First of all, recall last week that in looking at the section of Hebrews describing Jesus as our Great High Priest and the source of our salvation, my attention was drawn to a segment on the Today Show regarding "The Mystery of Faith." One common question explored in the series—which included the faiths of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity—was "How does one get to heaven?" Last week, we had only seen the segment on Judaism and I said I would report on the rest today. Well, here’s your report. I thought about showing you the various segments, but it would take too much time. I have them on tape if you’re interested in viewing them sometime.

Remember from last week that the basic response from Judaism to the question, "How does one get to heaven," was "do good deeds." That included the previously unknown to me good deed of setting up three couples who get married! Anyway, bottom line from Judaism—"do good deeds."

The sum of the perspective from Islam was very similar. Some of the comments made were these: One Iman said, "One must believe in the oneness of God, the day of judgment, and do good on the earth to enter Paradise." The daughter of Malcolm X responded, "One just can’t say, ‘I believe, and therefore I’m going to Paradise.’ One has to believe it and exercise it through good deeds on earth." And, finally, a professor of Islamic studies said the key to the afterlife was "…to live justly and beautifully on earth, then, God willing, there will be no surprises in the afterlife."

Regarding Buddhism and Hinduism—I didn’t know that Buddha was a Hindu who took the concept of heaven to a different place than Hinduism. Consequently, they’re very similar in that both believe in a kind of reincarnation—where life is an opportunity to get it right, then there is death and re-birth to try again. The one major difference between the two—at least what I could discern from the few minutes devoted to it on the Today Show segment—was that Buddhists believe heaven is found on earth. Hindus believe that the goal is to reach the highest of the heavens at which time one never returns to earth. One common denominator in both religions is that one’s destination is based upon what one does in this life. The sum of both perspectives on heaven could be summarized in this one statement made in the segment by a professor of studies on Eastern Religions, "One’s moral behavior in life very much determines one’s destination in the afterlife."

The segment on Christianity spent some time in discussing what the Christian view is of what heaven looks like. The response to the question of how one gets into heaven basically was wrapped up in the one sentence of Ann Graham Lott, Billy Graham’s daughter: "You will go to heaven when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord." That’s it! The rest of the segment was spent on descriptions of what heaven might be like. No complicated formulas of what one must do. No questions about what’s good enough to make it. Simply, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved! That is the image from last week of Jesus as our Great High Priest. Jesus makes the ultimate, final, once-for-all-time sacrifice for sins. While all other religions answer the question of how one gets into heaven by responses about what one must do to get there, Christianity answers the question by responding about what has been done for us in Jesus Christ.

DO versus DONE. That is one of the greatest strengths of Christian faith. While all the segments on other religions had expressions from its adherents about hoping they had done enough, Christianity does not. Through faith in Jesus Christ you can have assurance about your eternal destiny. With all the other faiths, one never knows. "Have I done enough? Does this bad deed wipe out my good deeds? How can I know where the scales of God’s justice balance out in my life?" In Jesus Christ, one can know with full assurance. My eternity has been accomplished, sealed, not by my deeds, but by what Christ has done for me! A great strength of Christian faith.

Yet, that strength of Christian faith leads to a question. Can I lose my salvation? My personal belief is, "No." With a sincere profession of faith in Jesus Christ, an acceptance of God’s free gift to us in Jesus, it is done. Otherwise, our salvation becomes based on our works. I believe the weight of Scripture leads us to conclude that we cannot lose our salvation earned in Jesus Christ.

However, our Scripture passage for today is one that is often referred to by those who might argue otherwise. So, let’s take a look at the next section of Hebrews in our journey through this rich book. (Read Hebrews 5:11-6:12)

If you know much about me at all, you surely know that one of my axioms for life is that your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. Or, put another way, your weaknesses are your strengths pushed to the extreme. So, if I tell you that one of the greatest strengths of Christian faith is that we can be assured of our salvation because it is done in Jesus Christ, your natural response should be, "Ok then, Ron, what is its greatest weakness?" The weakness is this—we can become careless or indifferent about doing good works. It’s called "cheap grace" and its thinking goes like this: "If my salvation is sealed in Jesus Christ and I can’t lose it through my deeds, then it doesn’t matter what I do. If salvation is by grace and not by works, then it doesn’t matter what my works are." That’s the weakness.

So, let’s be very clear about this: What you do matters! The writer to the Hebrews might put it this way—salvation by grace is the "milk" of the gospel, the elementary, or foundational teachings of the gospel. Good works is the meat, the moving forward in the gospel. Even the classic verse in Scripture regarding salvation by grace and not works, Ephesians 2:8, 9, supports this: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." A slight pause here to say I love this passage from Paul because it is so Paul-like! The image I have in my mind is of Paul walking about, dictating to a scribe this letter to Ephesus. The gist of what Paul wants to say is this, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, not by works so that no one can boast." However, because Paul knows our temptation to take credit for anything that leads to salvation, even our faith, he has an aside moment. Did you catch the "aside" in the statement? "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast." So, there’s the classic passage on salvation by grace. But, hold on for a moment! The very next verse, Paul writes this: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Salvation by grace—a great strength. But, a great weakness also if it leads us into the false belief that it then doesn’t matter what we do. Know this, first of all: The sincere, devoted follower of Jesus Christ will passionately and diligently seek to do good works.

I love the quote on the cover of our bulletin this morning. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said this about this topic of faith and good works: "Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again—until you can scarcely distinguish which is one and which is the other." Don’t you love that? That is what the writer of Hebrews is saying when he challenges us to move forward in our faith, from milk to meat, from elementary principles to maturity.

Yet, the question still remains—can we lose our salvation? After all, the writer to the Hebrews also writes, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened…and have fallen away to be brought back to repentance…land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned." Probably the verse most often quoted by someone who would argue that we can lose our salvation. What the writer describes certainly does sound serious to me.

However, I think it is helpful to look also at what Paul writes in First Corinthians, keeping in mind the metaphor from Hebrews about land being burned. In First Corinthians, chapter three, Paul also uses a metaphor about land and crops related to our works. In verse 9, Paul writes, "For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field," then he switches to a building metaphor, "[you are] God’s building." Now sticking to the building metaphor, Paul writes these words: "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." There’s salvation by grace. Now comes the works in the metaphor of building upon the foundation of Christ. "If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light." Day capitalized there indicates the Day of Judgment, that Day we spoke about last week where we will stand before God, unable to avoid looking into His eyes, and we will give an account of our lives, an account of how we built on the foundation of Christ in our lives. Going on in I Corinthians, "[Our work] will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

I don’t think it can be any clearer than that. The foundation is Jesus Christ, source of our salvation. No other foundation can be laid. Only Jesus. In place. Firm. Solid. But now we must build upon that foundation. There’s our works! Build with good works—works of gold, silver, costly jewels…items that are made stronger and more pure by the testing of fire—and we receive a reward. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Paul doesn’t tell us what that reward looks like. It’s just there, the reward of good works. Build with bad works—works of wood, hay or straw…items that do not withstand the testing fire of judgment—and they are burned up…though that person will be saved, but as one going through fire.

I think the writer of Hebrews is telling us the same thing. The crop of bad works will be burned up. Our salvation is not lost, but works done outside of God’s will be lost. Yet, the writer of Hebrews wants to tell us more, wants to remind us what is at stake in our claiming to be a follower of Christ, yet not supporting what we say with what we do. In our bad works, the writer says, we are "crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." I don’t want to do that, do you? Those are serious, sobering consequences. Does it matter what we do? Indeed it does.

Sadly, we have seen the truth of this passage being played out before our eyes over the past few weeks. The public fall of Ted Haggard has been painful to watch, magnified by his public persona. The work of God’s Kingdom has been hindered in this very public spectacle of someone’s "falling away." It’s not the first time, nor, sadly, will it be the last time that Christ and the message of the gospel have been put to public disgrace because of the actions of one of Christ’s disciples. And what was once effective ministry for Christ—whether you particularly lined up with his message or not, effective ministry that reached hundreds with the message of the gospel—has now been lost and is impossible to restore. Did Haggard lose his salvation? I don’t think so. But, he lost the possibility of being effective anymore in ministry for Christ. Worse yet, he has hindered the gospel’s effectiveness in reaching others. I think that’s the point the writer of Hebrews is trying to make. Does it matter what we do as Christians? You better believe it does.

Yet, there is good news for us in the lessons for life that come from this passage. It’s serious stuff, but it is good news also.

First of all, we can be assured of our salvation. It is sealed in Christ’s work, not ours.

Second, the call to do good works brings meaning and purpose to our lives. God gives to us the great responsibility and privilege of being His representatives, His ambassadors to the world. God wants us to experience the joys of giving ourselves to something bigger than ourselves. And God promises to walk with us throughout our journey of seeking to do good works in His Kingdom. The call to do good works brings meaning and purpose to our lives.

And, finally, we are never done. Our lives have meaning and purpose for as long as we live on this earth. There’s never a time where we can say, "Well, I’ve arrived! I’ve reached the ultimate of what the Christian life is all about! Now what do I do?" No! We are never done. There is always more to learn, more to do, more to grow in maturity in the Kingdom. Bill and Jane Hays, for example. I’m sorry, Bill and Jane, I didn’t get your permission to single you out! But, you two have been a great inspiration to me and others by seeking to live out what Christian faith is all about. As much as anyone I know, you have sought to do what a Christian is supposed to do. Thank you for that! But, here’s the thing—you’re not done yet! There’s still more to do, more to learn, more to grow in maturity about Christian faith. We are never done. And so, the good news is that we have meaning and purpose for our lives for as long as we live on this earth. We’re only done when we stand before God, looking Him in the eyes and give an account of what we did in life. But remember, also standing with us is Jesus our Advocate.

And so, the writer of Hebrews calls us to move forward, to move on from a diet of milk in the gospel to a diet of meat in the gospel, to move on from the elementary principles of faith to an ever increasing maturity in faith.

Much has been discussed about our moving to a new schedule for Sunday morning. I assure you, the Session spent a great amount of time discussing it. Do you understand why the decision was made? The decision was made with two very important purposes guiding us. First of all, we are going to be united in our worship. But, just as important, the second reason is that the church, in order to fulfill its purpose, must present opportunities for disciples to grow in their faith, opportunities to move from milk to meat, offering Sunday School classes for adults which our old schedule hindered. In some ways, worship is milk. It is vitally important to our faith. But, to grow to maturity, we need more than just worship. I’m reading a book entitled Breakout Churches. One of the things they identify about "breakout churches" is that "Breakout churches understand that church members must get connected with a small group for them to grow in spiritual health and to remain connected with the church." Now, they identify those small groups as both Sunday School classes and/or other small groups. But, to grow and remain connected, members must be involved with small groups. Breakout Churches goes on to say, "Members who are involved in worship services alone tend to drift toward inactivity." Worship is milk, vitally important, but milk. Education is meat, also vitally important. Learning more about God’s word and about our faith is meat. Learning how to apply to our lives the lessons of faith so that we produce good works, that we build with silver and gold and precious jewels, is meat. The milk, the "elementary principle" of our faith is Jesus Christ as Savior. The meat, moving forward to maturity is producing good works with Jesus Christ as our Lord. Does it matter what we do? You better believe it does! Someday, we will give an account to God of what we have done…or failed to do. How will the crops of your life measure up?