WWUTT 1831 Having Tasted the Good Word and Fallen Away (Hebrews 6:1-5)

There are persons who proclaim to be Christians for a time, but then they fall away from the faith. So did they lose their salvation? That might be the perception from our human vantage point, but according to the scriptures, they were never saved.

Understanding the Text and the Warning Against Falling Away

To begin with, when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of Hebrews, we will be in chapter 6 this week, a little bit longer chapter than the last one. This one's 20 verses long. I'm going to start off here reading verses 1 through 8 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the word of the Lord. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of teaching about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

This is a very challenging section of scripture, and there are many different opinions about what's being talked about here. This continues on from what we had considered last week. Remember the rebuke that was given in verses 12, 13 and 14 of chapter five.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles, the oracles of God. You need to go back to milk and not solid food is the rebuke that is made there.

So it's in light of that rebuke, we move on next to chapter six, where the preacher says, therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, because remember he said you have reason to be taught the elementary things again, but if God permits, let us leave the elementary teaching about the Christ and press on toward maturity.

We don't have to preach to you a sermon as though to convert you again. You should already understand these things and therefore be growing in those things. So even though the preacher is given this rebuke at the end of chapter five, and I kind of teased this out last week a little bit heading into chapter six, he says, we're going to press on, we're going to go on to these mature things.

So remember the the last thing that was said before we had this statement about immaturity. It was said that Christ was designated by God as a high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. That was in chapter five, verse 10, and then in verse 11 concerning him, we have much to say, but it's hard to explain since you've become dull of hearing.

So it's almost like you would get this sense that the preacher is saying, I'd love to talk more about this, but I can't. I really can't take you into the deeper truths of these things because your heart is hard.

Your ears are dull of hearing. And then we would just be left with that. Oh, well, I wanted to hear more about Melchizedek, but apparently I don't get to. Well, he brings it up again in chapter six and seven and seven gets particularly deep.

So the preacher is going to go there, but he rebukes those whose hearts, whose ears are not yet ready for this. They should be ready at this time. They should be ready to hear these things, but they can't because they're still infants in the faith.

They still need milk and not solid food. But as he continues with this rebuke into chapter six, he says, let's leave the elementary teaching about the Christ. The very thing that he had mentioned previously in chapter five, verse twelve, you have need for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracle of God.

Someone needs to come back and teach you all these things again. But the preacher is not going to do that. He's going to press on toward maturity and thus encouraging his hearers to do the same. Leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

So that's not what this sermon is going to be about. The rest of the sermon is not going to be laying again a foundation of repentance. It's not going to be a sermon of repent and believe, as Jesus proclaimed at the start of his earthly ministry, Matthew four, seventeen, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand or in Mark one, fifteen, repent and believe the gospel.

This isn't going to be one of those sermons. Of course, you need to repent. Of course, you need to believe God. But this isn't going to be a come to Jesus sermon in that sense. In some sense, every sermon is a come to Jesus sermon.

Right. But this isn't going to be one of those basic evangelism. Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and live. You've already heard that. You need to be following along with that. Anyway, the preacher is going to press on to those meaty truths that he's saying they need to mature into.

So let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of teaching about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

You almost get the sense that the preacher is familiar with the stuff that they've been talking about, like what kind of sermons are going on in these churches that are filled with so many Hebrews? The sermons are probably about that.

It's probably about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. They're perfectly good topics that we need to talk about.

And and even there's a certain mature level of understanding of those things that goes deeper than what we first understood about them when we first heard of them. So it's all right to preach about those things and come deeper into a knowledge and an understanding of that.

What is what are washings and what are laying on of hands? What what all is in the resurrection of the dead? What do we need to hear over and over again that it renews our hope and our desire for the resurrection of the dead and even eternal judgment that we would fear God and not walk in this sin any longer, but pursue righteousness.

And that's really what it comes down to here for why the preacher says we're not going to go on talking about those things anymore, because you already should know that you need to turn from this sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of these things here have to do with that. The teachings about washings and we're washed when we come to Christ. That's first Corinthians six eleven about the laying on of hands that might be with regards to receiving the Holy Spirit.

If you're in Christ, you already have the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of the dead. You know about that. We've given you that promise and the eternal judgment. Well, we've warned you about that as well, that you would turn from sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We should not have to remind you of those things again. You know, all of this that I've been telling you is important because you've already been a follower of Christ. You've already turned from sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's not go through that again. Let me not waste the air talking about those things. There are some deeper truths that you need to know and thus get written down in this particular sermon for future posterity.

And so verse three, he says, and this we will do if God permits. Now, there could be two ways to take that. It could be we'll lay those foundations again if that's if that's what God tells us that we have to do.

Or it could be let's press on to the more mature things because that's what we need to do. This we will do if God permits as the preacher is going to lay down some more heavy, mature doctrines, may his hearers be able to understand it as the Lord permits.

Now, that's really the first part of chapter six here. And all things considered, it piggybacks off of what we had just read in chapter five, verses 11 through 14. So still continuing that same argument into chapter six, verses one through three, we have this statement to press on to maturity, the call to press on to maturity.

But then what comes next is is the case for those who have fallen away, those who won't hear this word to press on to maturity. They've backslidden and that's where they're going to go. They're going to go to disobedience and therefore unbelief because they have decided to love the sin more than the savior.

And so the preacher discusses them and talks about them in this way here in verses four through eight so that the rest of those hearers whom he is encouraging toward maturity so that they would not backslide, so they would not come into disobedience and unbelief.

The Meaning of Enlightenment, the Heavenly Gift, and the Holy Spirit

So verse four, for in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and having fallen away.

So let's consider the things here that they have tasted, that which they have witnessed and experienced, but then have fallen away. So in verses four and five, the preacher describes here, here's what they've had the opportunity to witness and observe and partake in.

In the case of those once having been enlightened, how are they enlightened? They were enlightened because they heard the word of God, they heard the gospel, and there was a period of time, at least where they professed to have believed it, because this is not about those who heard the gospel proclaimed but never believed it, and they just turned and walked away.

When Jesus gives the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, those are the persons who were like the seed that fell on the path and the birds came and snatched it away. They heard the word of God. But before it could take root, the enemy snatched it away from them.

Those aren't the people that would be talked about here in chapter six, those who heard the gospel but never really came to a confession of faith. These are those people that rather in the parable of the sower would be those that would be like the rocks and the thorns.

There were seeds that fell among the rocks and the seeds. If you remember, the seed represented the word of the kingdom, that word fell upon the rocks, but they had no root in themselves. So a plant sprouted up for a little while, but because it had no root, it withered away and died.

And then there were other seeds that fell among the thorns. And though they sprouted up for a time, it was the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choked out the word and it proved to be unfruitful.

So it would be those those two pictures there, the rocks and the thorns, that would be the kind of persons described here in verses four and five. They were enlightened. They heard the gospel and even for a period of time professed that they believed it and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit.

Now, those are not two different things. It's actually the same thing. It's not tasted of the heavenly gift and then also having become partakers of the Holy Spirit. But it's rather that in tasting of the heavenly gift, they become partakers of the Holy Spirit.

But what does that mean? What is the tasting of the heavenly gift? Well, this has been mentioned before. A tasting has been mentioned before in Hebrews. And so this is a parallel of what we read in Hebrews two, nine.

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

So when we taste, when we become partakers in tasting of the heavenly gift, we have come to an understanding of Christ who died on the cross for our sins. He tasted death so that we might taste of the heavenly gift.

So coming to an understanding of the message of the gospel and what is meant and represented by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, these certain persons that are being described here in Hebrews six, four, they tasted of the heavenly gift and therefore became partakers of the Holy Spirit.

Now, becoming partakers of the Holy Spirit does not mean they were indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Because if we are truly in Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, as talked about in Ephesians chapter one, if we're sealed for that day, that seal cannot be broken.

We cannot break that seal. And this ties into the doctrine that we refer to as the perseverance of the saints, that when a person is truly saved, they will remain saved. A person who falls away was never truly saved to begin with.

So if they were never truly saved, they could not have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and therefore sealed by him. Because otherwise we would have said that they were saved and somehow they had the power to break the sealing of the Holy Spirit on their lives.

No man has power to do that. Praise God. As John MacArthur has said, if you could lose your faith, you would. So we do not have the power to break God's seal upon us by his Holy Spirit. So becoming partakers of the Spirit does not mean they were indwelt by the Spirit, but they did partake of those things that have been bestowed on us by the Spirit.

And I think that the direct connection here would be with regards to the Lord's supper, the most direct connection. We'll put it that way. So they've tasted of the heavenly gift because what's represented there at the Lord's table at communion, the bread represents the body, Jesus' body, which was broken for us.

The cup represents his blood that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins, as Paul talks about in first Corinthians 11. So that's what these things represent. They represent that he tasted death. And so when we taste of that body and of the blood, we are tasting of the heavenly gift.

We are partaking intangible things that are symbols of that, which was actually given for us. So they became partakers of it in that way. They tasted of the heavenly gift. They became partakers of the Holy Spirit who is present with us when we are in worship in that way.

As Paul says in first Corinthians three, that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit and speaking there collectively of the whole body of Christ, the whole church together. We're a temple of the Holy Spirit.

And one of those practices that we have as the gathered saints, as the congregation or the assembly, which is literally what church means. The word church is, uh, it comes from the Greek word ecclesia, which is translated assembly or a calling out a calling out assembly of people.

We've been called out from the world to be united in Christ Jesus. We are his church. So those who have been part of that church confessionally, they've been part of the church and they have known of, they've been enlightened by the preaching of the gospel and they have tasted the heavenly gift and they became partakers of the Holy spirit there with the people of God who are filled with his spirit and also at the table of the Lord, where his spirit is with us.

Verse five and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, they were there with the church rejoicing together in the word that has been proclaimed to us and holding fast to a hope of the coming kingdom of the kingdom of Christ, where we will dwell with him forever.

They were with the church. They heard these things. They were enlightened. They tasted the heavenly gift, becoming partakers with the Holy spirit, having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and yet they fell away.

Why Hebrews 6 Describes Professing Believers Who Never Truly Regenerated

Verse six and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the son of God and put him to open shame. Now, again, as I mentioned before, this is a passage that is often debated.

There are various different interpretations of this. It's one of those passages that will be used by those who believe you can lose your faith. They'll point right to Hebrews chapter six, which says right here that they were partakers of the Holy spirit, but they fell away.

So it is possible for a person to be in Christ and then lose their salvation. And that's taking it a leap too far. That's not what this preacher is saying here. It doesn't say anything about they were saved, but then they lost their salvation.

It doesn't say that. It just says that they were partakers of the Holy spirit. But then they fell away from our own perceptions, from our human perceptions. As far as we can tell, they at one point proclaim to be believers in the gospel.

And then suddenly they're not, what are we to make of that? Well, in an ultimate sense, we know that they were never really saved at all because first John two 19 tells us they went out from us so that it might become plain that they were never really of us in the first place, but they went out so that we may know that they were not of us.

And I mentioned the parable of the sower as well, because the parable of the sower illustrates that there were those who for a time. Appeared to be professors of the faith, but then they had no root in themselves.

So they fell away. The cares of this world caused the word to be choked out or the deceitfulness of riches. And they turned away from the word to the world. These were persons who were never truly saved.

They look like it for a time, but they weren't genuinely saved for, as Jesus goes on to say, the seed that falls upon good soil will produce a harvest, some 30, some 60 fold, some 100. So that's that's the genuine believer there.

The word falls on the heart of the genuine believer and produces fruit. It produces a harvest. And we're even going to have the address of producing fruit as we continue on here. But verses four and five do not describe a person who was actually born again.

It's describing someone who was thoroughly instructed in the gospel and they were associated with the gospel because they proclaim to be Christians and they went to church and they were part of the gathered assembly.

But in their hearts, they did not truly believe it was a passing opinion for a time. They said that they were followers of Christ. But when it was no longer convenient for them to consider themselves that way, when they loved their sin more than they loved the savior, then they fell away by our own perceptions.

They fell away and went after the world instead of after the word. Really, this that we have here in Hebrews six, this is not that much different than first John to 19, they went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they were of us, they would have remained with us.

But they went out so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us and those who are not of us. Here's what it says of them. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the son of God and put him to open shame.

For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. There we talk about fruitfulness. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is unfit and close to being cursed and its end is to be burned.

Same thing Jesus said in Matthew seven, 16 to 20, you will know them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. And the preacher is saying the same thing right here in Hebrews chapter six.

There's more about this that I want to say, especially with regards to that statement, that it is impossible for them to lay again a foundation of repentance. Does that mean that those that we have seen who have fallen away from the faith, we should not ever share the gospel with them again?

No, I believe that we should, but let's come to a right understanding of it. I want to come back to this passage again tomorrow before we move on. Let me leave you with this word from Jude, this doxology at the end of his letter in verses 24 and 25.

And this will be our closing prayer. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless, with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and forever.

Amen. You've been listening to, When We Understand the Text with Gabriel Hughes. Pastor Gabe is the author of 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, examining some of our most common Christmas beliefs and traditions and bringing them back to the truth of scripture.

You can find this and other books at our website, www .utt .com. Join us again tomorrow for more Bible study, When We Understand the Text.