FBC Morning Light – September 10, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're in Hebrews chapter 6 today, and Hebrews happens to be one of my favorite books of the entire

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Bible. I guess you'll probably have to ask me why a little bit later at another time, because we won't have time to talk about that this morning.

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Hebrews 6 has one of the most controversial passages in the New Testament in it, and I'm not actually going to talk directly about that passage, but talk to you about what's right after that passage.

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And so the question, though, that comes up in that controversial passage is, can a

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Christian lose their salvation? And what I'm going to present to you this morning is that I think that there are four categories of people in this world today, all right?

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And here they are. Category number one is people who are walking with God who are believers, all right?

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And we see much evidence of these types of people throughout the pages of the

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New Testament and even in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul in his writings, and they are all over the place.

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There is no doubt that there are people in that first category. Category two,

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I'm going to call people who are believers who stumble or are stumbling or have stumbled.

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And I would suggest to you that Peter in the book of Galatians would fall into this category.

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Remember, Paul wrote the book of Galatians, and Peter was rebuked by Paul, or Paul recounts the story of rebuking

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Peter to his face because he was leading people astray into doing the wrong thing based on a legalistic attitude of what he was to eat and how he was to eat it and who he was to eat it with, all right?

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So that's category two. Category three is a little bit more controversial, but I'm going to suggest to you that there are people who claim the name of Christ, who claim to be believers, who have never really been born again.

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And these are people who oftentimes are involved in ministry, who on the outside look like they have it all together.

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And let me give you an example, two examples from Scripture. The obvious example,

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I think, is Judas, who never apparently had any signs that the other apostles were aware of until the betrayal of Christ at the

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Passover meal. And then also a man named

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Demas, and let me read to you what it says about Demas. It says in Philemon, verse 24, it says that Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, and then it says about them that they are

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Paul's fellow laborers. In Colossians chapter four, it just says

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Demas. It just says Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.

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And then finally, in 2 Timothy chapter four, in verse 10, it says, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica.

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And so the term there, having loved this present world, John, in the book of 1

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John, that's equated with people who are not believers. And so there seems to be some evidence that Demas had been a fellow laborer for the gospel with Paul and yet was at the same time perhaps an unconverted man.

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And finally, the fourth category of people would be those who do not name the name of Christ, who have blatant disregard for the name of Christ and for his people.

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So there are examples of that all around us. Many people who seek this world's power end up being people who want power for themselves and are unwilling to submit to a higher power that being the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So we have those four categories of people, believers walking with God, believers who have stumbled or are stumbling, and then false converts, people who name the name of Christ but inwardly are secretly not

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Christians. And then finally, those that are just antithetical to the gospel and to the word.

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And so we come back to Hebrews 6, remembering that the book of Hebrews was written to people who were considering forsaking

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Christ as they looked at the possibility of persecution. And so after this controversial discussion, the author of Hebrews says,

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But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation though we speak in this manner.

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So with that warning out there, let's think of it this way.

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Let us consider one another with the hope that we are all fellow laborers in the gospel for the glory of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Let's ponder these things this Saturday and let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word, for this example that you've given to us.

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Let us be people of faith who walk with you, who are working together for your gospel and for your kingdom, for your glory and your glory alone.

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It's in your son's name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.