Looking in Hebrews, still, well,
as we have been for a few weeks, Hebrews, we're in chapter six. Last week we looked at these
first few verses because they were in context with the chapter
before. One thought, really, that carries
on is someone I heard many years ago say we need to learn what
the therefores are there for. And there's a scripture, this
chapter begins with therefore. And of course, a therefore is
that we should learn something from what we have just heard.
Of course, this book begins with the theme of the book, which
is to set forth Christ as the central point of all things. He is indeed the central point
of that which God has been pleased to reveal to men. God who at
sundry times, that is different times, in times past has spoken
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. If we don't get anything else
out of the book of Hebrews than that, if you don't ever remember
anything other than that, you have remembered the essence of
this book. In fact, you have remembered
the essence of the gospel because that is what the gospel is. It's
the revelation of Christ as the savior of sinners, the spokesman
of God. If you would hear from God, you
must hear from Christ. You can't know God apart from
knowing Christ. It doesn't make any difference
if a man comes and says he's a prophet, and there's plenty
of them out there. They'll tell you they're a prophet. But if
any man speaks any message that is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
with nothing added to it, he is not a prophet. He's not the
son of a prophet. He's not speaking the truth.
Jesus Christ is that prophet sent from God. We don't need
another one. We're not looking for another
one. We're not waiting for something
to happen to show us what the future is. The future is Christ. If you want to look at the book
of the Revelation to find out what's going to happen in the
earth, you're going to be sadly mistaken and you will not come
up with what it is. I know there's plenty of people
out there that give you their interpretation of all these different
things that's gonna happen and they know what the hair on the
horse's tail mean and all these different things that they set
forth and try to tickle the fantasy realms of men's minds. But John,
in his first words in that book that the Lord gave him, he told
us what that is, what this book is about, what the book of the
revelation is. He said, the revelation of Jesus
Christ, which the Lord gave to John. It's the revelation of
Christ. When you read the book of the
revelation, if you don't see Christ, you haven't seen the
book. You don't know what it's about. Well, Christ is on every
page of this book, the whole book from the beginning to the
end. And woe be to a man who would take from it or add to
it. Christ is the sum total of that
which the Lord would teach us and lead us. And He is the one
in whom all of our trust is placed. when the disciples were asked
by him when many went away, because you see when the Lord ministered
among men, the scripture says there were many that walked no
more with him. Now you know in the beginning
everybody was fired up and everything. It is just like Sometimes men
will go to gospel meetings, so-called gospel meetings, and they get
all fired up, and buddy, they're dancing around and carrying on,
and then next week you can't find them. It kind of wore off,
didn't it? Well, it wore off because it
wasn't Christ. And so it is that what the Lord does, he does. He makes no apologies for what
he does, and there's no repentance for what he does. He does according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. There's none that can stay his hand or say unto
him, what doest thou? He's the God of all gods, king
of all kings, the Lord of all lords. And he has been pleased
to give us his word, to have it recorded in a book. It's an
amazing thing, is it not? that the word of God cannot be
contained in a book and yet he gave it to us in a book. Now
if you think that this book is the living word of God, then
you are wrong. This is not the living word of
God. This is the word of God written in ink and paper and
given to us by a gracious God who would have us to know his
truth. But he must give us ears to hear it. And that's what our
prayer is today, that he would give us ears to hear it. Not
simply to hear it with these ears and then forget it. Because
when the Lord causes a man to hear, he does not forget it.
He said, my sheep hear my voice. They don't hear it one time,
but they hear his voice. Because you see, the Lord speaks
to his people daily. He speaks to his people constantly.
He fellowships with his people. They hear his voice and they
follow him. They don't desire to follow any
other. They're not seeking out somebody to follow, but they
desire to seek Christ in him alone. And so he says here, As
he's speaking, now again, remember what I said, that you've got
to keep in mind to whom this book is written and the purpose
for which it is written in order to have an understanding of what
Paul's speaking about here in these first few verses of this. I'm gonna read this chapter and
then we're gonna go back and talk about it a little bit. It
says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ. Now what are the principles of
the doctrine of Christ? Now therein many have been mistaken
because they forgot who it is that Paul's writing to. He's
writing to the Hebrews. And what he's writing to them
about is the principles of the doctrine of Christ. He's speaking
about the law. See, the law is the doctrine
of Christ. Whatever you read in the book
of the Revelation, it says they sang the song of Moses and the
Lamb. See, there's no conflict in the
law of God given by Moses and Christ. Christ is simply the
fulfillment of that law. But that law is found in Christ. I mean, there's not one jot or
one tittle of that law that he did not walk completely and fully
in, that he did not completely obey. There was no shadow of
turning with him. Not one jot or tittle was left
out. He did all of it. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection, to
maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works and of faith toward God. The faith toward God that
we are given is a living faith. It's not that faith which was
built upon the dead works of the law, but it is upon the living
Christ. Of the doctrine of baptisms,
of washings, and of the laying on of hands and the resurrection
of the dead and eternal judgment. Now, as we spoke last week, he's
not saying to them, we're gonna leave the idea of the resurrection
of the dead and eternal judgment, we're gonna cast that out the
window. Of course he's not saying that. But what he's talking about
is the understandings that they had about these things under
the law. He said, we're leaving that.
We're going on. And this will we do if God permit. Oh, you know, we ought to always
be mindful of that. We won't do anything if God doesn't
permit it, will we? You know, men think they're gonna
do a lot of things. Men think that they'll raise
their fist in anger against God, and they'll curse God, and they'll
do all these different things. They will if God permits. Because
God will smite a man dead as soon as he wants to, at the moment
he wants to. So you don't have one more breath
in your body than what God will permit. You don't have one hair
on your head, but what God will permit. All these things are
in his hand. He does as he wills. He does
according to his good pleasure. And so it is, we need to live
our lives with that understanding. That's why the Lord said in his
model prayer for his disciples, when you pray, Pray, thy will
be done in the earth as it is in the heavens. Now God's will
is gonna be done. See, when we pray that, we're
not asking him to do his will. As if, you know, if we don't
do that, his will won't be done. His will is going to be done.
What we're asking when we pray that is, Lord, make me conform
to your will. Make me delight in your will.
Let me be satisfied with your will. Let me not be found in
rebellion against you. May thy will be done in the earth
as it is in the heavens. 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, 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 ye have showed toward
his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end, that 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 in high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Of course, we'll go into the
next chapter and talk more about this Melchizedek as we have already
talked about him in the prior chapter, that who this Melchizedek
is. And so this exhortation that
he's giving here to the Hebrews, leaving the doctrine of Christ,
or leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, going
on to maturity. Not laying the foundation of
the carnal ways of religion. This would do well in the present
day, not just to the Hebrews, but to religious men who rely
on all sorts of things. And what he's saying is move
on beyond that. Those things are of no use to you. A lot of
people have a lot of confidence in their church membership. You
know, oh, I joined the church back when I was a child. You
know, once saved, always saved. You can't ever lose it. And once
you get your ticket punched, you're going in. Don't worry
about it. And so they trust in such things
as that. They trust in being baptized.
They trust in, well, I got the gift of tongues once. You know,
I was going along and all of a sudden I started blabbering
and carrying on, fell out on the floor and all these things.
And they have confidence in that. Well, dear brother, our confidence
is in nothing that occurs to us in this world. Our confidence
is in He who died on Calvary's cross. And leaving the principles,
leaving those things that laid the groundwork for those things
that He has done, let us move on to maturity, being made strong
in faith. And that's what he's speaking
about here. He said, those who have tasted the good word of
God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away
to renew them to repentance. Now, one thing that is found,
clearly taught in the scripture, is it's not the man who begins
in the faith who is blessed. You know, men think that if they
have a great beginning, that's it. Well, that would be like
going out and you're gonna build a house and so, Brother Ed, you
go out and you lay one block and then you go home and you
say, well, we got the house, you know, we'll be moving in
for a long. No, if you don't lay another block, it's not gonna
be finished. Now, thankfully, we have a wise
master builder who has built the house that we're gonna dwell
in, so it's not by our labor that it took place, but there
is a a continuation that goes on. When the Lord said, my sheep
hear my voice, he didn't mean they heard him one time. He means
they continually hear him, they listen to him, they desire to
know what he's saying. And so it is here, he says, there
are many, there are some who were once enlightened. Now men
are often enlightened. We use that, we reference the
parable that the Lord gave of the sower. Wherein he said some
received the word of God with joy, and they sprang up, and
that's like those I was talking about a while ago who get the
gift of the Holy Ghost, or they do get something, you know, and
they get all fired up, and then next thing you know, they're
right back where they were, and you never see them again. And
so it is that there are some who are enlightened. I don't
know what all that entails. I don't know how much a man can
be taught. I know this, there are many who
are taught much who fall away from it, walk no more with it. And he says it's impossible to
renew them again to repentance because if a man rejects Christ,
what is left? I mean, if a man turns away from
Christ, what's he gonna have then? It's impossible to renew
a man to repentance if he doesn't turn to Christ. It's not saying
that a man cannot see his error and turn back to Christ by the
grace of God. We have illustrations in the
scripture where men did so. Peter denied the Lord, did he
not? The Lord prayed for him that
his faith fail not, and guess what? It didn't. And the Lord
brought him back. So it's not saying that a man
can never be brought back to repentance if he has fallen away
or finds himself in a backslidden condition or something. What
this has reference to is that a man who comes and rejects the
gospel of Christ and says, you know, I'll come to God, but not
that way. You know, I'll come to the Lord on my own. Well,
you know, the Lord looks on my heart and he knows I don't need
all those church people and all that stuff. I mean, you know,
I don't need that. I've got my own way. I can find,
you know, I can serve the Lord like I want to serve him. It's impossible to renew a man
to repentance if he has gone away from Christ. If a man doesn't
seek Christ, there's no hope for him. He crucifies the Son
of God afresh, puts him to an open shame. For the earth which
drinketh in the rain bringeth forth herbs, by whom it is dressed
receiveth blessing from God. But you know, there's also thorns
and briars that grow up. Brother Ed been telling us about
working in his garden and he's got some nut grass coming up
in there. And he doesn't like it. But it's
growing anyway. But it's not something that he
desires. These briars, they're at this
nut grass, it's gonna be dug up and killed. I mean, it's of
no use. And so Paul says, but beloved,
We're persuaded better things of you. You're not the weeds. You're not the buyers. He said,
we have confidence that the Lord has done a work in you. And he's
encouraging them. He said, the things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. Now there are things that accompany
salvation. Now, I know a lot of people think,
well, you know, salvation is just a card you fill out. You
join up. I mean, you got it. Here you
are. Your mama was a Christian. Daddy was a Christian. I'm going
to be a Christian. And so I'm just going, I got
it. But there are things that accompany salvation. A dependence on the Lord. a constant
calling upon his name, constant repentance. Lord, I was sadder,
I need help. See, when a man gets to the place
where he doesn't think he's a sinner, I mean, he's in bad condition. Now, a lot of preachers think
that's a bad condition. No, a bad condition is when a
man doesn't know himself to be a sinner. See, the Pharisee,
when he went down to the temple to pray, he didn't think he was
a sinner, did he? He said, Lord, I thank you that
I'm not a sinner. I thank you that I'm not like
these other men. I'm going along good, I'm tithing.
But I mean, if you're tithing, you're really doing something,
aren't you? I mean, he thought he was. He said, I bestow my
goods on the poor. He says, I do good things. I
do good works. He said, look at this old publican
over here. He's not even worthy to be in
the same house as me. But you know, the publican, who
wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon
his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, he went down
to his house justified. Not because of what he did, but
because by the grace of God, he was taught what he was. And
that's something that accompanies salvation. See, there's an understanding
that we have no righteousness of our own, but our righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ. That accompanies salvation. For
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which
ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to
the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
to the end. How true it is that, you know,
one of those things that accompanies salvation are good works. Now,
on the one hand, we tell men There's no work that you can
do that will enhance your standing with God, and that's an absolute
fact. But the truth of the matter is
that the Lord has ordained his people unto good works. He predestinated it. So good
works follow the people of God. Works of mercy, works of kindness,
patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance. against
such there is no law. Ministering to the saints. Now
our primary concern as we go through this world is not ourselves. By nature, we come into the world
thinking that, and we think it every day, do we not? But we
look at Christ and we say, well, you know, that's really not what
we ought to be thinking about. Number one is not number one. Number one is Christ. Number
two is not us, but it's our brethren. We're to do all things for the
brethren's sake. It's what scripture says. And
then we're way on down the list. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart to be such. We desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to
the end. See, the grace of God works in God's people, and the
blessing of God's people is being in the blessings of God. You
know, as the Lord works in us, both the will and the do of his
good pleasure, that's the blessing. Now, you take the religious man,
he thinks, well, I'm gonna do these things to earn God's blessing. but he got the cart before the
horse. You see, the blessing of God is having a heart that
desires to walk in his way. That's the blessing of God. You can't earn the blessings
of God. There's not a thing in the world you could ever do to
earn, because in the first place, you could never do what you're
supposed to do, let alone do something beyond that in order
to earn his favor can't be done. That you be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. I mean, when we look at the saints of God down through
the ages that have suffered for the name of Christ, that have
sacrificed themselves for the glory of Christ, why would we
not desire to be the same? Be not slothful, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
You see, we are called to inherit the promises, but not called
to inherit the promises on flowery beds of ease carried to the skies. We're called to walk in the way
of Christ. And when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, multiplying I will
multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. Now, does it say that because
he patiently endured, he received the promise? No, it says that
God said, I will do this. Now see, that's the blessing
that comes in the salvation which the Lord Jesus has brought to
pass, is indeed that He is the one who said that it would be
so. And so He goes on to say, For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Now, you know, if a man, back when we were kids, we would You
know, we'd make promises. We would pinky swear it, or we'd
do something, you know, that, oh yes, I'm gonna do it, you
know. We'd swear on a stack of Bibles. I never saw anybody swear
on a stack of Bibles, but I've said that before as a kid, and
I've heard other people say, oh, I swear on a stack of Bibles.
And that's supposed to really mean something, doesn't it? I
mean, the scripture teaches us that our yea is supposed to be
yea, and our nay is supposed to be nay. But we think that,
well, if we swear, I mean, when you go into a courtroom, I think
they kind of changed the wording a little bit now. They tell you
you can affirm that you're gonna tell the truth, but it used to
be I swear, and you'd put your hand on the Bible, because, buddy,
when you did that, you know, that was really something. I
mean, you're standing there with the Bible, that really meant,
well, it shouldn't make any difference. I mean, we should tell the truth,
like when they go up before Congress and they get under oath, and
all of a sudden, they get kind of worried about what they're
gonna say. Well, you never have to be worried about telling the
truth. I mean, it might get you into trouble, but the truth is
the truth. And so men think that swearing
by something makes it a better thing. Well, the Lord, it says
here, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise,
because he knows what we are. He knows how we think. And so,
it's good enough that he said, I will do it. But you see, he
didn't stop there. He also made oath. He said, I
swear. And he swore by himself, because
he couldn't swear by anything greater, could he? I mean, there
was nothing else he could do, but he swore. He said, I will
do it, and he says, I swear I'll do it. That by two things, the
fact that he is God, And the fact that he is God who will
not lie, that's one, and two is he swore. And he gave an oath
in the giving of his son. Oh, what a glorious thing, dear
brethren. 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, which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. What is that hope? What is our
hope? Now, you know, when people talk
about hope, they usually think, well, I hope it's true. No, we're
not hoping that the gospel's true, as if we expect, well,
maybe it might not be. No, our hope is. That's what
we've built our hope on. It's resting on that. See, that's
what our hope is. It's not a hope so, but it is
a hope, a living hope. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul. That's that thing which accompanies
salvation, is it not? Being convinced that Christ is
the Savior of sinners. He alone is the Savior of sinners.
He alone is the one who is our hope, our expectation, the only
one in whom we're willing to trust. Which entereth into that within
the veil. It goes into the very presence
of God. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus
Christ has come into the presence of the Father for us. He is our salvation. That's where
our hope is. What's your hope today? Is it
something you did back several years ago? He said, let's go
on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead words. I mean, all those things. You
know, men say, well, I repented. You ever heard anybody say that?
I repented. I remember there's a song that people like to sing. The chorus of it is Victory in
Jesus. In measure, I don't, the song's
all right, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to tell you something
here. But there's a line in that song that says, then I repented
of my sins and won the victory. That's not true. We didn't win
the victory by repenting of our sins. Christ won every victory
that we've ever had. And he, by his grace, has brought
us to repentance. And he didn't cause us to repent
one time. Well, I've already repented.
Brother, if you ever get through repenting, you're in trouble.
Because that'd be just like that Pharisee. and not like the publican
who went down to his house justified. Repent is not a word that we
use in the past tense. Now, we may have repented, but
it wasn't a one and done type deal. A lot of people think,
well, you know, I've already repented. Well, you don't know
what you are by nature. See, David said, Lord, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
I was conceived in sin. Oh, that the Lord might help
us to know that. These are the things that accompany salvation.
See, when the Lord teaches a man that he's a sinner and teaches
him that Christ is the Savior, I can't think of anything better
that would accompany salvation than that. Because if a man knows
those two things, he knows everything he needs to know. By the grace
of God, if the Lord's applied that to his heart, he's a blessed
man, greatly blessed, highly favored from the hand of the
Lord. Oh, that he might teach us today,
lead us, give us hearing ears to hear his word.