"Only Once" Sermon: Hebrews 6:4-12

“Only Once”

[Hebrews 6:4-12]

August 26, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            It is impossible to become right with God after you have apostatized. If you apostatize, you cannot be saved. If you only once truly turn away from where you stood – which is what “apostasy” means – you are forever lost.

            Several weeks ago, we looked at the idea of apostasy and how apostasy is truly and permanently turning away from where you stood. It is at one time standing for something, saying something is true, and then completely and utterly and permanently denying it.

            We looked at this because the Jews to whom the author of Hebrews was writing were considering leaving Christianity. These were Jewish converts to Christianity who were beginning to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah – the Savior – they were wondering if they ought to turn away and turn back to the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws of the Old Testament. They wondered if they ought to give up what they said they believed – what they professed they believed – about the Gospel – that God came to earth in the person of Jesus, that He lived a sinless life under God's Law, that He died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, that He physically rose from the dead, and ascended back to His throne.

            The author of Hebrews recognized that these Jews had not apostatized yet – they were questioning, in the light of persecution, whether they were right, whether they had made a mistake in believing Jesus and His Gospel – they were questioning whether the historical facts of the Gospel were true and what they meant.

So, as we saw the last time we talked about the book of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews rebuked them for becoming “dull of hearing” – they had neglected the Word of God and in so doing they had grown immature. They had gone from “eating meat,” back to “drinking milk.” They had gone from being adults, back to being infants. And so we saw that it is possible not only to mature in the faith, but also to immature in the faith.  Maturity in the faith comes through regular, continuous study and meditation on the Word of God with the help of God the Holy Spirit who indwells every Christian.

            The author of Hebrews told them that that they had neglected the Word of God to such a degree that they had become confused about the meaning of baptism, they had become confused about the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they had questioned whether the physical body is resurrected, and they questioned who would be judged and what the judgment would be at the end of the age. These were the basic doctrines, and they had become confused about them again. The author of Hebrews told them that he wanted to talk to them about the priesthood of Melchizedek – that they should've been teaching about these basic doctrines in the church – but he had to stop and address them on the basic things – to warn them about apostasy.

            And so he continues in this morning’s Scripture by impressing upon them the seriousness and the finality of apostasy, if it is committed.  And we do well to ask ourselves the question – again – can a Christian apostatize? Can a Christian lose his or her faith? And the answer is a resounding “no.”

            We read:

            Jesus prayed, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12, ESV).

            And Paul wrote, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’           No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39, ESV).

            And, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10, ESV).

            So salvation is God's Gift to whomever He will, and if God loves us and has saved us, we will never be lost. True Christians cannot do anything to lose their salvation – just as true Christians did not do anything to become saved – to gain their salvation.  It isn't possible for a true Christian to apostatize. True Christians sin, but a true Christian can never completely turn away from his or her stand.

            And so we continue:  “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”

            How do we understand this in the light of what we've just seen in these other verses – that a true Christian cannot lose his or her salvation?

            The author of Hebrews tells his readers – including us – it is possible for someone who thinks he or she is saved – who thinks he or she is right with God – who thinks he or she is forgiven – it is possible that such a person can apostatize – and if such a person apostatizes – he or she can never be saved.

            The author of Hebrews says it is impossible to restore someone to repentance – it is impossible for someone to be forgiven and made right with God and saved from His wrath – under five conditions:

First, it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who will have once been enlightened. What this means is that it is impossible for someone to be saved who hears the Gospel, and receives instruction in the Gospel, and understands what the Gospel is, and repudiates it. It is impossible for someone to be saved who has heard and been taught what it means that God came to earth in the person of Jesus, lived under His Own Law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, physically rose from the dead, and ascended back to His throne, and say that he or she understands it, but never believes that it is true.

Second, it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who have tasted the heavenly gift.  What this means is that it is impossible for someone to be saved who experiences the Power of the Holy Spirit – especially in the worship service – and yet permanently rejects Jesus.

Third, it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who have shared in the Holy Spirit. Here we may wonder if the author of Hebrews is talking about Christians – true Christians – because he is talking about those who have “shared in the Holy Spirit” – and who shares in the Holy Spirit, except for true, believing Christians? The author of Hebrews is here making a distinction between those who experience or share in the benefits of the Holy Spirit and those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23, ESV).

Jesus tells us that there are people who think they are Christians, who are able to preach the Word of God, who are able to cast out demons, who are able to do mighty works, but because they do not believe in the Gospel – in Who Jesus is and what He has done – Jesus will cast them into hell. It is possible, for God's reasons, that some will be able to do works of the Holy Spirit – did God the Holy Spirit will assist an unbeliever in doing works that glorify God, but, if such people do not believe the Gospel, they cannot be saved. 

The great revivalist, Charles Finney, appears to have been one of these:  he appears to have led many people to Christ through his revival preaching, but he said again and again in his writing and sermons, that Jesus is not necessary for salvation.  And if he kept that view until he died – if he rejected the Gospel until his death, he is forever lost.

Fourth, it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those that have tasted the goodness of the Word of God.  There are people who come to worship and take part in the church and understand the Scripture and understand the Gospel and find it beautiful and find it logical and find it a good system of life, but they do not believe the Gospel. These people cannot be saved.

On Earth, in this life, we have evidences of people who are Christians. We read about the fruit that Christians bear that evidences the fact that they are true believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What we do not know, in this life, is who the non-elect are – who the reprobate are – who those are the God is allowing to follow the natural course of their sin to hell. We don't know – and someone who has been the most obstinate, negative, Christ-hating person, can in the last moment of his or her life truly believe in the Gospel and be saved. So we have encouragement to evangelism, because the elect of God will repent and believe, even if it is in the last moment of his or her life. So we are to preach and teach the Gospel to every person while he or she is alive.

An example, which I hope is not the last word: when I was in college, I had two friends who came to the Reformed understanding of the faith, and then they came to me to ask me if it seemed to be true, and I studied, and I came to believe that the Reformed understanding of the Bible is the correct understanding of the Bible. In the years that have passed, both of them after having experienced the goodness of the Word of God, have denied Christ and His Gospel and have embraced other religions. One of two things has happened: either they were never Christians in the first place, or they have fallen very, very far away, but will one day repent and believe and return to Christ. If they were never Christians in the first place, if they were just enthralled with the goodness of the Word of God and the beauty and the logic of the Redemption that Christ brings through the Gospel in His Church, then they will go to hell.

Fifth, it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who have tasted the power of the age to come. The first question we need to ask ourselves is, when is “the age to come”?  The age to come began with the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. So, the author of Hebrews is telling us that those who've experienced the signs and the wonders and the works of the Holy Spirit in them and around them, yet deny the Gospel cannot be saved.

We have the history of Simon, the magician, in Acts 8. Simon had been a magician, he heard the preaching of the apostles, he professed belief, and he was baptized. Simon saw the apostles laying on of hands and gifting people by the Holy Spirit, and Simon offered to buy that power from the apostles. And Peter answered him, “You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God” (Acts 8:21, ESV).

Here we have a man who heard the preaching of the apostles, appeared to believe, and was even baptized, but he was never a Christian, and he apostatize through the repulsive acts of offering money for the Gift of the Holy Spirit and His Power.

Notice that the five things that the author of Hebrews mentions, are things that make these men and women look like they're Christians: they go to worship, to Bible study, they understand the Word of God, they experience the Power of the Holy Spirit in worship and share in  His Benefits, and they have seen the signs and wonders and works of the Holy Spirit, such that the author of Hebrews tells us that even with all of this if they turn away from where they stand – if they apostatize – they are damned to hell.

What is the difference? The difference is, the people who can never be restored – the people who have apostatized – we never see it said of them, that they actually had faith or belief in Jesus and His Gospel. They were involved in the Church. They knew the Scripture. They knew the Gospel. They loved the things that they saw and experienced. Yet they were still able to say, “I can do without Jesus.”

The author of Hebrews tells us the reason it is impossible for them to return once they have apostatized is that in their apostasy, they, as it were, crucified Jesus again. They denied that Jesus’ Gospel was enough, and they sent Him back to the cross again. They held up the Gospel, and they despised it – they held it up for contempt, and they said, “You can't possibly mean that this is what makes us right with God.”

The author of Hebrews then turns to an agricultural example of what he is talking about: “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

The author of Hebrews has his readers consider a land – and this land is the Jewish nation and the church – the people that God has called to himself and the elect. And God sends the rain – God sends the Holy Spirit –  and the land drinks up the rain. The elect are those crops which bear useful fruit – these are blessed by God. These have the assurance of God upon them because they produce real fruit – fruit of repentance – fruit to everlasting life. The others to produce, but what they produce are thorns and thistles – nothing that is useful for health and healing and growth to the human body. These may be in the Church, they may think they are part of the Church, but in the end they show themselves to be apostates.

Jesus told the similar parable: “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:24-30, ESV).

We may wonder if the author of Hebrews is implying that these Jewish converts who had become immature were also apostates. Was the author of Hebrews, telling them that they were lost and there was no hope? We know that the answer for those who read and listened to this letter was “no,” they were not apostates; they were true believers.

He clearly continues:  “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

The author of Hebrews calls them, “beloved,” implying his belief that these people were immature, but true, believers – they were not apostates. He told them that he and those with him are “sure of better things – things that belong to salvation.” The author of Hebrews told them that there is reason – despite their immaturity – to believe that they are saved – that they are true, believing Christians – not merely apostates who had fooled themselves about the meaning of Christianity.

The author of Hebrews gave two reasons why he believed that they were members of the elect – that they were true, believing Christians: first, they continued to do works of faith. Second, they showed love for the saints in Jesus’ Name.

We've talked about the issue of works before: salvation is by faith alone, but it is not of faith that is alone. God saves us by grace alone through faith alone through Jesus Christ Alone, but that faith must lead to works of faith – to good works – not for our salvation, but as the fruit of our salvation – as a proof that we have been saved by God. True Christians use their gifts to do good works, especially in the Church.

Another evidence of their salvation was that they loved each other – not because they were all best friends – not because they all had the same interests – but for the sake of the Name of Jesus Christ – because they were brothers and sisters through God's adoption of them in salvation, they loved each other – they were willing to do whatever they could for the good and the progress of each other, especially in the things of the faith.

So, the author of Hebrews encourages his readers that although what they are doing may end up with some becoming apostate – because they were never really Christians in the first place – he sees through their works and their love, evidence that many of them are true, believing Christians. Having that evidence, they ought to find assurance of their faith.

But he does not leave them there – he calls them to more work – to make sure that they are true, believing Christians – that they believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that they are assured in their salvation – and that they would not merely be assured and stay immature, but that they would mature in the faith as well:  “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Peter explained that making sure of our election and calling – our salvation – is the most important work of the Christian's life: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11, ESV).

The most important question that anyone will ever find the answer to is how to be right with God. And the second most important question is to know whether you were right about the first question. Is there a way to know that you are one of the elect – that you have been called – that God has saved you – that your assurance is built on real belief and real fruit being produced?

The contemporary Reformed theologian, R. C. Sproul, has spoken about this topic – about being assured of salvation, and he, like the apostles stresses how important it is that we be assured that we are saved – that we are not be fooled, but truly know what we believe. So R. C. says that he asks the following questions:  “Do you love Jesus perfectly?” The answer to that is obviously “no,” we are still sinners. So then he asks, “Do you love Jesus as much as the Scripture says you ought to love Him?”  And again the answer to that is “no,” we are still sinners.  But then he asks a third question:”Do you love Jesus at all?”  And what he means when he asks that is not merely do you love the idea of being saved from the Wrath of God, but do you really, truly, in the depths of your being hear the Gospel – Who Jesus is and what He has done – and love Him for Who He is and what He has done? If you love Him at all for that, then that is evidence of your salvation, because no one can love Jesus at all – for who He is and what He has done unless he or she truly believes.

The author of Hebrews ends this section with the challenge: don't be sluggish – don't be slothful – don't continue to slide into immaturity – to think that everything will be okay if you just believe and never leave – if you never obey. Instead, imitate faith and patience – imitate the faith and the patience of Jesus and those who follow Him – those who have given great examples of Him.

John wrote:  “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16, ESV). There is a goal. It is set before us – in love of our brothers and sisters – in love of Christ and what He has done for us in the Gospel – let us be willing to physically die for each other – for the sake of the Gospel.

Many of us could very easily say, “Sure I'll die for you,” because we don't believe it will ever happen. So let us ask this of ourselves:  “What can I do to help each Christian in this congregation to mature in the faith?”  The most important thing we can do is to get each other to understand what the Gospel is – especially because every Sunday morning there are TV preachers on our TVs telling us it's something it's not.

And in the end, no matter what you do, no matter how Christian you seem, if you deny the Person and Work of Jesus – which is the Gospel – it will be impossible to restore you to repentance.

Let us pray:

 Almighty God, we thank You that You have given us the sign of fruit that we can look for in ourselves and each other to be sure that we are members of the elect – that we are truly Christians. Help us to see with clarity, to work with each other and encourage each other in humility and love. And may all that we do be done in thanks and praise to the Name of the One God, our Savior, Jesus. For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.