[0:01]The following resource is from DesiringGod.org. I invite you to take your own Bible if you have one. Or a Bible from under the pew in front of you, or if you prefer to simply listen carefully. And turn to Hebrews 6 4 through 8. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 4-8.
[0:30]We're on our way through the Book of Hebrews. And we've arrived now at verse 4 of chapter 6.
[0:41]For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. 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. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those who for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned. Father, I ask for your help in opening this portion of your double-edged, powerful, effectual word. I pray that it would have its appointed effect upon your people and upon those outside your people who are being drawn by the very fact that they're here this morning. I pray that we would have ears to hear, who would protect us from error and imbalance. I pray that the spirit of the hearing and the preaching would be the spirit of Christ. We need your help, Lord. We can't do anything without you. And so draw near now and save and sanctify, secure, stabilize, give joy, heal, reconcile, pull back from suicidal trajectories and grant untold blessing to come to your people in these minutes. Through Christ, I ask it. Amen. There's a really big difference, I think all of you would agree, I hope you would, between being serious and being sad. The opposite of sad is happy or joyful, and the opposite of serious is glib or joking.
[3:29]Everybody knows the difference between the effect that a comedian has on you. And the effect that a loving friend who's ready to lay down his life for you has on you. In a sense, we call them both happiness, but there are worlds apart. Everybody knows the difference or almost everybody between a day at Disney World and a day at the Grand Canyon. CS Lewis said, there is a kind of happiness that makes you serious. And there is no contradiction therefore, between being serious and being happy, deeply, profoundly, unshakably, happy. Now, the book of Hebrews, I reason I say this is because the book of Hebrews is a blood earnest book. I mean it is so serious. And the the ways it talks, it seems like more often than not, leave you trembling. One of the ways that it does that is by giving us warnings about false security. Hebrews is relentlessly loving in working to pull you off of false assurances and onto solid ground. Now, if you walked in here this morning, feeling very assured of yourself and of your relation to God, but are falsely assured, it would be cruel of me to confirm you in that, wouldn't it? So that you leave here intensified in the falsehood of your security. Well, the book of Hebrews is relentlessly helping people discern whether they're built on sand or whether they're built on rock. And whether their joy is a deep and lasting joy like it's supposed to be, or whether their joy is a light and superficial joy that's going to tumble someday, even in eternity. So, I have a feeling that in our day of church life, especially in evangelicalism, we do get confused between seriousness and sadness. As though, if a church has an intense seriousness about it because a given text calls for it, this is a sad church.
[6:10]And I just want to do the best I can to say, seriousness like we're reading here in Hebrews 6 is all in the service of joy. It's an attempt to get us free from the fleeting pleasures of sin as they're called in chapter 11. Into the solid, deep, unshakable joys of Christ that can never be taken away by any tragedy in our lives or by death. And therefore, it is intensely happy. It it eventually gets to the point in chapter 10 where it says, these people joyfully accepted the plundering of their property. Now we're talking serious business there, but they're singing, they're looking back their houses are burning, they're being plundered, and they are joying in God, and you get over to chapter 12 and it says, Jesus for the joy that was set before him despised the shame, embraced the cross. That's serious. That hurts, that's screaming pain. And he did it for joy. So, please hear this hard word this morning, this warning that we just read about the dangers of falling away and getting into a spiritual condition that is irremedial. Hear it as a plea for solid joy, not fragile joy. I hope you can do that. Because I know, having talked to people after the first service and having preached on this book now for many weeks, that this book is a trembling book. It leaves people kind of, whoa, what was that? After a service. And the that is your solid unshakable joy. This text verses 4-8 of of Hebrews 6 describes a spiritual condition that is terrifying. namely, a condition in which it is impossible to repent. Can you think of such a condition? Let's look at it. Get the flow of the thought here, if you haven't been around, let me just review for back up a little bit. Verse 1, Let us press on to maturity is the main word there. Let us press on to maturity. These are not mature, perfect people he's writing to, and he hasn't written them off. So nothing I say is intended to communicate a kind of perfectionism. Let us press on from where we are in our imperfection onto maturity, and then look at verse 3. This is last week's text. It's the amazing one. This we will do, namely press on to maturity. This we will do if God permits. Meaning, if John Piper has an ounce of grace to overcome my natural rage against God and make any baby step towards holiness, it is of God, not me. This we will do. We as a church will move toward maturity, if God by his sovereign grace permits it. This an amazing statement, isn't it? That God is the one who enables us by his power and grace to move toward maturity. Now, verses 4-8, today's text, is an illustration of one of the conditions that shows our utter dependence upon this sovereign God. Namely, a condition that if you're in it, there's no hope of getting out of it. Let me read verses 4-6 again, so we have it plain. 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, and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible. There's the terrifying word. 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. Now here's the situation. Let me just say it again. First, there's a group of people or someone who has received tremendous blessings and high spiritual experiences. That's verses 4 and 5. Second, this person has after that season, fallen away. Thrown it all away. And in doing that, crucified the Son of God and brought him to public shame. And third, therefore, it is impossible that he will be able to repent. Parenthesis here. I'll say it here, I'll say it again later. At no time in this message, do I ever say or mean that God will not forgive a repentant person. But what I am saying is there comes a point where some people can no longer repent. Close parenthesis. We'll be back to that. Let's take these steps that I just mentioned one at a time. Number one, here's a situation in which a person or a group of people in the church have great blessings and high religious experiences. There are four of them, let's name them. Enlightenment, verse 4. They have been enlightened, light has come into their minds. Truth has come into their minds, some of it has taken a foothold. Secondly, they have tasted the heavenly gift and become a partaker of the Holy Spirit. At some level, the Holy Spirit has moved into their lives and has done something so that they participate in his work. Maybe it's conviction of sin. I'm going to tip my hand here. Because I I'm realizing as I handle these weighty things that if I don't say it several times, you're not getting it. Because I'm talking to people after the services and oh uh they didn't get it. So, conviction of sin is a work of the Holy Spirit and is not salvation. All right. I just tipped my hand that this is possible to experience this and not be saved. You can be a participant in the work of the Holy Spirit and be lost. God can come into your life, move around in your heart, restructure some of your values, make you tremble at the word, make you convicted for sin, and you not be saved yet. Third, you can come under the powerful influences of the good word of God. You can sit in this or another good church in the Twin Cities and hear the word of God, or in a Sunday school class, or grow up in a Christian home and have devotions every day and it come and it come and it come and it come. That's what it's talking about here. And then fall away. And finally, fourth, there is this powers of the age to come. Tasting the powers of the age to come. What's that? That's chapter 2 verse 4, where signs and wonders were wrought among them. Powers of the age to come moved into this church and they saw miracles happen. And you remember what Jesus said about those who came and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name, and he will say to them depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. It is possible to be a miracle worker and be lost, unregenerate, never born again. The second stage is not just that they had great blessings, but that they fall now away. So here they are, they've been in church, maybe they grew up in a Christian home. They know things, light has come in, spirit has worked, word has come, power has been around them, on them, in them, through them. And they say, forget it. I'm out of here. And in doing that, it says they recrucified Jesus. Why? Why does it say that? How's that crucifying of Jesus? Two ways. Number one, Jesus died to make you and me holy. Chapter 12, no chapter 13, verse 12. Jesus suffered outside the gate that he might sanctify the people by his blood. The point of the blood of Jesus is your holiness. Therefore, if you have been under the influences of the Holy Spirit for years and you say, no, I'm out of here and embrace unholiness, impurity, unbelief, lack of devotion, and the world, what you are saying, in effect, is, I vote for what?put him on the cross. And that's a crucifying of Jesus. And the second reason it's a crucifying of Jesus is this. When you contemplate leaving a community, a family, an orientation to life and a faith that you thought you had, and you turn to the fleeting pleasures of the world and the sovereignty of your own will and what this age can provide, what you are saying is, this is more valuable than that. That's the shaming of the Son of God. You look Jesus in the face and you say, your mercy, your love, your wisdom, your power, your whole personality, your relationship, the way you handled yourself and the way you offer yourself in the power that you exhibited, I now regard as less valuable and to be desired than this world and all that it has to offer me. That's a shaming of the Son of God, and it's the nailing of him back to the cross, where you want him to be, lest he intrude upon your worldly delights. And so this text says that if you leave all of that blessing that's resting on you, and embrace unbelief and go into eternity that way, you crucify the Son of God. Which brings us to step 3. Therefore, it is impossible to renew such a person to repentance. Verse 6, it is impossible to renew such a person to repentance. It is not saying, it is impossible for God to forgive a repentant person. If you can repent this morning, do it today because you may not be able to tomorrow. There is no guarantee that God will be at work in your life. And he is this morning. He is. I know the word of God is at work in this room. Now one last question. I actually two more, but the last is very, very short. One last question of substantial content here. Does this text teach that you can lose your salvation or does it teach that you can experience enlightenment, participation in the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the powers of the age to come and never have been saved? Now I'm going to argue the latter is the case, that this text is not teaching that you can have been truly justified, truly born again, truly saved, truly called of God, and then be lost and go to hell. It's not teaching that. It's teaching, and this is just as shocking, that you can be enlightened, you can participate in the Holy Spirit, you can be a taster of the good word of God, you can be a beneficiary of miraculous outpourings of the spirit and never have been saved. Never have been saved. Now, I'm going to give you five quick reasons for why I believe that. And I take all of these five reasons from the Book of Hebrews, though I could take 20 more from the other parts of the New Testament. But I'll just stay right here with Hebrews, lest we think, oh, we're forcing Hebrews to be interpreted by the Apostle Paul. You don't have to do that. Let's just stay right here. Reason number one, let's look at verses 7 and 8. Here's a picture, a word parable, picture of the situation he just described in verses 4 through 6. And it goes like this, For the ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it. Now stop there, you know what that is? The ground is somebody or some group of people and the rain coming down often is enlightenment, Holy Spirit, word of God, powers and wonders. Here they come, they've just coming down like rain on these fields. Boom, boom, boom, week after week, night after night. For the ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful for those for whose sake it was also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But is another kind of soil. But if it yields thorns and thistles, if enlightenment, if the Holy Spirit, if the word, if miracles yield thorns and thistles, it's worthless. Close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned up.
[21:38]Now, the reason I think that supports the truth that this text is teaching that you are not saved. If all these things happen and you fall away, it's because it has two kinds of soil. One that receives all these blessings and bears fruit and life to God, and another kind of field that receives rain and thorns and thistles and deadness. It doesn't say there's a field that has vegetation rich and useful for a while, and then that field becomes a different kind of field with thorns and thistles. So the picture, it seems to me, in the author's mind is that in the church, the rain is falling. Prayers, the work of the Holy Spirit, the word of God, the light of truth, the miracles of answered prayer are falling and falling. And there are some whose lives have no spiritual life or fruit, vegetation, and others who do. And so, it seems to me, that points toward two kinds of people, not one kind who is saved for a little while and then lost. Here's argument number two. These arguments move out from the context and they get, in my judgment, stronger as they go. Verse 9, Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you. Phew. You know that I can just see them wiping their brow at this point. We are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, even though we are speaking in this way. In other words, I am giving you a really hard word, a hard warning, and it might make them tremble and say, does he have any hope for us at all? Does he think we're saved?Does he think there's going to be any future for us?Why is he writing this way to us?We're believers. And he says, Beloved, I have to write this way because there's such a danger of falling away in the church. But I have real high hopes of better things, meaning not apostasy and not fruitlessness, better things. And then those better things are defined as things that accompany salvation.
[24:08]Do you hear the significance of that? That means that this writer has in his mind salvation. I believe they're saved. And if they're saved, there's some things that accompany salvation, and they are better things than apostasy, and therefore I don't think this is going to happen to you. But the point in that little phrase is, and the Greek is very very powerful here, it is things possessed by salvation. Things held to salvation. So fruitfulness, vegetation, spiritual life, perseverance belongs to salvation. If you are saved, better things than apostasy belong to you. And therefore this writer says, I'm hopeful. Because if you're really saved, these things are not going to happen to you, and I believe you are saved. Argument number 3. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 14. We looked at some weeks ago, I just want to review it because it's so important in this regard because the tense of the verb in Hebrews 3:14 makes really clear what the author's viewpoint is on this. He says, We have become partakers of Christ. Have become key phrase. We have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm to the end. Now notice, there's a condition here, you must hold fast your assurance firm to the end and not fall away. In order for what to be true? In order for it to be true that you have become a partaker. Not so that you can stay a partaker. Do you see the difference? We have become partakers if we hold fast. If we do not hold fast, we have not become a partaker. Does that make sense? Which is a clear argument that this writer has in his mind the truth that if you fall away, you were never a partaker of Christ. You can be in measure a partaker of the Holy Spirit, being convicted of sins, and having your life shaken by the Holy Spirit. But you cannot be a partaker of the saving work of Jesus Christ and then fall away. It can't happen according to chapter 3, verse 14. Argument number 4. Chapter 10, verse 14. This the beautiful gospel verse here. I love it because of what it implies for our security. Chapter 10, verse 14, by one offering, Christ has perfected for all time or God has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified. Now think about that. If the Holy Spirit has gotten to the level of your life, the core of your heart has begun to humble you and free you, and help you see God the way he is and to love God and trust God, so that you are now spiritually being sanctified. Not perfect by any means. But being sanctified, this verse says, Christ's death has perfected you for all time. Not for 10 years, not for 30 years, 40 years. You in Christ have already been perfected for all time, if you are among the genuinely struggling, born again people of God who are being sanctified. That's an amazing assurance given to us. Floundering, imperfect saints. Who know what road we're on and want to be on and are scared stiff of falling away and fight it every day. Last argument. Chapter 13, verse 20 and 21. Now this one is so important because this whole book in a sense, especially chapters 8-10, is all about the new covenant. The new Covenant was what was promised by Jeremiah, in Ezekiel, and Moses, and Deuteronomy 30. And the the mark of the new Covenant is that God takes out of you the heart of stone and he puts in the heart of flesh. He puts in his own spirit and he causes you to walk in his statutes, and he will not turn away from doing you good and will not let you turn away from him. There's the new covenant. And chapter 6, oh, is how does that fit? Let me read these two verses in chapter 13. Verse 20, Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant. There it is, through the blood, it's sealed by the blood of Jesus, the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus, our Lord. Equip you. Here's how he fulfills the new covenant in his people's lives. May he equip you in every good thing to do his will. Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. He ends this book on a massive note of the sovereignty of God in sanctification. What he's saying here is, the new Covenant, are you new Covenant people? The new Covenant is the pledge of Almighty God, not to just get you started in the Christian life under the blood, forgiven. But to moon in on you and to equip you with everything good to do his will and not even that, but to move right on in and work in you that which is pleasing in his sight. And one thing is not pleasing in his sight, apostasy. In the new Covenant, Christ will not let his people apostasize. He will not. If Hebrews 6:6 means that those who are born of God, justified, called, and new Covenant people can be lost, God's a liar.
[30:43]Those are my five arguments. Last brief question. If this text means what I'm arguing that it means, namely, that you can't be lost once you're saved, but you can be enlightened, you can be penetrated by the Holy Spirit, you can sit under the word of God, and you can be the beneficiary of miracles, and never be saved. Never have been saved. If it means that, then what's the application to our lives? John Piper's life. Pastor. 44-year Christian, 50-year-old person. And I'll just give you my closing application to me, and you apply it to you. If in the coming years, Pastor John Piper, apostasizes, falls away.
[31:38]This will not be because I have not been enlightened. It will not be because I have not been penetrated by the Holy Spirit and affected by him. It will not be because I haven't come mightily under the influence of the word of God, and it will not be because I have not seen and tasted miracles. All of those things are true in my life. And if I commit apostasy, it does not call those into question. What does it mean then? It means that I in the coming decade, say, begin to cool off. You watch this happen. I begin to cool off spiritually and become disinterested in spiritual things. And begin to pull back from the duties of the ministry and find worldly hobbies. Begin to get very interested in money. And start to write books that are Christless books. And then give into the lie that, you know, to have a new 30-year-old wife would be kind of exhilarating and, so let's just dump Noel, and the kids, they can handle it. It's all right. It's they'll make a way for themselves. And then decide, the church is just a gang of hypocritical duds anyway and the incarnation has so many problems, it's probably a myth anyway. And besides, the world offers pleasures, don't have to wait for for so long. And I'm just finished. If that happens, then know this is the truth. My faith for 50 years, or 44 years, has been an alien vestige of my father's joy. My fidelity to my wife has been a temporary passion and a compliance with social pressure. My preaching driven by the love of words and crowds. My writing a love affair with fame. And my prayer, the worst delusion of all.
[34:24]The thought that I could actually use God to supply resources for my vanity. For my vanity. That's how to interpret John Piper's apostasy. Not that he was once a Christian, once born of God, once saved, called, justified, and now an unbeliever. The practical, positive conclusion of this is next Sunday's sermon.
[35:59]This is all in the service of the next verses to help us be secure. Can you believe that? This whole text is in the service of next Sunday's text, which is make your assurance firm. It is possible to be fully assured that you are born of God and will never fall away. Let's pray.
[36:33]Oh Father in heaven, I so love the promises elsewhere in the Bible that I have not even brought in to defend this argument, that he who began a good work in you will complete it under the day of Christ. My whole security lies not in me, and I know that hundreds in this room right now lift their hearts and say, our security lies not in ourselves or any past act of decision, but in a new covenant keeping God. Who will work in us that which is pleasing in his sight. And so we praise you as we close, and we bless you, and we rededicate ourselves right now to fight the evil heart of unbelief that would lead us to fall away from the living God. Lord, gather in your sheep this morning, pull the people who are outside the faith on in to the fold this morning, I pray. Some of us will stand here at the front to pray with any of you who'd like to pray about anything at all, we'd be really happy to do that. And now, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And all the people said, amen.
[42:01]Thank you for listening to this resource from DesiringGod.org. If you found it helpful, we encourage you to enjoy and share from thousands of resources on our site including books, sermons, articles and more, available free of charge. DesiringGod.org exists to help you treasure Jesus more than anything else, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
