Falling Away

For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Today we look at one of the tougher passages in this letter to interpret. In his study bible’s introductory notes to the book of Hebrews, John MacArthur explains some of the challenges with passages in Hebrews. This particular passage is one he considered to be the most problematic for interpreting.

This passage seems to be referring to people who have become Christians but eventually fall away and leave the faith. However, our God is a God of order, not of confusion. And there are many verses that we have gone over in previous sermons about how God keeps his people until the end. We cannot lose our salvation.

Philippians 1:6

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

When God starts a work, he does not get too tired or bored to finish. He does not run out of resources. Whatever God starts, he will finish. So when He starts working in our hearts to know him and serve him, he will not leave that work incomplete. Before his death, Moses tells Joshua in Deuteronomy, as he is commissioning Joshua to lead Israel into the promised land, that God would not leave him or abandon him.

So what is this passage talking about? Who is the author referencing when he talks about those who have been enlightened but fall away? MacArthur says that this passage actually refers to those who have been intellectually convinced of basic gospel truths, but have not placed their faith in Christ. These are people who are intellectually persuaded, but spiritually uncommitted.

Big Idea: Salvation requires a heart change.

Hebrews 6:4

For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit…

The author says that it is impossible to renew to repentance those who have been enlightened but fall away. Mentioning those who have been enlightened is an illusion toward a mental or intellectual ascent to the basic truths of Scripture.

In world history, there is a period of time that was called the “Enlightenment Period.” According to a simplified definition from Britannica:

“The Enlightenment was a time in the 1600s–1700s when many European thinkers started saying, ‘Use your brain.’ In simple terms, it was a movement that emphasized reason and evidence instead of tradition and superstition, and it asked how thinking more clearly could improve government, religion, and everyday life.”

There were aspects of the Enlightenment that were sparked by the Protestant Reformation. Many reformers were persecuted, and even martyred, for translating the Bible from Latin into the common languages of their native countries (i.e. English, German, Czech, etc.) so that the everyday person could read and understand the Scriptures. The Roman Catholic church hated this because if anyone can read the Scriptures, they may no longer trust the church’s “authorized” interpretation. The Roman Catholic Church had a “Trust me, bruh” approach to teaching the doctrines of Scripture.

What is funny is that when St. Jerome translated the Scriptures from Greek and Hebrew to Latin in the late 4th or early 5th century, it was because Latin was the main language of the everyday person in the Roman Empire.

When more people had access to the Scriptures, when they could study and reason with the Bible on their own, it forced them to use their brains and challenge long-held traditions and superstitions in the church.

One of the downsides of the Enlightenment is that philosophers started claiming that reason was all that mattered, claiming that only science and empirical data could sufficiently interpret the world.

This period in history gave us the road to modern-day Christian apologetics, where we use the reasoning skills that God gave us to logically show the reliability of Scripture and of the Christian faith. But it also gave us people like Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and David Hume, who all mocked the church and argued for a strict reasoning of the mind or empirical observation, and moving away from anything that could be considered supernatural, superstitious, or rooted in personal belief - especially anything involved in the church.

Therefore, the author of Hebrews demonstrates how the people he describes have come to understand the truth of what is taught in Scripture. They have reasoned, at least to some degree, that what the Bible says is true.

He then also mentions tasting of the heavenly gift. Tasting refers to experience. In Hebrews 2:9, the author speaks of Jesus “tasting” death.

Hebrews 2:9

But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone…

Jesus experienced death, but did not stay dead. He tasted death, but did not feast on it. When the author speaks of tasting the heavenly gift, he is referring to those who have experienced some aspect of God’s love, some insight into the truth of God’s Word. It is not a full immersion into all that God has to offer us, but a nibble.

I would call these people “Cultural Christians.” They don’t read their Bibles, they do not pray regularly, and when they do attend church, it is in their pajamas from the couch on their TV or phone, meaning there is no Christian accountability from others who will care for their souls and point them back to Christ. Still, they believe much of the same things about the world as Christians. They probably even vote more conservatively than their friends and family. Again, this is a mental recognition of God and of moral principles, but without the heart change that comes from the Holy Spirit.

This is how we could identify a large portion of the American population who identified as Christian just 50 years ago.

According to the Pew Research Center, 90% of Americans identified as “Christian” in 1972. Now, identifying as Christian includes Roman Catholics, conservative Evangelical denominations like Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, Conservative Presbyterians, etc., and mainline denominations that have become more progressive, like American Baptists, Methodists, some branches of Presbyterians and Lutherans, and more. So this is painting with a REALLY wide brush.

That number held pretty well until about 1992. Then we see a pretty major drop until about 1996. It holds steady until about 2007, until we see a big drop again, which falls even faster starting around 2017.

Notice that the “other religions” category only grows from 5% to 7% of Americans from 1972 to 2021. So while we can historically know that there has been a rise in recognition of other religions in the United States, the percentage of people identifying with those other religions has not significantly grown.

However, when we look at the correlation of people who identify as Christian to the category we call “Nones”, or those who claim no religious affiliation at all, we see them moving together, but proportionately in opposite directions.

I really believe that this rise in the “Nones” is people realizing that they weren’t actually Christians, and are now claiming what God, and many others, already knew about them.

For a long time, the United States was referred to as a “Christian” nation. There are still debates among Christians as to whether our country was founded specifically as a Christian nation or simply as a nation based on Judeo-Christian principles. Either way, we cannot assume that 90% of those who lived here in 1972, or even the 63% as of 2021, are actually Christians for whom God has taken out their hearts of stone and given them a heart of flesh.

We could say the same thing about the Roman Empire when Constantine decriminalized Christianity in 313 AD, and Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the official state religion of Rome in 380 AD, thereby outlawing pagan worship. Just because a governmental official declares the country to be “Christian”, it does not mean that everyone suddenly is converted. True salvation requires a heart change.

Next, the author speaks of sharing in the Holy Spirit. Many theologians believe that the author is referring to the idea of “common grace.” This is the idea that there are things that God provides for everyone, not just Christians. Jesus talks about this in his Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:44-45

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

We also see the Apostle Paul talk about this in Acts 14. He and Barnabas were on a missionary journey and came to the city of Lystra. They are preaching the gospel and healed a man who had been lame from birth. When the people of the town tried to worship Paul and Barnabas, thinking they were gods, Paul and Barnabas started shouting at the crowd that they were only men, but that the real God of the universe had actually revealed himself to the people of Lystra.

Acts 14:16-17

“In past generations, he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”

God does not just provide for those who serve him. God provides the rains that water the crops of both the Christian and non-Christian alike. God provides the joy of being able to hold a newborn child to both Christians and non-Christians. God gives us the ability to work, play, sleep, relax, and reflect on all that we have in our lives.

This past Thursday, our country celebrated Thanksgiving. I hope and pray that you took the time to thank God for all of the ways he has provided in your life.

Hebrews 6:5

…who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age…

The author again mentions “tasting”; however, this time he is referring to the goodness of the Word of God. One way we can see this “tasting” is an intellectual acceptance of what Scripture says. We can view this as a “Pharisaical” observation of the Word. The Pharisees knew the Scriptures well. They believed what the Scriptures said. However, there was no heart change in them.

Paul talked about this in Romans chapter 2. (Turn with me there) He was writing to the church in Rome that had both Jews and Gentiles. In many of his letters, Paul preaches against the “Judaizers,” who were Jews telling Gentile Christians that they still had to obey some of the Jewish law to be a part of the Christian community. The biggest part of the law that the Jews were pushing on Gentile Christians was male circumcision. But Paul breaks down the difference between doing the acts of the law and having a heart that wants to obey God.

Paul tells both the Jews and the Gentiles in Rome that following the law and getting circumcised is only good for you if you obey every single part of the law, because if you break it, you are no better than an uncircumcised Gentile. But if a Gentile obeys the heart of the law of God, though they have not been circumcised, others will see them as someone who serves God and obeys his law.

And then in verses 28 & 29 he says this.

Romans 2:28-29

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.

See, Paul told his readers that true salvation is not an external exercise, but an internal work of God. True heart change is performed by the Holy Spirit. Performing the various works of the law is not what saves us. This is like what we saw last week when discussing the Pharisees and the ceremonial washing practices. It is good to wash your hands, but the Pharisees had made a show out of washing hands before a meal to make an outward example of their “holiness.”

It was the same reason they would pray out loud on the street corners where they could be heard by everyone who walked by. These were the reasons that Jesus called them “white-washed tombs,” who looked clean on the outside but were full of death and disease.

Luke 6:45

A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

This is why we need a new heart. We need God to do as was prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26 where he said through the prophet:

Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

We need God to put a heart of flesh within us so that when we speak from the heart, we speak life and not speak death.

The author also mentions tasting the powers of the coming age. You can claim to be a Christian, join a church, see God work in the lives of others, and experience the joy of being in community with others without being changed on the inside. The best example of this is Judas.

Judas was one of Jesus’ twelve closest followers. He was part of Jesus’ ministry to others. In Luke 9, we see that Jesus gives power and authority to the twelve over demons and to heal diseases. He proclaimed the gospel along with the other disciples and healed people. He performed supernatural acts as empowered by God, just like the other twelve disciples.

Understanding this about Judas has helped me to have a greater awareness of what it means when Jesus says that many will come to him, saying, “Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and do miracles in your name?” And yet, Jesus will say to them, “Away from me, I never knew you.” This means that someone can experience the power of God, being a vehicle of that power of God to work in others, and still not have a converted heart that is submitted to Christ.

(Balaam?)

Hebrews 6:6

(after mentioning all the things that these people had experienced, he then says) …and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt.

The author concludes this list by saying that after all of those experiences, someone falls away. This is the person for whom the author says it will be impossible to renew to repentance. While the previous verses seem to point to someone who is actually Christian with a changed heart, there are other passages that point to the opposite.

In 1 John, the apostle speaks of the last days when people will walk away from the church.

1 John 2:19

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

There are those who have seen and experienced the mighty works of God, even been used by God to perform those works, and yet still reject God. It makes me think of Israel as they were out in the desert. How many times did God provide for the people of Israel in miraculous ways, and the people still refused to follow him?

God brought the 10 plagues upon Egypt, including turning water into blood, infestations of flies, frogs, and locusts. The Egyptians suffered from boils, the death of their livestock, darkness throughout the land, and the death of their firstborn sons. As the people of Israel left Egypt, God led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God split the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk through on dry land to escape the Egyptian army chasing them.

While they were in the desert, God worked through Moses to make a pool of bitter water sweet and water flow from a rock. Gode caused bread to fall from heaven in the mornings for the people to eat. When they got sick of the manna, he sent them so many quail to eat that they made themselves sick.

When a man named Korah started a rebellion against Moses, Korah and his entire family were gathered together, along with everyone who joined with them against Moses and Aaron. The Lord caused the ground to open and swallow them all up. At the same time, a separate judgment of fire from the Lord consumed the 250 leaders who had joined Korah in offering unauthorized incense.

These are not acts of God that you just forget. The Israelites had seen all of these miraculous works. Still, they chose to rebel against God in the desert, causing the first Generation of Israelites out of Egypt to die in the desert, never to enter into the Promised Land.

We can even look back at Judas again. Judas saw Jesus feed groups of 5,000 and 4,000 with just a few loaves of bread and some fish. He watched Jesus heal multiple people. He saw Jesus walk on water and calm a storm on the sea by telling the storm to stop. Even with all of that, Judas still decided to betray Christ and hand him over to the Jewish leaders to be killed.

In Acts 1, as the eleven remaining disciples were gathered in prayer to choose someone to take Judas’ place, Peter told of how Judas betrayed Jesus, and the need to fill his place. Before the disciples cast lots (rolled dice) to see who would replace Judas, they prayed this:

Acts 1:24-25

Then they prayed, “You, Lord, know everyone’s hearts; show which of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.”

This shows that Judas’ betrayal sent him to eternal judgment. Jesus referred to Judas as the “son of destruction” in his final prayer with his disciples during the last supper.

1 John 2:19 says that those who walk away from the faith were never part of the faith to begin with. That was the case with Judas.

One of the hardest parts of this passage has to do with the part in this verse that says those who walk away from the faith are “recrucifying” Jesus and holding him up to contempt.

Like many of the Israelites and like Judas, you can be a part of God’s great work, understand what it is, and know that God is doing miraculous things, but still not be a Christian. It is one thing to say you follow Christ, to profess that Jesus is your Savior. But if you don’t submit your life to him, if there is no action to back it up, if you aren’t walking the walk after talking the talk, James says that person’s faith is worthless.

If you can see these amazing works of God, know they are from him, and still deny him by renouncing Jesus, you are declaring that Jesus’ cross was not a holy sacrifice for sins. You are saying that Jesus got what he deserved in dying a criminal’s death. You are standing in agreement with those who stood before Pilate yelling, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” In doing so, you hold Jesus’ sacrifice in contempt. This is what it means to “recrucify” Jesus.

This is not an internal doubt. Everyone deals with doubt. Think about the disciples after Jesus was arrested, or even more so after his death. I am sure they had doubts. But having doubts is not what we are talking about here. The walking away that we are seeing in our passage today is a forceful, complete, and public rejection of the faith you once professed.

If you know and believe that Jesus’ death was a holy sacrifice for sin, that he was substituting his life for you and me, taking the punishment we deserved, DO NOT WAIT! Submit your life to him today!

Next Step: I will repent of my sins and submit my life to Christ.

It is not enough to just say you believe in Jesus. There is action that must take place to show how the love of God has changed you and made you new, giving you new life through Christ’s sacrifice. At my previous church, this next step was usually phrased as “Become a follower of Jesus.” But I don’t want people to just follow Jesus. That’s how you get a bunch of Judases. That’s how you get a bunch of Israelites who want God’s miracles to provide for them, but don’t want to serve God in return. I want people with changed hearts and minds who are fully surrendered to the God of the universe, repenting of their sins, and walking away from their old life because it just won’t satisfy them anymore.

Hebrews 6:7-8

For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned.

These two verses describe the hearts of men as the ground on which the waters of God’s Word fall. Whenever I read this passage, I think of the Parable of the Sower that Jesus told in Matthew 13. (Turn with me there)

A farmer spreads some seed. Some of that seed falls on the path, but it gets eaten up by the birds. Some seed fell on rocky soil and sprouted quickly, but quickly died because it had no roots and was scorched by the sun. Some seed fell among thorns, which came around the seed and choked it so it would not grow. But the seed that fell on good soil grew well and produced a massive crop.

Listen to how Jesus explains the meaning of this parable:

Matthew 13:18-23

“So listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

The Word can fall on the hearts of men and not produce a fruitful harvest. Instead, the hearts of men can produce thorns and thistles. Those things are good for nothing except to be burned. The worries of life can choke out the Word that we hear. The deceitfulness of this world will corrupt hearts toward God’s Word. When that happens, the author says that we are good for nothing but to be thrown into the fires of judgment.

Some of us today may know someone who fits this category. They know the Word; they were probably raised in church, but there is no fruit to show for it. Maybe it is someone that you have been praying for for a long time. It could be a friend, a neighbor, a parent, a sibling, a child, or anyone else. I want to encourage you today; keep fighting for those people. Storm the throneroom of heaven, praying for the souls of those who are lost. Wear out the knees of your pants because you are praying so much for the salvation of the lost.

Next Step: I will commit to pray for ________, ________, & ________.

There is room for three names here. I want you to commit to praying for each of those people for the entire month of December. Write down their names on note cards to keep in your Bible, or on your desk, or wherever you are going to see them regularly, so that you can continually lift them up in prayer to the Lord.

We would love to pray with you for the names you put down on those lines.

Though we see that there are a lot of types of ground for seed to fall on that will not allow the seed to grow, there is ground where the Word will sprout useful vegetation for those who cultivate it. And though that ground may be rocky or thorny now, God is the master gardener. He can change the ground, pulling the weeds, removing the stones, and providing the nutrients for the Word to grow in a person’s life. Those people that you have prayed for, perhaps God’s timing has not yet come for that ground to be tilled and prepared. But that does not mean that God will never prepare that soil to receive His Word.

Perhaps you realize that your heart is the path, or the rocky soil, or the thorny soil. I want to plead with you again, ask God to change your heart. Seek to know him. Ask him to till the soil of your heart so that you will become aware of his love, grace, and mercy. The Word can fall on a person’s heart, changing them and building faith in them.

The same Word can fall on another person’s heart and cause them to become jaded, angry, and offended by God. I have seen many who deny the basic fundamental truths of Scripture, many of which we talked about last week, because they found it offensive, especially the truth of hell and judgment. But truth is not relative. Truth is fact. And whether you believe the truth or not, it is still true.

I pray our hearts would not be hardened to the Word of God, that our hearts would be softened, tilled soil, ready to receive the seed of God’s Word. I pray that the Word will sprout, taking root in our hearts and minds, rescuing our souls from destruction.

Don’t let this be you. Cry out to Jesus. He is the only one who can change the trajectory of your life, leading you to a joy that cannot be explained by men. As we are about to enter into the last month of this year, it is time to take account of our lives. Businesses are getting ready to examine their ledgers so they can take an honest account of the state of the business. And though a business can be “breaking even”, not really gaining and not really losing, the same cannot be said of us. Our hearts are one of these two fields. Is your heart producing fruit and a harvest

Let us pray.

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