Hebrews 6

let's turn to hebrews chapter 6. now each of these chapters are interrelated and chapter 6 is just a continuation of chapter 5. you do understand that when the book of hebrews was written the writer did not divide it into chapters and verses that was done years later by men who sought to make it easier to reference certain passages and so they divided the bible into chapters and verses so that we could memorize particular thoughts and ideas that we have in the particular verses and so many times the the thought is sort of broken up by chapter divisions now we're we're used to in reading a book to say well i'm going to finish this chapter and we sort of you know put it down and think well the chapter is complete and and usually a thought is pretty much completed in the chapter the new chapter will usually introduce a new area well not so in the chapter distinctions in the bible and thus i will go back and we'll read the last part of chapter 5 which will then bring us right on into chapter 6. beginning with verse 11 of chapter 5 the writer says as he's talking about jesus the high priest after the order of melchizedek he says we have many things to say that are hard to be uttered seeing that you are dull of hearing that is many things to say about melchizedek and when we get to chapter seven he'll begin to say these many things about melchizedek but uh for when the the for for when for the time that ye ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god and you become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat you haven't grown up you're still children for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat belongs to those that are fully mature even those who by reason of the use have their senses exercised to deserve both good and evil so it's it's sort of a rebuke he would like to talk to them about things that they're not really ready to receive because even though they've been in it long enough where they should be able to take the meat they they still need to just be given milk therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ that is the foundations let us go on into full maturity or perfection or full maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god of the doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment and this we will do if god permit for many years i was seeking to be an evangelist though i was a pastor of a church and these topics are evangelistic topics the repentance having faith toward god being baptized and the teaching of the resurrection of jesus and of the eternal judgment on the sinner and in emphasizing evangelism in my ministry i did not take the congregation into a maturity in their christian walk they continued as babes in christ and i was constantly feeding them milk had them on the bottle and i kept them that way which is tragic and my heart sort of aches when i think of those early messages that we're all just evangelistic you need to receive jesus christ you need to repent from your sins you need to be baptized and you know god's judgment is going to come upon those that don't in paul's letter to the ephesians he said he who has ascended is the same one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth and when he ascended he led the captives from their captivity and he gave gifts unto men and to some apostles and to some prophets and to some evangelists and to some pastor teachers but then he tells why god has placed these gifted men in the church for the perfecting of the body of christ the building up of the saints until we all come into a full maturity under the measure of the image of christ and this was something i was not doing in the early years of my ministry and it was this verse along with ephesians 4 that sort of opened up my eyes to the purpose of the church you see when i was in school we used to have an annual missionary conference and a followed by the name of smith used to come from his people's church in toronto canada for an annual missionary conference and he stressed over and over again that the primary purpose of the church was the evangelist evangelization of the world that the church existed for the sole purpose of evangelizing the world and i bought into that concept as gospel truth and so the whole emphasis was that of seeking to evangelize and as i read ephesians 4 and i as i read hebrews 6 i realized that the primary purpose of the church was the building up of the body of christ the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry and i suddenly realized i had not been doing that that i was so interested in evangelism that i was constantly preaching the need of repentance the need of believing in jesus christ for your salvation the need of being baptized in water and uh the uh i was just laying over and over and over again the foundation but i was never building beyond the foundation and as such kept the people in spiritual immaturity and so the lord led me into the teaching of the word of god in a consistent way going through and teaching the books of the bible and ultimately in just teaching through the whole bible the method that we follow now when paul the apostle was talking to the elders from the church of ephesus there on the beach at melidas he said to them that i want you to bear record that i have declared to you the whole council of god i have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of god i do not believe a pastor can say that to his congregation until he has taken the congregation through the whole bible from genesis to revelation and if you've taken the congregation from genesis through revelation then you can say i have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of god and so inasmuch as we are going through the whole bible from genesis to revelation and are currently in our seventh time through here i believe that should the day ever come that i uh would feel it necessary to do something else that i could stand before you and say i want you to bear record that i have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of god paul said i'm innocent of the blood of all men because i have declared to you the whole counsel of god i was talking this week with a friend of mine who actually attended the church that i pastored in tucson back in the late 40s early 50s and uh as and he was going to the university of arizona at that time and was just a couple of years younger than i am and so uh he was over all the time and we just developed a bond there was just there's just that wonderful bond between this friend and i we maybe talk to each other once every two or three years but we are the closest friends it's just like you know we've been with each other every day even though it's not the kind of friendship you got to call up every day and say are you still my friend you know it's just uh it's just it's just there and uh i'm there for him he's there for me and uh so i was talking to him this week and he owns a manufacturing plant up in downey and i said to him i said george uh you're 69 now and and uh when are you going to retire you know i said you know what are we doing we're still working and you know we're we're beyond the 65 retirement age and he said oh i figured i'd retire when i got old and i said that's a good idea i'll retire when i get old and uh so uh but should that day ever come uh and i'm praying for the lord to rapture the church but uh [Applause] and i believe we're going to see it but uh at any rate the whole council of god taking you on into maturity not just going over and over the first principles not laying the foundational truths over and over again but building on the foundation to bring you into the full maturity in your spiritual walk in the lord and so the writer says this we will do if god permit we're going to take you on beyond the milk we're going to get into some of the meat in order that you might experience some spiritual growth now beginning with verse 4 we have an extremely difficult passage especially difficult if you are a five-point calvinist for it seems to fly in the face of some of the ultra calvinistic teaching for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift which is of course salvation and we're made partakers of the holy spirit you've received the holy spirit and you've tasted the good word of god and the powers of the world to come now those who take the extreme calvinistic position say well they were never saved i have tremendous difficulty in accepting that what is it then to be saved to be saved is to be enlightened it is to receive the heavenly gift of salvation eternal life it is to be filled with the spirit it's to receive the word of god and to have the power of god dwelling in you the power of the world to come but it is impossible for those who have been in this position if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh and put him to open shame now it needs to be noted that this verse is one that satan often quotes to club people to death when a person has backslidden so often satan will use this verse to beat them to death and to tell them that there is no hope for them because they have fallen away and thus it's impossible to renew them to repentance and satan will usually accuse them of having committed the unpardonable sin and many many many people have come who are disrot because satan has used this verse in just beating them to a pulp and making them feel that it's hopeless for them they can't be saved you say but isn't that what it is saying well let's look carefully at what it is saying but first of all let us note that men of god have fallen into sin in times past and when a man of god falls into sin there are certain measures that god will take to chastise that man but the purpose of chastising is not to destroy it is to teach and god uses his chastening now david a man of god sinned horribly and was forgiven when he confessed his sin but there were consequences of that sin that he had to pay because of his sin he didn't escape the chastisement of the lord the sword will not depart from your house and you read of the internal problems that david had with his family one of his sons raping one of the daughters and the son subsequently being murdered by absalom and then absalom rebelling against his father and trying to drive him out of the kingdom and himself being killed in battle and and so these were the price this these were the the price that david paid for his sin yet he was forgiven peter failed miserably in denying the lord and yet he was forgiven and god used him as one of the leaders in the early church there is forgiveness and there is pardon for sin jesus said whosoever will come unto me i will in no wise cast out i think that the understanding of this verse lies in the phrase if they shall fall away and i think that that is a reference to an apostasy that is if you turn away from the faith in jesus christ and denounce jesus christ and denounce the salvation that you once experienced and denounce the experiences that you once had in your walk with the lord there is a fellow who at one time was serving in a position here at calvary chapel he was sort of a weird guy to tell you the truth but we felt sorry for him and he was one of those kinds of persons who had certain psychological difficulties that caused him to when he went to college take every psychological course that the college offered so that when he graduated he found he had a degree in psychology because he was so interested in trying to understand himself while he why he was weird and so we felt sorry for him and he had had a lot of experience dealing with weirdness and uh so he wanted to have support groups for weird people and you know if you had a problem with this the problem with that incest or whatever he wanted to have these support groups and so we allowed him to have these support groups and he met here on campus with people with all kinds of personal problems and difficulties he however i guess because he was weird uh turned away today he is an activist against christianity he goes around debating and lecturing seeking to destroy people's faith in jesus christ he is an enemy of jesus christ he is an open avowed enemy of jesus christ denying any experience that he ever had now the question is was he ever saved only god knows that but i can tell you that if he ever had a genuine experience he has fallen away and i believe in his position that it would be impossible to renew him again unto repentance because he has crucified the son of god afresh he has turned his heart his back his mind on jesus christ and is seeking actively to turn other people against their faith in jesus christ seeking to destroy their faith so i think that that is the case of a person falling away he had certain evidences of being born again he confessed to be born again he confessed to the power of the holy spirit in his life and things of that nature but there is that apostasizing and i think that the scripture does warn us against apostasy that is our deliberate willful turning our backs upon jesus christ once we have tasted of the heavenly gift once we have received the power of the world to come and yet to willfully deliberately denounce and deny jesus christ i think that you enter into a realm where it's impossible to renew you again unto repentance because you have crucified the son of god afresh he is about the only one that i know that has gone from that kind of an experience that he once had to a total denouncing of it i'm sure there are more but thank god they are rare and and so i think that that is what is referred to here as falling away and it's impossible to renew them to repentance because he's crucified to themselves the son of god afresh and put him to open shame which he is doing he's a part of a group that is seeking to destroy people's faith for the earth which drinks in the rain that comes off upon it and brings forth vegetables that are fit for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessings from god talking about the earth bringing forth the harvest people who have cultivated the ground have planted the seed god sends the rain most of the farming in well it used to be all of the farming now a lot of the farming and i won't say most i think most is of the agriculture in israel is irrigated but it used to be that they were what they called dry farmers and that is they depended completely upon the rain for their crops and if there were good rains that year they would have good crops if they had a lack of rain then the crops would be affected by it and there are areas still around bethlehem and all where they are the dry farmers they plant the seed and they cultivate the ground they plant the seed but then they depend completely upon the rains to bring forth the fruit there they don't have irrigation and so he is speaking here about how that the earth which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it and brings forth the crops the herbs that are fit for those who have dressed the ground or cultivated it receives the blessing from god the harvest is god's blessing but that which bears thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned now you remember jesus gave the parable of the sower who went forth to sow the seed some of it you remember fell by the wayside some fell on stony ground some fell among thorns and some fell on the good cultivated soil that which fell on the wayside never did germinate nothing ever came of it that which fell on the stony ground sprung up quickly but because there was no depth of earth as soon as the sun came out in the spring you know sun and the heat it it withered and died because it didn't have any depth any roots but that which fell among thorns grew with the thorns but then the thorns choked it out so that it never did mature to fruit bearing that which fell on the good soil brought forth fruit 30 60 100 fold that which fell among the thorns was to be burned it never did come to full maturity and so jesus in explaining the parable said that the seed was the word of god and it falls on different types of soil in the hearts of people they hear the word of god and it has absolutely no effect upon them that which fell on the wayside others there's an apparent kind of receiving it with joy oh that's so glorious and hallelujah glory hallelujah i'm safe but there's no depth and when trials come persecutions then they just wither and die then that which fell among thorns the thorns are the cares of this life the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things and these choke out the word of god in that person's life so that they never come to maturity they they never come into that full maturity where they bear fruit for the lord and i think that this is a vast part of the church universal there is the thorns the cares of the life the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things keep them from really being fruitful christians and so they are gathered together to be burned but he says beloved we are persuaded better things of you and so i'd like to say beloved i'm persuaded better things of you i'm praying that god will bring us all into a maturity into a fruitful life for jesus christ that we will bear fruit thirty sixty a hundred fold for god is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love paul writing to the corinthians said that your labor for the lord is not in vain i think that often we make a serious mistake in thinking well i haven't led anybody to jesus christ and thus i have no fruit i think that it is important to realize that what god requires is that you bear witness of jesus christ and whether or not the seed that is planted falls on good soil or falls on the wayside is not your responsibility it's your responsibility to sow the seed and it is the lord's responsibility to bring forth fruit when it falls upon the good soil but i think that we often think we need to have notches in our belt you know and we get rewarded according to how many notches we have in the belt not so and i think that many times some of these people who give testimony of the dynamic witness you know there are those that say well i have determined to lead one soul to jesus every day and uh you know i went to bed at 11 o'clock at night and realized i hadn't let anybody the lord i got out of bed went out in the street until i found someone you know and i nailed him and and and i think that a lot of times and and i've met people who are very forceful in in pushing their witness very forceful uh and i i think that a lot of times people just to get rid of them say the sinner's prayer you know i get off my back you know and uh and and i i think that um you know it's seed that they they put the notch in the belt because the guy went through the sinner's prayer but i don't really feel there was any true conversion there i think that as soon as they walk away satan comes and plucks the word out and and it really didn't take root it it didn't really produce fruit so god though is not unrighteous god will not forget your work and your labor of love which you have showed toward his name in that you've ministered to the saints and do minister god is very aware of your service the things that you have done and that you do in the name of jesus christ for others god is cognizant of that and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end we trust that all of you will be diligent in your labor of love and ministry to one another that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises we are helping to support a missionary down in bolivia who when he was just a young man because his father was a missionary he grew up on the mission field in bolivia his father had a tremendous burden for the serenoi indians who were a nomadic tribal group who lived in what was known as the green hell country of bolivia in the wet forest area and these nomadic people would just move from area to area they would sort of just hunt out an area get the food and then they would move to another area they were they were nomadic and they had not even learned how to make a fire they would have to carry their fire with them as they would move they had never learned how to make a fire primitive people and his father went to reach these people with the gospel of jesus christ when his father died he took up the ministry among these indians and he was there for seven years without a single convert going out into the jungles finding these people of course he grew up as a little kid so he knew all of their culture he knew their dances he knew their language and he was sort of an uh a curiosity to them because here he is a little white kid but he knows their dances he knows their language and he's they're sharing the gospel and they they built the village for the people they taught them how to farm they they taught them how to certain practices of hygiene because tuberculosis was quite common among them because of their lack of hygiene and so they taught them hygiene and they were able to cut down the incidence of tuberculosis and they did a lot of social good for them but his heart was to bring them to jesus christ and for seven years he witnessed and labored among them and not a single convert here the writer says don't be slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises of course it's a reference to abraham and to those in the old testament who through faith and patience inherited the promises think of the patience of abraham in waiting for isaac to be born the son of promise anyhow after seven years there was a real breakthrough and god began to touch the hearts of these serenoy indians and now a vast majority of the serenoi indians are christians but it took years of planting seed years of patience and prayer before they saw the fruit of the ministry i think of the scripture that says be not weary in well-doing for in due season you will reap if you faint not so who through faith and patience inherit the promises and as i said it no doubt is a reference to abraham because in the very next verse he brings up abraham for when god made a promise to abraham because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself saying surely blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i will multiply thee abraham had waited for years for the promise of god to give him a son by sarah he was over a hundred years old before that promise was fulfilled but then the interesting thing is that when god did give him a son through sarah whom they call laughter isaac then one day god called to abraham and said offer him as a sacrifice unto me on a mountain that i will show you and abraham in faith sought to obey the commandment of god and you remember the story it's told to us in genesis chapter 22 where abraham and his servants along with isaac journeyed from hebron three-day journey to jerusalem to mount moriah and there god pointed out mount moriah to abraham so he said to his servants you wait here i and the lad will go and offer the sacrifice and will return again the idea is we will return again. now abraham had a dilemma but he figured it's god's dilemma for god had said through isaac shall your seed be called isaac as yet was not married he was probably in his twenties maybe late twenties not yet married and god said through isaac shall thy seed be called now abraham figures god you've got a real problem you've asked me to offer my son to you as a sacrifice on the mountain that you show me and yet you have said through isaac shall the seed be called so abraham believed the promise of god that the seed would come through isaac that is the messiah but he believed that god would raise isaac from the dead if necessary to fulfill that promise and so that's the great faith of abraham and as he said to his servants i and the lad will go and worship and will come again the idea is i am the lad will come again believing that god would if necessary raise him from the dead to fulfill the promise through isaac shall thy seed be called as they were walking up the mountainside together isaac turned to his dad and said dad we have the fire and we have the wood but we're missing the sacrifice and abraham said god will provide himself a sacrifice and as they came to the mountain they laid the wood in order they s isaac i mean abraham then bound isaac and placed him on the altar raised the knife and god said to abraham enough and let me read to you then how god spoke to abraham the angel of the lord called abraham out of heaven the second time and he said by myself have i sworn saith lord well let's let's finish the story the the lord said there's a ram caught by its horns in the thicket taken off right which abraham did and abraham called the name of the place jehovah jireh or jehovah yahra as it is said to this day in the mount of the lord it shall be seen what the lord will provide himself a sacrifice in the mount of the lord it shall be seen beautiful picture abraham called to offer to god his only son on the mount that god would show him traveling for three days in his mind the son was as good as dead but he believed that god would raise him from the dead in order to fulfill the promise and when the son said you know we don't have the sacrifice he said god will provide himself a sacrifice in the mount of the lord it shall be seen and so there was then the provision of god it is interesting that golgotha is the top of mount moriah where god offered his only son as a sacrifice for our sin some 2000 years later very spot on the top of mount moriah where abraham no doubt built the altar to offer isaac is the place where jesus was given and god provided himself god was in christ reconciling the world to himself but because of abraham's faith the angel of the lord called abraham out of heaven genesis 22 15 and he said by myself have i sworn i swear by myself have i sworn saith the lord for because you have done this thing you have not withheld your son your only son that in blessing i will bless thee and in multiplying i will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice so god swore to abraham that in blessing he would bless him and it says because god could swear by no greater he swore by himself you see when you take an oath you swear by something that is greater than you you swear by boy scouts honor or you swear by your mother's honor or you swear by the bible you're trying to convince people you're telling the truth i swear by god you know that i'm telling you the truth well if god wants to take an oath who can he swear by no one greater than god so he has to swear by himself and that's what god said that he swore by himself and and he wants he did that in order to confirm the truth now god can't lie but uh some people don't believe god so in order to really impress the truth he he could swear by no greater so he swore by himself saying surely blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i will multiply thee and so after he had patiently endured that is abraham he obtained the promise this glorious promise is that through abraham's seed which is jesus christ all of the world will be blessed that the messiah will be a descendant of abraham and through abraham's seed all of the nations of the world shall be blessed god swore to abraham and it is fulfilled it is through jesus christ that we have the blessing of the gift of eternal life through him so after he had patiently endured so you have need of patience that after you have done the will of god you might obtain the promise and don't be thoughtful but followers of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises for men verily swear by the greater and an oath is for confirmation to them to end all strife i saw him oh no you didn't yes i saw him i don't believe you saw him i swear before god that i saw him now that's to end the argument you see you take the oath in order to end the argument in order to affirm that what you said is true of course in the court of law today if you are to be a witness you are required to take the oath to tell the truth you raise your right hand they say raise your right hand i solemnly swear that the testimony i about to give is true and and so you you've taken that oath you've seen it on perry mason many times now if a person has taken an oath and has sworn to tell the truth if he lies that is known as perjury unless you're clinton and there are severe penalties for lying under oath severe penalties you can be put into prison if you take the witness stand in the court of law and you give a false testimony you're lying and it is proven that you have lied under oath you will be given a heavy fine and possible prison time because it is a breakdown of the whole judicial system if people will lie when they are under an oath to tell the truth it is so important to our judicial system that we have instigated heavy fines and penalties to anyone who would lie while under an oath to tell the truth so for men they swear by the greater an oath is for confirmation that i'm telling the truth is to them an end of all strife it settles it i have sworn that the testimony i've given is true wherein god who is willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel he confirmed it by an oath god was wanting to affirm that what he has promised is true and so god confirmed the promises with an oath to abraham and throughout the scriptures you find that the lord swore that this would happen and whenever well when god says it that should end it because uh that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for god to lie god can't lie there are some things god can't do and god can't lie it's impossible for god to lie but then god who cannot lie makes a promise and then he to confirm it takes an oath that that promise is true and blessing i will bless you so the whole idea is that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is before us god confirmed the promises with an oath in order that you might have great comfort in order that you might know that you can put your trust in it in order that you can flee to him as a refuge that hope that god has given to us becomes a place of refuge for the child of god we flee to the promises of god and how many times when we've been faced with difficulty faced with problems uncertainty fears doubts have we fled to the scriptures have we fled to the promises of god and to the hope that is given to us in the promises of god god who cannot lie god who has made the promise and confirmed it with an oath we flee to those as a refuge to the hope that he has set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul the word of god the anchor the anchor for our soul we are living in a world that is rapidly changing we see the tide of the world as it is drifting away from the things of god and it is so easy to be pulled with the tide to be caught up in the tide and we need that anchor god's word as an anchor for our soul lest we should drift with the tide away from god and the things of god which hope we have as an anchor for our soul both sure and steadfast god's word is sure it is unfailing and which entereth into that within the veil the hope that we have of just coming right into the presence of god within the veil the holy of holies the access that we have through jesus christ whether the forerunner is for us entered even jesus he's made a high priest forever after the order of melchizedek so jesus our high priest has entered in sitting on the throne at the right hand of the father and to the church in revelation that would overcome he said i will grant with him or to him that he might sit with me on my throne even as i have sat down at my father's throne the hope that we have as believers our high priest has entered into heaven but he has only opened the door for us to enter also and the glorious hope of the kingdom of god and eternal life through jesus christ sure and steadfast it's the anchor in which we anchor our soul promises of god that are yea and amen and in him there is neither shadow nor variableness of turning what he has said that shall he also do you can be sure of it so again he brings up the idea of jesus our high priest after the order of melchizedek and in chapter 7 he'll pick up at this point and we'll talk about the priesthood of melchizedek and will contrast it next week with the priesthood of aaron as the writer just continues on in the thought going now into the high priesthood of jesus christ who has entered into heaven as a forerunner for us we'll follow one day and be with him there in the presence of god father we thank you for the hope that we have in the promises of god and in the word of god that it is sure that it is steadfast and we can anchor our souls in that hope lord we just pray that if there are those tonight who are caught up in the drift of the world are being carried along in the tide of the world drifting from you lord we pray that they might find themselves anchored in the rock jesus christ steadfast sure take them through the storms and lord we thank you that we know you're going to bring us safely into that haven the harbor into your presence there in your kingdom thank you lord for the hope that sustains us today the hope of eternal life in and through our lord jesus christ anchor our souls in his name we pray amen so we stand we have pastors down here at the front if you're in need of prayer or if you just need some counseling well they won't counsel you but they'll pray for you if you need counseling in the sense that you you have a burden that you wish to share they're here to minister to you tonight and so feel free to just come forward they're here to pray for you they're here to minister to you and your spiritual needs this evening my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the holy lean on jesus name on christ the solid rock i stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand god bless you guys

Channel: Pastor Chuck Smith

Views: 9,259

Keywords:

Id: qBVxMgo-sVY

Length: 59min 54sec (3594 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021