The Faith That Makes It Home

You ever been driving late at night on a long

road and suddenly realized you are far more tired

than you thought you were? Your eyes get heavy,

your reactions slow down, you stop paying close

attention and before long maybe you begin to

drift without realizing it. Maybe you hit those

rumble strips that shake the car on the side

of the road. Maybe your tires cross over the

yellow line for a second. Maybe you jerk the

wheel back in panic Because you suddenly realized

I am tired, and I'm not paying attention Now

imagine that happening on a dangerous mountain

road The road is narrow the turns are sharp the

fog is thick and beside the road is a steep cliff

and All along the road there are warning signs

Sharp curve ahead, dangerous shoulder, stay alert,

do not cross. There are those rumble strips that

maybe you've run over. Reflective markers and

guard rails. Now, why are all those warnings

there? They're not there because the designer

of the road wants to watch people crash. They're

there because the danger is real the warnings

are there meant to keep drivers alive and If

a sleepy driver ignores the warnings ignores

the rumble strips keeps drifting Refuses to wake

up eventually they may drive straight off that

cliff I think that imagery helps us understand

exactly what the author of Hebrews has been doing

over the last several passages that we've been

looking at. As Brother James preached about Hebrews

5 -11 through 6 -3, the author is looking at

Christians and he's saying, you have become dull

of hearing. You have become sluggish. You have

become slow. You have become spiritually sleepy.

These are people who should be mature by now,

but they can't eat meat yet. They're still drinking

milk. They should be teachers and they're still

students. In other words, they are beginning

to drift spiritually. Their attentiveness to

Christ is weakening. Their maturity has stalled

and the author knows something dangerous. Nobody

suddenly drives off a cliff without drifting

first. And then comes the warning that we looked

at last week, Hebrews 6, 4 through 8, where the

author essentially says, if someone continues

to drift, they may eventually harden themselves

against all the warnings, refuse to wake up,

and reject Christ altogether. The Cliff of Apostasy.

is real. The cliff of rejecting Christ is real.

And some people can experience the blessings

around the people of God, hear the truth, see

the power of God, taste the realities of the

new creation and the kingdom, and yet still ultimately

reject Jesus. And after hearing all of that,

you can almost feel the tension in the text.

Maybe these original readers read this and asked,

so what about us? Is the author saying that he

believes we're doomed? Does he think we're already

headed off the cliff? And that is what makes

Hebrews 6, 9 through 12 so beautiful. Because

after all the warnings, After all the alarms,

after showing them the danger of the cliff, the

author now lovingly turns to them and says, though

we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved,

we feel sure of better things, things that belong

to salvation. In other words, I gave you the

warnings because I want you to make it home.

The warnings aren't there. to drive people off

the cliff. The warnings are one of the ways that

God wakes his people up from their sleepiness,

keeps them persevering safely all the way to

the end. And this morning, we're going to see

that true believers are not people who never

grow spiritually sleepy, never grow tired, never

need the warnings. True believers are people

who heed God's warnings. who wake up, who keep

their eyes fixed on Christ and continue driving

until they reach home. So if you will take your

Bibles, Hebrews chapter 6, verses 9 through 12,

Hebrews 6:9–12

it's kind of this third part to these last three

sermons that we've been. Looking at he says though

we speak in this way yet in your case beloved

We feel sure of better things things that belong

to salvation for God is not unjust so as to overlook

your work and the love that you have shown for

his name in serving the Saints as you still do

and We desire each one of you to show the same

earnestness to have the full assurance of hope

until the end So that you may not be sluggish

but imitators of those who through faith and

patience inherit the promises. The first thing

I want us to look at is found in verse 9. It's

this idea that faith, faith that wakes up after

this powerful warning that we looked at, this

verse sounds shocking because he has just been

using phrases like falling away. We've talked

about rejecting Jesus. He talked about land that

bears thorns in judgment and now suddenly his

tone changes and he says, yet in your case, beloved.

That word beloved matters. This is not the language

of a cold, harsh judge ready to strike down a

sentence and condemn. This is the language of

a loving pastor speaking tenderly to his people,

people that he deeply, deeply cares about. John

Calvin referring to these warnings in the previous

verses, he says they're like thunderbolts. And

they were meant to be. They were severe because

the danger is severe, but now the author is reassuring

them. He's saying, listen, though I warned you

strongly, I'm persuaded that there are better

things concerning you than flying off the cliff.

In other words, I don't believe the cliff is

the end of your story. And this is where we need

to understand what all of these warning passages

are for. They are meant to drive true believers

not to hopeless despair, but to drive them further

into the hands of Jesus. to wake spiritually

sleepy Christians up. Like the rumble strips

in our illustration, when a tired driver begins

to edge off the road and toward the edge, those

rumble strips violently shake the car. Why? Because

they're trying to wake the driver up, to warn

them of the danger and to get them safe. And

that is what Hebrews does with these warnings.

shake the soul back to attentiveness to Christ.

And this theme runs throughout the entire book

of Hebrews. I said last week there are five,

possibly six warnings. Hebrews 2 .1 says, therefore

we must pay much closer attention to what we

have heard lest we drift away from it. The Christian

danger in Hebrews is often, is not often just

this sudden rebellion. It is drifting, neglect,

sluggishness, slowly falling asleep. Hebrews

312 says, take care of brothers lest there be

any evil in you, unbelieving heart leading you

to fall away from the living God. Hebrews 313

says, but exhort one another every day that none

of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of

sin. And that is why the warnings keep coming

again and again and again in the book because

true believers are gonna grow weary. True believers

are going to struggle. True believers are going

to need warnings to wake them up. And here's

the key. True people of God hear God's warnings

and respond to them. The people who have false

testimonies or false faith hear the warnings

of God and it does nothing to them. But true

believers, when God's Word confronts them, they

listen. When the Spirit convicts them, they wake

up. When the warnings shake them, they grab the

wheel again and they fix their eyes back on Christ.

And that is one of the differences between a

temporary false faith and genuine saving faith.

Temporary false faith can sit under the warnings

and eventually harden itself against those warnings

and against Christ. Temporary false faith eventually

ignores all the signs completely. But genuine

faith hears the warnings, hears God's word, wakes

up. And that is why Hebrews constantly says,

take care, do not drift, do not harden your heart,

hold fast, do not throw away your confidence.

The guardrails are not proof that the road designer

wants people to crash. They are proof that the

danger is real and the designer wants travelers

to make it home safely. And the author says something

really important here. He says, we feel sure

of better things concerning you. Things... related

to salvation. All of those things we talked about

last week, those four things that he said you

could be a part of and that you could experience,

those things aren't related to salvation. You

can have all of those things and not have genuine

salvation. You can taste, you can hear, you can

experience, you can participate. But now the

author is distinguishing from those things which

are just merely being exposed spiritually to

stuff, to those who have genuine faith. He says

I see something different in you. I see better

things in you. I see things belonging to salvation.

And notice he doesn't say I see sinless perfection.

Of course not. He doesn't say I see flawless

theology in you. I see outward religious performance

in you. Now what he does is he points to the

evidence that God is truly working in them. Evidence

of a changed heart and evidence of persevering

faith. Evidence that the Spirit of God is continuing

to wake them up and keep them near Christ. And

church, this is one of the most, one of the beautiful

balances in the book of Hebrews. The author refuses

to give false assurance. but he also refuses

to leave believers drowning in despair. He warns

severely, and then he comforts tenderly. Because

the goal of the author of Hebrews is not to cause

a panic, it is to cause perseverance. We talked

about this last week, we're gonna continue to

talk about it today. In fact, one of the evidences

of genuine salvation is not that you feel convicted

when God warns you, it's that you wake up to

those convictions and turn back to Christ. What

does Jesus say in John chapter 10 when he's talking

John 10 · chapter mention

about being the good shepherd? He says, my sheep

hear my voice and they do what? Follow me, church.

They follow me. They don't just hear me talking.

They don't just hear the warnings. They don't

just hear the words. They then follow me. That

is evidence that they are my sheep. True sheep

hear the shepherd's voice. They respond when

Christ speaks. They wake up to the warnings.

And some of you this morning, maybe you have

felt the weight of Hebrews 5 and 6 a little bit

over the last couple weeks. I hope you have.

Maybe the passage that Brother James preached

from about you've become dull of hearing, maybe

last week the warnings that apostasy can be real,

maybe that unsettled you, maybe that shook you,

maybe that exposed some areas in your own life

where you have become sleepy. But I would argue

the very fact that those warnings have awakened

you, that those convictions have stirred in you

an attentiveness back to Christ, I would argue

that is evidence of your salvation. I had one

person come up to me and say, started having

to wonder, well, how am I living? But see, that's

how a Christian reacts to the text. The Christian

reads Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 6 and doesn't go,

well, all right, I'm good. They read that and

go, where do I need to wake up? Where do I need

to focus in? Where in my life have I drifted?

But that is evidence of the persevering faith

that follows after Jesus, that hears the voice

of Jesus and then follows. Does that make sense?

See, the lost person reads 5 and 6 and it doesn't

move them. It doesn't unsettle them. It doesn't

shake them. But the Christian gets shook by this

and we grab the wheel again and we go, I gotta

get back on the straight and narrow. I gotta

get back. I've been sleepy. I've been dull of

hearing. I've been sluggish. No more of that.

Thank you Jesus for waking me up. But that's

what a Christian does. That's the kind of faith

that makes it home. A .W. Pink says the warning

should stir us up to earnest examination while

the promises should encourage us to constant

and patient diligence then we get to verse 10

after reassuring the believers that he sees better

things in them the author now explains why What

evidence does he see in them that gives him this

confidence? What are the things related to salvation?

And I'll be honest with you, when I read commentaries

this week, and I read theologians much smarter

than me, they didn't actually all agree on what

the evidence is of the Christian. Some went back

to the beginning of Hebrews and started quoting

all the things. Some just stuck right here to

the text that we're dealing with today. And I

think I want to stick right here in this text

because there's a couple things that he says.

He points out their continuing love and service

to the people of God. You see that in verse 10?

For God is not unjust to overlook your work and

the love that you have shown for His name in

serving the saints as you still do. He doesn't

point to emotional experiences. Listen, emotional

experiences are good. It is good to have your

affections stirred. That is a good thing. But

those are not what we point to, to give us reassurance

of our salvation. Because I can promise you,

you can be manipulated by how good the music

is to feel something. You can be manipulated

by the preaching to feel something. And he doesn't

point to that. He points to not these dramatic

spiritual moments. He points to a persevering

love expressed through sacrificial service for

the church. And he says, for God is not unjust

to look at your work and your love. Now, we have

to be very careful. He is not saying, and we

know this, that God looks at your work and it

is your work that then gets you the salvation.

He is not saying that God owes them heaven because

they serve the church. That would contradict

the entire message of Hebrews and the entire

gospel message completely. We know that we are

saved by grace, through faith, not of ourselves,

not of our works, so that no one can boast. But

Hebrews 2 10, The very next verse, so we have

Ephesians 2, 8 -9, by grace you have been saved.

Then in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2, as Jessica

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

quoted in her portion of the video, we are his

workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good

works. In other words, good works do not create

salvation, but good works reveal salvation. And

that is exactly what Hebrews is saying here.

The author sees evidence that God's grace has

truly taken root in them and they have been doing

these good works. Loving, sincere, persevering

service for the church. Notice how personal this

becomes. The love that you have shown God's name

in serving the church. We've said this before.

How do you serve Jesus? Jesus is not physically

in this room right now, is he? The resurrected

body of Jesus is not in this room. He has not

walked through those doors. So the way that we

serve Jesus, the way that we serve God's name

is by serving his church. The ministry of the

saints is ultimately ministry unto Christ himself.

A love for God's people is a love for his name.

Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says, as you did it

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

unto the least of these, my brothers, you did

it unto me. I would argue that if I had the time

this morning to go and exegetically break down

Matthew 25, we think the least of these are like

the weak people. I would argue that Matthew 25,

the least of these, are the children of God.

And he's saying, When you serve my people, you're

serving me. 1 John 3, 14 says, we know that all

have passed from death into life because they

love their brothers. So one of the clearest evidences

of genuine salvation is a growing love for the

people of God. And church, that is important

because many false faith, false testimony, temporary

declarations, Could participate externally in

the covenant community without ever truly loving

Christ by loving his people But a genuine faith

The heart has changed it produces love it produces

outward service and notice notice this line at

the end of verse 10 It says as you still do there's

perseverance again In other words, this isn't

about one time you serve the church He's not

pointing out just one thing that they did like

hey you guys remember that one thing that y 'all

did that was great I'm glad you served the church.

This is a continuous moving a continuous driving

a a continuous serving of the church this is

persevering language and it fits perfectly with

our illustration the sleepy driver who wakes

up does not merely jerk the wheel for one second

and then fall right back asleep immediately He

keeps paying attention, correcting course, driving

carefully toward home, and spiritually, that

is what genuine faith does. It continues. You

have served. God has seen how you have served

the church as you still do. Of course, this is

why the New Testament constantly emphasizes endurance

and continuation. Colossians 1. He has now reconciled

If has now been reconciled if indeed you continue

in the faith stable and steadfast Jesus says

in Matthew 24 13 the one who endures to the end

will be saved Hebrews 3 14 for we have come to

share in Christ if indeed we hold our original

confidence firm to the end If you grew up Baptist

you probably heard the phrase once saved always

saved right you ever heard that that phrase once

saved always saved It's a decent phrase. If you've

truly been saved, you will always be saved. But

historically, Protestant Christians have used

the term perseverance of the saint. That if you've

truly once been saved, then the true saint of

God perseveres to the end. They will make it

to the end without rejecting Jesus, without falling

away. That's what Hebrews is laying out for us

It's really what the entire New Testament is

laying out for out for us because the Christian

life is not merely about beginning it is about

continuing and That doesn't mean that and what

that means is that true Christians will stumble

at times They will grow weary there will be seasons

of sluggishness, but genuine faith keeps returning

to Christ Keeps repenting keeps serving keeps

loving keeps moving forward And I love that God

is not unjust to overlook this perseverance.

God remembers. God knows every act of love that

is done in His name. Even the unseen things that

nobody else sees. God sees them. The quiet faithfulness.

God sees that. The unnoticed service. The work

that you do that nobody applauds. God sees that.

He knows that's part of your persevering. And

it's not that God is... This is important. It's

not that God is tallying up merits. In actuality,

you know what God is seeing when he sees you

do things in his name? He's seeing his own grace

at work in you. So it's not as if God is standing

back and going, I'm just looking for objective

work. No, what he's doing is he's looking for

the workmanship that he is creating in you. He

is seeing his own graces in you. Calvin said,

God does not so much look upon our works as upon

his own grace in our works. People can come in

the church and work, but what he's looking, what

God is looking for is his own grace in your work

to show that you. truly belong to Him. Because

ultimately your perseverance is sustained by

God's grace. You don't persevere in your own

power. You persevere because God is gracing you

to persevere. Maybe you're in here today, you

feel weary. You feel spiritually tired. The road

has been difficult and you feel exhausted. One

of the evidences of God's grace in your life

is that despite your struggle, you're still here.

You're still serving. You're still loving. You're

still ministering. You're still clinging to Christ.

You're still driving home. Because the faith

that makes it is not a perfect faith. It's a

persevering faith. That's what he's saying in

verse 10. A .W. Pink again says, a living faith

is a working faith. And where the heart has really

trusted Christ, love and obedience will continue

to follow after him. And then we get to verses

11 and 12. We're looking at a faith that makes

it home. Now the author moves from reassurance

to celebration. He's encouraged them. He's pointed

to them the evidences of grace in their life

and now in essence He says keep going continue.

Don't stop and Again, I love the personal nature

of his appeal in verse 11 because he says we

desire each one of you so he's not just throwing

this out as a Hole over the church. He's calling

each individual to persevere Your perseverance

and your faith must be personal. Every believer

must remain awake spiritually. Every believer

must keep pressing on to Christ. As he says in

verse 11, show the same earnestness. That word

earnestness speaks of diligence. Steady intentional

effort. The opposite of carelessness. The opposite

of spiritual drifting. And notice in verse 11,

the connection Back to Hebrews 5 11 There the

author said you have become sluggish in hearing

and I'm sorry in verse 12 and chapter 6 He says

so that you're not sluggish Right, so he starts

this little section off by saying you've become

sluggish So here's the warning Then he comes

back and says But I've given you all of this,

I've told you all of this so that you won't be

sluggish. I've told you all of this so that you

will keep going, that you will keep persevering,

that you won't just coast half awake, that you

won't be spiritually careless. Spiritually careless

people are dangerous people. It's what happens

on dangerous roads, you get careless. And a moment

that a driver stops paying attention is the moment

they become passive and the moment they become

careless in their alertedness and the danger

increases immediately. And that is what he's

been saying in this section. The Christian life

is not passive. It's full of watchfulness, endurance,

perseverance. Why? Notice the goal in verse 12.

To have full assurance of hope until the end.

Verse 11, I'm sorry, the full assurance of hope

until the end. What a beautiful phrase. The author

does not want fearful, uncertain, constant, panicky

believers. He wants believers who are deep, settled,

and have this enduring confidence in the promises

of God. But notice the context of the assurance

is in the persevering faith. Okay? You need to

catch this. The confidence in the assurance,

the context is this persevering faith. As believers

continue to trust Christ, they continue to follow

Christ, continue clinging to Christ, their hope

becomes steadier and stronger. Right? When you

follow Christ through the hard times, when you

follow Christ through the difficult times, when

you've fallen kind of sluggishly asleep and then

God wakes you back up and you persevere through

that and you keep going and you keep going and

you keep going, that perseverance builds a steadiness

and a discipline in you and that is what God

uses to assure you that you belong to Him. Look

what I've already brought you through. Look at

how you've persevered through this. Look at where

you're at now. That is the context of this full

assurance of hope. Like a driver keeping his

eyes fixed on the road instead of wandering distractions

all the way to the end. That is one of the most

important phrases in Hebrew. Until the end. Finishing,

not just beginning. Paul says in 2nd Timothy

4 -7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished

the race. I have kept the faith. The Christian

life is not a 110 meter sprint. It is a lifelong

marathon. It is a lifelong road of faith. And

I love how he encourages them to persevere here.

He says be imitators of those who through faith

and patience inherit the promise. The Christian

life, this kind of perseverance is not meant

to be lived alone. We've all seen these videos

online of somebody running a marathon and they

get to like the last 50 meters and their legs

are giving out because they're exhausted they

can't run anymore and they get like the jelly

legs, you all seen that right, where they're

just kind of like wobbling all the way to the

end and what inevitably ends up happening? Somebody

along that way stops, gets them up underneath

them. They don't carry them all the way across.

Those legs still move. Those legs are still jelly,

but they're helping them persevere across that

finish line. And that's what the church is here

for. We're not to be living this perseverance

alone. We can't. God has given the body of Christ

to us to help us persevere. We imitate one another.

I loved Andy's letter. I didn't know what she

was gonna say. I didn't know what she was gonna

write, but I love that she pointed out family

members and said, I see this in you and I wanna

be like that. I see this in you and I wanna be

like that. That's what the author is saying here.

Be imitators of those who are persevering. Watch

how they've persevered. Learn from them. Be a

part of their life and you too will make it through

suffering and waiting and exhaustion and trials

and difficult roads. Even when the road seems

very, very long. Maybe many of you feel so tired.

You're tired on your journey. Suffering has exhausted

you. Trials have worn you down. You feel spiritually

weak. Hebrews would say to you, the author of

Hebrews would say to you, do not stop. Keep going.

Don't fall back asleep spiritually. Keep your

eyes on Christ. Keep trusting His promises. Keep

walking by faith. Keep driving toward home because

the faith that makes it home is not a faith that

doesn't struggle. It's just a faith that keeps

going. You ever you ever heard that phrase well

done my good and faithful servant and and you

think you read that and you think well That's

just for the that's just for the elite Christians

You know that's just for the ones that crossed

the finish line in a dead sprint It's not true

It's for everybody that crosses the finish line

Even the one that's crawling across the finish

line The good and faithful servant is the one

who perseveres to the end. We're not all guaranteed

to make it to the end the same way. Many Christians

have made it to the end with their head getting

cut off, being persecuted, being tortured, being

killed, dying in some tragedy. Not everybody

dies a peaceful death on a bed surrounded by

their family With their hand up in the air going

I'm coming home Lord We all make it to that finish

line in different ways But the thing that we've

talked about over and over and over again in

Hebrews is we make it across the finish line

with the same kind of perseverance Some running,

some crawling, some being carried limping along

the way, but we make it and God says, well done

my good and faithful servant. I have seen my

grace at work in you. N .T. Wright says, what

matters is not simply starting the Christian

journey, but continuing on in faith and patience

until the journey is thoroughly finished. Today

we celebrated Andy. her graduation from high

school. And honestly, I couldn't think of a better

fitting message for someone who is standing at

the beginning of adulthood than this passage

right here. Andy, life is going to feel a lot

like that road that we've talked about today.

There will be moments that the road is going

to be clear. and it's gonna be beautiful. And

you're gonna be listening to your favorite music

all the time, all the way there. There are gonna

be moments where you feel confident and you feel

very strong. But there's also gonna be very long

nights, difficult roads, times of exhaustion,

time where distractions are gonna pull at you,

times where the world is gonna tell you that

drifting away from Christ, is just easier. One

of the great dangers in your life will not be

this dramatic rebellion. It's going to be simply

slowly falling asleep spiritually and drifting

and losing your attentiveness to Jesus. But one

of the greatest gifts that God gives His children

are passages like these, the encouraging of His

Word, the encouraging of the church and His Spirit.

to coming back to Christ. And Andy, your mom

and I are not praying for a perfect life for

you. That'd be wasted prayers. We know that's

not what God's gonna have planned. What we are

praying for is a persevering faith. A faith that

wakes up when God speaks to you. A faith that

keeps going when life gets hard. A faith that

keeps loving Jesus when the road gets long. A

faith that keeps serving Christ and loving his

people. A faith that keeps returning to the gospel

again and again and again, and a faith that keeps

driving all the way home. Not home in the house

that you were raised in, home to that finish

line where Jesus awaits. And in a lot of ways,

Andy, especially this year, we've already seen

you have to do that. We just want to encourage

you to keep going. My beloved daughter, keep

going. Finish well. Remember Paul's words that

we quoted earlier, I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,

and that is our prayer for you. Not merely a

success or accomplishment or comfort, but that

years from now, when you have children of your

own and grandchildren of your own, if the Lord

wills it, you'll be still holding tightly to

Jesus. And church, that is not just our prayer

for Andy. That is our prayer for all of us in

this room. Because the faith that makes it home

is the faith that keeps following Christ until

the very end.