A Warning Against Apostasy

Introduction

Good morning please open in you Bibles to Hebrews 5:11. That is Hebrews 5:11 and we will go to Hebrews 6:8 this morning Hebrews5:11-6:8. That is on page 944 if you are using one of the Bibles scattered throughout the chairs.

Kendall and I had the joy of coaching Judah, Emmy, and Ellie, and (Claire’s) soccer team two years ago. I love soccer and played too much of it growing up. I like to coach teams and help them learn how to pull offsides traps, switch the field, counter attach quickly, close space with speed but these all tactics far beyond the 5 and 6 year olds that were on our team. We had to team them that they can’t use their hands, to use their laces and sides of their feet and not their toe when kicking the ball, to be quite honest we did not even get to passing the ball in a real game. We just let them heard up around the ball and have fun. Before kids move one to game tactics in any sport they first must begin with the elementary principals.

This morning our text takes a brief break in the author’s discussion about Jesus as our High Priest in order to deal with a more elementary principle. He longs to move on to more a more advanced tactic (the discussion of Jesus being a priest according to the order of Melchizedek) but pastorally the author chooses to deal with their most basic aspect of Christianity: Their commitment to Christ. In today’s text he warns the people about the sin of apostasy. Apostasy is when a person who says they are of a particular religion but then changes their mind and decides to no longer be a part of that faith. An apostate in the Christian church would be a person who at one time claimed to be a Christian, but later decided that they are no longer a Christian. I believe our author is taking this brief hiatus from the discussion about Jesus being our High Priest because he is concerned about the state of some of the Christians that he is writing to. The original audience that this letter was intended for were Jews or Hebrews. People who once followed the Old Covenant with its sacrificial system (a system of animal sacrifice) but they converted to Christianity at least in word. They professed faith in Jesus, but when the letter was written, they were being tempted to return to their old way of life. Our author is concerned that some of his audience desires to leave the Christian faith and return to Judaism. So, before he can unpack the beauty of Jesus being our High Priest, he needs to address this temptation. And so he writes Hebrews 5:11-6:8.

Description of a Potential Apostate v. 11-14

Hebrews 5:11 “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

What we read in verses 5:11-14 is the description of a potential apostate. The kind of person who says they are a Christian, but then chooses to no longer follow Christ is a person who is dull of hearing (looking at verse 11). The author isn’t necessarily speaking to every individual in his audience, in all Christian audiences there are varying degrees of Christian maturity, but he speaks to all in order to grab the attention of some. In next week’s text he will say Hebrews 6:9 “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.” That is to say he is optimistic about his audience yet, he does fear that some are potential apostates. Some, have become dull of hearing or literally rendered “lazy in the ears.” In verses 12-13 he describes further what it means to be dull of hearing or lazy in the ears. Hebrews 5:12–13 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”

There are people in the audience who have been following Jesus for some time, but they have not progressed as they ought. They should be teaching others about the things of God. This is not say they all ought to be pastors, but rather that all Christians are to be disciple makers. There to fulfill the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” All Christians should be able to teach the basics of the faith. You ought to be able to teach the basics to your children, you non-believing friends and family, the brand new Christian in your community group, but instead of being able to do the most basic of Christian discipleship they themselves need to be taught these basics all over again. This means they have heard these basic principles but have not retained them. They did not give themselves to learning the basics of the faith and in their laziness they have forgotten the oracles or teachings of God. They are guilty of what the author warned in Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” They did not pay attention or give heed to the gospel and now they are drifting away from it. So, the author compares them to babies that cannot take solid food, but still drink milk.

They must take in the milk of the basics, and therefore he must take a pause before moving on to the solid food of Jesus as high priest. The teaching he has for them in the rest of the book is going to be too much for them if they hear it with lazy ears. He continues to describe this child that only drinks milk as one who is unskilled in the word of righteousness. I believe the word of righteousness is best understood to be the word or message of the Gospel. The good news that Jesus, as the Son of God, died on the behalf of sinners and faith in Him is the only way to be saved from the wrath of God. He is saying the the dull of hearing are not skilled, don’t understand, the Gospel itself. He believes there are some in his audience that are drifting away, they are potentially future apostates. Which we will see means they were never truly in Christ to begin with. Their lack of vigor for the things of God is a manifestation of the true condition of their soul. They claimed to know Christ, but never got of the milk. There is something seriously wrong with the Christian that does not grow.

Just as if we were to learn that one of our babies in the church could or would take solid food at the appropriate time what would happen? Would we all just sit back and not worry? Of course not, that child would be placed on our prayer list, we ask the worried parents how they are doing, we would be concerned for the health of a child that could not take solid food. In the same way, the author of Hebrews is showing his concern for those in audience who are not growing. Those who have become dull of hearing, those who are not teaching others the basics of the faith, those whos powers of discernment are not be trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Christians we have to grow up. We must learn to take solid food in order to be healthy and we do this not by being idle in our faith but by training ourselves constantly. By choosing not to just show up to church, but to make an effort to listen and glean from the sermon, to just make it to community group but to participate and ask questions when we don’t understand, by not just spending time around other Christians but by choosing to have spiritual conversation so that we might teach one another the basic principles of the oracles of God.

T/S- if we are to press to the solid food we must lay a strong foundation and what are the foundations of the Christian faith? Our author briefly mentions them in chapter 6:1-3.

The Foundations of True Christianity v. 1-3

Hebrews 6:1–3 “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”

Thought the author suspects there are some in his audience who might be potential apostates (those dull of hearing and only capable of milk) he still intends to go on to mature things, the teaching of Jesus as our High Priest. He is not going to lay again, or reteach the foundation of the Christians faith which he outlines in three couplets. Repentance and faith, washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection and eternal judgment. Now, while he does not go into detail regarding these things he does mention them. He says that these things are the foundation of the Christian faith and there is something about these things that is related to the idea of apostasy. I would argue as a leader in the church he is giving a pastoral to the normative means that God uses to keep us in the faith.

The first couplet is the most foundational and in fact it is offset by from the other two couplets by the word “instruction.” Verse 2 is to be understood as instruction or teaching about washings, teachings about laying on of hands, teachings about the resurrection of the dead, teaching about eternal judgement. These are things that his hearers would have heard about, and if they pay attention to what they have heard about these things then they will not drift away for apostatizes from the faith. Their drifting is not the product of a lack of teaching, but a product of their laziness in their hearing.

And when we consider these these couplets I believe we can see the author’s rationale. Those who repent of dead works, that is turn away from sin and the works that sinners do and then place their faith in God will not fall away. Dead works go in two directions. They are the works that kill a man, and they are the works of a dead man. We are born in Sin (capital S) and we commit sins (lowercase s) We commit sins because of our sinful condition. And also, we are in a sinful condition because commit sins. True repentance acknowledges this dual threat of sin. When we become Christians we acknowledge our sinful nature, our deadness if you will, and in Christ we are born again and given a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” But also, we must acknowledge our own personal sins and turn from them. Real repentance does both, but only by faith. We cannot stop sinning without the new nature that Jesus gives us. We must exercise faith if we are to grow as Christians. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If you and I live by faith in Jesus then we will not carry out the sinful desires of our flesh. And therefore, God works in that ordinary means of grace to keep us in the faith. But if choose not to acknowledge our sinful nature nor our personal sin then we are likely to drift away.

The second two couplets are similar. The first couplet is the most challenging, but I believe it is referring to the teachings that would contrast Jewish ceremonial washings that would be performed many times throughout ones life and the Christian rite of baptism. Baptism happens once in the believer’s life as symbol of dying to with Christ raising become a new creation to walk in that new life. It is also a symbol of association with the church. To be a Christian was to be in Christ and a part of his body, which is the church. This is why I believe the laying on of hands here is referring to the symbolic giving of authority to office holders in the church: elders and deacons. It is much harder to be sure about that because the laying on of hands also accompanies other things like miraculous healings or unique situations in the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is imparted to new believers, but association with the church seems to fit the context of keeping believers in the faith. 1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” John saw that people leaving the church was a sign, that were not ever truly a part of the church. The church as we will see in Hebrews 10 is a principle means that God uses to keep those who are his in the faith.

The final couplet reminds us of the future resurrection of the body for all people and the coming judgment. I don’t know if there could be a better motivator for persevering in the faith and refusing to be lazy in the ears than knowing that you will rise and be judged by God one day. We must remember that it is those that endure to the end that will be saved according to Jesus in the early chapters of the book of revelation.

These foundational principles are reminders for those of us in Christ who long to enter into his eternal kingdom one day. Even must preach the Gospel to themselves. We must remember the source of our eternal salvation which is repentance from sin and faith in Christ. Kept his power through the His church for the day of judgement.

T/S- We can’t forget the basics because the consequences are great! And this leads us to our final section this morning the warning of apostasy.

The Warning of Apostasy v. 4-8

Verses 4-6 of this text are some of the most challenging verses for anyone to interpret because anyone who does it going to carry with them their theological bias. It just impossible to shed these kinds of convictions. So, because of that there are three broad interpretations of this text. One would say that this text refers to true Christians who have committed apostasy and therefore have no hope of restoration. The other is that this text is a hypothetical scenario meant to warn believers from falling away, and the final is that these are people who have professed to being Christians, but were not truly saved, and therefore the illegitimacy of their faith is coming to fruition.

This third interpretation which is the Puritan or Reformed understanding of this text is the way I understand this text. And as we work through it is the view I am going to use. I believe there were people in the author of Hebrews audience who professed faith in Christ, but did not posses saving faith. They confessed him with their mouth, but did not believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead. 1 John 2:19 “They went out from us (In hebrews returned to Judaism) , but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” I also believe this because the whole of Scripture teaches that God will preserve those who are his: John 5:24, Rom 8:39, 11:29,; 1 Cor. 1:6-8, Phil. 1:6, 2 Thess 3:3. And more… So, then how are to understand this text and how are we to apply it?

Let’s read the text first: Hebrews 6:4–6 “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.”