Now my text this morning is the
book of Hebrews chapter 6. Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 6. And this is a second part of
a message entitled, The Danger of Apostasy. The Danger of Apostasy. And I will explain that in just
a moment, but this really deals with the first eight verses of
Hebrews chapter 6 and I want to just read through it Hebrews
6 and verse 1 where the writer of Hebrews in encouraging the
people of God who claim to believe the truth to grow in grace and
in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to cling to
Christ He says, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ. And as I explained last week,
that doesn't mean leave them behind and forget about them.
It means build on them. That's what he's talking about.
The foundation, if we're saved by the grace of God, the foundation
has been laid, but we are to endeavor to build upon that foundation
by growing in grace and in knowledge. And of course, we know we don't
do that by our own power or our own goodness or even our own
will. It's by the power, goodness, and will of God. And he says,
let us go on unto perfection. That's completion. That's believing
in Christ, clinging to Christ, and seeing him as our complete
full and only refuge. And that's what that Psalm was
about. Psalm 62. He only is my refuge. I shall not be moved. Now there
are a thousand and one or million and one things that would move
us away from Christ. And we know that if it weren't
for the sovereign power and goodness and grace of God, we would be
moved. We would be moved off of Christ.
Because God's power and grace saves us, keeps us, and will
bring us to glory. It's all of grace. It's not by
our power or our goodness. He says, let us go on to perfection.
What is the completion of this doctrine of Christ? It's to bring
a sinner, by God's grace, to faith in Christ, and what he
mentions here, repentance from dead works. Look, he says, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and
of faith toward God. Now what are dead works? Dead
works in the Bible refers to the religious efforts of men
and women to be saved by those works. That's what that's talking
about. Dead works are the acts of morality,
devotion, sincerity, religion that men and women who claim
to believe the gospel, but who are not, who are trying to establish
their own righteousness before God. You see, Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the only one who fulfilled
the law. If you're seeking to be accepted
with God by your law keeping, that's a dead work. Here specifically,
it refers to the works under the Jewish law, because these
Hebrew Christians were being tested, tempted, and even tortured
to forsake Christ, whom they claimed to believe, and go back
under the law. And some of them had forsaken
Christ. They fell away. That's what apostasy
is, and we'll talk about that. But go on, he says in verse two,
a doctrine of baptism, that's the ceremonial washings. What
do we believe? We don't believe that any physical
water or ceremonial washing can cleanse us from sin. Baptism. Baptism is a confession of something
that's already taken place. The baptismal waters do not cleanse
us from our sin. What cleanses us from sin? There's
only one thing, the blood of Christ. I'll not be moved. He says, laying on of hands.
That was like the priest putting their hand on the sacrifice.
It was typical of faith in Christ. I believe in Christ. I submit
to him as my righteousness before God. I shall not be moved. He's
my high tower. He's my refuge. He's my rock,
you see? Of the resurrection of the dead
and of eternal judgment. How do I know that I'll be raised
from the dead? Because Christ was raised from
the dead. He's the first fruits of them that slept. Righteousness
was established, and he came out of that grave. And that same
righteousness, which is imputed, charged to my account, will bring
me out of that grave. It's already given me spiritual
life. I shall not be moved. When I stand before God at judgment,
I'll stand there washed in the blood, clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Enough said. Oh, but you got
to do your works to get a bigger mansion than me. That's false
religion, folks. That's false religion. That's
another gospel. And he says in verse 3, and this
will we do if God permits. This is all according to God's
will. He didn't say this will we do if you'll cooperate. If
God permits. If this is God's will, it's gonna
happen. His will is never thwarted. The
Bible says that he does what he wills among the armies of
the earth. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. And if he permits God, thy will,
what are we to pray when we pray? Thy will be done. Isn't that
right? I know a lot of things I pray for that I don't get. Because God has not been pleased. to give me those things, and
you know what? He knows better than me what I need. Thy will
be done. So here we come to these verses.
Verse four, 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. Now
that word fall away, that's apostatize, apostasy. It's impossible if
they fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put
him to an open shame. Now we'll stop right there. Apostasy. What do these verses teach? Well,
as I said last week, you have to interpret scripture using
the right rules of interpretation, and one of the main rules is
the rule of context. You have to look at this verse,
these verses, in the immediate context of this chapter, in the
context of the whole book of Hebrews, and then in the context
of the whole Bible. And what does the Bible, the
very gospel itself, tell us about salvation? When God saves sinners
by his grace, it says this, it says he saves his people by his
grace, it says he keeps his people by his grace, John chapter 10,
Jude 24, 25, Psalm 62, and many more. And he will bring them
to glory by his grace. What did Christ say in John chapter
six? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out, and this is the will of him that sent me, that of
all which he hath given me I should lose what? Nothing, no one, but
raise him up again at the last day. My sheep hear my voice,
I know them, they follow me. They'll never perish. You say,
well, you're just preaching once saved, always saved like those
old Baptists do. I'm preaching this, that once
God saves a sinner by his grace, there is absolutely no possibility
that that sinner could ever be lost again. And if you believe, I'm just
going to tell you plainly now, if you believe that he can be
lost, that's the product of a false gospel. Salvation conditioned
on sinners and not on Christ alone. Well, what does it say
here? If he falls away, what does that mean? Well, it doesn't
mean he loses salvation. Now there are three interpretations
of this passage. One of them denies the gospel
and denies the rest of scripture. And that's the idea that people
go to this verse and they say, well, see there, look at all
it says about him. Once enlightened, tasted of the
heavenly gift, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted the
good word of God and the powers of, if that doesn't describe
salvation, what does? This describes, what this describes
is this. A person may have heard a lot
of the true word of God, have made a profession of faith, but
then still be among the company of believers in the vicinity,
but he may actually never have truly believed in the gospel,
believed in Christ, never come to a saving knowledge of the
truth. This shows how close a person can come, how much a person can
profess and still not ever have been saved. And those who interpret
this as saying, well, they can lose salvation, number one, you
got to deny the context of this chapter, the context of Hebrews
and the context of the whole Bible. The second interpretation
of this is what we call a hypothetical. Some believe this, that what
the writer of Hebrews is presenting here is a hypothetical situation. He's saying, well, if it were
possible for sinners who are saved to lose that salvation,
And it's not, but if it were possible, they could never be
brought again to repentance. I don't believe that's what this
is preaching, what it's teaching. What I believe is teaching is
just what I said, that people can give mental agreement some
open profession of the truth and really not believe it. And
if they fall away from it, if they apostatize from it, what
does that... Tell us. Well now, last week we went to
this verse, but go again, just as an example, 1 John chapter
2. He tells us plainly what's happened
here. Christ told us plainly in the
parable of the soils. Remember the thorny ground hearer
and the stony ground hearer? They gave mental agreement, but
then they left. The thorny ground left because of love of this
world and the love of riches. The stony ground here left because
of persecution over the word. That's what, the word of God
brings persecution, the scripture teaches us. Well, the stony ground
here gave men, it says he received it anon. That's the word the
King James Version uses. You know what anon means? It
means now. It means immediately. In other
words, they heard it, they latched onto it quickly without counting
the cost, and when persecution came, they left it, they never
believed it. The only ones who believe it
are the good ground hearers. That's the sinner whom God has
given a new heart, a new spirit, and brought to faith in Christ.
But look at verse 19, talking about the spirit of Antichrist.
It says in 1 John 2, they went out from us, they were not of
us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us, leaving
forsaking Christ for a person who has claimed to believe in
the true Christ. You know, there's a million false
gospels. That's not what he's talking
about here. There's only one true gospel. He's talking about
somebody sitting under the true gospel and claiming to believe
it, but then leaves it and turns his back on Christ and really
calls him accursed. The Spirit of God shows us plainly
that there's some people who have what appear to be heavenly
gifts, who have no grace in their hearts. People who have experienced
much, professed much, demonstrated much in religion, yet no true
faith and repentance. No real love for Christ and His
truth. And the foundation of repentance
has not been laid by God in their hearts. He says in verse 4, He says,
it's impossible for those who were once enlightened and have
tasted of the heavenly gift. They were privileged to hear
the true gospel. Do you know that's a rarity today?
You say, well, I thought all these churches preached the gospel.
You better perk up and listen. You know what the most popular
false gospel today is? I'll put it to you in this phrase,
salvation conditioned on sinners. That's a false gospel. What is
the true gospel? Salvation conditioned on Christ
alone, who fulfilled all those conditions and secured the salvation
of his people. That's the truth. These people
were privileged to hear the true gospel. They professed to believe
it. The Bible says the natural man cannot believe it savingly. He won't receive it savingly. Tasting the heavenly gifts and
the powers of the world to come is not salvation. Salvation is
eating the bread of life, drinking the water of life, which is Christ.
Salvation is not in miraculous gifts, but in immutable grace,
sovereign grace, based on the righteousness of the Savior.
Salvation is not in feelings, emotions, or even experiences,
no matter how great and how life-changing they may be. Salvation is coming
to Christ. in faith, God-given faith, and
repentance of dead works, leaving all else behind, counting it
but loss that you may win Christ and be found in Him. That's what
salvation is. I'm gonna talk more about that
next week when we talk about things that accompany salvation.
Salvation is being made a new creature wherein our standard
of good and evil is changed. You remember back up in chapter
five there? Look at verse 14. He says, but strong meat belongeth
to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. In
other words, when God brings a sinner to see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, do you know that's the first
time you really understand the difference between good and evil
when it comes to salvation? Let me show you an example of
that. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
five. Here's talking about the new
creation, the new creature. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Look at verse 16. Paul writes, wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Now what that's saying is you
can't, what that's saying you can't judge by outward appearance.
We don't know anybody after the flesh. We don't know saved or
lost after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Now, how
did Paul, before he was converted, before he was brought to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, how did he judge Jesus
of Nazareth? Judged him to be a malefactor,
an imposter, a blasphemer, didn't he? Where was he going on the
road to Damascus, to a prayer meeting? No, he was going to
kill Christians, arrest Christians, His goal in life was to wipe
the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face of the earth. He's
the same man who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen,
a bold gospel preacher. Because of his judgment of good
and evil, he looked at Jesus of Nazareth as being evil. and
looked at his Jewish brethren as being good, but he says, don't
think like that anymore. He says in verse 17, he said,
therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature or new creation,
old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Well, what's passed away, Paul? We don't judge anybody
after the flesh now. The issue of saved and lost is
not how you appear to me after the flesh or how I appear to
you after the flesh. I hope, now let me say this,
I hope that our appearance doesn't hinder our testimony. Sometimes
it does. But that's not the issue. You
know what the issue is? What he tells you there in the
rest of 2 Corinthians 5, how can God be reconciled to sinners
and sinners reconciled to God? What is your ground of salvation?
What is your ground of reconciliation before God? What is it, specifically? I'll tell you what my ground
is. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
You see, it's not your works. It's not even your faith. My
faith is not my ground of reconciliation. Christ is. My faith drives me
to him. That's God-given faith. You see
the difference? It's the blood of Christ that
makes the difference. It's the righteousness of Christ that
makes the difference between saved and lost. And no matter
what you profess to believe, if that's not your foundation
and your ground, my friend, you've never come to a saving knowledge
of the truth. Back here in Hebrews chapter
six, he mentions how they have been made partakers of the Holy
Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of
the world to come. You know, in the beginning of
the New Testament, there were sign gifts given by which the word
preached was given visible authority of God. Could an unbeliever have
those? Well, think about Judas Iscariot. You suppose that when they went
out and preached the word and did miracles, which the apostles
did, that they all were able to do it except Judas? Well,
that would have tipped them off. Well, what's wrong with Judas?
You remember when Christ at the supper, he said, there's one
sitting here who's going to betray me? They didn't say, well, I
know it's Judas because he's never done anything. No, they
said, is it I? Am I the one? They were surprised
that it was Judas, yet the Bible says that Judas was a man of
perdition, son of perdition. Think about Matthew 7, 21 through
23. What did those false professors
say? Lord, Lord, haven't we what?
Preached in your name. Lord, haven't we cast out demons? Lord, haven't we done many wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me.
You that work iniquity, I never knew you. Now most preachers
will come to you and they'll say, well, now those fellows
just weren't sincere about that. And I say, well, how do you know
that? They're pleading it at judgment. That seems pretty sincere
to me. And let me ask you a question.
Are you more sincere than they are? Are you sure of that? Seems to me like if you think
you are, you're pretty proud of your sincerity. And let me
ask you this, how much sincerity passes the mustard here? You
don't know, do you? You know what their problem was?
They preached in his name, they cast out demons, they did many
wonderful works. Their problem was that that's
what they were pleading as their righteousness before God. I've
told you a lot this I've preached this gospel for over 30 years
now But I don't plead my preaching as my ground of salvation. I
don't plead my preaching as having any meritorious Value before
God I plead one thing Christ crucified and risen from the
dead his blood his righteousness alone That's the issue You know in Matthew chapter 24
the Lord tells his disciples that the greatest sign of the
nearness of His coming is false Christians and false Christianity.
In other words, they'll be Christian in name only, but they'll reject
the doctrine of Christ. Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 called that the falling away. In other words, generally as
we near the second coming of Christ, what is generally in
the world known as Christianity will not be Christianity at all.
It's a false Christianity. How can you tell the difference?
Well, what does the Bible say? Remember in 2 John, verse 9,
he said, He that transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God. Talking about people who claim
to be Christians, but they don't abide, continue in the truth,
the teachings of Christ. He that abideth in the doctrine
has both the father and the son. What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the doctrine of his person. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
manifest in the flesh. That's who he is. Every bit God,
every bit man without sin. A friend of mine told me he asked
a fellow at work, he said, do you believe that Jesus is God?
And the fellow who claimed to be a Christian, he thought up
a little bit, he said, well, he's the son of God. Yes, he's
the son of God, but he is God. Every bit God, he's not a lesser
God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I can't explain the Trinity to you, I know it's true. God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that's who Jesus
Christ is. And then what is the doctrine of Christ? It's the
doctrine of his finished, accomplished work. Not just that he died,
not just that he was buried, not just that he arose again,
that's included, but what did he accomplish? when he died,
was buried in a rosary. What do the scriptures say? Remember
I quoted earlier, he made an end of sin. If he made an end
of it, then you can't be condemned. He finished the transgression.
If he finished the transgression, then it cannot be imputed to
his people. He brought in everlasting righteousness, that's what's
imputed to his people, and they must be saved. And he's able
to save to the uttermost that come unto God by him. That's
what that psalm was teaching. I shall not be moved. Why shall
I not be moved? Because God won't let me. No one can pluck them out of
my Father's hand, Christ said. You say, well, people can't go
that far and not be saved. Well, what about Demas? He walked
with Paul and then left. What about the Mandiotrophes
in 3 John? who claimed to be a Christian
and was made an elder in the church, but would not receive
brethren. What about wolves in what? Sheep's clothing. That's false preachers. They
appear in sheep's clothing. What about, turn to 1 Corinthians
13. Look at this with me. Listen to what it says here. First Corinthians 13, this is
called the love chapter, but look how it starts out. He says in verse one, though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity,
that's love. Now that's godly love. That's
love for Christ and his truth and his people. That springs
from faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. We're together
on that, you see. We're not having to argue about
that. That's not a debatable point. We're not having to continually
instruct people in these areas that are settled in their minds
by the power of the Holy Spirit. They've been brought to love
of Christ, and if you love Christ, you love his truth. Isn't that
right? He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. All right, he says, though I've
become a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, Verse two, and though
I have the gift of prophecy, that's foretell the future, understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so
that I could remove mountains and have not charity, have not
this love, I am nothing, and though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Is that possible? Well, I suppose it is, or it
wouldn't have been put in the scriptures. Satan, you know,
Satan can counterfeit miracles. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. This is where
Paul speaks of that falling away. That apostasy. And what he's
talking about here, listen to what he says in this passage.
It's a real eye-opener. He says in 2 Thessalonians 2,
verse 1, he says, now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering unto him, that
you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit
nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. Christ is coming back. You know,
you hear people today say, I believe Christ is coming back in our
day. Well, I don't know that he is.
We don't know when he's coming back. You might remember the
preacher out in California who kept predicting different days.
I mean, I never forget one time I had a guy show up at church
up in Ashland, had a t-shirt on, had a date on it. And I said,
what? I said, is that your birthday?
He said, no, that's the day Christ is coming back. And you know
what? He was wrong. I don't know what
he did. He had a bunch of those t-shirts.
I don't know what he did with them, all those t-shirts. But we don't
know. We know he's coming. And we know
there are signs that indicate the nearness of his coming. And
as I said, read Matthew 24. Remember what he said? There'll
be people come and saying, I'm the Messiah. And then there'll
be false prophets come and say, here, we're preaching Christ,
there's Christ. He said, don't believe. You know
what he said? He said, some of them will be so close that if
it were possible, they could deceive the very elect, God's
chosen people for whom Christ died. Thank God it's not possible
for the elect to be deceived unto perdition. But they'll come
that close. Well, Satan can counterfeit miracles.
Look here, he says in 2 Thessalonians 2, don't be troubled. He says in verse 3, let no man
deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except
there come a falling away, an apostasy first, and that man
of sin Antichrist which I believe speaking of Satan be revealed
the son of perdition. No, I'm not going to get into
that today I'll preach on that another time Here's what he said
That which started out in the New Testament as Identifying
the Church of Christ and what Christianity really is as it
goes closer to the end time There'll be a great apostasy from the
truth as I said before what is generally known throughout the
world is Christian will be apostate. It'll be Christian in name only.
They'll claim to be Christian, but they'll deny the doctrine
of Christ. They'll compromise the doctrine.
And they'll show many wonderful works. Look down at 2 Thessalonians
2. Look at verse 9. This apostasy
brought about by Satan and his false preachers It says, even
him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders. Things that seem wonderful to
our eyes, but it's a lie. I've told people today, you know,
that you have these preachers on TV who claim to be healers. And, you know, their healing
is always up to scrutiny. You know, when Christ healed
somebody or the disciples healed somebody, there was absolutely
no doubt that that person was healed to the crowd. That blind man in John chapter
9, he'd been blind from birth. And they didn't say, well, let's
get the newspaper guys out here to check this out. No, they knew
he was blind. There was no question about any
of those miracles. But these guys going around today,
you know, you'll find that they're charlatans, you know, they have
people posted out in the audience and stuff like that. They'll
send you miracle water, drink it, you know, all that stuff.
Let me tell you how you expose a false preacher. Don't argue
with him about his miracles. Ask him what he preaches. If
he preaches a lie, I don't care if he raises the dad. He's a
false preacher. You believe that? That's what
the Bible says. To the law and to the testimony, if they speak
not according to this word, there's no light in them. Look on verse
10, 2 Thessalonians 2. He says, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. This is an unrighteousness that
is deceptive. The natural man can't see this.
This is not natural conscience judgment here. This is something
that has to be revealed for us to see it. In them that perish. And why do they perish? because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. Go back to Hebrews six. He says in verse six, 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. He's talking about people who
have apostatized. They fell away. They turned their
back on Christ, and crucifying him again, putting him to an
open shame, means they call Christ accursed. That's how far they
go. That's how they had to go back
into their Judaism, their false religion. It's the same with
people today. If you're sitting here and you
claim to believe the gospel, but you fall away from that truth,
apostatize from it, Say, I know a man up in Ohio who sat under
a gospel preacher for five years who is now an avowed atheist.
That's who he's talking about here. I went to his wedding when
he claimed to be a Christian. He claimed to believe sovereign
grace, claimed to believe everything we believe here, and now he's
an avowed atheist. He denies God, denies Christ. That man was never converted.
He had never been brought by God to faith in Christ and repentance.
He had never submitted to the righteousness of Christ as his
only ground of salvation. That's apostasy. Well, it says
here, it's impossible to renew them again. Well, let me read
verses seven and eight, and I'm gonna pick up on this next week,
but listen to what it says. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs,
meat for them, by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from
God. What's he saying there? Remember
the parable of the soils? This is like the good ground
here. He's saying here, if God saves you, it's gonna bring forth
this fruit. But he says in verse eight, but
that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh
unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. You may claim to be saved. You
may claim to be a Christian. But if all that comes out of
that is thorns and briars, then it's an empty claim. Empty religion. God's elect shall not and cannot
fall away and perish. They cannot perish because God
will not, first of all, we said God will not charge them with
their sin. God charged them with the righteousness of Christ.
God has given him his spirit to indwell them, bring them to
Christ, and keep them looking to Christ. Christ is interceding
on our behalf at the throne of God. We cannot lose that which
he has gained. We can lose what we claim if
it's merely a claim. but we cannot lose that which
Christ has gained. We stand before God washed in
his blood, clothed in his righteousness, and that can never be taken away.
I shall not be moved. All right.