Hebrews 4:1-16 ASV, Hebrews 5:1-14 ASV and Hebrews 6:1-20 ASV

4:1-5:10
‘Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your
hearts’. These words from 3:7,15, are repeated here in 4:7. Make sure that you don’t miss the point! These are words that we need to keep on hearing - again and again. None of us ever reaches a stage where we no longer need to hear and heed God’s words of warning. Reading God’s Word can be a very uncomfortable experience: ‘God’s Word is living and active... God’s Word judges a person’s thoughts and intentions. No creature can hide from God. Everything is uncovered and exposed for Him to see. We must answer to Him’(4:12-13). This may not be the kind of thing we like to hear. It’s what we need to hear. We will only pray for ‘mercy’ and ‘grace’ when we see how sinful we really are. Then - and only then - will we come to Christ for ‘eternal salvation’(4:15-16; 5:9).
5:11-6:20
‘Let us... go on to maturity’(6:1). There can be no question of ‘continuing in sin’- ‘God forbid! How can we who died to sin still live in it?’(Romans 6:1-2). We are to become ‘mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to know the difference between good and evil’(5:14). We are to move on to ‘the better things that belong to salvation’(9). It cannot be taken for granted that every believer will ‘go on to maturity’. Some start so well and then they lose their way somewhere along the line. We should read the words of 6:4-8 as a warning. We can so easily become ‘sluggish’(6:12). When this wrong attitude sets in, things go from bad to worse. Do you want to become ‘worthless and near to being cursed’(8)? Take care. Pray for ‘earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end’(6:11).