Hebrews Lesson 76
NKJ John
We are about to wrap up this
one paragraph in Hebrews 6 that we have been studying for over a month time
wise, but then I was gone to Kiev for three weeks that we missed out on. We are in Hebrews 6 and we are in that paragraph
from 9-12 that the writer of Hebrews is at the point where he is setting us up
to go back to a discussion of Melchizedek which is where the chapter ends
getting ready to go into the next section.
So we are going to start working on that transition before long.
Now just to review in chapter
6:9, the writer says that we can have confidence that despite failure, no
matter how much failure there has been God’s grace always provides for
recovery. He says…
NKJ Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of
better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we
speak in this manner.
As I pointed out, that has a
future orientation. Now I almost feel like a broken record saying this every
time we start, but we have to keep coming back to this content. The focus here is on the future. We talked about salvation, soterion, as phase 3 glorification. We
have this emphasis on hope in the passage which again is a confident
expectation, future orientation and then the emphasis on inheritance when we
get to verse 12. The whole focus here is
to get the readers to think not in terms of just the day-to-day struggle of
living the Christian life or just living life, but to focus on the fact that we
have a future destiny and that we are in that training period that God is
preparing us for that future destiny and not to give up, become weary (this is
a major theme all the way through the book of Hebrews) fall by the wayside,
fall short of grace or various other terms that the writer of Hebrews uses.
So in the second statement in
this paragraph the writer reminds the readers that God’s justice doesn’t forget
or overlook that which has already been accomplished in the power of God the
Holy Spirit, but not to just rest on their laurels or not to think that we did
some good so now let’s go and not focus on spiritual growth.
Then in verses 11-12 he encourages
them to press on with continued diligence.
NKJ Hebrews
NKJ Hebrews
The believer he says is to
persevere in light of that future
expectation, that full assurance of hope until the end of this life Don’t fall by the wayside, not because you
will lose your salvation as the Arminians teach, or not because it will show
that you are not a true believer as the lordship salvation people believe, but
because there is a threat of a loss of reward – not that which has already been
accomplished in the Holy Spirit but that which is yet to be accomplished by
means of the Holy Spirit. We are to
persevere in light of that future expectation to persevere in faith and
patience. It is a key word here because
patience is going to be picked up again when we get down into verse 15. We will have the verb form and that will be
picked up again to realize as full inheritance.
The idea of inheritance is again picked up in relationship to the word “promise”
because in verse 12 we are reminded that we are to persevere and imitate those
who went before who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Now I want you to notice something. In your Bibles, look at verse 12. The last
word probably is “promises.” If you look
at verse 13, we read…
NKJ Hebrews
So, you can connect the dots
there. Then if you look at verse 15, we
read…
NKJ Hebrews
So connect the dots again.
Then in verse 17, we read…
NKJ Hebrews
So four times in about 6
verses we have a reference to the word promise. Now, where do you get a promise? You get a promise because somebody makes a
declaration, a verbal declaration of what they are going to do and they are
going to be faithful. That is a sub
theme in this whole section – the faithfulness of God to fulfill His promise. I don’t want to get off on that right
now. I just want you to think about the concept
of a promise. A promise is a verbal
declaration. Think with me. We go all the way back to the first two
verses of Hebrews. What do the first two
verses of Hebrews say?
NKJ Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in
various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also
He made the worlds;
It is this idea of God
speaking which entails an obligation on the part of the hearer to respond
positively to that revelation.
God’s speaking is not just
some academic articulation that we can sit there and study and say, “Oh isn’t
that interesting. Let’s try to
understand all of the nuances and all the innuendos of what God has said.”
But it entails an expectation
of obedience and application. I pointed
this out all through Hebrews. You
constantly have these references in one way or another to God making a verbal
statement. This again is a major theme
throughout the book of Hebrews that God speaks in some way and this entails a certain
response, necessitates a certain response on the part of the hearer. So we come to verse 12 and the emphasis here
is on imitation. This is where we
stopped the last two or three times.
I have been covering the five
things that made these Old Testament heroes (and in addition we can say now the
New Testament apostles) such great, mature believers. It is not because they had something you and
I don’t have. It is not because they were
made of different flesh. It is not
because somehow God gave them something that he didn’t give you and me. He has given them the same assets that you
and I have. The difference is that what they do with their volition is
different from what you and I do with our volition. So in verse 12 the writer says…
NKJ Hebrews
Now the reason you are to
imitate these leaders is not in their flesh.
Okay it is not in their humanity, in their failures; but in their walk
with the Lord. They are set up
throughout all of the rest of Hebrews.
We get to Hebrews 11 and there is this entire listing of Old Testament
saints who by faith accomplish certain things and are praised by God for what
they did in those verses. Now this word imitate
is the Greek word mimetes which means to mimic,
to imitate, to follow in the pattern of someone. Ultimately they are all imitating the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what Paul says in I
Corinthians 4:16 when you put it together with I Corinthians 11:1. He says …
NKJ 1 Corinthians
NKJ 1 Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate
Christ.
That is the focal point. Don’t imitate Paul in his failures, but
imitate Paul in that which made him the great apostle, the great believer that
he was.
In I Thessalonians 1:6 he
praises the Thessalonians because they “became imitators of us - Timothy, Titus
and the growing and advancing believers that were in the apostle’s entourage.
NKJ 1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us and
of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy
Spirit,
NKJ 1 Thessalonians
So he is picking out those
positive attributes of other believers and other churches where they are applying
the Word and saying, “Imitate those.
Follow in their footsteps. Follow
their example.”
He says that…
NKJ Hebrews
The key word makrothumia which is a compound word in the
Greek (macros meaning long like macro (that is where we get our word
macro in contrast to the word micro), large and thumia
meaning anger) means longsuffering, to be forbearing to have self restraint, not
to be impatient but to wait on the Lord.
James
So we ask the question, “What
made them different?”
Why were they different? What ways did they exercise their volition
that you and I can imitate?
The first point that I made
was that in their faith they had the will, the gumption, and the guts to believe
God and to take up the challenge to walk by faith and not by sight. II Corinthians 5:7. This is the problem with too many believers
today. They are so distracted by the
details of life, by the every day pressures of life, by the materialism that is
driven as part of our culture, by all of the different pressures that are
brought to bear in the career, in the family, in friends, all the different
things. We lose sight of the real focus and
purpose of why God called us to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you are in professional
Christian service or whether you are every day Joe Six Pack - anybody can serve
the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever area you find yourself – whether you are
working for a large corporation as an executive or whether you are working for
the city in some sort of basic government job.
Whatever it may be, wherever you are that is your missionary
responsibility where you can serve the Lord.
You can also serve the Lord in relationship to the local church. You can serve the Lord in relationship to
praying for and financially helping missionaries. There are an untold number of ways that every
one of us can be involved in different areas of Christian service. It is going differ from person to person
simply because you have different spiritual gifts. Every person has different spiritual gifts. They may have one or more spiritual
gifts. How they are given to you according
to the grace of God and whatever measure they are given to you is going to be
different from someone else. Whatever
your natural abilities and talents are, they are going to be different from
somebody else.
But the bottom line is we
have to be willing to take up that challenge to walk by faith and not by sight,
where the Word of God is more real to us than circumstances, than people’s
opinions, than the pressures of day-to-day life, than the various details of
life that surround us.
As a result of their walking
by faith and not by sight, they had a biblical view of reality. This radically transformed their norms and
standards. They were living in this
world as if they were from somewhere else.
They recognized that their citizenship was in heaven. It wasn’t here on earth. They had a genuine grasp of how transitory
life was – right now in this physical plane.
This is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. So this revolutionized their core
values. Rather than having the values of
the culture around them, they had a focus on the eternal virtues.
I pointed out last time the
difference between values and virtue.
Values come out of the culture or what the Bible calls the world
system. Values are transitory. Values are relative. Values are personal preferences. But virtues are eternal absolutes that are
grounded in the Word of God. Values are
something that everybody has. Virtues
are something that we are to strive for. They are perfections that we are to grow in
the direction of. The three cardinal virtues biblically are
faith, hope and love each of which is mentioned in this particular passage. We talk about their work and labor of love in
verse 10, the full assurance of hope in verse 11, and that they are to imitate those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So faith, hope and love are each mentioned in
this passage. So they were willing to be
radically submitted to the plan of God and to be servants of God and servants
of Christ. We went through these various
passages last week.
NKJ Deuteronomy
We are called to serve God.
NKJ Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
The word that is used here, latreia, is a word that is sometimes translated
worship. We are going to study this in
our study on worship on Sunday morning as we are going through Revelation
4. This doesn’t have to do with
corporate worship. It has to do with personal worship - how our life becomes a
personal sacrifice to God as we serve Him rather than serving our own desires,
our own goals, and our own objectives. We
put God’s plan first. This is one of the
most difficult things for anyone to apply – we are to be radically oriented to
the plan of God, not to our own desires, our own agenda. Most people spend most of their lives trying
to figure out which master they are going to serve which is what Jesus
emphasizes in several passages in the gospels.
NKJ Matthew 20:28 "just as the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many."
NKJ Matthew
NKJ Luke
This is what James talks
about in James 1 – the two-souled or double minded individual who can’t decide
where his priorities are. This is where
most Christians fail in the spiritual life.
They just can’t crack the priority issue in making the Word of God the
central issue in their life. Nothing else
matters except knowing the Word of God and applying it. It is not just knowing
the Word of God academically; it is know the Word of God as the way to have a rich
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ because we think as He thinks.
In Acts
NKJ Acts
Notice how he can use himself
as an example. We know from the very
beginning where
NKJ Acts
That is our priority – to
serve the Lord. We are not serving other
people. This is the same mentality that
Paul talks about in Colossians 3:18f when he talks about when you are working
you are doing your job as unto the Lord and not the human master. You are actually serving the Lord in that
position.
Over in II Corinthians he
details this whole litany of things he had to go through in ministry. He was shipwrecked. He was hungry. He was thrown in jail and he was beaten and
all these different things that he put up with.
Many people would say, “If I had
to put up with all of that, I would go find something else to do. I would take that as a sign that God wanted
me to do something else. That must not
be God’s will for me to be involved in ministry if I am going to be thrown in
jail and beaten and shipwrecked and go through all of that.”
So he talks about this is
part of humility which is authority orientation to God.
NKJ Acts
He was completely oriented. Everything in his life focused on that one
mission which was to communicate the gospel and to teach believers how to live.
NKJ Acts
These two verses explain what he means in verse 19 by
serving the Lord with all humility. It
is fulfilling his mission as an apostle in relation to his spiritual gift and
in relationship to God’s plan for his life.
Now in I Corinthians 4:1 he give us another
illustration of what it means to be a servant.
What it means to be a servant is not that you go out and that like some
of these people that we see on television or whatever where it is all about
them and their ministry and what God is doing for them; but, it is all about
them. It is all about the institution
that they are developing. Paul says…
NKJ 1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so consider us, as
servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
It wasn’t about Paul. It wasn’t about Timothy. It wasn’t about Barnabas. It wasn’t about Luke of Matthew. It was always only about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said that we are to be
considered as servants of Christ.
Stewards are those who are
responsible for the communication of the mysteries of God. That is the mystery doctrine that hadn’t been
revealed yet. Now this word for servant
is one of those picturesque words that is picked up in Koine Greek and used
several times in Scripture to describe the disciples and those who are involved
in any kind of ministry.
Many times Paul went places
and he was supported by his own hand by tent making. I don’t think that Paul actually sat down too
much with a canvas across his legs sewing.
He had a business. He was tent
making in
But this word for servant is
the Greek word huperetes. It literally means an under rower. That is its etymological derivation. In was used by the Koine period to describe
someone who was a subordinate, a servant, an attendant, a general assistant or someone
who is an aide de camp to a general perhaps.
They were never to be seen – like that old saying about kids that they
are never to be seen or heard. They
weren’t supposed to be seen or heard. No
one was supposed to pay attention to them. But, they were working, doing most of the hard
work and difficult work. It was all
about the person who was in charge and the person who was in authority. All of the attention, honor and glory went to
the person they worked for and not to this person. This person is the one who does all of the
work behind the scenes and nobody even knows that they are there.
I was talking about the etymological
derivation of this. It comes from the
use with the trireme. The trireme was
they think developed by the Phoenicians and of course the Phoenicians had a
certain relationship to the Greeks. The
Greeks really developed it as an ancient weapon. It was designed to ram. If you want to ram another ship in naval
warfare, the best thing that you can have going for you is momentum. So rather than having all of the rowers on
the same level, they had three decks of rowers.
Of course the guy who is down on the lowest level is the huperetes. That
was the term that was used to describe that guy down in the very pits. If you saw the movie Ben Hur,
if you watched that, (if you are too young to remember that you need to watch
it. It was a good movie), that is the
galley slave. That is the term that Paul
is using to describe himself. He is
somebody who is in the divine viewpoint approach is basically
inconsequential.
It is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said that if He
wanted to He could make the stones cry out to praise Him. God doesn’t need pastors. He doesn’t need for any of us to do anything. It is a tremendous privilege that we have to
serve Him and to participate in that ministry.
It is not about me. It is not
about any other pastor. The focus is
always on the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.
So Paul views himself with a
complete lack of pride. He is not in
this for personal recognition. He is not
in this for anything other than just serving the Lord and being willing to hear
that praise at the end of life – “well done good and faithful servant”.
Incidentally we are no better
than Paul. Paul was beaten. Paul was imprisoned. Paul did everything right, but he was beaten
and imprisoned. He had to go through a
lot of suffering because that is the process that God uses to teach us. As long
as we are in this cosmic system we are always going to have a target on our
backsides in the angelic conflict. None
of us are going to be able to escape that.
The only way we can keep the focus in the midst of all of this hostility
around us is to be completely and radically oriented to the plan of God and recognize
that our sole purpose is to serve Him.
Now the third characteristic
that we find of Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles was that they
had a passion for giving the gospel to unbelievers. It was a desire to give the gospel to anyone,
any time, anywhere.
What do I mean by
passion? I don’t mean it was some sort
of emotional kick. It wasn’t emotion-driven
although passion has that as a primary meeting.
What I mean by passion is that they had a driving desire or devotion, an
all encompassing interest to energetically pursue a particular cause. They were completely sold out to achieving
that goal and nothing was going to distract them from that goal. This meant that they had an understanding of
the realities of heaven and hell that are often lost today.
It is sad but in the last 25
years it seems like the teaching about eternal condemnation and the reality of
the
NKJ 2 Corinthians
This is a recognition that if I don’t tell those people,
then they may not hear. Now obviously if
they are positive God will bring somebody else along but guess what. Then you miss out on being part of that
blessing to give them the gospel. So
Paul says…
NKJ 2 Corinthians
There is a passion in that
term “as if God were pleading through us”.
It isn’t as if some academic exercise, but a pleading with unbelievers,
giving them the gospel. So Paul
concludes by expressing it this way.
He says…
NKJ 1 Corinthians
In other words, he was
willing to do whatever it took in terms of adjusting in the unimportant particulars
so that he could present the gospel clearly to those who needed it.
He says…
NKJ 2 Timothy 2:9 for which I suffer trouble as an
evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not
chained.
That doesn’t mean he was an
evil doer, but he was suffering trouble just as if he were a criminal.
In Romans
NKJ Romans
The fourth characteristic is
that they were totally submissive to the will of God. They put aside all self-interest and personal
desire for God’s plan. They exchanged their priorities for God’s
priorities.
NKJ Acts 20:24 "But none of these things move
me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with
joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
gospel of the grace of God.
The fifth point is that knowing
doctrine was the means to know Christ and serve Him. That was the focal point. What we are going to study when we get into
worship on Sunday mornings is that what drives everything in the Christian life
is knowledge of doctrine. It doesn’t end
there though. That is the starting
point.
In Philippians 3:8 as Paul
has reflected on what he was as a Jew – that he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees, he was of the tribe of Benjamin and all of the positive things that
he had from a religious viewpoint; he concludes by saying….
NKJ Philippians 3:8 Yet indeed I also count all things
loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may
gain Christ
He suffered the loss of his
reputation and everything that he had achieved as he went through rabbinical
training, all of the recognition that he had.
Paul was probably the greatest student that Gamaliel ever had. Yet he gave it up. He could have been the greatest rabbi of all
time and he gave all of that up and counted it as rubbish. That is such a pusillanimous translation of
the Greek. The Greek word is skuballah
which is dung to put it politely.
He counts all of it to be as worthless as anything that could possibly
be.
This is not just a knowledge
about Christ, but gain Christ.
Verses 8 and 9 are talking
about his salvation.
NKJ Philippians 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my
own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
This is understanding the doctrine of imputation. I cannot become righteous on my own. I can only get it through imputation from
Christ. It is a righteousness that is
from God by means of faith.
Getting saved isn’t the end. Paul said in Ephesians 2:10…
NKJ Ephesians
There was a purpose – three
things. That I may know Him. The only way that we can know Christ is
through the Word. Number two is the
power of His resurrection. That is the power of the Holy Spirit in the
life of the believer.
NKJ Philippians
That takes us back to a
passage that we have covered a few times here when we talked about inheritance.
NKJ Romans
Paul talks about being an
heir of God and then a joint heir of Christ.
So his focus here when he
talks about the fellowship of His
suffering is talking about that second category of inheritance where we go
through suffering as part of our spiritual growth and that qualifies us for
joint heirship with Christ.
Then he concludes in Philippians
3:11…
NKJ Philippians
Verse 11 begins with an idiomatic
statement in the Greek which some translations translate with an “if” as if it
is “but I might” as if he is uncertain.
But he is certain. It is a
certain kind of construction that indicates a certainty.
He is focused on the
future. He knows that he will attain to
the resurrection. It is the Greek word exanastasis which is really a focus on the rapture. Now some of you may have heard it said that
when it is translated as if Paul was thinking that he would be part of the
rapture and maybe he won’t. Now whether
you are dead or alive you will be part of the rapture. Right?
I Thessalonians 4.
NKJ 1 Thessalonians
We are all going up in the rapture. So he is not questioning whether or not he
will be a part of the rapture or that he might be part of the rapture
generation. He is saying that since he will be part of the resurrection of the
dead which leads to the Judgment Seat of Christ and evaluation, he wants to
make sure that his priorities are focused on knowing Him, the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering so that he will be ready for
the Judgment Seat of Christ because he is going to be part of the resurrection
of the dead. That would be the first
resurrection.
So these are the 5 areas that
distinguish these great Old Testament saints and the New Testament
believers.
Now let’s go back to our
passage in Hebrews 6:12. It says…
NKJ Hebrews
So let’s stop and review for
a minute this concept of inheritance.
He is looking at these Old
Testament saints and he says, “Imitate them.
They are the ones who are going to inherit the promises.”
There was one illustration
and that is going to be Abraham. He has
talked about Abraham briefly earlier. He
is going to talk about Abraham even more and expand this when we get into
Hebrews 11. But here he is talking about
inheriting the promises. Inheritance
always throws our attention to the Judgment Seat of Christ which is where we
will receive rewards for gold, silver and precious stones that is produced
under the filling of the Spirit or wood, hay and straw in which case our works are
burned up.
So let’s review four things
about inheritance. Three forms of this
word appear in Hebrews. The root that is
found here in Hebrews 6:12 is the verb kleronomeo. Now here it is an articular participle. Now the difference between whether it has the
article or not has to do whether it is used as a noun or an adverb. If it is articular, it is used like a
noun. Here it should be handled as a
relative clause. As it is translated in
the New King James here, it is a present tense.
It almost has a future sense -
those who will inherit. There is a future
nuance at times to the present tense, so it may be a futuristic present
here. Through faith and patience they
will inherit the promises. It is yet
future.
So we have the verb as it is
used here, used 18 times in the New Testament.
Four times the verb is used in the book of Hebrews.
In Hebrews 1:4 it is used in
relationship to Jesus Christ as the one who inherited a better name than the
angels.
NKJ Hebrews 1:4 having become so much better than
the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
It is used in
NKJ Hebrews
NKJ Hebrews
It is used in
NKJ Hebrews
The noun form of this verb is
kleronomia.
It is the noun form indicating that which is inherited, the inheritance or
the property itself, the possession. Kleronomia is a word that is used 14 times in the
New Testament. It is used two times in
Hebrews. It is used in Hebrews 9:15 to
refer to the promise of our eternal inheritance. It is used in Hebrews 11:8 in relationship to
Abraham. There it refers to the land he
would receive as an inheritance.
The promise here that we find
in Hebrews 6:12 is not related to the land promise, but the seed promise. So we have to make that distinction. In Hebrews 11: 8 it is reference to the
promise of the land.
The third form is the noun indicated
the designated recipient, that is the heir.
That is the form kleronomos. Kleronmos is
used 15 times in the New Testament and three times in Hebrews. In 1:2 it is used of Christ.
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also
He made the worlds;
NKJ Hebrews
In
NKJ Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely
warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the
saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the
righteousness which is according to faith.
In Hebrews 11:7 it refers to
Noah as an heir of righteousness because of his obedience to God. So that would be experiential righteousness. So what we find here is that inheritance is (used
in one form or another) used nine times in the book of Hebrews. Whenever you have a word of this significance
that is used more than one or two times in a book that tells you that it is an important
theme in that book. Even though you
don’t always have inheritance mentioned, you have others words associated with
that so that this is a major focus in the book of Hebrews. They are to be ready to receive their
inheritance.
Now what exactly is an inheritance? We have gone through some of this
before. A lot of people think that the
word “inherit” has the idea (especially when it is used of inheriting the
kingdom) that it is gaining entrance into heaven, gaining eternal life. But it doesn’t mean that. Inheritance is as we will see in a second is
a reward for works. Salvation is a free
gift. The core semantic meaning of
inherit is the idea of possession, the idea of property, the idea of ownership. When we think about inheritance we often
think of it in our culture as something related to what happens when someone
dies. There are a number of passages
where that is true. The idea of gaining
something on the death of another is a secondary idea. It is not the core semantic meaning. It is a secondary idea in Greek culture. You could be the heir of something without
anyone having died. We find that usage
in the Scripture. For example in Hebrews
11:8 which I referred to a minute ago we read…
NKJ Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was
called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he
went out, not knowing where he was going.
Now was Abraham supposed to
receive it as an inheritance when somebody died? No. It is simply the idea of possession which he
would receive as his possession, as his property.
In Hebrews 1:2 we read…
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also
He made the worlds;
Now does somebody have to die
for Jesus Christ to gain the property? No.
We aren’t talking about the death of Christ. We are talking about somebody dying to
bequeath all things to Jesus. No. The Father doesn’t have to die so that Jesus
can inherit. It is simply a word for
ownership of property. So Jesus is
appointed the heir, the owner of all things.
So the core value of inherit is the idea of possession, property, or
ownership.
Now the third idea of
inheritance is in relationship to Abraham. In relationship to Abraham it can be related
to either the land promise as we just saw in Hebrews 11:8 or it can be related
to the seed promise. But, it is always related to the idea of the divine
promise that God has obligated Himself to bring something about for Abraham. A couple of important passages related to
this are found in Galatians
Galatians
NKJ Galatians
That is the conclusion of his
argument. Since God gave it to Abraham
by promise then we achieve the promise, the blessing by grace and not by law. The only point that I am making here is that
the concept of inheritance here is related to the divine promise. It is that way in Romans
NKJ Romans
It was based on grace –
righteousness by means of faith, not works.
So the promise to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant was grace not based
on a condition. It was an unconditional
covenant.
NKJ Romans
The point that I am making here
is simply this. Inheritance in relationship
to Abraham is always related to the idea of promise. That is exactly what we are going to see in
verses 13-15. I had you circle those
words for promise in these verses. In
verse 12 we have promise. In verse 13 we have promise. In verse 15 we have promise. In verse 17 we have promise. The whole focus here is on the promise of God
– that God stands behind the promise. It
is His character. It is His integrity that guarantees that promise. So the third point related to inheritance is
simply that in relationship to Abraham, it is related to promise – either the
land promise or the promise of the seed.
Fourth, inheritance is related
to rewards for what is earned for service whereas salvation is free gift. Paul makes this statement in Colossians 3:24. Now Colossians
NKJ Colossians
Now that gives you a whole new
doctrine of work. Going to work tomorrow
morning you know that you are there (no matter who your boss is, no matter how curmudgeonly he is, no matter how awkward it is, no
matter what the circumstances are) not to serve them, but to serve the Lord. You will receive the reward of the
inheritance from the Lord for you serve the Lord Christ in your job. You don’t have to be a missionary or a pastor
or a seminary professor or in some sort of professional Christian work. This is everybody that is included in this
category. Everybody is serving the Lord
at your job whatever it is – no matter how menial it may be, no matter how
extensive the responsibilities - you are actually serving the Lord.
We are almost done and I
don’t want to get into the next verse and have to stop in four minutes so we
will stop a few minutes early. Let’s
close with a word of prayer.