to Hebrews chapter 6. This evening we continue in our study in Hebrews. We'll pick up at verse 4 and we'll read through verse 9. Tonight we hear the second part of a warning.
Last week the author warned us about spiritual immaturity tonight about spiritual apostasy. Last week spiritual immaturity the concern that many had remained in and some had really reverted back to a spiritually immature condition instead of going on with God being brought along by God to maturity. They were instead dull and sluggish in the response of the gospel. Now tonight another warning this one about the danger of falling away entirely.
It's one of, well I think as believers read these passages it tends to be one of those most frightening of passages in the New Testament. Calvin said these words are like thunderbolts by which the readers might be struck dead unless God mitigates the severity of them by his reassurance in verse 9. So we're really studying actually verses 4 through 8 but I don't want us to mishearing the author's confidence for his hearers in verse 9. We'll leave those words of encouragement as we hear them.
So as we come to this passage tonight we'll be asking two questions. Can Christians, genuine Christians lose salvation and how are we responding to the good news about Jesus? Let's think on these things from Hebrews chapter 6 beginning at verse 4. For it is impossible.
In the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for who say it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned, then we speak in this way, yet in your case beloved we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. Amen.
This is God's word. Let's look to him in prayer. Father, write this word on our hearts, grant us by the Spirit of true understanding, comfort the afflicted we pray, reassure your people, strengthen us in grace, lift Jesus before our eyes. We need him in his name I ask him.
Amen. Amen. If you have ever experienced what some call the dark night of the soul reading this may have been one of those passages that troubled you. What am I talking about?
Dark night of the soul is people describe it as a time when you are overwhelmed by your sins and your sinfulness and overwhelmed by your failures to love God and love people and you either feel like a demon from hell or you feel like the devil is in the room with you and he is condemning you and everything he is saying is true and God would be right to cast you off and you think he probably has. If you have ever experienced something like that I suffered one my junior year of college my roommate found me on the floor. I must have looked like despair incarnate. He asked if I was okay and I was so confused and felt so ashamed of myself and helpless I just lied to him and said yeah I'm fine.
But I wasn't fine. I was miserable and it was either this passage or it was later in Hebrews chapter 10 that had me down. I was convinced that I had committed a sin so terrible and so frequently as a Christian that God was going to kick me out of his family if he hadn't already done so. Now I had previously by God's grace trusted in Christ for my salvation.
I believe that he had died for my sins upon the cross but now I told myself I had committed those same sins which drove me to Christ. I had committed those same sins as a believer in Christ and therefore was guilty of crucifying the Son of God all over again. It was that impossible for me to be saved. What I didn't know at the time was that I was espousing the theology of an ancient teacher from the third century named Novation.
He argued that those who'd lapsed from the faith and they had done so in a time of persecution that they could not be restored. Their sin was unforgivable no matter how sincere their repentance. Well this is the kind of passage that confuses Christians and that confused Christians think means that one day you can be a child of God and the next day be bound for help. That one day Jesus loves you and gave himself for you but the next day Jesus will never have anything ever to do with you ever again.
But that's not what this passage is about. And I want you to consider that under three parts this evening. First in verse 6 the problem of people who follow away. Then the description of people who follow away in verses 4 to 6 and then the evidence and end of those who follow away.
Verses 7 and 8. Think first about the problem of people who follow away. He speaks of those who follow away and then have fallen away verse 6. Does he mean Christians can lose salvation or is he speaking about something else?
Well if you've been around Christian you want enough. You probably know people who have fallen into public and scandalous sins. You know or know of people who maybe haven't committed some public or scandalous sin but still have walked away from Christ walked away from the church. Renounced their profession of faith.
Frankly the preacher who most helped me in my studies of the book of Hebrews some 25 years ago was a former missionary in Africa. Then a well-known pastor in England who had left the ministry to take up with his male traveling companion. Getting into the ministry he said at the time was the worst mistake he had ever made. And then oddly enough in my own experience the person that next helped me most understand the book of Hebrews some 10 years ago through his sermons was well a pastor.
I've quoted or had quoted many times and then it became public that he had carried on a four year secret affair with a woman in his church. The terrible sins. The terrible sins that are committed by pastors and people alike. King David covered up his adultery by his lies and murder.
Peter denied Jesus to his face publicly. Yet David repented. Peter repented and both were restored. The verdict is still out of course on others.
So is this what Hebrews is he speaking of or something even worse? Well I want to say to us tonight in the first place it's not about a Christian losing salvation. That is one interpretation given by some for it but I argue that's not what it means and I'll do so in a moment. There are really just a few major interpretations of what this means.
One is the Wesleyan Arminian approach. It's named of course for John Wesley. It's found among Wesleyan Methodists not Calvinistic Methodists but among Wesleyan Methodists and various holiness denominations. It says that you can be a true Christian and then lose your salvation.
And it thinks that this passage is proof of that and Wesley certainly taught that. In this view you could be a believer then fall away and fall out of salvation but you can be restored. You can come back to the altar. It can happen multiple times.
Some people have been rebat times. Maybe you've known folks like this. They were converted they thought. Professed faith came to the altar.
Chucked the faith. Came back. Chucked the faith. Came back and they would say this is well this passage is a description of them.
Interestingly of course that well it's the kind of view that leaves Christians in the position of the person pulling flower petals off of daisies saying to themselves he loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not.
It's a very unstable position to be in. Interestingly as well those who hold that version of what this passage teaches are actually saying more than these folks tend to assert or the passages saying more than these folks tend to assert because this passage says if they fall away it is impossible to restore them again to repentance. They cannot be restored. Then of course some realizing that soften the word impossible here to make it say difficult.
So the difficulty with that is the same word is used later to say that it's impossible for God to lie. You end up doubting the word impossible here, softening the word and making it something difficult but not impossible. That's one view here. It's difficult but it can be done.
Another view besides the Wesley and Arminian view is one you hear sort of as opposed flippantly stated once saved always saved. That is it asserts I would say too flippantly that if you are a person who wants profess faith in Jesus then you are saved because of that profession no matter how you live and you want saved always saved so that you could believe in Jesus today live the rest of your life like the devil and that be okay because you were saved. You are saved. But the point of this passage isn't that genuine Christians don't lose salvation or it is that genuine Christians don't lose salvation but the folks who hold this position say they lose some of the blessings of God that they might otherwise have.
So they don't lose salvation but they lose some of the blessings of God and that's a strange view and it's not the Bible's view either because it isn't true that you can be saved and live like the devil the rest of your life. It isn't true that you can encounter somebody who's for the last twenty years of their life has rejected Jesus, rejected the church, hated God, renounced Christ and live like the devil and give them any confidence that they're genuinely a Christian. Now Jonah ran from the Lord. It's possible to run and the Lord can bring his people back.
But salvation brings both pardon and transformation. That is it brings not only forgiveness of sins but a new heart and if you are justified in Christ then you are being sanctified in Christ though people do backslide of course. But the better view then of this passage is that it's not about a genuine Christian losing their salvation but rather it's about a false Christian falling away from their profession of faith in Christ. And that's the Reforview.
It's sometimes called the Calvinistic view. It's certainly the view of the Westminster Confession of faith and catechisms are standards here. Why say that this is about people professing faith then falling away from their profession? Why say that?
Well on the one hand because of the very clear promises to believers all across the scriptures and on the other hand because of the description of the people in this passage and the illustration he gives about them. Let's start with the promises. Jesus promised in John chapter 10 verses 27 and 28. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. If the life that he gives them is eternal and it's everlasting. It's not temporary and if he's God and he is nobody can snatch them out of his hand. He holds on to his people.
This is the affirmation Paul triumphantly proclaims at the end of Romans chapter 8 for I am sure he says that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor death nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the great promise. Nothing can separate us from his love. This is why he can elsewhere say in Philippians 1 he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
So we could pile up promises like that. What then do we have here in Hebrew 6? We have the situation where people have professed faith in Jesus. They've been around the gospel.
They've benefited in some ways from being around Jesus in the community of faith maybe even as a member of the church but then who go on to turn away from him, fall away rejecting him and there's a description of these folks in 1 John chapter 2 verse 19. 1 John chapter 2 verse 19 they went out from us but they were not of us. For if they've been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that it might be to be complained that they all are not of us. John says there were people who at one time who'd been around the church even publicly professed faith in Jesus but they left and they didn't continue and it's evidence that they were of us he says.
How does John know that? If they've been of us they would have continued with us. They had been genuine believers. They would not have left.
So that perseverance is a sign of genuine faith and falling away is a sign you were never truly saved. Now our confession hastens to add that Christians can fall badly but not fully and finally. So now lest you think I've been posting something on the passage and not listening to the passage let me invite us all to consider the passage. How does the author describe these people?
Notice the description here of those who fall away in verses 4 to 6 he piles up phrases here. He says verse 4 it is impossible in the case of those who have noticed this language once been enlightened and then second they've tasted the heavenly gift. Third they were partakers of the Holy Spirit. Fourth and verse 5 they tasted the good word of God.
Fifth they tasted the power of the age to come. We'll come back to those in just a second but notice how he doesn't describe them. He doesn't use the language he uses elsewhere in this epistle to describe true Christians. I mean how does he normally describe true Christians in the book of Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10 as sons of God.
Chapter 2 verse 11 as those who are sanctified. Chapter 2 verse 12 as brothers and sisters. Chapter 2 verse 13 as the children of God. Chapter 2 verse 14 as children.
Chapter 2 verse 17 as brothers and chapter 3 verse 1 as Holy brothers and sisters. That's how he describes Christians. He doesn't describe these people with any of that language using none of those terms. In fact he uses very let's say obscure expressions open to a whole variety of meanings.
Now he has something in mind of course but in the history of interpretation believers had debated what he means even within the camp of every interpretation there is. So let's not force the writer to say something that he isn't saying. He isn't saying it's possible for brothers and sisters in Jesus who are the beloved children of God who are sanctified and set apart to fully and finally fall away. Then what is he saying?
He's saying it's possible to know and experience a lot without actually experiencing true salvation. I mean again now notice that list five or six things he says first they were enlightened. They were enlightened. Now many ancient interpreters viewed the phrase enlightened there actually to be a reference to baptism because in many of the early church formulations of baptism the language of enlightenment was used in terms of the sacrament of baptism.
That's an ancient and old view. I do think there's a better view. It's better understood by Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26 that other scary passage, pardon me, where in Hebrews 10 verse 26 the writer says for if we go on sitting deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. You see why that's the other passage that is troubled, genuine believer so much they had received the knowledge of the truth.
They had been taught about Jesus and his sacrifice for sins but they were deliberately sinning. How were they deliberately sinning? By rejecting the only sacrifice for sins. That is if you reject Jesus there's no other way to be saved.
There's no one else to turn to for salvation. All that's left is judgment. So they heard the gospel knew about the way of salvation probably even professed it at one time. And then he says not only were they enlightened but they've tasted the heavenly gift.
That's his second point. And again so ancient interpreters here probably because of the language of tasted apply this to the Lord's Supper. Others see the language of the Exodus and eating manna from heaven. Yet many of those Jews fell away.
Something it means certain gifts of the Holy Spirit. Others think it refers to some of the benefits of the gospel more generally. Then notice verse four, partakers of the Holy Spirit. That may be referring to the ordinary and even the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says in 1st Corinthians 13 however though I speak in the tongues of men and of angels you have not loved I am nothing. The possibility of the apostle Paul says is that someone would be able to speak in tongues and yet be spiritually lost because it's obvious since they have no love. Then in verse five he says they've tasted the good word of God that probably indicates they've had an experience of the goodness of the gospel message. And they've tasted the powers of the age to come probably referring to the signs and wonders and miracles of the kingdom age.
But the point would be this that it's possible to hear the gospel perhaps eat the Lord's Supper to share in some of the blessings of the church. Even some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit even see or benefit by some of the miraculous powers of the things that God does and yet to turn away. And then at verse six he says, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding them up to contempt. In other words, whatever qualities these people possess he says, you know who they stand with?
They stand with Pilate and they stand with Herod and they stand with the Pharisees and the crowd that cried crucify him, crucify him. So that to repudiate Jesus to follow away is to say, I don't need Jesus to be crucified for me. I've put Jesus to the test and I found him wanting. I stayed with those who put him to death.
He's neither the Son of God nor the Savior of sinners. He's just a man guilty of evil, guilty of treason, guilty of insurrection, guilty of blasphemy. You know he deserves what he's getting. That's the disposition here of these folks.
There we might say many examples of this in the Bible too, examples of this kind of falling away. Let me point you to one in the Old Testament and one in the new. In the Old Testament, you remember King Saul. King Saul was at one time counted among the prophets.
He prophesied, yet the Spirit was taken from him and he died, well, many would argue, as a reparate, he died as a rebel in apostasy. He had extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit, but he didn't have the saving graces of the Holy Spirit. John Owen says it's a fearful thing to realize that a man may experience the extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit and yet not experience the saving operations of the Holy Spirit. Well, there'd be even, I think, a more, well, an example from the New Testament that perhaps leaps to mind and is more obvious.
And that would be the example of Judas. And the Anglican scholar Philip Hughes in his commentary says this, no defection is more startling than that of Judas Iscariot. One of the twelfth, no less, who for the duration of our Lord's ministry was blessed with the special privilege of being constantly in his presence, enjoying the warmth of his friendship, receiving his sublime instruction, and witnessing his wonderful works. And yet he sold his heart to Satan and betrayed his master.
He had followed so long and so closely. Furthermore, says Owen, the apostate condition of Judas is heart, though known to Jesus was not even suspected by the rest of the twelve to whom it was unthinkable that any of their number could prove to be a traitor. But there he is. Jesus himself warned us in the Sermon on the Mount of this in Matthew seven.
You remember his words in Matthew seven, beginning at verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the little my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? And you might he works in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart for me.
You workers of lawlessness. So these folks had gifts, but they didn't have fruit. And they trusted in their gifts that they were right with God, but they hadn't trusted in the Messiah himself to be right with God. And so they've not been changed, not transformed and born, no free, recognizing the attitude that the author is getting at here.
He's speaking to the Jewish Christians who were considering, considering repudiating Christ and going back to Judaism. And he's saying, you can't go back without saying in effect, either explicitly or implicitly, that you don't need Christ for salvation. You don't need Christ for fellowship with God. If you're going to gather around the Christian community as an early Jew and then say, mad, not for me.
I'm going back. This is the person he's speaking of. John Copins is the apostle here, not talking here about theft or perjury or murder or drunkenness or adultery. He is referring to a complete falling away from the gospel in which the sinner has offended God, not in some one respect only, but has utterly renounced his grace.
And so you see then in the description of these people that one can fall away from a profession of faith. And then you see also the evidence and end of falling away in verses seven and eight. He illustrates his point here. He illustrates it this way.
Notice verse seven, for land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivate receivable lesson from God. Verse eight, but if it bears Lawrence and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned. You see what this illustration does. It confirms that they were never true Christians, never true believers, but for a while they were among true believers.
And how does the illustration show that? Because the author says there are two gardens. Both receive rain, both under gospel ministry, at least for a season, but the gardens produce two very different things. One soil enjoyed the benefits of rain, showered frequently, it produced fruit to the benefit of others, it fulfilled its purpose and was blessed by God.
Its spiritual productiveness is by divine grace and it received the divine approbation. The other soil received the benefit of rain, but produced thorn and thistle. It's of no use. This person invites God's curse, the end is to be burned, which is what you do with a field full of thorns and thistles.
So that the illustration he uses here is not of a field that was fruitful and then another field that was fruitful and then lost it. It's a picture of two entirely different kinds of fields. So what do we do with all this? Well, let me speak to a variety of folks here.
First of all, teachers. That is those who teach the Bible, those who aspire to teach the Bible. We all all be careful. Christians who have tender consciences and depressive temperaments come to passages like this and look at their failures and can't be wrongly persuaded that they are the anti-Christ or that they have committed the unpardonable sin and there is no hope for them.
All the while they're growing deeper in their persuasion that their only hope before God is Jesus and then a teacher comes along and rips that out from underneath them. Of course, your only hope is Jesus. It's always only been Jesus. What we need to do is strengthen people in their competence and assurance that Jesus is a greater Savior than he thinks they are.
But then a word to churchgoers to be warned. You can be described as immature like we saw last week. Are we headed in the right direction at least? Are we being carried along by the Lord towards maturity?
Or have we become all of hearing and sluggish and we're needing to be taught again instead of being teachers? And is that really evidence that we're actually, well, it's just a prelude to apostasy. Don't mistake gifts for having fruit. Also don't mistake one person's fruitfulness for another's.
Be bare differently fruit. Some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 90 fold. If you're a 30 fold fruit bearer by God's grace, don't look at a 90 fold fruit bearer and think, I'm not even in this kingdom and despair. You judge good soil not by the rain falling on it in springtime but the crop that's produced in the summer.
But these who fall away reject God's gifts, they despise God's son. They forfeit God's blessing. And so if you're a member of the church, are you growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus? Are you growing in love for Him and in the knowledge of His love for you?
Or are you growing more and more hard-hearted towards Him? Which direction are you headed? And then finally two Christians, I would say, of all stripes, be comforted here. Our sins may be heinous.
I hope that we think that they are. But Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us. Peter denied Christ to His face and Jesus was distorted. What's the difference then between Peter and Judas?
One failed in His fidelity to Christ as Christians will and often do, but the other decisively repudiated Him. One did not live up to the cross while the other despised it. So just keep looking to Christ and Him crucified. For He is your salvation.
Let's pray. Father, thank You that you are stronger than we are. Your faithfulness is greater than ours and we acknowledge that we are fickle-hearted and faint-hearted and we are weak and confused so often even about our own spiritual condition. But thank You that You are never confused about these things.
Jesus came to save. He truly saves. And those He brings to You in peace that peace survives because He purchased that peace by the blood of His cross. So build us up in the steadfast immovable love of the Lord.
We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And let me invite you to say