I was involved Monday morning in a very serious car accident. It started out as a very normal day. My partner and I went to do a tree job. Things were great. We were driving home. It was maybe 10 o'clock in the morning. It was a gorgeous day. No clouds in the sky. We missed a stop sign. We went through a blind intersection where we couldn't see at all, and I had about one second. I turned to my right and looked, and there was this full-sized truck right at me. I was in the passenger seat, and it was coming at me. 

I chose this song several weeks ago, and I've been working on it. And I think it embodies the entire experience for me because I have peace like a river that flows through me all the time. I'll be honest. I thought it was my time. I truly thought that this was the end. I'm okay with that. Jesus died on the cross for me. He died, was buried, and resurrected. It's my faith in God's grace that my salvation is secure. I have no fear. 

Pastor John called me and said, "Doug, how are you doing?" I said, "Well, John, the bad news is I'm still here." Nobody in the hospital got my joke. You do, because I have no fear. I can look at a truck coming right at me and say, "If it's my time, it's my time," because I have peace like a river flowing through me. 

I'm not peace like a river, I'm not peace like a river, I'm not peace like a river in my soul. I'm not peace like a river, I've got peace like a river, I'm not peace like a river in my soul. I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain in my soul. I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain, I've got joy like a fountain in my soul. I've got love like an ocean, I've got love like an ocean, I've got love like an ocean in my soul. I've got love like an ocean, I've got love like an ocean, I've got love like an ocean in my soul. I've got peace like a river in my soul. 

And I'm not going to read this entire chapter right now, but I do want to read two verses for us to consider. Verse 9 and 10. Have your Bible open for the message this morning. 

"But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister." 

And then I'd like you to think of the statement of Paul the Apostle in Romans 6:23 when he made this summary statement of the biblical message. He said, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

I want us today, as we look at Hebrews chapter 6, to consider this question: Salvation or probation? Which do I believe in? Eternal salvation or lifetime probation? Which does the Bible teach? Does the Bible actually promise to everyone who believes Jesus Christ that he owns, he has, the gift of eternal salvation? Or does the Bible warn men that we are on a lifetime probation and it will not be settled, our destiny will not be settled until we stand before God to be judged? Which does the Bible teach? 

Several years ago, a man visited Living Hope Church on a beautiful Sunday morning when we had a baptism for believers. And after the meeting, he met with me, he talked with me, and expressed deep thankfulness that he'd been delivered from the despair of lifetime probation. He'd been a lifetime member of a church. And he began coming to our church in Wausau when I was a pastor there by the invitation of a friend that worked with him. He was a teacher at a school at D.C. Everest, and one of the other men invited him, "Bill, why don't you come and visit our church?" And so he came, and he heard the biblical message of eternal salvation. 

And he said, "Pastor Kranz, that was such a deliverance for me because all of my life when I attended church, the sermons implied that I was on a life of probation to decide whether I was worthy. And if perhaps during that week I had committed some failure or sin, then I lost my eternal salvation and had to be saved all over again. And that went on for all my life." 

And when he talked to me, he was about in his mid-50s or 60 years of age, he was struggling with cancer. And a couple of years after that, he died. But he died with a great assurance that Doug expressed in his testimony this morning. "I know I'm saved forever. I have eternal salvation. I can never lose." 

Now let's look at some scriptures that talk about the difference. Turn, please, in your Bible. And I'm going to take the time to have us turn to these verses. John 3. Turn in your Bible to John 3, to the words of Jesus to a religious man. It's verse 16. I want you to see this. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

There, Jesus was talking to a religious leader named Nicodemus, and he was talking about the gift of eternal life, a permanent gift that one receives when he's saved. 

Turn in your Bible to John 5 and look at verse 24. This is another statement from Jesus. 

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my words and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life." 

That's a statement about everlasting life, permanent salvation. Look also at John 6, verse 37. 

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." 

And then look also at John 10. I'm reading statements from Jesus for us to consider right now at the beginning of this study concerning our eternal salvation. John 10, verse 27. 

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand." 

The point I want us to consider right at the beginning this morning is that this book and the words of Jesus himself teach us that our eternal salvation is a gift we can never lose. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 9 says the message of the Bible is eternal salvation. And Paul said to Titus, he said, "God cannot lie. We have hope, we have assurance of eternal life, which God promised, and God cannot lie." 

And I find that Hebrews chapter 6 is one of the most convincing chapters concerning the gift of eternal salvation. We won't take the time to read numerous passages that refer to this, but in chapter 5 he said he was writing to immature Jewish believers that needed to grow in their knowledge of Christ. In chapter 6 in the beginning, which we read this morning, it was written to Jews who were struggling with the basic principles of salvation, and they needed to go on to the perfection that is in Christ. 

In chapter 6, we also read that it was written to establish eternal security in the minds and hearts of Jews who had believed God's Savior's Son. And they were weak and immature and wavering in their faith, and they needed to come to an understanding of God's gift of eternal life. 

Now the point I want us to consider as we look at some of the verses this morning is that the powerful chapter, this powerful commentary regarding our forever security is a new covenant affirmation of God's gift of eternal life. God has given us eternal life as a gift when we came to Christ. God cannot break that promise. 

And so this sixth chapter of Hebrews is a confirmation of this. It's a bold affirmation to believers that we have the gift of eternal salvation. And I'm going to point out three statements in Hebrews chapter 6 today that are indicators whether or not a man has this gift. And every one of us can look at the scripture as looking in a mirror, and it indicates whether or not we are actually saved, whether we receive God's permanent eternal gift of eternal life. 

Three things I'm going to point out. 

First of all, in verse 10, I want you to notice this statement: "Love which you've shown toward His name." And then we're going to look at the statement in verse 11: "Diligence for the full assurance of hope unto the end." And then in verse 19: "This hope we have as an anchor for our soul." 

So first of all, consider what the writer of Hebrews, who I think was the Apostle Paul, said to these Christians who were struggling, who were immature and weak and wavering in their faith. 

Look at verses 9 and 10 again. 

"But beloved, we're confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you've shown toward His name. And that you've ministered to the saints and do minister." 

That's a highlighted statement. Love which you've shown toward His name, and that you've ministered to the saints and do minister. One of the marks of everyone in this room who's saved and has the gift of eternal life is within your heart, there's a strong love for the saving name of Jesus Christ. 

I'm so thankful to say that this morning and to encourage you with that. The supreme evidence of my own eternal salvation is my love for the saving name of Jesus Christ. Because I know what Simon Peter said was true when he said there's salvation in no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And believers love that name. 

I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 97, verse 12: "Give thanks at the remembrance of the name of Jesus Christ," and that's true for people who are saved. 

When we hear His name, we don't blaspheme His name, we don't curse His name, we don't trample His name in the dirt, but we praise and we give thanks for His name. Hebrews 13:15 says to believers, "Now that you've become a believer, let your life be a sacrifice of praise to the Lord, giving thanks to the name of Jesus Christ." 

The always present evidence of a man's new birth is his love for the saving name of Jesus. 

I'd like for us to turn to a passage in John chapter 3 and read a lengthy passage that relates to this idea concerning our love for the name of Jesus. This is the time when Nicodemus, a religious leader of Israel, came to talk with Jesus about two years before Jesus died on the cross about eternal salvation. 

Let's read this together: follow John chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. 

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" 

It's a major statement that Jesus made during His teaching ministry, that every person who would go to heaven must be born again during this lifetime. That's not a religious statement from quack types of preachers and Christians. Jesus is the first man who talked about that. "You must be born again." 

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" 

Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water," that unless a man is born physically out of the water of his mother's womb, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it and cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." 

Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" 

Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." 

He's talking about the gift. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." 

Now here's the bottom line of this conversation that Jesus had with that religious leader. 

"He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

When Jesus talked to Jewish sinners, He made it clear that it's a heart choice that every person must make to receive Him. As we sit in this beautiful place on this Lord's Day morning and you quietly listen to the Word of God, do you have the confidence in your heart that you've made the choice, lifetime eternal choice, to receive Jesus Christ? 

Because when that happened in your life, at that moment you were born again, and at that moment the Holy Spirit came to live in your life, and He implanted in your life a deep respect and love for the only name that's a saving name, the name of Jesus. 

Call His name Jesus, for He'll save His people from their sins. And the writer of Hebrews is saying the evidence that you've been born again is you have that great love for the saving name of Jesus Christ. 

In John chapter 19, as we continue the life of Christ in verse 39, it says, after Jesus died on the cross, He was buried in the grave of a rich man, and another person, another Jewish man helped Him with that task, and his name was Nicodemus. The same man who had come to Jesus to ask about eternal life, two or three years later he indicated his love, as even though he was a religious ruler, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, he came and identified with Jesus because he'd been saved as a result of the conversation in John chapter 3. 

Let's all of us ponder that for our own life right now. Has that happened in my life? Has the time come when I made a deliberate choice about Jesus and about His name, and I received Him into my life? And since that day, whenever I hear His name, I'm thankful. I want to praise Him. That's the mark of eternal salvation, in contrast to the idea that we're on probation and God is testing whether we're worthy enough to go to heaven. We have a love for His saving name. 

Then the second thing I want you to notice, the second highlight, the evidence that someone has actually been saved and been born again is seen in verse 11 of chapter Hebrews 6. He wrote these words: "We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end." 

Every one of us this morning who's been saved and had the Holy Spirit move into our life and place within us the love for Christ has a new hope, a saving hope. When we started this little church about 25 years ago, though I had been a Baptist preacher for 40 years already, I wondered what will we name this church. Shall we name it a Baptist church or a denomination? I decided in my own mind and heart, we're not going to do that. We're going to choose a biblical name. 

And we chose a name from 1 Peter chapter 3 which says, to believers, "You've been born again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance in heaven forever, reserved in heaven, and we are kept by the power of God." And Simon Peter said, "If someone asks you about your faith, be always ready to give them a reason for the hope that is within us." 

And the reason for our hope is Jesus Christ. And at all times, a saved person holds fast to that hope. As it says in Hebrews chapter 4, hold fast because Jesus is our merciful and faithful high priest. And the Bible tells us this hope was established by God's promises. 

Let me point out something that we read in our text this morning. Abraham was saved by faith. And the Bible says Abraham did not waver in his faith. I'm kind of amazed at that statement of Abraham's life because when Abraham went down to Egypt, he was frightened that the king would take his beautiful wife from him. 

And so he lied to the king of Egypt about his wife, and he said, "She's not my wife, she's my sister." It seems that was a wavering in his faith. But another part of the story tells us that God told Abraham, "Take your son Isaac, take him to the mountain, your only son, your beloved son, and there you offer him as a sacrifice to me on the altar." 

And Abraham rose early in the morning to be obedient to God. Those two episodes remind us of the faith that Abraham had. At times, Abraham had a faith that was wavering. In other times, he had a faith that was solid, invincible, because he believed God could even raise his son from the dead if it were necessary. 

And I want us to know this has urgent meaning for us as a believer. As you hear me talk this morning, you may be even struggling with your faith, about your faith right now, but the struggle for every serious believer, and I hope this point will be clear, is that we waver between our feelings and our heart belief. 

Sometimes in our heart, we're not feeling all that great. Not feeling that positive about our relationship, in our emotions. Maybe life has been difficult for this time of our life, and so we're wavering in our feelings, but deep in our heart, our heart is turned to the Lord. And we believe every promise that he's given. 

We believe in his gift of eternal salvation. And that hope is expressed with faith, with patient faith. Jesus said even when times become so severe that it seems the world is going to be destroyed, comfort yourselves with your patience of faith. 

When we're running the race and the race seems difficult, look unto Jesus and be patient in your faith. So let's look at our own life today. Do we have that diligence that the writer talks about concerning our hope and our assurance? Are we diligent concerning our living hope, which is Jesus Christ living within us? That's the mark, that's one of the marks of authentic salvation, that we belong to Jesus Christ, we're saved. 

So the first two things I mentioned is love we've shown toward his name. In our heart, there's a strong love for the saving name of Jesus. The second thing is diligence concerning our hope that we have in Christ, and Christ is our hope. 

And then the third point I want to make is in verse 19 of chapter 6 of Hebrews. 

"This hope we have as an anchor for our soul." 

The person who is saved has an anchor, and that anchor is in heaven, and we are attached by faith to that anchor in heaven, Jesus Christ. With these remarkable words, the Holy Spirit declares the reason for our eternal assurance: He said it's impossible for God to lie. 

When Jesus talked to that woman at the well, that Samaritan woman who was a lost lady, who was a sinful person, guilty, he promised her eternal salvation, and it was impossible for him to break that promise to that Samaritan woman. 

And we read two things about this. First of all, it says this for the genuine believer: "We have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." It's verses 16 through 18. Let's read that again. 

"For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us, and that hope is the anchor of our soul." 

Let's think of that for a moment, that statement, we fled for refuge. When I think of my own life, I can remember numerous times as a young boy and then as a teenager and then later on in life, of fleeting, running to Jesus Christ to be saved. 

And it says that's one of the marks of our eternal life. We know that we have fled for refuge. You only need to do it one time to come to Christ. And he said, "I'll never cast you out." But when you think of these words for yourself this morning, do you have that confidence that the time happened in your life when you fled to Jesus Christ for refuge? 

There are various ages here. I'm probably the oldest person in this congregation this morning. I'll be 89 in October. But early in life, I heard the gospel and I responded. I responded in Minneapolis when I was in Bible college to a Billy Graham invitation, at the Billy Graham crusade in an auditorium in Minneapolis. 

And I really nailed it—three or four years after I was a pastor. I went into my own study, went from my study out into the little auditorium of our church, Nolridge Baptist Church, and I said, "Lord, if I've never made this decision before, I want to be sure." And so I know that I fled to Jesus Christ for refuge. 

Do you know that today? That's the important thing. We need to know that we've made that choice. It's like the publican sinner who called on the name of Jesus, and he said, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." And Jesus said that man went to his house justified because he humbled himself. It's like Paul wrote to the Romans, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." 

Because of his faith, he's called on the name of the Lord. And Jesus said it so wonderfully to us in John chapter 6, "All that the Father gives to me shall come to me." The reason I'm speaking these things this morning is because this chapter of Scripture teaches us we can know for sure that we have eternal salvation. We never need again to fear that we're on probation and God's testing us to see whether we're saved. We can know that we've received the gift of eternal salvation, and that means that God's Word is always the anchor of our soul. 

And the picture he gives is that Jesus, after his death, burial, and resurrection, ascended back into heaven. He's there in heaven on our behalf as our Savior, as our merciful priest. And he's our anchor, and we're attached to him because we've called upon him to be our Savior. What good news this is. 

I'd like to turn to a chapter in Isaiah chapter 49, and I would also invite you to turn to that chapter. Isaiah chapter 49, please. And I want us to read an Old Testament statement that verifies what we've been talking about today. Isaiah chapter 49, look please at verse 14. 

"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me.' This is 700 years before Jesus was here, and the people of Israel are saying, 'The Lord has forsaken us, and my Lord has forgotten me.' And listen to the answer that God gave to those people. 

'Can a woman forget her nursing child?' This week, when our family stayed with us, one of the families stayed in our home, others had campers and stayed, and we had 33 from one daughter, my oldest daughter and her family, counted 33 people. And one of her daughters, who stayed with us, had a little two-week-old baby, and we'd hear that little baby crying, and her mother would pick it up, wouldn't spank it, would pick the baby up, wouldn't accuse it or charge it with evil because it cried, but she'd nurse the child. 

And that gave us an example of what this statement of Isaiah is. 'Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.' Listen to God's promise to Israel. It's still a valid promise to Israel. He said, 'I will not forget you.' And then he gave this example: 'See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. Your son shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you.'" 

If you have become a believer, if you have fled to Jesus as your refuge, and if the Holy Spirit has implanted within you a love for the saving name of Jesus, then you are inscribed on the palm of God's hand. The word inscribed means tattooed. You're put on there permanently, and no one can take you away, and the Father will never reject you from that relationship with him. 

One word explains the difference between lifetime probation and eternal salvation. You know what that word is, don't you? Jesus. That's the difference. If you made the choice to believe in Jesus, he saved you forever. You can never lose that gift of salvation. 

And Jesus gave us his convincing promise to end all doubt about our eternal security when he said in John 6, which we already read this morning, "If a man comes to me, I promise I will never cast him out. I will raise him up to live with me in my Father's house forever." 

Which do you believe this morning, dear friend, concerning your own life? Do you believe in the gift of God's eternal salvation, or are you living in the fear of lifetime probation? Which is it for you? 

And it can be sure today, if you have any doubt, any question about it, whatever your religious background may be today, in all simplicity, you could just say, "Jesus, I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you to receive you, the gift of eternal life." 

Let's bond in prayer, please. 

Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that you saved us forever. We thank you, Father, so much for the name of Jesus, which we love and give thanks. Thank you, Father. I pray that the truth of your word this morning will help everyone who's here to have the great certainty and assurance that we're saved forever. Our sins are forgiven, and our destiny is to be with you in heaven forever. Thank you, Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.