I invite you to turn this morning to the book of Hebrews. We're returning to our study after a few weeks, and we come this morning to 6.4 through 12. I'm going to back up and read from 5.11. That's found on page 1190 in your Bibles in front of you. And this is obviously a very important section in the book, probably the strongest warning that is in the book, and we're right in the heart of it this morning. So I'll be reading to set the whole context from 11 all the way, 511 to 612. This is the word of the Lord. Speaking before this of the eternal priesthood and the priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek, about this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 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 and of instruction about washings the laying on of hands the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment and this we will do if God permits and now our text 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 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the ages at the age to come 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 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. But if it bears thorns and thistles it is worthless and near to being cursed and its end is to be burned though we speak in this way yet in your case beloved we feel sure of better things things that belong to salvation 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 and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end so that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises and there will end the reading of God's word well there's no doubt that uh this morning we come to one of the most difficult passages in the bible i don't see how you can see that it's not it's a very challenging passage that has caused a lot of people to fear and one that has caused a lot of distress for people and in the history of interpretation a lot of debate over this particular passage i thought reading this week and thinking about all these things i was caught by a comment one pastor made that it's really not difficult to scare christians to scare true christians that they will only find out on the day of judgment that they're not really true christians and will head be headed off to hell that's an easy thing to accomplish that's a really easy thing to accomplish for sincere true christians um today and i'm aware of that looking at a passage like this let me say up front emphatically that that is not the intention of this warning in hebrews that is not at all what is intending to accomplish or to do to set the context properly today i want everyone to look down at verse 9 of chapter 6 and i want you to see his intention here so it's set up front and you understand his goal in this particular passage and that you don't miss it but beloved notice this uh in verse 9 though we speak this way yet in your case beloved we feel sure of better things things that belong to salvation and then he says down in verse 11 and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have what the full assurance of hope until the end now i would think if i don't accomplish that today by the end of this sermon i've i've somewhat failed his goal he just said is assurance for you and that's why i titled the message that um an issue of assurance an issue of perseverance and assurance and we're going to be looking at that here but that's the goal and and he's really concerned so what he's doing in this particular passage is explaining for you the worst possible outcome in being tied to the church of jesus what would that be it's denying jesus it's denying jesus and ending up in hell that's the worst possible outcome and and and that's what he wants us to wrestle with here for a moment what is the trajectory to that what is the path toward that and what does that look like and i think the whole history of the church has proven that this is is a problem that some indeed have fallen away from the living god that's hebrew's language well he's dealing with a very real problem in the church he's dealing with a very real problem within the kingdom of God. And what is it called? It's called apostasy. The problem of knowing the faith, receiving the faith, having all these good things said to you, having received many good benefits, and turning your back on it all and walking away from it. Knowing all of it. That's apostasy. And that is one of the great purposes of this text, that he's calling us to say, don't cast faith aside in Jesus. Don't ever turn away from Jesus. He's the only way, truth, and life. Hold on to him confidently till the end. He'll make good on everything he promised. So what we're really getting here today in this complex section of Hebrews is an anatomy of apostasy. We're looking at apostasy. We're looking it right in the eye. looking at what it looks like he wants us to understand it so that we would be kept from it and that we would persevere to the end by God's grace so that's the purpose of this particular text so that's what I want to look at briefly with you this morning his warning against this reality of apostasy he then rehearses the consequences of apostasy and then he um he concludes with this great encouragement that he will give them of endurance and faith in Christ to the end what was the author worried about in first century with these Christians these Hebrew Christians he was worried because they were giving up they were tempted to give up some of them and they were facing all these problems in the world that they never anticipated in being a christian right i mean it's easy to say here sign on the dotted line and everything's going to get great for you and you'll be health and wealth and prosperity and you're just going to be happy and and jesus warned against this kind of thinking that when tribulation arises because of the word many people stumble because they don't understand what they've come to and what commitment in christ looks like and what it is and what the faith is he's he's been concerned in this book with a dangerous spiritual condition that has arisen among these early Jewish Christians. We've picked up on the strong language so far, haven't we? Haven't we listened to him and picked up on what he's really going after here? Some were drifting. Remember he said that, therefore we must pay the most close attention to the things that we've heard lest we drift away from them. And we've studied some were hardening their hearts to the word of God. And they were not listening to the voice of Jesus. And he said, today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as in the wilderness. But last time he kind of zeroed in a little further on the problem. He was concerned and he's been concerned about their entire attitude to the ministry of the word and the gospel in the Christian community. I have to say, I think that's maybe one of the greatest pressures that I felt as a pastor in the ministry. You know, people just are never quite satisfied with the ministry of the word. And so they judge a church based on what they think it should be. You know, we want a better this, and we want a better experience, and we want better music, and we want a better this. And you can go all the way to the light show and the smog things. But the heart of his concern last time had to do with what? Spiritual maturity. By this time, you guys all should be teachers. He wasn't looking at milk Christians. That's what we were amazed at. You people should, of all people, be the mature Christians. You are the mature Christians. And so much so, you've been given so much, You all should be teaching the faith by now. That's how you should have progressed. But the reality is you have now have need of milk. You have regressed in need of milk. And I told you, I have hard things to explain to you. Remember he said that right up front. I'm about to talk about the priesthood. And this is deep doctrine of the priesthood, of the eternal priesthood of Christ and all that he's accomplished for you. And the reality is, is you're uninterested in it. I'm about to explain all of this. Remember what he said? But you're sluggish. You're dull of hearing. Did you see that right there at the beginning about this? We have much to say and it's hard to explain since you've become dull of hearing. You're lazy and you're uninterested in God's word. And we looked at last time. Well, that's always been a history, the history of the church, a big problem. And he was concerned about their spiritual state because of this. People just don't think about these things, which direction they're going. You know, I said, it's one thing if a church is reforming and they're starting somewhere and they're heading to be reformed. It's a totally different thing when a church has it all and regresses out of it. That's dangerous, he's saying. So he's concerned with the attitude to the word. And he's been concerned about this, that this path of regression is going somewhere. The attitude probably went like this, remember? You're spending all this time on doctrine, pastor. You can't talk about a priesthood. I mean, come on, that's not the real problems we're dealing with in the world right now with persecution. You know, we're being marginalized, we're being persecuted, and you want to talk about a priesthood. And you want to take us into the deep mysteries of the faith. And you want to challenge us that way. We don't need that. We need milk. We've never heard any of that, have we? This is what we've lived in American Christianity. And what he was describing is that kind of attitude has a hardening effect on your spiritual arteries. We're all concerned about our actual arteries, right? What about your spiritual arteries? So we left off with this great call. Foundational doctrines, which is kind of amazing. You know what the foundational doctrines are that you should move on in growth from? It's justification, and it's sanctification. We're really the categories that we looked at. And eternal judgment and resurrection. Those are the foundational milk doctrines that we grow in in understanding the word of God, which shows how much the point is so many Christians need the milk, which should be mature Christians and have been mature Christians because they haven't grown in these truths. But if anyone should be pressing on in growth to maturity, he's saying to these Hebrew Christians who have the scriptures and have the history and have the tradition, it should be you. You know, this is like playing with fire. So he moves now to the worst possible outcome. I want you to look now at the most challenging verse, I think one of the most challenging in the scriptures to understand. Although I think the overall picture is really clear. I think you can get lost in some of the detail here. But notice this. For it is impossible in the case of those, this is verse 4, who have once been enlightened and who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they're crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt. What a verse. I think it's important to notice here something in the way that the author is speaking. Did you notice how he speaks to them, how he changes persons here? He'll come back in verse 9 and say, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. But here he's speaking, you notice he moves to the second. He says, but in the case of those, I think that's a really crucial point that he's making here. There is always this challenge of speaking to the entire church here today. You know this. This is the challenge of preaching. Everyone here comes into what we call the sphere of these blessings, covenant blessings of God. You're a covenantal body. Everyone here has entered what we call the administration of the covenant of grace. By baptism, you entered into the family of God and you're identified with him. But there's always been a certain problem and challenge in this arrangement, in this life, that people, even though we have a visible community that we see, that they only remain visibly in it. only externally by baptism, being raised in covenant families. But it doesn't automatically mean that you have internally believed and entered this relationship. In other words, what does the Bible say? True internal salvation is a matter of what? The heart. By regeneration. I say this to my kids. I say, listen, there are believers and there are make-believers. And make-believers are sometimes very hard to see. I can't read hearts. I don't know where everyone is today. There might be some, as one pastor said, are just loitering around the church. There might be some who are just hanging around the church. But they're here, and they're listening. But they haven't really taken it inward yet. I've told you this. I believe this was the case with my own father. That for years he sat in the church, and we didn't see that real work of him internally taking it in by the regenerating work of the Spirit until later in life. But he was at the worship services. We saw a real change in him. I was my own father. I've solved that. That's an important thing to think about, isn't it? Coming to church is just to pop in the Wilhelmina and head on out, right? And if you get three Wilhelminas, it's been too long of a sermon. The author knows this is a problem. And he's working to root that out. That there might be the possibility of somebody sitting in church after all these years of whom Jesus will say on the last day, I never knew you. He doesn't want that. And in this case of those, he doesn't believe that. He sees that as an awful scenario. He sees that as the worst scenario. But there are markers of that. They're fruit. And he's seeing some bad fruits in the community that are leading him to address this ultimate problem. What are the fruits that we've looked at that are bad fruits in the community? Apathy to the Word of God. They never read it. They're not interested in it. Indifference to the Word of God. Regression. They're going, they had all these convictions. It would be like, you know, here's the Heidelberg, here's the Canons. You had all this deep theological conviction and you say, just throw it out. Why do we need all that stuff? You were given a heritage. How could you do that? Of truth, a deposit. He sees that as awful. Those are fruits he's concerned about, bad fruits. And Jesus spoke of the parable of the soils this way. Stony hearts, thorny hearts, hard hearts, and then soft hearts. All within the sphere of the covenant where the gospel is preached. Now, there's an important distinction he's making here. He's not advancing any idea that any one of God's children could lose their salvation. Let me make that really clear here. He's not saying that at all. What is he talking about? Well, he's talking about the fact that many stumble in many ways. And we're not talking about breaking God's law today. All of us depart from God at times with sins in our lives that we shouldn't do. And we do all kinds of things we shouldn't do. You know people have fallen into sins that we think aren't as bad, gossip and these sort of things, and they fall into worse sins, adultery and fornication and drunkenness. And sometimes people live in these things for a while. What is God always calling us to do with sin? Confess it. And what will he do? Forgive you? He says, I'll forgive all your sins. I mean, that's what the gospel is all about. That's why we come to church to receive an announcement of forgiveness. You see why we read the law? I emphasize that. Because that's what he wants to do for you, is encourage you in your forgiveness. But here, he's presenting a certain kind of situation. Somewhat hypothetical, but he believes can happen. It's the worst possible outcome in the covenant community. It's the worst possible scenario of a trajectory which those bad fruits would ultimately lead. There's a path where apathy and indifference and regression, what would be the worst possible outcome from that? Well, in the case of those, it's apostasy. There are those in the kingdom who were once enlightened. They tasted the heavenly gift. They become partakers. Notice the language is so specific here and not absolute. They were not regenerated. They were partakers and they tasted. They didn't digest. They were partakers of the spirit, of the good word of God. They sat under all this wonderful good word of God that was preached to them week in, week out, Sunday school teachers, all this good word. Voss calls it, Gerhardus Voss calls it a sphere of consciousness that everyone has in this. Members of the visible body of Christ. There was an enlightening effect. That doesn't mean regenerating. The truth of the gospel was preached and it was wonderful. They experienced many good gifts. They experienced from their third grade Sunday school teacher a lot of love. along the way they experienced uh all these teachers in the church and blessing of people who cared about them and you know who were willing to talk to them about their faith and and who would pray for them when they didn't even know they were what paul says in romans 9 of israel they had the adoption the glory the giving of the law the covenants all this all this he's describing a people like israel who went from egypt to canaan and they get all the way up to the border of the land and they said we're going back we're done we give up on all this and somebody came up to recently said you know after studying that in hebrews how could israel seeing all that a marvelous work of the lord not believe it's a marvel it's the same point we've seen God's power who can deny it in the lives of all you people who he's changed who love who serve we're going to get there and it's changed them through and through if someone who's been given everything like that you know that's why we say even baptism a sign and a seal of the work of the Spirit a sign and a seal some people say well I didn't choose that God would say what a blessing that I put that mark on you if someone who was given all that turned their back and went back to Egypt which is a picture of the world if someone turned away from it all and hardened their heart to that degree he's describing a people who make a conscious deliberate break from Jesus, a moment of saying, I reject it all. I'm done with this. He's saying that's the worst possible scenario. They forsake it all. So to make you understand, I think I wanted to make sure you think these are not just my ideas. I want to quote Calvin here the man who falls is the one who forsakes the word of god who extinguishes its light who denies himself the taste of the heavenly gift who gives up on partaking of the spirit this is complete renunciation of god this does not happen unless he sins against the holy spirit see it's interesting they understood this tied to the sin against the spirit i was reading the 1557 geneva notes right at this verse this is what it says those which are apostates and sin against the holy ghost hate christ crucify and mock him but to their own destruction and therefore fall into disreparation and they cannot repent that's the he's describing the path of no return but he's describing that kind of decisive break from it all it's romans 1 being given over it's it's the pharisees we saw with jesus who did this who he warned i was reading a writer this week and something that struck me he says in his experience when he comes across the hardest hearts in this world to anything Christian, those who've rejected Jesus and Christianity, and who are the most angry about it? He almost universally finds that they were raised in the church. It's the kind of life I've heard of sometimes, you know, when people who've done this, they've went to the Christian school and they had all this sphere of consciousness blessing. You hear, I was raised in this oppressive environment you know it was all condemning and it was narrow and it was unfriendly and it was unwelcoming it's always worried about that it's oppressive and now i'm free now i'm free that's the worst kind of hard heart why do people do that well looking at it from this early christian's perspective they were looking at the world they were surrounded by a pagan culture who was bearing in on them all their philosophies all their ideas were coming at them why in the world do I have to go through opposition for the faith you know why in the world do I have to do that and go through that it's not worth it you know due to persecution they took our money they took our businesses they took our homes they took everything from us they separated our families all for being christian and we had to count the cost let me ask you would this be an option for some the point of the book is suffering and trial is part of the wilderness journey that he's trying to explain to them and he's trying to help them with and the author is challenging those who have come to a conscious rejection of an apostasy to break from jesus and saying here that it is impossible to renew them to repentance since they crucified for themselves the Son of God and put them to open shame. He's directly encountering this modern idea, if you will, that people can be saved without Jesus. And it's worse when we've tasted all this. Apostates who knew Him and rejected Him, they've eliminated the only way of salvation. They've turned from the only one who can deliver them from the wrath of God because of sin. and there's no other foundation that can be laid. Now, I think what he does at this point, beloved, is say, listen, anyone who ever would think about doing that, that's not a safe path. What he's saying in verse 7 is, for the land that has drunk the rain and often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it's cultivated receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it's worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. It's an agricultural illustration, and it's saying when you reject the rain and all this goodness, you've got to deal with the thorns. God often gave Israel covenant curses when they turned away from Him. And what the passage is simply saying is, is this is no option. This is no alternative. You put yourself back under the covenant curses of God. Thorns and thistles, thorns from the curse at creation now you see what he's doing here pastorally don't ever turn don't ever do that don't ever turn away from jesus and i love what he does at this point you know i want to make sure you understand if you have sons and daughters who've who followed a path of hardening yes humbly speaking it may get to a point where it seems impossible but i was thinking to myself this week jesus did have a conversation about possibilities and impossibilities and one thing he said to peter is with man it is impossible not with god all things are possible it's the same word in the greek he wants to encourage them not scare them to endurance in the face of all opposition. You understand that? Notice carefully the switch in person now. Though we speak this way, verse 9, yet in your case, beloved, listen to this, we feel sure of better things. Things that belong to salvation. He just said, I don't think that way about you. It's not like he's beating up his congregation, making them all feel like they're not Christians. There's a lot of preaching that does that. He actually does the opposite. He's a pastor, and what a pastor does is defend the flock. And how do you defend your flock? Well, any pastor worth his salt is concerned to guard the flock and keep sheep from wandering. That's why we have discipline. It's not a good parent or a good pastor who does nothing about that or says nothing about that. I am so concerned for you, he says, but I'm absolutely confident that none of you will go down this path. That's why pastors, when they press and convict, they deeply desire to see all of the flock kept on the path and kept in the fold and kept under Jesus' gracious voice, you see? And so he gives encouragement this way, doesn't he? I am deeply confident that your fruit will be good. Look at verse 10. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you've shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do. That's an interesting verse. I was deeply touched by that verse, thinking we often put emphasis on perseverance and endurance in the Christian life, on Bible reading and prayer, Bible reading and prayer. So important. Did you notice what he did? It says one pastor said, Most tangibly, Christians show their love for God by their loving ministry to other Christians. Perseverance and word and truth and growth and maturity, most will evidence itself in how you tangibly have gospel fellowship, how you tangibly love your flock, love your people, serve them, not disconnect it. And I have to say, I could say with the pastor in Hebrews and looking at this flock, i see that beyond what i could ask for in this place i see a whole bunch of people who come together and you see the love of christ in this place you see you see you care for each other look at somebody who gets sick in this place and and look at look at the out cries of prayer and service and care that goes on sorry you can't get that in evangelical mega church i'm sorry i see it among you the love the care the investment in the lives of god's people that's fruit he's saying of god's work in you and the author wants them to live in assurance and hope of hope he believes strongly in the perseverance of the saints this is what peter said according to his great mercy he's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that's imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That's not in question. But all of you know there's wandering sheep. And that's a community concern in this book. And it starts from general apathy to the word of God from people who are just disconnected from people who are drifting, people who are regressing. We all have them. We have them in every church. We don't want anyone to get to this awful extreme of turning their back on Jesus. And we should all care about that. So be careful about being sluggish with your faith. Are there any drifting? Are there any hardening their hearts? Are there any checking out? Are there any who really just can't stand the ministry of the word? Are there any who want to walk away from this because of hardship? Be imitators, he says, of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. I hate to put somebody on the spot today, and this is where I get in trouble as a pastor, but I'm just going to do it. I see Mary Vanderbilt's family's here, and she's celebrating a birthday. I just want to say, she's a good example of someone to imitate. And she's putting her head down right now, and I'm going to probably get chewed out for this later. Look at these saints who through all the difficulty of life and hardship and loss of loved ones and war who cling to Christ. They're all around you. Make sure you're one. He won't lose one of his sheep. None can be plucked from his hand. This is God speaking to us, beloved. Believe his word. Digest it into your souls. Enjoy the assurance of faith and love you give and receive among one another. Enjoy that. That's all evidence of God's work. And be a part of that. Go one way or the other. Live in hope. Hold fast to Jesus. He's the author and finisher of your faith and he doesn't let go. Believe him. Believe him. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for a wonderful word today to us that even though it comes in the midst of a great and awful possibility, we know that your great intention is to keep us from that, all of your sheep. so give us confidence today in your word and pull back the wandering sheep, the regressing, the hardening of hearts who have just been in the external relationship and in the tradition but have not truly been born again by your spirit. Give life. And may you be praised, O Lord. Thank you for being our ultimate pastor and good shepherd who cares to speak to us, to keep us. in your fold. May we cling to your beloved Son and hear Him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.