Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2002

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

“Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things  things which belong to salvation.  For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake 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.”

Introduction   Here it is, the end of the month already, and we are only getting back to our Hebrews series, which we last considered the first Lord’s Day of the month.  As I look back at the text from our earlier sermon, I have realized that there is much more of substance in those few verses than we considered all too briefly.  Therefore, sometime after the first of the year, we shall return to those eight verses to reconsider several issues that need to be addressed.  For now, however  we have a schedule to keep in order that the essential teachings about Melchizedek may fall into the Advent season appropriately enough.

I would also like to thank everyone for being so gracious to accept the last Lord’s Day sermon on the somewhat controversial topic of baptism.  We all, everyone of us get caught up in the emotions of our own heartfelt passion to demonstrate the love of the Lord in this regard, in a way that gives witness to the ongoing love of God in this sacrament revealed.

This does not mean that different general opinions on this essential sacrament indicate any heretical tendencies.  And even as the Apostle has completed in the previous eight verses a considerable consideration of the call to orthodoxy and the ongoing struggle that the church has in maintaining it  even so, just as he so lovingly demonstrates in our passage for today:  he has better hopes for the Christians whom he is writing to.

The first word in this section that we want to focus on is: “beloved”

F.F. Bruce would encourage us, even as the Apostle encouraged his brethren.  “Our author makes haste to reassure his readers, after his words of solemn warning: he does not believe that there are apostates, or even potential apostates, among them.  He was encouraged to believe and hope the best of them because the fruits of righteousness had beyond all question manifested themselves in their lives.  Those fruits, being the natural concomitants of salvation, bore witness that the people in whom they appeared were genuine heirs of salvation.  His desire to reassure them, his concern that what he has just said should not discourage them, may have prompted his affectionate language here: this is the only place in the epistle where he calls them ‘beloved’  ‘my dear friends’.”

Commentator John Brown echoes Bruce’s observation:  “Lest the Hebrews should be discouraged  as if the Apostle thought them all apostates, or, at any rate, trembling on the very verge of apostasy, - he, in the words which follow, in the most affectionate and winning manner assures them of his affection, and of his comfortable hope of the genuineness of their Christian profession.”

However, even though he must congratulate his readers, there is still an essential and important reason for the plain speaking given in the previous eight verses.  And that is, just as our text allows: “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.”

Development:  Yes, in the previous eight verses  as in other letters within the Canon of Scripture: there are problems that need corrected.  Every pastor must challenge the ordinary complacency all too evident within Christ’s Church, but as Raymond Brown notes:  “he does not allow these serious failures to distort his view of this church.  He is aware of better things in the lives of these believers.  We must take care not to neglect the ministry of encouragement.  With a commendable desire to see a congregation at its best, any pastor or minister is in danger of constantly exhorting his people to new heights of spiritual experience and severely rebuking them when he considers them to have been unresponsive.”

Calvin weighs in on the same topic:  “Certainly anyone who wants to be a good teacher ought to treat his pupils in such a way as always to encourage rather than discourage them.  There is nothing that has a greater effect in alienating us from listening to teaching than to see that we are thought of as hopeless.”

Now many of you know that I am going to undertake a new part-time career as a driver’s education teacher.  I can remember when the boys all learned to ride a bicycle  we would start at the top of a slight grade, balance them carefully and give them a gentle push so that they could learn the difficult art of balance while in movement.  I can still remember my final triumph when I could graduate from training wheels.  Of course, if you have done the same with your children  you know that you were picking them up, dusting off the dirt, patching up the bruises and gently encouraging them to get up and try, try again.

In the area of vehicle training, the State of Ohio has taken a page from past history and reinstituted the temporary learning permit, with a significant role for the parents.  My new job, for twelve to sixteen hours a week  is to assist the parents, to hold my breath quietly and to encourage the good habits the students are learning and to point out the dangers of curves, stop signs and speed!  I am firmly convinced that when you are moving along at any reasonable speed, that is no time to be abusive and calling people names.  Gently, so as not to end up in the ditch  the emerging driver must be encouraged.

In the spiritual world of faith  it is also necessary to give a word of encouragement, so that learning might be multiplied and the people may grow in grace and knowledge.  I still remember our first Advent season together, when my lay protégée completed the first Candlelight service by singing his once favorite song:  “Ave Maria.”  Afterwards, we went over the prayers, the sermon and finally the music.  I commended him for his program and presentation and then just had to ask how the final “herm” fit into the glorification of the Trinity?  “Herm,” he asked  what is that term in reference too?  “The opposite of Hymn,” I gently chided  hoping he would see the humor of the moment.  When he burst out laughing, I knew the point was made and that we would have no more of that in the future!

In the same way, over the years  I have sought carefully that all my reports of the local saints to the Presbytery and outsiders would be as positive as possible.  In the old liberal denomination, I was always amazed at how negative ninety per cent of those loving liberals could be about their congregations.  I almost think that part of my problem in their company was that identified with my fellow believers in the faith instead of the studied contempt usually associated with the liberal mindset!


With that general observation out of the way, we may move on the specific commendations outlined by our author.  It was the Apostle’s wish that they should have a well rounded faith in Jesus Christ, and in this description, he emphasizes four things.

First, in these two verses is the commendation ”to show the same earnestness.”  Now, most translations here use the word “diligence” or as Bruce allows: “the same zeal” that they knew from the beginning of their faith.  I would suggest that the sincerity at issue here is to hold an avid interest in the doctrines and practices of the faith.  In that same sense, no responsible portion of scripture and church life is to be held so arcane that it does not merit some minimal consideration.
Second, is the commendation “to have the full assurance of hope until the end.”  By this phrase John Brown observes that while “faith is the belief of what God reveals respecting the way of salvation; hope is the expectation of obtaining that salvation.  ‘The assurance of faith’ is a full persuasion of the truth of what God reveals; ‘the assurance of hope’ is a full expectation of obtaining what God has promised.”

In other words, his readers should show the same zeal in understanding to be persuaded to continue with and in the faith until their last breath be drawn.  Sadly, in the lives of all too many Christians, an early initial zeal is soon dampened by the spiritual experiences or the lack thereof in their circle of friends, families and believers.  It is not without reason that Jesus taught that the family of God could and would sometimes cause a rift with not only friends and associates, but even with the closest of family members as well.  However, since we are now of the family of God, as those to whom the Apostle was writing  better things were hoped for in their regard.

Third, is the admonition that the believers “may not be sluggish.”  The initial diligence, exuberance, sincerity may and ordinarily is somewhat tempered in order that the fire of the Spirit might burn steadily down through the years.  And we all finally learn the appropriate amount for our personality, character and place in life.  However, the Apostle here is calling for a continued and life long dedication in this regard.  The faith once given to the saints is not something from which we can take a sabbatical or even a vacation.  I remember well the story of one ancient relative who came many miles to visit a family, but when invited to the old home church  she firmly declared that she was on vacation and her relationship to her home church, (which had a more laid back attitude about the gospel and other things was where her allegiance truly lay).  Why mess that neat and tidy relationship up, with being assaulted by some unknown hill Billy pastor that might take things too seriously.  Methinks there was more than just laziness in her attitude!

At the very least, we are called upon to constantly remember the essentials of our faith and to exercise our hearts and mind in this regard.  Recently, after a forty year hiatus  I was required to retake my driver’s license.  What a humbling challenge.  And it did no good to quickly discover that the study booklet was at least four times longer than the original one forty years ago.  I pined for two weeks until I worked up enough courage to retake it.  I passed of course, but it was a crash course for an old dog to learn a few new tricks, since I had not avidly studied the subject for those four decades!  You know, they have probably added a few things since you took your original test  I know I learned at least half a dozen new things!

Fourth and last in this sequence we are admonished, to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”  Bruce tells us: “This exhortation to imitate the faith of the men of old anticipates the argument of Chapter Eleven that the reference is to men of God in the Old Testament times is clear from the words that follow.”

Application:  Now, this particular insight brings us back to the verse that we seemingly skipped over in our brief consideration.  That is verse ten, which reads: “ For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.”  Now, I am going to say something about this that may at first sound almost heretical, but hang on for a moment for me to make my point.

We have all, by the grace of God come out of other congregations and denominations into our own imperfect Presbyterian Church in America.  We do like to think that we were blessed with some uncommon common sense to better our selves by so doing.  But let us always remember and apply this charity that carefully that those who remain behind in the greater majority of places are still serving the Living Lord as best they know and are able.  They are just as much a part of the invisible church as we are.  The Lord has simply left them to serve in a more difficult climate and even if they and we might have an imperfect understanding of the faith once given to the saints  if the Lord is leading us on, in that leading we are secure.  And if your friends, neighbors and families do indeed know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior  that is sufficient for now.  In time perhaps, many of the barely evangelical structures may collapse of their own sin and disregard for the honor of Christ and Him crucified.

But, if many of the older people there sincerely hold fast to the faith once given  they do indeed belong to our Lord and we should at least pray for them and even encourage them in fruitful studies as we are able.  We also in this regard must realize that not everyone shares the same fire and zeal for many reasons.  Nevertheless, the Church can grow with their support and even applause.  The Reformation on the continent of Europe was never the great mass popular movement that it became in little Scotland.  But, then the calling and purpose of the various “tribes” of Reformers were different and if we will allow: even national in scope.  Luther, because of national support  did not have the same impact as Calvin, who was more likely a man without a country, an exile in the “City of God,” which Geneva reluctantly became because of the interest of the many saints who were drawn there for revival, reformation and education.  Nevertheless  many went on to the uttermost parts of the earth as the regeneration of the Church developed over time.

Let, this be my blessing upon your heads today:  that the sincerity and zeal which the Lord has and is giving you, may it be sufficient for the time and tasks ahead.  Amen.