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Hebrews 6 is the topic of today's show.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. This is Mike Abendroth, and we are back doing live shows. Well, technically not live-live, but they�re not reruns. Anyway, we are approaching, I think we are now into our ninth year.
So, finished eight, now into our ninth year. That�s amazing. It�s hard for me to say the word �our� because I grew up saying it �our. Our ninth year. Our ninth year. But it�s our ninth year. It is the final �our.
It is the final countdown. The other day, that song was going through my mind, �The Final Countdown. At NoCoRadio is the Twitter handle. We have a Facebook page. I don�t really interact too much. I just hoot-sweet it and send things out, but there is a Facebook page, No Compromise Radio.
There�s a what else is there? Oh, I think there are a variety of things there. We have a YouTube channel and NoCoXPXPXP. Who knows what we have? You can tell this is not my real job. This is just my hobby.
Well, the fun part about this hobby is it relates directly to my job, and I�ve been studying the book of Hebrews and preaching through it, as you know, and after doing a four-part series our, our four-part series on the assurance of salvation, now back into Hebrews chapter 6, Sunday mornings at the pulpit at Bethlehem Bible Church.
By the way, you can get those sermons at bbcchurch .org, and I�ve been working through Hebrews 6, which is a pretty difficult passage on one hand. On the other hand, I think it�s not so bad, not so hard.
Just look at the context, see the flow of the book, think of the audience, and you�ll be fine. So today, I�m going to talk about Hebrews chapter 6, almost in preparation for my message on Hebrews 6. And so, here�s what I do.
I talk about it, and I can hear my voice, and then I can say to myself, �Well, I could explain that well. I need to explain that better. I need to make more emphasis here. I just talk myself clear. So writers write their selves, write themselves clear, their selves.
I haven�t done much writing lately. I have three projects that I�m working on, but not too much work. In the old days, I could do a lot of writing. I could stay up late at night, and I was going to try to power out 10 books in 10 years and never made it.
So we�ve got six, I think, in 10. Now we�re going on 11. So next year, we might be able to put out three. I don�t know. I just� I�m just tired. The older I get, the tireder I become. So the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 6, and this is that passage that for many people think maybe you can lose your salvation or something like that.
And the thing that you need to do when you ever go into any book of the Bible, so let�s say you�re going to teach your children, let�s say you�re going to do a Sunday school class. Let�s say you are going to do a junior church type of situation.
You�re going to teach at a youth group, a WANA, any of those things, your dinner table. If you tell people, �Well, let�s take a we want to look at this verse in Ephesians 4 about wholesome speech. Well, then you should say when you�re turning to Ephesians 4, �Now, this is what Ephesians is all about.
This is why Paul wrote Ephesians. And that will help you interpret that particular verse because that verse has a context. And similarly, with the book of Hebrews, you need to think about a big picture before you parachute into Hebrews 6, because you can pretty much make the Bible say whatever you want it to say if you�re not thinking contextually.
And we don�t want to be just literalists, biblicists, without seeing any kind of context. Of course, if I am going to take the Bible literally or neo-orthodoxly, that�s a good word, �our. Well, then, of course, it�s literal, but what I mean by literal is normal and natural and with all the genres of speech that there is, there are, there might be, there used to be.
Do we lose genres of speech? In the book of Hebrews, the point is very clear, Hebrews 8, 1, we have present tense such a high priest. You�ve got to have a mediator between you and God, the Father. He is so holy and He is so righteous that you dare not stand before Him unless you have perfectly obeyed the law and you don�t have any sin imputed to you, i .e., Adam.
But we know that can�t be because Adam�s sin was imputed. It was God�s choice to have that done. The wise God thought it was better for Adam to be our representative than you or me. Can you imagine? I don�t like Adam to be my representative.
I would have done a better job, and that just impugns the nature of God and the character of God and His judgments, His wisdom, because He picked Adam. And I think if you could vote for anybody, you�d vote for Adam.
But he failed, and we get credit for that failure, as Adam is our federal head, our federal head. I grew up in Nebraska, what do you expect? Public school in Nebraska, Butch Haircut, Butch and I down the street, Billy was his name, but we called him Butch.
When I mean Butch Haircut, it was Butch, not Butch today. I mean, Billy, Billy Flavel was his name, Butch. Butch and I had the crew cuts, Butch, the Butch cut. All right, so no letters, please. This is all think nomenclature of 1964.
That�s what I want you to think of. What�s going on probably in the book of Hebrews is at that time this book was written, the temple was still up. When you look at the present tense verbs when the Levitical system is being discussed in the book of Hebrews, that should lend itself to you thinking, you know what?
The temple�s still up. Now, of course, when Jesus died, the veil was torn from top to bottom, that�s true. And we know we have the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus, that�s true. But the thing stayed up.
The writer of Hebrews would have said, if I were him, I would have said, �Listen, the temple�s destroyed. That�s the exclamation point on no going back to the sacrificial system. You can�t. And Jesus is the true Messiah.
But the writer doesn�t say that. So most people think, and I do too, that the temple was still existing. So this is pre -70 A .D. when the Romans, Titus, sacked the city and left no stone in the temple on another stone.
I mean, you can see foundations to the retaining wall, but the temple completely destroyed. And the writer of Hebrews wants the readers to understand and listeners to understand since it�s both an epistle and a sermon, that Jesus is better than their old system.
And so he starts off that Jesus is better than the prophets and Jesus is better than angels. And he uses the Old Testament to make his points, and it seems natural that someone would do that. I was going to say �natch but then I thought �our �are.
Regularly you�ll hear in this sermon that Jesus is better, that Jesus is superior, that Jesus is the one they should put their faith in and rest in Him. That�s a good synonym for the idea of rest and trust and believe and hope.
And it�s really, he�s saying, �Believe. Keep believing. If you haven�t believed, believe. And if you are believing, keep believing. Because Jesus is great as a high priest, and there�s a great shepherd of the sheep.
His name is Jesus. And if you are going to go back to Judaism, you are in big trouble. So what�s going on in Hebrews 6, it�s continuing with a warning passage. So sprinkled throughout the book of Hebrews, you have a bunch of warnings.
And the warnings essentially are �our. I sound like I have a smoker�s cough today. The warnings are calibrations. Make sure you�re thinking properly, girding you on, spurring you on. Don�t turn your back on who Jesus is, because there are ramifications.
And so then he comes in chapter 6, there�s a long introduction, I know, but that�s okay. It�s my show. Ninth year. Nine years. What am I doing? I have to admit, eight months ago, I was ready to quit. It�s a lot of work, there�s a lot of moving parts, there�s a lot of things I need to update and do and stay on top of and everything else.
And I just thought, you know what, I just can�t keep doing this. I don�t want to do it, but then I also didn�t want to be clouded with, you know, having experienced radiation and this, that, and the other.
So anyway, I�m pretty excited about the show and some possibilities and videos and other things that we might be able to do. So we�ll see. We�re going to just keep going. So far, so good. I�ve got some interesting topics and subjects and guests lined up.
And if you want to be an encouragement, you can rate us on Facebook or iTunes or tell your friends or tell your millionaire friends. I�ve always had that policy, you know what, you don�t need to give any money.
I mean, if you do, great. There are costs. But if you don�t, just tell your rich friends. Maybe they give out of, not according to. I�d rather have them give according to than out of. But anyway, so far that hasn�t happened, so that�s been very simple.
Okay. Chapter 6, verse 1, �Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. That�s the key section right there. That�s the key emphasis. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
And this we will do if God permits. He goes on then to give a warning against apostasy and then he gives some certainty to the believer. And if you want to summarize Chapter 6 with three words, it�d be easy.
I probably found these someplace else, but I made sure they all kind of have the same ending since we�re Baptists now, aren�t we? You have maturity, you have apostasy, and you have certainty. So, that�s really Chapter 6.
At the beginning, he wants them to go on to maturity and not lay up these introductory things, foundational things that the Jews would all be familiar with. And if you realize what�s going on, he�s just said in Chapter 5, �About this we have much to say.
It�s hard to explain, for you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, �for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
But solid food is for the mature. See, there�s the tie-in. �For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. And then he gives the �therefore.
That�s the tie-in. He�s saying, �You know what, recipients of this letter, sermon, you should be able to teach others. You should be able to handle meat, and you should be able to discern things. So therefore, I want you to not leave like abandoned, but I want you to leave and move forward when it comes to these elementary doctrines.
Doesn�t the text say that, Hebrews 6 .1? �The elementary doctrine of Christ. Don�t stop there. There are building blocks. There�s a foundation, and that�s really what he says there, not laying again a foundation of repentance.
And what do you think about foundations? I�m not talking about the British Soul Group. I�m not talking about endowed institutions or charities or charitable organizations. I�m not talking about a series of science fiction books by Isaac Asimov.
What do I mean by foundations? I do not mean cream powders and liquids used as a base to even out your facial skin tone before you put on other cosmetics. I�m thinking about engineering foundation. Think buildings.
That�s what the writer, Amos and Paul, that�s what the writer is thinking about, the structure that connects the building to the ground. And if you want to be precise about it, how it transfers load from the structure to the ground.
And you need foundations, right, because they provide stability. They distribute the weight over a large area so the soil can handle it. And we know about foundations, these underlying principles. So you can think about what the word then can mean here.
He�s not talking about a literal building, but he�s talking about the idea of a base. He�s talking about, and really that�s where we get the word from an old French word, but it means to lay a base for, an underlying basis or principle of something.
It�s figuratively used for, you know, the result of something that we�what�s it say here? The result of the work to begin something, right? So that�s the foundation. It�s the stage. It�s a platform. And when it comes to the Old Testament, of course, it�s all true and it�s inspired by God and 2 Timothy 3 talks about that, but it�s just giving baseline things because we believe in progressive revelation.
We believe that God didn�t give everything instantaneously to His people, but over time with different authors and different books, He explained Himself, and in the Old Testament we�re looking at foundations.
We�re looking at bases. And the writer is trying to say to these people who want to go back to Judaism, �Well, why would you go back to ABCs? Why would you go back to milk? You have Jesus here. And then the next section, 4, 5, and 6, he essentially says, �If you go back, it�s like you�re standing there at the cross crucifying Jesus because you think, you know what?
That Jesus that came from the Old Testament, we don�t think He�s the right one. We want our own. And he, the writer, wants them to develop, to mature. It really could be said, �He wants you to believe in the Jesus revealed in all of Scripture, right?
And there�s some Scripture that hasn�t even been written yet, but in the Jesus that has been there even physically on earth and has done things, and people who have seen Jesus have watched Him, some of those people are still alive.
And the point is, don�t abandon your Christian faith. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Don�t go back to the old way of thinking about religion and good works and the basic things. Hold fast your confession.
Remember chapter 4, verse 16? Remember that section where it talks about the high priest? You need to hold fast. 14, 15, 16 of chapter 4, don�t go back to your Judaism. So, build on this foundation and then rest in God�s sovereignty.
That�s what he says, because it says in verse 3, you know, �We�ll do this if God permits. So, he gives these building blocks, and I think it�d be interesting just to go through the building blocks because I like to think of these as kind of basics, but they�re not necessarily Christian.
What do I mean by that? They�re truths, but they�re not distinctively Christ-centered. And maybe the easiest way we could talk about it would be this way. There are people today that talk about God, and they talk about souls.
They talk about God�s Creator. They talk about sin. This is the language of politics and social media and discourse in the nation. It�s fine to talk about God. Just don�t say, �The only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It�s fine to talk about providence, even as I�ve studied the history of the nation of America. Lots of talk about providence, but not so much talk about Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of God, Son of Man.
They don�t talk about that as much because there�s general God talk, but not specific Jesus talk. And as you look at the Bible, you go from general talk to more specific talk, do you not? I mean, you have shadows and figures and types in the Old Testament that are all pointing to Christ.
And of course, the Eternal Son exists. You go to Joshua 5, and you�ll see Jesus. You go to the Garden, and you�ll, when I say Jesus, the Eternal Son, I mean, He hasn�t been named yet in terms of being given the name because He has an added human nature, but this Eternal Son that we will come to know as Jesus, He�s there because He�s eternal and He�s working.
And that�s the only way you can ever approach God is through this mediator, the Son. But we don�t know a lot about Him because it�s given to us piece by piece and does not even Hebrews say, the book of Hebrews, how there used to be a piecemeal discussion about God long ago.
This is chapter 1, verse 1, �At many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. And there was cutting and pasting in the old days, but now these last days, it�s specifically through Jesus and about Jesus.
And when you look at this list in chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, it�s true, but it�s not Christocentric. It�s not Christological. These are the foundations and these are milk. If I talked about these things in a non-Messianic Judas temple, that would be bad, Judas priest, in a Jewish synagogue today, nobody would throw me out if I talked about these things.
You notice, there�s really three pairs, foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, see, just generic, of washings and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Those are the three pairs that are the foundation, and you need to move on from those. You need to go forward. You need to mature. You need to ask yourself the question, what did they point to
When the building�s built, you don�t go back and admire the foundation. Oh, you might say, �Oh yeah, that�s essential. But these are just seed forms of Christianity. These are the barest beginnings, as one writer says.
These are rudimentary things, and they�re not necessarily Christian. And now that we know about Jesus, remember, whenever this was in the late 60s, Jesus had already been born, lived, died, raised, ascended.
And you need to keep moving toward the object of your faith. You can�t go backwards, and you need to think about things that belong to salvation. And I think, I really think that the key to interpret Hebrews 6, as we get to the apostasy section another time, is chapter 6, verse 9.
If you understand this verse, I think everything else will clear itself up. And here�s the verse, �Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.
In other words, whatever�s been said in verses 1 through 8, they might be good things, but there are better things. Why are they better Because they belong to salvation. We�re going to talk about salvation in 9 and following.
These other things, they�re just building blocks, and they�re just ABCs. They�re for kindergartners. They�re not wrong, but they�re platformed. They�re a launching pad for these other things. You can�t just say, well, you go to university, and how are you going to get in
You pass the GMAT, and there�s SATs you take and other things, you know, ABCDEFG, you know, now I know my ABCs, and that�s all I want. Well, I can�t abandon the ABCs, because that�s the foundation.
That�s the structure. That�s important, but it�s all pointing to something. In the Old Testament, these foundations, were the initial types and shadows and echoes and illusions and other things that laid the base for everything else that was to come.
Yes, you got flickers of the gospel and the good news in Genesis chapter 3. That�s true. But these things, if you look at them, they�re not Christocentric. Look at repentance from dead works and a faith toward God.
They really go together. And if you say, well, you know, is repentance Christian Yes. Is faith toward God Yes. But this is not Christocentric, right Because turning to sin to a generic faith in God, that�s not what we�re after in the Bible.
When you think about those dead works, what were those dead works It could have been Levitical system, or it could have just been evil things that people do. Either way, you can�t just repent from Levitical system and evil works without looking to Christ.
And that�s what faith toward God should lend itself, should lead you to believing in Jesus. How much different is this verse, Acts 20, 21, and 22, these verses �How I did not shrink Paul said, �from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course, repentance from sinful works or dead works is good, and faith toward God is good. But he�s saying now you need to be specifically Christ-centered in your belief. You can�t be like the unbelievers in the wilderness wandering around.
Jesus is the object of your faith, and actually, without faith, it�s impossible to please Him. And we�re talking about in Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, �who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.
That�s later in chapter 12. He is the one. So, of course, to become a Christian, right, as we preach, we say this is the response to the gospel, repent and believe. That�s true. When you think about sin, repent.
When you think about the object of your faith, believe. And you don�t want to make this just anything but a foundation. You have to go farther than that. Well, anyway, I just looked at the clock.
I can�t believe it. It�s 24 minutes we�re in. So, what are you going to do? You are going to keep reading. And I�ll just pick this up for tomorrow in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 2. My name is Mike Gabendroth.
This is No Compromise Radio. Not that many emails these days. That�s fine. If you email us, we will read them, unless you�re a spammer or you�re kind of kooky. There�s a couple of kooky people that Spencer never even sends them.
So, my name is Mike Gabendroth. No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Gabendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.