Today we're going to tackle one
of the most difficult places in scripture. It's difficult, not because the
concepts are difficult, but because it has mostly explained differently
than I think the meaning of the text is. And so, with that scary
introduction, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 6. We're going to be
here for more than one week, turns out. Chapter six of Hebrews
is difficult because in scripture, when we read it, we often focus
on the warnings and we miss the consolation, the comfort. That's
our nature. I think maybe it's more my problem
than it is yours, perhaps, that we latch up on the threatenings
and we fail to see the salvation and the glory God wants us to
see in Christ as what those threatenings ought to now lead us to. As we
just sang, faith is the victory. It's not our subjective faith
that is the victory, but it is Christ, the one we believe, who
is our victory. And as we'll see here today,
it's in believing Him that we have the victory and that we
overcome even the world. It doesn't seem like we have
any strength against the world, does it? It seems like the government
has all the power, but that's not the case. In the Old Testament,
the nation of Israel marched through the wilderness for over
40 years. When they came across Jordan,
the nations in Canaan trembled because they knew God was for
them. And so shall it be in this world. Those who don't know Christ will
tremble. when they see that the Lord is
for His people. We wait for the manifestation
of the sons of God. The world now groans and in pain
because it's under man who is under sin. But Christ is going
to remove that yoke and He's going to save His people. And
we ought to see our God and Savior in His triumph. over this world,
and over sin, and over the kingdom of Satan, and over our own sinful
nature, and over death, and over every enemy, because that's the
fact. That's God's revealed truth,
His promise. He can't fail to fulfill it,
because He can't fail to be who He is as God. He staked Himself
to this. He gave His Son to accomplish
it, and He shall surely bring it to pass. And this is what
faith does, it sees what we don't see now, what's invisible. What
God has said is so, as if it's already so. God calls those things
which be not as though they were, and that's what faith sees, what
God sees. So we're gonna see these things
in Hebrews chapter six today. And this is part two of the same
title that we've had last week, which was Leave the Shadows and
Go On to Christ. Let's pray. Thank you, Father,
for your great salvation, your son, who accomplished all for
us. We pray we would never tire of
hearing him. We would always hunger and thirst
after him. In this life, we would long to
see him, and we would look for him, and we would look to him
against all of our enemies, especially the enemy of our great sin against
you. Thank you for your mercy, Lord.
We pray now as your children, you would open your heart and
mind to us, correct us in measure, and point us to Christ. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. In Hebrews chapter six, it begins
this way. 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
of 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. 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. But beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward
his name, and that you 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 you be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself,
saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, 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, to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. Whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. I wanted to read the entire chapter,
even though we're not going to cover the entire chapter fully
today. Because in this chapter, there's
not only this exhortation at the beginning, this urgent pressing
upon the Hebrews and upon us, the need to do what he says here,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ and so on.
But there's also, and there's this strong and stern warning,
which is hard to get out from under, it's so heavy. But there's
also these words that follow from verse 9 to the end of the
chapter. So what we see here in those
first few verses, especially in verses 4 and 5, where it says,
it's impossible for those who are once enlightened and so on,
if they shall fall away, to renew them to repentance. In light
of that stern warning, it's hard to see through that to the light
and the comfort of what follows. Because what follows is the statement
that the ones to whom the apostle wrote here, he was convinced
that they were partakers of salvation. And he is also reminding them
of the need for diligence, as we looked briefly last week at
that, and that they should therefore understand that this life is
a life of walking by faith in patience. In Lamentations 3,
26, it says it's good, it's good for a man to both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord. To both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord. That describes the life
of a believer. In Galatians 5, 5 says the same
thing. He says through the Spirit, we
through the Spirit do hope for the hope of righteousness
through faith. So we're waiting, expectantly, for the reward of
Christ's obedience, counted as our righteousness and all that
through the Spirit. And it's good for a man to do
that. And so here in these verses that follow, verse nine and following,
it's exhorting us to do that in patience. The Hebrews endured
persecution. They endured the loss of their
goods and they were tempted because of the long trial of faith. They couldn't see anymore as
they had under the Old Testament. They couldn't see the things
related to their religious practices and their worship of God. It
was all invisible now. They were trusting an invisible
savior. They were looking for a hope they couldn't draw boundaries
around. They were in hope with a people
they couldn't point to by their common descendants as Abraham's
children. And so these people were shaken. And the trouble that came upon
them, and the trouble especially that came upon that nation, the
Jews at this time in history, that shortly followed this, the
destruction of Jerusalem and all that went with that, those
things greatly shook them. And the Hebrew writer is the
apostle Paul, I believe, is teaching them, God is going to shake everything
that can be shaken, so that everything that cannot be shaken will remain,
and only that. And so this is the nature of
our life. But he goes on and exhorts them by considering Abraham
and his long patience of faith and the hope he had because of
God's promise that was staked on God himself. God took an oath
in order to affirm his promises and give us this consolation,
this great comfort to know that God is assuring us that the salvation
he has promised and accomplished in Christ and now is bringing
to consummation through the history of this world, it will be at
the end, is a certain salvation, a certain hope, because he himself
cannot fail. And so Christ himself has entered
for us, and he is our forerunner, and he is our high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. Now we need to go back and consider
these first few verses here. in the beginning of the chapter.
Look at the first word. It says, therefore. What he's
about to say is built on what he said in the previous verses
of the end of chapter five, where he had told them he had many
things to say of Christ as our high priest after the order of
Melchizedek. He's anticipating unfolding to
them the mysteries of the gospel contained hidden in the Old Testament,
which all concern Christ and his saving work and his office
as our high priest in fulfillment of all that went before. He's
anticipating this and anxious to do that, but he pauses before
he does in order to incite in them this urgency of going further
than they now are in faith, growing in grace. And so that's the word
therefore. He told them in chapter 5 near
the end that they were like babies who couldn't live on meat and
were stuck on milk. And he's telling them that if
they don't take the faith that God has given them in Christ
and use it, if they're not living upon Christ day by day, If they're
not in every trial of heart and outside, persecutions without,
trials within, the fears, the sin, everything. If they don't
take it and find they're all in Christ, then like babies,
they'll never progress. And they'll end up like these
described in verses 4 and 5, apostate, unless they progress. It's not enough to have the faith
of the Old Testament saints who saw God only in the Old Covenant. It's not enough. And that's the
message here. It's necessary to go on to perfection. So he says, therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ. And the words here,
leaving, it sounds like we're in the process of leaving. But
in the original language, it's really saying it this way. We
have left. We've already left it. And now
he's telling them to go on to perfection. So he says, having
left the principles of the doctrine or the beginning of the word
of Christ, as we could translate it here, he says in chapter 5
and verse 12, he says, the first principles of the oracles of
God. That's the same thing. The first
principles of the oracles of God, the word of God, The oracles
of God is here translated as doctrine. And in chapter 6, verse
1, doctrine is the same word as oracles in chapter 5, verse
12. And so the oracles or the word
are concerning Christ. That's the first things of Christ. They have left that. And therefore,
they need to go on to perfection. So this helps us to understand
what he's about to say. And so it starts here after the
word perfection with this semicolon, if you see it in the first verse
of chapter six. He begins with not laying again
the foundation of repentance and so forth. If you were to
stop there, after the word perfection, and put a parenthesis around
the word not, and all that follows, until he gets to verse three
where it says, and this will we do if God permit, so that
you see that the explanation he's using, or he's giving, the
explanation he's giving of the first beginning of the word of
Christ, is really defined by not laying again, foundation
of repentance, and so on. And he could have just said,
let's go on to perfection, and this will we do if God permit.
That's his goal here, is to go on to perfection. And we will
do this if God permits. If God, in his kindness towards
us and his will, now at this time, allows me to unfold to
you what he's about to unfold in the remainder of the book
of Hebrews concerning Christ. But these things in the middle
are, in parenthesis, identifying, enumerating these six things,
which are meant to refer to the things we've left. We've left
these. We've gone beyond them. And so
what were these people? Who were they? Well, they were
Hebrews. What was their understanding
of God? Well, their understanding came
from the religion they practiced under the old covenant. And what
is the message of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, about? It's
about the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, in these last days,
God has spoken to us. The one God has appointed heir
of all things, the inheritor of all things, as his son and
as our mediator. The one who is the brightness
of God's glory. The one who made the world, who
upholds the world. The one who is the expressed
image of God. The one who purged our sins by
himself and is set down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. The book of Hebrews is about
God's salvation in Christ, his glory in Christ, under a new
covenant. A message that doesn't have to
do with the earthly things. Not an earthly, but a heavenly
Jerusalem. Not a mountain of Zion on earth,
but a Mount Zion in heaven. Not the blood of Abel, but the
blood of Christ. Not the blood of sacrifices of
slain beasts, but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a
tabernacle on earth, but a tabernacle in heaven. Not an altar on earth,
the Lord Jesus Christ our altar. This is what the book of Hebrews
is about. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ given to us here in Hebrews, He's also showing here a foundation
by which we understand all of Scripture. This is very important
and fundamental. The Gospel reveals the person
and work of Christ. This is the revelation God has
given to us in these last days. Up until this time, up until
Christ's coming, up until the time when he entered the world,
as we were reading earlier, when Ramel was leading us through
Matthew, all the generations led to Christ. Until that time,
under the Old Covenant, the Gospel was still a mystery and hidden.
But it's only explained when Christ came. Turn with me to
Galatians. I want you to see how this is
not just here in Hebrews, but throughout Scripture. In Galatians
chapter 3, He says this in verse 21, is the law then against the
promises of God since the law came after the promises and the
law doesn't give life and the law doesn't justify? What was
it for anyway? Is it against the promises of
God? He says, no, no, God forbid. For if there had been a law which
could have given life, then verily righteousness should have been
by the law. Why would God send his son? in order to justify his people,
and by that justification give them eternal life, why would
he do that if righteousness and life could have been by keeping
the law? He never would have. Verse 22,
but the scripture has concluded, or shut up all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. God's promise concerning Christ
And the people in Christ, which is justification by His righteousness,
eternal life, the gift of the Spirit of God, which are things
that are mentioned earlier in chapter 3 of Galatians, he says,
that promise By faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe, but before, see this, before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up, as in a prison, unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. So it wasn't made known, was
it? Faith hadn't been revealed. The law kept us under, and we
were kept in the captivity of our sin, under condemnation,
held in bondage, hopeless and helpless, because God would make
known His glory and our salvation by glorifying His Son, who would
save us. He would deliver us from the
curse, being made a curse for us. He would put away our sins.
by the sacrifice of himself. He would give us his spirit because
he would justify us before God in his own obedience. This was
the faith that would afterwards be revealed. And the promises
then would be seen as fulfilled and certain and sure in him. He is our hope. And so in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 24, he says, the law was our schoolmaster. and an unfeeling, objective,
strict enforcer of the rules. I don't care if you're the master's
children. I'm going to treat you just like
all the rest of the slaves. That's what a schoolmaster did.
He treated the heir as if he were yet a slave. He says, the
law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, you see, until Christ
came. Then God made known the gospel. Then He revealed what the Old
Testament was really teaching. Then the mysteries of the types
and figures of the people and the offices of prophet, priest,
and king, and mediator. and the promises of a land and
eternal inheritance and the sacrifices and the putting away of sins,
then it was made known. And it was made known by Christ,
in Christ, and all that we know of God's will for us must be
interpreted. through what Christ said, through
what He did. We must see Him in it, and we
must come to the realization of the truth of God by Him. And
so the law was until Christ, because God would have all men
honor His Son, even as they honor the Father. He is the Word of
God. No man has seen God at any time,
but the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He has revealed Him. The law was given by Moses, grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. So when Jesus taught, what did
the people say? No one ever spoke like this man,
no one. That was according to what Moses
said. After me, God will raise up a prophet. Him shall you hear,
and whoever doesn't hear him shall be cut off from among the
people. Everything was dark and hidden until Christ. Then it
was made known. Then the light was made known
in 1 John 2. I just want to read this verse
to you. I just sort of discovered it
just as I was studying here this week. In verse 8 it says, He
says, again, a new commandment, I write unto you which thing
is true in him and in you, because, listen, the darkness is past
and the true light now shineth. The darkness of the old covenant
The figures and types, all the prophecies that anticipated Christ,
like the opening of the skies after the dark clouds of thunder
and rain, and the sunshine and the rainbow appear. Christ is
known. He's known. God has revealed
his Son. God has spoken in him. And it's complete, it's perfect.
It's all that we need to know. And the only way we can know
God is in Him. All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge are in Christ, Colossians 2, 3. And it's through the knowledge
of Him that we have all things that pertain to life and godliness,
2 Peter 1, verse 4, 3 and 4. And so much else we could say.
We read those verses in Luke chapter 24 last week, how Jesus
said, oh fools and slow to believe all that the prophets have said.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
glory? And then he opened unto them
the law and the prophets and all the scriptures, the Psalms
concerning himself. He who is the word of God reveals
God in revealing himself John the Baptist pointed to him. Christ
said to Pilate, for this cause came I into this world that I
might bear witness to the truth. He is the truth. He said, I am
the truth, the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. So we learn here in Hebrews,
the message of the book of Hebrews is Christ and him crucified,
risen, reigning, interceding, and bringing to consummation
and to fulfillment the inheritance he obtained for us as the testator
when he gave himself and shed his blood and made that new covenant
and put it into force. and brought it to pass and therefore
will bring all the blessings of it to us. That's the message
and he himself reveals it. Now the Hebrews were tired and
they were weary and they were tempted to go back to the visible,
outward, temporary, earthly, ineffectual things of the old
covenant. And he says, you're like little
infants who can only live on milk, and that will not save. If you go back to that, you've
left Christ. That's what he's saying here.
That's the message here. And if we see that, then the details
will then support the overarching picture of the New Testament. It's key, and I'm just reiterating
it here again for you, it's key for us to understand Scripture
in one way only, and we know that we've received the right
understanding of it when we come to this. There's a key, one key,
to all of Scripture. It's Christ. And it has to live,
it has to come to Him. He has to give it. He says in
Revelation 118, I have the keys of hell and death and hell. And
on Him, Isaiah 22, 22, were laid the keys of David. He opens,
no man shuts. And He shuts and no man opens.
We can't come to the Father, we can't know the Father. We
can't worship God, we don't know God except by Him. Now, that's
the introduction here to what's about to be said. But I have
to give that first, otherwise we'll lose our way through the
details. Leaving, having left the beginning
of the word of the oracles of Christ. What's he referring to
here? He's referring to the old covenant. Many people, most people,
have explained this text of scripture as if we've come to the fundamentals
of the gospel, now we need to grow as real men in the gospel. We've got the basics down, we
need to get the real meat now. That's not what he's saying here.
He's saying you received under the old covenant a shadowy a
shadowy worship of God, a religion that was only outward and earthly
and temporal. It was never meant to be permanent.
It was leading us, in a sense, to Christ. But until the life
of the Spirit of God shows Christ in it, until he commands the
light of the glorious gospel to shine in the face of Jesus
Christ, we'll never see the glory of God. We'll never see it. And
that's what the gospel is. It's the bright shining of day. As David said in 2 Samuel 23
5, it's like the bright shining of day after the clouds. The
covenant that God has given to me. And so he says here, leaving,
we've left it. We've left these things. When
did we leave it? When did it happen? When the
Lord Jesus Christ stood up and said, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your hearing. Luke 4 verse 18 and following.
I came to preach deliverance to the captive, to heal the brokenhearted. The gospel. How beautiful are
the feet of him that preaches the gospel of peace. The word
of salvation. And so we've left the old for
the new. And in receiving the new, what
has happened to the old? It's become obsolete. It's rendered
unimportant as a religion. Now in it, we can see Christ
by taking the gospel as the lens and holding over it and looking
backward into it. But if we don't do that, we're
going to get completely off base, completely confused, and we're
going to lead others into the weeds as well. So we have to go beyond. We've
left it. We've got to go on, is what I'm
trying to say here. And I'm going to show you that.
And I'm trying to find a place here where I've captured some
ways in which God has shown that this principle in scripture. In these six items, we see a
principle, a way in which God unfolds the truth of scripture
in history. Let me say that again so that
in case you weren't completely in tune, you'll get it. God has
a way of unfolding the truth of Christ throughout history.
He didn't just start all at once and say, like on a blank canvas,
you're a sinner, Christ is your only hope. He didn't say that,
did he? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
He spends whatever the first number of books are there, the
five books of Moses, and goes on the Old Testament. And as
he goes through it gradually, the message becomes more full,
and we're seeing even in that message that there's a hope,
but it's not clear, is it? Why does God do it that way?
Well, because it pleases God to do it that way. It's the best way to have it
done, isn't it? If it's the way God wants it to be done, this
is the way. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he gives us a text
of scripture that I think, at least for me, helps significantly
in seeing how God has done this. In 1 Corinthians 15, which we're
studying in our Bible studies on Thursday night, he says this
in verse 46. Listen to this carefully. How
be it that was not first which is spiritual. So God didn't start
with the spiritual in his revelation. He says, but that which is natural
and afterward that which is spiritual. This is a principle. God starts
with the natural and then he goes to the spiritual. Adam was natural. That's his
point in 1 Corinthians 15. He was first. At least he was
the first one we could see. He was the first head over his
people. At least that's all we understood. And God thought it best that
Adam was first created and set up in an open way as the head
of all of his children. Christ was second. And it seemed
as if he came after Adam, but we know from scripture now that
he actually came before Adam. Yet, in time, Christ came second. And yet, he is preeminent. He's the last. Christ, unlike
Adam, is spiritual. In the purpose of God, his way
is to first bring the natural, then the spiritual. First, he
makes the figure and type, and then he fulfills the figure and
the type, and reveals the one that the type and the figure
foreshadows. First, the picture, then the
person. That's the way God works. First
creation of this world, then creation of the new heavens and
the new earth. First creation under the old man, then creation
in Christ. First the schoolmaster, then
the heir is given the place of a son as a mature man. First
the law, then the fulfillment of the law in Christ. First the
earthy, then the heavenly. First the parable, then the explanation
of the parables by Christ. First human prophets, human priests,
human kings, and the heavenly prophet, the heavenly priest,
the heavenly king. First animal sacrifices, then
Christ, the Lamb of God is sacrificed for us. First the old covenant,
then the revelation of the everlasting as the new, the newly inaugurated,
the newly fulfilled covenant in Christ's blood and newly put
into open force. First a fallen man, then a perfected
savior and his offering of himself that perfected his people. First,
our disobedience and guilt and condemnation are made known,
and we are laid bare by the condemning and killing law. And then, Christ's
obedience is fulfilled for us as our righteousness and our
eternal life. First, what God requires of us
in the law. Then, where what he requires
is alone to be found as fulfilled. Before honor is humility. We were first condemned, first
shut up, and first humbled by God's law. Then we were justified
and set free and exalted in Christ by God's grace. First the law
made sin abound, then grace abounded. You see the principle? Now I
say all that as the preliminary here to helping us see what is
said in detail in Hebrews chapter 6 verses 1 and 2. We're only
going to get through the first two things here today if we get
that far. Look at this. He says, now this
is in parentheses. We're going to go on to what?
What does he want us to go on to? Perfection. Perfection. I wrote a little article in the
bulletin this week. Perfection. Do you know that
that word is used throughout the book of Hebrews over and
over again? Perfection. The law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. Perfection. Let us go on to perfection. The spirits of just men made
perfect. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 23,
I think it is. Perfection. The law made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. The law
was a shadow. Christ is a substance. OK. So
let us go on to perfection. We understand has to do with,
first of all, Christ. Look at chapter 2, verse 10. For it became God the Father,
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation, but
perfect, how? Through sufferings, chapter 5,
verse 9, and being made Perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ became
the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. And
now we have it here. Let us go on to perfection. In chapter 7, we're going to
see this. In verse 19, I already quoted
it. The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did. In verse 28 of Hebrews 7, for
the law maketh men high priests, which
have infirmity. But the word of the oath, which
was since the law, maketh the Son, who is," same word, consecrated
forevermore. These words are the same in the
original language. And it's the same word that Jesus
said in John chapter 19, verse 28 through 30, when it says,
knowing that all things were now accomplished, He cried, it is finished. Perfect. It's complete. It's brought to the consummated
end for which God purposed it. And so in Romans 10, 4, the same
root word is used. Christ is the end, the consummation. It's done now of the law for
righteousness. And so he says here in chapter
six, verse one, therefore, having left the principles of the beginning
of the word of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Christ first
was perfected as our savior, our high priest, our king. He
was seated on high, on the right hand of the majesty of God the
Father, on the throne of glory. He's perfected. He has entered. He's gone in now. Our forerunner
has been perfected as our captain, our forerunner, the first fruits
of our own resurrection. He has been raised. Now the spiritual
has come. Now the eternal has been made
known. And now we need to go on in the maturity of faith. You see, to be mature or perfect
in faith means that we lay hold on Christ as our perfection. He says in Hebrews 10, 14, that
by one offering, Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified
by God the Father in eternal election. So we become mature,
perfect in faith, when we lay hold on Christ as a perfection. The perfection of God's revelation,
our perfect savior, and the one who perfected us in this salvation
by his perfect offering of himself to God forever. The perfect revelation
as our prophet. The perfect mediator as our high
priest. The perfect deliverer as our
king. He's everything. He's our perfection.
Now, he goes on. Finally, we're gonna go to the
parenthesis here. Not laying again the foundation
or a foundation of repentance, because it's not the word the,
it's just a foundation. Christ is the foundation. These
things are a foundation. Jesus said in Matthew chapter
7, verse 24, 25, 26, that if any man hear these words and
build his house on this rock, he'll never fall. But if you
don't build your house on what Christ revealed in the gospel,
then when the storms come, your house will fall, because that's
sand. And that's what these things are here, not laying Again, a
foundation of repentance from dead works. Well, that sounds
like a good thing, doesn't it? Repentance from dead works. We
need to turn from dead works. But this is something he's not
going to do. We're going to go on to perfection. What immediately
followed chapter six? the revelation of Christ as our
High Priest as Melchizedek. So it's clear he wasn't talking
about the deep spiritual things of a Christian life. He was talking
about the fulfillment of our Savior as our High Priest and
His work in chapter 7 and 8 and 9 and 10. And then in chapter
11 he says it's by faith now. We live upon Christ by faith.
So the repentance from dead works here refers to the repentance
that the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, those people
understood as repentance. And what did they understand?
Well, when they brought an animal to be killed and slain because
of their sin, their mindset was, I should be slain like this animal.
Receive my sorrowful remorse and resolve not to do this again,
Lord, and take away my sin. And we have to keep coming back
to that every year, every day. They were thinking in terms of
repenting from these failures to bring to God a perfect obedience
that he would accept. And by the bringing of this animal,
they would be allowed to continue their pursuit of obtaining favor
from God by their own personal obedience under the law and the
ceremonies and living in the outward superficial religious
worship of this. And that was called repentance
from dead works. But in the gospel, there's a
different kind of repentance. And what kind of repentance is
that? Well, it's repentance with regard to the remission of sins. Because in the New Testament,
repentance is always joined to the remission of sins. In the
book of Acts, chapter two, they preach the repentance unto a
remission or on the count of the remission of sins. So in
the Old Testament, there was never a remission of sins. They
were never put away. They could never come to God
knowing that their sins were forgiven. So they always came
like an indebted wage earner coming to try to make, satisfy
God by their resolve to do better. And that was called repentance
from dead works. But in the New Testament, there's a different
kind of repentance. In Psalm 130, in verse 4, it
anticipates this repentance. And throughout the Old Testament,
really, but it wasn't clear under the law. So it wasn't clear until
the gospel came. And we can look back through
the gospel and now understand it. In Psalm 130. In verse 4,
he says, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. The only way we can truly repent,
if we see that in Christ alone we are forgiven, our sins are
remitted, then we have a change of heart. Because that's when
the Spirit of God gives us a change of heart. And then in Psalm 80,
again anticipating these things, but not making it clear, Psalm
80, the whole chapter is devoted to this, where in the first verse
he says, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest
Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up
thy strength and come and save us, turn us again, O God, and
cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. What face?
Do what faith shines so that we can be saved? It's the gospel,
the revelation of Christ. And so in the prophets, The Psalms,
the law, all point to this. And in verse 17 of Psalm 80,
he says, let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon
the son of man, whom thou made as strong for thyself, so will
we not go back from thee. Quicken us, make us alive, and
we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts. Cause thy face to shine in Christ
our Savior, and we shall be saved. Jeremiah says the same things
in Jeremiah 31 verses 18 and 19. He says, before I was turned,
I didn't turn. But when you turned me, then
I turned. And in Hosea chapter 14, he says the same things. I'm taking these Old Testament
examples of what is the true repentance and contrasting them
with the old. He says, In Hosea 14 verse 1,
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. So all these things teach us
that repentance has something to do with the foundation of
believing that God has accepted us for the sacrifice he received
from Christ and has remitted our sins for Christ's sake and
given us repentance as a gracious gift. Now look at Acts, a few
verses in Acts, so I can show this to you. Repentance is a
gospel repentance. How does it come? Well, look
at Acts chapter 11 first. Acts chapter 11. First thing we learn about repentance
is that it is a gift from God. Not something we bring, something
God gives to us. He turns us again. He brings
us to himself. Acts chapter 11, verse 17. The apostles are arguing that
it's not keeping the law, but it's the grace of God that saves
us. This is the same grace by which
the Gentiles and the Jews must be saved. Verse 17, for as much
then as God gave them the light gift as he did to us, which is
the Spirit of God, who believed on the Lord Jesus, What was I
that I could withstand God? This is Peter talking here. Verse
18, he says, When they, who heard Peter, when they heard these
things, they held their peace, they stopped arguing against
Peter, and they glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to
the Gentiles granted Repentance unto life. You see the difference? Not repentance from dead works,
but a repentance unto life. Look at chapter five. Chapter five tells us why this
repentance is given. It says here in verse 30, the
God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged
on the tree, Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince
and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. You see, Christ risen, exalted,
and reigning grants as a gift of his grace repentance, a change
of mind, no longer to see or think that God accepts me for
what I can do or bring, or for what I resolve to do, my sorrow,
but receives me for Christ's sake alone. This is repentance
unto life. This is a repentance where we
come to God because of the forgiveness of sins. That's the only way we can come.
Who loves God? According to Luke chapter 7,
Jesus said about the woman who brought the alabaster box and
poured it at his feet and washed his feet with her tears. He that's
been forgiven much shall love much. You see? That's where repentance
comes from. We love him because he first
loved us. It springs from the revelation
of God's salvation in Christ, and it issues forth into life
because it produces faith in Christ. Look at Acts chapter
20. Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. He says
this about repentance. He says, Paul was saying, testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward
God and what? Faith toward God? No, faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. We turn to God when we turn in
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the flip side of the same
coin. There's no repentance without faith, and there's no faith without
repentance, because believing Christ is the essence of repentance. We've forsaken and abandoned
all other hopes, all other pleas. We don't bring anything. We don't think of any argument
we can bring. We look alone to the argument
Christ offered God when he offered himself as our surety, and God
accepted him and released us from the guilt and condemnation
and the bondage that our sins caused us to be held under the
law. And look at chapter 26 of Acts. One more verse. Acts 26 and verse 18. This is the Lord Jesus from heaven
speaking to the Apostle Paul. I'll read from verse 15. And
Paul is rehearsing about his own conversion. He said in verse
15, I said, when the light shone, and he
was blinded, and he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest,
because he persecuted God's people. Verse 16, but rise and stand
upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to
make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee,
yet appear to him. God's gonna reveal the gospel
to Paul, in such a way that he can unfold it in the epistles
that he wrote, scripture that explains that gospel so clearly. Verse 17, delivering thee from
the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, to
open their eyes, spiritual eyes, and to turn them from darkness
to light, from all that is false and idolatrous, to the light
of the truth of Christ, and from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. You see,
the two go hand in hand. The Spirit of God takes the things
of Christ, His blood, His accepted sacrifice, our justification,
our being made holy by His one offering, our being perfected
forever. He makes them known to us in the Gospel. He sprinkles
the blood of Christ on our conscience when He gives us this life and
faith in Christ. These things are called a repentance
from darkness to light, turning from darkness to light, being
turned from the power of Satan to God, receiving the forgiveness
of sins, and an inheritance of those who believe Christ. This
is repentance to light. It's in contrast to the repentance
that those who were under the Old Testament imagined that they
could, by their change of life, turning from this or that habit,
earn God's favor and life from Him. We have to leave that. We
have to go on to this repentance in chapter 6 of Hebrews. So, I'm going to have to pause
here, save the rest of this for next time because I don't want
to to lose the freshness of it in what follows. If you understand
the big picture here, the details will fall into place, and we'll
see more of this next time. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would truly indeed give us this faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ that comes by the Spirit of God through the preaching
of the Gospel. We know that it is the preaching
of the Lord Jesus as our substitute, our sin-atoning Savior, our representative
covenant head, who himself has fulfilled all righteousness for
us, in whom we are raised to life and given this life life
fruit of faith by your Spirit, to hold to Him and to gain the
victory over all things, knowing He has obtained it for us and
entered our inheritance for us now, who is our hope. Help us
to forsake and abandon all confidence in what we do, our adherence
to these outward forms of religion, but see that the true religion,
the truth of God, is that in our hearts we are made new by
the Spirit of God Through the blessing that comes upon us by
the accomplishments of our Savior, the perfection that he made of
himself as our Savior, and of his people by his blood, in his
offering of himself, and now giving to us this life by your
Spirit, which is exhibited and evidenced by faith in him, upon
whom we live now by that faith, and cling, and pray, and come
to, and look for, and long for. Thank you for this grace, Lord.
We pray you would continue to work in us and draw us out of
the basic things, things that are distracting to Christ, who
is the fulfillment and perfection of all things. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.