"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLVI

OF DILIGENCE AND PERSEVERANCE.
Hebrews 6: 9 - 12  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation, though we thus speak: For God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and the love which you showed toward His name, in that you ministered to the saints, and still do minister.  And we desire that each of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:  That you be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience (long-suffering) inherit the promises.

Continuing with The Third Warning
Against Sloth, Standing Still and Apostasy
Hebrews 5:11 - 6:20

BY THE Pastor ANDREW MURRAY

In every Christian community you have two classes. There are some who give themselves up with their whole heart to seek and serve God. There are others, too often the majority, who, like Israel, are content with deliverance from Egypt, and settle down in sloth, without striving for the full possession of the promise, the rest in the promised land. In speaking to such a Church, one might address the two classes separately. Or one might address the whole body now from one, then from the other of the two standpoints. This is what the Epistle does. In its warning it speaks to all as if all were in danger. In its exhortation and encouragement it speaks as if all shared the sentiments of the better half.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation, though we thus speak of falling away, and the impossibility of renewal. We have the hope that our word of warning will bear fruit, and that by the Grace of God, which has already wrought in you, you will be stirred to rise up out of all sloth and unbelief and press forward. We look to God Himself to perfect His work in you ( one might add here, as long as you are or remain willing and obedient vessels). 


For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which you showed toward His name, in that you ministered to the saints, and still do minister. If there was much in the present state to make him anxious, the writer encourages himself and them by pointing to the past. When the Gospel was preached among them they had received Christ's messengers with joy, and stood by them in sharing reproach and spoiling for His name. Even now still there was among them a love towards God's people. And God is not unrighteous to forget what has been done for His name and people; the reward of the cup of cold water may be remembered by God even when the giver has grown cold, and may come in the blessing that restores him again. God does not only remember sin; He much rather remembers the work of obedience done through His Love.

And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fulness of hope even to the end. In all worldly business diligence is the secret of success. Without attention and trouble and hearty effort we cannot expect our work to prosper. And yet there are many Christians who imagine that in the Christian life things will come right of themselves. When they are told that Jesus undertakes to do all, they count this as a pass to a life of ease. Of a Truth, No. Jesus will indeed do all; but He undertakes it, just to inspire us with His own Spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to the Father's Will, His own readiness to forsake all ease and comfort to please God and man, His own unvarying diligence in working while it was day. And so our writer urges his readers to show the same diligence they had formerly manifested, to the fulness of the hope to the very end.

We have here the same three words we had in the second warning. There we read, " Let us give diligence to enter into that Rest" (4: 11). "If we hold fast the glorying of our hope firm to the end (3: 6). "If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end." The great marks of Christ-Like perseverance are here once again joined together. Hope looks forward and lives in the promises; it glories beforehand in the certainty of their fulfillment. Bright hopefulness is one of the elements of a healthy Christ-Like life one of the surest preservatives against backsliding or standing still. This hopefulness must be cultivated; diligence must be given to the fulness of hope a hope that embraces all the fulness of God's promises, and that fills all the heart. And all this to the end, with a patience and perseverance that knows no weariness, that waits on God's timing, and seeks with patience till the fulfillment has come.

That you be not slothful. This is what had done so much harm they had been slothful in hearing (5:11). This is the danger that still threatens. But be imitators of them who through faith and longsuffering inherit the promises. The writer had spoken in warning of the example of the fathers in the wilderness; he here encourages them by reminding them of those who through faith and longsuffering had inherited the promises. Longsuffering is the perseverance of faith. Faith grasps at once all that God promises, but is in danger of relaxing its hold. Longsuffering comes to tell how faith needs daily to be renewed, and strengthens the soul, even when the promise tarries, still to hold fast firm to the end. This is one of the great practical lessons of our Epistle, and one the young believers and so called followers specially needs. Conversion is but a beginning, a step, an entrance on a path; day by day its surrender must be renewed; every day faith must afresh accept Christ, and find its strength only in Him. Through faith and longsuffering we inherit, enter on the possession of the promises. Salvation consists in what Christ Jesus is to us and does in us. There must, each day, be personal intercourse with Him, distinct personal surrender to His teaching and working, if He is indeed to be our life. Let us beware, above everything, of unconsciously resting or trusting in what we have or enjoy of Grace. It is alone by faith and longsuffering, by the never-ceasing daily renewal of our consecration and our faith in our quiet time with our Beloved Lord, that the Heavenly Life can be maintained in its freshness and power.

1. God is not unrighteous to forget your work. How often God spoke to Israel of its first love. What an encouragement to any who have grown cold to return and Trust Him to restore them. God cannot forget what has passed between you and Him.
2. That you be not slothful, not for a single day. We may lose in an hour by unwatchfulness what we have gained in a year. Christ and His service ask for your undivided, unceasing attention and obedience with receptivity of heart.
3. Let not God's Way appear too slow or too difficult. Let patience have its perfect work. As the husbandman has long patience with the seed, God is patient with you. Be patient with Him. Just remember this simple lesson. Day by day renew your complete surrender to Jesus, and your faith in Him your hope in God. Faith and patience must inherit the promises.