A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): We're moving on to maturity. Next on A Daily Walk.

John Randall: This exhortation is very practical and relevant even now. There is a need to move on from those harmful habits, those besetting practices, and those stumbling blocks that are causing you to remain stagnant. We have to move forward.

Is there anything tonight that is hindering you from moving forward? The writer of Hebrews will later say to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you so that you can run the race. Set it aside. Don't mess with it. It's holding you back. Lay it aside. A decision has to be made.

Guest (Male): We do expect our kids to grow up and mature over time. Could you imagine if your eighteen-year-old was still learning their ABCs or multiplication tables, still sucking on a pacifier, or wearing diapers?

We laugh at the mere thought, but today on A Daily Walk, we'll discover many Christians are like that, spiritually speaking. That's no laughing matter. They've never moved on from the basics of the Christian faith. The exhortation from Hebrews chapter six is that it's time to move on. Here is Pastor John Randall.

John Randall: Hebrews chapter six, and I will say the title of the message tonight is "Moving On to Maturity." I want to preface what I'm going to talk about tonight by saying this is some heavy lifting in Hebrews right here. You're really going to need to tune in, listen, and follow along.

I would encourage you—it works for me, and maybe it will work for you—maybe you say you're not a note person. Well, maybe become one. When you write it down, you're able to retain it, look back, and remember. Then you can share it with someone else, and it gets locked in.

Hebrews chapter six, "Moving On to Maturity." Here we go, beginning in verse one: "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits."

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

The sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews contains passages of Scripture that have caused a great deal of concern to many Christians. Reading through these verses, some have questioned whether or not they're truly saved. Others have wondered if it is possible to lose their salvation.

This passage has also caused a great deal of controversy, not only because it's one of the most difficult warnings to read, but it also contains some of the most disputed passages in all of Scripture. So, you came on a good night.

But here is what I want you to understand. When studying the Bible, it's important to understand when you come to difficult passages in Scripture, or any passages of Scripture for that matter, that you employ some valuable principles.

The Bible tells us in Second Timothy chapter two, verse fifteen, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." There is a way to rightly divide God's word, and there is a way to wrongly divide God's word and misinterpret it.

So, when interpreting the Bible through your time of study, there is a method that is used called hermeneutics. I like to call it "him-a-neutics," but it's hermeneutics. When you read through hermeneutics, it's simply a process whereby you interpret the Bible.

Let me explain. There are some laws that must be applied. The first law, the most important of biblical hermeneutics, is that the Bible should be interpreted literally. We are to understand the Bible in its normal or plain meaning unless the passage is obviously intended to be symbolic or representing something else.

If it's a figure of speech being used, or some kind of symbol or typology, okay, we take that into consideration. But the Bible says what it means, and it means what it says. So, you want to interpret it literally. Someone put it this way: when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, lest you come up with nonsense. So, this is important when reading through the Bible.

But there's a second crucial law that is to be used in biblical hermeneutics, and that is that passages of Scripture must be interpreted historically, grammatically, and contextually. Interpreting a passage historically, for example, means that I want to understand the culture and the background in which this passage was written.

What was going on when this was said? I want to understand it because sometimes you can read something and think, "What does that mean?" because you don't understand the historical context in which it was written.

Also, grammatically, what does that word mean? What does the original language imply? The Old Testament, folks, if you didn't know this, was written originally in Hebrew. I don't speak Hebrew. I can say "Shalom," but that's it. I don't really know any Hebrew words unless they are the ones that I've read in Scripture.

But the New Testament is written originally in Greek. So, there are things that the Greek language says that, translated into English, are far more colorful and more expressive. So, I go back to the original language and say, "What does that mean, that particular word?"

And then you think about context. All of this is important. You have to read Scriptures in context. When I say read Scriptures in context, I mean the Scriptures before and the Scriptures after, not just taking one passage and pulling it out and building a doctrine on it.

That's how cults get started. They take a passage of Scripture out of context and they build a whole false doctrine on it. So, when you're reading Scripture, verses before and verses after, you have to ask yourself a few questions.

First of all, to whom is this portion of Scripture being written? Who's this written to originally? The book of Hebrews is written to Hebrews. That's the title of the book. It's written to Hebrew believers, so we understand that. Corinthians? Corinthians. That's who it was written to. Ephesians? People living in Ephesus. You get the idea.

But also, what's the theme of this passage? There are certain themes that will surface when studying through the Scriptures, themes like redemption, sanctification, etc. These are things that will surface from a particular passage.

What's the theme of the epistle? What's the theme of the epistle to the Hebrews? We talked about one of them: Jesus is better. Better than what? Everything. That's the simple theme.

Basically, someone's writing to the Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop being Hebrews. That's one of the themes that surfaces as you study it. What do the verses before or after have to say? Keeping it in context, asking these questions.

But there's a third law of biblical hermeneutics when studying Scripture, how you interpret it properly, and that is that Scripture is always the best interpreter of Scripture. Use Scripture to interpret Scripture.

For this reason, we will compare Scripture with other Scripture. We call it cross-referencing. I'm looking at a passage, but then I'm going to another passage of the Bible that supports that passage. I'm cross-referencing and I'm realizing that they connect one with another. I'm not contradicting myself.

If when you are studying through the Scripture you contradict something that it says somewhere else in Scripture, just know this: your interpretation is wrong because God would never contradict Himself. So, you have to compare Scripture with Scripture, and so often that's how you're able to see the connection and have proper interpretation and rightly divide the word of truth.

Biblical hermeneutics, but also there is something else implied in hermeneutics called exegesis. It's spelled E-X-E-G-E-S-I-S, exegesis. It means exposition, explanation. Biblical exegesis, when interpreting Scripture, involves the examination of a particular text of Scripture in order to properly interpret it.

All right, with that introduction, here we go. We're going to apply these principles to this passage in order that we can understand it, and hopefully, you'll have a clear understanding. Chapter six, verse one: "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection." The word there is maturity.

Now, the first thing that should grab your attention—you've been with us for some time, you know what it is—it's the word "therefore." You guys are good. You're good. And you ask what is it "therefore."

And "therefore" draws a conclusion from what was written in the previous chapter, in the verses of chapter five. The sixth chapter is not a new section of the letter but, rather, it is a continuation of the previous verses. It just continues.

It's not like Paul said, "Okay, chapter six of my letter." This is an ongoing letter. The chapter breaks were put in by the people who put the Scriptures together in this order, but this just was a letter that just flowed like one that you would write to anybody.

So, it's not a new section but a continuation. Now, do you remember—I'll help you remember—what happened at the end of the fifth chapter? The writer of Hebrews had just reproved the Hebrew believers because they had come to a place of arrested spiritual development.

The tragic condition was brought about by dullness of hearing. They weren't listening to the word of God as they once were, and this dullness of hearing of God's word affected their spiritual development.

By this time, the writer said, "You guys should know these things. This is elementary, this is basic stuff. Like, you should know this by now. You should be teaching others these things, but we're having to go back to the very beginning."

And this dullness of hearing not only hindered their development but also their spiritual diet. Remember what the writer said? That they had to have the milk instead of the meat. They weren't mature enough to have the meat of the word, which was solid food. Instead, they had to go back to the bottle, to the milk of the word.

And instead of living in spiritual maturity, they had gone back to spiritual infancy. And so the exhortation now in chapter six is for the Hebrews: we need to go on! We need to go on from this point. You need to mature from this place of arrested development. Go on.

Now, in order for them to go on, it says right here in this passage there had to be a separation. It says right here, verse one, "leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on."

The word "leaving" just means that: to move on, to move on from where they had drifted. They had drifted back to the rituals, drifted back to these things. He said, "We need to move on from this." There had to be a decision made which would result in a decisive action.

They could not remain stagnant or continue to go in the direction they were headed. Something had to be done. And so this exhortation, by the way, is very practical, very relevant even now. There's a need to move on from those harmful habits, a need to move on from those besetting practices, those stumbling blocks that are causing you to remain stagnant.

We've got to move forward. Is there anything tonight that's hindering you from moving forward? The writer of Hebrews will later on say, "Lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you so that you can run the race." Set it aside. Don't mess with it. It's holding you back. Lay it aside. A decision has to be made.

So, what was it that the writer wanted them to leave behind or at least move on from? He said the elementary principles, the elementary principles. It's the equivalent of saying, "You know, I think it's time for you to move on from singing the ABC song. I think it's time to move on from eating glue and playing with Play-Doh."

You should be in your postgraduate work by now and writing your thesis, not "A-B-C." No, go on! Go on out of the elementary principles. But these people kept going back to Christianity 101, but there's so much more.

And so he mentions these elementary principles. And listen, you never want to forget the elementary principles. These are significant and important and foundational, but there's more to learn.

In other words, the elementary principles mentioned: repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Absolutely, that is important. Don't ever forget that. The doctrine of baptisms, absolutely; laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment.

Now, what's interesting about these elementary principles is that Judaism had some of these same practices within it, similar to Christianity. In fact, Christianity came out of Judaism.

And when the apostles started preaching, it was radically different from what the Jewish groups were doing. But let me explain some of the similarities. For example, the Jews had ceremonial washings; believers had baptism.

The Jews would repent of sin by offering an animal sacrifice at the temple to atone for them; believers had the blood of Christ that was the sacrifice for them, forgiven.

And although there were similarities or common ground, there was a distinct difference between the two. Judaism really was nothing but shadows where Jesus was the reality.

And because the Hebrew believers were being persecuted and hated and ostracized, there was a temptation for them to just kind of slip back into common ground. "Well, we like to—okay, you guys baptize for that. Well, you know, we could find common ground."

And the writer is saying, "Don't go back to that. It's totally different. If you don't move on and leave those past teachings of Judaism behind, you're never going to go on to maturity."

And folks, listen, if there's one application you could take from that, it's that there are certain things that will hinder our maturity and growth in Christ, and they're not worth holding on to. I don't want to get stuck. Too many people get stuck. Why are you stuck? I just keep—you want to go on beyond this. God's got more.

And so there are things that I lay aside. In light of that, the writer gives, I would say, one of the strongest warnings found in the New Testament right here in Hebrews chapter six. And here's where it gets a little heavy.

He says, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance."

All right, here we go. Keep in mind the context in that the writer has transitioned. He now begins to discuss obstacles that would keep a person from going into spiritual maturity.

Now, the first thing that I want you to see here—pay real close attention, make note of it—the author, the writer, begins by using the first-person plural. Look at verse one. He says, "Let us press on to maturity." Verse three, "This we will do."

But as you proceed in this chapter, he switches from the first-person plural to the third person. Did you notice in verse four he said, "in the case of those"? Verse six, "It's impossible to renew them." In verse six, "they again crucify to themselves."

And then after this stern warning is given in those verses, the author again switches back in verse nine and includes the readers when he says, "Beloved, we're convinced of better things concerning you."

In other words, let me explain. The author knew that his readers had not yet fallen into this category of those for whom spiritual progress was impossible. There was still hope for them.

He's saying they, them, and those. That's not you, but that's they, them, and those. You don't want to be they, them, and those. You want to be different than that. You don't want—that's where you're headed. The trajectory that you're on, that's where you're going. It's not going to benefit you in any way. So, he's making a contrast here.

But he does use the word "impossible." That's a significant word. It's important when interpreting this section of Scripture to make note of that word: impossible. The word "impossible" is put in a position of emphasis in the context.

The writer of Hebrews is not saying, "You know, it's difficult." He's actually saying, "It's not even a possibility. It's not going to happen. It can't happen. It's impossible."

This same word, "impossible," is used in other places within this epistle. Make a note of it. Hebrews 6:18: it's impossible for God to lie. Praise God for that.

He also says in Hebrews 10, verse four: it's impossible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sins. And then, of course, in Hebrews 11:6, he says without faith it's impossible to please God. So, this word is used consistently throughout this epistle.

The author highlights the experiences of those who were unable to enter into this spiritual maturity. Notice what he says about them, the they, the those, and the them. What did they experience? Verse four: they were enlightened.

That's significant. Enlightened means to make clear or cause something to be known by revealing. They heard it, they heard the gospel, they heard about Jesus. They were—"I didn't know that. That's quite enlightening. I didn't know that." So, they had the truth, they were enlightened. They didn't know; they came to understand.

But also verse four, it says they tasted of something. They tasted of the heavenly gift, meaning they had some kind of experience. What was it? It doesn't exactly say, but they tasted of something heavenly. They experienced it.

You know the Bible says "taste and see that the Lord is good"? It encourages us to taste. Just try it! Just try it. "I don't want to try it." No, you need to try this. You're going to love it. "I hate it." No, try it. "Man, this is really good." I told you! It's like that with Jesus sometimes with non-believers. Like, trust me, just try it.

They tasted the heavenly gift, but then also they experienced—they were partakers of the Holy Spirit. Interesting, partakers. That does not mean possessors, but they were cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit at that time.

So, they see the work of the Spirit. They're enlightened. They're having this amazing opportunity. They're tasting also of the word of God, verse five, and power. They were exposed to it; they saw it.

All right, this was their experience. So, who are these people? That's the question. Who are we talking about here? Who are these people that it's impossible for them to return? Who are they? I'll give you a couple of interpretations and then I'll let you know where I lean, and you can decide.

One suggestion concerning this passage is that the writer is presenting a hypothetical situation. According to this interpretation, the key word in the passage is "if." "If," let's say "if," verse six. The writer of Hebrews is setting up a hypothetical statement: if a Christian were to fall away. If—the point being made is that it would then be impossible to renew salvation.

Now, the problem with that interpretation is that the writer would be suggesting a sin that could not be committed, and it wouldn't have any sense to warn someone of something that wasn't possible. It doesn't seem to fit what's being stated here.

Here's a second interpretation. There are those that say this speaks of an actual born-again Christian, those who have truly received Christ, and that they can actually lose the salvation that they've received.

The problem with that view, with that interpretation, is that it puts forward an unscriptural teaching that you could lose your salvation because, again, when we're interpreting Scripture, what do we do? We compare Scripture with Scripture.

And so to compare Scripture with Scripture, that would be inconsistent with the total revelation found in the Bible. Let me give you an example. Jesus said, John chapter ten, verses twenty-seven and twenty-nine, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."