Now, if you would please turn
your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6, please. I remember years ago, a preacher
giving this illustration. He talked about birds being on
a telephone wire, both feet just grasping that wire. standing
there firm on the telephone wire, but not hearing the message that
was going through. And that preacher mentioned that
the majority of professing Christians are standing, singing the song
anyway, standing on the promises of God, but they're not hearing
the message. They don't hear the glorious
gospel message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So they're
easily deceived by false preachers and made to think that there
are things in the Bible that teach universal redemption or
teach that a child of God can lose their salvation. But folks,
there are no contradictions in God's Word. There are no contradictions
in God's Word. If we read something that looks
like a contradiction It's a wrong interpretation in our minds of
what we are reading. This Holy Bible is God's Word. And it completely harmonizes
from the start of the Scriptures in Genesis all the way through
the end of the Scriptures in Revelation. There are no contradictions. This is History. His story. It's all about Jesus Christ.
On every page it's about Jesus Christ. Now many false preachers have taught that
the first part of this sixth chapter of Hebrews, and they
misuse the scriptures, they teach that this portion of God's word
clearly teaches that a child of God can lose their salvation. Now, we know that's not true.
If God has enlightened our minds to the truth, we know that a
child of God who was chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary
2,000 years ago, and brought out of darkness by the sovereign,
irresistible, drawing power of God the Holy Spirit, we cannot
fall from the loving arms of our Savior. Pastor Don Fortner,
Our brother who just went to glory not long ago made this
statement from these first few verses of Hebrews 6. He said,
heretics frequently point to the opening verses of this chapter. and use them to try to prove
that saved men and women may be lost again, that those who
are the objects of God's grace today may be the objects of His
wrath tomorrow." And Pastor Faulkner worded it really well. He said,
that is both blasphemy and nonsense. Now, how does he know? How did
he come to that? How did Brother Fortner know
that those people who teach that kind of a false doctrine are
heretics? How did he know that? Well, he
believes God. He believes the Scripture. He
believes what the Word of God says. Our Lord said, In his word
in John 6.37, he said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Those are the words of our Lord
Jesus. In John 10, He said this, My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. Now, I believe that. Don't ask
me to explain how three divine persons can be one God. I cannot explain that. But I believe it because that's
what this Word teaches. And our Lord Jesus plainly stated
that He is one with God the Father. And we're safe in His hands.
We're safe in the Father's hands. Nobody can take us away from
Him. Nobody can pluck us out of the sovereign hands of God
Almighty. So listen to me if you will,
please. The death of Jesus Christ, and we heard this in the scripture
reading this morning in the men's meeting, the death of Jesus Christ
reconciled His people to God. That took place at Calvary 2,000
years ago. Let me say this again. The death
of Jesus Christ reconciled His people to God. We come into this
world hating God, running from God, drinking iniquity like water. Our backs are turned against
Him. His backs are turned against
us because we are sinful. But Jesus Christ comes. He's
the one mediator between God and men. He reconciles us to
God. God looks upon us, His chosen
people, with delight. And when the Holy Spirit is pleased
to call us out of darkness, He turns us around and we come together
with God Almighty by true saving faith, reconciled. Reconciled. Jesus Christ was
delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. What does that mean? He was delivered
for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. That took place over 2,000 years
ago. Our sins were laid on our substitute. And when He went to the cross,
God punished Him Now don't miss that. When he
went to the cross, God the Father poured out on our substitute
his unmitigated wrath, and every chosen child of God was in Christ
when God punished his darling son. So we've already been punished
for our sins. And God is a just God. He cannot
demand payment twice. And so we've already suffered
the wrath of God in our substitute. Jesus Christ, when He came out
of the grave, He entered into heaven itself there to appear
in the presence of God for us. He represented His chosen people
when He suffered and bled and died. And He is seated at the
right hand of the majesty on high, making intercession for
all of those that He suffered and bled and died for. And we've
been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ. That's what
the Word of God teaches plainly. Now, if we know the truth, the
truth will make us free. Free from doubts and fears, free
from false preachers, free from wrong interpretations of the
Holy Scripture. The Spirit of God will guide
us into all truth. Let me say that again. The Spirit
of God will guide us into all truth. God has given us His Spirit
that we might know the things of God. And I know we're babes
in Christ when we first come out of darkness, and I know we
mature in the faith, and I know that we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Savior. But brethren, nothing's going
to stop that from happening, because God has purposed that
very truth to be revealed to us, and He gives the increase
as we mature in the faith. So, let me read in your hearing
these first six verses of Hebrews chapter 6. And then we'll explain
what this does not mean. Chapter 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, of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on hands, and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. 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 I have to admit, just a surface
reading of that, and not considering the Scriptures preceding or the
Scriptures that follow, a person who is not enlightened by God
the Holy Spirit could be easily deceived into thinking that A
child of God who has tasted of these things could be lost and
be an object of God's wrath. But if we will keep on reading,
we'll see that that's not true. Now what this is teaching, whether
we want to admit it or not, is that these scriptures are not
talking about those who possess Christ, but those who just merely
profess Him. In other words, churches are
filled with people who make a profession of faith. They have heard of
these ABCs that we are reading about in these first six verses,
the principles. The first one says, therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, that's the
ABCs. We've heard these things when
we were babes in Christ, and the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding,
and we do repent. But that's God's gift. He grants
repentance unto life. We do embrace Jesus Christ as
our Lord and our Savior. That's the Holy Spirit working
in us. We do agree to making a profession of faith by going
into the waters of baptism. That's part of what this passage
of scripture is talking about. And we do agree that the Holy
Spirit is the one who enlightens our mind. We agree with all of
these things. But there are people, and I've
experienced it over the years, there are people who will go
along with these things make a profession of faith, get baptized,
join a church, even become officers in a church, and then leave and
go somewhere else thinking there must be something better. Can
you imagine something better than Jesus Christ? Can you imagine
somebody leaving the glorious gospel of our Savior and His
perfect redeeming work Leaving that and trying to find something
better? Brethren, Jesus Christ is the
best. You can't find any better. He
is the best. When we have Him, we have it
all. If we don't have Him, we don't have anything. So we leave
the principles, the basic principles that we read about in verse 1,
and we go on unto maturity. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Savior. Now we learned our ABC's when
we were real young. I had three older sisters and
an older brother and all of them wanted to be my teacher. So I
learned ABC's before I even started the school. And I learned B made
a sound that would be associated with words like ball or boy. The D may sound like a dog. I learned these things before
I even started the school. And then when I started the school,
one of the first books that the teacher used to teach us, and
I can't even remember the name of it, but I remember this one
sentence, and I'm giving my age, I know, but that's okay. Look,
Jane, C Spot Run, anybody heard that? That was in a book when
I was in the first grade. I didn't go to kindergarten,
they didn't have that back then, not where I went to school. But
anyway, I learned my ABCs. I don't go back today and go
through the ABCs to try to see what each one of those letters
sound like to form a word. We went on to maturity after
we learned the ABCs. We grew. We matured. We learned to talk. We learned
about all of these things that makes us able to form sentences
and to talk with others, to talk with adults in a way that we
never could until we learned our ABCs. Now, these first few
verses of Hebrews 6 gives the same warnings that we read about
in Hebrews 10. If we leave the assembly where
the true gospel is preached, where will we go? Or as Peter
said to our Lord Jesus, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. There's no other place to go.
This is the gospel. Jesus Christ is the gospel. The
gospel is Jesus Christ. And in verses 7 and 8 we read,
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 briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned. So the water, the water that
God sends from heaven, that waters the good grain, that waters the
crops, also waters the thorns and the briars. But the thorns
and the briars, they're worth nothing but that which is to
be gathered up and burned. So it is with the truth of God's
Word. It falls on everyone under the
hearing of the gospel. But it's made effectual by God
the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His people for the glory of
Jesus Christ. And those who reject it, those
who might have a form of godliness and for a while have a mental
ascent to some facts and then leave the assembly going out
to look for a better gospel, They're giving evidence that
they never did hear the voice of Jesus Christ calling them
out of darkness. And verse 9 gives us an understanding
of this very truth. Verse 9 says, But beloved, we
are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. So these principles that we're
looking at as far as the first six verses are concerned, the
ABCs of the gospel, those are not things that accompany salvation. Those are things that are the
result of salvation. When God brings us out of darkness,
we do want to be identified with Jesus Christ. We do want to get
baptized in the faith. We do want to belong to the church.
We do want to come and sing praises to our God. So this is the evidence
of God calling us out of darkness. But to leave that and go somewhere
else, that's just giving evidence that we never heard the voice
of Jesus Christ. We can hear the voice of the
preacher, but that's not enough. We need to hear the voice of
Him who, while He was here on this earth, stood up in a boat
with His disciples when a storm had brewed, and He said, Peace,
be still. And you know what happened? The
winds and the sea obeyed His voice. And one of the disciples
of Christ said, what manner of man is this that even the winds
and the sea obey His voice? Let me tell you what manner of
man He is. He's the God-man. He's the God-man. And when He speaks, when He speaks,
there's evidence of His power. All He did was say, let it be,
and light appeared. That's power. That's the power
of Jesus Christ. And when we come unto the preaching
of His glorious gospel, And we hear the truth, and He speaks
to our heart. We give evidence that we have
heard His voice, because we embrace the truth. He gives us faith
to believe on Him according to the Scriptures. And when we embrace
Him, we take these words to heart, which He Himself stated in John
chapter 10, My sheep. hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life." So true
saving faith always looks to Jesus Christ and only to Jesus
Christ. He is the true believer's one
and only hope. So it's faith. Faith, which works
by love, is the believer's rule of life. Let me say that again.
We read this in Galatians chapter 5. Faith, which works by love,
is the believer's rule of life. And so in verses 10 and 12, we
read, for God is not, 10 through 12, for God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed
toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and
do minister, And we desire that every one of you do show the
same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye
be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit their promises. So we have this evidence of God
who has called us out of darkness. There'll be a love in our hearts
that wasn't there before. We'll love Jesus Christ. We'll
love Him because the Holy Spirit who dwells in us moves us to
love Him, gives us the heart to love Him. We'll love Him and
we'll love what His Word says. Anyone says they understand this
Bible from cover to cover, they're lying. This is God's Word. And no man, I'm going to say
this, and I mean it, and I hope you understand what I'm saying,
no man other than man Christ Jesus, no man can understand
this Bible completely. can't. We can understand the
message. The message is the same all through.
But there are things that God has in His Word that causes us
to scratch our head. We just don't know exactly what
that means. But God will give us All that
we need to know in His own time as we mature in grace and in
the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
we get to glory, we'll know as we're known. But in this life,
we'll always be learning. But this is one thing I can share
with you that I am completely assured of. We will love Jesus
Christ from a true heart. That's the Holy Spirit working
in us. And we'll love His Gospel. We'll
love and we'll support His gospel. God's people do not have to be
coerced to give of their monies to help support the gospel. We
want to give. That's our desire. We want to
give for the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll
love His people. We will love God's people. And we'll manifest that love. That love is manifested in our
concern one for another, in our prayers one for another, in our
assistance when we have the opportunity and the wherewithal, the means
to help one another. This will be our desire. And
whatever we do, folks, will you listen to me? Whatever we do
to one of the Lord's sheep, it's the same as if we're doing it
unto the Lord. We can't see him, but we can
see one another. And how can I say that I love
God whom I haven't seen if I can't love his people whom I can see? And so this love is going to
manifest itself. And that's what verses 10 through
12 are talking about. It's talking about a love that
wasn't there before. And we're not to be slothful
in this. We're to be followers of them
that through faith and patience inherit their promise. And that
word slothful means sluggish, lazy, stupid. And so we, by God's
grace and His mercy working in us, we will manifest this love
for Jesus Christ, for His Gospel, and for His people. Now in the
latter part of this chapter, we have some truths that the
world of false religionists just absolutely hate. It's the truth
concerning God's eternal covenant mercies, His objects of mercy
which are His sheep who are called heirs of promise. And he gives
an illustration of his power through Abraham. Verses 13-15
reads this way, For when God made promise to Abraham, because
he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying,
Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will
multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently
endured, speaking of Abraham, obtained the promise, for men
verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife." So, we have a promise made from
God to Abraham. Now, there's no way, no way that
I can, in one message, bring before you all that is contained
in the promise of God to Abraham. But think about this, he promised
Abraham a son. He promised Abraham a son. And Abraham, we read this in the
scriptures, Abraham did not stagger at the deadness of Sarah's womb,
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Now I know Abraham and Sarah
were weak vessels, chosen of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ
who was yet to come, called out of darkness by the sovereign,
irresistible, drawing power of God. But folks, they were human
beings. They were people like us. A man
and a woman who had weaknesses in the flesh. But Abraham did
not stagger. At the deadness of Sarah's womb,
he believed God. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness, the Word of God says. And it also says it'll be imputed
to us also, if we believe him who raised up Christ from the
dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. Now I can, in my mind, I think
about this. In my mind, Abraham was 100 years
old. Sarah was 90 years old before
she conceived. Now she had already ceased to
be after the manner of women. So I don't know when she first
suspected that she was pregnant, but it had to have been After
the baby was starting to form in her womb, she was 90 years
old. I'm not going to tell you how
old Judy is, but if she got pregnant, she would just be beside herself.
And this woman got pregnant. She conceived. This was the power
of God. He waited. Our Lord waited until
it was virtually impossible, humanly speaking, for Sarah to
have a child. He did that on purpose for them
and for us. So that we would see that the
promise of God does not determine upon anything in man, but upon
Jesus Christ Himself being the object of all worship, fulfilling
the promises of God for us. And so here she is. She's starting
to show. And she gets excited, and Abraham
gets excited. They have expected this. Abraham
expected this. But when it came about, it caught
him by surprise. It had to have. And they rejoiced
in God who fulfilled his promise to them. So God swore. He swore that Abraham would have
a child. And Isaac had to come first. We heard this morning in Sunday
school, a very good Sunday school lesson, that Jacob, his name
was changed to Israel. So Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac
begat Jacob and Esau. Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate
Christ. And God renamed Jacob and said
his name was going to be Israel. And from Jacob came 12 tribes. He had 12 sons. The 12 tribes
of Israel. The twelve tribes of Jacob. And
God told Abraham that his seed would be like the stars of heaven.
And Abraham believed God and was imputed to Him for righteousness. So this is what verses 14 through
16 are drawing our attention to. That God swore by Himself. He could not swear by any greater.
And so that was an end of all strife. Now, if you will follow
along with me, these next few verses are just absolutely exciting
to me, because this proves what I said earlier, that the first
part of this chapter cannot be teaching that a chosen, blood-bought
child of God can lose their salvation. Verse 17 says, wherein God, after
giving this illustration of Abraham who believed God and God fulfilled
his promise, we read, wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath. So God is willing to show somebody
his immutable counsels. The word counsel has to do with
God's decrees. All of that which he purposed
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And this is addressed,
did you catch this? This is addressed to the heirs
of promise. Wherein God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise. This is addressed to God's promised
children. Now hear me, please. God made
a promise before this world was ever created to His darling Son,
Jesus Christ. He promised Him a people. And
our Lord referred to those people over and over and over again
as a people who were given to Him by God the Father, at least
five times in the 17th chapter of John. And so, we're heirs
of promise. And we read in Galatians where
this illustration is given about Abraham receiving the promise
and Isaac being born, it's recorded for our learning that we, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. So God promised the
children, a people, His chosen people, the elect of God, promised
them to Jesus Christ before this world was ever created, conditional
upon what Jesus Christ would do. Not what we would do, but
upon what Jesus Christ would do. So He came to this earth,
God who spoke everything into existence, the true and living
God, Jehovah Himself, came to this earth took upon Him the
form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, that He
might redeem those who were His chosen people. And He did that. He redeemed us. He didn't try
to redeem us. He redeemed us. He paid the redemption
price in full for all of our sins. And when He hung there
on that cross, just before He gave up the ghost, He uttered
these three words, It is finished. The work of redemption was done. Jesus Christ died on that cruel
cross, suffering the wrath of God, as
I said earlier, as our substitute. But the grave couldn't hold him.
The Father accepted him. Now listen, when He made that
supreme sacrifice, He made that to His Heavenly Father. And God
the Father accepted that sacrifice. And when He accepted what Jesus
Christ had done, He accepted all of those for whom He died.
so that we are heirs of promise. And we have the promise from
God Himself. If our faith is in Christ and
only in Christ, that we're going to be with Him for all eternity,
seeing Him in all of His glory. We read in verse 18, that by
two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, lay
hold upon the hope set before us." Now folks, that hope that's
set before us is Christ Jesus. And we need to flee to Him. We
need to grab a hold of Him. We need, by God-given faith,
to hold on to Jesus Christ as if our very life depended upon
it, knowing that because of what He has accomplished for us, He
has a hold on us, and He will never, never, never, never let
us go. We're safe. in the arms of Jesus
Christ. And God is immutable. He is immutable. He cannot change. He purposed
this for the glory of Jesus Christ. He accomplished this for the
glory of Jesus Christ. And He gives us, His chosen enlightened
people, gives us strong consolation who have laid hold of Him, that
hope that's set before us. Look at verse 20. Verse 19, Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil. He's there.
Christ is there. He's there as our Great High
Priest, making intercession for each one who were given to Him
by God the Father that He suffered and bled and died for, whether
the forerunners for us entered even Jesus made in high spirit
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now folks, I'm not a bright man. I'm not a very intelligent man. I'm not a very educated man. But I believe God, and He has,
by His purpose and grace which is given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, He has appointed me to be one of His preachers. There's no greater honor. There's
no greater honor than to have the privilege of standing before
people and pointing you to Jesus Christ. And that's what I have
tried to do this morning. To take that which is misused
by some to try and teach that a chosen blood-bought child of
God can be taken away from the sovereign God who has brought
us into a living union with Himself. That can never be. That can never
be. God is immutable. He cannot change. He has predetermined that a particular
people will be like His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and He's
giving us faith to embrace that. What a day to look forward to,
when we will stand before Him, giving Him all the glory for
this unspeakable gift, eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let's sing about that. Can I
encourage you to turn to hymn number 283, please? Hymn number
283. And let's sing about that very wonderful, glorious attribute of God. His immutability, He will never
change. Stand with me, please, as we
sing all four verses. Yesterday, today, forever, and
then we'll be dismissed in prayer. 283, please. Oh, how sweet the glorious message,
Then both faith may claim. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. Still he loves to save his people,
Heal the sick and lame. Cheer the mourner, calm the tempest,
glory to His name. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never,
glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. He who pardoned Aaron, Peter,
never needest thou fear. He who came to faithless Thomas,
all thy doubt will clear. He who led the loved disciple
on his bosom rest, midst thee still with love as tenderly upon
his breast. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never
Glory to His name He who amid the raging billows Walked upon
the sea Still can hush our wildest tempest As on Galilee He who wept and prayed in anguish
in Gethsemane, Drinks with us each cup of trembling in our
agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never
Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Glory to His name! All may change, but Jesus never
Glory to His name! As of old He walked, to may us
with Him to abide. So through all life's life, we
walked if ever near our side. Soon again shall we behold Him,
hasten, Lord, the day. But it does be only this, same
Jesus as He went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
did the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Our father we thank you We thank you for these blessed,
glorious gospel truths. Help us to embrace them. Help
us to never lose sight of them. Help us to walk away from this
building this morning and to walk through this world the rest
of this week, this month, this next year, always looking to
our sovereign God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Thank you for the strong consolation
you give to your children as we consider the irresistible
drawing power of God that brought us to run to Christ as our only
safe refuge from the wrath to come. Bless us as we're dismissed,
go with us, keep us in your loving care, and give us the desire,
our Father, to come back again to hear your gospel preached
one more time. Thank you for your grace and
your mercy. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we do pray with thanksgiving, amen. Thank you. so