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Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] All right.
[00:00:05] Well, good morning again, church.
[00:00:08] Just to add on to the announcements there, you probably know if you've been part of our church family for some any bit of time, they announced three things happening here this September. How many think that there's a lot more than three new things happening this September in our church?
[00:00:23] Yeah, yeah, exactly right. Okay. Fall preview. This is my little pitch for this. Okay.
[00:00:28] Please pick one up in the back. This is a booklet, all right. And there's so many things happening here, new things, things you haven't heard of yet. Please go and grab one of these before you leave today because it's a wonderful opportunity to grow further in your faith. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go along here this morning.
[00:00:47] And it's really the thrust of the message and as you can see the title on the screen, mature Faith, Enduring Hope. So going to get into this message and right away we're going to open our Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter six. So encourage you to go there. And going to be reading from the ESV version here today. But that's okay if you get an NIV or NLT or whatever you got.
[00:01:08] King James, whatever it may be. Let's go ahead. You can turn there. We will have it on the screen.
[00:01:12] Hebrews, chapter 6, verses 1 through 12. We're going to get into it right away here, if my clicker will work. There we go. Okay. It says, 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 towards 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. For it's impossible in the case of. 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 age of come, 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. Sorry, I need to flick that thing, don't I? Yes, I do.
[00:02:07] To their own harm and holding him up to content.
[00:02:10] For land that has drunk the rain and that 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 so these are some warning scriptures. We're going to talk about this. I'm going a little fast. We'll come back to it in a little bit. Okay. These are some strong warnings that we need to kind of carefully triage, if you will. Okay.
[00:02:40] He goes on to say, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things.
[00:02:47] Basically saying we're making this warning, but we have a good feeling about you that you're going to do the right things and you're going to go the distance with Christ. Okay. We feel sure about 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 and serving the saints and as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness. Excuse me, 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 patient, inherit the promises. Wow. Anybody say amen to any of this? If you're following along?
[00:03:29] Some good stuff. So I'm going to pray before we go any further that God would help us today. So, Father God, I thank you for your word. God, I pray that, Lord, you would help us by your holy spirit, Lord, as we hear this word today, to apply it, Lord, to obey it, not just listen to it. And God, that it would bring transformation, Lord, in our hearts, in our minds and souls, God, that we may follow you or with endurance and with hope, Lord, until you call us home to be with you. Whenever that is, Lord, help us to be faithful. We thank you for this today and we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:05] You know, one of the greatest tragedies in life, at least in my opinion, is someone who experiences God in a profound way.
[00:04:14] You know, they've experienced God's goodness, his mercy, his provision.
[00:04:19] You know, it was impacted greatly for the gospel and for a measure of time and for one reason or another walked in a different direct, decided that they didn't want anything to do with this. And we all know things come up in life. Challenges, distractions, temptations, life happens.
[00:04:38] And I preached about a month ago that in each one of our lives there's a pull towards the world that we have to resist, that we have to equip ourselves. We have to be in the word of God. We need to be prayed up. Right? Because. Because there's a pull towards the world. But it's a great tragedy in my mind that when someone experiences so much of God that they end up choosing to walk in a different direction. And maybe that's happened in your life. Maybe that's part of your story where maybe for a time, you walked with God, and then through whatever reasons or whatever circumstances, you walked away from God and went a different direction. And, you know, we were praying with someone this morning, and they were saying, man, I've backslidden many times in my life, but praise God, I'm here today, and God's mercy has.
[00:05:23] Has been there for me and he's welcomed me back. Amen. Isn't that the gospel, though?
[00:05:27] Right.
[00:05:28] I mean, God's waiting there with open arms. He wants to embrace each one of us with his grace and with his love.
[00:05:36] But it's incredibly painful to watch babies cry. And I'm kidding, I'm kidding, we're good.
[00:05:49] Any parents been there? We know it's like, oh, no, what do we do?
[00:05:55] It's incredibly painful to watch people whom we love make those choices. Isn't that true? Right.
[00:06:02] It's painful to watch our sons or daughters or other people whom we love who seemingly, you know, they knew God intimately, they experienced him powerfully, and they decide to go in a different direction, maybe even outright rejecting him. Right.
[00:06:20] But this is why, as pastors, you know, we tend to preach and teach so much about things that lend towards spiritual growth and about maturity and about endurance. Right. I mean, if you sat here for any length of time, you hear Pastor Paul preaching about these themes quite often. Why? Because we want everyone to make it right. We want everyone to go to distance with Jesus.
[00:06:42] And we see it in the New Testament in particular. I mean, all over the New Testament and certainly in the writings of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, you know, two thirds of the New Testament, these themes of endurance and that we need to keep going in the grace of God.
[00:06:58] You know, I was watching an interview here this week of this Christian rock band named Skillet, and I don't know if you're familiar with them at all, and they're on their 30th anniversary, and I'm like, wow, 30 years. I remember. I guess that makes sense. You know, I've listened to them about 30 years ago, and we're all getting old. But anyways, they've been going for 30 years, and I'm going, wow, that's a long time to go. And you're listening to this interview, and they still have this passion for Jesus and a passion for sharing the gospel with young people in particular. Right. That's kind of their Mission and their music. I could take it or leave it, to be honest with you. There's a couple songs here and there, but they're a pretty heavy band. And I'm going, eh, it's a little much for me, but whatever, you know. But they have this heart for people and to share the gospel, isn't that great? Right?
[00:07:49] But they were also sharing how, and very candidly about some of the disappointments and hurts that they experienced, particularly within the church and from leaders in the church. How many know that's really challenging, right? Oh, we love God and we love the church, but all of a sudden you, you know. But I'll just say this, that you know, hurt, disappointment, ungodly character, ungodly leadership. They're all things that Satan wants to use to sideline God's people, right? Isn't that true?
[00:08:27] Satan wants to use those things. And by the way, if you're in any relationship long enough, you will experience what disappointment, disagreements, challenges, and even hurt.
[00:08:41] Now, I certainly pray that in our church in Livingston, we believe this is a good church. I believe it's a great church and hopefully no one's going to ever experience any kind of deep hurt within the church. But let me just tell you, no matter what you experience, whether it's in the church, relationships, you know, whatever kind of relationships, whatever kind of disappointment and challenging challenges and hurts that you have, let's make a decision today.
[00:09:04] You know, I think we sang the song earlier. I know I was praying up here at the altar. I have decided to follow Jesus.
[00:09:10] No turning back, right?
[00:09:14] I'm drawing a line I'm going to dig my heels in no matter what. I'm going to go the distance with God. Lord, help me to go the distance with you. Give me your. Your grace. Whatever it takes. I want to go the distance with you no matter what hurts or disappointments or challenges may come my way. Lord, help me to stay on track with you.
[00:09:32] Help me to go the distance.
[00:09:35] Now I'm using this example of this band Skillet again, because it's not so much of their music. I could take it or leave it, but there's a respect that I have for anyone who's gone through things and has remain faithful to Christ, faithful to the calling, faithful to their mission, faithful to endure, whether that's a Christian rock band or some dear saints that I've gotten to know over the years who faithfully served God. And I know the challenges that they've gone through and I've seen the things that they've had to deal with. And yet they still love Jesus. And they've gone on decade after decade, and now they're 70 years old. They're 80 years old, they're 90 years old. And they still love Jesus just as much today or more today than they have all those years ago. Amen. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Right?
[00:10:18] I want to be like that.
[00:10:21] I want to be that guy, right?
[00:10:23] So the question is today, how do we do this? How do we endure in that kind of way? And I think the writer of Hebrews gives us a little bit of insight today. Now, I mean, again, this is just. I've landed on Hebrews chapter six. This is not an exhaustive list of all the things we need to do to mature in order to endure throughout our life. And, but I think there's a few things that we can, you know, absorb here in Hebrews 6 today that can help us. And there is a bit of a warning in there as well. And so the first thing that we see has to do with leaving elementary things. We're going to understand this a little more as we go.
[00:11:03] Again, any good or faithful pastor will have this as a deep concern that God's people grow into mature believers and not just, if I can put it this way, stay in the shallow end of the kiddie pool, so to speak.
[00:11:18] Okay? Now, it doesn't mean you all have to go so deep that you become in deep doo doo. And then, you know, you're just, you know, you become, you know, big eggheads kind of a thing. And we follow. That doesn't mean you all have to become Bible scholars or, you know, you don't have to become all. You do have to, you know. But, but, but there's an element and we just read it. We gotta leave the elementary. We need to grow, right? We need to understand the certain elementary things, the foundations of our faith. We need to understand that. And now let's grow and add on to it and go deeper. It's important.
[00:11:53] So the Hebrew writer implores his readers to leave elementary things and move on. But really it's not just about abandoning the elementary things, but I would say building on them. Okay, we just have that back there. Let's read that if we can. He says when the author suggests that they leave elementary truths of the faith, he does not see these Christian principles as dispensable. Indeed, they are no more dispensable than our letters of the Alphabet for moving children beyond the first steps of education.
[00:12:22] Rather, the fundamental truths of the faith are presupposed in the continued trek towards maturity, the admonition of chapter six, verse one has to do with the listeners. Here we go. The indifference to weightier matters of Christ following and their consequent need to move to a new level of commitment. What is he saying?
[00:12:45] That there sometimes within the church can be a level of indifference to going deeper with God, to knowing more about God, to knowing more of His Word, to knowing more of his character, to knowing God more. There's an indifference to say, well, I already know the basics. That's good enough for me. You see what he's saying?
[00:13:01] Friends, let's not be indifferent.
[00:13:03] God calls us to. I don't care how mature you are, really. Hello. Right. How long you been serving Christ? I've been serving Christ for 40 years.
[00:13:13] Great. You know, that's awesome.
[00:13:16] You still have a ways to go yet. Right?
[00:13:19] There's still more growth.
[00:13:21] There's still more to learn. There's. I don't. None of us have arrived yet. Right. There's still character flaws God wants to work on.
[00:13:29] Hello. Right.
[00:13:31] This is true.
[00:13:34] So let's not be indifferent.
[00:13:37] But there's always a need to move to a new level of commitment, of understanding of who God is. So what he's saying here, let's. Again, let's not be content to wait in the kiddie pool right now. We're not saved by our works or by our good deeds and anything like this, but. Or by our efforts.
[00:13:57] But in order to mature, how many think that a little bit of effort needs to go into it?
[00:14:01] I'm going to know God more. I'm going to need to put some time and effort right into reading his word, to studying His Word, into prayer, into service in God's kingdom, whatever it may be. And of course, our text goes on to say a little while later and we'll come back to it. He actually tells him, be sluggish. Right. Don't be. Oh, okay.
[00:14:20] I better get moving.
[00:14:23] So another, when we're talking about these immature elements, I guess, leaving elementary things, some of these elements that he specifically talks about, the things that we need to leave or to move on from, or to build upon. He says specifically to move on from dead works to faith in God, to move on from dead works to faith in God. And as we deal with the elements of. The Hebrew writer tells us to move on from, it's important to note that this book of Hebrews is written for whom?
[00:14:57] For Hebrews. Right.
[00:14:59] So in this first thing, he notes that we should move on from dead works towards faith in God. What exactly is he talking about? Now, some of the other translations that we read, it says to move on from evil works or from move on from acts that lead towards death. How many think those are good things to move on from? I mean, like, let's move on from them. Those are not good things. Evil works, acts that lead to death. But I kind of think that as the writer of Hebrews is writing towards Hebrew people, how many know that the Hebrew people.
[00:15:25] And all throughout the New Testament, there was a lot of correction with this, that they were. Even though they accepted Christ as salvation, oftentimes they were still trying to do a lot of their Jewish traditions and customs and laws in the Old Testament, that they were still trying to check all these boxes and saying that it was necessary to be a faithful follower of Christ by checking all these boxes, all these deeds, all these duganisms, right? All of these things written in the Hebrew law.
[00:15:51] But how many know that these things don't make us right with God, Right? Like Christ did away with those things.
[00:15:59] In fact, in Galatians 2:21, we could just move on here to this thing.
[00:16:05] He says, let me just read this. But many of the Jewish believers in Christ had a tendency to want to continue on in their Jewish traditions and rituals in order to gain acceptance with God. This of course, is not what the Gospel teaches at all. The Hebrew writer calls these dead works, that is, they don't produce life. Okay? If we could be right with God by obeying the law, there would be no need for Christ to die for us. We read in Galatians chapter 2 21. So you see, being a Christ follower is not just simply checking off a list of do's. Now I want. I want us all to. I want to paint a picture because we're going to get into some harder things in a couple moments here. So please, please hear me out loud and clear here for the next two minutes. Does that sound good? You guys are paying attention, right? Okay, good. Okay, good.
[00:16:48] Being a Christ follower is not simply checking off lists of do's and don'ts to gain brownie points with God.
[00:16:55] Yes, there are plenty of do's and don'ts in the Bible, okay?
[00:16:59] But we would be wise to adhere to them. Absolutely. But our motivation for doing so should be out of a deep love for God, a heart of gratitude for all he's done in our lives because he's forgiven us of our sins. Amen. He's given us a hope and future. I want to do the do's and don'ts in The Bible, as is written there. Why?
[00:17:19] Because I love God and I don't.
[00:17:21] I don't want to disappoint. You know, I don't put it this way.
[00:17:26] I don't cheat on my wife. Good news. That's great news. Right? Okay, I'm glad. I'm glad to hear that, Pastor Darren. Okay.
[00:17:34] I don't cheat on my wife. Why? Because there's a big, giant checkbox that says don't cheat on your wife?
[00:17:39] No, because I love her.
[00:17:42] Right.
[00:17:43] I love her so much. I don't want to. I don't want to disappoint. I want. I just love her so much. I don't want to do that to her. Right. Don't want to do that. I don't want to dishonor God and I don't want to dishonor her because I love her.
[00:17:55] Right. It's not just a checkbox. Okay. You want to be in God's. Don't do this. Okay. Right. Our motivation for following God should be out of that love. Ephesians, chapter two, you know, teaches, it's by grace you've been saved through faith. It's not from yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works. So. So no one can boast. Amen.
[00:18:15] Good job, Pastor Darren. You haven't cheated on your wife. Wonderful.
[00:18:19] That's not what makes you saved.
[00:18:22] It's the work of Christ on the cross that makes us right with him. Amen. Nothing else.
[00:18:28] All right. I don't care who you are, you could never. Your good works can never make you right with God. Only trusting in the finished work of Christ can do that for you. Now, I've made that clear. Hopefully we get that, because again, we're going to go on to some other things here in a few minutes. Now, one of the other elementary things that the Hebrew writer says we need to move on from is the instructions of washings or baptisms. That sounds a little curious. Now, secondly, the Hebrews. Oh, I just got to go back there.
[00:19:00] Where do we go? Oh, right there. Okay. Secondly, the Hebrews writing mentions moving on from instructions about washings. What does this mean?
[00:19:08] Now, there's some translations that say maybe in your Bible, I'm not sure, it says move on from cleansing rites. And other translations say move on from baptisms. Well, which is it? That sounds a lot like three different things right.
[00:19:21] Now, this has caused a little bit of consternation for some Bible scholars and commentators, but the different translations really can be understood as the word in the Greek here is used baptismos which is actually only used twice in the New Testament, both referring to actually ceremonial washings. But when the New Testament speaks of what we know as Christian baptism, it uses a different word, baptisma. Okay, so they're very closely related, as you can tell, but they are different words that mean different things. And so the most likely scenario is again, knowing the Hebrew audience, that it indeed has something to do with Jewish ceremonial cleansing rights. But perhaps it's even mentioned in contrast to the symbolism in Christian baptism that is that in these type of things, ceremonial cleansing practices and Christian baptism neither make one right with God. They are both, what, symbolic in its nature and doesn't mean anything if the heart is not repentant and turned towards God. Okay, so what are we saying here?
[00:20:24] That an elementary truth according to the writer of Hebrews, is that the outward signs, the outward things, doesn't mean a whole lot if your heart isn't in that right place with God.
[00:20:35] Amen. You can do all the right things. You can sing here on the worship team, you could serve in the lobby, you could even get up here and preach. But if your heart is not in the right place with God, right, this is where the importance is. Okay, the next elementary thing he says is about the importance of laying on of hands. Now that's interesting. What does this mean?
[00:20:56] The Hebrew says, the Hebrew writer says the laying on of hands is an elementary doctrine. Now it's interesting to me then, therefore, how many churches do not practice this? Right? It's true. I mean, you've seen it here this morning. If you're new to our church, we're praying up here and people are laying hands and praying for people. Maybe that's new to you, I don't know. According to what we just read, this is elementary. This should be basic, right?
[00:21:19] Gareth Lee Cockrell says this laying on of hands. Now, we're not gonna read all these, but you could take a photo of this if you want and look it up for yourself.
[00:21:26] The laying on of hands was used for healing. According to Mark chapter one and chapter six.
[00:21:31] It was laying on of hands was used for blessing people, for commissioning people. Right, for healing. It actually says as well, right? For, you know, we're praying for healing. We're gonna lay hands on the sick and they shall be healed. It says, right, we lay hands on people to impart the Holy Spirit. It says in conjunction. Basically, read these scriptures here.
[00:21:51] You know, when the people were baptized, they laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit.
[00:21:55] These are things that's taught in the New Testament. About the importance of laying on of hands. You can read that yourself. But again, the Hebrew writer says this is an elementary thing. We can move on from this. We don't need to debate it. You should know this. Okay, great. So don't be weirded out by if people want to lay a hand on your shoulder to pray for you, okay?
[00:22:12] The next thing he goes on to say, another elementary thing is to move on from the teaching of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
[00:22:21] And I got to keep an eye on the time here. What are we good till about 10:45? That's usually the way we roll, right? Okay. Okay.
[00:22:29] I gotta be careful.
[00:22:32] We're good here still for a bit.
[00:22:35] Where were we? Oh, yeah. Move on from the teaching of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
[00:22:41] Now, if you don't know what these things are, okay, you know, these doctrines of resurrection of the dead, you know, eternal judgment, I'll explain it just briefly in a moment, but if you want to do a deep dive, okay? Talking about these elementary things. Now, here's my shameless plug, okay? We're talking about the.
[00:22:58] All the classes and courses and ministries that's happening starting up here this month. Well, I'm going to be teaching a faith foundations class on Wednesday nights. So if you're new to the faith or you need to get a better handle on the foundational things of what maybe some of these more elementary things, you want to go deeper. But you're like, I don't even know if I know the basics yet. This is where you want to come on Wednesday nights, okay? But if you got the basics down and you want to go deeper, man, there's some deeper things for you to get into too, okay? So please check out that fall preview. But again, these elementary things, okay? The resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment. Now, simply put, and for brevity's sake here, we're talking about the fact that when we die, guess what? Our soul lives on, right? And because of the resurrection of Christ, we too can experience this new resurrection life with him in eternity if we put our faith and trust in him. Amen. That's what we're talking about. And this has to do with God's eternal judgment. God's the one who sorts it all out in the end.
[00:23:50] All I know is the Bible says, you know, put your faith and trust in God, right? Whoever believes in him, right, confess with their mouth. Jesus, Lord believes in the heart. God raised him from the dead. They shall be saved. You know what? I'm believing those things I'M doing those things. I'm going to trust in God's word, trust me, trust them with the finished work of Christ and do the best I can with that. And you know, God's going to sort it all out. But God is the judge is what we're saying. Okay. And again, we're going to talk about those things in our foundations class. So there you go. Come on out Wednesday night so you're going to have a good time. All right.
[00:24:19] So we need to move on from these things now if we want to. Why are we talking about this? The writer is saying, look, if you're going to endure in the faith, you need to move on from these elementary things. If you're going to endure, go the distance with Christ, don't just stay here in this place of elementary things, go deeper, build on them.
[00:24:42] Right. That's what he's saying now. If we're going to endure, therefore, the second point logically goes to, okay, move on from the elementary things and what? Develop maturity. So the writer of Hebrew. Now this is fascinating to me. I mean, just a little thought experiment here. And you're going to say, you know, brilliant, Darren. Right. Okay.
[00:24:59] The writer of Hebrews tells us to move on from, or to build on these elementary teachings so that we can go on to maturity.
[00:25:05] Which tells me that there's a lot of people that can know what salvation is, know what baptism is all about, know about heaven, about God's judgment and even the purpose and power of laying on of hands in prayer and experience, even miraculous, and still be immature as believers.
[00:25:21] Think about that. You can know all of that stuff and still be immature according to what we just read.
[00:25:28] Wow. Okay. How do we know we're mature? That's a great question. I'm glad you asked it. We're going to go on there, you know, whoops, we'll go back there. Yeah. We'll read this in just a moment here.
[00:25:40] As we will see, maturity has an awful lot to do with what our character. I would suggest we're going to read that in the scripture. Our character.
[00:25:50] I used to preach and I don't have time. This is a whole different message I can develop to you. But like, I can. One of the indicators for me to know how a person's maturity level in Christ is how they treat other people, especially with people whom they have disagreements with.
[00:26:08] Right. That's a big. Not the only indicator, but certainly a big indicator. Right. How do you treat and respond to people you disagree with and maybe you have large disagreements. Do you still Treat them with love, respect, you know, the character of Christ. That tells me a bit about who you are. Not everything, but it tells me certainly a bit. So maturity has to do with our character and I would suggest our perseverance in the faith, because again, I don't think you can endure in the faith for the long haul without Christian maturity. Our Christ likeness, if you will, the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5 are all elements of this maturity that God is wanting us to move towards. And we read In Ephesians chapter 4, the apostle Paul writes this. He says, be humble, completely humble and gentle. Be patient and bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. These are all mature things to do, right? Patient bearing with one another, making every effort to keep the unity of. If you're not mature, you're not going to make every effort to keep unity.
[00:27:09] You're going to say, no, I'm going to get my own way, right?
[00:27:12] Hello. Right. That's what we do.
[00:27:15] No, we're going to make every effort for unity.
[00:27:18] There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ appropriate. You're familiar with these verses. This is why it says when he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people. Were. What does he ascended mean? Except that he also descended to lower earthly regions.
[00:27:44] He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. So Christ himself. That's a whole side tangent, a different sermon. Okay, so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers to equip God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up, right? Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
[00:28:17] Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the coming and craftiness of people and their deceitful scheming. Instead speaking the truth of love, we will become in every respect the mature body who is the head, that is Christ from the whole body joined, held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Okay, there's a lot there, right? Obviously.
[00:28:45] Why do I say all of that?
[00:28:48] Okay, if you're gonna take a look at this, and maybe this is a thought, something you can do. This is your homework, okay?
[00:28:55] Take this piece of work, this piece of scripture, and kind of write down what are markers of Christian maturity?
[00:29:03] According to all this, what we just read in Ephesians, chapter four, what are the markers of Christian maturity?
[00:29:07] Well, here's a few of them. We already alluded to. Some of them, it says in there at one point, way back, to be humble.
[00:29:15] Completely humble, right? To be gentle, to be patient. It says that, right? It says, bearing with one another in love.
[00:29:23] Right. That's a mature thing. How many think that's easy?
[00:29:26] No. Do we need God's help to do that? Sometimes 100%, yes.
[00:29:31] But this is what we're called to do.
[00:29:33] And you need to have a level of maturity. I believe in your walk with God in order to do that. Right.
[00:29:37] Unity.
[00:29:39] Unity isn't easy. This is why we are told to do everything we can to work towards it.
[00:29:44] Not compromising truth, not saying, okay, well, we're going to put truth on the shelf so that we can have this fake unity. No, we're not talking about that.
[00:29:51] But we still need to work on unity. This is to not be tossed by every wind of doctrine. That's an element of maturity, right? So, I mean, again, you can go throughout this and kind of dig out some more truths in there.
[00:30:03] Another way or another thing we need in order to endure, I think, is to heed the warning of apostasy. Now, this is where it gets a little sticky here, okay?
[00:30:14] It's a little hard to understand some of these things, but.
[00:30:19] But, you know, in the New Testament, and I was, you know, maybe you like. Maybe you're like me. And for years you've read the Bible and. And you see, man, there's a lot of warnings in the New Testament about God's people, you know, falling away, walking away, choosing a different way, not being faithful. And these warnings attached to them usually is some kind of eternal judgment that's not so good. I'm going, whoa. Heed the warning. Listen up. You know, stay on track with God. God is merciful. 100%. He is. But I'm reading all this. I'm going, okay. And then we get to this section of the book of Hebrews that's been highly debated, and I mean, really over the last couple thousand years. Now, the writer, we're going to read it one more time here. But the writer seems to suggest that there is a state that one can find themselves in in which it's impossible for God to forgive them in what the Bible commentators call apostasy. Maybe you've heard this word before.
[00:31:14] Maybe you know the meaning of the term, but perhaps you don't. So let's. I think I have it here. Yes, there it is. We're going to read it again. He says it's impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then haven't fallen away to restore them again to repentance. Since they are crucified, they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Okay, now, what does all this mean? Now, when I think of this theme of apostasy, another verse that stands out to me again, I think there's dozens of verses in the Bible that lend towards these warnings. But another verse that stands out to me is the warning of Jesus himself in Matthew 12 about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Right? How many has ever heard of this? Oh, what does that mean? I ran into someone last Sunday. You're gonna preach on that? Ooh. What? You know, they're like, ah.
[00:32:13] So Jesus says this. So I tell you every. Every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven.
[00:32:22] Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come. What in the world does this, all this mean? Okay, so we're gonna. We're gonna try to understand that. All right?
[00:32:33] Now, before we get too far, remember when I paused here a few moments ago and I talked about just, we're not saved by our deeds or by our works. It's just through the grace of God. Amen. By grace. I really wanted to focus on this. And again, before we get too far, we need to also know that our salvation is secure.
[00:32:51] You can have an assurance of your salvation, right? You guys know that. You don't need to wonder, am I truly saved? You don't need to walk around on eggshells thinking that all of a sudden, if you sneeze the wrong way and sin a little bit here or there's a. That all of a sudden you don't have. You're not saved anymore.
[00:33:05] Okay, that's not the way God wants us to live.
[00:33:09] Right? We need to just. Okay, we can have an assurance of that is for us, okay?
[00:33:16] God loves us so much with a love that's. That's not. I love this about God. His love for me and my salvation is not tied to how good I perform as a Christian.
[00:33:28] My performance, okay, sometimes my performance is somewhat good and some maybe not as good.
[00:33:34] Right?
[00:33:35] None of us are scoring 100% all the time here, all right?
[00:33:40] So we need to understand that how. And God will not let us go.
[00:33:46] He will not stop loving us.
[00:33:48] All right? However, he's created us all with free will and the ability to make a choice whether or not we want to accept him, to follow him.
[00:34:00] Right?
[00:34:01] Like he's created us this way. God does not force us to love him.
[00:34:06] Right?
[00:34:08] We can freely choose his gift of grace, or we can choose to reject him altogether.
[00:34:13] That's a choice we make, right?
[00:34:16] Choice many people make. So when we look at what the Hebrew writer, Hebrews writer says and what we just read here, okay, we see four things about the person who's fallen away.
[00:34:30] In this case, that can't be okay. In this apostate state that says he can't be brought back to repentance or be forgiven, okay?
[00:34:38] In this case, he says they've been enlightened. And why am I saying this? Because some people say, well, I want to be gracious because there's. Some people believe different things on this. And I think you can make a good biblical argument in different kind of ways. And you can kind of. Of look at all of this. We're not going to do that today, okay? Because there's many biblical references on one side of the fence with all of this and many biblical references, you know, and at the end, I can say God, God. God's the judge. He sorts it all out. I'm glad I don't have to do that. Okay?
[00:35:04] Only God knows the human heart, whether a person's truly saved or not. I don't know. It looks like they are. But God knows the heart, right?
[00:35:12] Okay, good.
[00:35:14] But it says they've been enlightened.
[00:35:17] Let me go back there. Actually says they've been enlightened, right? Meaning that they've been. If you've been enlightened, what does that mean? That you've been brought from darkness to light.
[00:35:25] You were once in darkness. Now you're in the light you've been in. Okay, Right. They've been enlightened.
[00:35:32] They tasted the heavenly gift. Now, what is this I'm reading Through. Okay, what exactly is tasted? What does this actually mean? Well, most commentators, you know, that I've read, they're actually talking about salvation. What is this heavenly gift? It's about, you know, your salvation. That, that, that, that would be with Christ in heaven. That's the heavenly gift, right? Pretty simple, really.
[00:35:50] Tasted the heavenly gift shared in the Holy Spirit.
[00:35:55] Maybe they had some kind of an, you know, communion or encounter with the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the word of God. And by the way, this where some people would argue, well, it just tastes. They didn't actually just devour it or swallow it. They only did taste. No. Is talking about they had an experience with the word of God. They've experienced it and the powers of the age to come, probably best explained as miraculous. Okay. They've experienced salvation, enlightenment, the miraculous, the word of God. They've experienced God in a sounding. Sounds like a deep, profound way, if you would. Okay.
[00:36:31] So he goes on to say, it's impossible for these type of people, but I've fallen away, chosen to go the other way, to be brought back to repentance. Well, okay. What in all is this? I mean, again, isn't God merciful and gracious and forgiving? Of course he is.
[00:36:46] And you know, absolutely he is. Right.
[00:36:51] Now, what is this? Where am I at here? I don't want to go too far. I don't want to miss where we're at. Okay. Because I want to make sure I explain this correctly. Okay.
[00:37:05] Now, I would say this, by the way, where did it go? Sorry, I have my notes I don't want to forget.
[00:37:13] Mess this up.
[00:37:18] Sorry.
[00:37:23] Is it up on the screen?
[00:37:25] It's a good question. I feel like I'm missing something here, but I'll try. You know what? I'll just stick to my notes and hope for the best. How about that?
[00:37:31] It's probably a good idea, right?
[00:37:34] Okay. Oh, there we go.
[00:37:36] I see it now. I've gone way too far.
[00:37:39] I skipped the page. Okay, there we go.
[00:37:43] So what does this mean when I said that we've got these heed, these warnings of apostasy? Well, what does apostasy. Man, I got a boogie here. I got to move on quickly.
[00:37:52] What does apostasy even mean then? That's a good question, right? How do we understand that apostasy means Is.
[00:38:02] There you go. Is an ancient Greek term, apostasia, meaning a revolt. Okay. Or a defection, a renunciation or abandonment. So when someone falls into this kind of category, it's not simply that they fell into sin and Shame. And so the person that the Hebrews writer is saying, they've experienced all of this about God, right? And then it says they can't be brought back to repentance. It's not just that they've fallen into sin and shame and maybe are no longer walking with God. It's a little more serious that they've had a revolt against Christ, their renunciation. They've actually in essence become antichrist, if you will.
[00:38:41] You see, we have this a little more serious right now. It's just you've fallen into sin. You've become, for lack of a better word, almost anti Christ. You want nothing to do with Christ. You want nothing to do with his forgiveness. You want nothing to do.
[00:38:55] Okay, so just my notes here. The person in this state has not simply had a season of doubt or disappointment regarding God. This is not that sin has engulfed the life of a believer. So they simply go on and do their own thing. The person in the state of apostasy has not simply fallen away. They are now in an antichrist state of mind and soul. They cannot be restored to a place of repentance because they don't want to be.
[00:39:18] Right. They don't want to receive. This is kind of, again, we have a part to play in receiving Christ, right?
[00:39:25] We don't do it, but we receive Christ. We choose to follow Him. They don't want God's forgiveness, they reject it. They don't want his presence in their lives and continue on in this state indefinitely. Right?
[00:39:38] Warren Wiersbe goes on to say. He says, you should note that the words crucify and put in Hebrews 6, 6 are in the Greek present participles, meaning that they are ongoing.
[00:39:49] They're currently ongoing in doing this.
[00:39:53] That, not, not that they, you know, that they're. They've re crucified Christ. They are recrucifying him over and over. It's. It's continual, it's ongoing and putting him up to. Well, the version I read in the ESV is to contempt, or it says here, open shame. The writer did not say that these people could never be brought to repentance, but in their.
[00:40:14] But while they were. They cannot be brought to repentance while they were treating Jesus in such a shape, basically in the state. I don't know this is what he's saying. I don't know exactly. That's his opinion, but it makes sense to me. They're in this current state. They're rejecting Christ. They're in the Antichrist state. They don't want to be forgiven. It's a very serious place. Right. Okay. So they say you're endangering your soul to hell. They would say, I don't care.
[00:40:36] That sounds pretty harsh. Right? Okay. Maybe you would understand it when we talk about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Matthew, chapter 12.
[00:40:43] And this is what I was talking to someone about last week, because this is a verse that people get tripped up on.
[00:40:48] Okay? They say, well, oh, my goodness, I don't know if I committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I'm a little nervous. Well, guess what? The fact that you're nervous or you care about that at all tells me that you haven't committed it.
[00:40:59] Right. Does that make sense? So, okay, so I say all that to say this. Don't walk out here feeling condemned or, oh, my goodness, I don't know if I'm an apostate or thinking maybe someone else is an apostate. We don't know the condition of someone's heart. We do know that God is merciful man. He wants all of us to come to him, no matter how far we've gone. Amen. God, no matter how much we've sinned, no matter how much we've messed it up, no matter how much we've. Maybe we've known God and walked away from God, but God's waiting, arms wide open for each one of us. Amen.
[00:41:29] Keep your heart soft before him. Run to him today, friends. He wants to love on you and he wants to forgive you. Amen. And he wants to just heal you and set you free. He's here to do that for you today.
[00:41:42] Amen. Okay, good. Darren, why do you preach on these things? I don't know.
[00:41:48] Why do you pick these texts of scripture? I don't know.
[00:41:55] He goes on to say, you have reason for hope, though.
[00:42:00] Let's read this. For land that has drunk the rain and often falls on it, produces a crop useful to those whose sake it's cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, that's part of the warning. It's worthless and near to being cursed and its end to be burned. This is part of the warning of this apothe. Right. Okay. He says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, for you church, you know, we feel sure of better things, things that belong. Basically, he's saying, listen, in your case, though, you know, we don't think that's you. In fact, we believe for better things, we're seeing better things. This ain't you right? All these warnings that of people falling away and. But that's not you, though. You know, I believe in you. We think you're going to go the distance with Christ.
[00:42:48] That's what he's saying now. Why is he saying that, though?
[00:42:52] Right.
[00:42:53] He goes on to say, for God is not unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do.
[00:43:03] What is this saying?
[00:43:05] That there's evidence that their lives have been redeemed, that he can see that. Guess what? You're still loving people. You're still doing the work of God. You're still serving people, laying your life down, doing the right things. You're still. You've done it and you're still doing it. So that gives us confidence that you're on the right path with God. How many know that we're again going to repeat this? We're not saved by our works, but we are saved too. And towards good works.
[00:43:31] Meaning that once we've come to repentance in Christ and we've understand his gift of grace and we truly understand forgiveness, guess what we're gonna say here I am, Lord, what do you want me to do? How do I serve you? How can I help? How can I be part of the body of Christ? How can I pray for someone? How can I serve someone? How can I bless? You know, these are things that we should all do in small ways and in large ways. It doesn't matter. Right. Again, God is the judge. The. That's between you and God, what this looks like. But at the end of the day, if we're walking in God's ways and in God's wills, and if we're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we all have these things that we need to be doing to whatever extent. And then perhaps, you know, again, I've seen people in the busyness of life, and don't get me wrong, there's. There's seasons of busyness and there's seasons when we're really, at least, you know, being a pastor all these years. And even in my life, there's seasons when I'm doing a lot for the Lord and I'm very involved. Maybe other seasons I'm not, you know, as involved or doing as much or whatever. There's seasons. We understand that.
[00:44:31] But let's not let the busyness of life and cares and concerns for the challenges of life or maybe bad experiences in church. We've talked about that earlier. Maybe we've Been hurt. Maybe we've had some negative things, but let's not let anything I would suggest stop us or hinder us from doing the works, because God has. You know what? As long as we're still breathing, we all have something to do for the Lord.
[00:44:55] Come on now.
[00:44:57] Something, right? Pastor Darren, I can't do it. You can pray, right? You can pray for God's people.
[00:45:08] So the writer of Hebrews, it's 10:45. My goodness. The writer of Hebrew says that we have this hope and you have this hope, and we see it. It's evident because of what we see in your life that these. You're living out this faith right now very quickly.
[00:45:27] Maybe you feel a little burnt out here today. I want to encourage you, okay? Galatians 6, 9. Paul writes, Let us not get weary and well doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up.
[00:45:38] Right? We're talking about endurance here. Right again. Hey, there's seasons, but I don't know if you feel burnt out today. Maybe you do. I pray that by the Holy Spirit, God would refresh you today. In Jesus name.
[00:45:49] Amen. You will feel a refreshment today from the Holy Spirit. We need those things. I need those things, right?
[00:45:58] He goes on to say in Hebrews here, I thought I had it there.
[00:46:04] Nope, I do not.
[00:46:06] Hebrews verse 11 and 12 of our main text. In chapter 6, he says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end.
[00:46:18] Again, again, we're talking about endurance, right? This full assurance of hope till the end. So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those whom through faith and patience will inherit the promises. What is he saying?
[00:46:35] That as we endure in Christ, what do we do? We need to be imitators of those through patience and faith who've shown that. I want to imitate the person who's had patience and faith. Right? So what? So that I'll inherit the promises.
[00:46:50] I need to imitate those whom I'm saying. I want to be like that guy. I want to be like that gentleman or that. That woman or whatever. Right? Amen.
[00:47:00] I want to mature like that person. Let's stand today. We're going to finish up here.
[00:47:07] There's more in my notes. I don't have a blog like Pastor, so.
[00:47:13] Too bad, so sad.
[00:47:17] But my heart and prayer today. I know there were some tougher things in the text, but at the end of the day, what are we Talking about here?
[00:47:29] Endurance, right?
[00:47:31] Hope and endurance. How do we endure to the end?
[00:47:35] I think part of what we just read has to do with maturity.
[00:47:40] How are we going to mature?
[00:47:42] How are we going to add on to those fundamental or elementary things of the faith? What are we going to do in order to mature? Let me give you a quick little prescription then we're going to pray and get out of here and you can go get lunch. I mean, we need to be in the word of God. Amen. First and foremost, let's read God's word more.
[00:47:59] Let's pray more, let's serve more. Amen. Let's study God's word more. Right? Let's do more of those things that lend towards maturity.
[00:48:10] Let's forgive more. Right?
[00:48:15] Wow. Let's worship God more.
[00:48:19] Do all these. It helps mature us and grow us up in the faith. Now again, one more. Plug all of the ministries we got. Join a men's group, Join a women's group. Come to Wednesday night. Do whatever you got to do. Go to one of our recovery ministries or our care ministries or whatever it may be. Grab one of those fall previews. Those are good ways for us to grow and develop and mature, right?
[00:48:41] Absolutely. And as you mature, guess what? You are now building some. Some. Some spiritual muscle so that you can endure to the end.
[00:48:51] Okay, let's not stay in the shallow end of the pool.
[00:48:54] I want you all to go the distance.
[00:48:57] Amen. Let's pray, Father. God, I thank you today for each person here. God, I thank you for your grace and mercy that covers us all. Lord, I thank you that yes, there's nothing we can do, Lord, to earn salvation. God, you paid for it once and for all. God, I pray for every person here that we would have an assurance of our salvation. That we would know, that we know. That we know, just as we sang it earlier, Lord, that you don't let us go, God, that we are secure and safe in your arms. God, help us to stay there in your arms. Help us to not reject you or walk away from you. But Lord, help us to endure, Lord, to mature, that we would go the distance with you. Help us to love others, Lord. Help us to serve you and to serve in the body of Christ. Help us to be all that you called and created us to be in Christ Jesus, Lord. And I pray that not one person here, Lord, would leave here today just staying in the shallow end. But, Lord, that you would stir up a hunger in our lives today for more of you to know you more, Lord, in every way we can every way that you have purposed for us today.
[00:49:56] Lord, we thank you for this and we pray it in Jesus mighty powerful name.
[00:50:03] Amen. Amen. God bless you as you leave today.
