♪ ♪ So we are in the book of Hebrews, and we have been going through the book of Hebrews on and off; we're here for a little while and we go somewhere else. This perhaps, it's kind of a harsh section to deal with, what is going on here in this letter is the writer has taken a brief timeout to rebuke and pull the chain of his readers. Now, in modern preaching, in the modern universe, people would say, "Well, I don't like that. All I want is somebody who speaks nicely to me and kindly to me." Sometimes the kindest things you can say are just that abrupt. So I'm jumping back just a little bit. The desire to tell these people and elaborate on the person of Melchisedec is stopped right there at verse 11 in the fifth chapter. He says, "Of whom we have many things to say, hard to be uttered, seeing that you are dull of hearing." Wow, that's a crowd pleaser, right? "You are dull of hearing. For when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat. Every one that useth," we made the correction in the translation last week, "milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: he is a babe. Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason," I'm reading the King James, "of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." And there was no chapter and verse. These were letters. There was no chapter and verse until much later, so we immediately go into, "Therefore." But before I jump on the bandwagon of "Therefore," "therefore," the word "therefore" tells us, links us back to the verses I just read. That's what the "therefore" is there for. I thought you might like that. On the surface, logic would say if he says the hearers, the ones who intended; the intended recipients are dull of hearing, logic would say, logically, these people are not ready for strong meat, so we'll go back to the baby food. But he doesn't do that. In fact, this is what I call the tragedy of modern times: the bulk of Christianity is stuck right here in these passages that I'm about to embark on, wanting to stay at the stage where there is no growth, there is no moving forward. And I will give you an example of what I mean, after I read the following. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ," which I will explain in a minute, "let us go on," let us "go unto" completion, to "perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit." Now, let me discuss this for a minute, what's being said here and what's not being said here. What's being said when we are children, we learn our ABCs, we learn how to write them and say them. We usually learn a song how to say the ABCs in a song, so we can remember them. And after we've memorized the ABCs and we sing them out in song, we begin to put sounds together and if, if you're a; I think there's at least two or three grade school teachers here putting, the building blocks of words together that begin nouns and the exciting universe of words that will then be linked together, that will then become sentences. And then children begin to write sentences. You all did that, right? And some of you were like me and had to write those sentences over and over again on the board: "I will not so-and-so, I will"-right. I'll tell you that one later. I think I already have, but it doesn't matter. So imagine you're taught the ABCs, you cannot ever in your life abandon the knowledge of the alphabet. You need it for daily use, although you think, "Oh, A, B, C, D, E" You don't think that, but you use the alphabet when you open your mouth. So what is not being said here is, "Let's, let's abandon all the basics and never come back to them." Rather, these are the foundational principles of our faith. Now I said Christianity is stuck here. Some of you who like to watch religious TV or you go to churches where they have an altar call, and then the question is asked and the whoever is going to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and it stops right there. After that, you, now you are a Christian, you've confessed that you're a sinner and you've been forgiven of your sins. Now somebody's sitting in here for the first time saying, "Yeah, they didn't do an altar call." Wait. That was a trick statement, because you may be waiting a long time. But you can never do away with those basic principles, you need them. Although you do not think of the ABCs, you need them. Let me go to the two classes of Hebrew that I'm teaching. They could not manage to learn the language without learning the alphabet. And then learning the alphabet for some, who this was their first, this was their first time second language; what a challenge! And they couldn't move any further until they mastered the alphabet, and then they began to sound out, and then they began to put words together, and now they're reading and writing. So you can never do away with these foundational principles, but these were stuck there, not making progress. And if you, if you attach the "Therefore" to the verses I've just read, the danger is that these will remain in an infantile, immature state. They will remain there and possibly because they have remained in an immature state, apostasy will occur. That is a falling away from the faith completely; not a faltering. We'll; I'm going to describe this to the best of my ability. But this is the danger of what happens many times. Now I've seen it here where people come in and they just don't want to discipline themselves to learn; "Oh, you mean I have to work at religion? I have to work at Christianity? Well, I thought I just sat here and, you know, a twenty minute sermon sound bite and prayers and people are singing and white robes of choir-people are blowing in the wind"-wrong church. Now, this is what I'm saying, many people are just stuck in that babe mode. They never evolve, they never grow. I'm really earnestly praying for those who hear today, who are in this passage with me that some light will come on that "My goodness, I, I do see myself here." This, this book should be a mirror; not brother or sister So-and-so; this book should be a mirror to help us, to stir us, to convict us, to move us; just what the writer is saying here. So the proposal that's being said here, logically, no one can do-let's go back to my ABCs. Logically, no one can do away with the need to use the alphabet, but if all you do, if all you've done for the last five or ten years is "A, B, C, D, E, F, G" right, something is wrong with you. You have arrested development. Now apply that-we're talking about adult people who don't have any mental challenges, now. People who have mental challenges, you know, the Lord, the Lord knows that and can touch and heal them. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people who are, they're just stuck there, they want to live in that state and never go beyond that. And that's a tragedy. Spiritually it is dangerous. A lot of people think, "Well, you know, intellectual Christianity is not my thing." Hmm, well, let's think about that for a minute, because you do need your brain to process information from this book, and anyone who says you don't need your brain for this book obviously has some issues. But this is; Christianity is for thinking people, not for people who want to be thoughtless. So the writer is trying to move these people beyond, and he says, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us," notice this, "let us," he invokes himself in there too, "go on unto perfection," unto completion. And if you remember that's the same word that was used in the earlier verses, "Them that are full of age" and "completion; perfection" are the same Greek word, "not laying again the foundation of repentance of from dead works," and we need to kind of put a special focus on this, "not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms" or "ablutions," and I'll tell you why I'm saying "ablutions," rather than "baptisms, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." And all of this; hey, listen, if we have time to come back to this we will, but right now I need you to move on to something way more important and there's a good reason why, because if you don't, the writer, something could happen. Now there has not been a passage of Scripture, the verses I'm looking at today will be 4-6 and I may go back to retreat 6-6, but 4-6 is my focus; there has not been a more controversial passage in the New Testament than this one. How many of you have heard the argument: if you're saved, can you lose your salvation? How many have heard that? Once saved, always saved, or is it possible to fall away? And people will read this and try to make it say something to fit their doctrine. Now I, I'm going to tell you right off the bat, the gift that God gave me was I did, when I first met Dr. Scott, I had some, some baggage that was engraved in me that I had a lot of trouble letting go of. But as I have studied the word and stayed in the word I'm not interested in those things that are carried into the church; "Well, you know, somebody said this and I heard that." I'm interested in what the word of God says. And when we have a difficult passage like this, I would strongly suggest that we approach it with childlike faith to not add complexities and understand what is being said here. So this is what is happening. We have a transition from the first few verses, 1, 2, and 3, from the first person to the third person; very suggestive that the writer is not explicitly indentifying any one particular person in his listening radius. You know, sometimes when you want to be diplomatic, you want to address people, you may do this: "One has the opportunity," yes? "One may be able to," and it becomes very generic and ambiguous so that no one person is singled out. Here we have a shift from first person in the first, second and third verse, into the fourth to the third person; very suggestive. And if you look at the whole passage, it becomes obvious that there is something that writer is concerned with, and here we go. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 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 an open shame." Now this is what I want to deal with today, because not only is it critical in the historical setting to understand this, but it's also imperative for us to understand something subtle; it seems like not so subtle; but something subtle that the writer was implying that we should take heed and pay attention to. Remember, book of Hebrews, by its title, these are Hebrew Christians, possibly, as most have said, and most likely, perhaps at Rome, but these are people who formerly were, for the most part of course, of the Jewish faith. So the tendency thus far in the book has been to tell about the superiority of Christ, how all the things that came before were merely shadows and Christ is the substance. And the danger here is that, yes, these people took the ultimate step in understanding and receiving the gospel message, but it appears as though there's a possibility for these to go back to prefer their ceremonies and their way of worship over what is being presented. This is why the first thing that's being said is "not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works." And this "repentance from dead works" will be brought up again in later chapters. Remember that very, very, clearly this whole book is trying to tell people about, as I said, the superiority of Christ, the New Testament, a new and better way; and if it was not clear, there was this possibility for these to want to draw back. So, first let's talk about a few words in here. We'll begin with the word "impossible." Now many commentators have touched on this and have done great damage to the text. The, the Greek word adunaton, we like to talk about the dunamis of God, this is adunaton. Putting an A puts it in reverse in the Greek: adunaton, "impossible." Now people, for example, historically like Erasmus and others, they try to make it sound like it would be difficult, that we could interpret this instead of it would be "impossible," they try to make the text read it would be "difficult." And this becomes not very; it's untenable to translate it that way and the reason is because this same word will appear later on in this book, for example, "Without faith it is impossible to please God," same word. So without faith it would be difficult to please God? Methinks not, because the whole Bible tells us that that is what God's looking for. That is the criteria; not perfection, not works, not these things, but faith, trusting faith in Him. So one thing we've got to get clear right away, the writer's saying it's impossible. Now the people who like to argue this book will say, "Well, yes, it's impossible with men, but don't you know the Scripture that says, what is impossible with men; what is, what is labeled 'impossible' for men is not impossible for God." That's not what's being said here. And many people will have their theological perspectives. You are entitled to have your opinion, but I will simply say this to you. That if this is picked apart aright, and I start off by saying I don't bring baggage into this, I'm specifically referring to the fact if someone might ask, well am I, am I Calvinistic in my thinking, or am I Arminianist in my thinking? My thinking comes from the Scriptures and the right interpretation, by the way, which people say, "Well, but many people think they're right." Well, let's take a break there for a minute and talk about what may or may not be right. As long as we're reading from the original language for which I am blessed to be able to do, we have a few things that come quite clearly. So the first, the first word in verse 4, adunaton, in fact, for those who like to have visual aids, I'll help you out just a little bit. I was not intending to write an epistle today, but you never know. All right, here we go. So I'll write it out for you, at least the parts that I would like you to see. Now adunaton, which this is the way, in the Greek, the fourth verse starts right away off the bat. And then we have gar, "for," gar tous, and you're going to like this. How many of you have heard me use a word where I've said it's a Hapax Legomenon? How many have heard that? Well, that's straight from the Greek, and now I'm delighted to be able to show you the word, so you don't think I made it up. Right here, hapax, that means "once," so when we use it in the theological terms Hapax Legomenon means it happens one time, it's a one-hit wonder. It's like that one song that that one group got famous for. Well, hapax, "once," that's what it means. So "impossible for, impossible for the ones once," and we begin now with the first of seven Greek words that all have-you cannot see them in the English this way, but there are seven of them, they're called participles. And so, for example, the one that I'm looking at where it says, "who were once enlightened," all right, "once" is part of that and "enlightened." And let's, I'll write out the participles. I won't write out the whole text, because we could be here for a long time. That's like my love for dictionaries, not everybody loves the dictionary like I do, all right. So we have here "once enlightened." Can you see this photis? We get our word for "photo" and light in English from this Greek word, but this is a participle. Why is this import? There are seven of these. In fact, what I'm going to do is, to make this easy, so we can all follow along, because not everybody's reading Greek, and I can do this more delicate translation in Greek on the Festival. Let' do it this way: "once having been enlightened," that's the first one. The second one is "having tasted." These are really important, because this will show you, if you're doing something and you're going to make a statement about something, the grammar is huge. If you don't; you cannot get the grammar out of the English text because it's, it's a translation. You've got to go to the Greek text to get your grammar. And I didn't say, "grandma," I said, "grammar," all right. So, "once having been enlightened, having tasted," let's put here "the heavenly gift." "Having become participants," I'll stop here, "participants," which actually belongs to the Holy Spirit. Number four again is another "having tasted." You'll see why this is kind of important to put it out this way. "Having tasted," this one, your King James says, "the word of God," or something close to that, but the Greek, we have two words for "word of God." One word in the Greek is logos, Christ, the Logos, and we have another Greek word, which is rhema. And this is "having tasted the rhema of God." And then we have; that's four, then we have five, "having fallen away," and I will need to elaborate on that some. And then six and seven refer to those that are "crucifying Christ"-I'm going to leave these, I'll fill them in as we get there, "crucifying Christ" and holding Him in contempt. They are participles as well, but let's look at this. So these that I've; all seven of these, including the two: six and seven, which I've not yet put up there, are verbs. They all have this in common. They are all verbs. These are all verbs in the Greek, they are all participles, and I think they are all in the accusative; accusative, accusative; they are all in the accusative. And then they've got different voices. So let's, let's talk about this. This particular one, "having been enlightened" is in the passive. Now in the Greek you've got active voice: the subject is performing the action. You've got middle voice, in the English we have to say, "for himself," or "for herself," middle voice, reflexive. And passive: I'm standing here, something is being performed on me, I am a recipient, I'm passive in the activity. So even this grammar helps when people talk about salvation, even the grammar helps to understand how "once having been enlightened" is a verb, it's a participle. In English, participles usually are those words ending in -ing. We've got an action. And in this case, by the way, this is also, I should put this here: aorist, telling you something. Not necessarily past act, but something in the past that is passive, "having been enlightened," which, for starters when people begin to disseminate this text and they go down the pathway of Calvinistic thinking or Arminianist thinking, they will walk away from this saying, "Well, there's only one conclusion: the people that are being spoken of here could never have been truly saved. They were hearers that were never truly saved." But this is an error, and I will show you why, through the grammar, this is an error in understanding. A lot of times we would like the doctrine to fit into what we have dogmatically held to. There's a problem with that, and the problem is that as we look, first we see the concept of being enlightened. That means that I or you or the ones being referred to, they received enlightenment. Now we're not talking about the Buddhist way of enlightenment. We're talking about Christ. In John 1:4, 1:9, where it speaks of Christ being the light, and later on in the third chapter, speaking of men loving darkness more than light because their deeds are evil, but the light, the truth light as John opens up his Gospel, is pointing to Christ. And this was foretold in the prophecies of Isaiah that Christ would be a light unto the gentiles, a light unto the world. So when we speak of having been enlightened, we have received this. Now people will say, "Oh, there you go! You just, you just labeled yourself. You're an Arminianist. You believe that you make a decision." No, I didn't say that just yet. We have free will, but yes, the initiative must start with God. The passive form of that tells me so from the writer. Now you may not know where this argument's going completely, because maybe you're not familiar with the argument, but hear me out, because eventually, if you are Christian long enough, someone will argue this with you and you'll at least be able to point them to this Scripture and say, "Well, have you considered what the Greek says?" That's probably about the last word right there. "And then there was silence in the heavens." All right, "having tasted the heavenly gift, let's look at that. I want to make sure in the rendering of the King James we have here, "for those who were once enlightened," hapax, "and have tasted of the heavenly gift," and what is interesting here is we have within our book, we have reference of tasting. Now many people have tried to say that this word "tasting" in the Greek is but a sampling, like you know, when you sample something and phtt, right? No. Because the same word is being used of Christ when it says, "And Christ tasted death for every man," that wasn't a sampling, believe me. He was dead and in the grave and raised up again, which means a complete experience. When people like to talk about this, we have to be logical. Then we can form our opinions after that. So we have here another verb, participle in the aorist, and this one is middle, it's a middle deponent, but you don't need to know that. It's just in the middle voice, accusative as well. And what that means is somebody didn't taste it for me. I tasted it for myself. That's what the middle voice means. That means that tasting of this heavenly gift, I experience. I'm speaking for me to make it simplified, to not talk about someone who's just, you know, in the clouds somewhere. But this is in the middle voice, meaning this person, whoever is being discussed, has exactly what the Scripture says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good," or from 1 Peter, "Taste and see that the Lord is gracious," an experience for oneself. And the grammar tells us so. Then we have another participle here, "and having become participants, having become and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost," or the Holy Spirit. Now this is what's critically important, "having become participants of the Holy Spirit," partakers or participants. And we have here, this is another interesting grammar, we have here another aorist, another passive. Now, we know from reading John's Gospel alone, just that one, if I were going to go there. Jesus said, "You must be born from above," that, that new birth experience that must come from God that at that new birth experience, the implant of God's nature placed in you by way of the Holy Spirit. Now thus far, if I went no further and you wanted to argue with me in a Calvinist expression, the five points, TULIP of Calvinism and say, "Wait a minute here. Well, if, if the person had this, but they could have never really been saved." Well, I'd ask you the question, because only God knows the heart, no manmade doctrine, no acronym can know the heart; only God knows. But my question is thus far, take a look, passively enlightened, which means something was worked upon me, I tasted for myself and became a participant of the Holy Spirit, acted upon me; thus far, does it look like, in your opinion, if you were just forming this right now in your mind, that this is a person who never experienced God? No. All right, we're not done though, because this one is probably, for me, it's, it is the clincher: "having tasted," King James reads; and some may ask why do I use the King James, because I do, because I can; "And having, and having tasted the good word of God." Now let's, let's masticate on that idea for a minute of "tasting the word of God." We're not talking about the logos. And many, many people who have written commentaries, unfortunately that's part of my, part of my, what I call the requirements to come here and present something responsible to you is knowing what the bulk of the commentators have said. And it seems like no one distinguishes between the logos and the rhema, and some would even like to say that this is, this alludes to the table of the Lord, "having tasted the word, the good word of God," but it is not whatsoever. This rhema, we know the difference between logos, the logos, "In the beginning was the Logos," the opening of John, and when Jesus is speaking to the devil and He says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth, every rhema that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." So we can know this that these rhemas, which I have tried over the years to try and get some of you to follow along, but these rhemas are the sayings of the words of God that are repeated in quotes, if you will, that we then, because of what I've quoted many times about John, "abiding in the word." This becomes an epistle written in our heart, and we begin to open our mouths, and as we open our mouths the declaration that comes out is the rhemas of God. We speak the rhemas of God forward. So when somebody says, "having tasted," and what all is this taste verb here? Well, let's see; "having tasted the rhemas of God" is another verb, participle. It's another, I told you, a whole bunch of aorist. This one is middle again. That means no one could be doing the tasting for me. This wasn't a sampler plate at Kous-Kous restaurant. This is, we're talking about someone who has had gnosis of the word of God; knowledge. You cannot have tasted the rhemas of God without the knowledge of God. Now somebody who's just coming to the church for the first time, they may open the Bible and they may read, "God who at sundry times," and they're reading the logos. But after studying God's word and walking away, we might, something may come to our minds. Isaiah 53, "Who hath believed," or "amened the hearing of us," there's a rhema. As the prophet Isaiah hath said. There's a rhema, now I say it, I'm speaking forth a rhema to you. So clearly, the writer of Hebrews is focused on the fact that these participles are marks of people who have indeed heard, who have indeed tasted, who have been enlightened, who have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, and now here it comes. Oh, the dreaded one: "having fallen away." And this is what needs to be perhaps clarified. We have here again another, we have another aorist. And this one, you're going to like this, this one is active. That means the subject, the ones capable of, they do it themselves. "Whoa! I'm not sure I like this either." Well, okay. Let's discuss then what this means for us, because we not only are looking at the text, there must be something that we can take to our understanding. So the first thing that I would say to you is this. Know the difference between "falling" and "falling away." And if this pretty much clears up the sum total of this text, because we clearly see that participles one, two, three, and four are speaking of people who have tasted, who have experienced, who have known; so what is this "falling away," "If they shall fall away"? Well, the first thing we need to know is that there is no "If" in that clause. There is no "If." What we have is a word that is again, it's a hapax, it only happens here for "falling away." Cognates of this word appear elsewhere. But probably the most important thing is to know the difference between "falling" and "falling away," because somebody may say, "Well, but I have experienced all these things. Is this saying that if I, if I make a mistake I, I'm out like three strikes, like the state of California, three strikes and I'm out? Is that it?" No. In fact, if you want to take this one step further and you read in Proverbs 24:16, seven times the righteous man will fall and gets up again. We're not talking about falling down. The Bible is chockfull of people who have fallen and made mistakes, and the church is full of, chockfull of people who have fallen down and made mistakes. We're talking about a specific thing. This is why the writer is-there's a red flag here. Remember earlier in the earlier chapters he talked about they heard, but it wasn't mixed with faith, so it didn't profit them anything. Then he says, "Hold on; don't let go!" He's trying to stir them up to not let of the faith they have received, to not slip back into ceremonialism, and on top of everything else, "If they shall fall away," which is, as I said, another participle and it's active. That means we disconnect. Now looking at this at its face value, you may say, "Well, you've just described the Arminianist point of view." No, I refuse to be put into a box of a human's design. And I'm interpreting how the Greek reads, not how I would like it to read. We do have free will, though. This I will say on that point. We do have ability to say, "I don't want to deal with this anymore. God's not answering my prayers," or, "I have this pressure I can't live up to," or, "I feel I can never be forgiven, so I just, I won't even try to ask. I won't accept God's grace. I won't"-whatever it is, fill in the blanks. Could that, could that be? But even that is not touching the nerve of what is being said. Now let me take a sidebar for a minute. In God's word you've got people, the one that comes to my mind immediately is David. Here's a man that was chosen by God; not the first, but the last, not maybe the pick of the crop there, but God wanted him. And we know what he does. He is definitely eyeballing Bathsheba; he did a little bit more than that, but he was looking at something that wasn't his to look at. We could just go down all of the, the obvious and not so obvious sins committed on his part. Looking or lusting after a woman that didn't belong to him, and then we go down the path and we find that he sleeps with her and she is with child, and now he's going to try to kill the husband. And so that will be wiped off the map and then this whole thing can move on and it's just a whole tragic thing. The child ends up dying. And we have a picture of what, if it was the modern church, they'd say, "Well, that's definitely falling away," but rather I challenge you to think about this. It was the prophet Nathan that came in that stirred up the conscience and stirred the mind of King David, "Thou art the man," that brought the conviction that brought him to pen that psalm of penitence and contrition. Psalm 51, "Against thee, O LORD, have I sinned." And obviously this, you might say, "Well, this is grave! You've just described adultery and murder and-but there's a thousand different things that went on in this man's life," but this was not "falling away." This was "falling," this was sins committed, sidestepping. You might say, "Well, this, is this what is talked about in the New Testament, 'sin unto death'?" No. I can tell you, obviously God pardoned him after he asked for forgiveness, God forgave him, gave him prosperous years and victory. And there are other people that we could just, just randomly say, because I know there'll be people that will hear me and say, "Well, then I'm worried." Well, this is not pertaining to you if you understand what the "falling away" is. And as I said, falling down or sidestepping is not the same as falling away. Even Peter, "Thou art the Christ." And Jesus says, "You will deny me thrice." "I swear I don't know this man. I don't know who you're talking about," right, denial, denial, denial; and yet, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven; this was not a sin unto death. In fact, this was foretold of him, "This you will do." Some might say, "Well, what? Is this-what do I do about this that they fall away? What? What? What?" We're talking about those people who would hear the gospel message. And friends, I hate to tell you this, because it's heartbreaking to me and I've tried to stay away from talking about this because it, every time I go down this pathway, it makes me want to cry. But I have seen people who have been enlightened, who have tasted, who were partakers, who could say the word of God, they could quote Scripture better than the next person or anyone that I've known, and yet fall away from serving the living God. They just fall away. Now there'll be people that say, "Well, don't you know what the Scripture says in John's Gospel, how it says that those that have been given into the God, specifically into the hand of Christ, they cannot be plucked away. No man shall pluck them away." Oh, dear. Well, then we'll have to talk about this, because that's exactly right: no one shall pluck them away except YOU. Satan can come and he can tempt you. Satan can whisper in your ear and you'll believe a lie. Satan can try, but greater is He! And you resist the devil and he flees from you! But the falling away, that is an active activity on the part of that person. Now let me be clear about something, because there are, I'm sure there'll be a little bit of confusion. What about people who backslide? The Bible has plenty of those. The closing chapter of Hosea, Hosea 14, it says, "And I will heal their backsliding." There was one thing required of them: turn, repent. This is not the bawling and sobbing. This is metanoia, the Greek word, the changing of the mind, which ultimately changes the direction from following my way, my desires, my wants to God's way, which is usually very painful and usually comes at a cost. But the Bible's full of these where God says, "I will heal their backsliding." So we're not talking about marginal followers, we're not talking about people who even backslide that way. We're talking about people who were here one day. Now I can't see the heart, but underneath it all there's something. But we had a guy here sitting in my office quoting Scripture to me. Yes? Just disappeared, and he was here for a long time; just disappeared. Now this person-that's why I said to you I have knowledge firsthand. If I, if I only had the book, I would, believe me, I'd believe it. I take God, and God's not a man to lie, this is His word. But I've seen it with my own eyes people that seem to be so committed, they fit into all those pigeonholes, if you will, and then they disconnect themselves. Now the falling away, this is a wakeup call to these people that the writer was writing to, but let's take this one step further. There's no "If" there, so the possibility of them falling away. And there's another word in there that does not appear in the English, but "again; falling away again." In essence this is why he's saying "to renew them unto repentance; seeing they have crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame," essentially how can someone who has received all of this, and this will become clear what the meaning of this is. The meaning of this is tied, all of this is tied, and the falling away is tied to what comes in a later chapter where it talks about those who refuse; well, what people have labeled, "the unpardonable sin," we talk about this. In Hebrews 10:26, it says, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." And if you read down, you'll see what this also means, elaborated there, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" So this is a rejecting of the knowledge, it's a rejecting of the light. Dr. Scott used to say this and this ties to this passage just so perfectly. We are all in darkness; we all start out in darkness. Suddenly, who knows at what time in your life God turn turns on the lights? He used to talk about the dust on the floor. You're going to see dust once the light's turned on. You're going to do something about it. You're either going to sweep it up, you're going to sweep it under the rug, you're going to ignore it, but you'll never be the same now the light's turned on and you see it. Here is exactly that. Apply what I just said from a very wise person and tack this in here. It is refusing after one has been enlightened. Now I know what the light is. This is not "I made a mistake; I've entered into some sin." This is a falling away, a rejection, a turning from all of these things. Why? Go back to the first cause: spiritual immaturity. Now if you're not sure of what I'm saying be true or not, you only have to read down in verses 7 and 8 for a natural application. "For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." Two things in nature that appear to supplement what is being said, you've seen parched ground and the rain comes. And the rain comes down and if you planted a garden, planted a tree and here comes the growth that should come. But otherwise, if this ground is unable to receive, "it beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned." Here is that picture attached to this: "having fallen away." I have known, I have tasted, I have been a participant, I have spoken the words of life, I have seen the word of God, which the book of Hebrews, in the fourth chapter talks about being alive, should be a piercing instrument into the soul; not to kill, as in to kill the life, but to cut out the flesh, to pierce through to the heart. And I have also seen people who have sat in a service, sat in churches and the word of God for them, they are as dead people. It has no meaning to them. They're not even moved, not one little bit, that if I read the rest of this that "they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh." And when I read this, the image in my mind is that to see Christ being put back up on the cross over and over and over and over again to suffer. Why? Because in this person's mind there could never be enough. Now, this should be a sober wakeup call for those that he was writing to, but it should also be a wakeup call for us to again, go back into those earlier chapters where he said don't be lazy with the word, don't be complacent with the word. While you have to the time, redeem the time. Ultimately, and I've said this the last couple of weeks, but I really mean it, ultimately each person, I believe, they must come to this point. Some sooner than later, and if you've come to it sooner, be happy about that. You ultimately come to the point of saying, "What is this life about?" Is it just to wake up to the sound of your alarm clock, eeh, eeh, eeh, eeh, eeh, eeh, eeh, go to the same routines, "Ugh, ugh." Press the coffeepot on. Go over here. Go sit down. Go take the dog for a poop. Get in the car. Make sure I'm at my cubicle by 8:30. Get yelled at by my boss. Take my lunch break. Get back to my cubicle. I'm back out the door at 5 o'clock. I'm in my car. I'm sitting on the 405. I'm in traffic for an hour. I'm finally home. And it's not over yet, because I still have to wash, clean, and make dinner. And then maybe I'll turn on the TV and think I might see something good, but it's the same news. Well, it's different news, but it's the same news: death and all the doom and despair that can go on. And then it's time for bed. I set the alarm clock. Do it all over again. You must come to the point where you ask the question: "Is this, is this it? Is this everything?" And that question should stir up something so great inside of you, "No! This is not it!" No! The breath of eternity is upon me and I'm going to spend my time, any nook and cranny of free time understanding and knowing about what pleases God and how I will relate to Him, and how this relating and understanding: in this I will grow and I will grow and I will grow. And I will not be completed here, but I have, I have entered actively. And there are two dynamics: there's the active falling away, I, I pull the plug, versus I stay connected. And this is why this is a very, I said it's a battlefield passage, but if you think about it, "If they shall fall away," this isn't if they shall fall into sin, this isn't if they go off the wrong track, because, friends, that's why the prodigal's in the Bible. That Luke 15 is there for a reason, taking his, what he thought was his due before his time to go out and blow it all and spend it all, to then be looking at the pigs. And the pigs were better off than he was. And then he says, "If I could just go home," and opens up his mouth and says, "I've sinned." And that declaration and the turning point that let him go back home, that tells me that for those who are able to recognize the fall, the erring, the "I stepped off the path," and get back in God's program; we're not speaking about that falling. We're speaking about falling away, an active, rejecting, disconnecting, "Let me go back into the darkness." I've seen these people, "Let me go back," like the one that prefers, "Let me go back to my bottle of alcohol. I prefer that. I don't want to; I don't want to deal with reality. I don't want God to even deal with my reality. Let me go back to where I came from." And 1 Peter and 2 Peter referred to these, especially in a very not so kind way; "like a dog returning to his, or a pig or dog returning to their vomit." So the caution is there. The wakeup call is there. And lastly, he says, not only crucifying over and over and over again, but putting Him to open shame; that is Christ. Essentially, for those in that state, it's as if He was still hanging on the cross and people were still ridiculing and wagging their finger and saying, "He cannot save himself." There is no effective solution. So when I say to you be thankful that God has given you the heart and the desire, press close to the things of God. And if you've fallen down, if you've stepped by the wayside, if you feel you're really, truly off the path, don't start trying to count and look at all the steps that got you off the path. Come back to the place where you know God loves you and He restores you and He gives you the ability to start over again. And if desire is there, don't even wonder, "Well, have I, have I fallen away?" if the desire is there to say, "Lord, please give me another chance." If your heart is there saying, "Lord, please give me another chance, I really want to," then get up. I said this last week on Festival: quit having a pity-party about your mistakes and your short fallings. Everybody's got them. That's why Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned." Get up! And be like the prodigal and say, "There is Bread in my Father's house enough to spare, and that's where I'm turning to: the Bread of life," ample for me and ample for you. And don't look at this passage and say, "I'm scared." Look at this passage and say, "This is for those who have actively decided, but I, I need the Bread that's in my Father's house." That's why I, I know I'll see you back here next Sunday. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
