Transcription
It's always been a very controversial passage of scripture. Hebrews 6:4-5 and 6. People have read that passage of scripture and they have somehow concluded you can lose your salvation. Is it possible for you to have faith or is it impossible? Herein is both the problem and the answer to the uh scripture that's before us.
Well, everybody, welcome to the show today and we're glad that you're with us and we want to uh always always invite you to uh tell others if in any way, shape or form that our getting together is something that communicates to you something that's challenging, makes you think, uh makes you research the scriptures or and or the news or whatever we might be talking about. Uh even though I'm a pastor and a Bible teacher, um I um I don't want to limit my my life in any way, shape, or form, but I want to take my faith everywhere I go and into every topic of life. Um I I'm a big fan of uh full biblical immersion into all things of this world. Um I I think I got that from Jesus and simply reading the Bible. I didn't read it in a book. I didn't hear it in a sermon. It just makes sense to me that everything that you and I experience in life from breathing to reading to movie to news to uh you name the topic, you name the discipline, biology, archaeology, the sciences, I believe that the Bible leads the way. I really do. And uh that said, if there's anything that we discuss uh in to to help your friends out or to even challenge your friends or to maybe even um uh what's the word putting it nicely, exhort them. In other words, create a healthy argument about truth, then we're all for that. And we're excited about that.
So, I want to go uh to a a verse that or a passage of scripture that I heard recently. It's been brought up numerous times. It depends uh on what's going on, but it's always been a very controversial passage of scripture. Uh it's uh again something that should not be controversial. But when we read the Bible in its context, when we ask the diagnostic questions of either the book of the Bible that we're reading or the the author himself, could be John, it could be Matthew, it could be Moses. What do we know about them? What can we know about them? What can we find out about them? When did they write? That's by the way you can know that. When did they write uh what what was going on in their world in world history at that time? What was happening? What was the chronology and what was the uh atmospherics of their age? For example, the New Testament. So what was life like in the New Testament era of of the first say 200 years uh from the advent of Christ? Those things are extremely important to know and when we don't know them, we wind up falling into uh ill interpretations of scripture that wind up often leading us to wrong conclusions. Um, please understand that God didn't give us the Bible to confuse us or mess us up. The exact opposite. Uh, people get a hold of the Bible and they wind up messing it up. Uh, you've heard me say it before that we should just let the Bible speak. And we let the Bible speak whenever we read it and we read it in its context.
Um, let me say this. I'm a real um I'm a real boseiferous. Is that the right word? Outspoken. I am uh passionate about uh avoiding random call it Bible roulette type of reading. If you get up in the morning and it's Monday and you think, um I'm going to read John chapter 7. uh and you read John chapter 7 and then you get up on Tuesday and you read Ezekiel 9 and then you get up on Wednesday and you read Revelation 21 and then you get up on Thursday and you read Exodus 3. You're going to be so messed up. You need to avoid that because what you want to do is understand first of all that the Bible was never given with chapter verse references. Now don't get me wrong. Is there a book of Esther? Yes, there's a book of Esther. By the way, side note, Lisa and I were in Oxford, England, not all that long ago, and we went to a museum. There's many of them there. But we went to the um Ashian Museum that is right next door to Oxford University. And um it was awesome because as we're walking through this, we were looking at uh artifacts and and things from the Persian Empire and from the Babylonian Empire and from Egypt as well. But uh one of the things that they had there, they had a section there on Esther. Isn't that great? Uh why do I think that's great? Because the Bible is a book of facts. The Bible is not a book of stories. And in the West anyway, we get all weird about that because we thought we we grew up going to Sunday school listening to Bible stories. And that is very sad. That's not the case. You went to you went to Sunday school, but listen, you actually learned about factual events. They you they weren't stories, but we call them stories. The church that I pastor, the staff, children's ministry, youth ministry, uh, pulpit ministry, I forbid the word story to be connected to the Bible. It's not a story.
And so, listen, all that to say, when we pick up, for example, the book of Hebrews, and that's what that's where we're going uh here in a moment. The book of Hebrews, for those of you who don't know, uh, is written in the New Testament. The authorship is always been in question because the author does not name himself. Uh, there are some really good arguments for various uh authors of that could have written it. Uh, there are speculations. Um, but if you're going to speculate, doesn't matter. But most most scholars come to the conclusion that the book of Hebrews is known as being Pauline in its architecture. in its linguistics, its logic, its syntax, the way that it flows, the introduction or the argumentation for a fact or for a doctrine in the book of Hebrews is extremely extremely uh parallel to Paul's arguments for example in the book of Galatians or the book of Romans. But it doesn't matter. That's not our point right now. But the point that I'm making is that we should always dive into the Bible more carefully. And here's the reason why you should among many reasons is that the more you dive into the depth of the Bible and unpack words that are found in verses that are found in chapters that are found in a book. It matters. So the early church and I forget the year, forgive me, you can look it up, but there was an there was a time when the book for example of Joshua or Mark was divided up into chapter number references with chapter verse references for memorization or location purposes. So in the old days, right, when you picked up the book of Ruth, you didn't read chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, you read the book of Ruth. Okay? So that said, when we read the book of Hebrews, you're supposed to pick it up, what we would call chapter 1, verse one, but let's just say we pick it up and we read through it. Okay? Very, very good thing to do. Stop looking at the numbers of of reference.
That said, what's the name of the book? The book of Hebrews. But it's in the New Testament. The Wouldn't Shouldn't it be in the Old Testament? No, not at all. Because the first century church was was Jewish or Gentile in context, in its origin, Jewish. The Jews, the gospel was first preached to the Jews. The Jews got converted. That is the Jews. Can I put it to you this way? Judaism is what man has done to the Old Testament scriptures. So, let's take the word Judaism and throw it away. Put it over here. If you read from Genesis through to Malachi and keep reading in Matthew, if you didn't have any chapter verse numbers, life would be so much easier because it would flow so perfectly that it makes total sense that these Jews having come out of the Old Testament, having read it, it's natural for them to come to the conclusion that the Messiah, the anointed one spoken of in the Old Testament was the one that was born in Bethlehem based on Old Testament doctrine. People think that the Christmas story, the Christmas account, the Christmas event is something made up. Nope. It's Old Testament prophecy fulfilled recorded in the New.
Having said that, when we keep reading, we come to the book of Hebrews. And it's an amazing thing because if you're Jewish, it unlocks to you a deeper understanding of the book of Leviticus. It's this reporter's opinion that you'll never understand clearly either one of those books fully unless you read Leviticus and Hebrews and Hebrews and Leviticus because one of one answers the other. And in saying that, these were believers in Yeshua and they had come to faith understanding, wow, we get it. We got it now. He's the answer. And yet, like any group of people who watch my fingers, believe, there are some who believe in the group and some who say they say that they believe in the group. It's true for the church that you attend. Wouldn't it be great if everybody at your church was a born again believer and going to heaven? The fact is you don't know that. They might all say they know the Lord. They might all say that they're born again, but are they really? You will not know that. You will not know that. The only way for you to know that is for you to go home with them and see how they live their life behind closed doors for 30 days. and then you'll know if they're really followers of Jesus. Remember, church is a place we go to to get refueled in the truth of God and to uh use the gifts of the spirit that God has given us to minister to the body that sits around us in that community of friends and acquaintances that we see at church. Have you noticed you you all sit together in the same spot predominantly in the same place? Challenge. Do you know the names of those people that you see every week? Get to know them. This coming Sunday, ask them out to lunch. Say, "Hey, we seems like we sit uh pretty close together most of the time. Let's go out. Let's go to lunch. Invite them out. Get to know one another." Uh but until then, um we we we assume that we are at a church that is full of believers. Look, I hope if the rapture happens today that there's nobody left at the church I pastor. That would be awesome. But in reality, uh it's possible that the church that I pastor, uh there'll be a lot of people still coming on Sunday after the rapture. Wouldn't that be sad? It's possible, but we need to understand the scriptures. And here's one of the big things that we need to talk about.
For it is impossible. I'm sorry. Hebrews chapter 6:4-5 and 6. Hebrews 6:4-5 and 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the son of God and put him to open shame. So people have read that passage of scripture, Hebrews chapter 6:4-5 and 6, and they have somehow concluded that you can lose your salvation. I must admit that that at first glance is a simple, easy, lazy way to come to your conclusion. It's like, "Oh, wow. Look at that. If you fall away, it's impossible for you to come back because you were once enlightened. You knew about the Holy Spirit. You saw the powers of God. And if you if you sin, if you fall away, it's impossible for you to come back." In other words, there's no such thing as a backslider. Because if you're backsliden, then you have fallen away and you can't come back. If you're a backslider, they would say you lost your salvation.
Well, I would also argue from this angle. What assurances do we have when we look at this portion of scripture that the author of the book is simply given an exhortation that is very, very technical and reveals to us insights. He first of all says down at the bottom at the bottom in verse six, he says to them that if they fall away, they're attempting to crucify for themselves again the son of God. And by doing so, they put him to open shame. Herein is both the problem and the answer to the to the uh scripture that's before us. Whoever they are, they are of Hebrew descent. The book is written to the Hebrews. They have the Hebrew traditions in mind. They have Judaism in mind. And what they know is this, that the warning that is going out in this exhortation by the author, it's that you better make sure that your faith is rooted and grounded in truth. You better know, listen, you better know what it is that you believe. So, for example, if you say that you believe that that John wrote the book of Revelation, why do you believe that? You should be able to answer this the that interrogation. If you say, "Well, I believe that you can be saved, born again, and then become unborn again, and become unsaved." Excuse me. You have to prove that in scripture, friends. Show me where the Bible says you can be unborn again. Okay? I can show you in scripture that teaches that once you're born again, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, that your name's written down in heaven, and you're secure in Christ because you've been truly born again. You're not just a believer. Your belief has taken you to faith in God, faith in the scripture, and you know it. As the Bible says, "These things have been written that you might know you have eternal life."
Then when we look at this, whoever they are, notice this, that they are those who if they fall away, it's impossible to renew them back for this reason. They're looking for themselves to crucify the son of God again. They're looking for some secondary blood offering. They're looking for atonement for their iniquity and they're looking for blood or a blood sacrifice because they want to come back. They they fell away and they saw the power of God while they were walking with with you at church. Um, they they they heard of the word of God. They saw the power of God in action. They they sensed the presence of of the spirit of God. Um, they they tasted of the good word of God. And they they they were brought to the place of having to think about and to contemplate and hear in a sermon that there is a forever coming. And they they heard all that. And if they walk away from that, listen, if they walk away from it, these this is not a backsliden group of people. A backslider believes everything that you and I believe, but they they wind up like the prodical son. They wind up drifting off into the weeds. God says in his word, "I'm married to the backslider." Did you know that? Go look that up. God says, "I'm married to the backslider." Backsliden means you've stopped going forward with Jesus and because of your detour of knuckleheadedness, you are backsliden in heart or you're backsliden uh and you've w and you've wandered off. This here is speaking about apostasy. To be an apostate is to traffic with the people of God. and to even think emotionally that you are one of the very people of God. But down deep inside the Holy Spirit may have been warning you. He may have been uh seeking to convince you that you're not right. There's been this nagging uh doubt that you have not been driven to answer the doubt. You've actually been more preoccupied with entertaining the doubt. Like, well, you know, it's great being around these people. They don't rob and steal from you. They don't take your husband or your wife from you. Uh, they're a moral people. It's a good thing. It's wholesome. It's the American thing to do. Go to church on Sunday, you know, and it's good. It's good. Um, nice social group of people, whatever. And plus it fills in the little gap, the void of my religion. I need everybody needs religion by the way. Well, listen. If you have trafficked and had eyewitness experience to the moving of God, I hope that the church that you go to, you would experience that on any given Sunday. I would hope.
So you would say, "Well, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened." You say, "Well, Jack, what about that?" They were enlightened. Yeah, listen. They they the light came on. Hey, that makes sense. Jesus died on the cross for my sins. They would say, "That makes sense. They're being enlightened, informed. They hear that Jesus died on the cross for them. That he was buried and on the third day rose again from the dead. They can even tell you about it. But as you continue on, did that reality, did that enlightenment cause them to be changed at the core of their very being? It's, it goes on to say that they've tasted of the heavenly gift. They have tasted, they've sipped, they have sipped of the fact that salvation is God's free gift given to all those who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They might be even able to tell you what the gospel is. They might even be able to recite the gospel. But notice that they've tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. Well, Jack, there you go. That nails it. That means they were actually born again. It's interesting that they were partakers of the Holy Spirit. They were they were eyewitnesses to the workings of the Holy Spirit. But there's no evidence here that the Holy Spirit possessed them. They are partakers. But was the Holy Spirit a partaker of them? I believe that the Holy Spirit was not a partaker that is owning them unto the day of salvation. It says that they also experienced the powers of the age to come. Maybe they saw miracles. Maybe they heard about miracles being done. But it says that if they fall away to renew them again to repentance. Remember the meaning is it's impossible to renew them again to repentance. Oh my goodness. Really? So wow. If you read verse one and verse six, the issue is these are they these are the ones who fall away. It's impossible to renew them to repentance. Then how do you explain the rest of the Bible that says if you have sinned and fallen away, repent and come back? 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Did not Peter sin when he denied Jesus Christ and ran from Jesus? And yet Jesus is resurrected from the dead. And one of the first conversations he has is says, he says to them, "Tell my disciples, I'll meet them in Galilee." Oh, and make sure you tell Peter. Think about that.
If you listen, if you think this means that if you backslide, you lose your salvation, then that is to say that you've never you have never uh had a stagnant season of life with the Lord. That you have always been progressing upward and onward with Jesus without any hiccups or bumps along the way. I don't believe you. If that's what you think about yourself, I think you're pretty impressed with you. But every single believer has their ups and downs, their seasons of of flourishing and of desert experiences. And in some of those situations, you might even backslide. It may not even be visible, but your heart, for example, could be backsliden in worship. You show up before just before the worship is over at church. You get your car in the parking lot and you say things like, "Yeah, it's we're do we're good. We're good. The sermon hasn't started yet. They're just doing worship. Oh my goodness, that that is backsliden at heart." Or, "Well, the sermon's done. Let's get up and leave real quick because they're just going to do the closing worship song." Oh my goodness. That's to be backsliden of heart. Wow. Or to not care that people are going to die and go to hell that don't know Jesus. That's to be backsliden at heart. Doesn't mean you've lost your salvation. It means you're cold-hearted. You got to you got to get back to him. That's listen, that is not you. And these that are being described right here in scripture. It's my it's my understanding of scripture here of Hebrews 6:4-5 and 6. They were never saved. These people were never saved in the first place because you know what? They're looking around a second time trying to find blood to cover their sin. That means that the blood that Christ shed for them, they didn't take seriously the first time. They didn't believe in it the first time. They had a belief, but it never took them to faith.
So friends, listen. When you read Hebrews 6:4, don't think for a moment that it speaks about losing your salvation. It speaks about you better make sure you're saved. That's what it's talking to you about. This is not a verse to cause you to be insecure as a believer. This is a verse that actually, if studied, results in the opposite. If you study this to find out, do I know all about the heavenly gift? Have I given myself fully to the Holy Spirit? Have I not just tasted of the good word of God, but do I consume it and ingest it into my life? Do I live to have God's will lived out in my life? You will never go around trying to seek some form of savior or salvation through some other blood atonement or go back and revisit the message of Jesus to have him bleed again for you. No, my friend, that's to not know the gospel at all. The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews that Christ died once and for all for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is not suffering today. He's not on the cross. I think I've told you guys this before, but do you know the difference between a Christian cross, a Protestant cross, and a Catholic cross? Catholics believe that Christ has to suffer in the sacrament all the time. But what does the Bible teach? That Christ suffered once and for all, never to suffer again. That's the view of the Protestant or the protesters view because the Bible teaches he only suffered once. Okay? Very important you understand that a Protestant cross doesn't have Jesus on it. A Catholic cross has to have Jesus on it. One is saying we need more blood. We need more suffering. We need him to pay the price again and again and again and again. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches he paid the price once.
And so, friends, listen. To the Jew who came to the fulfillment of being a Jew, the book of Hebrews announces, don't think of wandering away and look look for some other blood sacrifice. Make sure examine yourself that you are in the faith. Notice the scripture doesn't say examine yourself to see if you're a believer or that you believe. The scripture says, the Bible says, examine yourself to determine to make sure that you are in the faith of the faith. This is vital. So, there's a lot of people walking around today as I speak who actually believe or think that they're going to heaven and they'll they'll say because I'm going to heaven because because of what? If you have any other answer other than putting your faith fully upon Christ, his work at the cross, his sanctifying victory over the grave, to put your faith in Christ and Christ alone and in his merit alone, not yours. To believe him to the point where you've put your faith in him. to you. The scripture says, "The doors of eternity of heaven will open up wide. A great entrance will be granted unto you. Your name is written down in heaven that the Holy Spirit dwells within you as he possesses you and you are sealed by the spirit of God unto the day of redemption." That Jesus said, "Whoever will come to me, I will never turn them away." And they are safe, by the way, in the hands of my father and in my hands. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 28, when he says to us in Romans, nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Death nor life, principalities or powers, things spiritual, things of this world, things beneath this world, nothing. Nothing created, nothing spiritual, nothing physical, a nuclear bomb, nobody, nothing can separate you from God's salvation if you're saved. People don't go around and lose their salvation. They never had it in the first place.
Think of that. Well, my friend went forward at the crusade five years ago, but they never went back to church or they kind of sort of they just, you know, I know they love the Lord, but they're still doing a lot of their old stuff and but I know they love the Lord. Do you know why you tell yourself that? You tell yourself that because you don't want to confront your friend who's probably not a Christian at all. They just got a little booster shot of spirituality. They felt a tingle up their spine. They tasted of the heavenly gift and of the powers of the age to come. They went forward at the crusade or they raised their hand at church and nothing changed. They never changed. The book of James answers that and says if they're changed, there'd be good works coming out of their life that bear testimony to their confession of faith. Think of it. We give people strangely a lot of grace where there shouldn't be any. We don't want to talk to them because we get nervous and we don't know what to say and we want to assume they're saved. So, we'll just pat them on the back and we will credit them with, "Well, I know they went forward seven years ago, but there's never been a change in their life, but I know they love the Lord." No, you don't. You're saying that for you. They need you to have you come back into their life and say, "Hey, what's up? I've noticed it's been seven years and um you're you're no different. You you need Christ. You need to come back and you need to re-evaluate because my friend, I don't think that day or that night or that moment when you said what you said, when you did what you did, did you even understand what you were doing? Did you actually repent of your sins and believe believe in Jesus Christ to the point of putting faith in him? How much has Christ been a factor in your daily thought process? When you wake up in the morning, is not Christ Jesus a thought in your mind within the first 30 seconds of waking up? Do you not know that? Did do you not know that that's how a real believer lives? That when you arouse from dreams or sleep and you you wake up within nanoconds of time there's actually a God thought in your mind like like something like Lord good morning Lord thank you Lord thanks for keeping me through the night. God I give you this day. There's a consciousness, an awareness of God. Do you not have that? If you don't have that, it's because you might be flirting with Hebrews chapter 6:4-5 and 6. You might be religious, but you don't know him.
Oh my goodness. Friends, this might be the most important podcast in history regarding you and your future. Because if you think you're going to heaven because and that answer is something other than faith alone in Jesus Christ which has resulted in the transformation of your life then you may you may be very self deceived and I don't say that funny and I'm not saying it to be mean. If I'm hated by 10,000 people and you whatever you do, you dislike me or deffriend me or you cross me out or cancel me, I could care less if one person on this podcast says, "Holy cow, I think I'm that person. I think I'm almost a Christian." But I'm not. That that's what matters. So, you may not like my honesty, but I'm telling you straight up. You need to make sure that you are a follower of Jesus. So please check and see. Is it possible for you to be a believer? Is it possible for you to have faith or is it impossible for you? Because the one who paid the sin debt for your life to you was not enough. He wasn't effective enough. He wasn't worthy enough. He wasn't powerful enough. He wasn't enough for me to let him have total control of my life. And so I'm looking around for something else to add to my life. For you, Jesus wasn't enough. And may God's grace, may God's mercy be upon you. May may you find repentance in your heart to turn to him. Maybe right now this is for you for real. It's not the prayer I'm going to lead you in that will save you. A prayer cannot save you. It's what you now are deciding to believe that you are now going to put faith in Jesus. Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ. Not the Jesus of the cults. Not the Jesus of any other group or thing or place, but Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus the Christ. Jesus the son of David. Jesus the son of God. Jesus the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The one who was, who is, who is to come, the Almighty Jesus.
Father, we come before you right now in this very, very serious moment and we confess in full belief, not in a fable, not in a fairy tale, not in a story, but we now choose to believe the facts that Jesus Christ died in my place. Ordained and engineered by God himself. That 2,000 years ago, the lamb of God had an appointment with the law of God, with the righteousness of God, with the holiness of God. That the lamb of God had an appointment with the wrath of God 2,000 years ago, with the judgment of God 2,000 years ago. And that lamb was so perfect that as the wrath and indignation of God was poured out upon him which was owed to me, he took upon himself. Justice was applied. Justice was satisfied. Righteousness was established. Salvation was purchased. Redemption was made complete and eternal life made available. That if I would right now say, "Lord God Almighty, I come now in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, I divorce myself from myself. I divorce myself from my works, from my deeds, from my morality, from whatever is in the way. and I repent of my sins, my pride, my arrogance, my self-righteousness, my my my disgusting, putriifying pleasure of myself. I I now despise what I am and who I am. And I'm begging you, Almighty God, apply the blood of Jesus Christ to my life. I don't want to taste anything. I don't want to sip anything. I don't want to be near anything. I want to be all in. Take my life completely over, dear God, and save me and put your spirit in my life. Own me that I will never look back, but now live for you forever with you now as a true follower of Christ. In Jesus name I pray. Amen."
I pray that that's your prayer. If you've prayed that prayer, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at jackibs.com. Let us know. We'll send you a Bible. And um if this ma if if this podcast matters to you, please the greatest thing you can do, notice we don't ask we don't have any product to sell. We don't have any fundraisers. The greatest thing you can do is tell other people. Share this link please with others. Until next time, God bless you.