Impossible to Renew

Hebrews 6 and the Danger of Apostasy

Turn with me, please, once again to the epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 6. Yes, that chapter, Hebrews chapter 6. We continue in our studies of this tremendous text. And I will just have to tell you that in preparation for today, this chapter has leapt up my list of favorite chapters, from one of the oh-no chapters to wow, how did I miss that chapters.

And so I am extremely excited about this text. And hopefully, Lord helping us, we all will be once we finish, but I can guarantee you we won't get it done today. But we will try to get a good running start at it.

Hebrews chapter 6, let's ask the Lord's blessing upon our time. Lord, once again, we do recognize that apart from your spirit, we can do nothing. That all the preparation, all the anticipation can accomplish nothing unless your spirit comes and opens hearts and minds.

So be with us now. May you be honored as your word is proclaimed. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

A Conservative Upbringing and a Sunday School Dispute

I was raised in a very conservative context. And I was raised to be respectful of my elders. In fact, even as my beard has begun to turn white, it is hard for me not to refer to people as sir. It's very, very strange.

And ma 'am, even though there are some in Congress who wouldn't like that. And it's very strange for me to begin to realize, for example, that many of the doctors that I see are younger than I am, haven't gotten that down yet at all.

It's a strange, strange thing. In light of that, what I did one Sunday morning in Sunday school at a large church here in the valley was very unusual. I had been, I was a senior in high school, and I had been in this particular Sunday school class for quite some time.

And I got up during the small group session, and I told the Sunday school teacher that he was wrong and that he knew what he was doing was wrong, and I walked out. And I had never done that before. I don't even send bad steaks back at a restaurant, okay?

So I just don't make a scene of things. But I got up and walked out.

Why?

Well, because my Sunday school teacher decided, and we found out later he and his wife together decided, and they did this concurrently with different small groups in their class, to introduce all of us to the fact that salvation was not eternal and that we could lose our salvation, even though they knew the position of the church.

Now, I knew the position of the church as well, and that's why I left that class and immediately contacted the leadership of the church in regards to what had taken place. Now, the specific text that he focused upon that morning was in Galatians chapter 5, but he also made reference to what's probably the most famous text in all of the New Testament, used by those who would say that you can be a true believer, truly in Christ, and yet fail to receive eternal life, receive eternal punishment, and that is Hebrews chapter 6, verses 4 through 6.

Now, that led to a couple of sermons on the subject at the church, and of course those folks left the church and went to find themselves a fellowship more in line with their current theology. But the fact of the matter is, it is very difficult for many of us to approach this text and to do so in a fair way.

It has been such a football for so long that it is very difficult to try to disentangle it from the context that we have normally had to deal with it in. I know that years ago, when I preached through Hebrews 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 very quickly here at the church, I had done so because I had just read through Hebrews and tried to follow the argument of Hebrews.

And that helped a lot to disentangle it, to get it out of the tendrils of controversy that seemed to encase this particular text. But now we've come to this text in a, shall we say, a natural way. We have been preaching through the book of Hebrews.

And the last time I had opportunity to speak to you, we covered all of chapter 5 in a single Sunday, Sunday morning and Sunday evening. We have now seen numerous exhortations and warnings in this tremendous book.

And so now we come to chapter 6, and I will simply tell you that as I mentioned in my preparation, I felt like I had seen this text for the first time. Not that there were lights and voices from heaven or anything else, but having the first five verses, having had to translate them and work through them and read commentaries and struggle with difficulties and things like that, having that as the background, now we get to chapter 6.

And what I'm seeing more and more is that the real benefit of consistent Bible study, and Bible study where you're doing all the Word of God, Old Testament and New Testament, is you see the beautiful cords of truth that are woven throughout the fabric of Scripture.

You can't see those if you don't look at all of Scripture. You cannot see consistent themes if all you see is the Bible as individual texts strung together without a relationship to one another. And fortunately, that's how most evangelicals I know view the Bible.

Partly because of the way we have the Bible divided up into chapters and verses and things like that, and the way we memorize the Bible. And I know that those are wonderful things, but they tend to sort of blow the text up into individual pieces, and we don't see the overarching themes.

But as we see when you look at a piece of beautiful cloth, I was in London, as you know, recently, and we went to Covent Gardens, which used to be a main place you would go to buy foodstuffs, fruits and vegetables and things like that, for hundreds of years.

Covent Gardens in London is where you would go. Well, they don't sell fruits and vegetables there now because you have such a thing as a grocery store, but it's still a place to buy all sorts of things.

And I decided it's always wise while traveling to get something for the wife and the daughter, or they're going to give you really bad looks when you get home if you arrive without anything in your luggage.

And so one of the things I got at Covent Gardens, I found these beautiful Indian scarves, and just beautiful cloth with threads interwoven in it in lots of various colors and gold and silver, and just beautiful, and I bought them there in Covent Gardens.

Now, you can fold these things, you can lay these things out, and you can see the pattern, but if you were to just zoom in using a microscope on one little portion of that cloth, you really wouldn't be able to see that this is beautiful cloth.

It would just look like any other cloth, and you wouldn't see the patterns of the threads. You have to stand back to see the whole thing. And that's what I'm saying about this text as well, is seeing it in the whole of Hebrews, which, let's admit it, 99 of the time when you're talking with someone about whether you can lose your salvation or not, or whether there's such a thing as apostasy, which there clearly is, but does that mean apostasy of a true believer or someone who is a false believer, etc., etc., how often do you actually approach any text with any context to it at all?

Well, don't you believe what it says in Hebrews 6, verse 6? It says this, and that means this. Well, how do you know it means that? The only way to know that is to look at the context, to see it in the overall scheme.

Very rarely do people approach the text of the Bible in that way. And so as we've come now to Hebrews 6, as I began working through this text once again, the consistency of it simply was awesome, and I hope to be able to communicate to you that same thing.

And obviously, I realize not everyone can be here every single Sunday, and not everyone remembers everything that anyone has ever said in the past in previous sermons. But hopefully, if you've been here fairly consistently, you've already heard the sermons on Hebrews 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

You've got a flow here that will help us. Remember, at the end of the last time we were together, we had seen the writer say, beginning in verse 11 of chapter 5, concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles,.

The oracles of God.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food, for everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

He's concerned about the people to whom he's addressing his letter that they have become dull of hearing, that they need milk and not meat. And so it is in that context, then, that we come to chapter 6, and I will try to work through just the first nine verses.

We'll get a start this morning, and certainly, Lord willing, by this evening, finish this particular text. Therefore, moving away from the basic teachings or doctrine of Christ, let us move on toward completion or perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

Teachings concerning baptisms, that's plural, maybe oblations, something like that, baptisms, and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if the Lord wills.

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the age to come, and then have fallen away, have apostatized, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance.

As they are crucifying to themselves again the Son of God and putting Him to an open shame for the earth, the land, the ground, that drinks the rain that often falls upon it and brings forth crops. It's literally the Greek word for botany, from which we get our term.

It brings forth vegetation, crops, pleasing to those for whom it has been tilled or farmed, receives a blessing from God. But, if it brings forth thorns and thistles,.

It's useless.

It is close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. But, we are convinced concerning you, brethren, of things better, things which accompany salvation, even though we are speaking in this way. You would think that I would be jumping directly into verses 4 -6, but that, I think, is the greatest danger that we face here.

It was in finally stopping long enough to consider the first three verses that I found the context to verses 4 -6 that is so very, very helpful. Sometimes we get so focused upon the controversy that the details of what is said around that text become lost.

That's what we need to focus upon this morning so that we have a foundation to really be able to understand what the writer is saying here. He says, therefore, leaving the elementary teaching, it's literally the fundamental, the beginning of Christ's Word, the beginning of Christ's Word is literally what the text says.

Leaving that, let us press on to completion, to maturity. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, teachings about ablutions, baptisms, laying on of hand, resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment.

Now, just a couple things just so we have our bearings on the text. Most commentators see this text and say, well, there are six things here that are talked about in regards to what the elementary teaching about the Christ is.

And again, back up and put yourself in the context of Hebrews. To a Hebrew congregation, who is the Christ? Well, to the Hebrew mind, we're talking about the Mashiach, the Messiah. The Christos is just the Greek word for the Messiah.

And so he's talking about the elementary teachings of the Messiah. And then most people see a list of about six things here. You have repentance from dead works, faith toward God, instructions about washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

It's possible, however, given a very, very minor textual variant, that you actually have repentance from dead works, faith toward God, and then the teaching of ablutions, washings, baptisms, etc., etc., is then restating what this foundation is.

So it would be a two and a four type situation at that point that would divide the two up. There is some discussion of that, but we'll stick with most of the translations that render it the way that I've already translated it for you.

Did you notice something about these things?

Look at these things.

Repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Teachings about washings. Now, how many washings are there in Christianity? There were many in Judaism. But there's really only one baptism, one faith, one baptism in Christianity.

Teachings about washings, laying on of hands. Well, we see that a little bit. It's not overly common, but we do see that in Paul, for example. We see it in Acts. Resurrection of the dead. Eternal judgment.

Okay, is there anything in this list that is absolutely uniquely Christian? You see, when I first started reading on this, I kept seeing all this discussion about, wow, this is what the Jews believed.

The good Pharisee would talk about repentance from dead works and faith toward God. The good Pharisee understood the teachings concerning such things as the washings that you had to go through and laying on of hands.

That was a part of Judaism. And certainly the Pharisee believed in resurrection of the dead, unlike the Sadducee. Eternal judgment. Yeah, that's all there. So what's uniquely Christian? Well, the only thing that's uniquely Christian is the use of Christ, right at the beginning of verse 1.

But it's interesting enough, the Christ, the Messiah.

And so what's going on here?

I had just sort of looked at that list, and I really hadn't spent much time on it. It's like, yeah, okay, repentance from dead work, yeah, okay. And then I realized what's going on here. Remember what our context to Hebrews is.

We've got to go back to Hebrews chapter 1 when we did the introduction. What's going on here? What is the pressure being placed upon these people? Come back to the old ways. Offer sacrifice. That's why we seem to believe that this was written before the destruction of the temple, probably, because there's no discussion of how you couldn't do that anymore.

Offer the sacrifice. Give up this Jesus stuff. Come back to the old ways. And what's the writer saying? There's nothing to go back to. And you look at this foundation that is discussed here. Not laying this foundation again.

And all of a sudden, it struck me. How different it is to be a Jewish convert and to be a convert from paganism. You see, to go back to your paganism, complete split. Complete split. I mean, pagans, many gods, all the debauchery involved with that, etc., etc.

You enter into the Christian congregation. We seem to be talking about people who have been baptized, people who have partaken in the Lord's Supper, people who are a part of the regular worship of the church here.

That's who's being preached to. That's a big change from paganism. But if you're a Jewish convert to Christianity, there are a lot of things that are very similar. You have already been taught about repentance from dead works, works that are not pleasing to God.

You've been taught about faith toward God. We know that there were godly Jews. We meet them in the pages, both of the Old and New Testament. And you've already heard about instructions about washings and laying on of hands, and you believe in the resurrection of the dead, and you believe in the coming judgment.

And you see, when someone starts putting pressure upon someone like that to go back to the old ways,.

It's a lot easier.

It's a lot easier to just, well, you know, what you're saying is that we both believe in the resurrection of the dead. We both believe in eternal judgment. We have so much in common with one another that maybe I can just let go of some of these unique things, like the idea that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the law, the fulfillment of all of the sacrifices, that he is the only high priest, that his death is what all of the Old Testament law pointed to.

Maybe I can just sort of let go of some of these things. You see what the writer is saying is, we must press on to maturity. Because the danger is, the danger is to say, well, what I believe is good enough.

And I could have so much more, I could have my family back if I'd just be willing to compromise on this little thing or that little thing. And does it really matter? And the writer's saying, yes, it matters.

You become dull of hearing. And once you become dull of hearing, then you may not hear how much it matters that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these things. And if he is, then you are, in essence, calling God a liar, if you go back to the old ways.

Yes, God established those things. He did so for a purpose. They point to a greater fulfillment. And so what he's saying is, I can't leave you here. You may become dull of hearing. But I need to instruct you about who this Jesus is.

I need to talk to you about how he is the great Melchizedek priest. And that's what he's going to get back to at the end of this chapter. Notice verse 20, where Jesus is entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

He's gone back to where he was before after a lengthy exhortation saying, you must press on. You have to have a real foundation that is a distinctly Christian foundation. And so he's not saying that we just need to forget about the foundational things that are common between ourselves and Judaism.

I mean, we certainly see the apostles are Jews. We see the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. All these things are true. But what he's saying is, that's not enough to talk about our similarities.

And how often do we hear that today? How often in the context of our culture today are we beaten about the head and shoulders by people saying, you just want to talk about what divides us. Shouldn't we just talk about what can unite us?

As long as what unites us isn't specifically the lordship of Christ. As long as it's a moral system, something like that. We get hit with that same kind of pressure in our experience today. So what the writer is saying is, there is that foundation, but it's not enough.

We need to go on beyond that and recognize why it is that God has revealed truths about these things. That foundation is not enough. God has given us more. You need to know who this Jesus is. That he's this great Melchizedek priest.

That he has entered into the heavenly place. That he is the final high priest. And the center core of the entire epistle, the death of Christ. That once for all sacrifice. You can talk all you want about washings and laying on of hands and everything else.

All of that fades into insignificance in comparison to that finished work. And so then verse four begins by saying to us, impossible. Impossible. So what he's doing is he's going to give us an impossibility.

The impossibility is the renewing and repentance of those who fall away. Parapypto. Become apostates. So we have that tough section coming up. Not tough to understand. But it's never ever comfortable for us to talk about apostasy.

And we already have been. The previous section, if you recall, about two months ago when I last had the opportunity of preaching. You see, there was that section about pressing on, exhorting. And we're just continuing that exhortation here in chapter six.

Got a tough section coming up. But before he gets to it, he says, and this we will do if God permits. Normally we just read that. And skip right by it because of what's in the next verse.

It's impossible.

Let's talk about whether these are true believers or not. And we skip past the statement of the writer. We are going to press on. We must press on if God permits. We must press on to perfection, to maturity, to completeness.

Why do I want to stop and emphasize that statement? Because one of the greatest dangers that I can see for Christians in our context, in the context of a church where we have remained focused upon the necessity of the preaching of the word of God.

We have not given in to the temptation to follow after all of the fads that come flowing through the valley. And oh, they come every single Easter season and Christmas season. And this new way of doing things and that new way of doing church.

You know, we celebrated a while back the pastor's 35th year with us. Listen, you go back 35 years, evangelicalism looked a whole lot different than it does today. Think of all the stuff that's come and gone in 35 years.

And we recognize not going there. And it's very easy for us to become proud of saying we're not going there. We're not going there and that makes us better than somebody else. We've got to be careful of that.

But it seems to me that one of the greatest dangers is spiritual apathy. There's an interesting term in verse 12 that I think might describe it. Don't become sluggish.

Sluggish.

Spiritual apathy. I've got the foundations down. I've got the five points. In fact, I've got verses for every one of the five points. In fact, I've got more than five points. I've got ten points. I am the super Calvinist.

And I've memorized all the verses I can use for my ten points. And you've only got five. And it's very easy for us to go, well, you know, most of the folks I meet out there in evangelical land, they think Bible study is sitting around and opening up a text and going, So, Brother Wood, how do you feel about this text?

How about you, Sister Pam? And you sit around and you go, well, this text makes me feel this way. Now, there's everything wrong with that. That's not proclaiming or studying the Word of God. The Word of God doesn't really care what you feel like.

And it is not determined by your feelings. But you see, the danger is we see that and we go, well, we don't do that. We work through the text. We read a parallel gospel in Sunday school. I mean, we're up there at the front.

We're on the cutting edge. And it's very easy. Since it doesn't look like anybody else is pushing us on that level, just go, well, I'm happy where I am. Everything's fine. We need to push on to maturity.

And anybody who feels that they've arrived is deceiving themselves. If you sit here this morning, and maybe because of some of the people you work with, some of the people in your family, you have succumbed to the temptation to go, Boy, in comparison to that, oh, yeah, in comparison to them.

But that's not the standard, is it? The danger for all of us who have regular, proper, necessary exposure to the Word of God is that we fall into apathy, sluggishness. And maybe you had to go through a lot to get here.

I know a number of your stories. And you maybe had to give up a lot, had to give up some friends. You may have family members that don't even talk to you anymore. They think you've just completely lost it.

You're too interested in that religion stuff or that Reformed theology.

You've gone too far.

And it's real easy to look back on that and go, you know, I went through a lot then, even though I'm good. As if somehow that past experience is grounds for your current sluggishness and your current apathy, maturity.

What does that mean? As you look at your own life this past week, consider how you responded to the difficulties that you encountered. Not just outwardly, but inwardly as well. You see signs of Christian maturity at points, but is there not many an instance where your response was anything but mature from a Christian perspective?

It is far too easy for us to become comfortable in a Reformed cocoon. But the Scripture is always saying, press on to maturity. And that's not going to happen in this life, but it is our calling. And we're either moving forward or we're moving backwards.

I don't think there's such a thing as standing still. Writer is concerned that his hearers have become dull because they don't see the necessity of constantly moving forward in the battle. Constantly conquering more territory in the war.

The danger of spiritual stagnation comes when you set up the borders and you've built the wall. The result is Christian legalism and moralism. Oh, I'd never do those things. But there's this whole area over here that you know is not under the Lordship of Christ.

But I've got all that area over there, so it's okay. I'll get back into the battle in that area some other time. I'm tired. I need to take a rest. Sluggishness, apathy, dull of hearing. The writer says, no, we must press on to maturity.

Now, part of that is going to involve his explaining some difficult theological concepts. Some meat. And of course, that fits with the analogy, does it not? Oh, well, you know, we're just drinking the milk.

You need the meat if you're going to become mature. You have to be able to take in real sustenance. Those of us who are parents who have grown children, especially of the male variety, remember those years between about 13 and 19, where the majority of our sustenance went to provide them with sustenance.

They could eat anything, but they needed to.

That's the connection that is being made. Press on to maturity. I need to give you strong meat so that you can have the foundation to withstand the onslaught that's coming against you. And anybody who stops in the battle.

I mean, think about it.

Almost every time Pilgrim stopped on his way, what happened?

He got in trouble.

Anytime we stop in the battle, we are asking for spiritual problems. And so, as we look at the congregation and what they experienced in verses 4 and following, my challenge to you, my fellow believers, is to hear what I'm saying and ask yourself an honest question.

Have you stagnated? Have you become apathetic? Do you think you're doing good enough? Or do you still feel that strong spirit-born recognition of your own sin and your need to be in the Word of God and to be growing in grace?

The world will do everything to convince you you're religious enough. Religion isn't enough. Press on to maturity. For listen to the warning. In the case of those who have once been enlightened, you sit in this congregation.

Some of you young folks, older teenagers, young adults, you've been raised hearing the Word of God preached in this pulpit. You have more light available to you than entire generations of mankind that has passed and to whom much is given, much is required.

And someone might say, oh, no, to be enlightened means to be a true Christian. No, I suggest to you that to sit in the congregation as one. And it seems that these are individuals who made profession of faith.

Oh, yes, we believe. Heard the Word of God. All this light provided to them morally and in all of their life. The Proverbs being read. All the wisdom one can gain. If you just obeyed the Proverbs, how many people would avoid so many heartaches in life?

Once enlightened, sat in the congregation, tasted of the heavenly gift. Some people think that has to do with the Lord's Supper. I don't know. Maybe. The term tasted there is also used down below. Tasting the good Word of God.

So, I don't know that it necessarily has anything to do with taking something in. But it might. But whatever it refers to, again, it's only within the Christian congregation. And when you're in the Christian congregation, you're around people who don't want to talk about evil things.

They don't want to talk about what they did Saturday night out carousing in the world.

They want to talk about what's good.

They want to talk about what's righteous. And that provides a curb to you. They talk about heavenly things. We pray for what?

The Spirit to be amongst us.

To hear His Word. We've heard about the gift that God has given in His Son. The gift that God has given in the Holy Spirit. They've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that surely means that they're believers.

And yet, once again, if we ask the Spirit to come into this place, and to quiet our hearts, and to open our hearts and minds to His truth, these are individuals who have been blessed to be a part of the Christian congregation.

They may well have experienced.

How can you not?

How can you sit in the congregation during the Lord's Supper and not have religious? How can you observe the baptism of individuals, and hear about their testimonies and their lives, and not have deep feelings about this?

Maybe you've experienced conviction. You might have even experienced moral reformation. I can't come to church and having done the things that I normally have done during the course of the week and stuff.

There's a moral reformation. And they've tasted of the good Word of God. You know that man up there, he says a lot of things. They help me. They're meaningful to me. There are a lot of benefits that come from being under the preaching of the Word of God.

There's even the power of the age to come. You've heard people talk about how God has sustained them through incredible tragedy, incredible ordeals. You've thought, oh my.

Listen to that.

There was something that attracted these people to the Christian congregation. And they were not saying that these things didn't exist. They believe in the Spirit of God, and that God has spoken, and all these things.

They believe that men can be enlightened. All Jews believed those things. At least those who accepted the Scripture. But they had come into the Christian congregation. What does it mean that they fell away?

This is the specific act of apostasy. The specific act that's in view, not only here, but the same thing that John talks about. And I know we're getting close to noon, but just hold on to your seats a second.

1 John chapter 5. John talks about this sin a number of times throughout the text of Scripture. But he's talked about those who deny that Jesus is the Son of God. They do not have eternal life. They make Him a liar, verse 10 says.

If you don't have the Son, you do not have life, verse 12 tells us. And in verse 16 we read,. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make a request for this. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make a request for this. Pretty hard to make heads or tails out of that unless what he's talking about is the specific sin of apostasy.

The denial of Jesus Christ. Having confessed Him and then denying Him. That's exactly what's going on here. We can tell that because it says we cannot bring them to repentance again, Anastaro, they crucify Jesus a second time.

They had made profession of faith. As far as anybody could tell from the outside, they were part of the congregation. But what were they really? What were they really?

We will see.

And this is not meant to be an advertising thing to get you to come back tonight. Though, if you're a member of this church, I just remind you that outside of providential hindrance, this is where you should be this evening.

I want to look at the rest of the text this evening and make application.

That's Paul.

A little Freudian slip there, but I don't think that it necessarily was Paul. But whoever wrote this is going to say, We are convinced of better things, brethren, things which accompany salvation. How do you understand that?

If these are the marks of salvation, then verse 9 makes no sense. But once we see once again that this is an exhortation to a gathered body. And I can't see your hearts. I wish I could. Make things a lot easier, but I can't see your hearts.

And so in addressing that body of believers, enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, tasted the good word of God, may it partake of the Holy Spirit, powers the age to come. You sit in the Christian congregation and you are blessed to be here.

But the worst place to go to hell from is the pews of a good solid church. Because at least the pagan is going to go, I didn't know that the person who has sat under the ministry of the word of God, seen the spirit move, changing hearts and lives, and then turns around and says, No, not for me.

What a tremendous burden to bear. Remember this when we get to Hebrews chapter 10, because we're going to hear it again. The warning is great blessings, great blessings in the congregation. But that's not enough.

Because you see the rain, it falls on the ground, and some ground brings forth fruit and some ground brings forth thistles. Wasn't that Jesus' parable as well? It's not enough to just hear these things.