Hebrews 5 - 6:6
Notes
Transcript
Hebrews 6
Hebrews 6
Good morning church! Very glad to see you all this morning. Just out of curiosity, how many of you read ahead this morning? I’m wondering as I kind of baited that in a previous chapter at a difficult point saying something to the effect, that if you have issue with this, just wait until you get to chapter 6.
Let’s pray…Father we want to know You more. Give us understanding, of Your Word and how is applies to our lives.
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.
3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.
4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
6 As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”;
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do if God permits.
The idea here gang is an encouragement, and exhortation for growth. Lots of Christians seem to recognize their need for salvation, maybe learn about the basics foundational principles of our faith, and then sort of stagnate. In the last chapter we read Heb 5:12-13
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
So he begins this chapter with a therefore and then reviews some of the foundations of the faith. Heb 6:1
1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
He mentions two types of repentance here. Remember repentance is a change of direction or a change of mind. So this speaks of repentance from sin. A change of direction from doing the things that please your flesh and now pleasing God. Along with a repentance from dead works or doing things to try to earn our salvation, those works are dead, they profit you nothing.
2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Doctrines of baptisms. Some teach that this pertains to the idea of cleansing. The term baptism would have been used in Judaism as well as other religions. As cleaning baths. I think it simply means the foundational teachings of both water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Laying on of hands spoken of in the Scriptures many times surrounding the giving and receiving of spiritual gifts and the blessing to exorcise those gifts. The resurrection of the dead would be the understanding that Jesus was the first of the resurrection is would include the eschatological teachings of the end times. The rapture of the church, the millennial reign of Christ. What happens after we die? And then eternal judgement, that there is a heaven and there is a hell, both real places and the only two places that mankind will spend eternity in after life on this earth.
OK, so the author of Hebrews is saying that is the easy stuff, that’s the milk, that you should have already learned. Those are the foundational matter that should be being taught to all new Christians and the things that we should be teaching and discussing among each other…but, verse 3 says...
3 And this we will do if God permits.
So He goes back to verse 1, the idea of leaving the elementary principles and says we will move on to eat meat, and get into the sustenance of our faith, if God permits.
Now verses 4-6 this is the section of our passage that we have the most significant warning in the book of Hebrews actually, I think it is the most significant warning in all of the New Testament. IT is said to be the most difficult passage in the New Testament, it is also nicknamed Satan’s favorite Bible passage because of how it is most often used to bring condemnation onto struggling believers. Let me read it, then I want to say some things about it before we try to examine it.
Verse 4 Heb 6:4-6
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
The first thing I want to say about this passage is that there are several different camps, of good, loving Christians that interpret this passage differently. There are pastors and biblical scholars that I both admire and greatly respect that believe and teach this means something differently than I do. I had considered even contacting the elders of the church here last night to discuss it and examine it together in the light of the totality of Scriptures, but I feared that discussion would have still be going on when the service began here this morning.
I read a great deal of information on it throughout the past couple of weeks, and although many take hard positions, there remains disagreement among many. Even Pastor Chuck Smith, after giving nearly every possible interpretation, and scenario presented by others admitted, and I quote, “ The difficulty that I have with the passage is this impossibility of renewing them again unto repentance. And I will frankly confess to you I don't understand what it means. I'm sorry. I cannot give to you some glorious revelation that I have and this is what the text is saying, because I do know that Jesus said, "Whoever will come unto Me I will in no wise cast out."
SO don’t have grand expectations from me, we will look at it together, and I’ll reluctantly tell you my thoughts. I say reluctantly, because I’ve struggled with the passage for years, and I still don’t think it says what I want it to say.
For those of you that were with us last summer, or the summer before, we did a short series on Hermeneutics. We used the seven I AM statements of Jesus to talk about hermeneutics which is the study of biblical interpretation. See most of us, almost always do everything we do with some level of prejudice. We read, not just the bible, but the newspaper, even our email through a particular lens. We all have a slant, a bias of some sort.
Far too often, and it is one of the reasons there are so varied opinions on this passage, is we approach our bible reading through the lens of our own theology. The things we already believe, the things we have already been taught by people we respect, can effect how we read our bibles. Charles Spurgeon rightly said,
“We come to this passage ourselves with the intention to read it with the simplicity of a child, and whatever we find therein to state it; and if it may not seem to agree with something we have hitherto held, we are prepared to cast away every doctrine of our own, rather than one passage of Scripture.” (Spurgeon)
Someone else said of the bible “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense.”
My point to all that, is that good bible hermeneutics require that we first examine what does the bible actually say, considering the context, the language, the author, the audience, and then what does it mean, and then consider how it applies to us. If what it says contradicts with our theology, we need to let God’s Word change our theology.
Verse 4 begins Heb 6:4
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
I don’t want to go through every possibility of what these verses mean. Some claim that this is not speaking for true believers here. That this is simply similar to the passage we were in in Isaiah on Wednesday night, were the Bible is describing their outward appearance, but they were simply professors. They professed a belief in Jesus, but it was not real. For many, many years, I really wanted to believe that is what this section of scripture was describing. Because if it does, then I can just stamp it with a once saved, always saved, on continue on through the passage.
Others say this is like the parable of the soils, and although the Word was received and quickly sprouted it didn’t have and depth for things to take root. Like a teen at summer camp that goes forward at the campfire at the end of the week and makes a profession of faith because he doesn’t want to go to hell, but then gets home and goes back to life as usual and there is never any fruit.
Well I personally have several issues with that. Primarily, I don’t think you can disregard the language here. On the surface it appears to say that there is a particular circumstance in the life of a believer, that they can do something, fall away from Christ in a certain way that makes it impossible to repent. Verse 4 again says...
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Hebrews 1. The Impossibility of Repentance for Those Who Fall Away after Receiving Blessing from God (4–6)
• It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18).
• It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sin (Hebrews 10:4).
• It is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6).
Once enlightened means that at one time they were in darkness, but then a light came on and they understood salvation.
They have tasted the heavenly gift - meaning salvation. It is argued that tasted means that they didn’t consume it, they just took a lick. My problem with that is it is the same verse that we saw back in chapter 2 when it talked about Jesus tasting death. There it meant He drank the cup, it was finished, because He died for us. It was complete. It goes on and says they have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in them.
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
the supernatural power of God and the assurance of eternity. The powers of the age to come. I don’t understand any other interpretation of this language unless it is describing a genuine believer in Jesus Christ, they have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, they have been born again, a spiritual birth has occurred. I personally don’t understand how you can make them say anything other than that. But, but, if you somehow convince yourself that it means something other than what it says, be troubled by verse 6
6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Notice how it begins, if they fall away. If it means they aren’t a believer, they are just a professor, the soil it too shallow, or it is all an outward appearance, then what are they falling away from? If they truly have nothing with Jesus what are they falling away from? So at the very least, I think we need to accept verses 4-5 are talking about a genuine Christian. The difficultly then becomes the it is impossible part…well not that part, impossible means impossible, Mrs. Nye my first grade teacher taught me that and she is still right.
But what that applies to is the challenge hear, it is impossible if the Christian described in verses 4-5 fall away.
Only used 1x in the new testament.
Difference between falling and falling away. The bible talks about two different states. The backsliding and the apostate.
We just read on Wednesday Isaiah 57:17-18
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners.
16 For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
He heals the backslider as well! I don’t know if you’ve ever been in such a bad spot, not just that you doubted that God would forgive you and take you back, but that you would even be able to get out of the sin mess you crawled back into. In Jeremiah God says. Jer 3:22
22 “Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.” “Indeed we do come to You, For You are the Lord our God.
Just come back, just repent and I will heal your backslidings! John 6:37
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
It was Jesus that told us the story of the prodigal son...
So that is backsliding, the back slider always comes back. These verses tell us that you can’t loose your salvation. We can have assurance of our salvation. I don’t have any fear, any doubt that I am going to spend all of eternity with Jesus in glory. So what if this passage in Hebrews. An Apostate is one who once new salvation in Jesus and then doesn’t loose it, but rather chooses to leave it. And stays in that apostate state to his or her dying breath. Not the breath before and then comes back, Jesus won’t cast him out, but dies in that state.
Now many want to say, and I want to say that that just can’t happen, yet, this says it is impossible for the one that falls away to be renewed again to repentance. I think the last time I taught through this I leaned pretty hard on something old J. Vernon McGee borrowed from someone emphasizing that it says impossible to be renewed again to repentance, not to salvation, so it speaks of rewards. I wanted it to say that, but I don’t think it does.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
Even in Rev doesn’t say lost, it says left Rev 2:4
4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
If there is one iota of concern that this is you, it’s not you, if there is any softness, any sorrow left in your heart it is not you. BUT let me tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to try to explain away what I believe the bible says, even if it doesn’t fit your theology, or doesn’t fit my preference. This is intended to be a severe warning against turning away from Jesus, for anything else, any other religion any means of works, any means of self righteousness. Don’t fall away, and deliberately, willfully walk away from having a faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation. You put your faith in something else, and die in that condition.
So no, Christian you cannot loose your salvation, but there appears to be a condition where you may be able to leave it. So the warning is, don’t do it. Don’t deliberately, and willfully reject Jesus, and die in that state. You then have no assurance before God. In a couple of chapters, chapter 12 in Hebrews we read this
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Despising the shame you know when Jesus was crucified those that were doing it didn’t know what they were doing, they didn’t understand it. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. But the Christian described in 4-5 they do, that puts Him to a greater shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
We should be growing, we should be learning, we should be producing fruit and that helps us not to fall.
9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.
10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
God has not forgotten you.
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Grace and Peace