All right, thank you. It's good
to have our piano player back. We had no music Sunday morning
and it was tough. We took up an offering and it
was silence for basically five minutes and it was strange. Like
I told the folks, that's good for us. Everybody was sitting
there thinking. How thankful they were for our
pensioner. I know I was. All right, Hebrews
6. The title of this message is, found
from verse 1, Let us go on unto perfection. Let us go on. Let's read that first verse again.
He says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation
of. And then he lists a few things. Now, do you remember in chapter
five? Now, that Paul admonished the Hebrews for their dullness
of hearing. See the word therefore. My pastor taught me, whenever
you see therefore, see what it's there for. It means something
was said before that, leading up to it. Well, the apostle was
admonishing people for their dullness of hearing. Well, look back up there. Look
at chapter 5, verse 12. He said you ought to be teachers. Verse 11, you're dull of hearing.
You have many things to say, hard to be uttered. And if they're
hard to preach or teach, it takes some diligent hearing or attention. So he says, But some are dull
of hearing, ought to be teachers, he said. I read on there in verse
12. He said, but you have need that
one teach you again, go over again the first principles of
the oracles of God, the first principles or foundational truth. But then he says down in verse
one in chapter six, therefore, he said, but we need to leave
that and go on. Go on. Go on to perfection. Now, you know that perfection
here means maturity, that no human being ever reaches a state
of perfection. You pointed that out. up in verse
9 of chapter 5, it says, Christ was made perfect. He's the only
man, only perfect man who ever lived, the only one accepted
by God for what he did as a man. We never reach a state of perfection,
never. He's talking about maturity,
maturity, all right? Look over at Ephesians 4 with
Ephesians chapter 4 and Paul deals with this maturity over
here at Ephesians 4. These are familiar verses. And he talks about apostles and
prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers and so forth.
Verse 12, whom God or Christ gave for, verse twelve, the perfecting
or maturity of the saints for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ, the church. Till, now here's
the, here is this maturity, verse thirteen, till we all come into
the unity of the faith. and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man that is strong in the faith. Mature
believers, that's what he's saying. Mature believers, true people
who are grounded and settled in the truth and are not going
to be moved away. not tossed about. Look at verse
13, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
for that is like Christ. Verse 14, that we be henceforth
no more children tossed to and fro, like some people are. They're carried about with every
new thing that they hear, every new thing that comes along. But
if they really knew Christ, they'd be grounded and settled and not
move away. They'd stand right there. Verse
15 says, Speaking the truth in love, that you may grow up into
him, a knowledge of him, firm conviction, persuasion in him,
in all things. realizing that Christ is all
in it all. You see that? That's the maturity
he's talking about. And, now wait a minute, he's also talking about conduct,
not just head, heart belief or head knowledge, but conduct,
which we went through the book of James, didn't we? James talked
about many want to be a hearer of the word, not a doer. See, hearing is vital. Hearing is
vital, but doing is good, James tells them. Doing is proof that
we heard. Right? Doing is proof we heard. Doctrine. Doctrine means instruction. All right? We receive the doctrine,
the doctrine of Christ. Practice, though, is proof that
we learn the doctrine. Right? You put into practice
what you've learned. We believe God is sovereign.
Well, trial comes along, and we act like it. So we learn God's
Sovereignty. We really believe God's Sovereignty
and we act like it. So practice is vital too. That's what James went to great
lengths to talk about. So Paul says, let's go on to
maturity, not just growing in grace. And that takes
it in both ends. Peter said growing in grace.
and in the knowledge of Christ. All right? Okay, verse 1 now,
chapter 6. He says, let's go on to perfection,
maturity. Not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead work. Verse 1, he says, leaving the
principle of the doctrine of Christ. Now, does he mean Does he mean now we're going
to leave the gospel and we're going to go on to other things?
We've already learned the gospel, we don't have to go over that
again. Is that what he means there?
Leaving? Forget that and there's something
better? Is that what he's saying? No,
not at all. What he's saying is we should
learn, we should have learned the principle, the foundation,
the doctrine of Christ. I don't like the term doctrines
of grace. We've all said that I mistakenly
said that and I know what people mean by that they mean. man's
debt and trespassing sins, and God must elect the people, and
Christ saved everyone he died for, and the Holy Spirit invincibly
draws them, and they'll all persevere. In effect, none will ever fall
away. The doctrines of sovereign grace,
all right? But it could rightly be called
and should be called the doctrine of Christ. That's what Paul says
here, the doctrine of Christ. Isn't that what John said over
in 2 John? He said this, if any man transgress
and abide not in the doctrine, he that abided not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not died. In other words, if anybody believes
that salvation comes by, through, because of, anything else other
than Christ only, they don't know God. They don't know the
gospel. Do you understand what he's saying? The doctrine of
Christ. In other words, God elected a people in Christ. Christ is
all their salvation. The Holy Spirit takes the things
of Christ and shows them like this. People conform to Him.
It's all Christ, Christ, Christ. It's the doctrine of Christ. See, all doctrines point to Christ.
It's the doctrine of Christ. I may not have made that very
clear, but we've got to go on. All right? I'm doing exactly
what he said. We shouldn't do it. We need to
go on, he said. All right? But that's the foundation. You must have the foundation.
If you don't have that foundation, you can't build on it. And you know, we do. We go back
to the beginning every time and deal with fundamental truths.
We allude to them at some point. in the message, but he says this.
He says he's talking to people who've been taught the gospel.
He's talking to people who've heard the gospel. And he said,
do we have to tell you over and over again? Look at verse one,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead work.
Do we have every time we stand up and say, you have to say your
works don't save you. Have to say that every time.
Your works don't save you. Nobody's saved by work. We conclude
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. We have
to say that every time we stand up. Shouldn't have to. That ought
to be learned. Now, a preacher has to gauge
his hearers, though, doesn't he? He looks out there and he
sees maybe a visitor or someone who he knows has never heard
this before. What's he going to do? He's going to lay in that
foundation. He's going to lay it again. He's
going to talk about repentance from dead work. Our works don't
save us. They don't save none of us. Never
do. Not before we're saved or after we're saved. They have
no merit before God. None. It's the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. All right? So Paul said, you
don't have to lay that again. Well, we just did. Read on. And of faith toward God, that all our faith is in God. Salvation is of the Lord God. Our faith is in God, not man,
not ourselves, it's in God. Faith toward God. Believe God
and it's accounted for righteousness. Faith toward God. Only God can
save us. We can't save ourselves. Well, read on. Verse 2, he says
of the doctrines of baptisms, baptisms, there's more than one. Not like the charismatic people
would like to think. Not like they would think that
there's another baptism. But there's a... Paul said in Romans 8, which
talks about the Holy Spirit all the way through Romans 8, he
said, Any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of you. So anyone who does not have the
Holy Spirit of God is not a believer. And what the Holy Spirit does
is takes a man or woman and puts them in Christ by faith, immerses
them in Christ. It's like the gospel, well, is
the blood of Christ and he just, just baptizes them into Christ. It's not what they're talking
about today, it's speaking in tongues and this and that and
the other. If you get it, you know, you'll roll on the floor.
No, you'll be, you'll, you'll, you'll be immersed in Christ.
You'll be in Christ and Christ in you, like a bottle in smoke. That good enough? You're immersed
in Christ. And you'll confess it. The outward
confession of faith in Christ is getting that pool. Let's express
command of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we have to say that again?
Does that need to be told again? That everybody who's a believer
must get in that pool. He said, why? That doesn't put
away sin. No, it doesn't. But Christ commanded it. And we're disobeying him if we
don't. Right? Someone said, if a man can be
saved, or a man can be baptized, he must be in order to be saved. If we can be baptized, we must
be in order to be saved, because Christ commanded it. If we cannot,
like the thief on the cross, he couldn't be baptized, could
he? Huh? He couldn't be baptized in salvation,
you know. He didn't know anything, but
it was his baptism. You understand what I'm trying
to say? Baptism is the public confession
of Christ. All who believe confess Him.
Scripture says they're not ashamed. They're not ashamed. He that
believeth is not ashamed. All who do not confess him are
just not believers. Is that too strong? That's foundation. I love my
wife and I married her. before a whole assembly of people,
in the sight of God and man. And that's exactly what baptism
is. It's a public avowal or confession of faith and love in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Now, you either
love Him or you don't. You're ashamed to confess it.
That's just simply. So, well, all right. Do we have to lay that again?
We just did. The next time we say something
about baptism, you must be baptized. Just keep on doing it. All right?
Laying on of hands. Now, I need to get on. I need
to get on through here. Laying on of hands. Now, that
was a special power given the apostles. And we understand why
they were given, when they were given, why they were given. There
were no complete scriptures at the time. and to substantiate
their preaching of the gospel, and on and on, of the resurrection
of the dead and of eternal judgment, that there is one. Do we have
to lay again the truth that there is a resurrection of the dead,
that those who are in Christ will arise unto life, and those
who are not will go to the Judgement? All right, read on. This will
we do, if God permit. This will we do, if God permits.
It is impossible, all right? Now, he brings up what I think
is a hypothetical situation here, because he starts out by saying
it's impossible. In other words, the thing I'm
about to say, he says, is impossible. And on down in verse nine, he
says, I'm persuaded better things of you. I'm persuaded this can't
happen. All right, but now he's been
talking about those who are dull of hearing for whatever reason
and who need to be exercised and still have to lay again these
same foundational truths and so forth. But we need to go on,
and this we'll do. We'll go on. And in Chapter 7,
he's going to talk about Melchizedek. and the priesthood of Christ,
and it just gets deeper and deeper and more rich and full. And he
said, we need to go on and study this thing in depth. And he said,
we might have to lay again these foundational truths, and we will.
We'll go on, as God permits. But he said, some, they'll appear. But now, verse 4, let's get into
this. It's impossible for those who
were once enlightened Let's read all the way down through verse
8. It's impossible for those who are 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. which drinketh
in the rain, that cometh oft upon it, bringeth forth herb
and meat for them by whom it is dredged, and receiveth blessing
from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to
be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded
by the things of the Lord." Look at the last line of verse
9. We are persuaded of things that accompany salvation, though
we do not speak, though we just spoke like we did. Does that
make sense, Brother Stanton? Though we just said that if someone
were enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and the Holy Ghost,
and with the Word, and faith would fall away again, it is
impossible to remove them again. Hypothetically. What he's doing is raising this
question. Can these people fall away? Can someone fall away who, verse
4, has been enlightened? Well, who does enlighten? We
just talked about the Holy Spirit. Christ is the light of the world,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Holy Spirit takes, like he said in
2 Corinthians 4, and illuminates the dark heart to give the light
and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Can a person have the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ and follow up? A knowledge of a true God and
a true gospel. Isn't that what Christ said is
eternal life? This is eternal life. You might
know the true God. and he whom God has sent. Right? Read on. Verse 4. And
have tasted the heavenly gift. What's the heavenly gift? Thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Christ, have tasted. Peter said, unto you who have
tasted the grace of God. What's tasting? It means taking
Christ, the bread of life, taking Him by faith, eating Him. It says, eat my flesh and drink
my blood, you have no part. Can someone eat the flesh of
Christ, drink His blood, can they taste Christ and follow
Him? He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life. Read on. And the powers of the
world to come. eternal life, tasted the—wait
a minute, I've got to hand myself that—were made partakers, verse
4, of the Holy Ghost, partakers of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost
has come upon them, shed abroad the love of God in their heart,
revealed to take in the things of Christ, and revealed them
unto them. Verse 5, have tasted the good word of God, Oh, they've
eaten the Word of God. He's broken the bread unto them
like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and He's revealed
to them in the breaking of this bread. And the powers of the
world to come with life-changing, mind-changing, life-giving, mind-changing,
new heart-giving power of God. Can a person receive that and
follow that? If they shall follow that, it's
impossible to renew them again unto repentance. See, and they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to
an open chain, if they shall, if this could happen. Can't renew
them again to repentance. See, and they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh and put him in open shame. Then he gives
this illustration here, plain illustration of what he just
said. And he's going to talk about good ground and bad ground.
All right? Verse 7 is the good ground. The
earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off the palm. What
kind of earth drinketh in the rain? Now, I've got a patch of
dirt in my front yard over under an old pine tree that, man, you
could pour three million gallons on that and it wouldn't change
it. It's hard pan. Got any hard pan
in there? Hard pan. Well, good earth now
that drinketh in the rain is what? That's the only kind of
soil that's going to drink in the rain. It's plowed soil. Read
on. And it cometh off upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs. Meat, that's profitable fruit,
isn't it? Meat, fitting, profitable for
them by whom it is grabbed. Who did it? Who does this work
upon man's heart and his life? God, Christ, the Holy Spirit,
He does this work. Can He do a work on a man and
not get back fruit from him? Impossible. No, no. He receives this fruit, and it
receiveth blessing from God. It keeps blessing. But now, verse
8, that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected. What
which beareth? Bad ground. I tell you what will
grow out of hard pain. Thorn. Thistles, what was the
Spurgeon called it? What did they call it? Horseradish. Over in England,
horseradish. That'll grow out of it. But not
fruit. Fruit, good fruit. And it's rejected. It's nigh unto cursing. It's
near to be cursed, whose end is to be burnt. So he said, but,
beloved, we're persuaded, better things appear. things that accompany
salvation, though we speak like this. Well, Paul, what's the
sense of speaking like this now? What's the sense if it can't
happen, why are you talking like this? For the same reason that
he calls on us to be responsible all through the Scriptures, right? For the same reason he gives
commands and warnings and admonitions. The Scriptures are full of promises.
Full of promises on one side, lest we despair. Promises to
the guilty sinner. Promises to the guttermost of
life for trusting Christ, for trusting Christ alone. Promises,
promises, blessed promises. Full, free, final, eternal salvation
in Christ, period! Exclamation point. Full of promise. And you can take God at His word.
You trust Christ, He'll save you. That's the good news of
the gospel. On the other hand, it's full
of warnings, lest we presume, he said. Full of warnings, lest
we presume upon it. Well, I believe, and now I just
live like I want to. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. That's proof that you never really
believe. Because Titus said, the grace of God that brings
salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and live a holy and
righteous life. That's what it teaches us. And
it does, it brings forth the truth. Does all that make sense?
I used to teach it this way. I used to teach those verses
this way, and it can apply to a degree. Not in the context. But it can apply. For those,
there's some people who come in and sit and listen to the
gospel and get excited about it. Like the stoning ground here.
And crop up and get excited about it. And fall away. That can happen. And it is found
that there is here a taste of the heavenly give my partakers
or participants where the holy wherever the gospel is where
the Holy Ghost where the Holy Spirit. And they can and come
in and witness the true hand of God. At work the work of the
Holy Spirit and follow us again. And it tasted the good word of
God. Come in and hear the word of God more than they've ever
heard it before. Any grace church you go to, you're
going to hear the word majored on, aren't you? And the powers
of the world to come, seeing a people truly change. Well,
if they shall fall away, it's impossible. Now, God's people can get in
a bad state. You know, we all do. For nine
months was down in Ziklag, remember? He left and went down in Ziklag,
lived among them. Took a bunch of people with him,
led people astray. Nine months. When he'd sinned
with Bathsheba, nine months. In a bad state, wasn't he? Without
repentance. Did he fall away? No, it's impossible. It's impossible. Why? Well, verse
9 again, we're persuaded better things of you. Why are you persuaded
better things of me, Paul? Well, if you just knew me, you
must not know me, Paul. Why are you persuaded better
things of me? Because he said on Philippians 1, we're persuaded
this, that he that hath begun a good work in He'll finish it. It's not you, he said. He's
not bragging on the flesh. He said, put no confidence in
the flesh. That's not what he's doing. He's
persuaded better things of us who have had this work happen
to us. This enlightening of the Holy Spirit, this taste in the
Word of God, this partakers of the heavenly gift. Persuade it
now, that he that hath begun a good work, he'll finish it.
God, because God never, never quit anything He started until
it's finished. God never gave up. Whatever He starts, He finishes.
He's the author and the what? Finisher. Finisher. So He says we're persuaded. A
better thing to do thanks to the company of salvation. And
we're persuaded because we know where salvation is. It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Though we thus
fear. Though we warn you. Now, we warn you not to presume,
not to take the gospel for granted, not to become slothful or dull
in hearing. Watch out. That's an ominous
sign when you become dull of hearing. Like we said Sunday,
it's either a sign of a bad state at the time or a bad heart. So you see why he's saying that. All right. I'm glad verse 9's
there, aren't you? I'm sure glad. Bloodily we're
persuaded better things of you. 4, verse 10, God is not unrighteous. God is not unrighteous. Is he saying that our work has
something to do with salvation? We've got to lay that again?
Huh? We've got to lay that again?
He said we're not going to lay that again now. Our repentance
from dead works. But he said in another place
now, although faith worketh by love, didn't it? Faith without works is dead.
We're not saved by our works. But nobody say who doesn't have
any. And God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you showed toward
his name. This is just evidence he's given, and he's commending
these people for what they've done to the saints, as we should. Paul is our example in everything.
And he commends those who do what they do for the cause of
Christ. And he says, God's not unrighteous. God's going to say
one day, well done, now good faith, sir. And they're going to say, when
did we, what was that? We don't deserve it. But he commands them,
doesn't he? That's our kind, heavenly Father.
Well, we don't. But you've showed toward his
name, you've ministered to the saints and do minister. Well,
let that be a lesson. Let that be a lesson to us, that
Works are important. They are important. They're proof
of faith. And I've said so many times,
and I'll say it again, and I'll lay this one again, that it doesn't matter so much
what a person says, what they profess to believe. It does matter. They have to
believe the truth. They have to believe the gospel.
They have to know the true living God, the true gospel. You can't
believe a lie and be saved, no. And all of God's people know
the truth and believe the truth. But what I'm saying is, you shouldn't listen so much
to what a man's saying, or a woman's saying, as much as how they're
acting. Let's talk this cheap, and you
know what James went to great lengths to talk about, huh? The
old man said, the old man said, and have not. Better to be a
man of few words than many actions. Huh? Isn't that right? Proverbs
speaks a great deal about that. A great deal. All right. works are proof that the heart's
been touched by the truth, not just the head. That truly is life at work. Right? All right, verse 11, and I'll
quit. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence. Same diligence. We desire, I
desire, everyone in here, young and old, to show the same diligence. Now, some in here, many in here,
Just like Paul said, that minister to the saints and do me, I wish
I could bring up a name tonight. Someone who has been ministering,
going above and beyond the call, out of their way to help someone
who's been needed. Wish I could call a name like
that. They deserve to be commended. But people know. They know. They're aware of it. Diligent. And he said, I wish that everybody
were this diligent. Which we all were this active,
devoted to the full assurance, full assurance of hope unto the
end. You're full of assurance. I wish
everybody in here had full assurance. Full assurance. I've said this before. I had
full assurance part of the time. You know what I mean? When I
get to looking at myself, I have no assurance. But if I look to
Christ, I have full assurance. Don't you? Maybe we better keep
looking to Christ. Full assurance. He says, I would
that all of you had this full assurance that you would have
full assurance. And Paul says that I can have
assurance of you. I would love to be able to preach
everyone in here's funeral with full assurance. You understand what I'm saying?
I would love to get to go to bed every night without worrying
about anybody. Full assurance. So he says, show the same diligence. Give diligence to make your calling
and election. Full assurance of faith. Read
on. Full assurance of hope. That's
it. Of hope. It's unto the end. Of hope. Prove your hope is real. And
that our hope of you is a good one. Don't be slothful, he says.
Verse 12. Don't be slothful. Be followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
And over later in Hebrews 11, he's going to talk about this
hall of faith. Those who died in faith. They
not only begun in faith, they died in faith. Be followers,
he said. I tell you what, I want to follow
the man who's following Christ. I want to act like the man who
acts like Christ. Paul is going to talk about Abraham as his
example. Paul says, I'm following the
example of Abraham. Well, I want to follow the example of Paul. Let's all give the same diligence.
All right, let's stand and be dismissed. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for every word that you send us. Words of reproof, words of
comfort, words of encouragement, words of admonition. We thank
you for it all. we need chastening by your word,
or if we'd be without it, we're bastards. So we ask that you
would take your word and put it at its perfect point, perfecting
what can mature us in the faith, ground us, settle us, cause us
to grow and Not only the knowledge of Christ, faith in Christ, but
the righteousness of Christ, and to be like Christ in every
way. Here it is, Father, glorified,
that we bear much fruit. This is our prayer in Christ's
name. Amen. Thank you.