Hebrews 6:4-9 The Danger of Falling Away

Intro:

Pray for Allie

Scriptural gymnastics

I love olympic sports like track & field and swimming

One sport that I don’t like is gymnastics

It’s not that the athletes aren’t incredible its just that the coverage is crammed down our throats

That said, how gymnasts move their bodies is amazing

I saw two guys impersonate a guy on the pommel horse

one guy was the arms and the other was the legs

At first they were doing a normal routine but as it went on they started doing crazy stuff

It got to the point of impossible which just made it funny

Which was the point of it all

Scriptural gymnastics aren’t funny

That is when a pastor or scholar twists the passage to fit their belief system

The leap from what they believe to what the passage says is impossible

We get to one of those passages today

Hebrews 6:4-6 is one of the most controversial passages in all of the Bible

It talks about the danger of falling away

Read Hebrews 6:4-6

Transition:

Can you fall away from the Lord and if so can you come back

If you read this passage literally it would be easy to say that it is impossible

But that would go against so many passages that say your salvation can’t be taken from you

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is no outside force that can separate you from your salvation

But what if you fall into sin and drift from the Lord?

What if that sin is so great that

Impossible

The word impossible is put in a position of emphasis.

The writer to the Hebrews does not say this is merely difficult, but that it is without possibility.

Not able to occur, exist, or be done

Word occurs 4 times in Hebrews

Impossible for God to lie (6:18)

blood of bulls to take away sin (10:4)

please God w/o faith (11:6)

This morning we are going to look at what is impossible

Is it impossible to fall away and never be able to come back to the Lord?

Is it impossible for those who aren’t chosen to come to Jesus

I don’t think it means either

What I want to teach you this morning is that this passage is saying

We are going to see three things that happen when you receive Jesus

Enlightened

The first thing we see is that we are enlightened

It means To bring light to something dark

Before Christ we walked around in the darkness completely lost

When Jesus shows up its like someone turned the light on

Ephesians 1:18 ESV

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

We all experience enlightenment

The word “once” means “enlightened once and for all.”

The way this same verb is used in Hebrews 10:32 indicates an experience of true salvation

So once you have been enlightened you can’t deny the light has been shone

Tasted the Heavenly Gift

The second experience is that you’ve tasted the heavenly gift

They “tasted of the heavenly gift” (Heb. 6:4b), and “tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world [age] to come”

The idea of “tasting” may mean to “test” something.

But other uses of this word indicate a full, real experience as in how Jesus tasted death in Hebrews 2:9.

The heavenly gift is probably salvation

To claim that these people “tasted but did not eat” is to base interpretation on one meaning of an English word.

God permitted His Son to “taste death for every man”

Surely Jesus Christ did not simply sample death on the cross!

“Taste” carries the idea of “experience.”

These Hebrew believers had experienced the gift of salvation, the Word of God, and the power of God.

Doesn’t this describe authentic salvation?

Partakers of the Holy Spirit

The third experience is you are a partaker of the Holy Spirit

ESV uses Shared

NKJV uses Partakers

It means “to become sharers.”

This is an unique term in the New Testament.

Since it means “sharing” the Holy Spirit, it has to do with receiving and having fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

These same people were not only “sharers of the Holy Spirit,” but also “sharers of the heavenly calling” and “sharers of Christ”

Hebrews 3:1 ESV

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

When you enter into a relationship with Jesus you are filled with the Holy Spirit

With that you are filled with the love of Christ, with power, and spiritual gifting

Exposed to the Word and Power

The fourth experience is that you have been exposed to the Word and Power

This means they experienced the goodness of God’s word, and saw its goodness at work in them.

Two weeks ago we saw the Word is living and powerful able to split bone and marrow

We also experience the power of what is to come

This is a way to describe God’s supernatural power.

The writer to the Hebrews describes those who experienced God’s supernatural power.

When we come in contact with the Word of God we don’t away the same

We are either drawn or repelled

Fallen Away

There is a danger of falling away

What does that mean?

Bible students over the years have come up with several approaches to this serious passage.

One view is that the writer is warning us against the sin of apostasy, willfully turning one’s back on Jesus Christ and returning to the old life.

According to them, such a person would be lost forever.

There are several problems with this interpretation.

To begin with, the Greek word apostasia is not used in this passage.

The verb for “fall away” is parapipto, which literally means “to fall alongside.”

To give you an idea this akin to someone driving into a ditch

There is a necessary distinction between falling and falling away.

Falling away is more than falling into sin; it is actually departing from Jesus Himself.

Proverbs 24:16 ESV

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

The difference is between a Peter and a Judas. If you depart from Jesus (fall away) there is no hope.

The message to these Christians who felt like giving up was clear: if you don’t continue on with Jesus, don’t suppose you will find salvation by just going on with the ideas and experience that Christianity and Judaism share.

If you aren’t saved in Jesus, you aren’t saved at all.

There is no salvation in a safe “common ground” that is not distinctively Christian.

If someone falls away we must understand why he or she can’t repent – it is because they don’t want to.

It is not as if God prohibits their repentance.

Since repentance itself is a work of God (Romans 2:4), the desire to repent is evidence that he or she has not truly fallen away.

The idea is not that “if you fall away, you can’t ever come back to Jesus.”

Instead, the idea is “if you turn your back on Jesus, don’t expect to find salvation anywhere else, especially in the practice of religion apart from the fullness of Jesus.”

The writer to the Hebrews means that if they retreat back to Judaism, all the religious “repentance” in the world will do them no good.

Retreating from distinctive Christianity into the “safe” ideas and customs of their former religious experience is to forsake Jesus, and to essentially crucify Him again.

This is especially true for these ancient Christians from a Jewish background, since the religious customs they took up again likely included animal sacrifice for atonement, denying the total work of Jesus for them on the cross.

Restore

Thankfully you can be restored

Its up to you

You should note that the words “crucify” and “put” in Hebrews 6:6 are, in the Greek, present participles: “while they are crucifying … and while they are putting Him to an open shame.”

The writer did not say that these people could never be brought to repentance.

He said that they could not be brought to repentance while they were treating Jesus Christ in such a shameful way.

Once they stop disgracing Jesus Christ in this way, they can be brought to repentance and renew their fellowship with God.

Psalm 30:3 ESV

O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

Closing: Gospel

GOD created us to be with Him. 

OUR sins separate us from God.   

SINS cannot be removed by good deeds. 

PAYING the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.   

EVERYONE who trusts in Him alone has eternal life. 

LIFE with Jesus starts now and lasts forever!