who have completely entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ, they're not waffling.

They're not considering, I'm going to stick with the old rituals, but I'm going to trust Christ too. He says for those who have completely entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ, these are the things that accompany salvation. That word accompany means like, for example, this coat. When I walked into this room this morning, this coat accompanied me into this room. It came into this room with me because I was wearing it.

And that's the sense to wear something, something that is attached to is also the sense to hold on to something. In other words, what the author of Hebrews is saying here, this is what comes in the package, the complete package with genuine faith, genuine faith in the sense that you have completely trusted in Jesus Christ, and you're not trusting something else. And for those who have trusted Christ, there are these three manifestations of what genuine faith looks like. If you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ, then it manifests itself in these three places.

First of all, it manifests itself out front. Look to what he says in verse nine. These things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. Verse 10, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown towards his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.

For those who are truly in Christ, there is an out front manifestation of that reality. And that is what he calls your work and labor of love. But as you have ministered to the saints and do minister, that word minister is the word diakoneo, from which we get the word deacon, which means to serve, to do his work of service is what the word means. So in a sense, everyone who is in faith in Christ is a deacon, is a diakoneo, is a server in the family of Christ, because this is an out front manifestation of genuine faith in Christ. In other words, those who do the work and labor of love, they are busy about living out the character and purpose of God. As it says there towards his name in the middle of verse 10, you have shown towards his name, they are busy living out the character and purpose of God. And it says, and they do minister.

So look at it this way. When they are doing their work and labor of love, they don't shock it up to events that they do. My Christian service is not in the events that I do. It says, and they do minister, meaning that it is an outflow. It is a lifestyle of the individual who has exercised genuine faith in Christ. It is not an event, but a lifestyle. The things that a Christian does, a Christian does not do them because that is what Christians ought to do. That is not it at all. But as the outflow of your connection in Christ, doing what he calls your work and labor of love, living out the character and purpose of God is as natural as an apple growing on a tree.

Why? Because the branch is vitally connected to the tree and draws life from the tree and the end result of that is an apple that has grown out of the branch. So it's not just a matter of an event. It's not about doing the checklist of things that a Christian ought to do. It is a very natural outflow of your connection with God and your communion with him. So the out front manifestation of genuine faith is, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, a work and labor of love. It is a work and labor of love. Bringing us to this question, the question to ask, says Jeff Gorsek, the question to ask at the end of life's race is not so much what have I accomplished, but whom have I loved and how courageously. The greatest command in scripture is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. That is your highest function as a human being created in the image of God and the natural outflow of that is to love your neighbor. As Christ said, as I have loved you. That is the hallmark of Christianity and it is the point to ask whom have I loved and how courageously.

To love courageously means that you are loving another person for their benefit and their Godward movement, not for your own benefit. We need to very carefully analyze that because this is the character and purpose of God. There is a second manifestation that he mentions here in the text. We look at this then in verse 11. The first manifestation is out front, your work and labor of love, living out the character and purpose of God.

The second manifestation is more behind the scenes because this is what is going on inside the individual. And he calls it, verse 11, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to full assurance of hope until the end. So this one is diligence to full assurance of hope. When he uses the word diligence, he means do your best. By using the word diligence, he is speaking of pursuit. He is not indicating passivity.

He is speaking of pursuit. A passive faith is like driving an RV and putting it on cruise control and walking back to get a doughnut. Where are you going to end up?

In the cornfield or wrapped around a tree or maybe even the lake, right? It's going to be disaster. There's no such thing as putting your faith on cruise control. There is no such thing as a growing passive faith. Faith is a pursuit. And this is why he uses the word diligence to full assurance of hope. This is why he says, look at the beginning of verse 12, that you do not become sluggish. That word sluggish, if you turn back to chapter 5 and verse 11, at the very beginning of this warning, at the end of verse 11, he says, since you have become dull of hearing, same word, dull of hearing and sluggish, same word. It means lazy.

It means slow to understand. He says, no, don't do that. He says a growing faith, one who has come to complete faith in Christ and is growing in their faith, manifests a pursuit of God, a pursuit to full assurance of hope. Now, how does that pursuit happen?

How does it work out? Interesting what he says here. But imitate those who through faith and patience inherit. Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit.

What does that mean? Follow the example. Follow the example of whom? Of those who follow Christ. Follow the example of those who follow Christ.

Those who trust and obey through life's frustrating characteristics, because we know and we have observed and we feel firsthand that life is full of frustrating characteristics. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.