Inheriting the Promises of God
Pastor David explored verses 9-12 of Hebrews 6 (which you can read in last week's post), and began the sermon by using a diagram. At one end of the spectrum, there are Principle/Truth/God-focused people and at the other, there are People/Love/People-focused people.
John 17:17 shows the commitment of the Principle folks: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 1 John 4:8 shows the passion of those who are people-oriented: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
But with any spectrum and in dealing with extremes, there must be balance. 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter that speaks on love and speaks that love is patient and endures all things, states in verse 6 that at the same time, "it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."
This relates to Hebrews 6 in that the inheritance of the promise and the assurance of that promise is gained by the service to the saints (here on Earth) that is a part of our sanctification.
Pastor David made the point first that God's Word is not divided--the same God that passed judgment on the many different nations that persecuted Israel (as well as Israel itself) is the same God that became a man and walked the earth, dying for our sins. God is both Love and Truth. We are called to balance both.
If we are too principle-driven (I don't want to say too God-focused, that doesn't come out right!), we can be wanting in how we love people. I can throw right theology in the face of an unbelieving person who just lost a loved one and while I would be correct, would I be showing him or her love? Truth and Love should be a marriage of concepts, not something divorced from the other, hence the idea of speaking the truth in love. Our speech has the power to heal but also to very quickly and just as easily hurt.
On the other hand, if we are too people-oriented, we can compromise truth to continue pleasing people. To maintain relationships, we rationalize or we bend things so that the people we are trying to please will still remain with us. We need only look to Jesus to refute that--He showed the greatest love through giving His life and in His teaching and His miracles, but not once did He change His methods or His message. He did not tell people what they wanted to hear to appease them--he told them hard truths and some people stopped listening (see John 6), and he said that His Gospel would turn relatives against one another (see Matt. 10) Truth has a place; love has a place. We must show both.
Pastor David then gave his theme: "Assurance of salvation is an intimate, intertwined relationship between the faithfulness of God and the work and love of believers."
Many Protestants may bristle when they see a relation between assurance and works, since we know that anything that we would do does not bring about our justification--but it does assist in having an assurance of that saving work. God through his free grace declares us righteous in calling us to salvation by justifying us, but it does not stop there. The natural outflow of that calling is a prompting to respond not only by accepting the Gospel but to bear fruit! This is what the writer-preacher of Hebrews is talking about when he mentions that the Lord will not overlook the "work" that the hearers have done in serving the saints--the preacher knows that they would not do such works of love for their fellow believers (and non-believers) unless they truly loved the Lord.
This is why the author of Hebrews encourages them to show an earnestness in service to others because it demonstrates not only the love that we were shown through salvation but trusting in God and who He is. We are to imitate those of the faith that have come before us and who have inherited the promises.
Think of it as being laborers in a great company, going down the hall and seeing Noah, Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and other Christians through the generations. But it's not just their responsibility to work in the company--we are all called to be a part of it in the body of Christ. As they labored, so are we called to labor--and in that labor we take hold of an assurance of our faith--that the outflow of our faith is the production of fruit which is glorifying to the Father.
Imitate the heroes of the faith today!
John 17:17 shows the commitment of the Principle folks: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 1 John 4:8 shows the passion of those who are people-oriented: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
But with any spectrum and in dealing with extremes, there must be balance. 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter that speaks on love and speaks that love is patient and endures all things, states in verse 6 that at the same time, "it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."
This relates to Hebrews 6 in that the inheritance of the promise and the assurance of that promise is gained by the service to the saints (here on Earth) that is a part of our sanctification.
Pastor David made the point first that God's Word is not divided--the same God that passed judgment on the many different nations that persecuted Israel (as well as Israel itself) is the same God that became a man and walked the earth, dying for our sins. God is both Love and Truth. We are called to balance both.
If we are too principle-driven (I don't want to say too God-focused, that doesn't come out right!), we can be wanting in how we love people. I can throw right theology in the face of an unbelieving person who just lost a loved one and while I would be correct, would I be showing him or her love? Truth and Love should be a marriage of concepts, not something divorced from the other, hence the idea of speaking the truth in love. Our speech has the power to heal but also to very quickly and just as easily hurt.
On the other hand, if we are too people-oriented, we can compromise truth to continue pleasing people. To maintain relationships, we rationalize or we bend things so that the people we are trying to please will still remain with us. We need only look to Jesus to refute that--He showed the greatest love through giving His life and in His teaching and His miracles, but not once did He change His methods or His message. He did not tell people what they wanted to hear to appease them--he told them hard truths and some people stopped listening (see John 6), and he said that His Gospel would turn relatives against one another (see Matt. 10) Truth has a place; love has a place. We must show both.
Pastor David then gave his theme: "Assurance of salvation is an intimate, intertwined relationship between the faithfulness of God and the work and love of believers."
Many Protestants may bristle when they see a relation between assurance and works, since we know that anything that we would do does not bring about our justification--but it does assist in having an assurance of that saving work. God through his free grace declares us righteous in calling us to salvation by justifying us, but it does not stop there. The natural outflow of that calling is a prompting to respond not only by accepting the Gospel but to bear fruit! This is what the writer-preacher of Hebrews is talking about when he mentions that the Lord will not overlook the "work" that the hearers have done in serving the saints--the preacher knows that they would not do such works of love for their fellow believers (and non-believers) unless they truly loved the Lord.
This is why the author of Hebrews encourages them to show an earnestness in service to others because it demonstrates not only the love that we were shown through salvation but trusting in God and who He is. We are to imitate those of the faith that have come before us and who have inherited the promises.
Think of it as being laborers in a great company, going down the hall and seeing Noah, Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and other Christians through the generations. But it's not just their responsibility to work in the company--we are all called to be a part of it in the body of Christ. As they labored, so are we called to labor--and in that labor we take hold of an assurance of our faith--that the outflow of our faith is the production of fruit which is glorifying to the Father.
Imitate the heroes of the faith today!
Labels: good works, grace, Holy Spirit, salvation, santification, sermon, worship
posted by Dan B. @ 9:31 PM
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