I think sometimes it's a good
thing that the Bible is divided into chapters and verses. It
makes it a lot easier for me to say, turn to Hebrews 6.20.
The chapter divisions and verse divisions are most unfortunate.
And whole denominations have been built on one single verse,
usually that's just part of a sentence. Verse 20 is only part of a sentence.
You see, verse 17 ends with a colon. Verse 18 with a colon, verse
19 with a semicolon, verse 20 with a period. That's all one
sentence. And it's not to be broken up, not to be read just
one phrase out of the sentence. If you're going to do that, you
can say, there is no God, because the Bible says there is no God.
But that's part of a sentence. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. That's breaking up a sentence.
You're not allowed to do that. Him that cometh to me, I'll in
no wise cast out." The Bible doesn't say that, not anywhere.
Oh yes it does, I beg your pardon, that's half a sentence. It's
not fair to anybody to quote half a sentence. Our Lord Jesus
said, all that the Father giveth me will come to me, comma, and
him that cometh, I'll in no wise cast out. That's fairness. Well,
whosoever will may come. Well, one preacher's offering
$500 to him but finds that in the Bible, just not fair. Well,
I know it is. I beg your pardon. It says, "...the
Spirit and the bride say, Come, let him that heareth say, Come,
and whosoever is athirst, let him come, and whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely." That's what the verse
says. But we're going to hell on our verses and our clichés
and our, I thought it said this. We'd better find out what it
says. But Hebrews 6, you see, begins with the word, therefore.
You just don't begin a new thought with the word therefore, do you?
Anybody that knows anything about the English language would know
if you start out with therefore, you said something before that
caused you to say therefore. And you've got to find out what
said before to see what the therefore is therefore. That's right. That's just common sense. And
so I've got to back up to chapter 5 to find out what chapter 6
is saying, because it wasn't divided in chapters when the
Apostle wrote it. He wrote it in paragraphs and
sentences, and he wrote the whole book. It was a letter to the
Hebrew Christians. And you don't take a letter that
someone writes and just read one paragraph and throw it away.
You read the whole letter. You read the whole letter. You
don't divide it up. So we start out in chapter 5,
verse 1. We've got to go back to chapter
4, but we've got to start somewhere. For every priest, we're talking
about the high priest now, the high priest of Israel, every
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. In other words, the priests that
ministered about the tabernacle and the temple, they were chosen
from among men. Aaron, the sons of Levi. These men were chosen by God
and they were ordained of God to represent the people, to come
before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for men to God. Now look at the next verse forward. No man taketh this honor upon
himself. A person didn't volunteer for
this office. A man didn't say, well, I choose
to be the high priest. No man takes this office of honor
upon himself, only the man who's appointed of God, chosen of God
to be a high priest. Verse 4 says, No man taketh this
honor unto himself, but he that's called of God, as was Aaron. Aaron was called of God. Moses
was called of God to lead the people out of Egypt to the kingdom. And Aaron was called of God and
appointed of God to be the high priest. He was chosen of God.
And all the high priests after that were chosen of God. Verse
5, So also our Lord Jesus Christ glorified not himself to be made
a high priest, But he that said unto him, the father said unto
him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. And in another
place he said, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our High Priest, was chosen of
the Father to be the High Priest. He was ordained of God to be
the Christ, to be the Messiah, and to be the High Priest. He
was chosen of God. Now then, look at verse 7. Now
here's the thing about, in verse 7a, our Lord Jesus Christ, like
I said this morning, is God. Jesus Christ is God. Very God
of very God. Perfect God. Eternal Deity. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things
were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. Jesus Christ is God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. The Father said to Him,
Thy throne, O God, is forever. He said, Feed the church of God,
which He purchased with His own blood. Jesus Christ is God. But
at the same time, Christ is a man. And that's what he's saying here
in verse 7 and 8. He's a man. In every sense of
the word, Christ is a man. I can't explain that. I just
know that in Christ there's a nature of God that never changes. He's
the God Almighty. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. He's God. And yet Jesus Christ is a man
who was tried and tempted in all points, in every point as
we are, and yet without sin. He's the God-man. Jesus Christ
is God. You see, that's what they said
to him in John 10. He said, many good works have I done among
you, for which of these do you stone me? They said, we're not
stoning you for good work, we're stoning you for blasphemy. Because
you, being a man, say that you're God. And a man can't be God. Realistically, logically, that's
true. A man can't be God. Logically,
God can't be a man, but in this case, God became a man. Now that's so. The angel said
to Joseph, you'll call his name Jesus, you'll call his name Emmanuel,
which is being interpreted, God is with us. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. The Word God was made flesh and
actually dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, the exact expressed image
of God Almighty. That's Jesus Christ. And yet
He was a man. He was a man, look at verse 7,
who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers
and supplications to the Father, and how often we hear Him crying
to the Father. Father, if it be thy will, let
this cup pass from me. Father, I know that you hear
me always. Father, I thank thee, Lord of
heaven and earth. You've hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them to me. Father, open his
eyes. Our Lord Jesus prayed like a
man prays because he was a man, of course. Who in the days of
his flesh, and he was flesh, When he had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears, one time he
sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. That's agony. That's
agonizing in prayer. Someone said that the reason
for that was his whole nature rebellion against the prospects
of being separated from the Father. His whole nature, He said, I
am sorrowful even unto death. I'm going to die right here if
something isn't done. For being God in the flesh, He
knew something of what it was to feel the judgment and wrath
of His Father. And He rebelled against it. His
human nature, His flesh rebelled against it. I can't explain that.
I just know it so. And he cried unto Him that was
able to deliver him from death, deliver him from death. And we're
talking about that experience in the garden. And he was heard
in that he feared for his piety, for his holiness. Though he were
the Son of God, capital S-O-N, though he were God, though he
were the Son of God, though he were very God of very God, yet
he learned. Figure that one out. He grew in wisdom and in favor
with God and men. He was born in a home, just like
your little children. He grew up in a carpentry shop,
and he grew in wisdom and in favor with God and men. Learned
obedience. How did he learn obedience? By
the things that he suffered. I want to read that to you in
the Amplified. I want you to listen to that, those two verses
in the Amplified. Now, here's what we're talking
about. When the Old Testament tabernacle
stood, There was the Holy of Holies where the presence of
God was revealed, the Shekinah glory, nowhere else in that Holy
of Holies, separated by the veil from the holy place. And once
a year, the high priest who was taken from among men, he was
a man who could have compassion on the ignorant, who not only
for the people but offered up for himself a sin offering. That high priest, taken from
among men, chosen by God once a year, would take the blood
which was shed out there on the altar and the body of the lamb
burnt, and then he came and he bring the blood and the incense,
which is the prayers of Christ, under the veil into the Holy
of Holies and put it on the mercy seat. The atonement, picturing
Christ. Now Christ is our high priest.
He's God. Yet he was taken from among men,
he became a man. It wasn't a play-like, it wasn't
a charade, it wasn't a show, else his obedience was a charade. Christ had to obey the law of
God as a man in the flesh, enduring real, honest temptation. And
Jesus Christ, God, came down to this earth and indwelt, became
incarnate. God indwelt the body, a body
thou hast prepared me, he said to the father. And God indwelt
that body, and that body was subject to everything to which
we are subjected. He was born from a mother's womb.
He was salted and swaddled. He took nourishment from a mother's
breast. He had his diapers changed. He
was circumcised. He's eight days old. He went
through all the rituals of the Jewish religion. He grew up.
He learned to walk. Think about God learning to walk.
But he learned to walk. He didn't come into this world
walking. He learned to walk. He took his bruises and bumps
just like anybody else. He learned to walk. He did chores
around the house. He worked for his father in the
carpentry shop. What did the Jews say to the
Pharisees? We know who he is. He's the carpenter. We know his
mama is Mary, his daddy is Joseph, and we know his brothers, Joseph
and Judas, and we know his sisters. He's nothing but a man. Well,
he was a man, but not nothing but a man. He was a man in every
sense of the word. And he learned obedience, and
he learned in suffering, and he was subjected to every trial
and temptation that human flesh can be subjected to. Now listen
to this, Hebrews 5, verse 7 and 8 in the Amplified. In the days
of his flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, offered up definite
special petitions for that which he not only wanted, but for that
which he needed as a man. He needed strength, he prayed
for it. He needed help, he prayed for
it. And supplications with strong cryings and tears to God, who
was always able to save him out from death. And he was heard. He was heard because of his reverence
toward God the Father, because of his godly fear, because of
his piety. That is, in that he shrank from
the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father.
That's when he prayed the greatest prayer, John 17. Although he
was a son, the son, The well-beloved Son, the only begotten Son, He
actively learned obedience through what He suffered. That's just
so. That's so. Oh, how high, how
unattainable, how beyond understanding the mysteries of incarnation,
God became a man. And that's what we're seeing
here. These high-placed of the Old Testament, they didn't just
volunteer to be a high-place. It wasn't something a fellow
aspired unto. But God chose them and God selected
them and made them high priests. And Jesus Christ Himself, the
Son of God, did not glorify Himself and make Himself a high priest.
The Father made Him a high priest and sent Him down here in this
world among men. And our Lord Jesus Christ, God,
was in human flesh. And He suffered and was tempted
and tried in all points as we are yet without sin. Now look
at verse 14 of Hebrews 4, back one chapter. Chapter 4, verse
14, "...seeing then we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." Let's hold fast our profession. We have a high priest. You better
have one. You better have one. "...for we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but he was in every point, in all point tempted like as we
are." yet without sin. All right, verse 9 of Hebrews
5, And being made perfect, he was perfect in his birth, he
was born without sin. He was perfect in his life, he
lived without sin, he knew no sin. Perfect, perfect man. He was perfect in his death,
in that he offered up himself without spot to God. And being
made perfect, Now, the Old Testament priests could never save anybody,
they weren't perfect. Their sacrifices could never
save anybody, their sacrifices were not perfect. Here in the
Hebrews 10, let me show you something over here, Hebrews chapter 10.
This is important here, Hebrews chapter 10. It says here in chapter
10, verse 11, And every priest in the Old Testament standeth
daily, never sat down, always stood, his work was never finished.
ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices which
can never take away sin. But this man, this man, this
man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering He perfected, He perfected. One perfect offering, He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. All right, verse, go back to
chapter 5 now. Being made perfect, verse 9,
He became the author of an eternal salvation. and eternal salvation,
a salvation that was planned in eternity past and a salvation
that will continue through eternity future. And he became the author
of eternal salvation to everyone who hears him, to everyone who
heeds his word, to everyone who believes on him, to everyone
who looks to him and obeys his voice. For he is called of God. He is called of God, a high priest. after the order of Melchizedek.
Now then, you see, the priesthood of the Old Testament was always
taken from the tribe of Levi. There were twelve tribes in the
Old Testament. One of them was named Levi. And
the priest always came from the tribe of Levi. All of the other
eleven tribes had designated land. In other words, in the
Old Testament, All eleven tribes had their designated land, their
place where they lived, place where they owned. They owned
land, the tribe of Dan, and the tribe of Reuben, and the tribe
of Judah, and all the different tribes. The tribe of Levi had
no land, no inheritance, because they were the priests. They lived
by the things of the temple. The Levites lived by the things
of the temple. They did not own any land. They
did not have any businesses. That tribe lived by the things
of the temple. That was the priest. But our
Lord Jesus Christ was not taken from the tribe of Levi. He was
taken from the tribe of Judah, from which a priest never came.
He was taken from the tribe of Judah. He was, in many ways,
the Old Testament priest pictured Christ, but in many ways they
do not picture Christ. You see, they came from the tribe
of Judah, a tribe of Levi. He came from the tribe of Judah,
which is the kingly tribe. That's where the kings came from.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh, the king
of priests, the king of peace, come. Our Lord was taken from
the tribe of Judah. These priests from Levi were
many. He was one. These priests had
a beginning of their priesthood and an end because they lived
and died. He was after the order of Melchizedek without beginning
of days or end of days, without pedigree, mother or father, you
see. Our Lord is eternal. Our Lord
is eternal. They offered animal sacrifice,
He offered His blood. They offered many sacrifices,
He offered one. Their blood could never take
away sin. The blood of His sacrifice perfected
forever those for whom it was offered. So that's the reason
over and over again in Psalm 110 and then here in Hebrews
5, he keeps saying you're a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,
Melchizedek, Melchizedek. It's over and over and over again.
And you need to study who Melchizedek is. Abraham was coming back from
the slaughter of the kings when he had rescued Lot and these
folks from Sodom. And he was met. by a priest,
Melchizedek. Nobody knows where he came from,
nobody knows where he went. He said of Melchizedek, he was
without mother or father, he was without beginning of days
or end of days, he was the high priest of the Most High God.
And he met Abraham and blessed him. Abraham paid tithes to him
and he blessed him with wine and bread. And then he was gone.
And that keeps saying that our Lord Jesus Christ is a priest,
not after the order of Aaron, because Aaron's priesthood was
temporary, and Aaron's priesthood had to do with a worldly tabernacle.
Aaron's priesthood had to do with animal sacrifices. Aaron's
priesthood was never complete or finished. Christ is the heavenly
priest. All right, let's read on. Now
then, verse 11, now here's a key to just about everything in these
two chapters. Now Paul, you see what Paul's
been saying, if Paul's the writer of Hebrews, and I take for granted
he is, he may not be. But anyway, what Paul is saying
here, that every priest taken from among men is ordained of
God to offer sacrifices, to go into the Holy of Holies, to bring
me into the presence of God, to intercede for me, to receive
God's blessing. Christ Jesus the Lord is a priest.
God became a man. Jesus Christ, our high priest,
as a man, was tempted, tested, tried, as we are, yet without
sin. He even prayed to the Father. He cried for things he needed,
things he wanted, things that were necessary. And you say,
these are deep things. I know. And Paul says here in
verse eleven, of whom, of whom. That didn't say of what. It says
of whom. Of whom I have many things to
say. Of Christ. Our God. Our Redeemer, our Savior, our
Lord, our High Priest, His incarnation, His temptation, His perfect work,
His intercession, all of these things. I've got, of Christ,
I have many things to say. And they're things hard to be
uttered. They're things that are difficult to teach. They're
things that are difficult to understand. They're things that
have to be received by faith. And they're things that have
to be laid on a foundation. Our Lord said to His disciples,
I've got many things to say unto you, you can't bear them now.
I tell you, this is the day when you get 19 years old and you'll
master the Bible. This is the day when you get
20 or 21 years old and you can't learn anything else. And here
our Lord talked to Peter, James, and John. And these glorious,
illustrious apostles who had sat at his feet three and a half
years, mature men in their forties and fifties, and he said, I've
got a whole lot of things to say to you. You don't know anything
yet. But you can't even stand them.
You can't bear them. You don't have the foundation
to lay these things on. It'd be just like building a
building, laying the brick right there on the ground. You've got
to have a foundation. You've got to have a foundation.
You can't lay brick on ground. You've got to have a footer and
a foundation and a strong one that'll hold whatever goes up
there. And I've got so many things to
say unto you. Nevertheless, when the Holy Spirit has come, He'll
guide you into all truth. He'll take the things of mine
and show them to you. And here the writer of Hebrews
is saying, he's talked about the priesthood, he's talked about
Christ's excellency above Abraham, above the angels, above Aaron,
above the priesthood, above everything, above the tabernacle. And he
said, of Christ, I've got a whole lot of things to tell you. But
he said, just so dull of hearing. Hard, things hard to be uttered.
He said, I went to the third heaven one time and I came back
knowing some things that I couldn't tell anybody. Couldn't tell anybody. Unlawful to utter. And he said,
I've got so much to tell you, but you're dull of hearing. You're
dull of hearing. Closed our ears with tradition.
Closed our minds and eyes with tradition. We got our little
religious denominations and sectarianism and our customs and all our ways
already. We're not even old enough to
shave. We're not out of the cradle but
a few days. But we got all of our foundations and buildings
built. We're ready to meet God at the judgment. God help us.
He won't. He won't. You're dull of hearing. Look at verse 12. For when for
the time you ought to be teachers. You ought to be teachers. You've
been in church all your life. You had a Bible on your coffee
table all your life, but you never read it. You've had it
on the bookshelf all your life. All these years you've had this
book. You ought to be teachers, but you're not. You have need
that one teach you again the very first principles and articles
of God. I mean kindergarten work. I mean
first grade work. That's what he's saying, the
first principles. The elementary beginnings, when
you ought to be a teacher, you ought to be a scholar, you ought
to be an authority on the things of God, but you're not. You're
just a baby. And you need somebody to come
back and take you back to the first principle. We're going
to see what they are in a minute. See what they are. You hadn't settled
the issue of grace and works yet. That's what he talks about
in chapter 6, verse 1. You hadn't settled the issue
of works and grace yet. And that's elementary. That's
kindergarten work in the spiritual kingdom. You ought to be a teacher,
but you're not. And you become such, you become
such as have need of milk, skim milk. Skim milk. Not of strong meat. What's the
strong meat he's talking about here? The person of Christ, the
work of Christ, the incarnation of Christ, the priesthood of
Christ, the intercession of Christ, the mediatorial work of Christ,
the incarnation, all these things. Oh, don't you forget verse 11,
of whom he said, I've got many things to say. Of whom? He's not talking about getting
deeper into the law. He's talking about getting deeper
into Christ. He's not talking about getting deeper in the millennium.
He's talking about getting deeper in Christ. He's not talking about
getting deeper in prophecy. He's talking about getting deeper
in whom. You better not lose sight of those two words. Those
two words. You study Christ all your life
and you won't master Him. You won't master Him. You study
just the incarnation all your life and you won't master it.
The glory of Christ, God-man, of whom, I tell you this is the
key here, Charlie, of whom I've got many things to say, of whom,
but you're not able to take them. For everyone, strong meat is
Christ, verse 13. Everyone that uses milk, you've
got to go back, everybody, you've got to go back and take them
through the principles again, through the elementary stage
again, through the first oracles again. They're unskillful in
the word of righteousness, His righteousness, and they're babies,
babies. But strong meat belongs to full-grown
men. Strong meat becometh to people,
becometh, belongeth to them who have grown in grace, even those
who by reason of use." In other words, they've used their minds
and their hearts. They've used the Word of God.
They've used the things God's given them. They've used the
means God's put at their disposal. They've used every opportunity
to hear the gospel. And they've had their senses
exercised to discern between good and evil, right and wrong,
truth and error. Now, verse chapter six, therefore,
therefore. You see how you lay the foundation
there? And I don't have time to go back through all of it.
I hope you remembered somehow to get the tape and listen to
it again. Talking about the priesthood of Christ, the intercession,
representation of our Lord Jesus Christ, all these great things
around the person of Christ. He said, oh, I've got so much
more about Christ to tell you. I've got so much of whom to teach
you. So much more about Him, but you're
not able to bear it, because you're just babies. You're dull of hearing, your
mind's been closed up, and your eyes and your ears by all these
other things. You're just babies. When you ought to be teachers,
you're still trying to, still having to be taught the first
principles, the elementary things. Therefore, leaving, leaving these
principles, these elementary things, these first articles
of the doctrines of Christ, let's go on to maturity. Let's go on
to maturity. Let's not have to lay again the
foundation of repentance from dead works. That's settling the
grace works issue. That's what that is. That's what
he's talking about, the grace works issue. He says this is
one of the first elementary things, that men are not saved by works
but by grace. We turn, we repent of our dead
works, our Sabbath keeping, our tithing, Our ritualism, our legalism,
all these things are Jewish Levitical law. They were under a schoolmaster
till they came to Christ. They were under the Levitical
law till they came to Christ. They were under all these things
till they came to Christ. And men aren't saved by their
works, they're saved by Christ, and he's the fulfillment of all
these things, and that's what he's talking about, turning from
these dead works to a person. to Christ Jesus. I said, we don't
have to go through that again, do we? Being saved not by works,
but by grace. And we turn from these dead works,
and of faith toward God. That's the principle. Look over
here at Hebrews chapter 11 a moment. Faith toward God. Listen to this.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that God is. That's the first principle. Do
people have to come to you still and prove that God is? That God
lives? That we ought to believe in God?
And He's the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him? That's
the first principle. Look at verse 2. Let's leave
these first principles, these elementary teachings. Let's decide
between grace and works and get it over with. Faith in God, the
doctrines of baptism. Now, that's Old Testament purifying.
The Jews said you didn't wash your hands before you ate. Wash
them. You didn't wash your hands before you ate. You didn't do
this before you ate. All these things, those things
are fulfilled in Christ. The baptism also, talking about
here, is John's baptism, the baptism of repentance. Maybe
included New Testament baptism, I don't know, but we're talking
about the first principles now. The laying on of hands, when
the Holy Spirit came, the dispensation of the Spirit, when the Holy
Spirit was given by the laying on of the apostles' hands. Don't
do that anymore. That was done. The Holy Spirit
Christ was glorified and the Holy Spirit came. The writer
of the Epistle of Hebrews says, we don't have to go back and
prove that again that the Holy Spirit has come. The resurrection
of the dead. Look back here at I Corinthians
just a moment. In I Corinthians. Do we have
to prove that still? 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached
and he rose from the dead, how say some among you... This is
a church he's writing to. How say some among you there
is no resurrection of the dead? You see what he's saying? We
have to go back and prove that again. We have to go back again
and establish that foundation, resurrection of the dead. Eternal
judgment, there's a heaven and there's a hell, there's a judgment
to meet. And this will we do, if God permits.
That is, not keep on with these elementary things and principle
things, but what we're going to do, if God permits, is go
on. Go on. We're going to talk about Christ.
We're going to talk about His glory. We're going to talk about
His priesthood. We're going to talk about His intercession.
We're going to go on and talk about Christ. Now, you see what he's
saying? Therefore, in chapter 5, leaving
these principles, these elementary, these kindergarten truths, Grace
and works, salvation by grace. They're not all Israel that's
Abraham's seed, but in Christ shall thy seed be called. That's
principle of faith in God. We believe in God, believe also
in me, Christ said. Of these purifying and baptisms,
of the laying on of hands, the coming of the Holy Spirit, of
the resurrection of the dead, the hope of the resurrection,
and of eternal judgment. Those are principles, those are
things that have to be settled and built upon. And what we're
going to do, if God permits, is go on to maturity. Now look
at verse four. Four. It is impossible for those
who are once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word
of God and the powers of the world to come, if they should
fall away. to renew them again unto repentance,
seeing that they crucify unto themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to open shame." Now, there are three principal opinions
about these three verses, three principal opinions, three opinions
that are held by most people. Of course, there are dozens of
opinions, but here are the three that have some merit. One of them not much merit, but
two have a good bit of merit. The first opinion of many people
is this, that this is teaching that a man may be saved and then
lost. In other words, he's saying this
is a saved man. He's been enlightened. He's tasted
the heavenly gift. Of course, who's Christ? Christ
is the gift of God. He's made a partaker of the Holy
Spirit. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of
His. He's tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the
world are coming. If he falls from grace, if he falls from
his profession, if he denies Christ, it'd be impossible to
save him again. Well, the people that teach that
don't practice it because they get them saved again. They get
them saved again and again and again. If that be the case, if
a man did depart from the faith, he could never be saved again.
It says it's impossible to renew him to repentance. Impossible.
He could never be Savior. Well, we know that's not what
that's teaching. We know it's not what it's teaching because
it doesn't fit in with the rest of the Word of God. My friends,
no Scripture is of any private interpretation. That is, no verse
of Scripture, like I say, these are verses again, that you can't
lift that out. and put it on the wall and say,
this is teaching this, if the rest of the Word of God doesn't
back it up. And our Lord Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice,
I give them eternal life, and they'll never perish. All that
my Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh out
of nowhere is cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do my will, but the will of him that sent me, and this is the
will of him that sent me, that of everyone, that if given me
I lose nothing. Not one sheep of Christ, not
one elect of Christ, not one for whom Christ died, not one
believer will ever be lost. So that's not what that's saying.
Now, the second opinion is this, and I lean a little bit toward
this. Charles Spurgeon taught this. He said this is a supposition. This is a supposition. He's saying
here it is impossible to renew them if they shouldn't fall away. In other words, what Spurgeon
is saying is this, these people are saved. They are believers,
they're children of God. They've tasted the good word
of God, they've been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, they've tasted
the powers of the world to come, they're redeemed. If they should
fall away, if Christ can't keep them, then they don't have any
hope, if they should fall away. That's pretty good. That's true.
That's true. That fits in with the Word of
God. If a believer can't be saved by Christ, then he can't be saved.
But now listen to this interpretation. See what this says here now.
If a man has heard the gospel, These principles, these, in other
words, grace as opposed to works. First principle, back to your
verse one. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, that is the works of the law, Levitical law. Grace
is the way we say, not works. We believe in God. Not laying
again those doctrines of purifying and baptism, the coming of the
Spirit, resurrection, death and eternal judgment. For if a man's
heard this gospel, again and again, the new covenant of grace
as opposed to the law, grace as opposed to works. If he's
heard that, and if he should turn away from that gospel and
that good news back to the tithes and back to the sacrifices and
back to the Levitical law, it is impossible to renew him to
genuine repentance, for in preferring the ceremonies to Christ, he
has put the Lord Jesus to the greatest shame. The greatest
shame. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We're complete in Him. It's by
His grace that we're saved. And the greatest insult to His
redemptive glory is to add to that glorious person and work
the deeds of the law or the works of the flesh. Now look at verse
7 and 8. And this seems to be, this seems
to be an illustration of what he's just said. Four. Take the
ground. And God rains the rain on it
often, continually. The rain falls on that ground,
falls on that ground. The good rain from God, the refreshing,
life-giving rain from God falls on that ground. And it brings
forth good things. It brings forth fruit. It brings
forth herbs. It brings forth vegetables and
meets the need of people who've worked in it. Well, God blesses
that ground. But here's a ground over here.
And the same rain that ought to give life, that ought to bring
fruits and vegetables and herbs, that ought to bring forth these,
that same rain continually falls on this ground, and all it yields
is thorns and brash. Well, what's it good for? To
curse and to burn. Now, then, we're talking about
this gospel of Christ, this gospel of grace, the gospel of free
grace in Christ Jesus. If that gospel falls on you,
It falls on you. It ought to bring forth good
things. Faith, love, joy, peace, patience, humility, all these
things. Love for God. If it does, it's blessed of God.
But if that same gospel falls upon you and does not bring forth
those things, then your end is for burning and fit to be cursed. Look at verse 9. Beloved, I am
persuaded better things of you. Better things than ground to
be cursed. Better things than ground to
be burnt. I'm persuaded better things of you of the gospel of
Christ than thorns or briars. Things that accompany salvation. What are the things that accompany
salvation? Turn to Galatians 5. Galatians the 5th chapter,
verse 22. It says here, the fruit of the
Spirit. is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
That's the things that accompany salvation. Salvation's in Christ. Salvation's of Christ. Salvation's
through Christ. Salvation's because of Christ.
But in this thing of salvation, God brings forth fruit and perseverance. Verse 10, For God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed
toward His name, in that you 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 in Christ to
the very end. And that you be not slothful,
indifferent, careless, but follow them, follow them who through
patience and faith, through faith and patience, inherited the promise,
and Abraham is one of them. God called that man out of his
father's house, and he left not knowing where he was going. And
God told him he'd make of him a great nation, not knowing how.
He didn't even have an heir. But Abraham, through 70 or 80
years, believed God. He went through trial after trial
after trial, but he believed God. He rested in the grace of
God. He rested on the promises of
God through all these trials. It says that Abraham, look at
verse 13, for when God made promise to Abraham, he could swear by
no greater, he swore by himself. He said to Abraham, surely as
my name is the Lord God, I'll bless you by my name, I swear
I'll bless you and I'll multiply you. And so after Abraham, resting
in the promise of God, believing the promise of God, had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. And Paul said, that's what I'm
expecting of you. I'm expecting of you. Verse 16, for men barely
swear by the greater. In other words, when you go to
court, they put a Bible out in front of you, you put your hand
on it and raise the other hand and swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth. The Bible's greater than you are and you're
swearing by the Bible, so that settles arguments. Two men are
arguing. He said, you didn't do it. He
said, I swear to God I did it. Usually that calms him down.
He said, well, you know, if he's going to swear by God, he did
it. And so an oath ends that argument, verse 17, wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show to his elect, the heirs of promise,
the immutability, the unchangeableness of his promise, confirmed it
by an oath, that by two immutable things, God's promise and God's
oath, God's word and God's oath, it's impossible for God to lie.
You and I can have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold of the hope Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. Christ
is the hope set before us. And here, which hope we have,
as an anchor of our soul. We don't need to be wishy-washy,
blown around by every wind that blows, but our souls are anchored. Have you ever been on a ship
that has no anchor that's drifting? I have. We drifted up in World
War II. We drifted up on a coral and
had to sit there until the tide came in and lifted us off. The
ship just drifts, the wind, it has no, our propeller motors
were out and we were just drifting. The anchors wouldn't hold. He
says, we have an anchor, sure and steadfast, in the veil. Now, what are we talking about?
Here's that holy of holies. And the high priest, once a year,
would go under the veil with the blood and the censer, the
incense. He'd put that blood on the mercy
seat. Once a year, that's the atonement. And he's back out
of there. That's the holy place, that's
the presence of God, the Shekinah glory between the cherubim, and
he's picturing Christ. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ took
not the animal blood, but his own blood, the blood of God,
the blood of the God-man. And once for all, he went not
into the holy place made with hands, for that veil was rent
in two, from the top to the bottom, but in the heaven itself. There
he offered before the throne of God, on the mercy seat of
glory, his own blood, the God-man, our forerunner, our representative,
our ambassador. We were in him, in his life,
in his death, in his burial, in his resurrection. And God
the Father accepted him, and he sat down on the right hand
of God. And there he intercedes for us.
He has gone to possess heaven. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. I don't know what preparation
need to be made, but it's made now. He's there. And the anchor
of my soul and the hope of my soul and the assurance of my
soul is there within the veil in the presence of God. That's
what he's saying here, whether the forerunner is for us already
entered. Already entered. It's even Jesus. And you know why he calls him
Jesus, sir? Because he's a man. A man. Turn back to I Timothy.
I Timothy chapter 2. Now listen to this. There's one
God and one Mediator, verse 5, chapter 2 of I Timothy. There's
one God, one Mediator between God and man, the man. He doesn't
say the God Christ Jesus, he doesn't say the Lord Christ Jesus,
a man. And that's what Hebrews 6.20 is saying, our forerunner,
our representative, our federal head, the one in whom we have
all been placed by grace, by divine election, by faith, by
atonement in Christ, even Jesus, made a high priest, not like
Aaron, who's out of business when he died, who's out of business
when somebody took over for him, but a priest forever. after the
order of Melchizedek, having no beginning or end of day. Our
high priest, you know, Israel, that high priest wore robes and
phylacteries and veils around the bottom of his garment, and
he was nothing but a man like everybody else, and they knew
it. Had infirmities and afflictions like everybody else, but he had
that blood. And he went under that veil, and they'd all stand
out and listen. And he went about in the holy
of holies, and those veils would ring. They knew he wasn't dead.
They knew God hadn't killed him. He put that blood on the mercy
seat, and they waited for him to come out. And he came out.
And for that year, they had atonement. It had to be repeated the next
year. But always they listened for the bells to ring. And he
moved around in that holy place. But our Lord Jesus Christ wears
no bells. He's God Himself. He's a perfect
God, perfect man. He went into the presence of
God. And he went there, and he's not coming out. He sat down.
because His work's finished and He took us with Him. And Ephesians,
if you'll turn to the book of Ephesians, just a moment. I'm
wearing you now, I've taken too long. But that's the reason we're
dull at hearing, we haven't exercised our senses, we've put a time
limit on everything. Ephesians 2, 5 says, when we
were dead in sin, God had quickened us with Christ, He raised us
with Christ, raised us up together, verse 6, and made us sit together
in the heaven of places, already anchored in the veil, seated
in Christ, accepting the Beloved, justified in Him, and that's
our hope. And we just started studying
that. We don't have to go back and prove we're saved by grace.
If you do, you've missed it. You don't have to go back and
prove that you don't have to wash your hands before you eat.
You don't have to go back and prove the purifying and prove
that the Holy Spirit's come. You got these fellas on television
preaching on the Holy Spirit. One fella said last week, now
you can be saved and not have the Holy Spirit. That's a lie
and he knows it. He's just making money on that.
A man that doesn't have the Holy Spirit hasn't been regenerated.
Regeneration is by the Holy Spirit. A man that hasn't got the Holy
Spirit doesn't know who Christ is because the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ. A man that does not have the
Holy Spirit has not been justified. We're justified by the Spirit,
it's said in one place. By the Father, by the Son, and
by the Spirit. So you don't have to lay again
these things. And I felt that it does. Keeps
on playing around with this, and then leaves it. Forget him. Leave him alone, he said. Like
Ephraim, he's turned to his idols, because he's putting Christ to
shame. Open shame. He's gone back to his idols.
He's leaving him alone. And this thing in verse 4 and 5 and 6
can be applied to a man who's heard the gospel and hasn't been
saved, because Christ is the good Word of God.