Chapter six. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1 is as follows, Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. Have you ever felt like giving up? Maybe you are on a diet, maybe it was a fitness program, and you've been putting a lot of effort into it, and nothing seems to come of it. You just feel it's pointless. Or maybe your diet takes a fall, or you miss a week in the gym, and these failures discourage you, and you just... think, well, what's the point? I'm always going to be falling and failing. I'll never finish. I'll never get to my end, my aim. Or maybe it's a relationship, and you put a lot of work into this relationship, and yet things keep kind of knocking you back. You think you're making progress, and then some disappointment, some failure. And you wonder, why should I keep going? Why should I keep going at my diet? Why should I keep going at my fitness program? Why should I keep going with this relationship? And that question can also come into our minds when it comes to our faith. When we believe in Jesus, we have some aims, we have some hopes, we have some expectations of ourselves, of the church, of God, and sometimes, These expectations are not met. We are disappointed in ourselves. We sin. We get disappointed in other Christians. We can't feel God's maybe let us down. This Christian life seems too hard. Just making no progress, not advancing in any way. Why keep going? Is it worth it? Seems an awful lot of work and effort and stress. Surely there's an easier life to live. Why keep going? That's the question Paul helps us to answer in Hebrews chapter six, verse one through 12, because he was addressing, as we've learned in Hebrews one through five, he was addressing Jews who had become Christians who'd made a profession of faith, at least, and now were giving up. It was too hard. It was too difficult. It was too much loss. Things were not turning out as they expected. Very few of their fellow Jews came to faith. They were cast out of these families they had grown up in, the culture that they had been familiar with. persecution was growing. Why keep going? Well, Paul has a very solid but solemn answer to that question in these verses. First of all, he says to these Jews who had professed the Christian faith, get off the blocks, get off the starting blocks. And you'll see that in verse one, where he says, therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. So there's two instructions here, leave and go on. leave what is elementary and go on to maturity. He's saying, you know, this profession of faith has got you, as it were, to the starting blocks of the Christian faith. But we've actually got to start running and we've got to finish the race. And so he says here, leave the elementary doctrine of Christ. He's saying, you've learned the basics, the ABC, the kindergarten version of the Christian faith. That's good. Well done. And he goes on to explain what that actually includes. This foundation, he's saying, included repentance from dead works. They had learned to turn away from the dead rituals of Judaism. Second, they had laid a foundation of faith towards God. They turned away from faith in themselves. and they were putting their faith in God. Then he says they'd laid the foundation about instruction, about washings. There were many washings in the Old Testament to depict the washing of the blood of Christ for salvation and the washing of the Holy Spirit for holiness. And they'd been taught that these Old Testament washings had now been fulfilled in Christ's blood and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That's foundational to the Christian faith. He says, you've also laid the foundation of the laying on of hands. Again in the Old Testament, the most important day in the Jewish calendar was when the high priest would lay his hand on what was called the scapegoat, transferring the sins of Israel to this goat that would then be sent out in the wilderness over the horizon, never to be seen again, depicting how God does this in salvation when we lay the hand of faith upon Jesus. So they've been taught. That picture of salvation, you now know what it means. That by faith we lay our hands on Jesus, our Savior. They'd laid the foundation of the resurrection of the dead. They had a belief that the dead would be raised again. And they had a foundation of eternal judgment. So they knew that this whole world was heading towards a final point where everyone would be judged. You might think this doesn't sound like elementary. to me. This sounds like deep, profound truth. And yet, Paul says, these are the basics. This is the elementary doctrine of Christ that they have to leave behind and go on to maturity. What would maturity look like? Well, it would look like getting into grade one and grade two and grade three. in the doctrine of Christ, learning more and more about Jesus. The fact that you know him is just getting on to the starting blocks. Now get off these blocks and go on in learning more about him. Repentance from dead works, moving on from that, is repentance unto life. In other words, it's not just turning from sin, but it's turning to the obedience that brings life to the soul. Faith towards God, good and well, but moving on from that is a faith that is more and more focused on Jesus. As Jesus said, you believe in God, believe also in me. Instruction about washings is going on in understanding more and more of Christ's atonement and the work of the Holy Spirit. The laying on of hands is learning daily how to reach out to Jesus for forgiveness, the transfer of our sins to him and him taking them away again and again and again, not just a one-off. The resurrection of the dead, they learned not just that the dead were going to be raised, but that they were going to be raised unto life. that it wasn't just everyone was going to be alive again, but some were going to have a resurrection unto life and some to eternal death. And then eternal judgment, it wasn't just a general belief that there would be accountability at the end of every life, but that Jesus himself would sit on that judgment seat. Here's the elementary, here's the pre-K, here's the basics. I don't want you just to keep laying that foundation again and again and again and again. I don't want you just getting on the starting blocks every day. I want you to leave that and go on. And when he's saying leave it, he's not saying abandon it. No, he's saying build on it. Don't stay there. add to it. And his whole point is, you would be concerned if you had a baby and the baby never grew, and the baby never developed, and the baby never met its developmental marks. You'd be really concerned about that. And this is what the apostle's saying, is you should be concerned. if you're still on the starting blocks, if you're still in the basics, still in the elementary, and if you're still just going back to the simplest things of the Christian faith. That's not normal, it's not healthy, and as we'll see, it's not safe either. And notice what he says in verse three. And this we will do if God permits. And this is a common combination in the apostles' letters. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that works in you both to will and do of his good pleasure. And here, we will do if God permits, if God enables. It's like, okay, we can lift our sails, but we need God to blow the wind if we're to make any progress. And so, this is a call to every one of us to make sure that we don't stay in the starting blocks too long. but that we leave them very deliberately and start moving on to maturity. Get off the blocks. And then secondly, he says, don't crash out. And we see that in verses four through eight, where Paul gives us an impossibility and an illustration. Look at verse four. It says, it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened. And then I put in brackets a further description of who he describes as the enlightened. So try and not see that at the moment and just go from it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. How do we understand? This is one of the hardest passages in the Bible to understand, especially as Reformed Christians, because we believe that one saved, always saved, that you cannot be saved and then unsaved. You cannot come to true faith in Christ and ever be lost after that. As Paul says in Philippians, he who has begun the good work will complete it to the end. And yet when we look at this and we see the description of those who have been enlightened, it seems to indicate that they can fall away and never come back again. How do we understand this? Well, First of all, we need to divide everyone into three categories. First of all, there are true Christians. And for them, they can never fall away. Ultimately, they can sin. They can backslide. They can enter times of terrible spiritual darkness. Look at King David. Look at King Solomon. Look at the Apostle Peter. All of them went through terrible times of spiritual sliding away from God. And yet, Jesus says of every single one of them and every single one of his true people, no one shall pluck them out of my hand. So true Christians can never finally and fully fall away. Once in Christ, always in Christ. He will not let you go. That's group one. And then it's group two. And they are non-Christians. Just blatant, obvious, public, stated, Unashamed non-Christians. Nope, I don't believe in Jesus. And of course, they cannot fall away because they have never been in Jesus to fall away. So it's not talking about true Christians. It's not talking about non-Christians. Who then is it talking about? Well, Here's a third category that I believe is brought before us here, and it's this. It's the almost Christian. The almost Christian. Someone who comes very, very near to true faith and a true salvation but actually is still as far away as ever. Let's look at how they're described here. They once were enlightened. These are people who had some light on their spiritual condition, some light on the Bible, some light on how a person is saved. You can get that from education, Sunday school, catechism, growing up in the church. Then it says they've tasted the heavenly gift. They have sat in church and at times they have come to an appreciation of how amazing grace is, the heavenly gift of the gospel. They have seen it. They can describe it. They can appreciate it. They can get some pleasure from it even. They've tasted it. It doesn't say swallowed. It's just a taste. They have shared in the Holy Spirit. How can that be? Well, we see in the Old Testament frequently the Holy Spirit affects people, even changes them for the better, but does not necessarily save them. We see that in the judges. We see that in the New Testament. You think of somebody like Simon Magus, who had obviously some kind of spiritual impressions. The Holy Spirit was working on them. and they have in some way or other come into contact with his persuasive power. They've tasted the goodness of the word of God. They can read the Bible and they can see how good God is from beginning to end of the Bible. They've tasted the powers of the age to come. In other words, they've come to appreciate, to understand, to enter into the fact that this world is not all there is. That there's something much more. There's something eternal, there's something spiritual, there's another world that is going to continue long after this one. So, all of that says it's possible to be an almost Christian, to come so near and yet be so far away, to have impressions, to have thoughts, to have feelings, to have desires that seem to match and mimic those of a true Christian and yet they never actually come to true faith. I remember when I was in my teens, I was a huge fan of the best soccer team in Scotland, Glasgow Rangers. And I used to speak of this team in these terms. We've just signed a player. We won 2-0 last week. We were going to win the championship. We, like, as if I was part of it. I was so fanatical that myself and my friend formed a supporters club that got guaranteed tickets for every match, and we went on coaches to the away games, and it was named after the most famous player at the time, Graeme Souness, who was the manager of Rangers at that time. The Graeme Souness Loyal Maryhill Supporters Club. Actually, the first trip we went on, the bus broke down on the way to Edinburgh, so myself and my friend weren't too popular that day. But that aside, again, it was just like, you know, Graeme Souness, it's like, you know, we're almost buddies. Never met him in my life before, but. I remember going to the kinds of places they socialized in, in the city of Glasgow, and I would meet them. I would talk with them. And sometimes they would joke. And therefore, when I said we, I really did feel. I was part of Glasgow Rangers. It was always my dream to play for them and to score at the end. I'd stood in to support the team for a number of years. I actually, believe it or not, even prayed that the Lord would help me play for them and I would be a witness for them. And I wasn't a Christian at that time, obviously. And so here's me, we, Glasgow Rangers, and I've never played a game for them. I've come very close. I remember one time we won a championship and I ended up on the pitch, the soccer pitch, and I had the Rangers captain on my shoulders as we're going around the mob of people. I mean, I was there, I was part of it. I was carrying the captain. And I'd never played for them. I'd never kicked a ball for them. And that's really what Paul is talking about here. It's people who come so close to the Christian faith that they can talk about we, about being Christian. about spiritual experiences even, and yet never have true faith. It's like seeing the sun setting and being able to describe it. And like at this time of year, you just don't feel the heat of it. It's there, you see it, it's impressive, but you don't feel any heat. And so he says it's impossible for these almost Christians who have been enlightened and all this and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance. So these are people who came almost to faith, and then because of hardship and difficulty, they fell away. They stopped believing. They gave up their faith. They didn't keep going. And that's why he says it's impossible to restore them again to repentance. Why is it impossible to restore them to repentance? Because they'd never truly repented in the first place. You can't restore what has not already been. For example, if I said I'm going to reread a book that I'd never read before, you go, well, you can't reread something you've not actually read to begin with. And this is what Paul's saying. You can't restore to repentance somebody who's never actually had or experienced repentance. So, Omnischristians can have lots of religious experiences. Omnischristians can fall away from their profession of faith. Omnischristians cannot be restored to a repentance they have never truly had. Omnischristians do a lot of damage. Because it says, here's why they can't be restored, they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. They have professed Christ and then given up Christ. They've rejected Him. They've turned their back on Him. And in that sense, they are re-crucifying Him. They are re-rejecting Him. They are re-mocking Him. And these are people, they're not people who have the odd doubt and the odd struggle of faith. It's people who professed faith and then turned against the faith. They opposed it, they fought it, they ridiculed it, they fully and finally and forever rejected it. They wanted nothing to do with it and made that very clear. And this not only harms them, but it harms others because it makes Christ more contemptible, more mockable. Oh well, look, look at him, look at her, look at them. They said they believe, now look at them, living a totally non-Christian life. So much for your Christ, so much for your Jesus. And therefore he's held in contempt. But these false Christians also become obvious. The land that's 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. These are true Christians. They are producing fruit. and they are blessed, but if it bears thorns and thistles, if there aren't these fruits, if there's the opposite of these fruits, it's worthless, it's near to being cursed, and the end is to be burned. So near, and yet so far. So this is a serious and solemn warning against baby Christianity. It's a serious and solemn call to flee complacency and run forward. He's telling us that the greatest safety for the Christian can be found in moving forward, in adding, in growing, in maturing. And one of the most dangerous places to be is to profess faith but never make progress, never advance in that faith. And that is why he says, don't crash out. Don't become like these almost Christians. But finally, and very briefly, burst the tape. Though we speak in this way, says Paul, though I'm giving you this warning, this caution, this call to maturity, yet in your case, beloved, We feel sure of better things. I'm sure that you that I'm writing to now are not the almost Christians. You are the all-in Christians. You're not just in and no more and you're just content with the profession. No, you're progressing, you're maturing, you're strengthening, you're learning. Better things, things that belong to salvation, not things that just belong to a fad or a reformation or a turning over a new leaf, but true salvation. And he says, God sees, he's not unjust, he's not unfair, so as to overlook your work and the love that you've shown. Here's the fruit that's born and God's blessing upon it in serving the saints as you still do. You're running well, he's saying. Now finish well. I see you're running. I see you're making progress. You've not crashed out. Now, don't coast to the end. Burst the tape. Accelerate on. Show the same earnestness. Each one of you, show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. So that you may not be sluggish, Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. You've run well, now finish well. Keep going. So we asked, why keep going? Paul's answer here is, run for your life, with your life, all your life. Run for your life. Running is a sign of life, an evidence of life, a proof of life, and the running itself helps towards life, keeps that life alive. And run with all your life. Put everything in it. Don't make this number two priority in your life. Make it number one. Dedicate not just the end of your life, but all your life. Run for your life, with your life, all your life. Spiritual growth is the best way to ensure against apostasy. Falling away from the faith fully, finally, and forever. This isn't just an option for super keen Christians. This is a call to every one of us Take this seriously, take this warning, and take this encouragement. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Take these warnings, take these cautions. But know this also, if God is working in you, he'll finish that work. He won't let you go. And one of the ways he preserves you is by helping you persevere. by helping you grow, by helping you mature. If you are, take encouragement. He is working in you. And if you haven't even got to the starting blocks, at least get there tonight. At least get on that line and say, Lord, I've been running my own race. I've been going my own way, and it's been wrong, and I see I'm careering off a cliff. I want to run your race. I want to begin with Jesus, but don't let me stop there either. Let it be my whole life, from now till the end, whenever that may be. It's worth keeping going. Let's pray.