May 5, 2019 Morning

1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, bsince they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;

8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

Spiritual maturity, the author teaches doesn’t depend fundamentally on intellectual ability. Schreiner

The readers were spiritual infants because they weren’t putting into practice what they had learned. Schreiner

We cannot be confident of salvation of those who remain “spiritual infants” for years and years. Schreiner

The Major Issue: Apostasy

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

An Essential Truth: Christians will go onto maturity or will fall into apostasy

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord

He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a bPrince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

“Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”

and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance

with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

“Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

6 “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

7 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive

this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;

8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.