Sermon Tone Analysis

Part two: Growing in Maturity

Introduction:

Two weeks ago we started though another of the warning passages in Hebrews.

I told you then that where we began in chapter 5, verse 11 would actually be continued in the following few verses that we would cover the following week.

Well, then camp happened and I decided to take a week and share what I shared at camp with the students.

So today we come to Hebrews 6:1-12.

This passage is one of the most terrifying and hotly debated passages in all of scripture.

It is incredibly tense but also incredibly important.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther strengthened the church by exposing its corruption and artificiality.

He enunciated its structural sins.

In Britain in the eighteenth century, a man named William Law enlarged the place of the church by exposing the piety of its members.

And John Wesley and his colleagues lengthened the cords of the church to embrace neglected masses.

The twentieth-century American church has endeavored to be all things to all people.

It has produced fascinating materials, specialized in dialogues, programs, and projects; but the spiritual life of professing Christians has not always been in proper balance.

To this end, we see those who profess Christ but their lives appear to be far from Him.

On another level though, there are those who once professed Christ openly but now have fallen away from a life of godliness.

That is what we want to look at today.

Context within Hebrews and the continuation of the previous section

I. Press on towards maturity (v.

1-3)

1.

A call to progress

1.

If God permits (6:3)

1. God governs the progress of sanctification (maturity)

2. Hebrews 13:20-21

1. 20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—with the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip[a] you with all that is good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.

Glory belongs to Him forever and ever.[b]

Amen.

3.

He either permits our progress or He doesn't

4. God doesn't have to grant repentance to anyone

II.

Warning against Apostasy (v.

4-8)

6. 6:4-6 - This passage is terrifying

1.

There is funny fear, bad fear, good fear (keeps you from touching a hot stove)

1.

The author is helping people discern if they are built on rock or sand.

2. This person has had great blessings and high religious experiences.

1. Conviction of sin is not the same thing as salvation.

2. They have been around the things of God and seen the good working of the Lord and they turn away from it.

3.

They are not a saved person.

3.

In spite of that, this person falls away and in doing so re-crucifies the Son of God and puts him to an open shame.

1. Jesus died to make us holy.

If you choose unholiness, you are in effect saying, you vote for what put Him on the cross.

You are saying that the world and the life you want is more valulable than that.

(Piper)

4. It is impossible to renew that person to repentance.

1. God will never not forgive a repentant sinner.

1.

They won't repent.

2. If you can repent this morning - You are so fortunate!

3.

There comes a point after which this person will not be able to repent.

4. Illustration of this: Esau

1. Hebrews 12:16-17

2. God does not reject genuine repentance.

Esau could not repent.

He was so hardened that he cried out for things to go better in his life but inside he would never submit to God's terms.

(He was immoral and godless)

3. Tears mean nothing if they are not tears of repentance.

A Question Arises

So, is the writer of Hebrews saying that you can lose your salvation?

He’s not.

There are four reasons why he’s not.

He is instead saying that you can experience spiritual things and not be saved.

Let me show you the four reasons why I believe this.

Number one is found in verse 6.

He does not say, “if they fall away.”

He says, “they have fallen away,” which leads me to believe that the person he is discussing is not going to make it, has no shot of making it, because they were never truly converted to begin with.

The second reason I believe this is people who experience

spiritual things but are not saved is found in verse 9. Look at verse 9, “But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation.”

So, he is separating out the story we just heard of someone who

does fall away from the living God and what really happens to those who are genuinely saved.

Reason number three is the parable of the fields here.

He did not say in verses 7-8 that there was this land that got rain, and it produced fruit.

And then, it had a bad Tuesday, and all the fruit dried up and thorns and thistles came and took it’s place.

That’s not the illustration.

The illustration is, “There are two separate pieces of land, both get rained on, one produces fruit, one does

not, ever.

It produces thorns and thistles.

You might think it’s fruit when it first starts springing up, that first little bit of green chute sticks out of the ground, and you’re going, “Oh what do you think that is? Grapes?

Cantaloupes?

What do you think?”

And then in the end, when it’s full blown, it’s thorns, it’s thistles.

The fourth reason I believe is because the entire book of Hebrews says that once you’re saved, you’re saved.

Let me show you two of those, I could show you more, but let me show you two.

Go to Hebrews 3:14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

I doesn’t say, “We will become partakers in Christ, if we hold fast.”

That’s not what it said.

It does not say that you and I will become partakers in Christ if we hold fast; it says “We have become...” now, present.

“We have become partakers in Christ.

And because we have, we will make it firm until the end.

One more spot, Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time

those who are sanctified.”

So, God does not change His mind about you.

He does not save you, rescue you and ten weeks later, go, “You know, I never saw this behavior coming.

Damnation!”

Alright?

He who began the good work will finish it.

God cannot fail.

III.

Better Things (v.

9-12)

The author is not saying this is true of his readers.

He is warning them so as not to see them fall into this grave situation.

Hear me say this: if you are concerned about this for yourself then it probably isn't true of you...

##If you can repent and desire growth and would hold nothing back from the Lord, then you must go on to maturity: