Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 4
through 9 this evening. And the title of the message
is, The True Doctrine of Apostasy. The true doctrine of apostasy. The scripture says, For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted
of the heavenly gift and are 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 the apostle,
having shown the superiority of Christ over angels, over Moses,
over Joshua, over the Sabbath day, and now in chapter 5, over
Aaron, the high priest, which he has done for the single
purpose that the brethren, the believers in Christ, should not
be moved from their faith. This is the purpose of the book
of Hebrews, and you've got to keep this in mind. If you're
going to understand this book, you've got to understand the
purpose, the reason. The reason the apostle was exalting
Christ to show Him above all of these Old Testament pictures
was for this purpose, that those who believe in Christ might continue
in the faith. Now let's see this. In chapter
2 we see this. He says, therefore, after He
showed the superiority of Christ above angels, He says, therefore,
we ought to give more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. You see, He's
encouraging them to hold fast those things which they heard. In chapter 3 and verse 6, He
says, But Christ, as a Son over His house, whose house we are,
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm to the end." You see, Christ is above Moses and we are His
house if you continue in the faith. And in verse 14 he says,
for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. And so you see that what he is
doing is he is encouraging these people, Christ is superior to
these things, therefore you should continue in the faith. If you
are Christ, listen, you will continue. This is not an if statement. It is a continue, it is a truth.
That if you are Christ, you will continue. You will believe. And in chapter 4, he says, let
us fear, lest the promise being left of us entering into the
rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. You see,
he's encouraging them. He's trying to encourage them
to continue in the faith. And in verse 11 of chapter 4,
he says, let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. He's
encouraging them. And in chapter 5, Paul then begins
in verse 11 to rebuke these believers. After giving them ample evidence
of Christ's superiority over all the Old Testament types,
after encouraging them to continue in the faith lest they should
fall short of, lest they should be unbelievers and the promises
of Christ should be of none effect to them, He tells them in verse
11, I have many things to say to you which are hard to be uttered
seeing you are dull of hearing. He recognizes this about his
audience. He says they are immature in
the faith. Immature. in the faith. And so then he not only encourages
them to keep in the faith, but also to grow up in the faith. Both of these are necessary.
You see, only living things grow. Living things grow. And if you
are truly a believer in Christ, then this is of necessity. You
will grow in the faith. He will grow in the faith. He
says these believers are immature and they need to be built up
in the faith. And now in chapter 6, and what
I'm doing, I want you to understand what I'm doing. I'm getting to
my text, but I've got to give you context. If I don't give
you context, then this idea of apostasy, you can't understand
what it fully means unless you see why he's bringing it in. The context here is to build
up the faith. And he says in chapter six in
verse one, he says, therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrines of Christ, let us go on to maturity, not laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith toward
God, doctrine of baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of
the dead and eternal judgment. Paul lays out here six principles,
basic fundamental principles by which every believer is founded
on. Repentance from dead works. This
is our first experience in grace, is when we are exposed of sin
and we repent. What do we repent from? Not just
from this particular sin. That's the doctrine of repentance
according to the world. They repent from one sin or another. Believers, we repent even of
our repentance. We repent from dead works. That's a basic principle. We
repent from our religion, which was false and vain. This is a
fundamental principle. And you know what? If we are
to grow, we've got to grow in this principle. We don't leave
it. When Paul said leaving these things, he didn't say we're to
forsake them or to cut them off and never preach them, but rather
grow in them. Build on them. So you take that
first initial repentance, and what have we done? The Spirit
causes us to grow. And when you grow, you see how
vile the flesh really is. You really begin to see how corrupt
you really are. And so we grow on this doctrine
of basic foundation of repentance. Now, then we are continually
repenting. We are continually turning from
the flesh and dead works. You see, we have no confidence. I've got no confidence in this
place, none whatsoever. And that takes growth. Now then,
the second was faith towards God. This is a basic principle,
isn't it? That we should believe on Jesus Christ. When you have
repentance, faith and repentance come together. You can't have
one without the other. How horrible would it be to know
you need repentance and have no idea where to repent to? But if it's the Spirit of God
that's causing the repentance, He is going to give you someone
to repent and turn to. You turn from dead works to serve
the living God, to believe on Jesus Christ. Now, that's a basic
principle. Now that we believe, do we just
cut off faith? We say, okay, well, I believe.
Now I don't need to believe anymore. Well, that's silly. No, we grow
in faith. we grow in this grace of faith. And this doctrine of baptism,
this is important because, and I mentioned this last time, it's
plural because there's a two-fold baptism. When Christ ascended,
the Spirit of God came down and baptized His church in the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit baptized his
church. What is this doctrine? It's the
doctrine of authority. You see, the apostles were given
authority to preach. and to write the Word of God. Why do we adhere to the New Testament? Why do we adhere to these books
of the New Testament? Because they were baptized with
the Spirit of God. The authority of God was given
to them. And so it's a basic fundamental
principle to the church. This is God's Word. Isn't that
basic? And so what do we do with God's
Word? Do we just cut it off? No, we build, we grow in it,
we learn from it. That's what we're doing tonight.
We're growing in the things of God. We're learning the things
of God. And secondly, baptism, water
baptism, which is the only confession of faith. Public confession of
faith is believer's baptism. And baptism is a ceremony, it's
a picture of our identification with Christ. And now then that
we've been baptized, that's a fundamental principle. Anybody that says
they believe but refuses to be baptized, there's something wrong
with that person. There's something wrong with him because he won't
obey the simple command of Christ. I've actually met some people
who refuse to be baptized because they said, well, I don't have
anything to do with my salvation, so I just don't do it. You are in outright
disobedience to the one you call Lord. You must be baptized. You should be baptized because
Christ commands it, not because it has anything to do with your
salvation. But baptism is important. And so when we were baptized,
did we just cut off the doctrine of baptism? No, we encourage
others to be baptized. We encourage those who believe
on Christ to be baptized. And so we continue this in the
faith. And laying on of hands, what
is this? This is the transference. They used this in the Old Testament
of transferring authority from one prophet to another, or in
the New Testament, laying on of hands was mostly for the transference
of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost by the apostles. But there's
another means of this, and that is the presbytery, laying on
of hands for the pastors. Now, when I was a first ordained
when I was first called to preach the gospel. They had an ordination
service for me. And I remember that the men I
highly admire and respect, they came and they laid their hands
on me. They laid their hands on me. And what was this? Did
that really give me any power? No. They didn't give me any authority. What they were doing was identifying
that this is what they believed that I was called. I said I was
called and they believed that and they gave their consent.
That's what it is. And Paul said this, lay hands
on no man suddenly. What is he saying? He's saying
don't ordain somebody suddenly. And so this doctrine of laying
on of hands, isn't that important to the church? Pastors? Yeah, you bet it is, because
they are the gifts that God gives His church. And the doctrine
of the resurrection, now we know this, that this is speaking of
not only our spiritual resurrection, which we identify with. We were
spiritually raised from the dead. And then what do we do with this
doctrine? We tell others. We witness of it every day, every
time we preach. But not only this, that there
is a resurrection to come. We preach that there's a resurrection
to come. And lastly, of eternal judgment. Eternal judgment. God is coming, friends. I know men mock at that. The
apostles said they would. They say, have not things continued
as they've been forever? Where is His coming? Don't let
them mock at you. He's coming. And He'll come when
He's good and ready to come. He'll come when He's already
determined to come. This doctrine for us should give
us some urgency. It gave us urgency when we were
converted, didn't it? We found that our sins and then
God was coming in judgment. That gave us earnestness to flee
to Christ, didn't it? Well, it should also give us
earnestness in this, that we should tell others before He
comes. We should witness of Christ.
That's what we're here for, to witness of Christ. Now, is there
anybody here that don't need to grow in these things? We need
to grow. And that's what the apostle is
telling us in these matters of doctrine, that we should grow
up in these things. You know, a sure sign of immaturity
is selfishness. Isn't it? Children are selfish. Me, me, me. My, my, I want, I
want, I need, I need, give me, give me, give me. You know, that
is a sign of immaturity. A mature believer should be about
his father's business, giving the gospel to others, witnessing
of the gospel to others and not be selfish. So then what is Paul
encouraging us to do to grow up? To grow up in these doctrines. To take these doctrines not and
hide them under a bushel, but rather tell men of these things
we have learned. These things that God has done
for us. Let us not be lax then in our
responsibility to grow. This is important. Growth is
your responsibility. Did that surprise you? If it's not
your responsibility, then why would He tell you to grow up? You bet it's your responsibility
to grow up. It is our responsibility then
to use the means that God has ordained for our spiritual growth. You tonight are using means by
which God has ordained that you should grow up. through the preaching
of the gospel. But there are other means. It
is prayer, witness, worship, reading the Word on your own,
studying these things like the Bereans, not just taking my word
for it, but delving into these things yourself. That takes spiritual
maturity. And you should have that. You
have that responsibility. It is on you. You should do it.
It's important to remember then that there is always a balance. The scripture always gives this
tension, doesn't it? Concerning your responsibility
in God's sovereignty. There's a tension in scripture
about that. There's a balance. You are responsible. And yet
we know God is sovereign. Look at what Paul says in verse
3. He's given them the responsibility to leave and move on and to be
responsible to grow. And he said this, and this we
will do if God permits. You not see the
tension? He said, you're responsible.
Grow up. And this we will do believers
that I know that your heart. If you're a believer in Christ,
I know that you're. This is what I want to do. I
want to grow in grace and faith and every fruit of the spirit. I want to grow in these things.
I want to grow in love and joy and peace and meekness and temperance
and all these things. And this we will do. If God permits. We know this, that it is in the
hands of God. We are utterly dependent upon
God for all things, which includes the attainment of spiritual maturity.
And because there is this tension, this seeming controversy, it's
not a controversy, but men think it is. And so some men will say
this, They shrug off responsibility saying, well, if God wants me
to grow up, then He'll grow me up. That's just an immature person
or a person who doesn't believe at all. If God wants me to grow, He'll
just make me grow up. In other words, you're refusing
to grow up and you want God to make you. Does that sound childish
to you? I'm not going to go unless you
make me. That's just childish. It's immature. And so, they shrug off responsibility. And others, they put all of the
weight of growth on themselves. They begin to put all this weight
of responsibility on their works. And this is immature, because
it denies God's absolute right and sovereignty. to cause us
to grow up. And as believers, we long to
grow. We long to grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ. Therefore, we freely take up
the means of God that He has prescribed for us. We gladly take up those things
ordained because it's our responsibility. and then we determinately leave
it in the hands of God to cause growth, because we can't do it. We're not putting any weight
on what we're doing, although we know that we must do what
God has commanded us to do. And then growth. Now Paul, choosing
then to emphasize the responsibility of the believer, He issues a
very dire warning in our text concerning apostasy. And why
does he do this? Because there is very little
difference between an immature believer refusing to grow up
and an apostate. There's very little difference. And he is bringing it to a point
so that they should determine which are you. What are you? Are you really in the faith or
are you just pretending? And so Paul emphasizing this,
if a man fails to go on, fails to move past the basic principles,
they are in danger of forsaking Christ altogether. Now, it does
not matter what a person's experience is. It just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you've
done, what you've felt. It doesn't matter where you've
been. It doesn't matter who you heard. If you fall away, if you fall away from Christ
and become an apostate, You will not be restored. Read your text. Verse 4, for
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, tasted
the heavenly gift, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come. It is impossible
if they fall away to renew them again to repentance. Now, my intent tonight is not
to devote much time to debate on this matter, but rather just
to simply expound the text to you. I don't want to debate those
who try to say that men can be used as passage to say men that
are saved can be lost again. Because that's not what these
words mean. This false doctrine is contrary to the uniform teaching
of Holy Scripture. And listen, I can give you one
Scripture, and I can give you myriads of Scriptures, but I
can give you one simple word of the Lord Jesus Christ that
would destroy all this idea that a man could be saved and lost
again. He told those Jews in John 10,
He said, You believe not because you are not of my sheep. He said, 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. Is that not as clear a word as
you can get? Our salvation is sure to all
those that are in Christ. And so then these experiences
listed in our text are not ascribed to the elect, but only to those
who mimic to only those who are imitators of true believers. You can take sheep and goats
and put them together, let them feed together, but you cannot
make a sheep a goat, nor can you make a goat a sheep. They
are what they are. And we're going to see that at
the end of this. Paul is going to give an analogy of this and
show you. And so these poor souls, these
apostates, are manipulated by the deceiver of souls. Now, when we read these things,
I must confess this, that these things, these terms used to describe
these false believers, are in other places ascribed to true
believers. But this is where The imitation
comes in. If you were to counterfeit money,
would you not use as many of the characteristics of that bill
as you could? You want to make it as close
as possible. You'll use all of the words,
in God we trust. You'll put it right on the bill.
You'll stamp the signature of the treasurer right on the bill.
You will make it appear as close as you possibly can to the original. And so it is with false discipleship. The idea that a man can imitate
the real disciple is taught throughout the Word of God. This is a fact stated by our
Lord in the parable of the sower. Go over to Matthew. Go to Matthew
chapter 13 with me. See that the Lord is stating
this very thing in that parable. Matthew chapter 13 and look at
verses 6. And He said, I'm sorry, verse 5, and some
fell on stony places, where they had not much earth. And forthwith
they, what, sprang up, because they had no depthness of earth.
And when the sun was up, they were scorched, because they had
no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up and choked them. And in verse 20, we see
the meaning of it. He that receiveth the seed on
stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon..."
Listen, "...with joy receiveth it." Doesn't a believer receive
the word with joy? Well, yeah. So it's using the
same word. Receive. We both receive it.
But there's a difference. "...yet because he hath not root
in himself, he dureth for a while." When tribulation and persecution
arises because of the word, he is by and by offended. So he's
receiveth among the thorns. He that heareth the word and
the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and
becometh unfruitful. These two hearers both show signs
of spiritual life, but both both received the seed and both grew
a little, but it did not last. These seedlings soon shriveled
or were choked, and though they looked genuine enough, they were
not. These hearers did not stubbornly
repel the truth, did they? They weren't like the one that
heard it on the wayside. They actually receive it. But
they lack the depth of life that only the Spirit of God can give.
Now, these hearers are the best that the natural man can do. And whatever is good and beautiful
in the gospel that attracted them to receive it, because it's
only skin deep, they can only last so long. Have you seen men
do that? Just grit their teeth as long as they can bear to sit
on the gospel. They know, they hear it. They
like this idea of forgiveness and not going to hell, so they
just grit their teeth and they can just only take it so long.
Why? There's no life in them. There's
no love for the gospel, there's no love for God's people, and
they can only last so long. These hearers are the best that
men can do. Now John, in his epistle, tells of these counterfeit
believers. He said, they went out from us
because they were not of us. If they were of us, they would have no doubt continued
with us. But that they should be made manifest, that they were
not of us, they went out from us. You see this? That's the
very idea of apostasy. John just quoted 1 John 2, 18-19. He's talking about the same thing
that Paul is talking about. Jude says of apostates, they
crept in unawares. You know, one thing about an
apostate is you'll never know who he is until he's gone. They crept in unawares. Apostates
always do. Usually they shine better than
the true children of God. They seem to excel. Like that
weed that just shoots up. It shoots up faster than everybody
else. The perfect example of an apostate
is Judas Iscariot. He walked with Christ. He preached
with Christ. He was even chosen by the others
to hold the money. Isn't that right? And when Jesus said, one of you
should betray me, they didn't all look at Judas and say, ah
yeah, that's the one. Now what did they say? Is it
me? They didn't even look at Judas. They felt the weight of their
own sin in themselves. The only one who didn't feel
it was Judas. And so, they're always coming
in unaware. Now, let us look at this description
that's given by the apostle. I'll give you three things. First, they were once enlightened.
Now, notice this is past tense. They were once enlightened. Once
sometime in the past, they were enlightened. These are enlightened
not in their souls, but rather in their intellect and understanding
of the gospel of Christ. You see, these apostates, they
come in and hear the gospel and it's attractive. It's intellectual. You're talking about matters
of eternity, matters of sovereignty, matters of high things. And they're
attracted to this idea of God's election, and so they approve
of it. They approve of man's depravity. They approve of limited
atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance, and preservation
of the saints. Yet the problem is they themselves
never have been born again of the Spirit. Their intellect,
their enlightenment, then is short-lived. And these apostates
relapse back into darkness of works religion or go on into
ceremonialism. Either that or they abandon the
truth altogether. Listen, this never happens to
one who is born again of the Spirit of God. Never happens. Why? Because the Spirit of God
is given to us, dwells in us, and shows us the things of Christ.
Now see, we don't want to see anything else. I want to see
Christ. I want to know more of Christ. That is the heart, not just the
intellect, but that is the heart of the believer. Because the
Spirit resides in us, we are enlightened to know this, Christ
is all. Christ is all. Over in Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians 1, we'll read it to
you in just a second. Ephesians 1, verse 17. It says, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. been being, continually being
enlightened. This is not a one-time thing.
They were once enlightened, but have fallen away. You who are
enlightened of the Spirit, you are being enlightened by the
Spirit of God. This evening, if you're looking
to Christ alone, that is the enlightenment of the Spirit of
God. We weren't just enlightened once,
we are always illumined by the Spirit of God to know the things
of Christ. We know that this is perfectly,
that our salvation is perfectly, completely finished and done
by the work and person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly,
go back to your text, look at these other characteristics. He says this, that they have
tasted of the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy
Spirit, tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the
age to come. The term tasted is repeated and
can mean to perceive the flavor of something, to partake and
enjoy to try or to experience. Here, try this piece of gum. Try this. Taste this and see
if you like it. Now, this term we know in scripture
can definitely mean taste in a way of salvation. David said this, taste and see
that the Lord is good. And blessed is the man that put
it, this trust in the, in him, Peter said, if so be, you have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, but it can equally be described as a superficial experience of
false believers. So what then distinguishes the
two? What distinguishes the two? How
do we know that this tasting and this experiencing is not
genuine? I told you the king here is context. Context. That's the only way
you're going to know that this is not talking about true believers. There are ones, these are the
ones who fall away. And so the apostle means that
this is a temporary tasting. The Holy Spirit of God may surely
operate and manipulate on men without inhabiting them. This
is taught throughout Scripture. This is taught throughout the
Word of God, that the Holy Spirit operates on those who are not
God's elect. He operates and moves them to
do things according to His will. King Saul. The scripture says that he prophesied. The Spirit of God came upon him
and he prophesied. So that they said, is now Saul
one of the prophets? Yet we know Saul was a lost man.
He only tasted of that gift. He only experienced that glorious
gift that God does give his men to prophesy, to preach the gospel. He experienced that. How many
men have preached the gospel and are lost? You see, that is
to taste this heavenly gift. Balaam. Balaam was spoken to
by God Himself. He spoke for God. But you listen to this, so did
Balaam's ass. Didn't Balaam's ass speak for
God? And both of him and his ass were
lost. Both of them. Caiaphas, the high priest that
crucified the Lord. That year the Holy Spirit came
upon him and he prophesied. He preached that, one, it was
necessary for one to die in the stead of the people. Now, is
that not the gospel? He tasted the word, but he himself
was not a partaker of the divine nature. So then this could happen. The gospel then goes forth in
such a power. And I was talking to Scott about
this. In my days, I've been blessed to see when that, during the
80s, there was a, you know, and before that, of course, there
was a great movement in the gospel of the Spirit, I believe, was
moving in that generation. And many were coming to know
Christ. But there was an excitement going
on. There was an excitement that
was happening. And you know, when something's
exciting, people get caught up in the excitement of it. And
so they taste of these things. They experience some of the excitement
that the spirit brings into the church when you have a revival. Yet, like the stony ground here
is the only taste of the joy for a little bit, and then it
fades. It goes away. They wither when
troubles and trials come. They may look back at their experience
and trust in it and cling to it, but be assured, anyone who
falls away is twice dead plucked up from the roots. Anybody who
leaves the gospel of Jesus Christ and turns their back on it is
dead. I don't care how many experiences
they had. They're apostates. And so then
this third thing is falling away. It is impossible. if they fall
away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucified
to themselves the Son of God afresh." To fall away is to deviate
from the right path, turn aside, and wander away. Now, these imitators,
they are not ignorant of the gospel nor of its power, yet
in spite of what they know, they willingly, deliberately turn
away from the gospel. There's never a sadder case than
this, that one would know the truth and turn from it. Never a sadder case. To do this is to spit in the
face and re-crucify. It is to despise Christ so much
that if He were very present, they would re-crucify Him and
put Him to an open shame. And is it not an open shame,
these people, these apostates? They are a shame to the church. They bring reproach upon the
name of Christ. You think about that man in Pilgrim's
Progress, palatable. How he pretended for a while.
He enjoyed the company of Christian for a while, but it fell in the
slough of despondent. And he turned back. And what
did that cause the people of the city of destruction to do?
They began to mock and ridicule the gospel. Mock and ridicule
Christ. And that's what apostates do.
when they turn away. And I've had friends, believe
me, I've had friends do this. I've seen this. I've seen a man
that I've loved dearer than my own brother. Believe the gospel
and we talk together, we walk together, we fellowship together. And I saw him go away into oneness
Pentecostalism. Apostate. That's what it is. Nothing else you can say. He
knows the truth and despises it, turns from it. A man in our own family, another
man that I had considered my brother for many years, married
a woman in a Presbyterian church. And the next thing I know, he's
turning from the gospel and looking at covenant theology and marveling
at covenant theology. And the next thing I know, he's
in Russian Orthodox religion. You listen to me, that man's
an apostate. And if I'm to believe the word
of God, the scripture says it is impossible to renew him again
to repentance. Now you tell me, is there a sadder
case than that? Peter said it would have been
better if they'd never known the truth. Been better. Jesus said it'd
been better if that man had never been born, talking about Judas
Iscariot. You listen, today is the day
of salvation. Today is the day of salvation.
Believe on Christ now. You who are believers, Knowing
this sad case happens to men, we should cling more tenaciously
to Christ every single day. You remember our Lord's reply.
Remember Lot's wife. She had every sign of being a
believer. And yet her heart was in Sodom. Now, I want to tell you this,
believer. Though we may fall into many sins, as God's people
did. Peter denied the Lord. David
committed adultery and murder. But one thing we all have in
common is that God will not let his people go. Isn't that right? You and I would be apostates,
but God, but God, who is rich in mercy. And now, Paul, in conclusion,
he gives this illustration. I'm just going to read it and
then explain it real quickly. Look at this. He says, "...for
the earth which drinketh in the rain cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs and meat for them by whom it is dressed,
receiving blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned." The rain here in this picture is the gospel.
The gospel descends upon the earth. It descends upon man. And when the rain hits the earth,
whatever is in the earth is going to come out. You see the picture? When the
gospel comes down, if God has given us a new nature, then what
comes out is herbs, useful things. Faith, love, joy, peace. fruit of the Spirit. Why? Because
that's what's natural to the new man. That's natural to the
believer. That's what comes out. Blessings. And we're useful in our service
to God. We who believe on Christ. Do
you believe on Christ? Well, yes. That's not Natural
that's supernatural. That means God has given you
an ability to believe what a wonderful gift I'm not a prostate I believe
and it's impossible for me to apostatize if my faith is genuine
It's impossible. Why because Christ has already
put my way my sins and I'm his knees mine forever He'll never
let me go but If all that is in you is the natural man, only
thing will come out is thorns and briars ready to be burned. You see, it's only the response,
apostasy is only the response of what's in the man. And you listen to me. You know
who's more concerned about apostatism than anybody else? Believers. One thing an unbeliever is not
really worried about is apostate. Not being an apostate. They're
so sure of themselves. Why? Because they're looking
at something they can see. They're looking at something
they've done. They've looked back at something. They've got something
tangible that they're holding on to. We have faith in Christ
that's not seen or felt. We have the Word of God and the
promises of God. That's all we've got. And at
times, I know you fear. But I want to tell you, believer,
Paul says, I am persuaded of better things. Why? I see your faith. I see your
love for Christ, your desire to grow up. This we will do. I want to grow up. Well, that's
sure signs that's not an apostate. Apostate wants to remain a child
and usually just goes away. and may God apply that to us
so that we're comforted and assured of who we are in Christ he'll never let us go that's
good news praise God whom all blessings
flow praise him you creatures here below Praise Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. I pray God give you blessings. Stand and be dismissed in prayer.