The Epistle to the Hebrews part CXXXXV

Hebrews 6:8a
" But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected,…"

Briers and thorns and thistles and they are good for nothing but to be cast to the fire. The individual soul that remains content to drink in the rain but remains ever so content and happy has to fear. God wants, no desires to be fruitful through us, we're to be bears of the Spirits fruit. We're to walk the path of our forerunner pressing on to perfection by obedience to God's Will. In this way we'll know we have Eternal Life. Then verse 9, we get yet another "B-u-t" another flip-side back. But Paul says to these people, "You’re not in that thorn and thistle category."

Hebrews 6:9a
"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,…"

Notice how Paul calls them "beloved." That’s the secret. He wouldn’t call them beloved if they weren’t believers. And so he says, "But beloved, we are persuaded." That word persuaded is probably a little stronger than our English and he was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt. He said, "We are persuaded better things of you." Well, better than what? Better than thorns and thistles. We’re to have considered "better things of you and things that accompany salvation."

What is the number one theme of all of Scripture? Salvation. Salvation through our redemption so we're to be fruitful in bring many sons to the knowledge of the Gospel of Grace and into the New Covenant which is ours as it does not lie ahead in some distant future as it did during Israel's day. The whole reason for the Word of God is to bring lost mankind to a knowledge of not only our redemption but also through redemption into this great Salvation. Because, after all, three score and ten is the allotted time, 70 years. If we go beyond that, that’s just by God’s good Grace.

So let’s stretch it and say we could live 90 years. That’s a long time, but compared to Eternity, what is 90 years? Not even a blink of the eyelash. Mankind can’t get it through their heads that 90 years is nothing to be compared with Eternity. And to have 90 years of the good things in this life and push God out and then lose it all for Eternity. I can’t comprehend that. But yet, that’s the way it’s always been. The vast majority have spurned God. They’ve spurned His Salvation.

Now Paul is admonishing these people - that he understands that they do have salvation and the things that accompany it. Now it comes right back to what I’ve said so often. Salvation is not just a "fire escape." Salvation is not just a matter of escaping eternal doom, but rather salvation is that which precipitates a life of spiritual production here on earth, a Life of Living by the spirit through the office of the Holy Spirit within us and that’s what we’re here for.

Now that doesn’t mean we all have to be preachers or evangelists or missionaries but it simply means that God expects every believer to be fruitful. Let’s go back to Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and pick this whole thing up of salvation. Here’s where I have one of my controversies with some of these new translations. They have taken out the word "salvation," in this verse, which is probably the most critical word in all of Scripture, and they’ve put something else in it. I think most of you know this verse, where Paul writes:

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.


Romans 1:16a
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (the Gospel) is the power of God unto (what?) salvation…"

Salvation! Eternal Life! The hope of glory to come! NO! But, that which makes it possible for us to live a Godly life in the here and now in this Church Age.

Romans 1:16b
"…to everyone that believeth;…"

Now, skip over to chapter 3, and we’re going to use some verses associated with this one crucial word – Salvation. Verse 23, which I call the very first step of trusting His faith into Salvation and that is, we have to recognize that we’re naturally sinners. That we have fallen short of the glory of God as our natural condition of birth into this world. Even since Adams fall all mankind has been born with the sin nature as a son of Satan. When we can comprehend this then we can begin to understand mans plight. And mans propensity to resist God at His every turn, what God requires man resists by going against Him. And we do it without thinking about it one iota.