Hebrews chapter 6 and I want
to begin reading in verse 4 and maybe down through verse 11. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs,
meat, for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings
from God. But that which beareth thorns
and browers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward
His name, and that you have ministered to the saints, and you do minister.
And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end." Last week I gave
you more or less my understanding on what these verses meant. And just in a way of just a minute
to review here in verses 4 and 5, he says that he gives them
their condition, how they had progressed in these things. He begins here with they had
their understandings opened. They were enlightened. And that's
what happened to Lydia when she heard Paul preach. The Lord opened
her understanding that she attained into those things which were
spoken of Paul. And then he goes on, secondly,
to say that they had tasted of the heavenly gift. In other words,
they had tasted of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had got a spiritual
taste of Him by their spirits, by their spiritual mouths, you
could say. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed
are those who trust in Him. He tells us here they were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost. And I notice this word, that
you were made partakers. They didn't make themselves,
but they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. In other words,
they joined in with Him. They were one in glorifying the
Son of God. He was in their hearts, crying,
Father, Father. And they were crying, Father,
Father, with Him. They were partakers of the Holy
Ghost. And He said here, Thirdly, that they had tasted the good
Word of God. In other words, they hoped in
His Word. It was good. It was good for
them. They rejoiced in His Word, David
said, as they that find great spoil. And he says, you've tasted
the powers of the world to come. They had an interest in that
world that's to come. They believed that this life
wasn't everything. There was a world to come. And
they felt something of hope, lively hope in that world to
come. And it seemed to have effect
upon them. They tasted that hope. I guess it's sort of like Daniel
when it was either you quit praying, you quit worshiping your God,
or you're going to the den of lions. And what would make a
man say, put me to the lions? I think it would have to be hope,
wouldn't it? Hope beyond this life. And when the Hebrew children
were told to bow to the golden idol, or they'd be thrown into
the fiery furnace, what did they say? We're not careful to answer
you in this matter. God will deliver us from your
furnace, and if not, He will deliver us from your hands. What
would make a man say something like that? Deny himself in the
face of a fiery furnace? I tell you what, you'd have to
have a good hope, wouldn't you? You'd have to have hope in a life that's
to come. So these seemed to taste of that
hope that was to come. And then we came here to verse
6, and we looked at it last week as a warning. We looked at it
as something that would awaken them to spur them on as a rider
would a horse that they were in danger. He put the spurs to
it. And these Jewish believers had
gotten themselves in somewhat of a serious situation. We saw that. He told them in
chapter 2, he said, let us give the more earnest heed to the
things that we've heard, lest at any time we let them slip.
And what had they done? They had begun to let them slip.
They had become dull of hearing. So they put themselves in this
dangerous situation. And then when we get to chapter
10, something else had begun to afflict this congregation. They had some among them that
wasn't attending to the ministry of the Word. He said, there are
some among you that are in a habit of not attending the services.
And he says it like this. Well, let me tell you right quick
and read it. I thought I could quote it. But here's what he
said in chapter 10. in verse 25, "...not forsaking the assemblment
of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhort
one another and so much more as you see of the day approaching."
So they weren't attending the ministry. And what we found here
in chapter 5 was they were going backwards. They weren't standing
still. They were going backwards. For
the time they should have been teachers, they had need that
one teach them again. And what was going to put a check
to this backward backsliding? And what if a check wasn't put
to it? That's the thing we have to think
about, isn't it? What if a check wasn't put in the direction that
they were leaning and going? Well, that's what these warnings
are about. So he goes on here in chapter
6 and verse 6, and he basically says, listen, there's but one
gospel that can save you. And if you deviate, if you leave
that gospel, you cannot be saved. That's how serious he's speaking
to them. There's but one salvation revealed in the Scripture, and
if that salvation fails to save you, you'll be lost forever.
If you've truly repented of sin and believed in the Son of God,
and now you completely and hopelessly fall away from that, that you
expose the Son of God to open shame, you at the same time seal
your doom. You cannot be renewed again until
repentance. That's the way we looked at that
last week as a warning. To me, he's not saying this is
what you're going to do. But he's saying this is a warning
of what will happen if it could happen, if it should happen.
You'll crucify unto yourself the Son of God afresh, and then
it's impossible, it's impossible for you to be renewed and to
repentance again. I guess it teaches one of two
things, doesn't it? It teaches the believer will
either endure and never fall away, or if he does, he's gone
forever. But you can't have both of those.
The Armenians won't tell their congregations, you can fall away,
but none of them will ever do. None of them will ever do. You go there and listen to them
and watch them. And I've been there. I was raised
in a pre-Wimbledon Baptist church. And they talked about falling
away. And some of their members went off into open and profane
sin for 20 or 30 years. And came back and got renewed
up. You can't have that both ways. Either a believer endures
and he won't fall away, or if he does, he can't be saved again. He can't be renewed again. Paul
comes here in verses 7 and 8, I read to you, and he gives an
illustration to prove his point. He gives the illustration about
the earth. The rain from heaven soaking
the earth and watering the earth and causing the seed to germinate
and to plant corn or beans or whatever to grow. And those who
plant it and those who cultivate it, they eat that fruit from
the earth. But he says in verse 8, but if
it bear brores and thorns, it's rejected. And it's nigh unto
cursing. And Paul's point here is this,
if these graces of being enlightened If these graces of taste and
the heavenly gift and so forth, if those that had brought forth
fruit in them ceased to bring forth fruit, ceased to bring
forth good fruit, then what other kind of fruit was it? Brars and
thorns. To me, that's what he's saying
there in verses 7 and 8. If these graces that came into
your heart that brought forth good fruit, If now it ceases
to bring forth good fruit from the heart, and then the heart
begins to bring forth brars and thorns, what's it good for? What's
it good for? The Lord Jesus said something
like this. Hold our text and look over in
John's Gospel, chapter 15. The Lord spoke a parable in John
chapter 15 about this fruit. And one thing you have to remember
about a parable, you can't establish doctrine with it. You can't read
a parable and say, oh man, we can establish a truth with that.
A parable is usually to teach one main lesson. If you're going
to establish doctrine, you've got to go establish it from the
epistles or someplace else. We don't establish doctrine by
parables, but boy, they teach good lessons. They present right
before our eyes this vision of something and we learn a good
lesson from it. And look here what we learn from fruit bearing. How a person bears fruit. Look
in verse 1 of John 15. I am the vine. My Father is the husband. I'm the true vine. Now Christ
isn't a vine. He's a person. The Father isn't
a gardener. He's God. But he is like a vine,
and the Father is like a husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you, and look
at this, abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can you
except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without Me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bring forth much fruit, so shall you be my disciples."
How do we bring forth fruit? There is but one way to bring
forth fruit. Abide in Christ. This word abide
means to dwell, to stay, to continue in. If the vine has the little
branch attached to it and that little branch is sucking moisture
and sap and life from the vine, the juice that's in the vine,
then the branch lives and it bears fruit. But what happens
if that little branch is not sucking its moisture and life
from the vine? What happens to it? It dies,
doesn't it? It just dries up and dies. And
what is a dried up branch fit for? Oh, the Lord tells us. Cut it off and put it into a
fire. It's fit for nothing. And the
same way He said with salt, didn't He? If the salt has lost its
saltiness, what would you do with it? Well, you'd thaw it
out. You wouldn't salt your food with
it. It's fit for nothing but to be trodden underfoot. That's
the same thing I think that Hebrews 6 is teaching us. How shall we
continue? How shall we continue to bear
fruit? How shall we continue to live in the Christian life?
There's but one way to do it. Abiding in Christ. Continuing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as He says here in this
parable about the vine and the branches. And these things aren't
meant to discourage us. They're surely not meant to offend
us, but they're meant to spur us on. They're meant to awaken
us from this sleepiness and spiritual dullness that we're so in danger
of falling into. We've all noticed that in ourselves,
and it's what these Hebrews had fallen into. They'd become dull
in hearing and sluggish, lazy. in their spirit. Have you been
there? And you know that's dangerous. We sometimes speak of it as if,
you know, sort of a common thing. And it may be, but it's dangerous.
It's really dangerous to get in a place where we don't want
to hear the Word anymore. We don't want to read anymore.
We don't want our closet prayers not being visited. Secret fellowship
with the Lord. And we get cold and dull. And that's a dangerous place
to get into. And that's where these were. That's where they
were. Look how John says it over in
1 John chapter 2. The Lord talked about abiding
in Him, staying in Him, dwelling in Him. And John does the same
thing. He talks about abiding in Christ
too. Look what he says in 1 John chapter
2. Look in verse 27 and verse 28. 1 John 2, verse 27. But the anointing,
the unction, that witness which you have received of Him abideth
in you. And you need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing, the Holy Spirit teaches you of
all things, and is true and is no lie, and even as it has taught
you, you shall abide in Him. Now look, and now little children,
abide in Him. Abide in Him. He abides in you,
now abide in Him. In other words, dwell in Him. Live in Him. Walk in Him. Continue in Him. As you have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, being rooted
and built up in Him and established in the faith and what? Abound
in therein with thanksgiving. And what does the very next verse
say? Beware. Beware that no man leads you
away with this philosophy and free will. So John uses this
word abide, dwell in Him, dwell in Him. And look how Peter says
it, right back over to your left, in the last chapter of 2 Peter.
2 Peter chapter 3. Look how he says it here in verse
17. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing
that you know these things before, these things that you've been
talking about, the day of the Lord coming and the heavens being
on fire and passing away and the elements melting with firm
and heat, seeing that you know these things before, beware,
lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked,
fall from your own steadfastness. That's a warning, isn't it? That's
encouraging. To be careful. Be warned about
this. Beware about this. But instead
of that, look, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. These warnings, these exhortations
for us to be careful not to fall will keep us from falling if
we'll hear them. But there are exhortations to
keep us from falling. There's warnings to keep us from
falling away. And that's what these verses
here in Hebrews 6 are about to my own understanding. No doubt
the Holy Spirit teaches the absolute and eternal salvation of every
true believer. There's no doubt about that.
There's too many passages of Scripture to teach us that a
true child of God can never fall away and be lost again. If a
man is born of the Spirit of God, then you can't unborn a
man. Even if we're born of our dads
in this life in the natural realm, there's no way to cease to be
a biological son of that man. And how much more is this heavenly
birth? If there is true union with Jesus
Christ, that union cannot be broken off. It cannot be broken
off. Where the life of Christ has
been given to the soul, that life can never die. That is the
life of Jesus Christ. As long as He lives, that life
that is within you shall live. Where God has begun a work of
grace in the heart, we are told that He will never cease. that
work until he's accomplished and completed it in the day of
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now that's a fact of Scripture.
That's facts of Scripture. And you and I could go on and
we have for several minutes here tonight proven that very fact
that the Scripture teaches. But you know there's one thing
to have the Scripture to prove that as a fact. And then for
one to live in the assurance of that. And the only way to
live in the assurance of that life that the Scripture sets
forth in that eternal salvation that it proves over and over
again is through very, very diligent, careful abiding in Christ. The old Puritans used to say
that obedience and assurance go hand in hand. And I think
they do. Here in Hebrews chapter 6 verse
12. Let me read this to you again.
I'll quote it to you. But look how these things go together.
He said, We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence. Diligence. And what follows that? What's attached to that diligence?
To the full assurance of hope until the end. being diligent
and living in the full assurance of hope. Those two things go
together. They go together. Some might say these exhortations
and these warnings that you and I study about create doubt. But you know they shouldn't.
They're not meant to create doubt. I don't think there's a Scripture.
I just don't think the Holy Spirit would write a Scripture to create
doubt in the heart of God's children. I just don't believe that. They're
not created in there and they're not put in there to make us doubt.
Doubting never helped anybody. Somebody said, well, you need
to doubt your salvation. Not if you're saved, you don't.
That isn't going to help you. These warnings and these exhortations
are given to us to create diligence and carefulness and continuance
in the faith. And that's where we get our assurance.
I bet you anything, if you could personally talk to these Hebrews
that Paul was writing to, those true Christians, those true believers,
I bet you many of them, if not most of them, were filled with
doubt about their salvation. If you were an unbeliever, if
you just had this religious profession, you'd have probably had all the
assurance in the world. But when you're a true believer
and you get negligent in your prayers, negligent in truly seeking
the Lord, I'll tell you what it'll do. It'll lead to doubt.
It will naturally lead to doubt. In the Lord's Word, assurance
of your salvation that you are truly His is always closely in
union with you obeying the Lord, with your walking with Him and
your following Him. Let me show you that in Colossians.
In Colossians chapter 1, Paul often spoke like this in his
writings. And it wasn't to create doubt.
It was just to prove to them the closer you stay to the Lord,
the more assurance that you are apt to have. Look what he says
in Colossians chapter 1, and look in verse 3. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have
to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven It's laid up for you. That sounds a lot like
what Peter said, didn't it? You know, it's reserved for you.
And you're kept by the power of God. Can you imagine this,
sheriffs, these folks we're living in? Whereof ye heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come to you
as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doeth
also in you, since the first day that you heard of it, and
knew the grace of God in truth. Now look right on what he says
in verse 20. And having made peace through the blood of His
cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him,
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight." And look in verse 23, "...if you continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel." If you continue. What if they didn't continue?
What if they got negligent in that? Well, it would have created
some doubt, wouldn't it? So these two things go hand in
hand. Assurance and diligence continuous
in the faith. Those who give the more earnest
heed to the things which they've heard, they're the very people
that are apt not to fall. And those who are awakened to
hear the warnings not to fall away will never fall away. And that's the end to which these
verses were given in our text in Hebrews chapter 6. to my understanding. But just for a few minutes now,
I want to do this. If I had a second option as to
what these passages teach, I would probably have to give more credit
to our dear forefathers like Owens and Gill and Bunyan and
Pink and those fellows. I have a lot of confidence in
those men. And I think they don't write something without us having
to give some credit to it and listen to it and waive what they
say carefully. We looked just a little bit last
week at what they believed about these passages and being enlightened
and tasting the heavenly gift and so on, but we didn't go into
any detail in it. But if you want to read Read
some of them on that. You're welcome to. But if I did
not understand the passage the way I've taught it to you the
last two weeks, then I'd have to understand this the way Dear
Owens and Pink did when they talked about these Jewish believers. These Jewish believers having
experienced some experience, religious experience
within and were never really and truly united to Jesus Christ. And therefore they did indeed
fall away and became apostates and lived and died as apostates. And I want to just look at that
just for a few minutes and let's see what would that teach. If
these aren't true believers, is it possible they weren't true
believers? And like I said, I think we have to consider that. We
have to look at all these other options. But remember this, these
Jewish believers, some of them at least, may have seen the Lord
Jesus Christ in the flesh. This was the early church, and
they were Jews, and it's possible that some of these very people
could have been standing at Lazarus' grave when Christ said, Lazarus,
come forth. That's a possibility. They could
have felt the power of that Word. My goodness! There's so much
power in that Word. He raised this man from the dead. Most certainly they witnessed
the miraculous power of God in these apostles in the early church.
They heard them preach, didn't they? They saw the power of God
working through them. even raising people from the
dead and healing the sick. And yet, after experiencing so
much of miraculous power, they still wasn't in Christ.
Not truly united to Him. Here's what one man, one of them
wrote. I don't know which one wrote this. I don't know if it
was Owens or Gale or which one of them it was, but he made this
statement. And this is along the line of
what they believed. He said many Jews had a faith
that was real to them, but it wasn't saving. Many of the Jews
believed, but they did not confess Christ because they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God. Some of the Pharisees
even believed in Christ, Yet they said it was necessary to
be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Though their faith
was real to them, it was not Satan. There is a repentance,
a worldly sorrow, which cannot be distinguished for a time from
the godly sorrow of a true convert. There is a joy with which some
receive the word and yet have no root in themselves and eventually
they fall away. There is a hope which God will
not honor. It's the hope of a hypocrite
which will perish. There is holiness that many professing
Christians have, yet it's pharisaical and deceptive. There isn't an
enlightenment as universal as the knowledge of the gospel.
There are miraculous powers shared apparently by Judas, by wicked
Balaam, and perhaps by other men who never knew Christ, and
who on the day of judgment shall say, Lord, have we not cast out
devils in your name? Have we done many wonderful works
in your name? And he will say, depart from
me, I never knew you. So is it possible? And I would
have to believe if this was teaching that that wasn't teaching what
we've been teaching for the last two weeks, I'd have to believe
then that Gil and those fellows were right. These fellows had
gone a long way in experiencing something of the power of God,
and yet they weren't truly in Christ. And therefore, they fell
away from that profession. Brother Scott Richardson, right
before he died a number of years ago, gave me a rather large pamphlet
And I noticed that he had read it a lot. He had marked it all
up. And the man's name that wrote the pamphlet was Robert Branstead. He's a man from out in California.
The best pamphlet I have ever read on the subject of how to live the victorious life,
the best by far that I've ever read, Branstead wrote it. a pamphlet. He wrote it in 1975, and he was renowned all over
the West in California where he lived. In the mid-80s, he
denied Christ, became a professed atheist, and I read where he
said, I chuckle when I look back at the material that I wrote.
I chuckle. He now believes that the world
was created out of a big bang. There is no God. There is no
Christ. There is no gospel. There is no hereafter. And he
brags about that. And for years now, he has confounded
everybody that knew him and read his works. What do we say about
a fellow like that? How for may a man truly go and
not be in Christ? Not know the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is the perfect example of that. John said they went out
from us. They were among us. But they
finally went out from us because they were not out of us. Paul
wrote about Demas, my fellow laborer, who preached with me. We fellowshiped together. We
prayed together. He hath forsaken me, having loved
this present evil world. All along he loved this world
and finally left. So if I didn't believe that this
was just warnings to spur a true child of God on and get him out
of this dull coldness that he got himself into and he wouldn't
fall away, if I didn't believe that, I would have to in turn
believe that these were men who went a long way and were never
united to Christ. So you will have to study this
out for yourself is what I'm saying. You'll have to be persuaded
in your own mind. I'll tell you one thing, brothers
and sisters. This helps me. This spurs me on. When I get
cold, when I get indifferent, it spurs me on. Falling is bad
enough, but what's my next step? What's going to get me out of
that coldness This spurs me on. And I sure don't want to be among
those Judases that cast out devils and was one himself, preached
that men should repent and was without it himself. I don't want
to be a Judas, do you? There was a meeting years and
years ago. I don't know, it was probably
somewhere in the early 80s, 84 or 85. Some of the young preachers was
there in the motel in Ashland, Kentucky talking. And Brother
Henry came in. And he had a solemn look on his
face. And he sat down there on the
edge of the bed and he said, Brother, I've got to know Christ. I've got to know Christ. That's the way I feel. That's
the way I feel. I've got to know Christ. There
is no place to stop. There is no place to sit down.
There is no place, surely, to go backwards. I've got to know Christ. I've
got to be found in Him. And therefore, we press towards
that mark, don't we? For the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. And whatever this passage here
means, if it spurs me on, if it makes me careful to that end,
to abide in Christ, to be careful and to continue in earnest prayer
and seeking Him in His Word, if it does that for me, if it
spurs me on, then this is a good passage. It's a good passage
to that end.