Let's turn to the book of Hebrews
chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. This evening I'd like to read
the first three verses of the sixth chapter. I think what I'll have to do
is preach this message in two messages. There are six things in this
passage that Paul the Apostle was telling these Hebrews that
we just can't go back to this. And I'd like to deal with the
first three. And then, Lord willing, we'll
go and look at the last three next time. But let's read the
first three verses and then ask the Lord's blessing. Hebrews
6, verse 1, Therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and
of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and
of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And
this will we do if God permit." Let's pray together. This evening, we thank You for
this precious time that we have. And Lord, we realize this may
be the last time we ever meet together, this side of eternity. And Lord, if it is, I pray that
You would bless the Word. If this is the last time I ever
preach, Lord, would You make this message real to my heart?
Help me. For I realize this is the most
serious thing we'll ever do. Help us. Keep us. Teach us. These things we ask
for Christ's sake. Amen. The passage that I'd like to
deal with tonight, I've entitled it Going On into Perfection. And this message tonight is going
to deal with a continuation of what the Apostle Paul started
saying in chapter 5 and verse 11. He said, I've got of whom,
I'm sorry, verse 11, chapter 5, whom we have many things to
say and hard to be uttered, seeing you're dull of hearing. These
Hebrews had become lazy. They were lazy. They were slothful. And Paul, he had some confidence
in their profession. According to Hebrews 6, verses
8 and 9, he said, That which bears thorns and briars is rejected,
and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. But, beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak." Now, that passage right there
is going to prove in the next couple of weeks, Lord, three
weeks, to be extremely, extremely important. that you understand
that he's talking to believers. There's a lot of commentaries
that I read on these next 6 or 8 verses. And a lot of the commentaries
try to make these Hebrews to not be believers. And it just
doesn't bear out. He's talking, you know, verse
10, God's not unrighteous. Get your work, the labor of love,
which you've shown toward His name. You've ministered to saints. These fellows had some honorable
things that are said about them. And so Paul, in the perception
of the reality of their confession, He perceived some immaturity. They were inexperienced in heart. Now, some would say, how did
he know that? Well, he wrote this under the
inspiration of the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God revealed
some things through the Apostle Paul that were so. when the Apostle Paul said there
are some things I'd like to say to you concerning the eternality
of the priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek. I'd like to say some things to
you, but he said you're dull of hearing and you need to be
taught again the first principles. He said, you can't eat strong
meat. Milk is what you're going to
have to be. Now, a newly converted sinner is a babe in Christ, as
I said before. They're to be nurtured. They're
to be taught the fundamentals of truth. That's what we eat.
That's what we live on. As I said last week, when we
talk about the milk of the Word, as opposed to strong meat. The
milk of the Word is the doctrines concerning Christ that we hold
to sovereign grace, electing grace, predestinating grace. I said people would think, you
say, well, that's the strong meat. No. No, that's the milk.
That's the foundation. That's a strong foundation upon
which we build. The foundation of Christ. And
we're built up in Him. Lively stones built upon the
truth. I had a fellow tell me one time
in Tennessee, he said, well, I believe all those doctrines.
But he said, I can't teach those things right now. He said, I
figure it's going to take me approximately 10 years to ease
into it. Ten years. How do you ease into
the truth? It's the truth. That's the foundation. That's the basis upon which we
build. And the strong meat is that experiencing
the teaching by the Holy Spirit. upon that foundation of truth
that Paul says, verse 14, chapter 5, strong meat belonging to them
that are of full age, matured, perfect, even those who by reason
of use or habit have their senses exercised and you build. Everything, this is about the
best way I know how to say it, everything that we preach here,
Everything that is to be set forth has a savor, has the very
fiber of the gospel of God's free grace, the fiber of election,
the fiber of predestination, the fiber of preservation of
the saints. The truth is woven into everything
we preach. You're building on the milk of
the Word. So Paul the Apostle, he's taught
these Hebrews through the Spirit of God's teaching. He's taught
them the truth, the foundation. And he said, now, we're going
to have to build on that. So he starts off. Let's start
off in verse 1. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. Now, passing on is
what he's saying. We don't ever forsake. The Word is not forsaking the
doctrine of Christ. When he says leaving, it's actually
building upon. Building upon the truth of the
fundamentals of the gospel. You have to understand something.
These Hebrews had been taught, as I said before, I want to make
sure we understand what is being told, these Hebrews. They had
been taught the principles of the doctrine
of Christ in the law. Remember, the law was a schoolmaster. to bring us to Christ, to show
us the Lord Jesus Christ. They were taught that the prophecies
concerning the Messiah would come into this world. The prophecies
concerning the Messiah, that He would come into the world,
had been fulfilled. There would be a Lamb. And also
that the pipes and shadows in the slaying of those animals
That was a picture, a type of the work that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself would perform. He would die. He was God's lamb.
So they had been taught the fundamental principles of the gospel. It
was in the law. That was the purpose of the law,
the schoolmaster of the law. The law would never perfect them.
They could never, by the means of the law, no flesh would ever
be perfected. But that wasn't the purpose of
the law. It was to bring God's people
to show them their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when the
apostle says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ, what he's saying is this. Now, therefore, having
left the discourse of the truth of Christ as he was taught in
the shadows and the pictures of the law. Going on from that
is what he's talking about. I mean, we're not here tonight
to say that we're going to leave the doctrine of Christ. No, no. They came up having the
shadows and types, the pictures, the fundamentals of the gospel
in the law. Now, therefore, leaving that,
that's what he's talking about when he says leaving the principles.
Or that word principles right there is the word of the beginning
of. Have you got it in your margin
there? Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the
doctrine of Christ as it was set forth in the law, going on
from that, building upon that. You know, we don't leave the
preaching of Christ. Somebody says, well, you're saying
that you're leaving the doctrine of Christ. My friend, you leave
the doctrine of Christ, you left the gospel. You don't ever leave
that. But we're going to build upon,
Paul says, to these Hebrews. We're going to build upon and
not lay again the law as we saw it in those first principles.
Not that. Ephesians 2, 19 and 20 says,
Now therefore, you're no more strangers and foreigners, fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. So let's go on into
maturity. That's what Paul is saying. Let's
go on into perfection. Not laying again a foundation. Not laying again the foundation
as it was set forth in the law. That's what we're talking about.
Because I'm going to tell you something. Once you get over
in verse 4, 5, and 6 of this, you're going to find out Paul
is going to be telling them some things that it would be impossible
if a man were to go back to it. It would be impossible to renew
him again unto repentance. Paul is telling them, now fellas,
now listen. I understand. You came up. hearing and seeing and beholding
and watching the first principles of the doctrine, the first teachings
of the doctrine of Christ. You saw it in the law. Now, we
ain't going back there. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. It was fulfilled. We're not going
back there. Let's go on unto maturity. stay on those first principles. We cannot stay on the shedding
of the blood of bulls and goats. That foundational truth has been
fulfilled. Now, we're going to leave that
which pictured Christ. That's what He's saying. We're
going to leave that which set Him forth in ceremonies and types,
and we're going to go on into maturity and we're going to see
and behold and learn of Him. Now, he sets forth six fundamental
truths that Paul says these don't have to be proven anymore. These
don't have to be set forth. They don't have to be allayed
again anymore. That foundation was established
by God in the law It was fulfilled by Christ, and we're not going
back. And here's the first. We're going
to look at the first three. He says, let us go on into perfection,
into maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works. Now, he said, we're going to think
differently. about the dead works. Not laying again. You know, if
we were going to add on something out here, we laid a foundation. And after that foundation was
laid, and it was true, and it was straight, and it's been poured. Okay, now when we come back,
we ain't going to lay the foundation again. The foundation is laid. It's been accomplished. Now,
we're going to go on. He said, now, we're going to
go ahead and go into maturity, not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works, thinking differently about dead
works. Now, these Hebrews under Judaism,
they witnessed the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Now those sacrifices had been
given to Moses by the Lord God Himself. And you know that they
pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. But these regenerated Hebrews
had been taught by the Spirit of God that there was no efficacy. That there was no power, there
was no merit in that which pictured Christ. It was a picture of Christ. There's no doubt about it. A
beautiful picture of Christ. Given by God Himself. But, Paul
said in Hebrews 10.4, it's not possible that the blood of bulls
and goats should take away sins. It was a picture of Him. It was
works. Look over in Hebrews 9. Hebrews
9, verse 12-14. It said, Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkled the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?" So what he's talking about when he says these dead
works, it was works of the law that had been given by God to
Moses. And they performed them. They
would take a bull, and here was the work. They would kill that
bull, they'd kill that goat, they'd kill that heifer. And
it was according to God's Word and God's law, and it was a picture
of Christ. But it was dead in the sense
that it couldn't put away sin. It was a dead work. It was a
work ordained of God. to set forth the glory of Christ,
but he couldn't put away sins. So Paul is saying back in verse
1 of chapter 6, he said, now we're going to go on into maturity,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works
by the regenerating grace of God. The Holy Spirit had granted
repentance. a change of mind to these Hebrews
from those dead works. They realized in regeneration. We looked at that one time. That
was God's law. That was God's rules. That was
God's works. And we watched it. We watched
that high priest. We watched the slayings. That
was the oracles of God. And we realize now God has changed
our mind. He has granted us repentance. to think differently about those
dead works. And that fundamental truth was
established, but now it's been fulfilled. And it doesn't need
to be laid again. Christ is the termination. He's the end of the law. The
termination of that which now ceases to be. It's gone. It's no more. We don't go back
to that. We're not going to lay that foundation. Let's go on into perfection.
Paul says, secondly, we're not going back to that. We're not
going back to dead works. You can't look back to that. The second thing that we're going
to repent from is faith toward God. Boy, you know, when you read
this and you're thinking, faith toward God. Now, notice
that the apostle did not say faith toward Christ. He didn't say faith toward Christ.
These are some things that Paul says. Now, we're leaving the
foundational teachings that were taught in the law. And we're
going to go on into maturity. And we're not going to lay the
foundations of repentance from dead works and of faith toward
God. You know, this is a fundamental
truth that Paul said, we're not going to lay again. But what did he mean? I mean,
can you imagine? I mean, what a statement. Faith
toward God. Jehovah had revealed Himself
to Moses in Exodus 3, 6. And this is what He told Moses.
He said, I am the God of thy father. The God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In Exodus 3.18, Jehovah told
Moses to tell the king of Egypt that the Lord God of the Hebrews
hath met with us. Now to the Gentiles, to the heathen,
there was not this knowledge of Jehovah being They're God. They worship ignorantly. That's what the Lord told the
woman at the well. You remember that? He said, you
worship you know not what. We know who we worship. He was
speaking there as a Jew. Now, at Morris Hill, Paul found
this inscription at those Gentile monuments all over the place
and he found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God,
the scripture said, who they ignorantly worshipped. They didn't know him. But Jehovah,
Jehovah had revealed himself to be the God of the Hebrews. Well, the Gentiles, they knew
something. about Jehovah being the singular
God of the Hebrews. I want you to turn to Joshua.
Joshua 2.1. Or if you want to, I'll just
read this to you. Joshua 2.1. Now this is when
Joshua sent some spies into Jericho. And these two spies came and
found Rahab the harlot. Listen to this. Verses 1 to 11.
Joshua 2. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two
men to spy secretly, saying, Go, view the land, even Jericho.
And they went, and they came into the harlot's house, named
Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho,
saying, Behold, there came men in hither tonight of the children
of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent
unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee,
which are entered into thine house, for they be come to search
out the country. And the woman took the two men,
and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I
wist not whence they were. And it came to pass about the
time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men
went out. Whether the men went, I want
not. Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But
she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them,
with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the
roof. And the men pursued after them
the way to Jordan unto the fords. And as soon as they which pursued
after them were gone out, they shut the gate. And before they
were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said
unto the men, I know that the Lord, that is, Jehovah, hath
given you the land. and that your terror is fallen
upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of
you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites
that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, which he
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these
things, Our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath." Now, did you
catch how she addressed the Lord your God? The Gentiles knew something. of Jehovah being the God of the
Hebrews. So to a Hebrew, his faith toward
God was found totally in his lineage. It was by blood. God is my God because I'm a Jew. Nobody else is God. The Lord told some Pharisees,
John 8, verse 41, You do the deeds of your Father. Then said
they unto Him, We be not born of fornication. We have one Father,
even God. God is our Father. They didn't
know that Almighty God is only approached by and in the Lord
Jesus Christ. John 14, 6, Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. You see, God is our Father only
by being in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Hebrews possessed God
merely in form and tradition and not in reality. The Lord
God had addressed Himself to Moses and he said, you go tell
Pharaoh that the God of the Hebrews is among you. Rahab said, I know
that your God. Look in Matthew 15, verses 5
and 7. 5 to 7, Matthew 15. Matthew 15, verses 7. to nigh. Ye hypocrites, well
did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips. But their
heart is far from me, but in vain they do worship me. Teach them for doctrines the
commandments of men." So whenever a Hebrew spoke of Jehovah, they
said, We are the children of God because we are Hebrews. We are born Hebrews, Hebrews
by blood. Therefore, being a Hebrew, God
is our God. We are His children. We are in
His covenant. Paul said that these Hebrews
that had been taught Faith toward God. It's not by blood, but it's
by union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, now, that foundational
truth that God is God, that He's God of His people only by Christ. He said, we're not going back
to that teaching of the law that God is your God by blood. He
said we're going to build on the truth that Almighty God is
the Father only by being found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then thirdly, Paul said in the first few words of the second
verse, and this will be the last one we'll look at for tonight,
he said, of the doctrine of baptisms. The word here, baptisms, notice
it doesn't say baptism, it says baptisms. That word is used three
other times in the New Testament. And the word used three other
times in the New Testament is translated washings, washings. Mark 7, 4, the washings of cups
and pots brazen vessels. Mark 7, 8, you hold the tradition
of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such
like things you do. And Hebrews 9, 10, which stood
only in meats and drinks and divers, washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation. Now these washings
or this word baptism of the doctrine of baptism, or washings. That was designed under the law
to teach them to impress upon those Hebrews that God was holy
and that men could approach Him only if they were undefiled. If they were defiled or unclean,
they could not approach God Almighty. And it was a Typical symbol. It was a shadow that showed a
sinner that he must be cleansed from all sin to be at peace with
God. So they had those washings, the
doctrine of washings of pots, cups, hands. You don't wash your hands. That
was a symbol. That was a type that showed in
picture that God could not be approached if a man was unclean. Now these washings set forth
that a man, a woman is only cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was a picture. It was a type,
a beautiful picture, a beautiful type. But Paul told these Hebrews,
he said the foundation, of repentance, from the doctrine of baptisms,
the doctrine of washings, that ceremonial washings that could
not make any man that did that service perfect. He said, now that was established
in the law. It was fulfilled in Christ by
the shedding of His blood. Now, he says we've left the first
principles of the oracles of God that's taught in the shadows
and tight. And he said, we're not going
back to that. We're not going to go back to the old shadows
anymore. These fellows, obviously, had
been under a lot of pressure. You know, you read that in the
book of Acts and how these Judaizers, We come back and just tell them,
say, I know what you're saying about the gospel, but let me
tell you something, you can't let go of everything. These oracles
were given by God. This was established through
Moses. You're going against the teachings
of Moses and trials within and trials without. And Paul detected,
as I said last week, old habits are hard to break. They struggled
with Him. Do you remember these fundamental
truths that the Apostle had set forth and that these Hebrews
had stayed with? They were set forth to picture
Christ. And he said, now we've left those
things and we're not going back to them anymore. I want to close. by reading a verse of Scripture
in Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. And this truth... Now, we understand that Paul
is talking to some Hebrews. And they had a specific problem. They had come out of the witnessing
of the law. God had taught them those things. that are so in the fulfillment
of Christ. But they still had some struggles.
They were babies. They needed to be matured. Paul said we're going to build
on what was definitely set forth in the law as the fundamentals. But remember, those fundamental
truths, we're not going back to that anymore. We're not going
to stay with that anymore. Even today, for those of us that
sit here, those that especially have come out of false, free-willed,
self-righteous religion. Forsaking all that. We forsake
that. We don't go back to that. We
don't go back to the works of a man self-righteous religion. Luke chapter 9, starting in verse
57, And it came to pass, as they went in the way, a certain man
said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes has holes, and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
And he said unto another, Follow me. He said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. And Jesus said unto him, Let
the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom
of God. And another also said, Lord,
I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which
are at home. at my house. And Jesus said unto
him, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of God." No man looking back and regarding is fit, that is, well placed. You know, I've read that scripture
many times, and I wondered about it. No man looking back. And this is what the analogy
is. No man having put his hands to
a plow. Now, if a man's a farmer, just
get this in your mind. Grab hold of a plow. And there's
the end of the field right there. No man that has put his hand
to a plow and in his heart said, I'm going to the end of that
field and turning around and looking back and always looks
back and never looks back this way is fit. What he's doing is he's longing
after where he came from. Now let me ask you something.
Do you long to go back to where you came from? Think about what
the Lord has called you out of. Think about where God has brought
you from. Do you want to go back? The Scripture
says, Remember lost life. When Lot came out of Sodom, God
brought him out. Lot's wife, he turned around
and looked back. God turned her into a pillar
of salt. Remember Lot's wife. Those that
Almighty God has called out by His grace and mercy and power
had given them a new heart. They have one love. They love
Him. They long after Christ. Now,
they struggle. Now, we go through this world
struggling, and I'll be the first to admit that. But I will tell
you this, they long after the Savior. They look toward Him. They see something of their weakness,
and they realize the frailty of their heart. But I'll tell
you this, those that God Almighty has given a new heart after Him,
they don't want to go back where they came from. Not a believer.
But if there is a man that says, just like Jesus told the Lord,
now I'll follow you, but I've got a couple of things I've got
to take care of first. My question to you is this, what's
more important? What is more important than the
glory of God in Christ? No man, having put his hand to
the plow and continually looks back, is fit. for the Kingdom of God. He's
not well placed. That's what it means. These Hebrews,
God had called them out of darkness. And Paul, by the mercy and grace
of God, God sent these fellows a preacher. You know, isn't it
wonderful to be taught by the Word of God? To be reminded?
To be taught again? refreshed again, be taught. And
a believer hears this. Paul told these Hebrews, look,
you came up under the foundational truth of the gospel as it was
taught in the law. And they realized, I didn't realize
that that was what the law was all about. I thought we found
confidence because we were Hebrews. God was our God because we were
Hebrews, sons of Abraham. And Almighty God called them
out of darkness and showed them, what you came out under was a
schoolmaster. That was to bring you to Christ.
That was to show you your need of Christ. And Paul said, those
fundamentals of the Gospel, we're not going to lay that foundation
again. We ain't going back there. We're going to go on into perfection.
We're going to build upon that which we've learned and taught.
And the Spirit of God will teach a man, teach a woman. I don't
want to go back there. I don't want to go back. Mark,
you want to go back in Roman Catholicism? I don't want to
go back to that. If the Son of Man has made you
free, you're free indeed. Saved by the grace of God. May
the Lord add His blessing, the teaching of His Scripture. And
Lord willing, we'll pick up the last three fundamentals that
Paul said we're not going back to. By His grace, by His mercy,
for Christ's sake. Amen.