And then I want to look back at verse nine.
The Bible says, but beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak.
So here in verse number nine,
the author of Hebrews is encouraging the Christians.
Notice he says in verse nine, beloved.
So he's talking about people that are saved.
He's saying, hey, I'm persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation.
So there's things in the Bible
that aren't addressing salvation,
but they're rather addressing things
that accompany salvation.
And the word accompany simply means to be
in relation to associated with.
It obviously it's not just necessarily something
that is coupled together and unrelated.
It's very related.
It's very associated.
It has a close connection, but it's distinct.
It's not the same thing.
So we're not talking about salvation.
We're talking about things that accompany salvation.
So we think about french fries and ketchup, right?
What a company's french fries, ketchup does.
Or you could say salt, or you could say something else.
Maybe you say, what a company's a burger,
french fries, or a shake,
or the things that are closely associated one
with another, they go together.
They are related in some fashion,
but they're not each other, okay?
And so when we're talking about this passage,
the author is really stressing the idea
of things that accompany salvation.
You know, you're in a church this morning
and I hope that you're already saved.
I hope that the vast majority of our congregation
is already believed on Jesus Christ and we're already saved.
So then it's like, why are we here?
We're here because we want to talk about
the things that accompany salvation as well.
And so church isn't only to get people saved.
It's also to help people grow and gain knowledge
and add things that accompany salvation.
And so we're all saved, you know,
that we've believed in Jesus, we're all going to heaven.
We can't really change that,
but at the same time, we should still desire
to have things that accompany salvation.
So that's kind of being stressed here
and emphasized in the book of Hebrews specifically.
Of course, Hebrews is a later book in the New Testament.
And I've explained this, you know,
many times in the past, but you know,
just to re-emphasize, I believe if you study
the New Testament layout that as you get
into later books, it is evolving into more mature doctrine.
You're getting more deep doctrine.
You're talking about the maturity
and the later aspects of Christianity
that are being emphasized.
And of course the book of Hebrews specifically
is talking about enduring to the end
and essentially laboring for Christ
all the way to the end and having a great faith.
We have chapter number 11, which really emphasizes
the greatest Christians of all time
and how they really endured to the end
and the exercise great faith.
So that's the point of the book of Hebrews, okay?
Now I wanna build a context to get back to the statement
and then we're gonna finish the sermon talking
a lot about the things that accompany salvation.
But let's understand what this passage is saying.
Look at chapter five, verse nine for a moment.
It says,
I love to take difficult passages of the Bible,
rip them out of context
and then suggest works-based salvation.
Because notice here in verse nine,
it says that Jesus Christ
is the author of eternal salvation
unto all of them that obey him.
Question is, what does that mean to obey him here?
Well, it'd be similar to two other passages.
Keep your finger here.
Go to Romans chapter number 10 for a moment.
Go to Romans chapter number 10.
Let's compare the Bible with itself for a moment.
Let's not just throw out John 3, 16
and every clear verse on salvation being by faith
just because the word obey is mentioned here
in this sense, okay?
And again, Hebrews is not an exhortation
on how to get saved.
That is not what Hebrews is talking about.
That's not the context.
He's talking to a group of people that are already saved.
So we don't wanna go to epistles
or context of scripture
that are not explaining how to get saved
to then have our clear doctrine on salvation.
But you know, Romans 10 is a very clear passage
on salvation and how to get saved
than it's explaining what salvation looks like.
But you know what?
It uses the word obey.
Look at it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 16.
But they have not obeyed, notice this,
the gospel for Isaiah's saith Lord
who hath believed our report.
So here it's talking about people not obeying
but what was the not obeying?
They didn't obey the gospel.
And then it says, what does that look like?
They didn't believe.
It doesn't say that they didn't follow the commandments
or they were sinners because that's everybody.
We've already established that fact.
That's just the reality of Romans chapter number three
for all of sin and comes short of the glory of God.
So what is it that the Jews did not do
is they did not obey the gospel
by believing in Jesus Christ.
And of course it emphasizes in verse 17.
So then faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
So how do you obey to get eternal life?
You hear the word of God and you believe it.
That's the obedience.
The obedience to the word of God being preached to you.
You put your faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the only obedience necessary for salvation.
It's not a following the commandments to get saved.
That's a false doctrine.
I wanna go to another place though.
Go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter two.
2nd Thessalonians chapter number two
because we're unpacking a very difficult portion
of scripture this morning.
I would argue that Hebrews six
is one of the most challenging passages in the Bible.
It's highly disputed.
A lot of people have different ideas
but I wanna do my best to slow down,
take a little bit of time
and for it to just be very easy to understand.
Very easy to walk away and know what we're talking about.
2nd Thessalonians chapter two, look at verse eight.
And then show that wicked be revealed
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
even him who's coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders.
He's talking about the antichrist coming in the future,
being made manifest, the wicked being revealed.
He does this by declaring himself God,
standing in the holy place
and demanding everybody worship him as God, okay?
Now it says that he's gonna be using the power of Satan
and having lying signs and wonders to do these things.
It says in verse 10,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they received not
the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned to believe not the truth
but add pleasure in unrighteousness.
So we have here in verse number 10,
it says that they received not the love of the truth, okay?
So again, in verse eight,
what was the context here?
He's saying that they obey, I'm sorry,
I wanna give you the idea of that they're not believing.
That's the reason why they're not saved.
And then go to chapter one for a second
and look at verse eight.
And flaming fire taking vengeance on them
that know not God and notice this
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
who should be punished with everlasting instruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glorious power.
So in chapter two,
we get the really clear explanation here.
They love not the truth that they can be saved.
They believe the lie, verse 12,
that they all might be damned to believe not the truth
but add pleasure in unrighteousness.
Then in chapter one,
where we understand the statement said
it obeyed not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How do they not obey it?
Because they didn't believe, okay?
They're punished because they didn't believe.
So if they didn't obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
and then we get the clarification in chapter two,
what does that mean?
It's not saying that they were just too sinful
or they didn't give up their sins.
It's that they did not believe.
They did not love the truth that they could be saved.
And so they believe the lie
and they believe not the truth.
And so therefore they are going to hell.
So go back to Hebrews chapter number five.
I just wanted to clarify again.
Obedience in Hebrews chapter five
is not teaching works-based salvation.
Why? Because the Bible doesn't teach works-based salvation.
You know, salvation has always been by faith.
It was never works in the Old Testament.
It was never works when Jesus preached it.
It was at works in the future.
And look, I can't even believe it.
There are people out there, dispensationalists out there
that teach that salvation was by works
in the Old Testament.
They teach that not only was salvation by works
in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ preached salvation by works.
And that Paul was the first person
to ever preach salvation by grace only.
And that it's his gospel and it was a secret.
And then in the future,
when we get to the everlasting gospel,
it's back to works again.
So it's just like, basically it's just like,
works for 4,000 years, works.
Jesus is preaching works.
Then Paul is saying like, oh, it's different for us.
We're just special.
We get in by grace.
But then as soon as the tribulation hits,
back to works again.
I'm glad that we're in this dispensation of grace.
You know what I mean?
And of course, these people that believe this stuff
believe so many heresies, so many false doctrines.
They're so over the top.
And again, what you notice is they have a common pattern
because it's typically coming from a Ruckmanite
viewpoint that has this kind of over the top.
And it's like, oh, what else did they take over the top?
How about the King James Bible issue, right?
They take that over the top.
It's just everything's over the top.
Everything's just like this over literal.
So they hear the word obey
and they're just like, see, work salvation.
No, if we compare with other passages,
we realize the obedience here
is in reference to not believing the gospel.
And look, Jesus and Paul did not preach different gospels.
They preached the exact same gospel.
And you're like, how do you even reconcile
these Ruckmanites when they say,
Paul's saying like, let any man be a curse
that would preach another gospel.
And they're like, oh, that's for this dispensation.
It's like, well, it doesn't say that.
So by their logic, they're making Jesus a curse.
And of course, no man by the spirit of God
called Jesus Christ a curse.
So it sounds like these guys don't have
the spirit of God at all.
I'll just be honest with you,
I just can't believe someone saved
that thinks salvation was by works at any point in time.
Maybe you can believe whatever you want,
but I just don't believe that.
I think you just don't understand the gospel at that point.
And of course, you don't understand what Jesus did for us.
Like, that's a different sermon, okay, sorry.
Let's keep going with our passage for a moment, all right?
So Jesus Christ is the priest after the Lord of Mccasitic,
okay, and he's the author of eternal salvation.
And those who obey him, meaning they believe in him,
they get eternal life, verse 11,
of whom we have many things to say.
I want to talk a lot about Jesus.
And hard to be uttered, sing your dole of hearing.
For in the time he ought to be teachers,
you have neither one teach you again,
which be the first principles of the oracles of God,
and it becomes such as have need of milk
and not strong meat.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness, for he's a babe,
but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So the Bible is saying here
that the apostle Paul wants to explain
some more complicated things to this group of people,
but they're not able to really understand it quite yet
because they're still too basic.
They don't have a good enough understanding yet.
They're still needing milk.
So it's like a baby, you want to give them steak,
you want to give them meat, but they can't chew it.
They're not capable of eating this yet.
And so as a result, you kind of have to give them
the milk so they can keep maturing, keep growing up,
and then you can eventually teach them this.
It's like, hey, people show up
and you want to teach them calculus,
but they don't understand addition.
They don't understand multiplication.
Well, we have to learn addition and multiplication
before I can teach you how to do simple algebra
or get anything to calculus for you to understand it.
Otherwise, it's a waste of time.
And so that's the basic concept.
The basic concept is, hey, you guys,
you've been saved long enough
that you should basically know these things.
And look, this is a phenomenon we see in America today
where there are a lot of people that have been saved
for five years, 10 years, 15 years,
but they're going to a church
that's not teaching them anything in the Bible.
And so they're still immature
and they still have very little understanding.
It's sad, you go to a lot of different churches a day
and you run into different people
and you talk with these individuals
and they really don't know anything.
They don't know, like it's very difficult
to explain some doctrines to them
because they're still on pre-trib or something.
It's like, hey, I want to talk to you about
this interesting thing I found in the Old Testament
that's talking about Christ returning
in the middle of the seven years
and they're just like pre-trib, bro.
You're like, well, I can't really get you there
because you still don't even understand
these basic concepts.
Maybe you don't even know the story.
It surprises me how many times I knock on someone's door
and I'm trying to give them the gospel.
And I get to the point where I'm explaining
that Jesus went to hell.
And I say, hey, you know how Jonah was in the whales belly
for three days and three nights?
They're like, no, I've never heard that story before.
And it's like, I kind of want to use that to illustrate
that was a picture about Jesus would go to hell
and he quotes that in the book of Matthew.
But I'm just surprised how many people
don't even know the story of Jonah.
And look, I just think there's a lot of people
in this world that are even saved,
not even just the unsafe that are saved
and they just lack a lot of basic understanding.
They lack a lot of basic biblical doctrine.
And so you can't really teach more advanced subjects.
You can't really teach difficult passages of the Bible
because they're still just so novice, so immature.
And that's kind of the point that he's making.
Okay, I think that is clear.
I think everybody even agrees with what I just said.
That's what the Bible is clearly saying.
Hey, you're too basic.
So then what would be the solution to becoming less basic?
Moving on from basic teaching
and teaching you more information, right?
And that's what he says in verse one of chapter six.
Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,
let us go on under perfection.
So he's saying, I'm not going to teach you basics anymore.
I want to teach you some more advanced doctrine
so you're no longer immature.
And notice again, the comparison in verse 14,
full age with what it says here, perfection.
Perfection is completion or what we describe as maturity.
So being fully perfect would be fully mature
or being of full age.
So we leave the basic doctrine,
teach you more advanced doctrine
so that you're no longer a babe, you're now full age.
You're now perfect, you're now complete.
He says, not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works in a faith toward God.
Now what is the foundation of our faith?
It's Christ, it's believing in Jesus Christ.
That's what gets us saved.
So the foundation of repentance from dead works.
What are dead works?
That's believing that your works are gonna save you,
but they were dead.
Your dead interest passes and sins
and our works don't save us at all.
So to be saved, you have to repent from dead works
meaning you don't believe that works will save you
and you put your faith in what?
In Jesus Christ, which is what it says explicitly here,
it says, and faith toward God.
So that is the first step to getting saved.
That is the first principle.
That is the foundation of our faith is repentance
and putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
We turned from dead works to Jesus Christ.
Word repent means to turn.
So we turn from something that can't save
to something that can't save.
Dead works can't save, faith in God can save.
So we've done that.
Then what are other basic doctrines
right after salvation?
What's right after the foundation
and our building construction here?
The doctrine of baptisms and the laying out of hands
and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
So he's just basically saying,
hey, these things are all the basics.
Going to hell, baptism, getting saved.
And essentially, he brings up laying out of hands
which I would just assume this is kind of talking about
that initial understanding of church planting.
And we see this in the book of Acts
where a lot of those initial people, this is happening.
You could also relate to laying out of hands
is how they receive the Holy Ghost.
Because in the first early part of the church,
what's happening?
They're getting saved, they're getting baptized,
they're laying hands on them,
they're being filled with the Holy Ghost.
And additionally, they're laying hands on the early leaders
to send them out to start churches.
This is all your most basic doctrine,
the first principles, the foundation of the Christian faith
and we're setting up a church.
A church is made of what?
People that got saved, baptized
and now we're forming together in this local congregation.
But then the question is what's the point
of this congregation?
And if I have all these people that are saved,
should I just keep teaching them how to be saved?
And look, there are Baptist churches in this world
that basically preach a salvation message
almost every Sunday morning.
I mean, they're basically just laying down
the foundation every single week, every single service.
They're just focused on the foundation and the principles
and that's really not gonna cause any growth
for the congregation, okay?
And it's gonna cause people to become dole of hearing
because it's like who wants to just sit here
and learn how to get saved week after week
after week after week after week.
They basically just are immature,
they can't really understand anything
and they could have been that way for years.
And he's saying by this amount of time
you should have grown up though.
Like you've had enough time to actually be pretty mature
and you're not because we haven't left
the first principles, okay?
So we need to do that.
And he says in verse three,
and this will we do if God permits.
So what is this that we're gonna do?
We're gonna go on to perfection.
We're going to essentially become perfect.
So God willing, basically, what he's saying.
No one knows how long they're gonna live.
No one knows that they're for sure
gonna stay in the faith.
We shouldn't be high-minded
and think like, well, I'm definitely gonna be said faster.
I know that God's gonna preserve me to have a long life.
Like, you don't know how many days you're gonna have
and you don't know how faithful you're gonna be.
And so he's just basically saying,
hey, we're gonna go on to perfection if God permits.
If God allows us to do this, we wanna do this.
And if God permits us.
Now in verse four,
this is kind of where there's different opinions, okay?
And I'm just basically gonna go through it
and present what I believe the Bible's clearly saying here.
But I think understanding the context
is the thing that matters the most, okay?
So we've gotten to this point
where we understand this doctrine of what?
We need to not be a babe.
We need to learn advanced doctrine.
We're hoping God allows us to do this.
Then we get the word for.
The word for is obviously in conjunction
with the previous thoughts.
You could think of for as being because.
Why would we leave the foundation?
Because it is impossible for those who are once enlightened
and have tasted the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost
and have tasted the good word of God
and the powers of the world to come
if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance
seeing they crucified themselves as the Son of God afresh
and put into an open chain.
So verses four through six is one sentence
and he has kind of a lengthy description
of what this group of people are like.
I think that almost everybody
when they read this list initially thinks
that sounds like a saved person, okay?
Just because of the language.
I mean, we're thinking about people that were enlightened.
That's usually the gospel light coming on in their brain, right?
They've tasted the heavenly gift.
That means they experienced it in some way.
Taste usually means a short duration.
So it doesn't mean that it's been very long
but they've tasted it.
Number three, it says that they are partaker
of the Holy Ghost.
I mean, I don't know how you partake
and you're not saved but that's what it says.
It also then says tasted the good word of God
and the powers of the world come.
Just sounds like a saved person
but let's just put that aside.
Let's just put that aside.
What is the sentence if we take these descriptors out
and just kind of get to the bare root of the sentence
for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,
okay, we're just taking that first part
and then we're kind of going to the next section
if they shall fall away to renew them
again under repentance,
seeing they crucified themselves
and have got a fresh and put into an open chain.
So somebody's falling away
and then it says we cannot do something
because it's impossible.
Something's impossible.
What's impossible?
To renew them again under repentance.
So it's impossible for these people to repent
but notice this word again.
It's impossible to repent again.
Well, here's the thing.
What did they repent of?
What was the repentance?
Well, wouldn't we use the exact same chapter
to define that word
if it was already used in this passage?
It says in verse one
that the repentance was from dead works
and a faith toward God.
So if we just allow the context itself to define this word,
we would say this,
it's impossible for you to get saved twice.
I mean, that's all it's saying.
Isn't that logical?
Is it possible to get saved twice?
No, because you can't lose your salvation.
Now here's the thing.
Why would I stop preaching the gospel to somebody?
Wouldn't one reason be because
once you're saved, you're always saved?
Wouldn't it be because it's just impossible
to lose it?
So because if it was possible to lose it,
then I could see why you say,
I'm just gonna keep hammering this.
Because here's the thing.
What's the point of me going to advanced doctrine
if half of my church is gonna lose their salvation
and go to hell?
Then I'm just gonna spend my whole time
just trying to get you saved
and make sure you stay saved, you know?
Let's just all stay saved, okay?
And in fact, I went to a church,
it was not a good church, I'll admit this,
but they had a guest preacher
and he was explaining once, saved, always saved.
And he said, look, if you believe
that people can lose their salvation,
then what we need to do is after the altar call,
put a bullet in their head immediately.
Because he said, going to hell is that bad
that if you could possibly lose your salvation,
you don't wanna risk that at all.
And so as soon as someone's saved in the right state,
we need to just put a bullet in their head
so they're for sure going to heaven.
And I was like, I mean, it does make sense.
I don't wanna trust myself with that, you know?
But here's the good news.
It's impossible to be renewed to get under repentance, okay?
And why is that good news?
It's because, hey, Christ's sacrifice really did
not only pay your past sins, it paid your future sins.
So even if you do fall away, you can't lose your salvation.
So we don't need to keep harping that point to the saved
because you're already saved.
Whereas the old sacrificial system
that the Hebrews were under,
yeah, they had to keep coming back
and offering sacrifices every single time
and every time they screwed up, they had to come back.
And so you could see why this is a stressed
and emphasized point to this group of people
because their previous system made them constantly come back
and constantly offer sacrifices
and their sacrifices were only atoning for their past sins
and he's trying to differentiate.
No, no, no, Christ is not a continual sacrifice.
Christ is not something that only pays for this current issue.
It was a once for all sacrifice
so it's impossible to renew them again under repentance.
And if we did have to, if you could lose it,
if you didn't need another sacrifice,
then that would make Christ sacrifice of none effect
and it would make it kind of shameful
that it didn't really happen,
didn't really pay all your sins.
And notice what it says,
seeing they crucified themselves,
the Son of God of Fresh.
If I get saved, fall away, lose my salvation
and now I have to get saved again.
What I'm doing is I'm crucifying Christ all over again
and that's what it means of fresh,
that means to do it again.
So why would I be, how could I do it again
if I didn't do it the first time?
How could I repent again if I didn't do it the first time?
It's sewing, hey, this guy repented
and in a sense is receiving the crucified Christ
but if he lost his salvation,
well then we have to do it again.
I have to repent again
and he has to specifically get crucified again
and that would put Christ's sacrifice to an open chain
meaning that it wasn't sufficient,
it didn't really pay at all,
his blood wasn't enough to cover my transgressions
and so therefore he's no different than a beast
which simply could not forgive all of my sins.
But you know what Christ's sacrifice is unique, is special,
it really did pay all of our sins
and so therefore we don't need to keep preaching
to the saved, to stay saved
because it's impossible to lose your salvation.
It's that clear.
Then when we throw in the added bonus
of the fact that just all the descriptors
made this person sound saved,
well then it just kind of fits naturally.
The context fits naturally, the passage fits naturally,
it makes perfect sense with their doctrine, okay?
Then we get to another verse, verse seven.
Four, this is another because, here's another reason.
Why would we stop preaching basic sermons?
Number one, because you can't lose your salvation.
Here's number two, why would we stop preaching basics?
Four, the earth which drinketh in the rain
that cometh off upon it
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them
by whom it is dressed, received a blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briers
is rejected and is nigh into cursing
whose end is to be burned.
So he gives a parable of essentially two results.
One person receiving, it's like talking about vegetation here.
Vegetation receives this water and creates fruit,
the other one produces thorns, okay?
But here's the thing, some people would say,
oh that sounds like an unsaved person.
But actually in the Bible we have so many examples of this
that are talking about saved people, okay?
So the language by itself could be used different ways.
That's what parables are.
Parables often can be interpreted in lots of different ways
and we have to kind of try and figure out
what's the right interpretation with a parable.
And a parable in the mouth of fools
is just gonna be lame and not make sense.
So let's compare this with another parable
that is using the exact same language.
Keep your finger, go to Luke chapter number eight.
Go to Luke chapter number eight and let's decide
if someone can have thorns and be saved.
And I'm gonna show you that the Bible teaches clearly
that someone can have thorns and be saved.
And what would be the point of not having thorns
is so that you're fruitful.
It says in Luke chapter eight, look at verse number seven.
And some fell among thorns and the thorns
sprang up with it and choked it, okay?
So this is a parable, talk about thorns,
choking the seed of the word.
If we skip down, it then gives us the explanation
of what that even looks like.
What are these thorns?
Verse 14, and that which fell among thorns are they
which when they have heard go forth
and are choked with the cares and riches
and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.
Now does that sound like somebody who was once enlightened,
made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, fell away
and is now not producing any fruit?
What are they producing?
Thorns and that thorns is causing them
to basically be unfruitful.
And then of course as a result,
they could be even punished by God.
How do you know that?
Well, go to John chapter 15.
Some people interpret the parable of the sower
as all these people are unsaved.
I don't believe that at all
because the Bible made it crystal clear
that those who believed were saved.
The parable only has one group that's unsaved.
It's those that did not believe.
They received the word of God into their heart,
but they didn't believe.
And the devil took that which was sown out of their heart,
lest they should believe and be saved
as what the Bible says, okay?
So all the other groups that received it,
they got saved, but they just didn't do anything.
You know, the ones with the parable
of stony ground were immediately offended.
They didn't produce fruit.
The second group, they were there for a little while,
but they allowed the cares of this world
to choke their concerns of spiritual matters.
They become too carnal.
They're backslidden.
They fall away from the things of God
and they don't produce fruit.
The last group, because they have good soil,
they stick in with church.
They stick in with things of God
and they bring forth some 30, some 60, some 100.
I don't think you have to be a soul winner
getting 30 people saved or you're not saved.
Like that, that's pretty extreme.
And heaven's gonna be really small because think about it.
Everybody that we're getting saved didn't even get saved.
Because how many people are we getting saved
that immediately get into, or going soul winning
and getting 30 people saved themselves?
Like if that's the standard,
well, it's very minimal people are gonna get in heaven.
And we need to change our approach
because all these people that were leaving high and dry
didn't get saved, you know?
We'd be more focused on just getting one person in here
and getting out there in the door,
but that's not salvation.
Salvation isn't do all this work and be saved.
It's a free gift, but the laborers are still few.
There's still a lot of people
that don't want to actually serve God.
And so that's the point of the parable.
Look, the Bible is written to the disciples.
It's not written to the bare minimum Christian, okay?
It's not written only to explain how to be saved.
It's written to also encourage us to get people saved,
okay?
John 15 gives a warning though
that if you were abiding in Christ,
you're obviously part of Christ
and you decide to fall away, get back slidden,
that you could be punished.
Look at John 15, verse six.
If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch and is withered
and men gather them and cast them into the fire
and they are burnt.
So, you know, and again,
I'm not gonna belabor these passages,
but this passage is not talking about someone going to hell.
He's just talking about physical destruction.
We have first Corinthians chapter number five,
a guy who's delivered into Satan
for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved.
You can be destroyed in this life
through God's punishment, but you're still saved, okay?
Obviously, the Christian who's enlightened
and was partaker of the Holy Ghost and doing right
and then just totally turns away from God,
he's gonna see his life end in destruction,
just like King Saul,
just like other backslidden Christians we have in the Bible.
You turn away from the things of God, punished, destroyed.
You think about, or remember, lots wife.
Lots wife turns back, turns into pillar or assault.
And so, you don't wanna be a backslidden Christian
because, of course, God can punish you in all kinds of ways.
Go back if you would to Hebrews chapter number six
and we'll keep going for a moment.
But I just wanna say,
what was the context we were talking about again?
Oh yeah, I wanna stop preaching salvation to you.
We need to learn advanced doctrine.
Why?
Well, you can't lose your salvation
and then what's the second reason?
Because you're gonna reap what you sow.
Because if you actually receive the word of God
and you're actually being fruitful,
you'll receive a blessing.
And if you're not and you're backslidden
and you're producing thorns in your life,
you'll receive cursing and you can be punished by God.
Don't you think that's a pretty good reason to continue?
If I said, hey, I don't wanna just keep preaching
these basics because you need to learn stuff
so you can actually produce fruit and have a blessing.
And if you decide to not,
well, you're gonna be punished
so you need to learn this information.
You need to grow, you need to get better
so that you can actually produce.
Think about it in another context here
because this is the analogy the Bible's using is a job.
He's talking about labor and we're gonna get to that point
but let's say you get hired for a company.
You're working for a company.
You come in day one.
How many people are really productive
for their company on day one?
You're pretty much just costing the company money.
For a very short period of time,
I mean you're basically doing absolutely nothing.
You're just an expense.
They're training you.
They're giving you all kinds of materials.
They're taking people off the workforce
to come and show you around and show you different things.
And so in many cases, you're not only not producing,
you're actually taking away from the organization.
You're actually costing them a lot of money.
Here's the thing.
You can't stay in that state
and they're gonna keep hiring you
or they're gonna keep you on the payroll.
You have to actually start learning how to do the job
and how to be productive
and how to actually accomplish things.
Otherwise they're gonna be like,
hey, we don't want you anymore.
The whole point is that you're actually plugged in
and gonna produce something.
In the same way that you get into the church,
God wants you to actually start learning
so you can start producing.
And if you don't produce or whatever,
then he may just take you out of the branch
because what's the point?
He uses these analogies again.
You have a fruit tree.
You're a husband man.
You're trying to produce grapes
or apples or whatever it is
and you have this fruit tree.
Well, there's all these branches on it.
There's this one branch.
It's just popping apples out like left and right
and these are some of the greatest apples.
Then you have another branch
that's doing absolutely nothing and producing thorns.
And every time you go to pluck off apples,
you accidentally prick yourself
on this one branch that just has thorns.
You're like, dang it.
You know what you're gonna do?
You're gonna rip that stinking branch off
and you're gonna burn it with fire.
You're gonna go office space on that printer.
You know what I mean?
You're just like,
I don't want this stupid branch in here anymore.
Like you're gonna get rid of that branch.
But see, here's the thing.
That's the same with the Christian life.
If you're just producing thorns in your life,
hey, God may just wanna get rid of you.
God may be just tired of you just being on that vine
and not producing anything.
And he's like, hey, this branch
just keeps wasting the water that's going into this tree.
I wanna keep and reserve that water
for this branch that's getting 30 apples on it
or 100 apples on it.
I wanna get more on this particular branch.
That's the whole parable.
That's the whole point, okay?
So then we get to verse nine.
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation
than we thus speak.
Now he's making a contrast here.
Why make the contrast?
Well, again, because in verses four through six,
the hypothetical was somebody that fell away.
So what is he saying?
I'm persuaded that you guys won't fall away.
And I'm persuaded that you guys aren't the ones
that are gonna end up being nigh to cursing
and bearing the thorns, okay?
I'm persuaded the better things,
I'm persuaded that y'all are not gonna be like this
and what things that accompany salvation
though we thus speak.
So though I brought these examples up
of the negative examples,
I'm not saying that's what y'all are gonna be like.
I'm persuaded y'all are not gonna be like that.
But of course, and I'm persuaded
you're gonna have things that accompany salvation.
But I did bring it up as another justification
or explanation as to why we'd move on from the basics
or moving on from the basics
because at the end of the day,
you can't lose your salvation,
you're gonna reap what you sow.
But hey, I'm persuaded that you guys
are not gonna be the backslidden,
you know, worst Christians of the group.
I'm persuaded that you're not gonna be
the people that are bruising thorns
and I just wanted to explain that.
Verse 10, four, another because.
What's this because?
Because God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love,
which you have showed toward his name
and they have ministered to the saints to minister.
So another reason why we should do this
is because God will never forget
your work and labor of love.
So I want you guys to become mature.
I want you guys to understand the Bible.
I want you to have good doctrine.
I want you to labor hard.
Why?
Because God will reward you for serving him.
He's not unright, it's unrighteous
to have someone work for you and you not pay them.
It's unrighteous to not give them their wages.
It's unrighteous to forget their work
or forget their labor.
Just think about it.
If you just all of a sudden look at your bank account
and your paycheck just didn't hit,
you'd be like, well, that's kind of crummy.
You go to your boss and he's just like,
yeah, I don't think you work this week.
Let's just not worry about it.
You'd be like, well, that's not very righteous.
Or someone, you'd go to someone's house
and they're like, hey, I'll give you 20 bucks
to mow the lawn.
You mow the lawn.
And he's like, I never said that,
but thanks for mowing the lawn anyways.
You'd be like, well, that's kind of unrighteous.
That's not very good.
You want someone to actually pay you
for the work that you did.
And it's saying God is someone that will always pay.
He'll never forget.
There's no work you've ever done on this earth
that was for God or good that God will ever forget.
That's what he's saying.
So isn't that a good motive?
Because sometimes in a human way,
we have a lot of labor that goes unnoticed.
And so there could be this incentive not to do it.
You go to your work and it's like,
there's a bunch of trash over here.
It's not your jobs, not your responsibility.
And if you clean it up, no one's gonna see.
It's like, there's a temptation to be like, not my problem.
Because if I go and do this work,
no one's gonna notice, no one's gonna see.
I'm not gonna get rewarded.
I'm not getting paid extra.
Hey, there's some problem at your company
and you're gonna have to stay 15 minutes later
to get that job done.
But no one's gonna notice.
Your boss isn't gonna see it.
You're not gonna get paid for that 15 minutes.
There's an incentive not to do it.
But here's the thing with God, he always sees it.
He sees every time you pick up that piece of trash
that wasn't yours, every minute that you stayed extra,
every little thing that you did.
And you know, I worked for a boss
and I at least appreciated his attempt
to try and help people do this
is he tried to make every employee a stockholder.
And then he would try to tell people,
hey, you're not an employee, you're an owner.
Because he said owners often
will take better care of their businesses.
Because you know, when you're an owner
you wanna pick up the trash,
you wanna take care of stuff
because you feel like it's important to you.
And so that was kind of his principle and his philosophy
of kind of addressing this problem.
But you know, the way God wants you to address this
is like, hey, I'm always watching and I always know.
And look, even if it a human sense,
humans won't notice, God always knows anyways.
So you should just go ahead and do it anyways.
Because God will bless you carnally and spiritually
when you're just doing right and doing the good thing
when no one notices, no one's looking around,
you're gonna reap what you sow
and God's not unrighteous
and God takes these things seriously.
And notice, why are you even doing this in the first place?
You're a labor of love,
which you have showed toward his name
and that you have ministered to the saints
and do minister.
Notice that you're loving Christians,
you're doing good unto Christians
and God notices that, God loves that.
God really appreciates Christians loving other Christians.
What does minister to serve?
Serving other Christians.
And of course, where are you gonna do that?
It's called church, folks.
You know, oh, I don't like church.
Oh, so you don't like helping other people?
You don't like ministering other people?
You don't have any love in your heart?
Oh, well, churchful hypocrites.
Well, why don't you love that hypocrite
and help him not be a hypocrite anymore?
And I'd love to see,
I'd love to meet the person that's not a hypocrite.
Okay.
And I'd love to find the institution
that's not full of hypocrites.
Is that the federal government?
Is that the college?
You know, is that, what is this magical institution?
Is that the Israeli government?
You know, is that the Muslims?
I mean, it's just like,
what's this magical environment,
this magical group where there's no hypocrites
or whatever?
You know, it's just silly.
But again, people just don't like church
and they try to say church is bad,
but ultimately what they're saying
is I don't want to serve other people and I'm selfish.
That's really what they're saying.
I don't love God.
I don't appreciate what he did for me.
I don't want to work and I don't want to serve people.
That's what they're saying.
But of course, that doesn't sound good.
Hey, I'm selfish and lazy.
Has anybody even heard that at the door?
Like, I don't even hear that.
You know, it's just like,
I mean, maybe it once in a blue moon,
but it's just like,
they're just like, no, there are hypocrites,
they're bad.
I don't like it.
And it's just like, well, okay,
but we're here to serve imperfect people.
We're here to serve people.
And if you're so much better than all of us,
why don't you come lead by example?
It's funny how all the people that don't go to church
are better than all the people going to church.
What would God, they would just show up
and just show us and basically,
we could just benefit from their presence
and their glory and their non-hypocritical nature.
Of course.
Of course this person is like, where do you go to church?
What's the name of it again?
Yeah, because you're not a hypocrite.
But we've explained this point.
This is why it's important to me too.
In verse nine, notice it says the things
that accompany salvation.
Doesn't that kind of give you an indication
that what we're talking about in this passage
is not salvation itself?
It's a company.
But modern versions change this verse.
So the modern versions don't say a company salvation.
This is what the ESV says, things that belong to salvation.
So I was listening to some Calvinists
and he's basically explaining like,
hey this passage is about salvation
and how to get saved and stuff.
And I'm just thinking like,
and then his justification is because verse nine says,
we're talking about things that belong to salvation.
And I'm like, whoa, that's not what the passage
says at all.
It says the exact opposite in the King James.
NIV, the things that have to do with salvation.
Wow.
So again, the modern versions invert this
to where we're not talking about things
that accompany salvation.
We're talking about things that have to do with salvation.
But here's the thing, what is the context?
Working.
So then it's really easy to teach work salvation
when your Bible is saying that works belong to salvation
or that works are somehow having to do with salvation,
whereas the King James is saying it accompanies salvation.
It's the things that are accompanying it,
not the things that have to do with it or belong to it.
And so that's why it's really important
to have a King James Bible.
Because this isn't a verse that's taken out.
This is just one little word twisted and perverted
to mean the exact opposite.
And then it affects salvific doctrine.
And of course, there's a lot of people that have weird
version, you know, weird ideas or views on Hebrew six.
They'll teach this teaches that you can lose your salvation.
And then when you lose it, you can never get it back.
That's kind of scary.
You know, that would be kind of weird,
especially since the Bible never teaches
you can lose your salvation anywhere else.
Or they'll say, I heard some people say,
oh, this is about the tribulation.
In the tribulation, you can lose your salvation
because there's gonna be these backslidden Christians
who take the mark and then they lost it.
Well, I would agree with you they're not saved,
but they didn't lose their salvation, they never had it.
But I do believe that we'll see a lot of people
that were, quote, Christian in the end times
taking the mark of the beast, okay?
They didn't lose their salvation though, folks.
They never had it to begin with, okay?
You cannot lose your salvation.
There's a lot, there's so many different views,
but I just wanna take a second and we'll finish this passage
and then we're gonna insert a few different options
to see which makes the most sense.
But why are we talking about the things
that come in salvation because God's not gonna forget
your work in labor above?
Verse 11.
And we desire that every one of you do so
the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope under the end that you be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises.
So again, for the work salvation is the same,
see, you gotta endure to the end,
you gotta do all these works to get the promises.
But notice it's a promises plural.
Because we're not talking about eternal life,
we're talking about the rewards associated
with the work that we do
and the things that accompany salvation.
Because there's more than one promise.
Obviously there's the promise of eternal life
that we receive by faith in Christ.
But then there's other promises like crowns
and rewards in heaven that are associated
with us showing diligence, working hard,
laboring under the end, enduring under the end.
Those are special rewards and privileges
for those who were faithful in the Christian life.
So we all get to heaven by faith,
we are rewarded based on our works and diligence.
Verse 13, for when God made promise to Abraham,
because he could square by no greater
he would serve by himself,
saying surely blessing I'll bless thee
and multiplying I'll multiply thee.
And so after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise.
For men verily served by the greater
and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife.
So Abraham patiently endured.
Did Abraham have to patiently endure
to get eternal life?
No, he patiently endured to receive
the promise of reward,
the promise of being the great patriarch
of the Hebrew faith
and having the Hebrew children
and having being the progenitor to this great nation.
And of course the progenitor
of the Jesus Christ himself.
And so there's all kinds of different things
that could be associated with this
just not salvation itself.
Because we're talking about things
that accompany salvation.
We're not talking about salvation,
we're talking about things that accompany salvation.
Don't get an NIV or ESV.
We're not talking about things that belong to salvation.
We're not talking about things
that have to do with salvation.
We're talking about things that accompany salvation.
And of course, Abraham is a great example
of someone who endured to the end,
of someone who patiently endured,
who had diligence, who worked really hard
and he did not receive eternal life
through his diligence and his hard work.
Then he has wear of the glory.
He did it through his faith in Jesus Christ.
But he is justified in being the friend of God
based on his works.
He is justified in being the progenitor of our faith.
Okay, so we wanna rightly divide this clear passage.
He says then in verse number 17,
wherein God willing more abundantly to show
under the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel confirmed by an oath
that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul
both here and set fast
and which entereth into that within the veil
whether the forerunner is for us entered in even Jesus,
made in high priest forever after the order of Mccasitic.
So we've kind of taken a little detour
off of the book of Hebrews.
That's chapter six is kind of a detour
because he's building a context.
He wants to explain the importance
of Jesus Christ being
that ultimate sacrifice in Mccasitic.
And he says, but I can't completely explain this to you
until we realize we gotta leave salvation.
We gotta stop talking about salvation for a minute
and start talking about things that accompany salvation.
Isn't that important?
It's important sometimes when we're talking about works
that we sometimes make a little caveat,
detour for a second and say, hey, just everybody knows,
salvation's a free gift by faith, you can't lose it.
Then we go back, God will punish you for not working
and we wanna make sure that we work really hard.
It's kind of that normal detour
that we all make as preachers
trying to make this careful delineation
saying, hey, we're not talking about salvation,
we're leaving that,
we're not talking about the foundation,
we're not talking about repentance,
we're not talking about these other doctrines,
we're leaving that
and we're going on to perfection over here
and we're talking about things that accompany salvation.
Now let's finish the book of Hebrews.
Let's finish the book of Hebrews realizing
that we're talking about things that accompany salvation,
not salvation, don't get screwed up on this.
Don't ever sit here and take chapter seven, eight,
nine, 10 is talking about salvation
is talking about things that accompany salvation.
We had to make that detour,
we had to make that clarity to say,
hey, we're leaving that,
we're not talking about that kind of stuff anymore,
we're talking about this.
Why?
Because you can't lose your salvation, folks.
Why?
Because you're gonna reap what you sow
and God's not gonna forget your worker labor of love
and it's important to do that work
and it's important to patiently endure
and we want you to inherit the promises
not just eternal life.
Hey, some people are getting eternal life
and that's it.
Some people are gonna inherit promises.
I wanna be that group that inherits promises
with an S at the end of it,
not just eternal life.
Now praise God, I've already got eternal life.
I'm locked in, but you know what?
I wanna inherit other promises too,
other rewards and that's the motivation
and of course, well, as an example of this, Abraham
and then the most important forerunner
or example or model is Jesus himself.
Look at all things he endured,
look how he made it to the end,
look how faithful he was, okay?
That's the whole context, that's the whole point
of Hebrews, okay?
It can seem like a very difficult book
but I think when you slow down,
pay attention, it makes a lot of sense.
Now, I brought this board up here
and I just wanna re-emphasize this point
just before I move on.
Let's just think about the greater context
of the sentence that we've made here in chapter one, okay?
Chapter one, I'm sorry, chapter six, verse one.
What are we doing?
We're leaving the basics
and we're gonna learn advanced doctrine.
That's what it's clearly saying, okay?
Then when we get down to verse nine,
he says, and we are persuaded,
you will have things that accompany salvation
and God will not forget your labor, okay?
That's a clear bread to our sandwich.
So didn't we just wanna figure out like,
what did this middle say?
Let's insert what so many people teach
is that you can lose your salvation, all right?
Let's think about this.
Let's leave the basics and learn advanced doctrine
because you can lose your salvation.
Why would I stop teaching you salvation
if you could lose your salvation?
And then it says, and we're persuaded,
you will have things that accompany salvation
and God won't forget your work and labor love.
Why would I care?
How does that make sense?
It doesn't make sense for me to say, hey,
we need to stop teaching you about salvation
because you can lose it and you'll never get it back
but you know what, God's gonna reward you for your works.
Why would I care about being rewarded for works
because people can lose their salvation and never get it back?
Like, has that ever been a motivation for you?
It's like, hey, why are you out here so winning?
Because some people are gonna lose their salvation
and they can never get it back.
Like, that's never motivated me
to preach the gospel to anybody.
I don't know if it's motivated you.
It's a weird motivation.
Maybe there is some people out there.
They're like, I'm just hoping I reprimand somebody
out here, you know, while I'm preaching the gospel.
Like, I don't know.
It doesn't really make any sense to me, okay?
There's another idea that maybe it's just saying
some people, they learned about the gospel
and they had a lot of chances and they didn't like it
and then as a result, they rejected it
and so now they're reprobate, okay?
But again, we are gonna leave teaching the basics
and learn advanced doctrine
because reprobates can't get saved
and we're persuaded that you're not a reprobate.
Why would I be persuaded that you're not a reprobate?
Like, and that you have things in a company's salvation.
You know, at the end of the day,
I can't really know who's a reprobate or not.
You know, like when they're an infiltrator.
Let me make this clear, okay?
I do believe that reprobates are manifest in this world
but we're talking about the people in church
professing faith in Christ.
I can't tell if they're reprobate yet, okay?
Eventually they can manifest themselves later
but at the end of the day, you know,
I wanna stop teaching salvation and learning doctrine
because of the fact that I can't lose my salvation
because I'm gonna be rewarded based on what I do
and I'm persuaded that you guys wanna do that with me
so that we can have things in the company's salvation
and God's not gonna forget our labor.
That kind of just fits like a perfect glove.
The other ones are just left hanging
because again, I'm not really motivated,
I'm not really motivated to work hard
because reprobates can't get saved
or because people could lose their salvation
or any of these other ideas
but I am motivated that I will be rewarded
based on what I do
or that I'll be punished based on what I do.
That is a very clear indication.
So again, I think that this is pretty clear.
I just like to show the context
so that people maybe get a better idea
but I wanna prove it further with the same book, okay?
Let's go to chapter number 10 for a moment now.
Let's go to chapter number 10
and continue our thoughts here.
Look at verse number 15.
Where have the Holy Ghost also as a witness to us
for after that he had said before
this is the covenant that I'll make with them
in those days, after those days, say to the Lord
I will put my laws in their hearts
and in their minds will I write them
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
So, chapter seven, eight and nine,
explain Melchizedek.
They explain the crisis of once for all sacrifice.
So now that we're getting into chapter 10,
we're kind of revisiting that same thought
that we left off with.
He's saying here that Christ,
notice that we're talking about the New Testament
that it's gonna purge all of our sins and iniquities.
Notice and he'll remember them no more.
Verse 18, now we're remission of these is
there is no more offering for sin.
That's a main point.
There's no more offering for sin.
There's no more sacrifice.
It's never gonna happen again, okay?
Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus
by a new and living way
which he had consecrated for us through the veil
that is to say his flesh
and having a high priest over the house of God
let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith
having our sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water.
Why is this important?
In the Old Testament,
if I'm an Old Testament saint,
I can't get into the holiest of holies.
I've forbidden because I'm not the high priest.
Even the Levites, they can't get in that part.
It's only the high priest once a year
goes in the holiest of holies
to offer some kind of a sacrifice
for the atonement or the sins of the people, okay?
Me, as just a normal person,
I can go to the Levites
and I can offer my sacrifices
but they kinda do it for me.
I still can't even go to the holies of holies.
But now we have a new,
meaning different and living way
to enter into the holiest
but it's not through a continual sacrifice
because there's no more offering for sin.
There's zero more sacrifices.
I do it through what Jesus Christ already did
and I can have what, boldness?
Because there's a thing,
if we fast forward back in time
or we went reverse back in time,
we're in the Old Testament covenant
and there's the temple,
you would not have boldness
to walk into the holies of holy
because you're gonna die.
People that walked in there
or irreverent or were not allowed to go in there,
they died.
You would not have any boldness to walk in there.
You would not have boldness
to stand before God in that sense.
And so we're talking about getting boldness
through the blood of Jesus Christ,
through His sacrifice,
that the veil has been torn and rent
and there's no more this curtain separating us
from the God of the Bible
and that we can go to the Father through Jesus Christ.
That's the veil, right?
The veil is His flesh is what it's saying.
And we have this high priest is Jesus.
You could only get to God the Father,
the high priest in the Old Testament in a shadow
but really the high priest is Jesus
and that's the way we get to the Father
is through that high priest
and through His offering and through His sacrifice.
Okay, so all these things are a shadow
of what Christ is gonna do for us.
So then we're supposed to do what in verse 22?
Let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith,
having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience
in our body's wash with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering for he is faithful that promised.
And let us consider what another provoke
unto love and good works.
Isn't this the same message as Hebrews chapter number six?
Hey, you know what?
We can't lose our salvation even if we fell away.
We're not gonna sacrifice Christ again.
We have no more offering for sin.
And of course at the end of the day
we should be provoking one another
and we should be drawing near to God
for love and for good works.
That's what it said in chapter six verse 10.
That he's not gonna forget your work
and labor of love, okay?
And then how do we do that?
Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as you see the approaching.
Chapter six is warning about people that what?
Fall away.
Chapter 10 is warning about people
that are forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
That's falling away, right?
Getting out of church.
And look, people that quit church
are not zealous soul winners.
They're not zealous Bible readers.
They're not following the commandments of God.
Don't get confused that these people,
oh I have church at my house.
We're having church right now.
These people are not serving God.
They're backslidden.
They get in all kinds of heresy and false doctrine.
They get in all kinds of sins.
They get in all kinds of trouble.
All kinds of problems.
The people that are serving God are in church, folks.
And we shouldn't be forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
that's those that fall away.
Why?
We should be exhorting one another.
Verse 26, for if we sin willfully
after that we've received the knowledge of the truth,
there are made it no more sacrifice for sins.
We just keep repeating the same point.
Hey, if you fall away,
you're not gonna crucify Christ fresh.
You're not gonna put him to an open shame.
We're not doing that again, okay?
Well, what did chapter six tell us would happen
if we fell away and we're just in this
an unrepentant, you know, willful sin attitude?
Aren't you nying to cursing?
Aren't you gonna potentially be punished?
Which is what the chapter said.
Let's see what it says here.
It says, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment
and notice this, and fiery indignation
which should devour the adversaries.
Isn't that fire sound like the exact same fire brought up
in Hebrews chapter number six, verse number eight.
It's saying, hey, they're nigh under burning.
That sounds like a fiery indignation.
If you ask me, same exact concepts
being reiterated again in chapter number 10.
It says in verse eight, 28,
he that despised Moses' law died without mercy
under two or three witnesses of how much sore punishment
supposed ye shall be thought worthy
who had trodden under foot the Son of God
and accounted the blood of the covenant
wherewith he was sanctified and unholy thing
and done despite undisputed grace.
So, you know, some people would love to say
that these are talking about people losing their salvation.
You have to have these works.
You have to do it into the end.
But notice this just makes it really clear.
We're talking about a saved person.
Because notice it says here, he was sanctified.
So how do you get sanctified?
Well, it says in the verse,
or the statement by the blood of the covenant.
They were sanctified by the blood of covenant.
Sounds like someone that was made a partaker
of the Holy Ghost and his taste of the good word of God.
But you know what?
They did something despite the spirit of grace.
How can you do something despite the spirit of grace
if you don't even have the spirit of grace?
If you don't even have grace.
It's just saying, like, shall we continue
and sin that grace may abound?
God forbid, that's what the Bible says.
Grace will abound, but should you do that?
God forbid.
And if you do that, there's a certain fearful looking for
of fiery judgment, of fiery indignation,
of judgment of fiery indignation.
It's gonna consume the adversary.
You don't wanna just provoke God.
You don't wanna just tempt God.
You don't wanna just mock God and say,
well, I can't go to hell,
so I'm just gonna live like hell.
Well, nope, God will punish you.
And you will reap what you sow.
And you wanna produce thorns in your life?
Well, God's gonna say,
I don't like this branch on the olive tree.
I wanna rip it out and I'm gonna get rid of it.
Hey, you wanna look back at Sodom?
I'll turn you into pillar of salt.
You know, if a salt is lost to savor,
it's good for nothing but be cast out
and trodden under foot of men.
I mean, the Bible warns a lot
about being punished even though you're saved.
And not just the natural consequences of sin.
Okay, I get that there's natural consequences of sin.
Yes, if you punch yourself in the face, it'll hurt.
But let me tell you something.
God will punish you on top
of the natural consequences of sin too.
And you don't want to test and tempt and mess with God.
Let's get it clear, verse 30.
For we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me,
I will recompense, say the Lord.
And again, the Lord shall judge,
notice this word, his people.
Let's not talk about unsaved people.
God can even judge his people.
The saved, those that have been sanctified.
It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God,
but call to remember the former days
in which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great flight of afflictions.
Partly while you were made a gazing stock
both by reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst you became companions of them
that were so used.
For you had compassion of me and my bonds
and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods,
knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven
a better and enduring substance.
Cast not away there for your confidence,
which hath great recompense.
Notice this, of reward.
Are we talking about eternal life?
Are we talking about rewards?
We're talking about rewards.
Are we talking about salvation
or things that accompany salvation?
Things that accompany salvation.
Now again, what's the context here?
He's saying, look guys, when this first happened,
right after the gospel, every Hebrew, every Jew
that sided with Christ and believed the gospel,
what did they become?
Y'all were made a gazing stock
both by reproaches and afflictions.
It was like, you guys got made fun of
for becoming Christians.
And for going away from this Old Testament,
dead works and the sacrificial system.
You were made a mockery and the Jews rejected you
and they didn't like you.
The unsaved Jews made fun of the saved Jews.
And it's like, look, if you've already gone through
this fight, if you've already been made a laughing stock,
if you've already been ridiculed,
then go ahead and just embrace Christianity, you know?
Just go ahead.
It's like, why would you go to steadfast,
go through the three years
where we're protested every single service
and all the evictions and all the mocking
and all the ridicule, and then quit afterwards?
It's like, just keep going.
Just keep being steadfast, right?
I mean, when it's not even hard, why would you give up now?
I mean, there are some people that were with us
during all the hard years, all the persecution,
all the ridicule, all the mocking,
and then now they want to give up,
you're just like, bro, just keep going.
What's the point given up now?
Well, and that's kind of the point that he's trying to make.
Guess why?
Well, there's a great recompense,
meaning, what is recompense?
Being repaid.
There's a great recompense of reward.
God will reward you for being mocked
and ridiculed and persecuted for his namesake.
So the Bible says,
for you have need of patience
that after you have done the will of God,
you might receive the promise for yet a little while,
and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
So again, this is the same as what it says
in the next chapter, chapter 11.
Look at verse number six.
But without faith, it is impossible to please him
for he that comeeth to God must believe that he is,
and notice this,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So we have to believe that God is gonna diligently
reward us based on our works.
He's not unrighteous to forget our work
and labor of love.
And we're talking about things that accompany salvation.
We never left that context from chapter six.
So he's saying, but it's impossible to please God
if you have no faith.
You're dead like the widow who's living in pleasure.
She's dead while she lives is what the Bible says.
So God's not pleased with you.
God's not happy that you're producing nothing.
God doesn't like it.
So you have to continue in your faith.
You have to continue pleasing him.
And of course, without faith,
it's impossible to please him is what the Bible says.
So when it says in verse 38,
now that just shall live by faith,
that's us exercising our faith every day.
Not just, they're not talking about salvation.
We're talking about things that accompany salvation, folks.
But if any man does it, draw back.
Somebody falls away.
Somebody that willfully sins.
Someone that's forsaken assembling ourselves together.
Why do you bring those verses up?
Because that's what the Bible said.
That's the context.
That's what the Bible's bringing up.
If those people draw away, God's not pleased with them.
And God may burn them in a carnal sense, right?
The destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day,
and the spirit may be saved, okay?
But then it brings up verse 39, okay?
But we are not of them who draw back on a perdition,
but of them that believe in saving as old.
Now this is a difficult verse for a lot of people.
And again, we're covering the difficult verses.
Why does verse 39 exist?
I believe that verse 39 exists as a clear caveat
to what's being described.
And if you study Hebrews, you'll understand
that in chapters three and four,
he uses the analogy of the children of Israel
wandering through the wilderness,
not entering the promised land because of unbelief.
Now here's the thing.
Was every single person under Moses' leadership
unsaved except for Joshua and Caleb?
Because they're the only ones that went into the promised land.
No, absolutely not.
Obviously Moses is saved.
Moses doesn't even get in, okay?
But what we understand is there was a lot of people
in that crowd that weren't saved too.
They never got saved.
And of course the people that are not saved,
they're never gonna have the faith.
They're never gonna go in.
They're never gonna do these things.
They're gonna draw back.
They're gonna be the murmurs.
They're gonna be the complainers.
They're gonna be the gainsayers.
They're gonna resist.
They're gonna rebel.
They're gonna do wickedly.
They're gonna mock.
They're gonna scoff.
They're gonna get into fornication.
They're gonna get into idolatry.
They're gonna get into false religion.
They're gonna do everything wrong
to every good work reprobate, okay?
There was people like that in this group.
But here's the thing.
You know what they sometimes do?
Is they draw saved people with them, okay?
And so sometimes from our perspective,
we can't tell who's who.
We just see people going after idolatry,
going after the fornication, leaving the camp,
doing wickedly.
And we're just thinking like, well, nuts to y'all, okay?
And in that group, some are just reprobate, unsaved,
wicked, false prophets and weirdos and losers.
And then some of those people are just backslidden Christians
that got mixed up with them.
And what the Bible is saying here,
is you're saying, hey,
we're not of them that draw back under perdition, okay?
There are some people that will get drawn away
out of church, will leave church,
will get mixed up in idolatry,
get mixed up in fornication, listen to heresy,
to all kinds of stupid things,
basically just allow unsaved, wicked, false prophets
to lead them astray, but they didn't go to hell.
They're not, notice, he doesn't even say
like a possible situation here.
He says it's just with certainty.
We are not of them who draw back under perdition.
So the people that give up on church of this group,
the people that quit, the people that get backslidden,
the people that go back to heresy,
they're not going to hell, okay?
They're still gonna be saved,
but they're still gonna be punished.
And so he's just making the clear caveat.
He's just making the clear understanding that, hey,
even if you fall away, even if you draw back,
even if you screw up, you're still going to heaven,
and we're not of that group, okay?
We're not talking about salvation,
we're talking about things that accompany salvation,
so I wanna make it clear
we're not of the group that drew back under perdition.
They're the group that drew back
unto carnal punishment, under the fiery indignation,
under the judgment of God, but are still saved.
They're the ones like the guy in 1 Corinthians 5
that is delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
but his spirit is still saved.
He's not of the group that was the reprobate people
that went out from us, but they were not of us,
because if they were of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us, okay?
So I believe that's why that verse is there.
Everything else in this whole chapter,
and the next chapter have nothing to do
with this verse really, so that's why it's easy
for me to just explain this as a caveat verse,
and it's then leading us into the next chapter
that's clearly articulating those who were the Hall of Faith,
okay?
And I think that's an important caveat to make.
Hey, just to make it clear,
we're not talking about people going to ever hell,
that's a whole different group.
We're talking about the people that were faithful,
and we wanna distinguish between
the greatest Christians and the least Christians.
We're not talking about the people that were unsaved,
not to those people, okay?
Why write a passage to these people?
Why do we care about those people?
Why would you write the entire book of Hebrews
to a bunch of unsaved people that are never gonna get saved?
It's just focusing on the saved.
That's why in chapters one, two, three,
it's just like the beloved, beloved, beloved, we, we,
you know, hey, we are not of them
that draw back into perdition.
We're not the Jews,
because again, the Hebrews are the Jews here.
We're not the Jews that are gonna go to hell.
We're the Jews that are gonna be saved,
but we wanna be the Jews that were like Joshua and Caleb
and entered the Promised Land.
We wanna be the Jews that were like Abraham
and like Moses and like all the great patriarchs of the faith.
We wanna be like Samsa and we wanna be like Gideon
and we wanna be like Jephthah.
We don't wanna be the people that drew back and lapsed faith
and were just carnal and backslidden.
We don't wanna be like those Jews.
We wanna be like the good Jews, okay?
And we're not of that other group.
That's the clear context of this bigger passage.
Now I'm out of time,
but I'm just gonna reiterate these points, okay?
Why talk about this sermon?
Well, we want to come to church not to get you saved.
I'm not here to get you saved this morning.
I'm here to preach you something that's advanced.
I'm trying to get you to learn.
Now look, if you're not saved,
come up to me after the service and I'll get you saved.
Hey, if you're not saved,
ask anybody in this room.
They'll probably get you saved, okay?
And if they're not sure, ask someone else, all right?
Ask someone that's sure.
Ask an adult, you know, you're probably good, okay?
But here's the thing, we're not here
to try and get saved again.
We're not here to learn the basics again.
We're here to learn some advanced doctrine.
Why?
So that you can have things at a company's salvation.
And people get mad.
They'll be like, oh, why don't you just preach the gospel?
Look, I get this comment all the time.
Oh, I listen to Pastor Charlie's sermon.
He's not even preaching the gospel in the sermon.
Yeah.
You really want me to just preach the gospel every week?
Just every service, just every statement.
It's just like, go soul wedding with me
and you'll hear it to your heart's content.
It'll be coming out your nose, okay?
You'll hear it so much.
But you know what, when we come to church,
we're not gonna be emphasizing the gospel
every single service.
Now look, I'm not against a basic sermon.
I'm not against the milk occasionally.
We need some of that, but we also need the other.
So we come to church and what's the point
so that we can discern good and evil?
Go back to chapter five and notice again,
what was the point?
Verse 14, but strong meat belongeth to them
that are of full age, even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Now look, people go soul wedding regularly.
I don't even really have to belabor the point to them
that these other denominations are not saved.
You know why?
Because they've already had their senses exercised by use
and they've knocked on those doors
and they've heard the Catholics say be a good person.
They've heard the non-denominational guys
say you can lose your salvation.
They've heard the Pentecostal say that they met
with Jesus last night in a dream.
Okay, I don't even have to explain to this guy.
Whereas you and I both know, our family members
and friends and people that we're close to
that don't go to church at all that are saved,
we're like, hey the Pentecostals aren't saved.
Like what do you mean the Pentecostals aren't saved?
What do you mean the Catholics aren't saved?
I'm like, what do you mean they're like worshiping idols
and they have all this crazy doctrine?
We don't have to explain that to each other, right?
We can discern good and evil.
A baby, a baby cannot discern.
A baby puts everything in its mouth.
In fact, I would argue they're more likely
to put something bad in their mouth than something good.
It's like, here's bread, eh, here's a battery.
Oh yeah, let's put that, it's just like, what?
It's just like, here's a rock, here's trash.
It's like, put that in my mouth immediately.
It's like, here's vegetables, eh, you know?
They can't discern both good and evil.
They're lacking, and again, that's just
carnal Christians today, it's baby Christians today.
They're over here picking up batteries
and acid and poison and rocks and trying to eat it.
And they're ignoring the vegetables.
They're ignoring the bread, they're ignoring the steak,
they're ignoring the brisket, okay?
They don't understand.
And it's like, why come to church
and learn advanced doctrine
so that you're not eating batteries, folks?
So you realize what Bible to use.
You know, they can't discern what's a good Bible
and what's a bad Bible.
They listen to heretics.
And look, you don't go to church,
you don't hear the Bible preach,
you don't hear the names being named.
Sometimes you'll just be ignorant of bad preachers.
You think that people that have multiple Gospels,
they're saved.
You'll be talking to those people.
People that don't read their Bible
and are not soul winning,
they will harken to heretics.
And they'll allow heretics to lead them astray
and believe all kinds of, you have no discernment
if you think some of those multiple Gospels is saved.
You're either a babe or a false teacher at that point.
Okay?
You know, you can discern who's a good pastor
and who's a bad pastor.
Unfortunately, a lot of people struggle with that.
Here's the second thing the Bible brought up
is that you'd have the understanding ability to teach.
Remember that chapter five, he says in verse 12,
for when the time you have to be teachers,
you need to learn the Bible and learn this doctrine
so that you can teach everyone around you.
You need to be teaching your friends
and your family members and other Christians
and everybody the same thing.
Hey, don't listen to this guy, he's bad.
Hey, here's what the Bible says on this issue.
Hey, you shouldn't be sleeping with your girlfriend.
That's fornication.
Hey, you shouldn't go out and commit adultery.
Hey, divorce is wrong.
You know, it shouldn't just be Pastor Shelley
is gonna teach the whole world.
You should teach the world too.
We should all be teachers.
And the reason why so many Christians
are not teaching the Word of God today
is because they're a baby and they can't teach anything.
But you need to know the Bible,
you need to know the Word of God
and you need to teach the Bible to everyone in this world.
The Bible says to teach all nations.
We need to be going to the highways and hedges
and teaching them how to be saved and how to get baptized.
And we need to be teaching them the doctrine
and which Bible to use
and that a faggot is disgusting, reprobate.
Cause they don't get it.
They don't understand these things
and we wanna keep them away from that stuff.
Just like you warn your kid from putting some metal
into the electrical socket,
that's like, hey, stay away from the faggot.
Don't shock yourself, don't hurt yourself.
Don't touch the stove that's hot, right?
They don't know those things.
We have to teach them.
There's so many Christians, they're touching the hot stove.
There's so many Christians today.
They're slamming the door on their fingers.
There's so many Christians today
trying to stick metal into the electrical outlet.
There's Christians that eating batteries and eating rocks.
And you know what?
We need our whole group to learn the Bible
and have understanding and go to advanced doctrine
so we can teach them the Word of God.
You need to be capable of giving the gospel.
If you've been in this church for more than a year
and you can't give the gospel, you're a dole of hearing.
You need to learn how to give the gospel.
And you need to be, hey, if you're a man,
you should probably learn how to be able to preach sermon.
Hey, you wanna go to the Philippines
and preach the classes?
You need to learn how to preach to some degree.
Hey, you should be capable of teaching your children.
And look, you ladies,
you should be teaching your children the Bible.
Not just salvation, all kinds.
There's so much in the Bible
for women to be teaching their children at home.
You should be teaching them everything in the Bible.
And you know what?
Titus chapter two says the women
should be teaching by their behavior too.
By being a good example.
Here's the last thing that we should do
is we should be laboring for awards and inheritance.
You need to be going to church,
going soul winning and regularly teaching the Bible.
You know, we learn the advanced doctrine
not just so we can be puffed up,
knowledge puffed up, but charity edifier.
And what is charity?
What's another word for charity?
Love.
It's our labor of love.
Hey, are you smart so that you can put other people down?
Are you smart so you can brag to other people?
Are you smart so you can act
like you're better than other individuals?
Or are you smart so that you can help
other people become smart?
Are you learning so that you can use your charity
to edify others, build others up, help others?
Well, if I build them up,
then I won't be standing so tall.
Well, you know what, it's not about you.
Charity doesn't mind building people up
and making other people smart.
You know, I don't want a church full of dummies
so that you feel like you have that Pastor Shelley.
I don't want to daycare.
I don't want to babysit.
I want to be around a bunch of strong men that want steak.
And I want us to all enjoy that steak together.
That's why we're gonna have the men's retreat
around some steak, you know what I mean?
And guess what?
We're not gonna teach you how to be saved, all right?
But at the end of the day,
it's like, hey, why do you preach
all this crazy radical stuff in the box?
Because it's not about that.
And look, if you get offended by the Word of God,
you had no chance anyways.
Go be backslidden.
Don't be offended by the Word of God.
Grow up.
Don't be immature, grow up.
Don't be the baby that, ah, I like steak.
Like, we're all thinking like, wow, what an idiot,
you know, when our kids won't try it.
There's so many meals or so many things,
I'm like, try this and they're like, no.
I'm like, try it.
And then I'll force them.
And you can kind of like see on the face
because they're all like...
You get more of that?
Like, you know, they were all resisted,
like, ah, I don't want this.
But then they eat it and they're just like,
all right, I'll try it again, you know.
You wanna force another bite on me, you know?
We can all be like that.
And so, you know, we want to basically learn the Bible,
grow so we can have things that accumb to salvation.
Not just be saved, but have things
that accumb to salvation.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for these great
deep truths of the Bible.
Thank you so much for the once-for-all sacrifice
that Jesus Christ has given us.
Thank you that it's impossible to lose our salvation.
And not only that you get a save,
but you reward us for our work,
that you never forget anything that we do.
I pray that we be motivated
to not only learn the basics,
to not be a bare minimum Christian,
but to go under perfection, to grow up, to mature,
to learn, and not just to learn to puff ourselves up,
not just to learn to be selfish,
but rather to learn to teach others,
to love others, to do good unto others.
I pray that you would raise up an army of people
that wanna teach the Bible, an army of soul winners,
an army of mothers and fathers
that are teaching their family the Bible.
I pray that you would help us to be
a bright and shining light,
and that the Word of God could thunder forth
clearly from this church.
In Jesus' name we pray.