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[0:00] 6, Hebrews chapter 6, and yep, can be dismissed to your classes, so, girls and money, or Charlotte?

[0:17] No, you get that wrong by one letter, you said, and then there were none, then there were nine, nine at the moment, so, all right, Hebrews chapter 6, it's election season, ads are out, signs are out, all those different things, what role do promises play in getting a presidential candidate elected?

[1:08] God puts them in power, but for the average citizen, do their promises make a difference? Yes, they make promises about all kinds of different things that they're going to do, why it's going to be better under them, what's some examples of promises that people have given over the years that they did not keep? Lower taxes, that's the first one I thought of, everybody's going to lower your taxes, anybody taxes ever go down? Yeah, they're always going to lower your taxes and make things better for you that way, you know, you're going to have more money in your pocket, I think of, wasn't it FDR, right after the depression, it's going to be a chicken in every pot, you know, I don't know if that actually happened or not, probably not, so, when God promises, we know he's going to keep his promises, what promises has God given that you hold most closely to? That was the same one I picked.

[2:10] I literally just thought that myself. You thought that too. That's the one I had picked. Wow. That he will never leave us nor forsake us. And it's the most wonderful thing in the world to know, that he will always want to do.

[2:22] Yep, and we're going to talk about that in the morning service somewhat, so, yeah. So, God makes promises to us. He keeps his promises to us. He goes with us wherever we go.

[2:34] He demonstrates that he is trustworthy by keeping his promises. Let's have a word of prayer, and we'll start talking about chapter 6 of Hebrews. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the fact that we can come to you, Lord.

[2:49] We thank you that we can come and we can make requests. We can know that you're going to keep your promises that you have in your word, that you will be with us. You will walk beside us everywhere we go. Lord, that you will have your hand upon us, and you will meet our needs.

[3:08] Lord, you will protect us and keep us safe. Lord, I just thank you for all the different things you have promised to us. Lord, I pray that you would just be with us now as we look in this chapter 6 of Hebrews. Lord, help us to learn today. Help us to be drawn closer to you today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[3:27] So, first thing I want you to see this morning is he's been talking about God being the high priest, Jesus being our high priest and everything, but he's telling us we need to move on to maturity.

[3:39] We need to get complete in Christ. We need to grow in Christ. We need to keep going. We learn that he's the high priest, and we do the things that he wants us to do according to who he is and everything, and we go to him as a high priest for forgiveness of sins and everything, but now he wants us to move on. Actually, if you want a title, it should be up there, Laying Hold of the Hope. God gives us hope, and he does that, first of all, by us pressing on to maturity. What do I mean by that? Look at verse 1 of chapter 6.

[4:15] Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, and this we will do if God permit. I want you to notice, first of all, back in chapter 5, verse 12, For when the time ye ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God. Now drop down to 6.1.

[4:56] Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Now he doesn't mean leaving those principles and forgetting them and just tossing them aside. He means moving on from those. You've got the basics. Now let's move on.

[5:12] That word therefore, you know, connects to chapter 5 and chapter 6 together. He's saying, because of the things you learned back here, now do this. He's saying, he told them that they were dull of hearing, that they had, they were unskilled in the words of righteousness and things.

[5:31] He says, you need to grow. You need to further on. You need to come more mature in the things that you know.

[5:42] You know the elementary truths, but it's time to move on from that. Those first verses, those two verses there, think about it.

[5:54] How much will a person grow if they do not understand or have settled the basics of salvation? You know, we have to understand what salvation is and that we have it in Christ before we can move on further.

[6:10] The thought that came to my mind is, okay, we know that thou shalt not do so. But it's going beyond that. How can we help others?

[6:22] Like, do not kill. Well, then don't injure them. Don't hurt them. Yeah. And not just take the basic doctrine, but see beyond what you can do.

[6:33] And not just go, thou shalt not. Why? Yeah. You know, know the why behind it and be able to express it to other people. And if we don't know the basics of salvation, we have no foundation on which to build.

[6:49] We have to know who God is, what he has done for us, what Jesus did for us when he came and went to the cross and rose again. We have to understand those basics. And what he is trying to point out here in these first couple of verses is, you have known the basics before Jesus came.

[7:08] In your Jewish heritage. I'm not going to take time to look all these up this morning. But in your Jewish heritage, repentance is talked about in the Old Testament. Faith is talked about in the Old Testament.

[7:22] Baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead, eternal judgment. All of those things are talked about in the Old Testament. He said, you have a foundation. You have a base from which to start.

[7:34] You already know these things. Now, we know some of the different sects did not believe that. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection from the dead.

[7:46] So, their foundation was off right there from the beginning. So, he is saying, you need to have these things down. You should have these things down because they are part of your Jewish heritage.

[7:58] They are part of what you had already learned. And now you need to be ready to go on from that in Christ. Got the basics? Now you understand that Christ is the one who did all these things.

[8:10] Christ is the one who provided the salvation for you. And now you move on with Christ. And you keep walking with him day by day. He is the high priest.

[8:21] Remember, we learned in chapter 5. If he is the high priest, he is taking care of everything for you. You do not have to keep coming back and doing the rituals and things. He did it once for all.

[8:35] There is a progression that takes place in the Christian life. There is a thing called progressive Christianity now. If you ever hear that term, don't go with it.

[8:47] But as a Christian life, we do. We learn the basics. And then we grow in Christ. And then we grow in Christ. And then we grow in Christ. We keep growing in the things that he has for us.

[8:59] He did that for the Jews even. They had the basics. You know, the patriarchs understood that God loved them. God had a plan for them.

[9:10] God was going to take care of them. And then he gives Moses some religious and legal systems to put into place for helping them to grow.

[9:22] And then he brings the prophets on. And the prophets start teaching about the coming Messiah who is going to come. And so there is a progression taking place. But these people, they know the whole thing.

[9:33] They know the Old Testament. They know Jesus Christ. They know what Jesus did for them. So he says, keep moving on. Keep going. He's trying to communicate to them through Christ and about Christ.

[9:44] Go over just a few pages to 2 John, chapter 1. 2 John, chapter 1. 2 John.

[9:58] Actually, 2 John. Let's put it this way. 1. 2 John, period. 2 John, period. And look at verse 7.

[10:09] It says, for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Stop right there for a minute. It says, there's many who come in the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.

[10:24] Bonnie, what was that quote you read about somebody to know if they're a Christian or not? I can't think about something like that.

[10:35] You were telling me. Anyways, it included that, the fact that Jesus had come in the flesh. Oh. Do you believe that Jesus...

[10:45] Who is the Son of God? He is the Son of God. He came in the flesh and died for you.

[10:58] Something like that. But believing that Jesus... Oh, that he's the Son of God who is... He died in the flesh.

[11:09] Yeah. Anyway, believing those things sets the foundation. Jesus Christ came. He is the Son of God who came to this earth.

[11:21] He died in the flesh. And rose again. And went back to heaven for us. So he says, look, there's many who confess not that Jesus is come in the flesh.

[11:32] That's priority. That's one of the top things. That Jesus came to take our place. And in order to do that, he had to become one of us.

[11:42] Verse 8 says there, Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.

[11:56] He's talking about that there in Hebrews. You know, you've got the doctrines around. You've got to understand who Christ is and the things that go along with repentance and all those things. He says, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.

[12:08] He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speak.

[12:21] What is he saying? How important is it to make sure we understand the basics when it comes to the doctrine of Christ? Our whole faith is built on Christ.

[12:33] Do we understand what he has for us and what it is he did for us? So the writer of Hebrews here is trying to say, These things should be basic. These things should be foundation.

[12:44] These things are essentials. And then from there you grow. And you keep on going. Becoming more and more at one with Christ, in relationship with Christ, knowing that Christ walks with you and guides you and takes care of you.

[13:04] And you get past just the salvation period point to realize that he also is effective in this and this and this and this as part of your life.

[13:17] We talked about the fact that he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[13:32] Remember Melchizedek? I did some looking again on Melchizedek. Remember I told you some people believe that he is a Christophany, which is a pre-Jesus Christ coming in the flesh appearance of Christ.

[13:49] And when you look at Melchizedek, you find no birth records or anything about him, who his family was. You find nothing about his death.

[14:02] You find, what was the other thing I was just thinking of? Anyway, he, oh, his name or the position he had was King of Salem, which is peace.

[14:20] King of peace. He's also referred to as the King of Righteousness. All these different things. So he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek, which means, who is Jesus?

[14:32] Wasn't he the King of Peace? Wasn't he King of Righteousness? All these things. So he had a priesthood that was unlike any other. Aaron had his priesthood and those who came after Aaron.

[14:45] But Jesus had one totally different from everything Aaron offered. So we need to get the basics down. There in Hebrews chapter 6. You've got these things, know these things, but now ready to move on.

[15:00] What happens if we don't move on? No. You don't grow. You don't grow. And if you don't grow, huh? We're apt to go backwards.

[15:11] We're apt to go backwards. Which is the second thing we're going to look at, a falling away into hopelessness. If we're not growing, we're going backwards.

[15:25] If we're not growing, we don't just stay there, do we? It's like, okay, I've grown this much, I'm going to stay right here. No, because then if we're not growing, we start letting things slip. We start letting things go.

[15:37] We start questioning things and stuff, and we start going backwards. And he says there's a falling away into hopelessness. The paragraph we're about to look at is probably one of the most difficult, one of the most debated passages in Scripture.

[15:53] People have taken the verses we're about to look at and said, ah, you can lose your salvation.

[16:04] Look with me at verse 4. Verse 4 of chapter 6 says, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.

[16:35] When you look at those verses and you read those verses, what does it seem like it's teaching? That you can lose your salvation. That you can go backwards. You can be saved, and then you can go backwards and not be saved.

[16:50] You know, when you read verses, though, what's the number one thing we always do when we read verses? Context. Look at the context.

[17:01] So as we're reading, going through this book of Hebrews, I want you to remember the context of what he's trying to teach, and I want you to remember the context of the whole Bible. What is the context of the whole Bible?

[17:13] Let's take a look. I'm going to have you moving around today. Go with me to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verses 28 and 29.

[17:33] John 10, 28 and 29. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

[17:43] My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Okay? Stop there. What do those verses seem to teach?

[17:56] You can't fall away. You're in God's hands. You're not going anywhere. No man is able to pluck them out of God's hands, including yourself.

[18:07] You can't take yourself out of God's hands. Once you're there, you're there. So, we take that verse, those verses, and put them against Hebrews.

[18:19] The Bible doesn't contradict itself. So, Margaret? Job is a good example of that. Job? How? Because no matter what hit him, he never strayed from God.

[18:34] Right. He always praised him and worshipped him. Okay. So, Job did everything knowing that God had him and was in control.

[18:47] But there are people who don't do that. But these verses say it doesn't matter. You can't take yourself out of God's hands. Go with me over to Romans chapter 8. These verses will be familiar to you as well.

[18:59] Romans chapter 8. And beginning at verse 33. Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

[19:12] It is God that justify it. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again.

[19:23] Who is even at the right hand of God. Who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

[19:36] As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[20:00] So, I'm saved. What can separate me from God? Nothing. So there's two. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1.

[20:11] Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 13.

[20:25] Ephesians 1.13 Ephesians 1.13 Ephesians 1.13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.

[20:49] He says, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. You're the earnest. You have the earnest of our inheritance, which means you have the guarantee of the inheritance.

[21:02] Can you lose your salvation? No. Look at chapter 4, verse 30. Chapter 4, verse 30. He says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

[21:19] Now go back over to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7. Look at verse 25. Hebrews 7.25. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

[21:35] You're saved to the uttermost, because Jesus is making intercession for you all the time. So, all of these verses that say you can't lose your salvation, why would this one in Hebrews 6 say that you can?

[21:50] The Bible doesn't contradict itself. And as a matter of fact, from one chapter to the next, it seems to teach two different things. So, what is it they're trying to get at there?

[22:04] Look at verse 9 of chapter 6. It says, Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation. He is confident that these are genuine believers.

[22:16] He's confident that they understand that their salvation is true. I haven't done the word study. Jared was asking me about word studies the other night. He was at a Bible study, and they were talking about word studies.

[22:28] And I haven't done a word study on this, but one of the things I noticed in these verses, look at verse 4 and 5 again. For it is impossible for those that were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the world to come.

[22:57] Like I said, I haven't done the word study. But have you ever come along, somebody's making something, chocolate chip cookies or something like that.

[23:10] They're making something like that, but they're not done yet. But you kind of dip your finger in it. That's my point. You kind of dip your finger in it. Mmm, that's good.

[23:21] That tastes good. But you haven't really eaten it. You haven't really taken it inside you yet. You've tasted it. See, he says those that have tasted.

[23:32] Think about those who, maybe they've come to church for years but never been saved. They've been here. They've watched. They've seen. They've heard testimony.

[23:44] They've seen answered prayers. They've seen, but they have not accepted and taken Christ into themselves. They're kind of mixed in with the group. That's why even when I look out and I see just everybody here I believe is saved, I will still give, you know, an opportunity.

[24:01] Because there are people who have been in churches for years that are not saved. I heard about a lady just recently. She used to be a member of this church. She's been in other churches and they've moved around and stuff.

[24:13] But she just got saved. You know, there are people, a pastor friend of mine, when he moved to Alabama, he started preaching salvation services because it was a church that had been dying and they were trying to get back and trying to get people to come in.

[24:35] And so they're preaching salvation messages. Two of his deacons got saved. They tasted of the things. They'd seen the things. They had been a part where the Holy Spirit was moving and doing things.

[24:47] But they'd never taken it in for themselves. And so he's saying, look, you need to take it in for yourself. There are those who think that they can lose their salvation, but they've probably never saved to start with.

[25:00] So he gives warnings and he says, look, be careful. Remember back in chapter two, how much he talked about the fact of unbelief and how unbelief had affected the Israelites from going into the promised land.

[25:18] They did not get the promised land because of unbelief. And there are people sitting in pews all over who, because of unbelief, they don't quite say, yes, I believe he did that for me.

[25:32] You know. Yesterday, a gentleman stopped by here that was attending a church I was many years ago. And he had been a soul winner as a teenager.

[25:45] He was the one that showed up every Saturday. He was soul winning. And everybody looked at him as being, you know, kind of a, wow, this kid, he really gets it. And one Sunday during the invitation, he came walking down the center aisle.

[26:00] And he was asked what he was there for. And he said, I'm not saved. He realized that he had been telling everybody that the youth person was not saved.

[26:10] And he got saved, got baptized again because he realized he wasn't saved the first time. God ended up using him to go on to the mission field in Africa and all over the place.

[26:24] But he realized he wasn't saved. Yep. So there's, you know, so that's what they're getting at here is the fact that make sure you have the fundamental things taken care of.

[26:39] And then grow from there. Look at verse 12. I know I'm skipping around a little bit, but look at verse 12. He says, oh, wait a minute.

[26:52] That's back in chapter 3, I think. Hang on. Let me check something. Yeah. Chapter 3. I had mentioned some things in chapter 3 where about they weren't able to enter into the rest.

[27:03] Remember? Israel couldn't have the rest. They had to wander around the wilderness and everything because of unbelief. Look at verse 12 there. It says, take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

[27:20] He says unbelief is a terrible thing. Unbelief will hinder you. Unbelief will keep you from being saved. Unbelief will keep you from heaven. So be careful of unbelief.

[27:32] Unbelief will keep you from being saved. You know, when Jesus comes into our life, he says there in verse 4, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened.

[27:48] Jesus is the light of the world, tells us in John chapter 1, verse 9. He is the light. We can see the light, but do we embrace the light? Do we allow the light to help us?

[28:03] You know, you need to be so very careful. This is taking a whole different turn than I had when I had gone over it yesterday. So anyway, I don't know why, but God seems to be leading that way.

[28:17] You know, think about these Hebrews. What are they facing? They're facing persecution. Persecution is getting more and more a thing from the Roman Empire as they go along.

[28:31] And so they're feeling threatened by persecutions and things that they're seeing. And so am I going to stand for Christ or am I not? That's a decision that people have to make.

[28:42] That's a decision we'll have to make someday maybe. That's a decision people in other parts of the world have to make. Am I going to follow Christ or not? Put yourself as a Christian in Pakistan or Iran or some of those places.

[29:01] I'm a Christian. What am I going to do when they start coming after me? Because they will. So what am I going to do?

[29:12] He's like, look, you need to stand fast. Verse 6, back there in chapter 6, he says, If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing that they crucify themselves again, the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame.

[29:31] He said, don't ever go back. Don't ever deny what God has done for you. He says, if you go and you've been saying you're a Christian and now you deny, you're putting Christ to public shame.

[29:47] Christ is not big enough to take care of me. Christ is not big enough, not important enough for me to keep following him. He says, those decisions will bring shame to Christ.

[30:02] Abandoning our faith, he says, be so very careful. He says, it takes a deliberate, conscious decision to turn your back on Christ.

[30:14] And when you do that, he said, it's a sad day. Is this kind of cover backsliders? Somebody who has stepped back, we call them backsliders.

[30:30] They may not be being obedient and things of that nature.

[30:40] They may not be doing things. But have they denied Christ? Have they said no? These people, I believe, are saying, no, no, no, not me. I'm not one of those. So backslider just means you haven't given up your faith.

[30:54] Right. You're just not. Living it out the way you should. You're not moving forward. You're moving backwards. Yeah. Well, that's what it's talking about. It is believers only when you say backslid.

[31:06] Right. Yeah. So. And it's already 16, 17 after. So we'll stop there for today. I was hoping to get further. But like I said, this took a different turn than I was planning.

[31:20]  So, okay. God knows what he's doing. Do you have any, Father? Thank you.