Hebrews 6:4-8
. Intro: On Sunday, August 16,1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport. One hundred fifty-five people were killed. One survived: a 4-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name. Cecelia survived because, as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go. Nothing could separate that child from her parent’s love — not tragedy or disaster, not the fall or the flames that followed, not height nor depth, not life nor death.” This is the kind of love our heavenly Father has for us. We are secure in the fact that he will do whatever is necessary to keep us near his heart. He will wrap himself around us and never let go. We are safe in him.
. We are back in Hebrews this morning as we travel through the book together.
. When I looked back to see where we were in the process I found that we are at one of the most difficult passages in the bible to understand.
. For just one minute, I thought of just skipping over this difficult passage. After all, nobody would notice.
. I had a come to Jesus meeting with me and Jesus and He reminded me that I was to preach the full counsel of God. Not just the scripture that is easy.
. Many believe that our passage this morning undermines our belief that once you are saved, you are always saved and there is nothing you can do to lose that salvation.
. In theological circles it’s called the eternal security of the believer.
. The bible has much to say about our salvation and security in that salvation.
. The most well known passage is found in Romans 8: 35-39
. 35Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?..
.
37No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
39No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
. I want to start off this morning by assuring you that if you are here this morning and have truly accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and have given your life to Him, You Cannot Lose Your Salvation.
. We have that assurance.
. With that being said, let’s look at our scripture.
Hebrews 6:4-8
4For it is impossible to bring back to re-pentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,
5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—
6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing
.8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
. Verse 5 talks about those who have tasted the goodness of the word of God.
. As I read this verse an image came into my mind.
. Have you ever saw those people who taste wine for a living?
. The first thing they do is take the wine in a wine glass and swirl it around, looking for I don’t know what. Then they will bring the glass up to their nose and smell the wine. I’m told that they are getting a sense of the bouquet when they smell it.
. Then they take a sip of the wine and they swirl it around in their mouth and then they spit the wine out.
. They never really swallow or take the wine in, they just want to see what it tastes like.
. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is telling us about these people.
. They taste, examine, see the power of God but they never really quite take it in. They don’t swallow.
. These taste testers know about wine but they never really get to enjoy and take in fully what the wine has to offer.
. The writer of Hebrews is describing Jesus tasters here.
. Look at verse 4 again;
. 4For it is impossible to bring back to re-pentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,
. These taste testers have an intellectual knowledge of who Jesus is.
. They have been enlightened.
. Notice it doesn’t say those who have been born again or made righteous.
. They are like many who occupy our churches each and every week.
. They have head knowledge, a grasp of who Jesus is but they never truly surrender to Him.
. In Isaiah 9:2 the prophet wrote:
. “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light…”
. Many of the readers of this letter had seen Jesus, they had seen the great light, they had been enlightened but had chosen not to follow Him and give their life to Him.
. The King James translation says that they have been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift.
. Again that analogy of tasting what Jesus was offering but not taking in fully what He could and would do for them in their life.
. They weren’t ready to drink the living water that Jesus told the woman at the well about in John chapter 4.
. Our scripture goes on to talk about these testers who have seen the Holy Spirit at work and have heard the word of God straight from the mouth of Jesus and have seen the power that Jesus had and would bring to the world.
. These taste testers would have then and today see these things and they exercise something that is given to all mankind from God.
. Free Will. They exercise the free will that God has given to all of us.
. They reject Jesus.
. It says in verse 6 that they turn away from God or they reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
. In order to understand this a little better, I want to compare and contrast two of the disciples of Jesus.
. Judas and Simon Peter.
.Mark tells us that Jesus chose twelve men to be His Apostles and that He called them out and they went up on a mountain top and were given instructions and authority to minister to the people.
. Now Simon and Judas were there when Jesus was teaching the Sermon on the Mount. They both heard the same thing. They were enlightened.
. They both had been with Jesus when he fed the five thousand.
. They were both in the boat when they saw Jesus walking on the water.
. They were both there when Jesus asked them who do men say that I am and then who do you say that I am.
. All the apostles were there when Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God.
. They were both with Jesus when He told them that He would be killed and would be resurrected.
. They both had experienced all the things that the writer of Hebrews is describing yet they had two different endings.
. You see, Judas was a taste tester.
. He saw and heard all that Jesus said and did yet he chose to ultimately betray Him.
. In all the time he was with Jesus, he could have made the decision in his heart to follow this man.
. He had all the head knowledge, He had been enlightened.
. He had experienced the Good things that Christ had to offer.
. He had seen and tasted the goodness of the savior and he chose to turn away.
. He rejected the Son of God.
. He couldn’t be brought back into repentance because he had consciously made a choice to reject who Jesus was and what He could do for him.
. While Peter did deny Jesus three times, he had also tasted what Jesus had to offer and he had taken it fully and had enjoyed what Jesus had to offer.
.Peter was the one who had spoken and answered Jesus’ question about who do you say that I am.
. Peter fully took all that Jesus had to offer.
. He took Jesus offer of forgiveness for his denial and was called back to repentance and full fellowship with Jesus.
. Peter was more than a taste tester.
. Folks, every time we hear the voice of God calling us and we reject Jesus, the writer tells us that we are nailing Jesus to the cross again.
. Look at verse 6 again:
. 6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
.The mockers and scoffers were there rejecting Jesus saying give us more, more signs and wonders and we will believe.
. Jesus had already given them all they needed.
. They had been enlightened
. They had heard his teaching
. They had seen His miracles and yet they still chose to crucify.
. They had become immune to what He had to say and could not be brought to repentance.
. John Macarthur in his commentary on Hebrews writes about this Impossibility of repentance. He writes:
. “A vaccination immunizes by giving a very mild case of the disease. A person who is exposed to the gospel can get just enough to immunize him against the real thing. The longer he continues to resist it, whether graciously or violently, the more he becomes immune to it. His spiritual system becomes more and more unresponsive and insensitive. His only hope is to reject what he is holding onto and receive Christ without delay-lest he become so hard, often without knowing it, that his opportunity is forever gone.”
. Many are enlightened and have a head knowledge of who Jesus is but they never take Him in. They just nibble around the edges.
. They just want a little taste.
. What happens is the rejection of Jesus becomes easier and easier as time goes by and before you know it, you time is up.
. People become immune to the call of God.
. As many of you know I used to drive a pick-up truck until the cost of gas drove me to my little electric car. Back when I drove the truck, I was bad about not putting my seatbelt on. For many years here in Ga, you didn’t have to wear a seatbelt if you drove a truck. I’m not going to discuss the wisdom of all that but many times I would call my wife on the cell phone and after we had been talking for a few minutes she would scold me through the phone. She would ask me why I didn’t have my seatbelt on. I wondered how she knew and then I realized that every few minutes a beeper would start going off in the truck to remind me to fasten my seatbelt. She would hear the beep and know I didn’t have my seatbelt on. You see, I had heard that beep or gong so many times and had rejected what it was telling me that I had become immune to beep. I was immune to the enlightenment that I needed to buckle up.
. I believe that is what the writer of Hebrews is telling us.
. We can have all the information in the world.
. We can see firsthand what Jesus has done for others.
. We can recognize the calling of the Holy Spirit to surrender to Jesus but still reject who He is.
. When we do that, we get farther and farther away from God.
. We choose to reject God and eventually we will not listen to His call anymore.
. When we harden our hearts and reject Jesus, We may get so far away that we refuse to come to Jesus.
. Finally verse 7&8
. 7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing.
8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
. All those who hear the Gospel are like the ground.
. The rain represents the gospel message that is heard.
. The seed of the gospel is planted.
. Some will take the seed and cultivate it and have abundance and be blessed by God through Jesus Christ
.
. Some will only let the seed touch them but never plant it deep within their souls.
. These people are just taste testing the word of God.
. They never really take all that God has to offer through Jesus Christ.
. Folks we make a conscious choice whether to accept Jesus or reject Him.
. You can’t lose your salvation but you can choose to reject it.
. You do that by being a taste tester.
. Are you a taste tester this morning?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Never Give up, Rodney Buchanan, (sermon central)
John Macarthur, New Testament Commentary: Hebrews
