The Apostates, Part 3 – Hebrews 6:4-6

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“The Apostates, Part 4” – Hebrews 6:4-6

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Okay, Hebrews chapter 6, let's bow in prayer before we begin. Father, we are so grateful for your word, for the rich blessing that it is to know you and to know all that you have accomplished for us through what you have revealed in scripture.

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We thank you that your word is powerful and that it is sharper than any two -edged sword. We thank you that you use your word to sanctify us, your people, and to teach us concerning Christ and all that he has done for us.

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And we know that you desire that we would understand your word and rightly think of it as a revelation of all that you've given to us.

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So we would pray that you would be glorified today through the preaching of your word in our study herein and that you would send your

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Holy Spirit to be our teacher and our guide to help us and to assist us and to encourage us and illuminate your word to us.

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We pray that your purposes may be accomplished through your word here in the hearts of your people and in the hearts of those who are not yet your people who may need to understand what

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Christ has done for them. Be glorified here through this we pray in the name of Christ our Lord, amen.

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Hebrews chapter 6, we're going to read verses 4 through 6. Verse 4. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the

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Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified to themselves the

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Son of God and put him to open shame. We're going to dive right back into this list of descriptions of this group of people that he is describing in verses 4 through 6 and our key interpretive question or issue is who is this group of people that he is describing in this passage?

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And I have made the case and tried to make the case I think that he is talking about not a group of people whom he knows to be believers or that he is certain are unbelievers but a group of people of whom he is not certain what their spiritual status is.

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And so that is the group that I believe is described in verses 4 through 6 and we noted that there are four positive phrases that describe this group of people and one negative.

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And we're setting aside the one negative for right now and just focusing on these four positive and we're setting aside the one negative because that falling away, there's not too much confusion as to what that describes or even who that describes but our concern is who is described by these four positive phrases?

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These four positive descriptions that they have been once enlightened, that they have tasted of the heavenly gift, that they have been made partakers of the

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Holy Spirit and that they have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. Who is it that those four phrases describe?

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Are these genuine and true for certain believers? If it is, then they have experienced salvation and then they have fallen away or does this describe another group of people that is distinct from the believers that he has in view in the book of Hebrews itself?

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And that is our concern. Now, I'm going to give you my position on it again just to remind you of what we talked about last week so that that's kind of all the cards are out on the table as it were.

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My position is that the author is not describing people whom he believes are genuine Christians. He is not describing people whom he believes are genuine unbelievers trying to or pretending to be

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Christians. He is describing a group of people who have had certain Christian experiences.

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They have been in some way connected to the Christian body of believers, but they themselves, their spiritual situation, their spiritual condition, he is uncommitted or uncertain about whether or not they are truly saved.

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So he's not describing people he knows to be believers, not describing people he knows for certain are unbelievers. He's describing a group of people about whom he would say from the author's vantage point, he is not certain whether they are believers or not.

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And to clarify, these are people who have had certain Christian experiences that may be common to all

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Christians. For instance, they have been enlightened. But whether or not these people are genuine Christians can only be determined by other factors, not the phrases that are used to describe them here in themselves.

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That determination whether they're believers or not must be determined by something else because these four phrases, these four positive phrases are inconclusive.

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They're uncertain whether or not we're talking about believers or not. So these four phrases are inconclusive since they speak of experiences or blessings that are experienced by both genuine believers and non -Christians or unbelievers who participate in the fellowship of a church or participate in the ministry of a church, yet they remain unbelievers.

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That is my position. And I'm gonna remind you of my task, and I told you there are five things that I have to do with this passage.

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And one of them, and I'm just gonna remind you of this one because that's what we're doing today. I have to demonstrate that these four phrases are inconclusive concerning the spiritual state of these people.

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That's my task. And we did that last week with illumination or what it means to be enlightened.

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Last week we looked at once enlightened and I tried to make the case, and I think that I did. Obviously I think that I did or I would, you know, believe something other than what

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I presented to you last week. But I believe that I made the case or presented to you that once enlightened does not indicate to us that these people are believers.

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The other side, those who believe you can lose your salvation, would say that once enlightened equals conversion, that enlightenment is conversion, that enlightenment is moving from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and so that these are genuine

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Christians. But as we saw last week, the term enlightenment is only used of somebody who has come to understand something or been taught something or been exposed to the truth.

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And the most that we can say from all of the uses of enlightenment in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Hebrews, is that the word enlightenment simply refers to somebody who has come to an understanding of the truth.

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They've been exposed to it. They have heard the gospel. They have been taught the gospel. They have seen it preached or proclaimed and lived out in front of them and so they have received some degree of light.

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It describes an exposure to the truth and being taught the gospel and is not synonymous with conversion. Enlightenment is not synonymous with belief.

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It's not synonymous with repentance or faith or conversion or regeneration or any such thing.

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In fact, the word enlightenment has nothing, it tells us nothing of the object that has been enlightened other than that light has been shined down upon it.

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So a person who has been enlightened may or may not respond by faith, by belief or unbelief. They may not respond to that at all.

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It just simply means that they have been exposed to the truth. They've been exposed to the light. That is the most we can say about enlightenment.

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And so to take the word enlightened and to say that therefore these people are Christians, that doesn't hold that.

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The most we can say is that this group of people that he is describing in verses four to six have understood the light.

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They have received a certain degree of teaching or understanding or enlightenment. So today now we're looking at this next phrase and there are three more positive phrases.

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Enlightenment does not tell us necessarily that these people are believers, that would be inconclusive. They just received some sort of understanding.

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But the next phrase that they have tasted the heavenly gift and then there is the third one is they have become partakers of the

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Holy Spirit and then they have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. Those are the next three. So today we're looking at tasted of the heavenly gift and just lest you get discouraged by thinking we're going far too slowly, we're actually going to deal with tasted of the heavenly gift and tasted of the good word of God and tasted of the power of the age to come.

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Because you'll notice that tasted is used both in verse five, sorry verse four and verse five.

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And it's the same word. So there are actually three things that are tasted and the word is used twice.

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So we're just going to deal with that whole idea of what does it mean to taste something in the sense that the author is using it here.

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Now the position of those who believe that you can lose your salvation, they would say that the word tasted there describes an experience, in fact a total experience of whatever it is that is being tasted.

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This word cannot be used to describe just sipping something or sampling something or some sort of a remote experience but a full embrace and a full experience of whatever it is that's being tasted.

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And they would point to Hebrews chapter two verse nine which we've already looked at in its context where the author says we do see him, that is

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Jesus, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

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And the other side would say that that tasting death certainly doesn't mean that he sampled it. It means that he embraced it fully.

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He fully died. He experienced to the fullest degree that is death. He didn't just sip it or he didn't just sample it, he didn't just taste it a little bit but he actually fully experienced it.

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Now I would point out just as a correction to that that by its very nature death is not something that you can just sip or sample, right?

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I mean death is kind of a, you're either all in or you're all out. It's not like you taste death for a little bit or you try death for a little bit.

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But the very nature of death is that if you crossed into death you have taken it entirely. You've more than just sipped it or sampled it.

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So there's that. That would be their claim. And then they would say that the heavenly gift is a reference to, and admittedly, and everybody admits this, there's a lack of clarity on exactly what the heavenly gift is because it's not described or defined in the context so we're gonna have to look at what that is here in a moment.

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But the other side, those who believe you can lose your salvation, they would say that the heavenly gift is either the Holy Spirit or it is a reference to Christ or it is a reference to righteousness or justification, being declared righteous, because that's called a gift in Romans chapter five, or it is a reference to the entire package of salvation which

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Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says is a gift of God, right? The whole package of salvation is given to us, all of salvation is a gift.

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So they would say that to experience the heavenly gift is to take in fully and to absorb entirely all that pertains to salvation.

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That is the argument of the Arminian side, or the other side. Now that's their position.

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So now we have to ask, what does the phrase tasted of the heavenly gift, and likewise tasted of the good word of God and tasted of the power of the age to come, what does it mean to taste something?

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So here's my position. It does not necessarily describe salvation or the experience or the possession of salvation.

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There's a lot that is assumed when you say that tasting of the heavenly gift means they have fully experienced all that is entailed in the gift of salvation.

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The word tasted, the Greek word that's translated there, is georomai. It's used in verse four of the heavenly gift, it's used in verse five of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, so it's used twice in our passage here.

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The definition is simply to taste or to experience something, and it's used 15 times in the New Testament. I'm gonna give you a survey of how the word is used, and how

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I think it is being used here. So seeing how it is used elsewhere in scripture will tell us a little bit about what the author might be meaning here when he uses the word tasted, the word that's translated tasted here.

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First, it's used in the New Testament of eating food, and it is translated twice as eat.

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I'll give you both these references. Acts 10 .10 says when he became hungry and he was desiring to eat, but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance.

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That describes Peter at Cornelius's, not Cornelius's house, Peter at the house in Joppa, the details are coming to me.

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When he gets the vision to go to Cornelius, he was desiring to eat or to taste, and so it's used of literally, physically eating food, and it's translated that way.

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In Acts 20 verse 11, after Paul raised Eutychus from the dead, Acts 20 verse 11 says when he had gone back up and had broken bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak and then he left.

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So it's used of literally, physically eating food. It's used of eating food literally, and it's sometimes translated as taste,

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Luke 14 .24 I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner. Acts 23 .14,

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the men who pledged that they would not eat anything until Paul was dead. Acts 23 .14 says they came to the chief priests and the elders and said, we bound ourselves under a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed

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Paul. Colossians 2 .21 describing the false standards of righteousness says, do not handle, do not taste, and do not touch as those things that the legalist would try and impose upon you, and that's the worldly philosophy of men.

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So in those set three instances, it is translated as taste, but it means to literally eat food.

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That's what it's describing. Then it is used, so it's used of literally eating food, translated as eat, and translated as taste.

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Then it is used of sipping or sampling something. In John chapter two verse nine, when the head waiter had tasted the water which had become wine and did not know when it came from.

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Now what does that refer to? Does that mean that the head waiter took and drank all the wine that was there, everything Jesus had turned into wine from the water?

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No, what did he do? He took a taste or a sip of it and realized the good quality of the wine that Jesus had created out of water.

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Likewise in Matthew 27 verse 34 describing Jesus on the cross says that they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall and after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink.

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What does it mean there? Just simply that he tasted it. He sipped it, he sampled it, and then he was unwilling to drink it.

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It's used figuratively of death and dying five times. In fact, this is one third of the references to the uses of this word in the

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New Testament are used figuratively of death or of dying, and I'll give you the examples. Matthew 16, 28 says, truly, truly,

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I say to you, there are some who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

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So this word was used euphemistically in the New Testament to describe the act of dying or of experiencing death, and it's used that way in Mark 9 verse 1,

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Luke 9 verse 27, then in John 8 verse 52 it says, the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.

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Abraham died, and the prophets also, and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. There again, it is used euphemistically of death, experiencing death, and then of course the passage that I read earlier,

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Hebrews 2, 9, where it describes Jesus tasting death for everyone. So it's used euphemistically of death in a figurative sense, and we could translate it there, not necessarily tasting or eating something, but since it's used figuratively, we would rather say probably that it basically means to experience something.

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It doesn't mean to taste or to eat something, but literally, in a figurative way, to experience something. And then it is used one time figuratively of something that is not food, and something that is not death, in 1

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Peter chapter 2 verse 3, where Peter says, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Okay, so it's used literally of food in the

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New Testament. It is used of sipping and sampling something, but when it is used figuratively, its meaning is not to eat something, because that is a literal meaning, but to experience something.

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So in which way is it used here in Hebrews chapter 6, when it says that they have tasted of the heavenly gift?

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Does it mean to eat, literally, something physical out of heaven? Or is it describing and using the word figuratively?

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It's using the word figuratively, which means it is best understood to be describing the experiencing of something.

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The word can mean to simply sip or to sample something, and when it is used figuratively, it describes experiencing something.

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Now, the other side would object, and they would say, but hold on a second. It can't mean simply to sip or to sample, because it's used in Hebrews of Jesus tasting death, and therefore, it means to enter into it fully, in some sense.

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Well, it can mean to sip or to sample, like in the Gospel of John with the wine, like with Jesus on the cross, in sampling or sipping the drink that was offered to him.

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It can be translated that way, and it is in the New Testament. It does mean that, and I would argue that that's exactly what it means here, and since it is used figuratively, it's describing an experience of something.

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And remember, the issue is not whether these people that are described here in Hebrews 6, the issue is not whether they had a genuine experience of these things or not.

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I'm not arguing that they didn't have a genuine experience of these things. I would argue that they did have a real and genuine experience of these things, but the question is, was their experience with the heavenly gift salvific?

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That's the issue. They really did. That experience was salvific.

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Did it result in salvation? Is it the result of salvation? Does it issue into salvation?

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Is it a precursor to salvation? Is it the logical fruit of salvation? That's the issue, not whether or not they experienced it.

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I would argue that they fully experienced the heavenly gift, and also that they fully experienced the good word of God, and that they fully experienced the powers of the age to come.

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But did it save them? And is it necessary to be saved in order to experience those things in the way that the author of Hebrews is speaking?

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If the author of Hebrews wanted to describe these people as genuine Christians, beyond any shadow of a doubt, as people whom he was certain were saved and then fell away, he could have said that they were made alive by the heavenly gift, or that they were transformed by the heavenly gift, or that they were regenerated by the heavenly gift, or that they were saved by the heavenly gift, or justified by the heavenly gift, or redeemed by the heavenly gift.

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But he doesn't use any of that language. He just simply says they experienced it. What kind of language would you use to describe somebody who had experienced the fruits and the blessings of the new covenant through other people, why they themselves are not necessarily believers or Christians?

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What type of language would you use to describe such an individual? I would suggest that you might say that they had a genuine and true experience of these various New Testament Christian blessings, but that they themselves were not necessarily

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Christians. You say, how is it possible for that to happen? We'll get to that in just a second. But now, what does it mean, what is this heavenly gift?

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What is the heavenly gift? Now, if it could be shown that the heavenly gift is salvation, and everything I've just said to you is not even worth the time it took you to drive here, right?

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If they have genuinely experienced salvation, if the heavenly gift is salvation, and that is what they have genuinely experienced, and then they have fallen away and they suffer eternal damnation, then in that event, what we have here is a group of people being described who were really

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Christians, who fell away from their faith, and then suffered eternal damnation. These were believers who lost their salvation if heavenly gift equals salvation.

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But does heavenly gift equal salvation? It is very difficult, nigh unto impossible, to be absolutely certain about what the author means here, simply because this phrase, heavenly gift, is used nowhere else in the

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New Testament. The word heavenly is used, and the word gift is used, but it's never combined in any other context similar to this, and it's never combined anywhere else in the

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New Testament, the heavenly gift. And you'll notice, if you look at the text carefully, there's no description, there's no parallel phrase here, there's nothing might indicate in the text what it is that the author is describing by this heavenly gift.

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And so there are really three possibilities, three possibilities, and I'll give them to you. First, it is possible that the author here is referring to the

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Holy Spirit, and this has been suggested by some, even some who would agree with my position on this, that you cannot lose your salvation, that what is being described here by the heavenly gift is the

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Holy Spirit. Now that would fit, on one hand, to be honest, it would fit because the Holy Spirit is called a gift, he is referred to as the gift of the

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Spirit in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 8, 10, Acts chapter 11, elsewhere in Scripture, the

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Holy Spirit is referred to as a gift, and the Holy Spirit is referred to as coming from heaven as well. And so we would take those two and say the heavenly gift here is likely a reference to the

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Holy Spirit. But you'll notice that the very next phrase in our passage mentions the Holy Spirit, they had become partakers of the

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Holy Spirit, you notice that? So if he meant something different, if he meant the same thing by heavenly gift as he does by the

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Holy Spirit, then you would think that the author would basically link them as being synonymous. But he doesn't seem as if he's being redundant, he does seem to be listing basically a list of things that these people had experienced or known, and so it doesn't seem like there's overlap here.

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I would suggest that the Holy Spirit is not in view of the author simply because he mentions it in the very next phrase.

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So it doesn't seem to be an intended redundancy. And by the way, if this were a gift of the

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Holy Spirit, let's just grant that for just a second, if it is the Holy Spirit who is the heavenly gift, is it possible to experience the work of the

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Holy Spirit without being a believer? Think about it carefully. Is it possible to experience the work of the

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Holy Spirit without being a believer? If you're standing, if I get up and I preach the gospel in a room full of unbelievers, and there are people in that audience who understand their sin in light of the law of God and understand that they are under wrath, and they are experiencing conviction for that sin, and they understand what

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Christ has done to save them, and they understand that their only recourse is to flee to the sun lest they suffer eternal damnation, and they feel that conviction, and they feel that guilt and the weight of their sin, and they come to an end, and they've been enlightened, what would you call that?

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All of that's the work of the Spirit of God. But just because an individual's been enlightened doesn't mean that they're a believer.

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And just because an individual has experienced conviction and understood the weight of their sin and felt that guilt, and they suppress the truth and unrighteousness, and instead they blind, they harden their hearts to the truth, and they blind their own eyes to the gospel, and they continue in their resistance and their rebellion, that is a very real experience of the work of the

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Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who does that, and they harden their hearts and always resist the work of the

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Spirit of God. They have had a real and genuine encounter or experience with the person of the

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Holy Spirit. Because the conviction and guilt over one's iniquity and the warning of the judgment that is to come, that is itself a work of the

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Holy Spirit. But none of those things are equal to salvation, because you can experience all of that and never be saved, because you suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

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So I don't think it's the Holy Spirit. Second, some say that it is salvation, it's the entire package of salvation, not just the

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Holy Spirit, but the gift of salvation itself, that is grace and repentance and justification and righteousness and all that comes to us as a result of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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That's something I think that you have to assume, since it's not stated in the passage, it's not described in the passage, and an assumption is not an argument.

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And I would point out that the author does not seem to identify them as being saved, since in verse 9 he says of his original audience, but we are convinced of greater things or better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation.

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Now if he wanted to suggest to us that these folks were saved, that he is describing here, he wouldn't contrast those in verses 4 to 6 with those in verse 9.

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In other words, he describes a group of people who have experienced in some way the heavenly gift, but then he says in verse 9, we're convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation.

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So if they had really genuinely experienced salvation, then he wouldn't be making that distinction in verse 9. The distinction in verse 9 wouldn't mean anything.

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So there is a third option, this is what I think that he is describing here. I think he is describing the person of Christ who is

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God's gift. You say, how is it possible that someone could experience Christ and still not be a believer?

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We'll get to that in just a second. I'll go down through all of that. I think he is describing Christ, whom

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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15, that he is God's indescribable gift.

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Now that is something of an assumption. It has to be an assumption since he doesn't delineate or define exactly what he is talking about.

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It's something of an assumption to say that I think he's describing Christ here because the Holy Spirit doesn't seem to work, salvation doesn't seem to fit the context.

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So the third option I think is the best option, that he is describing here an experience with Christ. But we are still not describing here, even though one may experience something concerning Christ, we're still not describing definitively or definitely salvation.

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Because I would argue that one can experience the realities of the risen Christ without actually being saved.

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Now since we're talking about tasting, we're going to skip over the partaking of the Holy Spirit for this week.

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We'll deal with that next week. We're going to skip over that for now and we're going to deal with the other things that are tasted.

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Since we've defined what tasting is, and we don't have to come back and replow that ground later on, we'll just move on to the other two things that are tasted, the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.

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Now there's not a lot of confusion about what is meant by the good word of God. They had had some experience with the goodness of God's word in some way.

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They had experienced scripture in all of its goodness. That's pretty straightforward. Notice that it does not say that they were born again by the word of God, that they were made alive by the word of God, that they were generated by the word of God.

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Just as they had an experience with the word of God, some capacity. And the powers of the age to come, they had had a real and genuine experience with the powers of the age to come.

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What is that? Well, there is an age that is now and then there is an age that is to come. And what is the age that is to come?

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We would believe, and I would say, that that is the millennial kingdom that's being described there. There is an age that is to come when the

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Messiah will come back. He will return. He will establish the kingdom and his promise, and through the Old Testament prophets to the people of God in the

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Old Testament, and he will reign in Jerusalem. He will establish that kingdom. There will be peace and prosperity all over the world.

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And just as his first coming was accompanied by supernatural signs and miracles and other things, supernatural events, so the second coming of the

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Messiah will also be accompanied by all kinds of supernatural events. Like in Joel chapter 2, which

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Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost when the moon is turned to blood and there are signs in the heavens and the stars fall from the sky, etc.

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There's going to be a massive cataclysmic event that will be characterized by miracles and signs and supernatural events that will accompany the establishment of that kingdom.

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He will return visibly and split the Mount of Olives north and south, east to west, and his feet will touch down there, and he will set up his kingdom there and establish his kingdom and his throne there.

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It's going to be a time characterized by all of these supernatural events. Those are the powers of the age that is to come.

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But in his first coming, we got a glimpse of what is to come. As he healed the sick and he raised the dead and he made the lame walk and the blind to see, he raised himself from the dead, and he turned water into wine and fed the multitudes.

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We get some glimpse of what that age to come is going to be like in the first coming of Christ. So what are the powers of the age to come?

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The powers that were demonstrated by Christ and his apostles. So these people in the book of Hebrews that he is describing here had some experience, they had tasted of these powers in some way.

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Now, how is it that you can taste of Christ or the

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Holy Spirit, I'll combine both of those in case I'm wrong and it is the Holy Spirit, not Christ, or maybe he means both, but let's assume that it's

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Christ and the Holy Spirit. How is it possible that you can taste of the person of Christ and of the Holy Spirit? And you can taste of the goodness of the word of God, and you can taste of the power of the age to come.

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How is it possible to taste all of those things or experience all of those things without being a true and genuine believer?

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It just takes a couple moments of reflection to think about how this is possible. People can have real experiences with the

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Holy Spirit, as I said, in feeling conviction and guilt and remorse, in feeling the...

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Listen, I felt convicted. I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit for hours before I ever truly got saved.

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And people experience this all the time, where they feel convicted, and they understand and sense the reality of their own judgment before God and their own damnation before God and how real that is.

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And they hear and understand the drawing and the wooing of the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit of God is working in their hearts and convicting them and convincing them, even though they suppress the truth and unrighteousness, they can have a very real experience of the work of the

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Holy Spirit. And people can have a real experience of the work of the Holy Spirit by coming here and sitting right next to you who are true believers.

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And you serve them and you love them and you sacrifice for them and you show them kindness and you share the gospel with them, and they see a transformed life, and they see somebody whose life has been changed by the power of the gospel, that is a real experience of the power of the

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Holy Spirit. They see it with their eyes. Every believer here is a testimony of the power of God in the person of the

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Holy Spirit in transforming and sanctifying his people. And people can have a real experience of that and a real understanding of that even without being saved.

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Because they can sit here amongst us and they can see a former drug user or a former wife abuser or a former fornicator or a former prostitute or a former drug dealer whose life has been transformed by the gospel, and they can say,

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I cannot deny that this is true. And they see it and they understand it and they're convicted by it. That's a real and genuine experience of the

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Holy Spirit. Christ is experienced by unbelievers through his people. So, when an unbeliever sits amongst us, and you as a believer share

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Christ with them, or they get to sit in and listen to the true and genuine worship of the people of God toward the risen king on a

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Sunday morning, they're having an experience of worship externally. It's not an internal worshiping experience, but an external experience of the realities of the kingdom all around them during a worship service.

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And how is it that they taste of the good word of God? Because an unbeliever can sit and they can listen to the proclamation of the gospel and understand it.

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And it is the spirit of God who is working through the person preaching or teaching who communicates the gospel. It is the spirit of God who is working to bring conviction and judgment to that unbeliever who is sitting there, who is suppressing that truth in unrighteousness and denying the reality of it, hardening their hearts and blinding their eyes to that truth.

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They are having a very real and genuine experience of the spirit of God in that. And through the word of God, they get some understanding of the goodness of God's word.

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There have been plenty of unbelievers who sit in worship service and hear the word of God preached and they say, I cannot deny that the word of God is good, that its principles are true and righteous and just, that what

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God says is truly wise and good for people and that God's ways are holy and righteous and true and that his precepts are true and that his precepts are good and that his commandments are good.

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It is the good word of God. And when they hear the word of God preached and explained and come to an understanding of it and they hear truth and their objections are muted and their questions are answered, they are experiencing the very real and true power of the good word of God.

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They are having experience of it, all without ever being believers. And how do they experience the powers of the age to come?

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Is not conversion a miraculous event? Is that not a supernatural event? When somebody who is a hardened and rebellious unbeliever bends the knee and yields to the power and the conviction of the

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Holy Spirit and they become a new creature in Christ. And if there's an unbeliever sitting here right next to another person who is an unbeliever and that unbeliever gets saved and they see the transformation in the life of that individual, that they go from being a

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God -hating rebel to a Christ -worshiping, adoring follower of Jesus Christ, that is a supernatural event.

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That is part of the powers of the age to come. And I would argue that historically in this context, that these people who are

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Hebrews, some of these people had seen some of the miraculous events performed by Jesus and likely by his apostles.

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In fact, the author describes that in chapter 2, verses 3 and 4 when he says the word of God was confirmed to us by those who heard

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Jesus through signs and wonders. Some of those sitting in the Hebrew congregation had themselves seen miracles and had tasted and experienced in a very real sense the powers of the age to come.

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Maybe some of them had known and seen Jesus when he walked in Jerusalem and around in Israel. Maybe some of them had known and seen miraculous powers done upon others and in healings by the apostles or even by Jesus himself, they had tasted it, they had experienced it.

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These people are truly, truly in every way without excuse. So all of these ways are ways that unbelievers can taste or experience the powers of the age to come, the word of God, the

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Holy Spirit and the person of Christ without ever being saved and without ever doing so internally in the heart.

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They can experience them because they're like dogs which eat the crumbs from the master's table.

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They, unbelievers, by their proximity to other Christians can enjoy some of the blessings and the overflow and the goodness of God toward his people and they get to experience or they get to taste it.

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And all of that is part of being enlightened. So the heart of the issue is not whether these people had truly experienced these things but whether these experiences were themselves salvific.

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That is the key issue. And I don't believe that there is anything in the text that indicates that these things that they experienced were the results of salvation, the fruits of salvation or even the causes of a salvation.

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And if you want exhibit A, I mentioned him a couple of weeks ago, it'd be Judas Iscariot. How many people were as enlightened as Judas Iscariot was?

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By my count, 11 other men were as enlightened as Judas Iscariot. Would you not say that Judas Iscariot had tasted of the heavenly gift if that's a reference to Christ, that he had experienced

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Christ? Yep. Had Judas Iscariot tasted or seen or experienced in some real way the

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Holy Spirit? How about the power of the word of God? How about the powers of the age to come?

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He experienced all of that. But by Jesus' own description, Judas was a devil. From the very beginning, early in his ministry,

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John chapter 6, Jesus said, one of you is a devil. He was speaking of Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot was never a believer and he was an apostate.

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And having been enlightened and having tasted of the powers of the age to come and the good word of God and the heavenly gift,

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Judas Iscariot walked away as an apostate, never saved. If you wanted a passage that I think would describe

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Judas Iscariot, it would be verses 4 through 6. This describes Judas. And he was not saved.

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Not at all. And this is how people, by the way, deceive themselves into thinking that they are saved. Because they come into a church like ours and they sit amongst the people of God and they feel the emotion that can be created by music and they hear the word of God preached.

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They say, yeah, that's good. That was good. I understand that. I get that. Yeah, I see what he's doing there. Yeah, that was good.

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It was really engaging. And if you attend a church like ours but not ours, you would say, yeah, it was a good speaker.

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It was really great. It kept me awake the whole time. It was really fun to listen to and it was funny and enjoyable. That was really good.

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And those people, man, they're genuine. Those are genuine saints. Those are people that would love you and serve you, give the shirt off their back for you.

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They just, they jump in and they do everything and they serve and that's got to be the work of something. There's something going on there. They can hear all of that and experience all of that.

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And even begin to think to themselves that because they have had an emotional swelling in their heart or because they have participated in it and because they have been very close to some of these supernatural things that go on amongst the people of God that are the work and the product of the

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Word of God and the Spirit of God, they can begin to think that they themselves are also the beneficiaries of those things.

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And they've never repented and they've never believed. They've never actually placed their faith in Jesus Christ but they remain close enough that they can feel the warmth of the fire but far enough away that they don't get consumed or burnt by it themselves.

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That describes millions upon millions of people in our own country who think that they are Christians because they have had real and true and genuine experiences just like what are described in this passage.

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But they themselves are not truly saved. And Jesus will say to them on the last day, depart from me you worker of iniquity,

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I never knew you. Not I knew you at one time but you fell away and lost your salvation. But I never knew you.

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And they will say but we spoke in tongues and we did miracles and we were part of the people of God and we were involved in this ministry and we planted this church and we led worship and we did this and we served others and we were in soup kitchens.

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I never knew you. That's what he will say to them. I never knew you. So here's the

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Arminian case, those who believe you can lose your salvation. They have to say that this passage definitely describes Christians.

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That it cannot describe a non -Christian or somebody who thinks that they are a Christian or somebody who is an unbeliever but has experienced all of these things.

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And yet with this group whom they would say are genuine true believers. You will notice that their salvation is not affirmed anywhere in this passage.

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Unlike those described in verse 9. But we are convinced of better things concerning you. Things that accompany salvation.

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Remember the switch in pronouns that we observed? Verses 1 through 3 is describing one group of people who are mature and need to press on.

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Verses 4 through 6 is describing another group whom he refers to in the third person. Those and they and themselves.

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And then he switches back in verse 9. But of you, back to the same group mentioned in verses 1 to 3.

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You remember that transition of pronouns that we observed? He is describing two different groups. He doesn't affirm the salvation of these in verses 4 through 6.

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Not at all. But he does affirm the salvation of a group in verse 9. It is the people whom he is originally writing to.

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He is not describing true Christians because he does not affirm them as true believers. But he does affirm others as true believers in verse 9.

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Not only that but he affirms the fruit of their faith. He says in verses 9 through 12. We know that the fruit of your faith is real and genuine.

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You are ministering to the saints and you are serving and you are persevering and you are loving. And the way that you do this, these are the fruits of genuine salvation.

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We see these in you guys. We know and are convinced of better things concerning you. Things that accompany salvation.

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Why? Because the fruit is there. But there is no fruit mentioned of this group in verses 4 through 6. They have been enlightened.

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They have received truth. And they have had certain Christian experiences. None of that is salvation.

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Being enlightened is not salvation. Having certain Christian experiences is not salvation.

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Because salvation is a work of the heart. It requires the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It requires repentance and faith.

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That is the type of language that describes true Christians. So the author is not describing those whom he knows to be believers.

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He is describing some who have had experiences common to being Christians. Have Christians tasted of the heavenly gift?

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Yeah, they have. Have Christians tasted of the good word of God? We have. Have Christians tasted of the powers of the age to come?

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We have. Have Christians been enlightened? We have. But has everyone who has been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and tasted the word of God and tasted the powers of the age to come, has everyone that that describes, are they all

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Christians? No, you cannot make that case. Because you can be really close and not be in.

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And that is part of the warning of this passage. So, I do not think that the case can be made from those things that have been tasted, that we are talking about genuine and true

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Christians, that we can be certain that these are Christians. I think the author is describing a group of people, not whom he knows are

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Christians, not whom he knows are non -Christians, a group of people about whom he would say, I'm not certain. They know the truth, they have experienced certain realities that other

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Christians, that real Christians have experienced. But concerning their salvation, I don't think that we can be certain. Now if you're on the other side and say,

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I believe that this teaches you can lose your salvation, you're probably thinking to yourself, yeah. But Jim, you've got one more phrase.

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They were partakers of the Holy Spirit. Certainly that has to describe genuine and true

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Christians. Yeah, it's true that experiencing something and being enlightened doesn't necessarily describe a true

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Christian, but certainly being a partaker of the Holy Spirit, that has to be a believer. We'll see.

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Next week. We'll see if that describes genuine and true Christians. Let's bow our heads. Father, it is our confidence together as your people that you keep all those whom you save.

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Our salvation in no way is dependent upon what we have done or even our ability to maintain our profession of faith or maintain our commitment or by our own strength, by our own faith to persevere.

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We thank you that we are kept. We are kept by Christ for an inheritance ready to be revealed in the last time.

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This is your work and it is your gracious work and we thank you for it. And it is my prayer and our prayer that if there is anybody here who is close, close to salvation who has never repented and believed, that you would draw them to you and convince and convict each and every one of us that we may know whether we are in the faith, whether we are in salvation, whether the faith that we have is genuine and true.

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We pray that those who are still in rebellion to you, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, that they would, by your grace, that you would overcome their rebellious will and bring them to faith in Christ that they may honor and glorify

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Him and receive forgiveness for all of their sins, an eternal inheritance and an eternal kingdom.

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We long for that age which is to come and we thank you for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.