Hebrews 6:1-6, Spiritual Maturity

Heavenly Father thanks for this time Lord thank you that we have this wonderful opportunity to Love You To Worship You Lord we pray that as we open up our Bibles we could also open up our hearts Lord we pray that we would be open teachable Lord we pray that we would allow our hearts to be informed by you that we would evaluate everything in light of your character in light of Your Love in light of your promises Heavenly Father you've been faithful this past year and Lord we have every reason to believe that you're going to be faithful and that you are faithful today and tomorrow and for all our tomorrows in Jesus name [Music] amen Hebrews chapter 6 we're going to be looking at verses 1- six with a little fear with a little trepidation Hebrews chapter 6 vers verses 1-6 therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ let us go on to Perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith toward god of the doctrine of baptisms of laying on hands of resurrection of the dead and of Eternal judgment and this we will do if God permits for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the Heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and who have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the son of God and put him to an open shame most Bible teachers and Scholars unanimously agree that this particular passage in this particular chapter is one of the most difficult in the entire New Testament but I'm going to also suggest to you that it's one of the most rewarding chapters remember what the writer has done as he has in introduced to us the things that we've been learning in the book of Hebrews the writer encouraging the reader to leave spiritual immaturity and to go forward in spiritual maturity and the necessary exhortation to spiritual maturity is prompted by the fact that the Hebrew Christians were not growing spiritually they had grown dull in chapter 5 verses 11 through 14 remember of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you become dull of hearing and since they weren't growing the Hebrew Christians were in a kind of spiritual infancy most of us are familiar with JM Barry's book it was entitled Peter and Wendy some of you must have seen seen some sort of incarnation of Peter Pan whether it's on television or reading the book you know the story it's the story of a Boy Who Could Fly and he lives in a place called you guys know that he lives in Neverland and the reason why it's called Neverland it's because it's the place where boys and girls go to and they never they never grow up in this place of Perpetual childhood it's filled with all kinds of Adventures it's filled with all kinds of dangers Barry the author mentions in Peter and Wendy that Peter Pan still had his first teeth he describes him as a beautiful boy with a beautiful smile and in the original book it says he was clad in in skeleton leaves and the juices that flow from trees unquote and of course in the play Peter's outfit is made of autumn leaves and cobwebs and his name and the playing of the flu or pipe suggests this mythological character pan who was the Greek god who lived in the forest and according to the book on occasion real children could make their way into Neverland and part of the point of the book is is the perils that surround those who want to remain in a kind of a Perpetual childhood and the Hebrews were in a kind of Perpetual spiritual Neverland God had spoken through the Lord Jesus Christ both the Hebrew Christians had had neglected God's word found themselves drifting from God's word departing from the word and the writer was encouraging the spiritually immature to grow up and he see he seeks to do that by demonstrating remember that Jesus is better Jesus is better than Judaism G Jesus is Superior in his person in chapters 1-6 he's going to be superior in his priesthood in chapter 7 through 10 he is Superior in the sense that the principle of Faith exceeds the principle of the law of Moses and so the Hebrew Christians had a moral problem they were behind in their Duty in chapter 5: 12-14 but they also had a spiritual problem they were arrested in their development they were babes in need of milk you'll remember and so the chapter begins with an appeal in verses 1 through3 the appeal is to go on to spiritual Perfection and when the Bible uses that term spiritual Perfection it doesn't mean being a perfect person it means growing up and the writer then expresses a concern in verses 2 and three and the concern centers around those who have an understanding about God and then turn from their understanding about God and the writer then makes an argument that centers not on the subject of salvation but on the subject of repentance why is this important because it determines the meaning what is our attitude about God what is our attitude about the word of God so the the writer is going to illustrate that point by the way later on in the verse in verses seven and 8 and then he's going to provide assurances for the believer in verses 9 10 11 and 12 and we're going to come to that but beginning in verse one at the very beginning of the verse look what it says therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ let us go on to Perfection he begins with an exhortation grow up according to ja and McGee he says quote leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ is literally quote leaving the word of the beginning concerning Christ unquote he uses the illustration of a builder leaving the foundation of the building in order to put up a scaffold he uses the illustration of a child in school learning his or her ABCs but guess what once you've learned the ABCs you start to do other things you read and you write you go on and eventually you'll graduate from middle school and high school and and college some of you and graduate school going on to Perfection is a description of a journey that's supposed to lead from spiritual immaturity to spiritual maturity and so when it says let us go on that word or that expression means to be born or to be carried and by born I don't mean b o RN like a baby is born I mean carried in the sense that somebody picks you up and and places you on their shoulders it's sometimes translated pick up or upholding the writer isn't suggesting some sort of self-effort but rather allowing the spirit of God through the word of God to carry you forward in your real relationship with God we yield to God by allowing his holy spirit to come inside of us we're carried by the awesome power of God who creates the universe and the same God who creates the universe has the ability to move you from the place of immaturity to maturity instead of going forward again these Hebrew Christians were going backwards we've said this repeatedly many had already returned to Neverland this is the land of Perpetual adolescence they were tempted to return to Judaism now I want you to think about that for just a moment why why is this important that's what it means when he says therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principle principles or foundations not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works I'm going to suggest to you just for a moment that the foundation that the writer is literally talking about is this foundation of the Revelation that's been given in the Old Testament you see Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy it provides the foundation of the revelation of God the communication of God what God has said and so the foundation in all likelihood means the revelation of everything that's spoken of in the Old Testament everything that prepared the way for Christ everything that opened up people's heads and minds and hearts to the reality not only concerning the human condition but how you could be saved and how you could be delivered and how God was going to send the Messiah and so the writer lists six truths foundational facts of the Old Testament which prefigure Christ in ritual symbol and ceremony one of the things When I Was preparing this I noticed that there were a group of Scholars who in talking about these things some said are these things as they relate to the Old Testament or are these things that relate to the New Testament and it suddenly occurred to me that these are the things that relate to the Old Testament ritual symbol and ceremony that prefigure the things that are going to be unveiled in the New Testament so does the Old Testament contain ritual symbol and ceremony the answer is yes does that ritual symbol and ceremony mean something the answer is yes it has to do with Jesus are New Testament Believers discouraged from embracing ritual symbol or engaging in ceremony my answer might surprise you I don't think that the point of the passage is to discourage people from doing ritual symbol or ceremony but rather of disconnecting from the ritual the symbol and the ceremony it's ultimate meaning its ultimate purpose let me give you kind of an example imagine a person says I don't believe in symbols or ceremony and so they don't want to get married they don't want to go through the hassle of a service they don't want to wear a ring because they think that the ceremony or the symbol has no value whatsoever well I'm going to suggest to you that sometimes ritual and sometimes symbol and sometimes ceremony has great value but does the symbol the ritual and the ceremony have value apart from God apart from Christ apart from him really coming apart from his real life apart from his real Ministry apart from his real death and his real Resurrection the answer is no in other words imagine do imagine imagine saying maybe as a kid you even did it let's pretend we're getting married and so you play pretend and and you say to the neighbor boy or the neighbor girl hey let's pretend we're getting married and you have somebody else on the Block you get to be the groom and somebody else gets to be the bride and and you go through the thing and then the person says and I Now Pronounce You man and wife are you no because it's pretend but in the real world it's not pretend now imagine you go through the real ceremony of a marriage and on your honeymoon the first thing that you say to your husband or your wife is hey jokes on you we're not really married I didn't really mean it it was one great you see the truth is I'm already married H how many people do you know that would be comfortable with that kind of news not very many so here when he's talking about this I want you to understand he's talking about being able to go forward not only in the revelations and the doctrines of Grace now let's look at it really quickly not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith toward God of the doctrine of baptisms of laying on of hands of the resurrection of dead and of Eternal judgment and so he's going to talk about six different things and we're going to look at them just very very briefly he's saying not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith toward God the first thing is repentance from dead works the second thing is Faith toward God the third thing is the doctrine of baptisms the fourth thing is the laying on of hands the fifth thing is the resurrection of the Dead the sixth thing is eternal judgment what do all of these things have in common these are biblical truths that are revealed in the Old Testament fulfilled in Christ so what is the author saying is he saying well these doctrines are unimportant and only for the immature that's not what he's saying these are vital and they are basic but when he says repentance from dead works I want you to mle that around in your mind for a moment repentance you know what that word means it means to change your mind from dead Works what are the dead works that he's making reference to I'm going to suggest to you that he's making a reference to the works of the Mosaic law it's the changing of your mind that the works of the Mosaic law can save you and by the way that was Paul's belief I think as a rinic Jew as a Pharisee remember he was laboring under the idea that hey if I'm a good Jew and I'm reading my Bible and I'm I'm doing what God asks me to do and I'm I'm washing my hands and I'm I'm giving alms to the poor and I'm going to the temple and I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to do if I do everything that I'm supposed to do will I have a right relationship with God and you'll remember what happens to Paul on the way to Damascus Jesus shows up the Living Lord of Heaven shows up and he becomes completely and profoundly aware that the only way that you can have a right relationship with God is having a right relationship with Jesus so I'm going to suggest to you that the Hebrews and then the Hebrew Christians were involved in this NeverEnding cycle to keep the law of Moses so again think about the cycle for just a moment let's keep the law uh-oh we made a mistake we broke the law oh I'm sorry keep the law break the law I'm sorry I messed up keep the law break the law I'm sorry I messed up again it it becomes a type and a picture of the immature Christian who goes oh I want to be a good Christian I want to do this I want to do that I want to do everything that's right and good and appropriate both Jews and Hebrew Christians and some Gentile Christians never met a law that they didn't break show me a law and I'll show you someone who breaks that law and you've all experienced it you see the sign don't step on the grass why does every molecule in your body want to step on that grass don't touch this wet paint and you go got to find out for myself we so there's this cycle now I want you to think about it just like immature Christians trying to keep the law failing again what the writer is basically saying is this is all baby stuff Faith toward God in the Old Testament did it teach you to have faith in the Lord trust in the Lord yeah now again I want you to think about it James said you say that you believe in god well demons believe in God and they tremble does simple belief in God save you the answer is no if that were true then demons would get to be saved for some to Simply believe in God they think that they've taken a long journey and perhaps for some that's exactly what they've done they go well you know I used to wonder whether or not there was God then I didn't believe that there was a God and then I thought for a long long time maybe there's a God and now I've come to the conclusion that there's probably a god well good for you you've come a little way but you haven't come very far and just because you've come a little way doesn't mean that you should stay in that place and then the doctrines of baptisms the baptisms here probably don't refer to the New Testament right of baptism or Christ's command to baptize the disciples I'm going to suggest to you that it probably means the Old Testament Washings the ritual cleansing that are talked about in the levitical Washings the Hebrew Christians were tempted to return to these external rights of cleansing when in fact the Lord Jesus and his blood cleanses us from all sin in Mark chapter 7 verses four and five there's that particular story where the religious leaders go to Jesus and they say it says when they came from the marketplace um they do not eat unless they wash there there are many things which which they have received and hold like the washing of Cups the washing of pitchers copper vessels and couches then the Pharisees and the scribed asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashed hands unquote in other words the ritual Washings that the Jews engaged in isn't like what when you wash where you go well it makes sense to wa you know I've always been taught to wash my hands before dinner well do you wash your [Music] hands so that you'll have clean hands with clean food so that you won't get sick or do you wash your hands because you think that if for some reason you eat your sandwich with dirty hands that God's going to be upset with you and by the way can dirt that transfers from your hand to your mouth going down your esophageal uh tract into your stomach does dirt defile you spiritually the answer is no but these people believed that unless they washed the cup and washed the pitcher and watch wash the couches in other words that they were ritually defiled and they had to be ritually cleansed do you remember how Jesus answers these religious leaders he quotes Isaiah and he calls them all Hypocrites and he says they honor God with their lips but their heart is far from them that they laid aside the Commandment of God that they embraced the traditions of men that the Washings of pites and cups and other things that you do the idea being that the ritual dis cleansing described in the law extended to these inanimate objects then Jesus goes on and and says you've made up all of these crazy religious things and you wind up dishonoring and disobeying what God has clearly said for you to do and the laying on of the hands the laying on of the hands is a reference to the priest laying hands on the animal sacrifice and so the priest would lay hands on the sacrifice to identify with the sacrifice and then offer that sacrifice in the religious culture and in the Hebrew tra tradition the animal was taking the sinner's place on the altar of sacrifice they would the priest would lay his hand on the animal the idea being that that animal is taking your place and then they would kill the animal and this prefigures the reality that Jesus is our sacrifice and I suspect that what this writer is talking about is the day of atonement that there were Hebrews there were Hebrew people who were going back to the temple who continued to participate in the sacrifices when in fact Jesus had already been the satisfying solution to every sin that they had ever committed and then he talks about the fact clearly about the resurrection of the Dead some Jews denied a literal Resurrection remember the Sadducees didn't believe in a literal resurrection and you'll remember the Old Testament Revelation says that there is a resurrection and Jesus told the religious leaders remember he said to them you're struggling over this issue of the Resurrection but the Old Testament repeatedly says God is the god of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is God a god of the living or is God a god of the dead and the right answer of course is Abraham is alive and Isaac is alive and Jacob is alive they're alive somewhere but the Bible pictures a time when everyone who has a right relationship with God comes back to life Jesus told the religious leaders and he told his own disciples that he is the resurrection and the life and clearly every Bible believing Jew embraced the notion not only of the fact that there would be a future Resurrection but that judgment would follow that re resurrection and so you'll remember in John chap 11 when Lazarus dies and Jesus says to Mary and Martha your your your brother's going to come back to life and they said yes yes Rabbi we know we know in the resurrection it was common belief that the dead would come back to life and that following this resurrection that there would be Eternal judgment and the Old Testament repeatedly affirms that God will execute judgment from sin and in verse three it says and this we will do if God permits the whole point being look we've already covered this territory we've already laid this Foundation why in the world would you keep going backwards instead of forwards because going backwards means forsaking the substance which is Christ for the symbol and the shadow Shadow what person in their right mind would want the symbol and the shadow when you can have the substance and so I think what the author is in effect saying is give up the temple sacrifices give up the rituals give up the priests Jesus is your sacrifice Jesus is the Fulfillment of the ritual Jesus is your priest and the writers is ready to go forward he's ready to go forward he's ready to move on to something higher and bigger and brighter but their immaturity won't let them but I'm also going to suggest to you that their immaturity is not only disgraceful but it's dangerous and that the writer is in effect saying I I need you to make up your minds to go forward I need you to make up your minds to go forward I need you to make up your minds to go forward in Grace go forward in Grace and again I'm not suggesting a New Year's resolution where you go well what what does this mean what what what does this mean for Me Maybe most of you or some of you or I don't know exactly every single person's religious upbringing or or Rel religious background but I grew up in a religious tradition that when I had a right relationship with God in Christ I returned to this religious tradition I returned to it because it was the religious tradition that I grew up in and the religious tradition that I grew up in meant that you went to mass and you went to confession and and you lit candles and you made a good confession and you did all of those things in in other words I grew up in a world where for me God wasn't that that I believe that God saved people through Jesus but there was something more it was more than just simply believing in Jesus I had to believe that I had to go to a particular church and I had to attend that church and I had to follow its rules and I had to make this confession and that if I had a mortal sin it would kill me forever and then I had to make a good confession and and then I would go on this roller coaster ride but it was all that I knew until I started reading the Bible and I started thinking about Grace and I kept reading with the Bible kept repeatedly saying over and over again that I'm saved by grace through faith and that that it's not of works and and and that it's the gift of God lest any person should boast and I started reading the Bible and I knew that you could have a right relationship with God and that was Jesus that saves you and it wasn't going to church and it wasn't R rituals and it wasn't religion and it wasn't any of those things and so finally the priest said to me well you know it's so good to see you're bringing all your friends to church and it's great you know what do we need to do to bring more young people to the church and I said we need to ditch this catechism and we need to tell people that they can have a right relationship with God in Christ that Jesus loves them and that he's willing to save them amen yeah and he accused me of Jesus being a Jesus Freak and he asked me to leave the church you know it sounds funny but at the time it wasn't funny to me I was hurt I was wounded because that was the religious tradition that that I grew up in I and I didn't know that you could just simply walk away from your religious tradition and that that people would just leave you high and dry because my grandma and my grandpa were in that religious tradition and their Grandma and Grandpa and their Grandma's Grandma and Grandpa and back for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years and I grew up in a culture in a society where part of your identity was your religious tradition and so he's at he's going to address this issue uh grasping at what's at stake look at verse four for it is impossible for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the Heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good work of God and the power of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame when I started doing research for this particular passage of scripture guess how many interpretations I found not one not five not even 16 26 different interpretations there are literally 26 different interpretations I'm going to give you four I'm boiling it down down to these four which seem the most plausible and then I'm going to tell you what I think it means the first interpretation is that the writer is describing What's called the sin of apostasy the sin of apostasy is where Christians turn from their faith they abandon Christ they abandon his love and his grace and his Mercy they basically say there's no God there's no Christ there's no salvation there's no gospel I went to church it's one big fat stinking joke none of it is real God isn't real the Bible isn't real Jesus isn't real salvation isn't real and they walk away the second is that the writer is describing the makeb believer let's go back to the first one just for a moment if the writer is describing the sin of apostasy then he's describing a group of Hebrew Christians who Embrace Christ embrace the gospel but who abandon Christ and abandon the gospel and they go back to Judaism and and if that's true then what the writer is in effect saying is that there's no second option it isn't well I used to be a Jew and now I can get saved because I'm a Jew because I'm going to follow the ordinances and the law of Moses I'm going to perform the rights the rituals I'm going to embrace the sacrifices and I'm going to go back to all of that because it's just too hard it's just too hard being a Christian it's just too hard and I can't do it anymore the second option is that the writer is describing the make believer the person who's exposed to Christ in Christianity he's exposed or she's exposed to Christ and Christianity and faith and they're exposed to the Bible and they're exposed to the teaching but they're never truly born again they make a pretense of Faith then they abandon a faith that they never truly embraced the third option is that the writer is presenting a hypothetical case because he says if they fall away even though such a thing probably can't happen it's a hypothetical case where people if they could lose their salvation but then he argues that if in fact that were possible you can't get it back if he's describing a person who is saved and then subsequently loses their salvation then you can't get it back or number four the writer is describing a sin possibly only that the Jews living in that particular time period between the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and then the subsequent destruction of the temple who could go to the temple who could be involved in all of these Temple sacrifices but that such a person couldn't even possibly exist at this particular time so which is it are these believers who lose their salvation are these make believers who were never saved to begin with and by the way they're either one or the other remember I've told you over and over again there's two kinds of people in the world Italian people and people who wish they were but that's that's not true in this particular case Cas it's not about being Italian or not being Italian here the issue is you are saved or you're not saved because whether he's talking about saved people or unsaved people will probably for the most part determine not only your interpretation of the passage but then the the conclusion that you draw javer and McGee used to say I believe in the Assurance of the believer and I believe in the non-assurance of the makeb believer I like that but what if I suggested to you that none of these explanations probably are fair to the text that none of these explanations completely satisfy what I think that the author is saying and the point that he's trying to make what if I told you that I think that the whole passage has not anything to do with the question can a Christian lose their salvation that's not the point of this passage the key to understand and we can talk about that and I'm happy to talk about that but first I want to talk about the text itself and try and help you understand what it is that you're reading the key to understanding the passage is to read it in its context and then understand the writer's plain statement the issue isn't salvation but rather repentance for it is impossible look what it says in verse four for it is impossible to renew them to repentance it's not talking about salvation the issue isn't salvation the issue is repentance and if the passage is teaching that a Christian can lose their salvation then it's also teaching that they can't get it back the overwhelming evidence in the New Testament by the way is that you're saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves not only are you saved by grace but you're kept by grace I'm also going to suggest to you that in 1 John chapter 5 when John speaks of this issue in a separate kind of way of speaking about it he says in chapter 5: 11 and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life if the testimony is that God has given us eternal life does eternal life sound like probationary life Eternal and probationary aren't the same if you've ever had a job and they said you're on probation that doesn't mean you have the job it's it could be temporary they could let you go for any reason or no reason at all Eternal by its very nature means Eternal and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he who has the son has life and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life so John the Apostle says no when God Saves you he gives you eternal life not temporary life not probationary life and this life is in his son in other words whatever it means to have a right relationship with God means you that you have a right relationship with Christ it means that Jesus loves you that he's come inside of you that he lives inside of you and so if he's talking about something different and I think that he is look at verse four again for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened those who have come a significant Way in real Faith but have they come far enough do they know Christ are they these people who actually know Jesus and who are attempting to return to Judaism or are these people who don't know Jesus and are attempting to return to Judaism I think that the word means where it says once enlightened I think that the word means that their eyes have been opened and the way that it's constructed it means opened once and for all to what God offers in Christ the idea being their eyes have been opened once and for all in other words this isn't an issue of misunderstanding the gospel maybe you grew up in a world where you heard the gospel over and over again oh don't you know that God loves you oh don't you know that Jesus loves you oh don't you know that he died on the cross for your sins oh don't you know that he he rose from the dead and you go yeah yeah I I know that I heard that I I've heard that I I know that and I've heard that I I know that I've heard that and I I know it and I've heard it over and over and over and over again but but knowing the gospel and hearing it and even knowing it and hearing it over and over and over again does that mean that you have actually been born again is being born again something different from just hearing the gospel or or does it mean actually receiving and believing and then you experience this transformation of heart on the inside side have they seen the truth the Hebrews see the truth enlightened Savor the truth they they taste of the Heavenly gift they see the truth they taste the truth what does this possibly mean they've tasted the character of Christ the let let me try and put it in in terms of New Year's Eve every New Year's Eve my wife makes a gigantic pot of New Year's Eve pole some of you from New Mexico may know what p is but there's homy and then there's pork and then there's cilantro and saboya which is that green stuff and the wonderful onion it's a it's a Mexican dish and and so what you do is you stew that baby and you you cook it in the pot and you stew it all day long with red chili and then you take a a lemon and you squeeze it over the top of it now imagine you take a spoon and you stick it in the pot of pole that my wife has made and you stick it in your mouth and you taste it and you go I that is delicious that is wonderful there's a difference between having a taste of the poule and there's a difference between putting a great big bowl of pole in front of you and then eating that P is it possible that there are people who have tasted but they've never actually sat down with the bowl they've tasted they go to church they see people's lives they see what it means to know God to love God to experience um of Salvation and and mercy and forgiveness the gift of the scriptures the gift of Christ the gift of his Spirit can you imagine you taste the gift you taste the scripture there's a taste of Christ there's a taste of the spirit you partake of the Holy Spirit at the end of verse four the work of the holy spirit is to convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come and make Jesus real to the soul that's what it says in John chapter 16 where it says that the work of the holy spirit is to convict us of sin to convict us of righteousness to convict us of the judgment to come they have not just tasted the spiritual character but they also they've experienced the spiritual content they tasted the good word of God in verse 5 John philli says the types of the Tabernacle the preaching of the prophets the song of the psalmist all of these fulfilled in Christ New Testament truth does not contradict Old Testament truth but completes it all the tributaries all of the streams of the Old Testament pouring their United floods into the ocean of Christ they have been seen by the Jews they've tasted the good word of God the idea being that the the Jewish person who's read Genesis Exodus lus Numbers Deuteronomy they they know about the Messianic Pro uh prophecies they've tasted the powers of the world to come they've seen the Miracles they've seen the supernatural workings wrought by Christ and the apostles they've seen the evidence of the transformation of thousands of lives they've seen Peter they've seen Paul they've seen John they've seen these people completely changed imagine you've experienced all of those things and you say I don't want that that's not what I want look what it says in verse six if they fall away to renew them again to repentant since they crucify again to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame I think in order to understand our passage the whole thing lies in verse six there are two key words in verse six read it again if they fall away so the first thing that we have to look at is Fall Away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put them to an open shame the second one is crucify the first word Fall Away translates a Greek word and it's not the Greek word I was expecting the Greek word I was expecting is aposto which we get the word apostasy it means to fall away from belief it means to fall away from trust but that's not the word that's used here it's parap pipo you may not know what that that word means but let me help you it means to Fall by the wayside it means to fall beside it means to turn away it means to wander away it's very much like the word trespass again Warren weby says quote so verse six describes believers who have experienced the spiritual blessings of God but who fall by the side or trespass because of unbelief having done this there in danger of divine chastening Hebrews 12: 5-13 and if you flip over to Hebrews CH 12 verse 5 it says and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as Sons my son do not despise the chastening of the Lord don't be discouraged when you're rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves he chastens and discourages every son and daughter the idea being that these aren't make believers who are pretending to be Believers these are real Believers who've Fallen by the wayside the he goes on and he says having done this they're in danger of chastening Hebrews 12 or becoming Castaways 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 which results in a loss of reward and divine disapproval but not the loss of Salvation the phrase seeing they crucify vers six should be translated while they are crucifying in other words Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4-6 doesn't teach that sinning Saints cannot be brought to repentance but that they cannot be brought to repentance while they continue to sin and put Christ to shame believers who continue in sin prove that they haven't repented Samson and Saul are cases in point Hebrews 12: 14-1 17 cites the case of Esau as well unquote so Paul doesn't worry about people losing their salvation Paul worries about something else he worries about losing reward he worries about losing something else but it's not his salvation in 1 Corinthians 9 it says know ye not that that they which run in a race run all but one receives the price so run that you can obtain I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one who beats the air but I keep under my body bring it to subjection lest by any means which I preach to others I should be a Cast Away the word Cast Away means rejected it means disqualified it means disqualified to receive a reward Paul isn't thinking of Salvation he's thinking about receiving a crown he's using using the metaphor of a race to describe the Christian Life Sinners can't run in that race only Christians can walk in the Christian walk Christians get to participate in the Christian walk but is it possible that a person can go go to church say Christian things pray Christian prayers read a Bible say things that sound like a Christian but they're really not a Christian they've never been changed they've never been born again the whole point is that the passage isn't a theological examination of whether or not the believer can and lose their salvation Hebrew 6 speaks of Christians who begin a race and then they stumble and then they fall and some of them fall by the wayside this leads me to believe that Paul really is as he's talking about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and also in Philippians chapter 3 he speaks of this reoccurring image of a lot of people start this race called the Christian life but some of them drop out and I think that that's the point of the passage that the Hebrew Christians were thinking about dropping out they were thinking about dropping out because the pain and the isolation and the persecution and the resultant disfavor and displeasure of family and friends were driving them back to an old world and an old lifestyle I think that what happens when the Christian refuses to act like a Christian or walk like a Christian or walk in obedience that later we're going to discover that they become subject to discipline and the reality is that each and every one of us will stand before God and give an account of our life at the Judgment seat of Christ so the subject is really spiritual immaturity and repentance the believer's attitude about their own growth and Direction but only you know the truth about yourself Paul said examine yourself to see whether or not you're in the family are you a child of God you see the truth is if you are a child of God then you have a responsibility to grow and if you're not a child of God the worst thing the most horrible thing that you could possibly do is try to live a Christian Life when you're not a Christian when you don't have the resources of the Holy Spirit when you don't have the presence of God in your life that's why Paul says examine yourself for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged but when we are judged we're Chas and disciplined of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world and so what is the point if you're a Christian grow up if you're not a Christian get saved well what if I don't want to make up my mind then you're on thin ice you need to plant your foot firmly on one side or the other together Greg Lori used to call that person a mugwump he called him a mugwump because their mug was on one side of the fence and their wump was on the other and they were completely miserable in both worlds is it hard being a Christian sometimes is it scary being an unbeliever I think so I can remember being being an unbeliever I can remember going to bed at night going now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to sleep oh I'm going to die oh I'm not ready to die I'm not ready to face judgment I'm not ready to face Christ I'm there's there's too many things that are just wrong and at some point I had to come to that place in my own life where I go I need to know Jesus I need to know him him I need to walk with him I need to know him and be known by him but you don't just get to wake up one day and go oh today's the day I'm going to be a Christian the Bible says no one comes to the father unless they're drawn by the Holy Spirit but the Bible also says today is the day of salvation and if you've heard the gospel message if you made a profession or a confession of faith the Bible's invitation isn't to a dead religious system in order to have what appears to be a right relationship with God it's a call to transformation because God Saves you in Christ for the Christian you're called to run a race and go to a specific place towards a Finish Line and what is that Finish Line it's to be molded and shaped into the image of Jesus that's the Finish Line Christians run unbelievers run for your life but there's a place for you you can run into the Arms of Jesus spiritual immaturity doesn't have to stay that way you can go forward in Christ let's pray Heavenly Father Lord we can see that we're called to grow up we're called to run that race Lord we know that in Philippians it says Brethren I don't count myself to have app apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to the things which are before I press forward to the mark to the mark to the finish line to the finish line to the goal for the prize the crown the Laurel wreath of the High Calling of God which is in Christ Jesus Paul said I run to lay hold of that for which God laid hold of me Lord why did you save Paul to make him like Jesus Lord why did you save me to make me like to make me like Jesus Lord why did you save the people who are hearing my voice it's to make them like Jesus to grow up and go forward and cross the finish line in Jesus name amen let's stand

Channel: Calvary South Denver

Views: 36,551

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Gino Geraci, Christianity, Bible Study

Id: 0s8fC9Fe2OE

Length: 60min 38sec (3638 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 02 2015