Hebrews 6:4-9, PRBC Evening Service 3/28/10

Hebrews 6 as a Warning Against Apostasy

Hebrews chapter 6, let us ask the Lord to bless our time once again. Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, we request once again that you bless your word to the hearts of your people. May we hear and understand, may we take very seriously what you have provided for us, what you have preserved for us, what you would have us to hear this evening, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. For those who are here this morning, we are simply continuing our study from Hebrews chapter 6. If you were not, hopefully you'll be able to pick up from the summary sort of where we were. We noted that this is a very central text.

It is a text that has often been used in regards to the discussion of the permanence or lack thereof of salvation. But we looked this morning at the consistency of the text, the relationship of the first three verses to what follows.

The Corporate Setting of Hebrews 6:4-5

And we saw that once again we have the picture of the gathered body. I want to emphasize something I did not emphasize so much this morning, but I think it is important for us to consider. That very often we as American Christians look at the New Testament and we import into it our very individualistic concepts.

We have the Bill of Rights and we have the Constitution. I'm sometimes tempted to put those into the past tense these days, but we at least have this concept that we as individuals have rights and that these are inalienable rights.

Even God evidently has to bow to these inalienable rights. But we tend to be very focused upon the individual experience of the Christian faith. And certainly there is that individual experience. It is an individual who is justified, for example, an individual who sins against God.

There is that individual aspect. But we very often miss the corporate aspect that is also present. Both have to be there. And in the book of Hebrews especially we see the body gathered together and the exhortation of the gathered body of people.

And even the things that were enumerated for us in verses four and five. We should not take in a simply individualistic text, in an individualistic context. For example, in the case of those who have been once been enlightened, what might that refer to?

Well, see we automatically think of, well, it's when someone was enlightened about the truth. Or they were regenerated or something like that. But how would the Hebrew Christians hearing this in the context of the gathered believers have understood a phrase like that?

What does it mean to be once enlightened? You see, all of these things that we see in verses four and five would have been the common outward experience of those in the body. The once enlightened might well have been baptism itself one time.

One baptism, one faith, etc., etc. There are early church fathers that referred to enlightenment in the sense of this idea of baptism. One thing that's absolutely certain when you think about it is that all of these things would have been things that they would have professed to experience as believers in the body.

Even that partaking of the Holy Spirit, we automatically think of that in a very personal sense of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that each individual experiences. But that term partakers has been used other places in the book of Hebrews.

For example, that same phraseology is used back in chapter three. You could probably just turn one page back in your Bible. It's the very same term used in verse 14 of chapter three. It says, for we have become partakers of Christ, what?

If we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. Now, it's not by my holding fast that I make myself a partaker, but if I have partaken of Christ, I will hold fast. But there are those in the congregation that claim that.

But if they commit this act of apostasy, this act of apostasy that is clearly in light here in this text, that's what's being discussed. This isn't talking about any other kind of sin. There were people in the early church that thought this text was grounds.

Believe it or not, there are some people who believe that when you are baptized, all your sins are washed away. And if you ever sin again, you'll be eternally lost based on this. One sin, and you're gone.

So much for if any man sins, we have an advocate for the Father, so on and so forth, but there were those who took that view. Very, very rigorous view. But the reality is, what we have in this text is a specific kind of sin.

It is the one sin that is being pressed upon the people in the congregation, and that is the sin of apostasy. And not just any kind of apostasy. Not just, well, yeah, I used to go to church, but now I only go on Easter and Christmas.

Or that kind of slow, drifting away type of a thing. Or, well, yeah, I'm a Christian, and I know I'm not really doing it the way I should, but not that kind of apostasy. We're talking about a specific kind of apostasy that involves the denunciation and renouncement of faith in Christ.

For the Jewish people, it involved the offering of sacrifice. In 1 John 5, it involved denying that Jesus had come in the flesh. In just a few decades from this period of time, or maybe right around this time, it would involve the offering of sacrifice upon the altar and saying, Kaiser kurios, Caesar is Lord, rather than Jesus kurios, Jesus is Lord.

All of it involved the specific denunciation of who Jesus is and what he accomplished. That's what is in light here. In the case of those who have been in the fellowship, they have, from all outward expression, been a part of the body.

Baptized. Partakers of the Lord's Supper. Maybe even those in positions of leadership. Maybe they led in the prayers. Maybe they were involved in evangelism. Maybe they even suffered things for the name of Christ.

Maybe they were zealous converts. We've all seen them. But it is not the flash in the pan that demonstrates true conversion. It is consistency over time. That is something you learn as you grow older.

As you have more years walking with the Lord, you begin to recognize that the true sign of saving faith is its endurance. Not just through one tragedy or one great pressure, but endurance through the day in and day out of the pressures of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

That is the sign of perseverance. And so we are told that in the case of those who are a part of our fellowship, they sat next to us. They were made partakers of the Holy Spirit. Not in the sense of their personally.

I mean, every one of us would claim to be heirs of the Holy Spirit and brought by the Holy Spirit. But the point here is this idea of partakers. Anyone who would be in the fellowship, we pray that the Spirit of God would be amongst us.

They've tasted the good word of God, the power of the age to come. They have heard as men have opened the word of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit have explained it with clarity. And yet, in spite of all that, and then have fallen away, then have gone back.

It is in their case. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Now, why is that? Well, verse 6 is understood in a couple of different ways. Most people understand this phrase, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, as the reasoning behind it.

This is why they cannot be renewed to repentance. Some have attempted to go, while they are crucifying to themselves the Son of God, leaving open the possibility. They look at that word back in verse 4, though most of our translations put it in verse 6.

Adunaton. Impossible, yes, but they can point to some uses where it simply means incapable. We are incapable of bringing them back to repentance. But God might be able to. They want to leave that door open and say, well, as long as they're crucifying to themselves Jesus again, they're offering the old sacrifices, well, there wouldn't be any possibility.

But if they were to stop, they want to leave that as an option, as a possibility. I don't think that's really where the author is going, because his emphasis is upon what the result of their action is.

Gnosis says, since they again crucify themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. What do you mean again? And see, once again, I, for years, fell into the same trap I think a lot of us do, is that I automatically read every single phrase in here in a personal way.

Rather than seeing it as the corporate body. What does it mean to say they again crucify themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame? What does it mean again? Does that mean that they had personally, at one point, crucified Jesus?

And you see the thought process there is, well, yes, I've been crucified with Christ, and so this would refer to a true believer, see. But what's actually being said here? Since they again... What happens to the Jewish Christian?

Think about it for just a moment. Put yourself in their position, you'll see what I'm talking about. You have made profession of faith in Christ. You have said he is the Messiah. You have said his death atones for sin.

And then you give in to the pressure. The pressure from the family, the pressure whatever it might be. You give in to the pressure. You had withstood it for a while, and so people know that you have made the profession of faith to be a Christian.

Now imagine the first day you come back to the temple, and you walk into the temple, and you have your sacrifice to be put upon the altar. What are you doing? Who are you joining? You are joining the very ones who had rejected Jesus and yelled out, crucify him.

You are going back, and you are joining the very ones who had first crucified him and put him to an open shame. You are joining the ones who stood at the foot of the cross and said, Come on down, Jesus.

You said you'd destroy the temple and raise it up in three days. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's what's being discussed here. You are going back and joining the very ones who mocked the death of Christ. That's why it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance.

They have demonstrated the nature of their own hearts. Then you have the illustration drawn probably from maybe Isaiah and the vineyard that does not bring forth fruit of the ground, the land. And it struck me as I was looking at this text again because it talks about the rain which so often falls on it.

And all of a sudden I realized it's the repetitiveness of the rain that is in view here. The repetitiveness. Just as I mentioned this morning, we sit here, and over and over and over again we hear the truth of God.

Over and over again, the rain falls upon us who are the earth. And what do we bring forth? What do we bring forth? Cannot help but think of Jesus' parable here. What kind of soil? Now in that case it was the word falls upon the soil.

The soils bring forth different things. There's only one type of soil that brings forth fruit. The same idea is here. If that rain falls in the preaching and teaching of the word, the good gifts of God, the good word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, all of these things continually ministered by the Holy Spirit within the congregation and our lives bring forth fruitfulness, then we receive a blessing from God.

But if that earth can constantly receive that nourishment, the rain that often falls upon it over and over again, the sun that shines, the nourishment that comes from God and all it can produce is, well, what I've got in my backyard right now.

All sorts of ugly weeds that I have to keep going out there and they keep producing it anyways. I bet you all are in the same boat that I'm in. If that's all it produces, after all the effort that's put in, then that ground is adakimos, the very word Paul says, I don't want to be found adakimos, reprobate, worthless.

But the proof is in the crop. The proof is in the result. It's never the result that needs to go first in the sense of so many of the work salvation systems. You've got to work this up within yourself, see?

That's how you make yourself saved. The soil, the good soil, brings forth the crop because it's the soil that determines the issue. In this case, land brings forth that which is pleasing and proper to those who have cultivated it, who have farmed it, those for whose sake it is also tilled.

That land receives a blessing from God. You bring forth thorns and thistles. Adakimos, reprobate, worthless, close to being cursed and to be burned. Strong words. But just as we have seen over and over again already in this book, as soon as you have strong words, what do you then have?

You have words of encouragement. You have words of encouragement. Because beginning in verse 9, but beloved, beloved, the writer exposes his shepherd's heart and he says, we are convinced, we are persuaded of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation.

Now, I don't know how that phrase, things that accompany or belong to salvation, literally, which have, I don't know how you can look at that and go, ah, see what's come before. Just closes the door on any possibility of the perseverance of the saints because those are all absolute signs of true believers in Christ.

No, they're absolute signs that these people were in the Christian fellowship. No question about that. They're absolute signs that these were people who made profession of faith and they apostatized. No question about that.

And they committed a particular kind of act of apostasy. No question about that either. But there's also no question about the fact that the writer says, but we're convinced of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation, though we are speaking like this.

Why? For God is not unjust so as to forget the work, your work of love, which you have demonstrated toward his name. God has seen what you have done. God has seen the consistency of your life. And God has seen that you had the right motivations.

You have demonstrated the love for his name. You weren't doing this to impress anybody else. You have been willing to sacrifice and to suffer for the name of your God. And you've done so by ministering to the saints and you are continuing to minister to the saints.

In other words, you have demonstrated a consistent attitude of service, first to God and then to his people. I don't know about you, but that pretty much summarizes all of 1 John to me. You know, everybody jumps that text in 1 John.

By this we know that we have eternal life. And how many times do people stop and go, what's this? What is this? It's the rest of the book about loving the brethren and loving God and walking in the light and all those other things.

There is a summary of it. There is a summary of it. The love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered to and still ministering to the saints. Then the writer says, and we desire. And this is a strong word.

It's not just, oh, I would like to have such and so. We have strong emotional desire that each one of you, each one of you. The pastor's heart comes out here again. He's not just saying, well, you know, we're doing pretty good on the numbers.

We've got about 80 of you going the right direction, so we'll say that's enough. No. We desire that each one of you display, give evidence of, show the same zeal, the same desire toward the full assurance of faith until the end is the literal translation.

So some translations would say you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. The writer says, oh, it is truly our desire that your zeal would not be just an outward one, but it would be that type that endures.

I've told the story many times, but I'm going to tell it again because it is important to me. When I first came here, I came from a context where if you had somebody show up that looked like they had some promise, like they had some abilities to maybe teach or be in a leadership position, well, you'd do everything you could to sort of show them the facilities and, you know, sort of, don't you want to come here?

Wouldn't you like to be a part? And when I first came here, I was, I sort of wondered about you folks just a little bit because even though, you know, Pastor Fry talked to me after the service and, yeah, I'm just about to graduate from seminary and studied Greek and Hebrew and had my first books coming out at that time and things like that.

It was sort of like, that's nice. And it's like, what? You know, it was a completely different way of looking at things. And there was nothing said to me about, well, you know, if you stuck around, maybe you've got an adult Bible study class, you know, and maybe some opportunities of service down the road.

Nothing like that at all. As you may know, until you express a desire to be a part of this fellowship, nothing's ever said about that. There are no carrots dangled in front of you. There's nothing like, no, there has to be a desire on the part of the individual to be a part of this fellowship before there's any discussion or anything like that, really until membership takes place.

And that was my experience. And I'm awful glad about that because what that demonstrates is there is a commitment, there has always been a commitment to recognizing that it is consistency over time that demonstrates the work of the Spirit.

It's not the flashy stuff that the world is so excited about. And how many times have we seen dishonor brought on the name of Christ because somebody took some new convert, never gave them any opportunity whatsoever to become grounded or mature in any way, shape, or form, and shoved them out in the front and said, preach, speak!

And what happens to them? They almost always fall and bring disrepute on the name of Christ. The Bible told us not to do that. It's not that what we were doing here was unusual. There's something about having some experience in becoming an elder.

There's something about having some experience in being a teacher. The elders have to observe your life and your conduct and your doctrine to know whether you're going to speak in such a way as to accurately represent God's truth.

I mean, it's all right there in the scriptures, but in our society today, that's really not how you do things. You want to get the flashy person up there. Here, our text speaks of a full assurance of hope that lasts until the very end.

And then it provides a contrast that I think sort of helps explain what that means. In order that you might not become sluggish, you might not become lazy. Sluggish and lazy. That's the opposite of having this full assurance of hope.

What is a full assurance of hope? Well, a person who has it isn't sluggish or lazy. A full assurance of hope is what our brothers and sisters in the Lord, who this night are behind locked, barred doors, separated from their husbands, wives, children, and parents in dingy, smelly, rotten prisons around the world, knowing that they possess the very key to that door.

All they would have to do is renounce Christ. All they would have to do is renounce Christ, and the door would swing wide open. I suggest to you the reason they stay there, the reason they don't give up hope.

Here it is. That's the kind of hope they have. Full assurance of hope until the end. And you say, well, we're not in that situation. And boy, if I ever was, I would hope the Lord would sustain me. Well, that's what we pray for.

But in reality, every single day that pressures are placed upon you to compromise, to think like the world and act like the world and speak like the world, this is the very same hope you need to have to be able to resist those temptations.

Show the same diligence. Show the same zeal as to have that full assurance of hope until the end. Do not become sluggish or lazy, but... And then this will... And you all will remember this, I'm sure, next month, whenever it is that I speak again, when we pick up with verse 13.

This transitions directly into what we have there. And if you want, don't stop here. Read the rest of this chapter before you go to bed tonight. I don't know that I've ever seen... I mentioned this morning, this chapter flew up the chapter list of incredible texts.

In my mind, as I looked at this, I don't know that I've ever seen more strong encouragement than what's in the rest of chapter 6 of Hebrews. Especially, and I'm sort of giving you a preview here, but in verse 19, we have an anchor of the soul.

A hope both sure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us. Here is the picture of an anchor which has been set in the very holy of holies itself within the veil.

Sure and steadfast. Nothing could ever move that. I don't know that there's maybe Romans 8, that kind of language anywhere else. It's incredible. Same chapter as verses 4 through 5. But here's the transition.

Do not be lazy, but be imitators. Mimic, literally. Mimic. Be mimickers of the ones who by faith and patience... Faith and patience. Hmm, where have I... Oh, all of Hebrews 11. Little picture here of what's coming.

Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter. Who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Be imitators of them. And who are they? He's going to immediately start talking about what's the very next verse.

Abraham. The very ones that they as Jewish believers look to as having walked with God and known God. And yet they by faith and patience inherited the promises. And therefore you, Jewish Christians, imitate them.

Have the long view. Recognize that you're going to be put under these pressures, but so were they. I think the author has in mind what he's going to be saying later on in chapter 11 at this particular point in time.

But there's the exhortation. If you become sluggish, if you become lazy, you're putting yourself in a position of grave danger. Instead of that, show that commitment. Show that zeal. Show that diligence that lasts.

That isn't just the flash in the pan emotional experience. Is that not one of the greatest problems we have in evangelicalism today? What is one of the main pressures that has caused even sound evangelical churches to abandon the centrality of the preaching of the Word and to adopt a feel-good emotionalism?

Get everybody excited. Get them clapping. Get the band playing. Get some emotions going so that at least by the time of the offering they're feeling pretty good about this place. And then hope like anything that it lasts until the next time you get together.

That's not the Christian faith. That's not a solid foundation that is going to last when persecution comes. Full assurance of hope until the end. Faith, patience. These are the marks of the work of the Spirit of God within a person's heart.

And it is those who exercise these things who inherit the promises. The great promises that are going to be explicated in verses 13 and following. But I just wanted to sort of once more, a little preview.

Notice what verse 17 says about this promise. In the same way God desiring even more to show to the heirs the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose. There's a ground to stand on. There is a ground to stand on.

God has an unchangeable purpose. And if you bow the knee to Jesus Christ you're part and parcel of that purpose. We live in a day when things are changing so fast that it's hard to keep up. It's hard to keep up.

The foundations are trembling. We need a foundation that won't change. The unchangeableness of God's purpose. What a treasure. What a treasure to realize God has His purpose and He is going to accomplish it.

When you're a believer in Christ part and parcel of that purpose is that He is going to conform you to the image of His Son. And anything you're going through, any trial, any tribulation, large or small, very often we survive the large ones.

It's the small ones that last forever that seem to be much more difficult. Whatever it might be, God has an unchangeable purpose and He has given us His promise. And He is faithful to His promises. Let's pray together.

Assurance, Perseverance, and the Shepherd's Heart

Our glorious Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, once again we come before you having opened your word, experienced the ministry of your Spirit. And once again, just as the writer recognized that he was writing to the congregation and he could not look into the hearts and minds of each individual, so too we this evening recognize that we come here this evening as your people.

We, who have truly experienced your work in our hearts and lives, desire to be obedient to these words. We desire to have this diligence, this zeal, so we might have full assurance right to the end. This is our desire, and we look not to ourselves, but we look to the unchangeableness of your purpose.

And we look to our forerunner who's gone into the holy place and we rejoice in him. We rejoice in the unchangeableness of the decrees of the Triune God. But Father, we also recognize there might be those amongst us who have not yet bowed the knee, who have heard these words, and Lord, our prayer is that they will understand on the basis of this text that if they choose to despise the finished work of Christ, they will not find salvation anywhere else.

There is only one way, one means of being made right before you, the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May you make him to be glorious in their eyes. Draw your people unto yourself. Show yourself powerful.

We pray in Christ's name.