All right, good morning. Today we have come to that passage of Hebrews, which is one of the most, if not the most debated passages in scripture today. One which is most familiar with most people of Hebrews. And that is chapter six, verses four through six. Now I don't need to point out to you that chapter 6 verse 4 follows chapter 6 verse 3. But there is a connection there as we see in chapter and the fourth verse begins with a little particle 4. Now he has said something and he says now four and then goes on and ties in verses four through six of what he said before in verse three and above. But I think it's very important for us to understand that whether we take this as a written sermon by the author of Hebrews or as just a a letter to his flock that he hopes to get back with someday that he is concerned about for whatever reason whether they are facing imminent persecution or they've had trials but he is writing to them either a written sermon but and these verses that we're going to begin with today are verses that are embedded within the midst of this piece of literature or this sermon which he's sending to them. So it's important that we understand that what he is about to say is part of the discourse for the very beginning of Hebrews to the very end of Hebrews. He began this letter, as you remember, talking about the superiority of Jesus Christ. He was superior because he's a son, and it's through this son that God has spoken to us in these last days. And because of that, and because this son, as he said in chapter one, is superior to the angels, that we should and when he gets to chapter two uh he says for this reason the superiority of the sun is being superior to the angels we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it he's um he said that if the Words spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? and pointed out the humanity of Jesus Christ, how he, though being higher than the angels, let himself be lower than the angels for a period of time in order that he might become one of us to be identified with us so that he could represent us. And he concluded that section on how he took our own blood and flesh that he did this so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest for us and things pertaining to God. Then In chapter three, he begins by telling us that we who are partakers of the heavenly calling must consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession, for he was faithful to who appointed him. And he compares him with Moses here. Moses, he doesn't denigrate, he says Moses was faithful in the house, the house being the people of God. Moses was faithful as a servant, but then he says that Jesus was faithful as a son. Moses faithful as a servant in the house Jesus faithful as a servant over the house so again the superiority of Jesus now he goes on then it seems that the reason he wanted to compare Jesus to Moses because then he talks about how The generation of Moses, that wilderness generation, was not faithful like he was. And he quotes, of course, from the Psalms, Psalm 95, and says, the Psalm where David points out the wilderness generation's sin. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And so the author of Hebrews then discusses how the generation in the wilderness failed. They failed through unbelief. And so he says that in chapter 3 verse 12, to take care brethren, that there be not in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. He goes on then and talks about the failure of the wilderness generation and then puts it in terms of God's and entering God's rest. The wilderness generation did not enter his rest. God swore in his oath that he would not allow them or permit them to enter into the promised land. And so the author of Hebrews warns his readers, let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest, rest that any one of you may seem to come short of it." And then he talks about entering that rest and the rest that is there that David spoke about. He connects to Genesis 2-2 using the word rest and he says God rested from his labors on the seventh day. And so we see this rest of God, according to the author of Hebrews that has continued since the beginning of creation. And that, um, the, the, the rest that is there for us to enter. If we do not harden our hearts like the wilderness generation did. Excuse me. So he, um, again, cautions us, excuse me. not to do as they did, but to hold fast to our confession because we have a great high priest. And therefore we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace and receive mercy and grace and enter into that rest. If we do so, that rest, which seems to be, have been present since the beginning of creation, the rest of God is arrested. According to the author of Hebrews, God intended for man to enter. And so he, having twice now talked about Jesus as our high priest and our great high priest, then goes in chapter 5 and begins his great central section on the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. First of all, pointing out the characteristics of a old covenant high priest and then shows how Jesus not only fulfilled those but superseded those And then as he gets to the end of chapter five, he sort of takes a break from this discussion of Christ as the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. and says that we have much to say about this and it's hard to explain. And then he goes into this exhortation to his readers, but you have become hard or dull of hearing. word dull there being word lazy you become lazy in your listening and he then points out that where by this time they should be teachers that they have need again for someone to teach them the elementary principles that they are only ready for milk not for solid food. And so he continues that exhortation by saying, let's leave that elementary teaching about Christ and let us press on to maturity. Now this let us press on is actually a passive verse. Let us be carried on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, of instruction about washings, laying on of hands, about the resurrection from the dead, eternal judgment. And he says, this we will do if God permits. This what we will do, this pressing on to maturity, this being carried on to maturity, we will do if God permits. Now, the important thing to understand here is that the author of Hebrews is not only concerned that they remain immature, he understands that in remaining immature, they are in a much more dangerous position from which they could fall completely. And he has mentioned this falling several times. The how will we escape so great a salvation if we don't pay attention to what God has spoken to us. To take care, brethren, that there not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. In chapter four, verse one, let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest that lest any one of you may seem to come short of it. And then in verse 11 of chapter four, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through the same example of disobedience. It is on the basis of this concern about their falling, their falling away, their drifting away, that the author of Hebrews then goes into the verses that we will begin with today fearing that his beloved people, because they have not matured as they ought to have matured, are subject to the possibility of going through the experience that the wilderness generation went through because of their falling away. So let's read verses four through six. Four. And let me read it close to the word order in the original Greek. For to renew again to repentance those who have been enlightened, those and those who have once tasted of the heavenly gift and those who have once become partakers of the Holy Spirit and those who have once tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and have fallen away is impossible to renew them again to repentance. The main, if you'll look at the diagram, which is a mechanical layout that I've done for you, you'll see the exact word order in the original Greek. And you'll see there how he puts the word impossible very first. So the focus here is the impossibility of the restoration or the renewal to repentance those who have experienced these things and have fallen away. They cannot be renewed again to repentance." So the main sentence here is to renew again into repentance, that's the subject, is and then impossible. He has all of these participle phrases that describe the direct object of those who he's talking about renewing to repentance. And then he gives us further explanation of why it is impossible that they'd be restored. And that is in verse six, since they again, crucify themselves to themselves or to their own hurt, the son of God and put him to open shame. So What the author Hebrews is telling his readers here is that He wants them to pay very close attention to what he is now saying because they, in their immaturity, have subjected themselves to an even greater danger. Let's look at these six characteristics of the ones who fall. And again, I think that the word once, even though it occurs just once in the Greek, it does apply to at least all of the positive phrases or descriptions, characteristics, perhaps even to the final one. Obviously the final one only can occur one time. So he says that once they've had a foundation of repentance from dead works up in verse one of this chapter, they are people who have had repentance from dead works. They have repented it once. That's why he says in verse six, that it's impossible to renew their repentance again. So the first characteristic is that they have been repentant. Secondly, they have once been enlightened. We must understand that to be enlightened is always in the New Testament an indication of truly understanding the truth, not just having heard it. These are people also who have once tasted the heavenly gift, It's probably best to understand this as the totality of spiritual or heavenly blessings of the gospel. I remember how in chapter three, verse one, he talked about how we were partakers of the heavenly calling. In chapter 2 we read how he was, what we have is such a great salvation. I think this type of thing is what he's speaking of here when he talks about having tasted the heavenly gift. Now it's important that we understand that the word tasted here doesn't mean just having a nibble or something like that. Some people argue that you can tell that he's not talking about true Christians here because they only tasted, they didn't really eat of whatever he's speaking of. But in the New Testament and in Scripture, when the word tasted is used metaphorically, it always indicates to fully experience something. Back in chapter 2 verse 9, the writer or the author of Hebrews He told us that Jesus, him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death, was crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Now, Jesus fully experienced death. He didn't just nibble at it. So to taste of the heavenly gift is to fully experience the heavenly gift. Now this differs from John Calvin's understanding who thought that tasted indicated that they only had a partial experience. But that's not the way that this term is used throughout scripture. These are people also, ones who cannot be renewed to repentance, those who have once partaken of the Holy Spirit. Now, remember how that author, he uses this term partake, they are partakers of the Holy Spirit. And he used this in the first chapter when he was quoting about the son of David, who had companions of which he spoke the word companion being the same as partakers. Chapter 3 verse 1 we are partakers of a heavenly calling. Chapter 3 verse 14 we are partakers of Christ if we hold fast. He will use this idea again in the 12th chapter. Then those who cannot be renewed to repentance are those who have once tasted the good word of God. Now in the next severe warning passage that we see in chapter 10 verses 26 following, one probably more severe than the one we're looking at today, Uh, he describes the people as those who have received the knowledge of truth. And I think that that is the same thing he's saying here is having tasted the good word of God. So these, uh, people, uh, have tasted again, the good word of God, again, full experience of the good, good word of God. And, um, they have once tasted also of the powers of the age to come. Now remember when he talked about the word that we have received, we received it not only from a son, which makes it very important that we pay attention to it, but having been first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. And then God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and various miracles and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Well, these signs and wonders and various miracles are that of which he is speaking now when he talks about these who have tasted of the powers of the age to come. The age to come is the same as the last days he talked about in chapter one, verse one. Those who have partaken of the Holy Spirit have tasted of these powers. And so we see that These people have experienced the Holy Spirit itself. Now, it's important that we understand that you can really experience the Holy Spirit. You can really taste, fully experience the powers of the age to come, and yet not be truly saved. You remember what Jesus said, recorded in Matthew 7, that many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Leave me, you who practice lawlessness. So this is reminiscent of the wilderness generation, who had themselves heard the word of God. They had seen his mighty acts in Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, deliverance from many other things such as lack of water, lack of food. They had seen all that, they had experienced it fully. And yet they hardened their hearts and did not believe in God. Now it's quite possible that we could understand these characteristics of those who cannot be renewed as being once enlightened. And then what that means is having tasted the heavenly gift, partaking in the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. He then, after talking about these positive things, the author of Hebrew then says, and they have fallen away. But now this is not the first time he's talked about them falling away. He has warned them over and over and over about that. And he says that if they fall away, if they've had all of these experiences and they fall away, that it's impossible to restore them again to repentance. Remember impossible is the first word of this sentence. And so it's very emphatic. It's impossible. And I really mean, it's impossible. He writes this term three other times. Later on in this chapter, he will talk about how it's impossible for God to lie. Then in chapter 10, verse four, he says that it's impossible for the blood of bull and goats to take away sin. And in chapter 11, verse six, he says, and without faith, it's impossible to please him. Whenever he uses the word impossible, There is no provision for compromise in the absolute nature of the impossibility. Now, again, as I said before, we need to understand the connection between verse three and four. In verse three, the author of Hebrews says, we will be carried on to maturity. We will press on to maturity if God permits. God, and the last time the author of Hebrews spoke of God's permission, it was in a negative way. God did not permit the wilderness generation to enter into his rest, i.e. into the promised land. So here he says, if God permits us to be carried on to maturity, we will do so for it's impossible to be restored or renewed to repentance if having experienced the truth as you have experienced it, you've fallen away. Why is it impossible to be restored to repentance? Well, Calvin reminds us that repentance is not of the will of man, but it's given by God. So if God does not permit us to repent, we will not be renewed to repentance. Now the author of Hebrews is not calling his readers back from apostasy, but as he has done over and over and over in his sermon, He is exhorting them to avoid this apostasy, this falling away. treated in so many different ways, and we don't have time to go through all the different possible or suggested interpretations of it. But let me just point out a few things. One is that this is no straw man argument. He is not saying, I'm just going to try to scare you with this, as some commentators have said. It's not a straw man argument. He's not painting a picture as as detailed as he can about a true experience of faith and then talking about people falling away from it. It's not a straw man argument, neither is it a conditional argument. I do not believe that the way we should read that last part is simple about falling away in terms of a condition if they fall away or if they have fallen away. It is actually governed by the same definite What's the term? The definite article, the, or those in this case, the plural, that the other participles are. So it is the same construction. It is not an adverbial participle, but another substantival participle. Those who have fallen away. I don't think it is an adverbial participle of time. And then they have fallen away. Notice we need to see that it's governed by the same definite article that the others are governed by. So it's not a conditional statement. The term for having fallen away is a term that commonly carries the meaning of commit apostasy in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, and this is the only place it occurs in the New Testament. According to the author of Hebrews, it is possible for those who have taken the name of Christ upon themselves to commit this apostasy. This passage, then, is a real warning against a real danger which is present so long as an evil heart of unbelief can result in falling away from the living God, as the author of Hebrews wrote in chapter 3 verse 12. Some have suggested the author of Hebrews is giving a hypothetical illustration to call his readers to pay attention. If you look down at verse nine, for example, he talks about um, though we are speaking in this way, uh, talking, um, pointing out that he is, he is not really pointing, describing a certain person or people when he gives this, he's just speaking this way. So that being a hypothetical illustration is given to them just to make sure they pay attention to what he's saying. He directs his exhortation to the community of his flock. And I think this is a key thing for us to understand. He does not speak in order to give a description of someone who might profess to be a believer, but has never actually been saved. He's talking about his community. He is thinking of them corporately, just as he spoke of the wilderness generation. And just as the wilderness generation was not permitted to enter into the rest of God, he is exhorting his community corporately that they not fall away as the wilderness generation did and miss entering into the rest of God. In the next warning in chapter 10 verses 26 following, the author will describe these types of people as those who sin willfully. They continue sinning willfully. And for them, he says, there's no further redemption. Same idea here is no possibility of being restored to Repentance. Those who repudiate salvation from the pioneer of salvation that he spoke about back in the second chapter, the source of eternal salvation that he talked about in the fifth chapter. Those are the ones that he's talking about. And so to assume that the author of Hebrew teaches that true believers can fall away does not take seriously the multiple biblical proofs of the fact that salvation is eternal salvation. And if salvation is eternal, it cannot be removed. Now the classic Arminian position of this is, of course, that a true believer being described here can lose salvation. And if he does, he cannot be restored to faith. Now some churches teach not only this classic Arminian position that you can be a believer, lose your salvation and cannot be restored to faith. And they water it down and say that you can lose your salvation, you can regain it, you can lose it, you can regain it. I read one commentator who talked about how if the tulip is the flower of the reformed Christian. The daisy is the flower of the Arminian because it's the petals. You love me, you love me not. You love me, you love me not. Well, that's not the classic Arminian position. The Arminian position has only two petals on their daisy. You love me, you love me not. But anyway, this doesn't comport with the teaching of the scripture as we well know. Why is it that the restoration is not possible? Well, he says the reason it's not possible is that they again, excuse me, they again crucify to their own hurt the Son of God and put Him to open shame. So they are re-crucifying Him, they are putting Christ to open shame, and that's why they cannot be restored to repentance. Now he follows these verses where he speaks of a community who can fall as did the wilderness generation. And I would point out a community that could fall as did the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Now, does this mean that every member of the community was apostate? There were no true believers anywhere in the community that was not permitted to enter into Israel? Well, scriptures never tell us that for sure. They just tell us that they couldn't enter into the promised land. Now, if we look at the other side of that, those who were not able to remain in the rest of God in the promised land, who were taken out either to Assyria or to Babylon, then we see that, for example, you have in the people who suffered the consequences of the unbelief of Judah, at the hands of Babylon and were carried out to exile included such saints as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So we know that a community can fall without every member of that community being an unbeliever. So if the wilderness generation did include some true believers, they were not permitted to enter into the promised land because of the community's corporate sin, then he may be encouraging his community, the author of Hebrews, not to experience the same thing corporately. We know if you look at the letters to the churches in Revelation, some of them were threatened with the not remaining to be congregations if they did not straighten out their act and of course that did happen to multiple of those churches. He follows these verses then with a parable teaching essentially the same thing. Look at verses 7 through 9. For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those whose sake it is tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it's worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. In this parable, he gives a depiction of those who have fallen away, those who have not fallen away. If they produce vegetation that's useful, then they receive a blessing. But if all they yield is thorns and thistles, then they are worthless and they will end up being burned up. Notice that the parable pictures one piece of land, one community, if you would. And that community is going to produce good, good fruit or thorns and thistles. And it's the people of God, like the wilderness generation who is pictured in this parable. and it's the people of God throughout history, which includes both good fruit producers and those who are worthless, rejected, and near a curse. Now, being near a curse or close to a curse doesn't mean that they might avoid it. Those within the congregation who are subject to the curse, they haven't experienced the curse until death and then they will experience the curse. The nearness to something doesn't mean you're not there yet. For example, in chapter eight, the author of Hebrews will talk about how the nearness of the old covenant passing away is here, but we know the old covenant had passed away by that time. So it's just that people haven't experienced the ultimate curse at that time. Notice that this land, if it produces only thorns and thistles, will end up being burned. In the 12th chapter, the author of Hebrews will describe God as a consuming fire. Perhaps the author of Hebrews has in mind here Isaiah 5, 1 through 7, where Isaiah pictures the people of Israel as a vineyard, and they produce wild grapes, and so he ends up burning them up. So we have a picture of a people, one piece of ground that either produces good or they don't produce good, they produce thorns and thistles and God deals with them in terms of being burned up if that's all they produce. Verses nine through 12, we see the author's true understanding of the people to whom he writes, but beloved, And that's the only time in this writing that the author calls them beloved. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we're speaking this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit promises. He assures his people, he feels sure that his readers, that he doesn't consider them to be apostates or even possible apostates among them. He's sure of better things about them. What are these better things? Things pertaining to salvation, that they will not fall away. And the reason he does, because number one, he refers to their fruit as being the thing that gives him confidence and the justice of God based upon that fruit. He points out how kindness done for others is kindness to the name of God, i.e. kindness to God himself. And this is very similar to what Jesus said when he talked about the parable of the sheep and the goats and how, if you've done it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you've done it for me. So showing kindness to others, this fruit that he speaks of, is showing kindness to God. But again, he calls them to persevere. He's always coming back to this idea of persevering. Let us show the same diligence until the end, he says. There's no place for getting lazy. And that's the word he uses again here to become sluggish. It's the same word he uses up in chapter five, verse 11. Dull of hearing, lazy of listening, lazy in what you're doing. Do not do that, but continue to be diligent. So his exhortation then continues to imitate those who through faith and patience, the word for patience here is one that commonly is transferred long-suffering, that those who through faith and patience, or we can see this as a hendiatus, faithful perseverance or persevering faith. If we imitate those who have done this and inherited the promise, then that will be continuing in their diligence. Now, this is another one of those typical teases that our author uses. He's gonna develop this idea of faith more fully in chapter 11. Chapter verse, excuse me, verses 13 to the end then, paint a picture of the certainty of God's promise and our ground of hope. Let's read those. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath is given as confirmation, and it's the end of every dispute. In the same way, God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Well, with a further tickle here, the author of Hebrews mentions Abraham himself, who will become the most singled out or most developed example of faith in chapter 11. He is a supreme example of Old Testament faith. Now the particular example he has in mind here, because he quotes the Lord as swearing to himself, saying, I will surely bless you and multiply you. This was given to Abraham after the quote unquote sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham was faithful, even when called upon to sacrifice what he felt was the answer to the promise of a seed but he was faithful and God then gave him an oath of his certainty of his promise after this. So it's after Abraham's faithfulness that God by himself made this oath to Abraham to bless him. Abraham that after patiently waiting obtained the promise that is he obtained Isaac back to his seed. Now God's swearing an oath was unnecessary, we know that, but it indicates the certainty of his promise. In other words, God swore the oath just to reassure Abraham and us that he is absolutely a promise keeper. He swears this oath, giving this assurance to Abraham and to the heirs of the promise, which includes us. Those who have experienced are part of the gospel fulfillment of the oath to Abraham. This then for us who flee to the refuge is strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us. Now this hope that is set before us, is a hope which is sure and steadfast, just like an anchor that anchors the boat so that it doesn't get lost in the storm. It is the anchor of the soul. And when he writes the anchor of the soul, he is not thinking of the soul here as an immaterial substance, that which survives our physical death. He's speaking of the soul as the whole person. So it is the anchor instead, the sure and steadfast anchor of the whole person. This hope is what it is that enters within the veil. We have seen this concept again of how we even now can enter into the very presence of God through our high priest, Jesus Christ, and he spells that out very clearly here. We have a hope that enters within the veil And that veil is a picture from the tabernacle that he has spoken of from the cultic practice of the people of God and of Israel. He will develop this much more fully in chapters seven through 10 as he continues to talk about the high priesthood of Jesus. But we enter within the veil. Our hope that we have is of being in the presence presence of God. And even now we may enter there because Jesus has already entered there as a forerunner for us to open the way. This picture of a forerunner, though it's a different term, is the same picture they gave us earlier when he talked about Jesus being the author or better the pioneer of our faith and our salvation. So Jesus has gone before, He has gone within the veil, and because of that, we can follow him in there. Now notice, this is something that an Old Testament high priest could never do, take someone within the veil with him. Jesus, our high priest, is greater than any Old Covenant high priest, because he is a forerunner for us, and he takes us within the veil into the very presence of God. We have here two concepts I think that we need to bring together and get a picture of what the author of Hebrews is assuring us. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope. And this hope that we have enters within the veil. The idea of taking refuge and entering within the veil is another picture I would suggest of entering into God's rest. So this idea of God's rest is still there for us to contemplate as he speaks here in this way. So the idea of the refuge, and perhaps he has in mind here those cities of refuge in the Old Testament that were places that people could go for safety, but then that idea of refuge and entering brings back to our minds the idea of the rest. Then in the final verse here, verse 20, he talks about Jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now this closes this period of exhortation. And do you recall back up in chapter five, verse 10, the last verse before we entered this exhortation, he talked about Christ as becoming to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation being designated by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So those become bookends on the exhortation section here as he commonly does. Inclusio is one of the terms that's used for that. So he repeats this illusion to establish Jesus as our High Priest before he then in chapter 7 verse 1 will take off on his real uh handling of this um this concept of Jesus as High Priest. This teaching that is he has much to say about and it's hard to explain he's now going to go on and explain. So again um The author concludes this section by tying it to the very next thing he's going to teach about as Jesus, a priest, according to the priesthood of Melchizedek, the order of Melchizedek. Let us pray.