November 16, 2008

# 19Hebrews 6:4-8
The Apostate

Background:

Hebrews depicts the magnificent Christ, the Superior Christ, the preeminent Christ. We have seen Christ exalted above all creation, angels, even Moses. Now, in the middle of a dissertation on Christ’s perfect priesthood, the writer once again pauses to give warning. 2 fold really:

1. To Move on to maturity, grow up

2. Some (v3) God will permit to do that but in verse 4-8 we will see that some cannot mature because they have never been born into God’s family.

Let’s look at that today as we read verses 4-8 < Heb 6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6 and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt. 7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned. >

In 4-6 we will see the description of the Apostate

And In vv 7-8 We will see the Illustration of the Apostate.

I. 4-6 The description of the Apostate

In verses 1-3, remember, that these readers were told to move on from the beginnings, stop laying foundations, move on to maturity. And some cannot move on because they have never been born. Not only that, but they are a special class look at vv 4-5 <For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, >

Here is a man who is immunized against Christianity. (Cowpox/Small pox Close but not)

This person had had God’s big guns thrown at him and has responded negatively. He has all the facts but has made a full and final rejection of Christ. This person is bound for eternity apart from God. This is not speaking of a Christian who falls from God. How do I know?

I am glad you asked.

1. John 3:16 promises ETERNAL life.

2. John 10:28-29 says “ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father's hand.”

3.Romans 5: 8 and 10 “MUCH MORE”

4. Romans 11:29 says “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, or irrevocable.

5. Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved , not by works, so are kept not by working.

6. 1 Peter 1:< 1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. >

And what is all this saying? If you are pardoned by God you are PARDONED indeed. If you have salvation through Christ it is once and it is forever. So he is not talking about Christians losing God’s grace, God free grace gift.

So what is he speaking about?

a. Those who were enlightened:1 John 2:8 <1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shines.

So Christ is the true light that lights every man.

look at <Joh 3: 19 Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. Light has come but men, people love darkness more than light.

Look at Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? (He believed something, but not enlightened)

37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. (now he becomes enlightened, knew the Christ, the gospel)

38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Enlightenment does not mean knowing the gospel with a saving knowledge.

b. “Tasted the heavenly gift”

These people had been in the assembly, had been surrounded by Christians. “Tasted” is an ambiguous word but enough to say they had known God’s love. They were “partakers of the Holy Spirit” To what extent? The convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit? Were drawn by God’s Spirit .Remember that time? When you felt you need to give in to God or bust?

They have tasted the good word of God, have had biblical teaching from a Christian perspective and have seen the apostles work and prayers answered. They have seen the truth in living color, the work of heaven. And eh says having experienced all of that they make a full and final decision AGAINST Christ, a decided act, a full and final decision based on knowledge.

( Allow me to read this short piece by John Macarthur

Saved to the Uttermost

All true believers will be saved to the uttermost. Christ’s High Priestly ministry guarantees it. They have been justified, they are being sanctified, and they will be glorified. Not one of them will miss out on any stage of the process, though in this life they all find themselves at different points along the way. The truth has been known historically as the perseverance of the saints.

Perseverance means that “those who have true faith can lose that faith neither totally nor finally” (Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace, 234). It echoes God’s promise through Jeremiah: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will pity the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me” (32:40, emphasis added).

The Westminster Confession of Faith has defined perseverance as follows:

They whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved (chap. 17, sec. 1).

This definition does not deny the possibility of miserable failings in one’s Christian experience, because the Confession also said,

Nevertheless [believers] may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and for a time continue therein; whereby they incur God’s displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit: come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves (sec. 3).

Sin is a reality in the believer’s experience, so it is clear that insistence on the salvific necessity of a working faith does not include the idea of perfectionism. Scripture is filled with warnings to people in the church lest they should fall away (cf. Heb 6:4–8; 1 Tim 1:18–19; 2 Tim 2:16–19). But those warning passages do not negate the many promises that believers will persevere:

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:14).

I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (John 6:35).

You are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you in the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 1:7–9).

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely: and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass (1 Thess 5:23–24).

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen (Jude 24–25, KJV, emphasis added in all citations).

Horne observed,

It is noteworthy that when Jude exhorts us to keep ourselves in the love of God (v. 21) he concludes with a doxology for Him who is able to keep us from falling and who will present us without blemish before the presence of His glory (v. 24). The warning passages are means which God uses in our life to accomplish His purpose in grace. (Charles Horne, Salvation, 95)

And, it could be added, the warning passages like Jude 21 reveal that the writers of Scripture were very keen to alert those whose hope of salvation might be grounded in a spurious faith. Obviously the apostolic authors were not laboring under the illusion that every person in the churches to whom they were writing was genuinely converted. )

Vast amounts of scripture show the perseverance of the faith, the true faith. People who have surrendered their wills to God’s will, people who follow Jesus not just nod in his direction.

In verses 7-8 He Illustrates what this person is like:

He compares the people above to a plot of land. The Earth is the item in question NOT the thorns and thistles. Look at it.

Which earth is scorched and burned? The earth which doesn’t produce.

All of the earth is watered.

All of the earth is sown.

But only the productive earth is blessed by God.

Look at the comparison between the earth and the person in question.

Compare it with Romans 6: 1-2 ( What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?) God wants, expects, a producing people.

It is not true faith which prays a prayer and never follows Jesus. I fear that we will not be clear on that point. The simplicity of faith is that God’s grace saves us JUST AS WE ARE, but the clear teaching of scripture is that it does not leave us where it found us. (unto good works).

Rom. 6:(:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? )

Now let’s look at John 15. Here we see something about fruit bearing.

Jesus is the vine.

V 1-5 is talking about people who are a part of the vine( "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me — and I in him — bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. )

Those who are IN Christ…abide or remain or live in is the idea; saved people, they are a real part of the vine.

1. Fruit bearers pruned.

2. Non fruit bearers v.2 he “takes away” that always puzzled me. God wants fruit bearing right? So what is this “taking away?” I studied on this because the Greek term is “airo” to lift. Not necessarily to take away, but first meaning is to lift.

I am not a vine dresser so I went to the NET. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3025.html

Speaks of botrytis or gray mold which affects the crop badly. Listen to one way they control it:

Control Promote good air circulation and light penetration by proper pruning, controlling weeds and suckers, and positioning or removing shoots for uniform leaf development. Where possible, rows should be planted in the direction of the prevailing wind. Good air circulation and light penetration promote faster drying of plant parts and reduce the risk of disease. Removal of leaves around clusters on mid- or low-wire cordon-trained vines before bunch closing has been shown to reduce losses caused by Botrytis in New York and California vineyards, due to improved air circulation and improved spray penetration and coverage.

To make these vines more fruitful they raised them up. Have you seen those trellises? The wire racks in the rows which keep the grapes off the ground? They were not bearing fruit so the “raised them up”.

That fit’s the message of Jesus better than some vinedresser hacking off vines that were not producing. God WANTS us fruitful { Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. } God gets GLORY from us bearing fruit.

OK now in verses 6 we see people who are NOT IN THE VINE” 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 burned.

Jesus says this person doesn’t live in me, is not IN me. If you aren’t in Christ there can be no fruit pleasing to God BUT verse 7 says If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

SO God says He produces fruit, not self produced fruit but Spirit produced.

Grow…don’t stop growing. Don’t hinder your growth. But if you just cannot grow maybe you need to surrender to this superior Christ and being in him will be growing and productive.

CLOSING ILL?

Paul makes it clear in Colossians 1: 10 that bearing fruit involves "every good work." To me that means evangelism, missions, ministry, education, fellowship, worship - the range of the disciple's life.

Fruit bearing in Galatians 5: 22-23 begins with the Holy Spirit working within us to produce certain behaviors:
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Such Spirit-informed action springs from union with Christ through prayer (John 15: 5) and from cleansing by the word (John 15: 3)

The story is told of the big lumberjack who bought a brand new chainsaw and was told it could cut down at least 100 trees a day.

But on the first day he only managed to cut down 5 trees. The next day he tried harder and finally cut down 7 trees. The third day he started early, worked late, and even cut his lunch break short, but he still managed to cut down only 9 trees.

He went back to the store and confronted the manager with his complaint. He told him of his efforts and of the results. The manager couldn’t quite understand what had gone wrong, so he asked to take a look. He grabbed the starter rope and pulled hard, and the motor started with a roar.

The lumberjack jumped back in alarm and yelled, “Hey, what’s that big noise?”

If you do not have the power of God in you, you will not be able to produce…

Think about that. If you do, you will not be able to help but be productive