Hebrews - Part 15 Things That Accompany Salvation (Hebrews 6:9-12)

We're in Hebrews 6, and let me read, starting in verse 9, and I'm reading from the ESV right now. 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.

I'm going to stop there. I'm starting to become a better estimator of how far I'm going to get. And probably won't get much farther than that. The other thing is with this chapter, that paragraph we just read, at least in the ESV, it's a paragraph. And then the next paragraph, they would go together. So if I wanted to do like one more verse, for example, I would have to do all the way to the end of the chapter.

Some verses just go together. That's how you have to look at them sometimes. And sometimes you can really focus on one, like Spurgeon did a lot. So what we have to remember again is context. We are in a context. The book of Hebrews is about Jesus Christ being better than everything.

So he's writing to first century Jews. These are people who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation, and yet they are still practicing and in some ways, you know, kind of placing their faith in the Old Testament rituals and ceremonies that they're not understanding pointed to the Christ who would come and were now obsolete. and so the author has shown us that Jesus is better than angels he's better than Moses you know we've gone through this and now when we got to chapter five we see Jesus the great high priest and we have a description actually that was at the end of chapter four but in chapter five we saw how high priests are selected what their purpose was how Jesus started to fulfill this role And then the author went into another parenthetical where he's starting to describe about apostasy at the beginning of chapter six. And the beginning of chapter six, you know, we determined last time was a description of someone who was part of the church, had experienced things that are part of being a Christian in a sense, the outward forms of it. and they had fallen away.

And so now, after this harsh warning of what is to be expected for those who fall away, if you look at verse 8 in the allegory he gives about ground that receives blessings from God but doesn't bear fruit, he says if it bears thorns and thistles, he says it is worthless and it's near to being cursed and that doesn't mean it's almost cursed but not it means it's it's it's near to the point of final damnation and he says it's near to being cursed it's nigh unto being cursed and its end is to be burned and so after this rather harsh or we'll say strict warning to the people that if you have tasted of the heavenly gift if you're part of the church of God, and you reject these truths that you've been given, your end is to be burned. This is, I think, an obvious analogy to eternal damnation. He then wants to come back, and he wants to comfort these brothers and sisters.

He's not writing a polemical letter to a building filled with people he doesn't think are Christians. This isn't just a big rebuke. He is writing to dear brothers and sisters, and he wants them to understand the promises of God, which in some of the commentators I read, one of the points they were making, though, was rebukes, strong rebukes and warnings are appropriate to the people of God.

They're not just for people you think have already fallen away and showed themselves to be outside the church. And so he begins to speak in a different way in verse nine. He says, though we speak in this way, he says, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. And then he says, things that belong to salvation. Now, Matthew, no, this wasn't Matthew Henry.

This was Albert Barnes. I really like the way he put this. When referring to that verse, he said, though he had stated what must be the inevitable consequence if Christians should apostatize, yet, he says that in their case, he had a firm conviction that it would not occur. There is no inconsistency in this. He says we may be certain that if a man should take arsenic it would kill him And yet we may have the fullest conviction that he will not do it So you see his point his point is is just because the warning was given this is what will happen if you apostatize.

That doesn't mean he thinks they're going to. He's making a logical argument. If this happens, this is the result. But I don't think this is going to happen to you. and then I just love how he put this this is Albert Barnes he says is not this verse a clear proof that Paul he he thinks it was Paul apparently he says that Paul felt that it was certain that true Christians would never fall away and be lost he says so this is so this is interesting because this is the section of scripture that people go to to try to argue Christians can lose their salvation because of the conditional at the beginning of chapter six.

Albert Barnes says, if he supposed that they might lose their salvation, how could he be persuaded that it would not happen to them? Hence, he says, learn that while we assure people that if they should fall away, they would certainly perish, we may nevertheless address them with the full persuasion that they will be saved. And of course, by will be saved, he's referring to the final redemption of the body.

So when we talk about salvation in the United States, a lot of times we just are talking about the point of justification. and so when people say when were you saved well they're referring to the day that you actually trusted christ for salvation and and were justified in his sight in the bible a lot of times when it refers to being saved it's referring to the day that jesus will make your body new which is the final redemption of your body and that's what he's talking about albert bars that we will be saved. And so there's confidence that we can give to other believers amidst warnings. So I can look at each one of you men, and I can say, if you do not remain in the faith, you will be damned.

If you deny Christ, he will deny you before the Father. And I can give you that warning, and I can also say, but I'm sure you won't do that. I have belief that you are a Christian and you are going to be able to persevere to the end by his grace. And so he says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

And in the KJV, it says things that accompany salvation. and I really it's interesting how certain words change the way you're looking at a verse I'm learning the longer I go to review multiple translations of the Bible so that I get the different sense of some of the words but the word accompany was a key word in my mind because the word accompany is used in the Baptist catechism. And so question 39. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

So basically, what are the benefits that accompany the main things that are your salvation? and listen to this this is what a company this is what accompanies your salvation this is the kind of the kinds of things that the author of hebrews had in mind when he wrote that this the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from your justification which means you've been forensically declared righteous in the sight of god you've you've been declared to be not guilty of your sin. It's been imputed to Christ, and his righteousness has been imputed to you. Adoption, you've been received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of being a son of God.

And sanctification, sanctification is a work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God. So you're made practically different, as well as in your heart you've been made different and you're enabled more and more to die unto sin and live into righteousness so these are questions basically 35 to 39 of the baptist catechism i'm kind of quoting and combining but here's the benefits that accompany those things so the things you are already really aware of like now i'm going to heaven and now god's going to work on my life, and now I'm a child of God. He says, these are the benefits which accompany your salvation.

Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. And so you can look up the Baptist Catechism. It's in the London Baptist Confession of Faith. So if you go to chapellibrary.org, I think that's the website, you can read this online for free, or you can order it, and they'll send them to you for free, in fact, if you don't have one.

But the Catechism is just fantastic for giving you a concise answer to a biblical question in a way that you can memorize it But these are the things that the author had in mind for the people in the book of Hebrews He writes this dire warning of cursing that can happen if they should fall away which is true about anyone who would fall away But then he assures them that the benefits you get are assurance of God's love. You have no assurance of God's love as long as you are basically outside of his will. Now, we're all going to sin. and so this isn't about perfection some people would accuse the Reformed of being basically sinless perfectionists in practice we believe that we will have assurance of God's love through God bestowing that love upon us by giving us the grace to fight our sin it's the moments that you are actually like Paul crying out woe is me, who will deliver me from this body of death?

When you're confessing your utter sinfulness, we're not telling you, oh, because you're in sin, you're not a Christian. It's when you're confessing that utter sinfulness and repenting and begging someone to deliver you from it, in particular begging God, that you are assured that he loves you. It's the unrepentant for sin Christian that we question if God's working in their heart.

And so the assurance of God's love comes from knowing that you've been justified by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, and knowing that he is with you even unto the end, even though you're still a sinner, even though you haven't been finally delivered from this body of sin. peace of conscience what a gift what a gift if if any of you has any experience like i had i was such an evil person before i got saved that my conscience was always nagging at me this is one of the reasons why people like me get into things like alcohol and other things because our God-given conscience tries to get us to say, wow, I'm really wrong here. And instead, we fight it, and we try to assuage it or assuage it. I don't know how to say that word, A-S-S-U-A-G-E.

You know, we try to do things to just make our conscience shut up. You know, well, I know what I'm about to do is wrong, so let me slam a few more beers, and then I'll have the courage to do it. and instead what I was doing was inebriating myself so I would do foolish and sinful things. But as a Christian, you get a peace of conscience partially because, well, you have Jesus Christ and you're going to go to heaven.

But I think this is more referring to practicality. You now are living a life where you have integrity and you're going to fail. Again, we're never talking about perfection. But in general, when your boss at work says, hey, I need to talk to you, let's talk tomorrow at 9am. Those are like the killer messages for me. Like my little brain just starts thinking like, what did I do?

You know, well, your conscience starts to be clear, because you know, you didn't do anything wrong. And you don't feel like you have to be defensive about things. And suddenly the types of things that you actually fear the boss might want to talk to you about are that you actually did something right and it offended someone, which as difficult as that would be to have to lose a job over something, most of us are ready to accept some of that.

He says joy in the Holy Spirit. If there's a virtue of Christ and a fruit of the Spirit that Christians in general are probably lacking in their outward expression of, I would say it's joy. Mike Stockwell, somebody said to him once, do you have the joy of the Lord in your heart? And he said, well, yeah, of course I do. And they said, well, maybe you should tell your face.

And it was, you know, it's kind of a joke because he was scowling one time. And I don't know if it was Mike they said it to, or if Mike said it to someone else. I know he told me the story. But, you know, a lot of us are in the battle, right? We're at Planned Parenthood. We're on the street.

We're evangelizing people at work. We're dealing with difficult adult children. We're in a battle with people sometimes in a sense where, and you know, we battle flesh and blood, but you're facing other people when you're doing this. And sometimes it's really serious. You know, you're trying to rebuke somebody. You're trying to correct somebody.

You take worship of God seriously. Like, even right now, like, I'm getting kind of preachy. My eyebrows have come down. Like, I just looked at the video. You know, I almost look slightly angry. And that's a symptom of preaching sometimes.

But, you know, we can have joy even in the midst of all this difficulty because God has saved us. and Jesus Christ he said these things I tell you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full Jesus takes joy in his bride can you imagine a husband that didn't take joy in his own bride right we'd be like what's wrong with you he who finds a wife finds a good thing well Jesus Christ found a bride and he paid the ultimate price for her and you can I'm a Baptist, so we don't gamble, but you can bet he loves his bride and takes joy in her, okay? I wouldn't place that bet at Vegas or something weird like that, but you can bank on it, all right? Increase of grace.

Increase of grace. That's one of the benefits that accompany your flow from your salvation. This is the kind of thing that the author of Hebrews is saying he's thinking of these people that he knows they going to keep increasing in grace We been given the grace to believe in Christ and it not going to stop there If all God ever did for you was send his son to die on your behalf and he regenerated you, and he saved you, and he granted you faith, and then he never did another thing for you, apart from his promises to do so, he'd still be a great God. that would be fantastic to just get to go to heaven on the merits of Christ but God promises so much more he promises that in this life he will continuously give us grace it will be grace upon grace and you will be renewed in the whole man and you will start to be able to see things that you didn't see a year ago or three years ago or ten years ago in the scripture and you'll start to find yourself more loving, joyful, patient, kind, gentle faithful, self-controlled, all those virtues that God promises that will increase for us.

And perseverance to the end, that's the other benefit that's listed in the Catechism at least. And so we have these promises. You will persevere to the end because of Christ and because of His grace, and you have total hope for that. So that was verse 9, so I think I was right that I wasn't going to get very far today. but so he says in verse 10 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 or the labor of love is the king james there and this is another verse that people want to twist say well god is not unjust to overlook your work.

Oh, so it's about your works. And of course, we've already established it's by faith that we are saved. And one of the difficulties that we have when we go through the scriptures and we get to these verses where God talks about our works is that we have to remember that in order to suddenly say, oh, well, Hebrews 6.10 talks about works, therefore or salvations by works and justifications by works, in order to do that, we have to deny so many other truths we've already established and believed.

This is why, you know, when I say the three most important rules of interpretation are context, context, context, you know, the big context is the whole Bible. You have to take into account the entire Bible when you interpret any passage. And then you have to take into account the larger context of your section you're reading, And then finally, the immediate context.

We've already established that salvation is by grace, but God is going to reward us for even the works that we do that are done by the power of the Spirit working in our life as saints. And, you know, one reference that I think Albert Barnes gave was Matthew 10.42, where Jesus says, and whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. There's an implication in Scripture that God is going to do things through you as a Christian, and there's going to be rewards given, that there is going to be a final reward at the end that you'll receive simply because you're going to receive the reward Christ deserves.

And that's where that phrase casting crowns comes from. We're going to cast any crown we're given at his feet because we're going to know he's the one who earned it and we didn't. But God is not going to overlook your work and love you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do. This is a reference to how we are going to love one another.

And God is not unjust to overlook that. God, in his justice, owes sinners condemnation. But now that Jesus Christ has earned righteousness on your behalf, God owes you a reward. Not because you earned it, Christ earned it. But God owes you in that sense in the same way that Jesus Christ was owed. and Jesus Christ was owed punishment because of the sin that was imputed to him.

And so when it says that God is not unjust to overlook, it's pointing out that because of his justice, because he's a rewarder of those who do good and a punisher of those who do evil, in Christ, the good works that God foreordained that you should walk in, Ephesians 2.10, these good works are actually worthy of his reward. and in particular they are works done toward the church of God. Your focus as a Christian should be worshiping Christ and serving him, and the way you serve him is by loving your wife, loving your immediate family that he's given you, in particular in your household, and then the church of God. he's given you a new family that you've been adopted into and we serve the saints he says and in verse 11 then he says and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope unto the end and he says so that you may not be sluggish or slothful but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises So next time we'll see what it means to be imitators of those because those is the people that follow. But he wants them to show the earnestness and the work and the labor of love for one another because it's through that. labor, it's through that growth in your holiness, in your practical love for other saints, that you actually start to get that assurance of God's love, the assurance of the perseverance to the end.

If someone comes to me and says, well, do you think I'm going to heaven? I don't say, well, tell me what day you prayed a prayer to God to save you. I ask them, are you living a life today that evidences that you are a child of God? Do you bear his name? And if you are living a life that indicates that you're actually bearing the name of another, why would I give you assurance that I think you're in God's family?

And so, although we trust Christ for our salvation, and we look to Christ to give us assurance personally, and the Holy Spirit bears witness in our hearts that we're children of God. Practically speaking, this has worked out in a life of increased, we'll say practical holiness. I actually have a friend right now who is opposed to that phrase and I think the concept.

And so I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how to be careful in describing it. And I actually can't think of a way to try to be more careful. We are expected to live lives that evidence the grace of God, which is evidenced not by sinless perfection, but by repentance for sin and, I believe, practical growth in conquering sin and having victory over it.

It is evidenced by the fact that we do not find God's commands burdensome, but we actually love his law. The difficulty you face with sin, the difficulty that you have once in a while where a sin grabs you, and maybe it's just in your mind, and something just really gets a hold of you, and you have to fight it, and you have to beg God to help you, that difficulty is normal. But what we want to believe is that over time, by the grace of God, we're going to find ourselves defeating some of these things and having some some victories.

Lord willing, the sins you're fighting three years from now will be new ones that you found deeper in the recesses of your heart and flesh than today. And it doesn't mean Christians never fall. This is where it gets a little hairy. You have to qualify everything and make every exception. And I don't think I need to do that. He says, if you show the same earnestness, you'll have the full assurance of hope until the end.

You show the earnestness. You keep working as if you're a child of God. You keep living a life that evidences that. Not to earn salvation, but in order to know that you are saved. And then just the beginning of 12, it's a weird verse break, frankly. It says, so that you may not be sluggish. the fear that people have when we tell others, hey, Jesus died on your behalf, and you're going to heaven no matter what, because Jesus died.

And I can say that to a Christian. And we can say that. If I could know that you were in fact elect, I can say that without a doubt. But the reason why the book of Hebrews and the author of Hebrews gives us the warning at the beginning of chapter 6 is not, hey, by the way, Christians can lose their salvation, right? That's not what he's trying to say. The reason these things are given is so that it will cause you to not be slothful in your work and labor of love for God. because for you to have the assurance of God's love and the good feeling that comes from knowing you're his child you have to do the work you can't be sluggish you can't just sit around and say well Christ earned it all for me I'm going to heaven I'm just going to play video games today I'm not saying you can never have a day you play some video games my point is you have to be the one that gets up and does the work not to earn your salvation but to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it's God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And so you need to not be sluggish. There should be a bit of a healthy fear that I don't want to start living like the apostates. I would rather imitate, as we're going to see in the next section, I would rather imitate Abraham. And I would actually, you know, Abraham, you know, what's one of the points here? Abraham took his only son, Isaac, the one God called his only son, and he was going to sacrifice him, right?

Like, talk about work. He didn't earn salvation, but he was evidencing that his faith was real. The promise that he believed, he believed it, and he would obey God no matter what. And that is the type of faith we're going to be exhorted to imitate. and it's never a passive sit back and relax kind of faith. Now you rest in Christ. You're not, again, I don't want you to go to church Sunday and open the door for other saints and think, okay, now God's going to love me.

But you do it because God loves you. And then knowing that it's a joy to you and as you grow in those works, that gives you more of that assurance and comfort that he loves you. So in summary for this little section, the author wants to tell the people where the book of Hebrews was being given, look, I don't believe you guys are apostate. That was a warning Maybe for a few people there but I think better things for you And I want you to have all the things that God gives to his children And part of how you're going to receive those things is going to be by faith, believing what he has said, and then acting accordingly, which in their case is going to mean shedding these Old Testament rituals that are now obsolete, and actually just trusting in Jesus Christ now and seeing him as the fulfillment of those things.

And so we have the same exhortation for us today. So I'll stop there and open the door or floor for people to share what they thought and comments, questions. this concept uh you know the working out your faith and demonstrating it you know by how you live uh and i i am like weekly i go to see uh to a christian rehab clinic for alcoholics and drug addicts and uh a lot of guys there i think are are in this position where they've been in addiction you know and but they they know probably from like their their grandma took them to church or something like that and they know what that they weren't living right and this becomes this this situation is like i don't i don't know dude like are you are you saved and you fell in hard into some drugs? Or are you just aware of the truth because of what your family did?

You know, the education they got you in the church, and you have not come to Christ. And it's, yeah, I mean, I can't tell, but it's just like you got to deal with the practical, you know, situation of like, are they? Are they not? I don't know. You just have to preach the gospel to everybody. I don't know, I can't look into somebody's heart and see, but this is always, this stuff is frequently on my mind these days.

Yeah, I understand. And I think that's part of the point of what that quote, and maybe the Elder Barnes quote I read wasn't the full context, but there was a quote I read about this passage where someone said, you know, rebukes for the saints are appropriate. Warnings for the saints are appropriate. And so this whole thing like, well, hey, you know, remember your baptism?

Like, that's right. You know, we should tell people to cling to Christ, remember their baptism. But at the same time, we can warn people, but if you stay on this path, you'll go to hell. And you'll deserve it. That's how we talk to people. And at the same time, I can look at Christians and say, but I don't think you will.

I think I've known you long. You guys on the call here, even Jason, I haven't known long. I've known you guys well enough so far that I tell each one of you, hey, I think you'll be okay. Just keep working at it. Keep trusting Christ. But those warnings, you go back to drunkenness?

You know, like if I was at a Christian rehab clinic, one of the first things I'd do is I'd eliminate the word alcoholic from all their mouths. And so you call yourself a drunkard if you're a drunkard. And then you say, I repent of it and start identifying with Christ who wasn't a drunkard. And you start doing that, that shows that you actually think you're in a new family now. that's the mentality change that I think a Christian who has a problem with drunkenness that's what will help them start you know thank you Michael as always for your dedication to your group and for your teaching.

You were making a point on verses 11 and 12 about we have to do the work, talking about the whole issue of not being lazy or slothful. And what I find interesting, in 11 it says we want each of you to show this same earnestness. Some translations use the word diligence. And so if you look at the definition of earnestness, it suggests that we come at something with a degree of conviction, right?

If you look at the definition of diligence, the definition says it's a careful persistence. and then I got to thinking well you know all of us as men have worked in our life we don't usually have trouble being diligent or earnest in our work right because we we do the process that that it requires we we get up every morning we get a shower we we either drive to work or we get to our computers and we start that process every day in earnest every day with diligence right because we have to work to eat we have to work to provide no issues there right and some of us are very diligent and earnest about our workouts or our diet we know the process that it requires you got to make good decisions every day about what you put into your body you have to do that earnestly and diligently and with care. You have to, when you work out, you have to have that persistence You have to be careful You can injure your body or you sell yourself fat You have to be careful in how you lift weights because if you don do it properly if you don have the proper form then you not getting anywhere you just wasting time and so it got me to thinking well how is it that we as men can go we can apply diligence to every area of our life but it's often in our faith where we suddenly lack it you know and I think what it comes down to is we just don't have a plan oftentimes even as saved Christians I think we genuinely want to serve God and we genuinely want to get it right for the lack of a better way to say it but if we don't have a plan if we don't have a diligence every day about seeking God and inviting Him in and for devoting time to the Word and pursuing our faith with that careful persistence, we're just not going to get anywhere. It's going to be akin to the guy who shows up at work every day, but he doesn't have a plan.

He just goes through the motion and he punches a clock. Or it's going to be akin to the guy who gets up every day and says he wants to be, He doesn't want to be fat and out of shape, but he continues to eat at McDonald's on a regular basis. And when he works out, it's with half of his heart that he works out. If we come at our faith with half of a heart and with a lack of persistence, we can expect that same flabby, lazy result in our faith, I think.

That's a great point. I think we've been lulled into, you know, because it's by grace through faith and it's not of works. And I think that there's a segment of Protestantism that has taught us, you know, any structure is bad, right? Like if I told you guys, I think you should wake up in the morning and pray for 15 minutes and read the word for 15 minutes every morning.

And I think that's a good discipline. And a lot of people would say, oh, you should never lay a law on somebody like, you know what I mean? And and oh, well, you know, people should want to do that out of their heart. They shouldn't be told to do it out of duty. And it's like, I don't know. You have to have a plan.

Like you said, I'm not I'm not going on any dates with my wife with two little kids unless we make a plan for it. You know what I mean? I want to go on a date with my wife. unless I plan it we can't do it unless I'm going to leave a five-year-old home without a supervision right so it doesn't mean I don't love my wife because I have to plan it and I have to have the structure and things right it's a really good point we want to be sensitive to weaker people too so we try not to be too hard on people who are failing because we fail also right I think that makes it hard too sometimes you know Michael, what you mentioned there made me think of something that Sarah and I have talked about recently.

In our Bible study together, we're going through Matthew currently. And toward the beginning of Matthew 7, right toward the end of his Sermon on the Mount, He talks through a couple different analogies of kind of black and white scenarios that illustrate people who follow him and people who don't. There's the narrow gate, the stride to enter through the narrow gate, or the way is easy and the road is wide to destruction, but it's narrow and difficult to return to life, paraphrasing that, right?

And there are a couple more examples, a couple more analogies that he makes right around that passage, all of which illustrate the fact that our walk as Christians is one of two flavors, so to speak. we are either daily taking up our cross and following Christ, or we are not. There's not really a middle ground there, and Christ really doesn't leave room for a middle ground in what he's talking about there. Amen.

And to your point, Stephen, I really agree emphatically with what you said. And to your point, it's unfortunate, I think, that in the world we live in, we see so many people who are devoted just wholeheartedly and entirely to really wicked things. Or really, even if they're not wicked, even if they're, you know, more morally neutral, they're nevertheless not godly, right?

Whether it's weightlifting or diet or whatever the case may be, they're not useful things. But nevertheless, individuals commit their entire being to those things, right? wouldn't it be incredible if we could have godly Christian men put that kind of devotion and perseverance into the things of God right oh my goodness if we had 1% of America do that it would be transformative so I guess the point that I'm trying to make is just the fact that I agree with what both of you have said in terms of understanding the importance of diligence and perseverance in the things of God and the fact that we as Christians need to recognize that those things aren I don think we should look at them necessarily as arduous per se but instead as simply things by which we are characterized as Christian men. It's just what we do as members of the body of Christ, as members of that family, as you said, Michael.

Yeah, great comment. Yeah, I agree, Jason. You know, another thing that came to mind when you were talking, you were talking about how the pursuits that men dedicate themselves to. You know, think about the amount of men in this country that are absolutely dedicated during football season. And I love football. No judgment here.

I love watching football, college, pro. But, man, it's like the entire Sunday from the pregame till the late game is dedicated to the pursuit of watching football, being a spectator, right? And people even rally their families. Not necessarily anything ungodly about that at all. But it just makes you wonder, like you said, what if those men had the same diligence about, in the middle of that day, in between those games, calling his family together and getting on his knees before God and just praising God as a leader of his family?

What would it do for homes and families in this country for men to take that kind of leadership role? And, you know, Michael, when we talk about this earnestness, this diligence, when we think about it, we as men on this call this morning, that's what we demonstrated by being on here. I'm going to be honest with you. It's hard for me to be on this call.

I have a nasty little attitude about it every time I have to get up at 530 because I'm not an early riser. But I have never regretted showing up for God. I've never, in fact, I know every time that I come here, I get fed. And I know that sometimes God works through me on this call. So if I don't show up, I miss an appointment. It's by divine appointment that we make these calls.

And so there's even been times when I've been on the West Coast working, you know, in a sales meeting. And if I'm being very honest about it, I'm using it as an excuse when I'm in that time zone not to be on the call. because if I want to be diligent as Hebrews promises me that if I'm diligent, if I'm earnest, I will experience the fullness, right? I should get up when I'm in Phoenix, Arizona at 3 a.m. and get on this call.

It's that simple because I'm not going to fail to be blessed. And so I just really appreciate this passage this morning. and you guys and your reflections on it. Thank you, brother. Having that perseverance also just makes me think of how important it is to be part of a body of believers that can exhort each other and hold each other accountable for these things.

Just how easily you can kind of go to sleep, I guess, on your own when you don't have brothers brothers around you to exhort you in these things to have those disciplines and things you think about like not that large churches are bad but certain churches where it's easy to kind of slip in and slip out I guess and not have that accountability but just how important it is to have those relationships, those closed relationships where you can be open with each other for the sake of throwing in holiness. Fantastic. I know you're on the phone, but there was some head nodding going on while you were talking there, brother.

Really good point. well the key word earnestness was in there and Stephen said that was diligence which led me to 2 Peter 1 where he says in verse 5 make every effort which is diligence in a different version be diligent to supplement your faith with virtue virtue with knowledge knowledge with self-control self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. And then he says, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we ought to be workers, as Stephen said. we ought to put in the dedication to the Lord as Jason said, this is the kind of life that you've been called to and if you're really dying to self then doing what the Lord would have you do should be your top Top goal, top priority.

Well, good. It's a good passage. Keep reading in chapter 6. We will, Lord willing, finish chapter 6 then next week. Or not next week, excuse me, two weeks from today. And we'll keep the every other, or second and fourth Friday schedule, however that lands each month. let me pray father in heaven we thank you that even an hour later we are different men now because your word pierces our hearts and is able to change us your word is powerful it's living and active sharper than any two edged sword and we thank you that Jesus Christ himself came to dwell with us and having been raised from the dead, his spirit dwells in us.

And he is our comforter and he is our helper. And he bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And so we ask you that you would make us be mindful of this today, that we would identify ourselves as children of God and that everywhere we go we would bear the name of Christ in such a way that we bring honor to Him where we are happy to be identified with Him in each and every circumstance, no matter what the personal cost may be.

We thank You that He is all-powerful and ever-living, and that there is no power on this earth that can do anything to us. Because we fear the one who can kill body and soul in hell and not the one who can just kill the body. I pray for our saints from this call that are missing today. I pray that you would get them where they're going safely and help them through their illnesses and difficulties.

That you would bless us today with assurance of faith, assurance of God's love, increase of grace, peace of conscience, join the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for listening to Be a Berean with your host, Michael Coughlin. I am a writer at thingsabove.us and I also have a personal website, michaelcoughlin.net You can contact me by emailing me, michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures