What's in Your Field
Notes
Transcript
Hebrews 6:3–12 (ESV)
3 And this we will do if God permits.
4 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,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 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.
7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
1 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,
2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do if God permits.
4 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,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 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.
7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Like Mark was saying in his sermon last week, we need to move on from the elementary parts of our salvation and move on to things of weightier value.
God has so much more in store for us. I really liked the idea behind an earlier sermon Mark had as well. If we look at the crossing of the Red Sea as your conversion experience or when you accepted Christ, don’t let that be the end of your journey. There is so much more out there for you to dive into. God wants to not only to use you to grow and further His kingdom, He wants to bless you as well.
1 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,
2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do if God permits.
We will move on. We will find the deeper truths, if God permits. We need Him through the Holy Spirit to lead us to the deeper truths which He wants us to understand.
Just like children physically growing, we will all do this at different rates. Some of us will struggle with some of the truths which God reveals to us while others will pick it up quickly and move on to the next, only to struggle with the next. However, when we rely on God and the things He has blessed us with, His Word, the Holy Spirit, counsel of those around us who are stronger in the faith, there is no reason for us to give up. If anything, it should help us to persevere.
These next set of scripture are tough and can lead to some misunderstanding. After some great discussion with others, this is the way we’ll talk about these scripture.
4 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,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 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.
Apostasy - an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith.
Apostasy - an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith.
This passage is about apostasy or an apostate. To me, this is someone who has been involved in the church, who has been in the trenches with us along the way, but at some point, something from this world entices them more than what God had to offer them.
Someone even who may have been in church for a very long time. They have heard the Word of God preached, Sunday after Sunday. They’ve come to Sunday night Bible study or discipleship groups. They’ve attended Bible study after Bible study and even contributed to the discussion. They’ve been to Wednesday night Bible Study and Prayer Meetings. They may even fit the definition of a tither, someone who gives ten percent of their income to the church, and maybe even more when we have special drives at the church for different things. They’ve been to as many functions as the church has to offer, but they still haven’t done the fundamental thing we have talked about earlier. The foundational rudimentary thing to be a Christian. They have never turned their lives over to Christ. They’ve never accepted the gift of salvation. They want to run things their way. When it comes down for actually making a decision for Christ, they would rather stay where they are than accept what might come from turning their lives over to Christ. They have all the head knowledge in the world about religious matters, but they have never actually turned any of it into “heart knowledge.”
Then they have been through the same “routines” and heard and felt and experienced the same things over and over again, they lose the sensitivity they had towards it at the beginning and feeling the tug and hearing the still small voice asking them to accept the gift of salvation.
Working at the plant.
I really feel these are the people these verses are talking about. People who, in the end, will ultimately turn their back on God because there was no real decision to follow Christ. They make a great appearance, but simply put, they are lost.
When we look at the next two verses, we will see the author is talking about two different types of ground.
7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Both types of ground have drunk of the same rain which has fallen upon it, but one produces fruit and is receiving blessing from God. The other produces thorns and thistles and is worthless and is near to be abandoned to be burned in the end.
The first type of ground is those in the church who have truly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. They are a fruitful ground bearing much in the harvest.
The second type of ground are those who appear to be Christians, but will ultimately be rejected on the day of judgement since they never really turned their hearts and lives over to our Savior.
We can also throw in the parable of the farmer scattering seed here and the explanation of it.
3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,
6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.
7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
Later in this same chapter, Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of the parable.
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
True believers are those who heard the Word. They heard the Gospel message and responded. They have taken the head knowledge I keep talking about and have turned it into heart knowledge. The seed for them was the one which fell on the fertile ground. If you take a look at all the other seed, there is quite a bit which didn’t make it here. The way to Christ is narrow.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
True believers are the ones who are going to enter by the narrow gate and not look for some shortcut or something easier.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is the only way to salvation. Plain and simple.
Many years ago on the way to the beach, I saw a church sign that said,
Church membership is not an escalator ride to heaven.
Church membership is not an escalator ride to heaven.
What may seem a little tongue in cheek actually has a very serious message. As serious as the message which we read in the verses earlier. We need to make sure we are relying on the saving work and grace of our Saviour since ultimately anything we try to do to save ourselves will come up short.
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
My main point in leaving these scripture in this sermon is we need to be aware there will be people who come to church who will appear godly, but underneath the surface, they are far from the truths of God. We need to be aware of them and watch out for them. When they are in our midst, they could lead many astray from the message our God is trying to get to us. We need to be on the lookout for things Satan will try to do to lead us astray not only as individuals, but as a church as well.
As we continue on with our passage this morning, we find out that those who were in this group must have been very small. We can find encouragement in the next verses.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The author of Hebrews is telling the people that God is seeing what is going on with the faithful members of the church here. God is not going to overlook the fruit they are bearing. God is seeing how they are ministering to the saints.
The writer is encouraging them to carry out the work and have faith that their salvation is sure which will bring them the hope they need to endure to the end.
He is wanting them to continue to run the race which the author of this book talks about later.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
These two verses tie in so well together. They give you almost the same picture.
What is in your field?
What is in your field?
As we come to our time of invitation, I would like for you to go back to the image we had earlier in the sermon. Please honestly take a look at your field. What does it have in it? Does it have the thistle and thorns we read about in the passage or what we might call fruit of the flesh? According to Galatians 5:19-21, these are:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
This is one particular passage which deals with such things. I am sure we could list many, many more. The fact is, as true believers in Christ, we need to be focused on the fruits of the Spirit.
So, can you say the fruits of the Spirit evident in your field or life? These are
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
What is in your field? Once again, if your field or life is filled with the thorns and thistles, I will urge you to consider if you are a follower of Christ? Have you ever turned your heart and life over to Him. Have you ever admitted your a sinner, believed He died on the cross for your sins and paid the debt for them, and have you confessed your sins before God so He can forgive you of them through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ? If not, today is the day. Don’t wait any longer. Number one, we aren’t guaranteed our tomorrows. Number two, the longer you wait, the harder it is to hear that still small voice telling you to follow Him.
If you have accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you need to make sure the Spirit of the fruit is evident in your life. You need to make sure you are following His will. You need to make sure when you are encountering people you realize you are the only Jesus they may ever see. We need to be aware of who we are.