Note: Devotion taken from 7.28.19 sermon from 1689 Confession 16:6.
Hebrews
6:10: For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which
ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and
do minister.
London
Baptist Confession 16:6: Yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being
accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; not as
though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God’s
sight, but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and
reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and
imperfections.
The picture that comes to mind here is of a
parent who has very young children, and the children take a crayon, and they
scribble some works of “art”, and they come and present it, with real sincerity
to the parents. And it’s just a scribble. It is filled with weaknesses and
imperfections. It is not “gallery ready.” But it is deeply pleasing to the
parents, who put it on the refrigerator, or they might even frame it and put on
their walls. “This is what my beloved child did for me!”
So, our good works, though they are but filthy
rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6), are accepted by God in Christ.
The key prooftext for this paragraph is Hebrews
6:10, in which the inspired author says that God will not forget your work and
labor of love in his name, your ministry to the saints.
It may seem like no one else remembers, no one
else notices, no one else acknowledges, but God does. And who are we really
serving anyhow?
The first time I ever preached from this verse
was when we had returned from two years of missionary service in Hungary in a
missionary debriefing conference with our fellow returned missionaries.
A large group of young people in their twenties
had gone out to places around the world two years before. Some came back
exhilarated, others exhausted and disappointed. Some openly wondered whether
they had been able to accomplish anything. Some came back to families and
friends who didn’t understand why they had even gone in the first place. Two
did not come back. They had died while on the field. One was killed in an act
of terrorism in China, and one had died of natural causes in rural Africa.
Several had come back with life altering diseases, including some who came back
from Kazakhstan with hepatitis.
And all for what? We must remember that God is
not unrighteous. He will not forget our work and labor of love showed toward
his name when we have ministered to the saints and continue to minister. He accepts our good works in Christ,
despite their many weaknesses and imperfections.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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