Now, we ended last week's lesson
talking about growing, believers growing in grace and maturity. And that's going to continue
this week. You know, as believers, we don't want to remain children.
We want to grow, to grow to be a mature believer. And that's
what Paul's talking about here in chapter six of Hebrews, verse
one. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into 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
hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Now, the doctrine of Christ that Paul is talking about here is
the gospel. The gospel teaches Christ. We preach Christ. We don't preach a set of doctrines
or catechisms. We preach a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The gospel tells us of Christ. And Paul tells us as we grow
mature, we want to leave the principles, we want to leave
the very first elementary teachings. But Paul's not telling us ever
to leave the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not telling us that we leave
Christ to move on to something deeper, like prophecies or tongues
or the powers of healing or something mystical. You cannot move on
from Christ. What He's telling us here is
to move on to learn more of Him. To move on to maturity. The word
perfection there is maturity. And in order to grow, believers
have to leave elementary school. We've got to leave those elementary
teachings, those first teachings, and continue on to learn more
of Him. Now, we never forget. We don't
quit loving those elementary truths. We don't quit preaching
them. These truths are the foundation of everything we believe. Paul
wrote to the Philippian church to write the same things to you.
The same things over and over again. To me it's not grievous,
but for you it's safe. So we don't quit preaching those
things. We don't quit hearing them. We don't quit loving them.
We don't forget them. We build on them. They're the
foundation. And the reason that a builder
Builds a foundation. He's got a purpose. To build
on it. He doesn't put the foundation
there and then quit. No, he lays the foundation because
he plans on building on it. And that's what we do. We don't
want to stop learning and growing once the foundation is laid.
We want to build on it. Look over in 1 Corinthians chapter
3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10, according to the grace of God
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So we
have this foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ, but we want to
build on it. And Paul mentions here six foundation truths that
have to be laid. Then we can build on these things.
And the first one is repentance from dead works. Now, I think
the very first thing every believer learns. Is we're sinners. We learn even the very best religious
or moral acts that we've ever done are totally, completely
sinful. The first thing we've got to
learn is we can't contribute anything good to our salvation
because we're sinners. And we repent, we turn from those
things. Look back a few pages in Titus
chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 verse 5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to God's mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That's one of the first things
we learn. Not by our works. We repent of those dead works
and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that. I love that. I love to hear salvation is by
grace alone. And you do too. And you don't
need to relearn that this morning. You know that. Salvation is by
God's grace alone. And I know this is a battle that
sometimes we fight. Self-righteousness will rear
its ugly head at the most inopportune moments. Here's that self-righteousness
rears its head in us. We get proud of something we've
done or, you know, look it up. But the believer knows when that
happens, I don't trust in that. That's not where my trust is. My trust is in Christ. We repent
from those dead works and look to Him. And we don't quit repenting. We repent of our sins daily.
But what every believer knows is we have turned from our dead
works and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. Repenting is a
whole lot more than just feeling sorry for what I've done. It's
a turning. It's a turning away from those
things and turning to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That foundation has been laid. Repentance from dead works now
build on it. The second foundation truth Paul
mentions is faith towards God. Now, faith towards God is a whole
lot more than just believing God exists. The devil believes
that, that God exists. This is a belief, to believe
God as who He is, who He's revealed Himself as in His Word. It's
to believe the record that God has given us, that salvation
is in His Son. That's to believe that. This
is faith in Christ. It's faith in His blood to atone
for my sin. It's faith in His righteousness
to make me accepted before the Father. It's faith in Christ
as my all in all. He's everything I need. Wisdom.
Righteousness. Sanctification of redemption.
He's everything to me. And you notice how Paul mentions
repentance and then right behind it he mentions faith. Repentance
and faith always go together. They're God's Siamese twins.
They're inseparable. Repentance and faith. And believers
don't have to relearn where our faith comes from and who our
faith is in. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that foundation has been laid. Now build on it. Next, he mentions the doctrine
of baptisms. Scripture speaks of several different
baptisms, primarily Believer's baptism, or believer, is immersed
in water. And we do that in obedience to
the command of our Savior. This is the way He's given to
publicly identify with Him. The way to publicly confess Christ,
to publicly identify with His death, His burial, and His resurrection. The way for all of us to publicly
say, the Lord Jesus Christ is all my salvation. It's in Him
and Him alone. And this is just a fact. A believer
cannot grow until this first matter is taken care of. You
just can't. I can tell you that from experience.
I've talked to other people who tell you the same thing. You
know, you struggle with this matter in your mind. And if you're
one of God's, one of his children, he died for you, you're going
to come to the point, you have to do this, to publicly identify
with him. And then you wonder what took
me so long. Now you can go on. Now you can grow. And this matter's
got to be taken care of first. And believer's baptism just has
to be done once. You don't have to be re-baptized.
You don't have to keep going back to this over and over again.
It's just done once. And you build on that. Move on
from there. There's also baptism spoken of
in Scripture. Baptism into Christ by the Holy
Spirit. Look first at Galatians chapter
3. baptism into Christ. Into his body. Galatians 3 verse
27. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now look over 1 Corinthians
12. Paul gives us an explanation
of this. 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 13, for by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, have been made all to drink into one spirit. Believers are all put into one
body, the body of Christ, by the spirit. We're the body, he's
the head. And it doesn't matter where you come from, whether
you're Jew, Greek, rich or poor, it doesn't matter. Whatever your
background is, all believers are put in one body. where Christ
is the head. Now, that's a foundation truth
that we build on. The next one Paul mentions is
laying on of hands. Now, the Lord gave the apostles
in the early church special power. They could confer the spirit
and confer gifts by the laying on of their hands. But there
are no more apostles. Those gifts are given today through
preaching, not laying on of hands. And in effect, I suppose the
church, you could say, lays their hands on someone when they ordain
elders or missionaries or someone. The early church laid their hands
on a new convert as you know, when they brought them into the
church. But I tell you what I think is primarily is talking about
how it's most applicable to us. It's Christ. Laying hold on us
and in response, we're laying lay hold on him. Every believer
has the simple understanding that the reason I know the Lord
is He reached down, way down, and laid hold on me. He reached
down into the muck and mire, to the dung heap, and lifted
me up. He laid hold on His people by
grace and lifted us up. David set me among the princes. And in response, every believer
Like Jacob of old had a leg to hold on the Lord Jesus Christ. And like Jacob, we won't let
go. I will not let go of him. By God's grace, I won't. And
I know my salvation, yours too, entirely depends on the Lord
Jesus Christ holding me. And no man, he says, can pluck
them out of my hand. But I'm not going to let go of
him or you. Absolutely not. Laying on pans. The fifth foundation
truth Paul mentions is the resurrection of the dead. Now one day, this
body is going to die. It's got to die. It's got to
be buried and put out of sight. Then the soul, the real you,
the real me can depart and be with the Lord in paradise. And
there's coming a day When Christ returns, this body is going to
be raised from the grave. This is going to be resurrected
and body and soul are going to be reunited. And I know that's
so because my Savior was raised from the grave. And He's the
first fruits of them that sleep. And there's going to be more
raised just like Him. Look over in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. Now this is a foundation truth.
1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not perceive them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord." That's the resurrection that we're talking about. Look
over one more scripture in Job chapter 19. Job looked for this day of the
resurrection when body and soul would be reunited in a perfect
body. Job 19, verse 25, Job says, For
I know that my Redeemer liveth. That's one of those foundation
truths. I know that. And that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh Shall I see God? I'm going
to be raised. And I'll be me. I'll look just
like me. You'll be glorified, perfect flesh. I'm going to be
this flesh. I'll be raised and I'm going to see God. Whom I
shall see for myself. And mine eyes shall behold. And
not another. He's not going to be a stranger.
I'm going to know him. Even though my reigns be consumed within
me. This body is going to return to dust. But it's going to be
raised by the power of God. That's a foundation truth. Now
build on that. I thought this morning, the way
we build on that is by knowing this life is not all there is. A believer, you know that this
life is not all there is. We're not building something
in this life. It's something spiritual, eternal.
And the sixth foundation truth that Paul says we're to lay and
then build on is eternal judgment. Now, we know there's coming a
day in which Christ will judge the world in righteousness. Look
back in John chapter five. Our Lord said this, he's going
to judge the world in righteousness. John 5 verse 28. Now marvel not at this, for the
hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear
his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good under
the resurrection of life and they that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation. Now, those who have done good
don't have any personal goodness in themselves. That's the first
foundation of truth we learn. We don't have any goodness. These
people are those who believed in Christ, who followed God's
commandment and believed in Him, who trust in Him and wear the
goodness of Christ, the righteousness and obedience of Christ. Those
people are going to be raised and enter into eternal life.
Those who do not believe Christ, They're not going to wear His
righteousness and His goodness. They're going to have to do in
their own, which is going to fall far short and they're going
to be damned. And believers don't fear this
day. We don't fear this day of judgment.
Why not? Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our substitute, suffered judgment for us. He assumed our guilt
and He suffered all the wrath and all the judgment that our
sins deserve. So now we don't fear death. We
don't have to fear judgment because he suffered that wrath for us.
Now, that's the foundation truth of the gospel. Now, build on
that, Paul said. And to one degree or another,
every believer is determined to do just that. I'm not satisfied
with staying with the elementary understanding and growth. We
want to grow and learn more of him. And that's what Paul says
in verse three. And this will we do. if God permit. Now, we're determined to grow
in grace. We're determined to grow as God's
children, not to stay as little children, but to grow to maturity. And I'll tell you, you won't
do anything unless you're determined to do it. You just won't. That's
just a fact. But at the same time, we know
we are totally dependent on God, on the Lord to give growth so
that we'll grow in grace. Look back at 1 Corinthians 3.
You know, one place Paul wrote, I'm determined to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's determined
everywhere he went to preach nothing but Christ. Well, look
in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6. I've planted a pot of water.
But God gave the increase. See, Paul was determined to preach
the Gospel, for he knew he was totally dependent on God to give
the increase. And the same is true with us
growing and growing. This will do, if God permits. And you know, believers, as we
grow, it's different from our children. You know, when our
children grow, they grow to more self-sufficiency so that they're
able to go out ultimately on their own. You know, believers,
we grow and grace does just the opposite. We don't grow in self-sufficiency
so we're able to go out on our own somewhere. A believer, when
you grow in grace, you grow to be more dependent on Christ. That's growing in grace. The
stronger we are, the more we lean on Christ. That's when we're
strong, when we lean on Him. And that's where the perseverance
and security of a believer is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul talks about
in these next verses, the security and perseverance of God's saints. He says in verse 4, for it is
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, it's impossible that they should fall away. And perseverance of the saints
is what he's talking about here. And it's impossible for anyone
for whom Christ died to lose that salvation. It's impossible
for anyone that Christ has laid his hand on to fall away, to
fall out of that hand. It's impossible for anyone to
pluck them out of my Father's hand. And he gives us a description
here of these saints who are secure. He says, first of all,
they were once enlightened. Now all men are born spiritually
blind. Born in total darkness. Can't
see a thing. Darkness. And God the Holy Spirit
will come to every single person for whom Christ died and enlighten
them. Give them life and light. And once we have spiritual life,
now we can see. And the first thing we see is
sin. We see the wickedness of sin.
But not just somebody else's sin. Yeah, it's easy to see somebody
else's sin. You don't need a lot of light
to see that. It's my sin. I'm the problem. That's what
we're enlightened to see. I'm a sinner. We're enlightened
then to see Christ. To see the Lord Jesus Christ.
To see Him in His Word. To see His righteousness. To
see His blood. To see His grace. The unspeakable
mercy that He has towards His people. To see His kingship. to see His glory, to see Him,
to see who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what He did, why He did it,
where He is now. And to see those things, that
takes God the Holy Spirit giving light. If He doesn't give light,
we'll never see those things. This is not a Reformed external
man. This is not some man teaching
you some set of doctrines that you, yeah, I believe that. I
see that those things are true. This is an internal enlightening
to see spiritual truths. And once we're enlightened, you'll
never go back to darkness. Now, there'll be times of darkness,
times of sadness and despair, but a believer will never lose
the light of Christ's presence because He won't leave us. The
second description, Paul says, is those who have tasted of the
heavenly gift. Well, what is the heavenly gift
that we've tasted of? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
described in Scripture as God's unspeakable gift. There aren't
words to describe the unspeakable, the glorious greatness of the
gift of God's Son to sinners like you and me. Words can't
describe that. This human word is impossible.
But believers have tasted of it I can't describe it, but you
know what I'm talking about because you've tasted of it. Donnie Bell
said that's heart language. I can't explain it, but you know
what I'm talking about. You've tasted of the graciousness
of the Lord. You've tasted the sweetness of
the forgiveness of your sins. You've tasted of the indescribable
love of God for His people and His Son. You've tasted it and
you love it. And you won't have anything else. Once you taste Christ, you'll
never settle for anything else. You've lost your taste for everything
else because He is the children's bread. And there used to be a
time you hated it. A lot of us grew up hearing the
Gospel and you drugged the service because your mom and dad were
going to take you and you couldn't fight them over it. You're just
going. That's what your family does. It was a drudgery. You just couldn't wait until
it was over. It was torture. Now you love it. What happened? You're enlightened and you're
given a taste for it. The Lord revealed Himself to
you. And now you desire the sinister milk of the Word because you've
tasted of it. You won't have anything else.
Well, third, these people who are so secure have been made
partakers of the Holy Ghost. God, the Holy Ghost, dwells in
the hearts of all his people, so we are made partakers of him. Look back at Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 7. Verse 6, for to be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. Now if words mean anything, what
that means is the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of That
makes us objects of his mercy. And listen, God never changes. If he's taken up a boat in your
heart, he'll never leave. So that's where our security
comes from. Fourth, these people are so secure, Paul says, have
tasted the good word of God. Now, believers live on the word,
on Christ the written word. Christ the Incarnate Word. Christ
the Incarnate Word is revealed in His written words. You can't
separate it. That's why I love going verse by verse through
the Word. Line upon line. Precept upon
precept. Because that's where the children
grow and learn. Now we're talking about growing
up and maturing here. Well, you've got to eat to grow.
You just got to. You can't be healthy if you don't
eat. And this Word is life to the believer. This is where we
find all of our instruction, our comfort, our guidance is
in God's Word. And fifth, Paul said, you've
tasted of the powers of the world to come. Believers have already
tasted of eternal life. You have eternal life right now. One day it's going to be perfected,
but you've got it. You've tasted of it now. You've
tasted of the power of the resurrection, spiritually being given life
from the dead. You've tasted the power of faith
in Christ. You've tasted the power of God's
love for His people in Christ. And only God's children have
a taste for this, because you've experienced it. So it's impossible,
Paul says in verse 6, if these people should fall away, to renew
them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. Now, it's impossible
for a believer to fall away from Christ. Now, we've got many,
many examples of believers who have fallen. Fallen into sin
and temptation. Made enormous mistakes. David fell, didn't he? Abraham? Oh, he fell. He told his wife,
Sarah. He said, don't tell the king.
You're my wife. Tell him you're my sister because
he might kill me. Oh, he fell. Lot? He chose those well-watered plains.
Noah fell just almost as soon as he got off the ark. Peter
denied the Lord three times. But the Lord never left them. So they never left Him. Peter,
as soon as John told him, they were on the boat there and they
saw on the shore, John said, it's the Lord. Peter cast himself
off that boat and swam ashore. He never left Christ. And believers do fall, now sometimes
badly, but never completely away from Christ. I read this this
week. You know why a believer will
never fall away from Christ? You're held with a three-fold
cord, one of the writers says. A cord that can never be broken.
The first strand is the Father. The love of the Father. He chose
His people and put Him in His Son. The second cord is the Son. He loved His people. He came
and suffered and died for them, and right now He ever lives interceding
for us. And third, God the Holy Spirit,
who lives in the hearts of His people, the earnest of our eternal
inheritance. It's impossible for a believer
to be lost because you're in a covenant that's ordered in
all things and sure can't be broken. And Brother Henry said
in his outline, You can't describe a situation of a believer, someone
for whom Christ died. You can't describe a situation
where that person fell away so that it's impossible for them
to be recovered. You can't describe it because
it's never happened. You can't describe something
that never happened. For that to happen, for a believer now
to lose your salvation, the immutable God would have to change. For
you to lose your salvation, God's love, would have to cease. For you to lose your salvation,
the blood of Christ would have to quit in atonement for the
sins of His people. For you to lose your salvation,
the Holy Spirit would have to leave, would have to abandon
one of God's children. For you to lose your salvation,
eternal life would have to die. And that's not going to happen.
Now, if someone would fall away from Christ, it would be impossible
for them to be saved. How else can you be saved except
in Christ? Is there a better foundation
to have than the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any other blood that
will atone other than the blood of Christ? Is there any, I was
going to say better blood. Is there any even equal blood
to the blood of Christ? Well, no. Is there another righteousness
other than the righteousness of Christ? Well, of course not. Well, then it would be impossible
to be redeemed other than through the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ
would lose one of those that He redeemed, to redeem them again,
He'd have to become incarnate again. He'd have to live another
perfect life. He'd have to go to the cross
and suffer and die again. He'd have to be put to open shame
again. And that will never happen. He
was put to shame once. Now, eternal glory, because He
did accomplish the eternal salvation of all His people. And the work
of redemption is finished. If the personal work of Christ
is not enough to save our soul, nothing ever will. Thank God. The Lord Jesus Christ is enough. He's enough eternally, and that's
what I want to grow in. To grow in that confidence. And
people who do fall away, people do, they, you know, I say fall
away, they don't really fall away, they leave the gospel.
They're like that stony ground here. There appeared to be some
life there. But they were never enlightened.
They never tasted the Lord Jesus Christ, never tasted the good
word of God. They were never made partakers
of the Holy Ghost or they never would have left. But in order
for a man or woman to be born a sinner like you and me, In
order for us to persevere to the end, that takes the power
of God, doesn't it? It takes the blood of God. It
takes the righteousness of God. And that's where every believer
can take comfort. It's impossible for us to fall
away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's build on that. Alright,
I hope that's a blessing.