And the Bible reads,
Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,
let us go on unto perfection, not laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works
and of faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms,
and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection
of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this is what we do if God permit,
for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened
and have tasted of 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,
they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance,
seeing they crucify themselves the Son of God afresh
and put him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain
that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meat for them by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God.
But that which birth, thorns, and briars is rejected
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your works
and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name,
and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end, that you be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises.
And when God made promise to Abraham
because he could swear by no greater,
he sware by himself, saying, surely blessing God
will bless thee, and multiplying God
will multiply thee.
And so, after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise, for men verily
swear by the greater, that an oath or confirmation
is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things,
in which it was impossible for God
to lie, who 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 assurance steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil,
whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made an high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.
Let's pray.
We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the book of Hebrews,
dear God.
We thank you for our pastor.
Please bless him as he preaches your word unto us
tonight.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
OK, we're continuing this evening
with our Bible study of the book of Hebrews.
And tonight, we're in chapter 6.
Now, let me just say that I believe
this chapter is conclusively referring
to and talking about apostasy and reprobation.
And a more, I guess, thorough sermon on this,
you can listen to a sermon that I preached a couple of months
ago called Hebrew 6 Explained, where I just
kind of delve really deep into the first eight
verses of chapter 6.
Now, a lot of people have different interpretations
as far as what this is actually teaching.
And many Christians, even in the old IFB specifically,
they believe that this is just referring
to a Christian who has backslid in,
has gotten away from the Lord.
And when you read some of the verses here in this passage,
you can obviously see why they
would come to that conclusion.
There's some terminology that's used here
that we can easily confuse with just it referring
to Christians.
But I'm going to show you tonight
that based upon the context, when we talk about context,
we're talking about the passages before,
the passages after, how this is referring to not just
reprobation, but apostasy.
What is apostasy?
Well, apostasy is essentially when a person transgresses
the doctrines of Christ.
And what that means is that in Second John,
I believe it's verse 9, it says,
whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ
hath the Father and the Son.
And what that's referring to is that when there's a person
who claims to agree with and believe
the principles of the doctrines of Christ,
and what are we talking about there?
We're talking about salvation, the deity of Jesus Christ,
things that we would consider to be,
and the Bible considers to be, essential for salvation.
If a person claims to believe those things,
and somewhere down the road they transgress,
in other words, they surpass the boundary of those doctrines
and no longer believe in them.
They no longer believe in the resurrection.
They don't believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.
They violate the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible would consider that person to have apostasized.
And obviously we know that the word apostasy
isn't necessarily in our English King James Bible,
but we get that word from the phrase falling away.
And falling away is a phrase that we see
not only here in Hebrew chapter six,
but also in Second Thessalonians chapter two.
In Second Thessalonians chapter two,
it talks about how that day referring to the rapture
shall not come except to come a falling away first,
and the man of sin be revealed.
And that's actually where we get the word apostasy from
is from that phrase falling away.
And so when a person denies those doctrines of Christ,
they deny the resurrection,
they deny that salvation is eternal,
and they start claiming that you could lose it,
we would say that person has apostasized.
It doesn't mean they lost their salvation,
because the Bible doesn't teach you can,
it just means that person believed in vain,
they were never saved to begin with.
And the Bible consistently teaches that people apostasize,
it talks about in First Timothy chapter four,
talks about in Second Thessalonians chapter two,
and in different portions,
but there's debate whether Hebrew six is teaching that.
And so a lot of people do believe in apostasy
and they understand that people can surpass that boundary
and become heretics, damnable heretics at that.
But there's a lot of debate
whether Hebrew six is particularly teaching that.
But I'm gonna show you tonight
that that's exactly what it's talking about.
Now, in order to understand this,
we have to back up a little bit into chapter five,
the latter end of chapter five,
because that is the context.
Look at verse number 11, if you would, of chapter five.
Of course, in chapter five,
he's talking about how Jesus Christ
is the great high priest,
and he's kind of going into
the deep doctrine of Melchizedek, right?
And we know that chapter seven
delves really deep into that subject.
But he says in verse 11,
of whom referring to Melchizedek,
we have many things to say and hard to be uttered,
seeing the year dull of hearing.
That's a very important phrase there, okay?
Because of the fact that that phrase dull of hearing,
he could obviously be referring to two groups here.
He's either talking to people who are dull of hearing
in the sense that they become
apathetic towards preaching,
they are indifferent towards the things of God,
but they're still saved.
And we know people like that.
There's Christians that can become hardened,
and their heart just kind of becomes hardened
towards the things of God.
They're no longer interested in the Bible.
And so essentially, they become dull of hearing,
they're bored of the Bible,
they're bored of spiritual things.
We could say that person is dull of hearing, right?
But when you compare that phrase,
and you look at it from other portions of the Bible
that use that phrase,
you actually see that it's the equivalent to apostatizing.
Now, what am I talking about?
Well, in Matthew chapter 13,
when Jesus is preaching to the Jews,
he says, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah,
having eyes they see not, having ears they hear not.
And then it says that their heart is wax gross,
and their ears are dull of hearing.
And it refers to the fact that they've closed their eyes,
they've closed their ears,
lest they should understand with their heart,
and be healed and be converted, okay?
And so that's referring to apostasy.
Because of the fact that the Jews, by and large,
rejected, became an apostate nation,
because of the fact that they rejected Jesus Christ, okay?
And unto them were committed to the oracles of God.
They are the nation from which salvation comes from,
but yet they decided to close their ears and their eyes,
and essentially shut up their hearts unto the truth.
And what is the result of that?
Well, the result of that is that in John chapter 12,
the Bible says that they could not believe,
for Isaiah had prophesied,
he, referring to God, hath closed their eyes,
and he hath shut their ears.
So what do we see here?
We see the process of apostasy and reprobation
is that a person first makes that decision
to close their ears and their eyes to the truth,
to the point where then God ends up
permanently closing their eyes and their ears
to the truth, and then they can no longer be saved.
Because it says, lest they should be saved, okay?
And so when we compare the Dole of Hearing in Matthew 13
to what we see here in Hebrew chapter five, verse 11,
you can see that this might be what he's referring to.
Now, here's the thing, though,
is that we could be referring to two groups,
and I think he is addressing two groups here.
The first group being potentially the group of Christians
that have become apathetic towards the word of God.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, because he begins to rebuke them and say,
you know, that basically, when for the time
you ought to be teachers, you have one need
that won't teach you again.
They need to learn the principles of the oracles of God.
They have need of milk and not of strong meat.
So he's giving them a strong rebuke
for not maturing spiritually, right?
And again, this is something that Christians
can often slip into is apathy, becoming hardened,
becoming bored with the things of God.
And what is the antidote to that?
They need to get the word of God.
You know, in order to break up the fallow ground
of that hardened heart, they need to get preaching in,
they need to start reading the Bible again.
Why?
Because the inner man responds to that, okay?
The inner man, the Bible says
that he delights in the law of God.
And so if you find yourself cold towards the things of God
you need to start reading your Bible,
get some preaching in, come to church
and it'll melt that heart, okay?
That fire will melt that heart,
it'll break up that hardened heart
and you will become renewed in your love
for the Bible once again.
And so Christians experience this all the time
where they go through seasons of when to become apathetic
towards the things of God and they need a light,
a fire to be lit under their rear end
to get them back on track again, right?
And it's almost as if like they need to return back
to the principles of the oracles of God,
they need to drink the milk once again,
exercise their senses to discern both good and evil
so that they can spiritually mature, right?
So that's one potential group that he's referring to.
But let's look at the second,
look at chapter six and verse number one.
And this all ties into the latter end of chapter five,
it says, therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrines of Christ, which is synonymous
with the principles of the oracles of God,
let us go on into perfection,
not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and faith toward God
of the doctrine of baptisms of laying on of hands
and resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
Now let me make a couple statements regarding these verses
and I wanna encourage you to really try
to pay attention tonight to what I'm teaching here
because this is a very deep chapter
and so you will learn a lot, okay?
And it's very important that you just kind of tune in
as much as you possibly can,
I know it's a midweek service.
But when it talks about the principles
of the doctrines of Christ,
he actually lays out for you what those principles are.
Because he says there that they are the repentance
from dead works and faith toward God,
that's salvation, right?
Talks about baptisms, laying on of hands, ordination,
resurrection of the dead, that's an essential doctrine,
and eternal judgment which is hell.
So the principles of the doctrines of Christ
are not limited to these, but these are included
in the principles of the doctrines of Christ.
So if someone denies any of these,
then they've apostatized, right?
They're not saved, okay?
Now what is he telling them in the very beginning?
He says, therefore leaving the principles
of the doctrines of Christ,
let us go on into perfection.
Now what does he mean by that?
He's saying, you know, if you have taken
the instruction of what he said
at the latter end of chapter five of drinking the milk,
and now you're able to eat strong meat,
you have your senses exercised to discern good and evil,
okay, let's start maturing spiritually.
Because perfection means to be complete, to mature.
And when you get saved, the things that you start
learning right off the bat are the first principles
of the doctrines of Christ.
You learn a lot about salvation,
about the resurrection, about hell.
These are essential things to your spiritual growth.
This is like the foundational things
that you have to learn, right?
But once you've learned them,
it's time to mature and start learning
the deeper things of God.
And you say like what?
I don't know, like Melchizedek.
Because that's what he's talking about.
And in fact, the subject of Melchizedek
are the slices of bread that are sandwiching
what we're looking at here in Hebrew six,
because we see it in the beginning of Hebrew chapter five,
and then we see it in Hebrew chapter seven.
So after he's done kind of rebuking them
and teaching them this, then he delves into
the meat of the word, what the mature ear can listen to
which is the subject of Melchizedek,
the order of Melchizedek, you understand what I'm saying?
So he's saying like leave the principles
of the doctrines of Christ, it's time to leave
the bottle, it's time to leave the milk,
and it's time to go on to perfection.
He says we're not gonna lay again
these foundational doctrines because if you have
done your due diligence to grow,
you already know about these things, okay?
Look what it says in verse number three.
Let's continue here.
He says and this will we do if God permit.
Now first of all, what is he saying?
This will we do, what will we do?
What are we gonna do?
Well he's talking about perfection.
We will go on into perfection,
we will mature spiritually,
but hold on a second, if God permit.
So this is implying that God can actually stop you
or stop a person, should I say,
from moving on to perfection for this particular reason
that we're gonna look at in Hebrew six.
So he's saying let's move on to perfection
because obviously growing in grace
and in the knowledge is God's will for your life.
He wants you to learn the Bible,
he wants you to learn about Melchizedek,
he wants you to know about the deep things of God
and he says this we will do, but if God permit.
You think to yourself, well why would God stop me
from learning the deeper things of God?
Why would God wanna stop a person
from learning the deeper things of God?
Well, let's read on, verse four.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened
and have tasted of 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,
and I'm just gonna read the first part of verse six,
if they shall fall away.
So let me explain a couple things
regarding verses four through five.
Because if you were to take the interpretation
that this is referring to believers,
most people would point to those verses right there.
Because these are phrases and verses and words
that are used to describe a Christian.
We've been enlightened, right?
We have been enlightened,
we've tasted of the heavenly gift,
we're made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
tasted of the good word of God,
the powers of the world to come.
So we would automatically assume,
oh, this is referring to believers, right?
And so people who take that interpretation,
they have a strong argument
if they're only using verses four and five
to try to prove that.
But keep in mind, he's saying for it is impossible
for those who have partaken of these things,
and then it says if they shall fall away.
Now, I submit to you that the individuals
that are being referred to in verses four through five
are not people who are saved,
but people who are literally on the brink of salvation.
And there's no person closer to salvation
other than Christians and people
who have apostatized and have become reprobates.
Because in order to become a reprobate,
according to the Bible, you have to know the truth.
You see, a person who dies and goes to hell,
and maybe they got a watered down version of the gospel,
that person, while they were living, is not a reprobate,
they just died without Christ and they're in hell,
because they didn't get saved.
But mind you, there are people in this world
who know as much Bible as you and I,
as far as the first principles
of the doctrines of Christ are concerned,
they are enlightened to the truth.
They taste of that heavenly gift.
It's like the Holy Spirit works in them
and is essentially reproving them
and enlightening them about salvation
and they don't want it.
They actually reject it or as verse six says,
they fall away from it, okay?
Now, what is a good way to illustrate this?
Well, why don't we use the book of Hebrews
to illustrate how that would work?
Because in the previous chapters,
specifically in chapter three and chapter four,
you have the illustration of the children of Israel
going into the promised land,
which symbolically represents what?
Salvation.
And the Bible says that they could not enter in
because of unbelief.
So think about this, there were people
within the nation of Israel
who were like on the border of the promised land.
Almost as if like they could see it, you know?
There is like, it's like right there.
But they were not able to enter in
and in fact, in Hebrews chapter three,
it says that they had an evil heart of unbelief.
And this is why chapter four says
that the gospel is preached unto them as well as unto us,
but it did not profit them, listen to this,
not being mixed with faith.
So just as the children of Israel
were not permitted of God to enter in in like manner,
the person who is gonna apostate
because they've rejected these principles
of the doctrines of Christ, they can proceed no further.
You know, the Bible tells us regarding reprobates
in 2 Timothy chapter three, listen to this,
that they're ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So someone who apostatizes,
yeah, they can memorize all types of church father quotes.
They can read all type of encyclopedias
and commentaries and learn, you know, Hebrew and Greek.
They could just keep on learning,
but they'll never come to the knowledge of the truth.
Why?
Because God won't permit them to do so.
And in fact, it goes on to say in that particular chapter,
now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concern in the faith.
And it says, and these shall proceed no further,
but their folly shall be made manifest.
So a characteristic of someone who has apostatized
is that in God's eyes, they don't proceed further
than the principles of the doctrines of Christ
because you can't pass go, you cannot collect 200.
If you don't adhere and believe
these foundational doctrines,
you can't get into Melchizedek.
You don't know what you're talking about.
And by the way, let me just say a side note here.
That's why you can't learn the Bible from unsaved people.
You can't learn the Bible from John MacArthur.
Oh, he has so many good things.
Does he really though?
Does he though?
You know, can unsaved people discern spiritual things?
Absolutely not.
They can learn information.
They can learn historical facts.
They can repeat what other saved people say,
but at the end of the day,
they have a dead spirit
and can't impart any spiritual knowledge
and discernment unto you
because they can't proceed any further.
God won't allow them to go into the promised land.
They're gonna die in the wilderness, so to speak.
You understand what I'm saying?
So now we're getting into the subject of apostasy
because at the latter end of chapter five,
he tells them, look, if your hearts become hardened,
then you need to just get back to the basics, okay?
Get back to the basics, learn the Bible,
read the Bible, get into church,
get the milk of the word
so that you can graduate to the meat of the word
and then you can exercise your senses
to discern both good and evil
and then you can teach someone else
as you're supposed to be doing right now.
That's what he's telling them.
And then he says, you know, let's go on to perfection.
That's, of course, unless God permits for you to do that
because if you were once enlightened,
if you've tasted of the heavenly gift,
if you were in close proximity to the truth
and you apostatized from it, you reject those truths,
then God's not gonna permit for you to go further.
Now, some people aren't satisfied
with that interpretation though
because they may think to themselves,
yeah, you know, verses four and five,
I get what you're saying,
but I still think it's referring to Christians
because it just sounds like something that we would say.
You know, I was once enlightened,
I've tasted of the heavenly gift,
but you know, there's other portions of the Bible
of the New Testament that describe unsafe people
as though they have the knowledge of the Bible
and are in close proximity to salvation
and they're not saved.
And in fact, hold your place there,
go to 2 Peter chapter two, if you would,
2 Peter chapter two.
Now, no one in this room will deny
that 2 Peter chapter two is your quintessential chapter
on false prophets, which are individuals
who have for sure apostatized, okay?
Because the Bible says that they've denied the Lord God
that bought them.
They're bringing in privily, damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord God that bought them.
And it's your textbook chapter on false prophets.
If you ever wanna know what the Bible says
about false prophets,
you could always start at 2 Peter chapter two,
it's a great place to start, very exhaustive.
You could compare it to the book of Jude, Matthew 23,
but this is a great chapter to go to.
And we know that false prophets are not saved, okay?
That's for sure.
Now, look at verse number 18, or excuse me, verse 19.
While they promised them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption,
for of whom a man is overcome
of the same as he brought in bondage.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them
not to have known the way of righteousness
than after they have known it
to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
Now, we would say we escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The difference is we actually got saved.
The false prophet, you say,
why is it saying that about the false prophet
if they weren't saved?
Is it explaining to you how close they were
to that knowledge?
I mean, they're basically right there.
And it even says that they knew the way of righteousness.
You see, a person who dies and goes to hell
with minimal knowledge of the Bible,
they will go to hell.
However, the individual whose mind
was saturated with the truth
will be more severely punished than that person.
So severely punished that their punishment
extends into their physical life here now,
where they are given over to a reprobate mind
and they are beyond the hope of salvation, understand?
So 2 Peter 2, verse 21,
when it says to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them,
it's referring to turning their ears from the truth.
It's referring to apostasy.
You know, the Bible says that
the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time,
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
That's another example of apostasy.
You understand what I'm saying?
So what I'm showing you here, go back to Hebrews.
What I'm showing you here in 2 Peter chapter two
is that Hebrews 6, when compared to 2 Peter 2,
is essentially displaying the proximity
of how close they were to the truth.
And you think of a person who's just right there,
I mean, how much do you have to hate the Lord
to not accept the gift?
When the Holy Spirit enlightens you,
you taste of the heavenly gift,
you understand eternal damnation,
and you just still say no.
Now, not every person does that.
Most normal human beings,
when the Holy Spirit works in their heart to be saved,
they get saved, amen?
But there is a segment of the population,
as the Bible's talking about here,
that will get so close and yet be so far
because of the fact that they reject the truth.
And I don't think it's a coincidence
that he's writing to Hebrews about this,
because Hebrews are very close to the truth.
I mean, Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.
They're constantly hearing about the gospel.
I mean, they have a rich history of, you know,
salvation and prophets and wise men,
and yet they're still rejecting it.
It's possible that many of them could have apostatized.
If they did not get saved,
they can just go off the deep end and become reprobates.
So verses four and five is saying it's impossible
for that person to be that close, okay?
Because we're still carrying on that thought.
He says they're that close, look at verse six,
if they shall fall away.
Now, we gotta ask ourselves, fall away from what?
This is not referring to backsliding, my friends,
because we gotta look at it in its context.
What are they falling away from?
The principles of the doctrines of Christ.
You know, repentance from dead works and faith toward God,
the resurrection, eternal damnation.
And again, you can search that phrase
and you'll see that it consistently refers to someone.
You know, for example, I believe it's Galatians chapter four
that talks about ye are fallen from grace.
And it's referring to people
who are in the churches of Galatia,
who are starting to observe times, months, and years,
and they're bringing themselves back under the law,
and he's saying like, if you're trusting in the law,
I'm paraphrasing here, if you're trusting in the law,
you are fallen from grace.
Why?
Because the Galatians are receiving
a lot of truth from the Apostle Paul,
and so if some Judaizer comes
and teaches them contrary to that,
and they take the bait, they believe it,
and they don't change from that,
then they've fallen from grace, they've apostatized.
Because they're so close to the truth, okay?
So it says, if they shall fall away,
it's impossible for those who experience
verses four through five,
and then they just reject those principles
of the doctrines of Christ, listen to this,
to renew them again unto repentance.
Now what does that mean?
Well think about this, you know,
here's a very simple way to explain this.
If a person, how can you get a person to believe
there were, it's repentance from dead works
and faith toward God?
If they don't believe that you have to repent
from dead works and have faith toward God.
Because it's like, it's impossible to renew them
again unto repentance, why?
We can still get them saved, we gotta pray for them.
No, the reason they're in that situation
is because they rejected repentance
from dead works and faith toward God.
And here's another way to explain it.
How do you get a sodomite saved?
And I'm being like, I'm not being facetious,
I'm honest to goodness, I'm just being serious.
How do you get a sodomite saved?
How do you get them to trust Jesus Christ as their savior
if Romans 1 says that they don't even want
to retain God and their knowledge?
I've always asked people that, like,
you believe sodomites can be saved?
How if they don't want to retain God and their knowledge?
You can't.
So like the very thing that they need to believe
is the very thing that got them to the position,
the rejection of that doctrine is what got them
to where they're at as far as being a reprobate
or a apostatizing.
So you can't renew them again into repentance
because it's that literal same doctrine
that they've completely fallen away from and rejected.
You understand what I'm saying?
So you cannot help them to be saved.
And this is why, you know, people are like,
well, we gotta pray, why don't you pray for John MacArthur?
Well, instead of criticizing him,
you should be praying for them.
And it's just like, I'd be praying in vain
because I can't renew that person again into repentance
because they've fallen away from the first principles
of the doctrines of Christ.
And if I try to witness to them and show them the truth
they will mock me and laugh at me
and put Christ to an open chain
because that's what the verse says that they'll do.
And so it's better to witness to people
who actually want the truth
than these false prophets who are a false prophet
because of the fact that they have apostatized.
And when we think about institutions that have apostatized
we're not referring to like Hinduism or Buddhism.
Those are just like pagan heathen religions.
You understand that it's just are a punishment
upon a nation who have rejected God centuries ago.
Apostate religions are referring to religions
who claim to be Christian,
but have deviated from the principles
of the doctrines of Christ.
Catholicism, orthodoxy,
there's some non-denom churches out there
that have apostatized.
Pentecostal churches, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses,
these are apostate religions that claim the name
of Christ, they claim to believe in the Bible,
but their entire institution is based off of apostasy.
Just a complete rejection of the doctrines of Christ.
And so when you think about the Hebrews,
Hebrews are individuals who are supposed to believe
in the God of the Bible, the doctrines of the Bible,
so therefore, it's not like, oh, you've become a heathen.
No, you just become an apostate.
That's what Judaism is.
It's an apostate religion.
So it says, if they shall fall away,
to renew them again into repentance.
So what's impossible?
Well, you can't renew someone to repentance
for salvation if they reject repentance for salvation.
Therefore, God will not permit you
to go further than that.
And he says, if they shall fall away
to renew them again into repentance,
seeing they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, afresh means again, okay?
Just keep that in mind.
And here's a simple way for me to explain this,
and I hope you understand,
is that in the Bible, when salvation is described,
it's described in various ways,
but one of the ways that salvation is described
is like we're crucified with Christ.
That's kinda how it's described sometimes, right?
I mean, you read Romans chapter six,
it talks about how our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that we should not serve sin, right?
We get said when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's like we're crucified with him,
and in conjunction with that,
the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter six
that we're crucified into the world.
So we're like dead to the world.
And because we're dead into the world,
the Bible says that we're alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Does that make sense to everybody?
It's not the most popular way to describe salvation,
but it is a facet,
it is a manner of which the Bible does describe it.
Okay, being crucified with Christ,
being crucified to this world,
we're dead to this world but alive unto God.
Now, let me just say is that everybody
is dead unto Christ before they get saved,
because everyone is dead in their trespasses and sin
until they're quickened together with Christ
by grace are you saved, Ephesians chapter two, right?
However, if a person dies without Christ,
then we can say that that person is now twice dead, okay?
And the Bible teaches that there are people
who reach that point before death,
where they reached that here now
because they've apostatized.
And so when it says that they crucified
the Son of God afresh,
well, a person who's saved is alive unto Christ,
but a person who remains dead
and then apostatizes, he's basically dead to Christ.
And in fact, we could say that he's crucified
the Son of God afresh, he's crucified to them twice.
Meaning he's not only dead in his trespasses and sin,
but he's twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
In other words, Jesus Christ cannot come back down again
and be crucified for those who are twice dead.
He was crucified for those who were once dead,
those who were slain by the law,
but he is not crucified for the twice dead,
because the person who's reached that horrible place
of being twice dead got there
because they understood what Christ did for them.
They understood the gospel.
They understood that Jesus Christ paid for all their sins.
And so they're crucifying Jesus Christ,
the Son of God afresh, they are twice dead unto him.
The people we're preaching to out there
are dead unto Christ once because the law slays them,
but they can get to a point if they're not careful,
where they could be dead unto Jesus twice.
And it says there, and put him to an open shame.
So now we're looking at a group of people
who have apostatized, they don't wanna be renewed again
into repentance from dead works and faith toward God,
which is another way of saying,
not trusting in your works,
but placing your faith in Jesus Christ alone, amen.
They are dead to Jesus like twice,
because they're twice dead,
and these same individuals
have become adversarial towards God,
because they're willing to put him to an open shame.
Now, another way of saying this
is what Philippians chapter three states,
that they become the enemies of the cross of Christ,
where it's not just enough
that they don't believe the principles
of the doctrines of Christ,
they become contrarians against it,
where they kind of go out of their way
to try to refute it, debunk it, fight against it,
and this is why the apostle Paul,
and I believe the apostle Paul knew people like this,
because he says, I tell you now, even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
And he's probably referring to people
that he knew who he thought were saved.
They were laborers with him, and what happened?
They apostatized,
and now they're the enemies of Jesus Christ.
So that's a big difference
from someone who's just lost, right?
Like, we would say, you know,
Joel Osteen, John MacArthur,
whatever main false prophet
is not the most popular false prophet,
these people are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
because they will consistently try to refute
what the Bible says about Jesus and salvation.
Isaiah Saldivar, he's an enemy of the cross of Christ.
He is an apostate pastor
who's teaching a false way of salvation,
and is consistently going out of his way
to become a contrarian against the principles
of the doctrines of Christ.
That's a person who's fallen away.
Now, mind you, I'm not talking about
a large group of people, okay?
We don't want to think that everyone's apostate
if they don't believe exactly how you believe,
or they don't fall perfectly in line with the Bible.
We're talking about people who have had,
well, you know, they've been enlightened.
They have tasted of the good word of God,
so on and so forth, okay?
So if you see a pastor who is teaching
a wrong way of salvation when they knew the truth prior,
that person has apostasy, they become reprobate.
And look, let me just say this,
is apostasy and reprobation
are two sides of the same coin.
We're talking about one and we're talking about the other.
It's just that the phrase apostasy
is more closely related to a person
who became apostate because of the fact
that they had a saturated amount of knowledge
of the Bible, like the Hebrews, okay?
Does that make sense, everyone?
Now, verses seven through eight
gives us a pretty powerful illustration
of how this takes place, okay?
Because, you know, some people would be like,
oh man, if you just would've loved those people
a little more, they wouldn't have gone that way,
Bruce, ice-fork, they wouldn't have gone that way,
and you know, they would've,
if you would've just cared for them more.
Well, here's the thing is that according to the Bible,
the Bible itself makes reprobates.
It's the word of God that actually does it to people.
And here is a powerful illustration of that.
Look at verse seven.
For the earth, which drinketh in the rain,
that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs,
meat for them, by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessings from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
Now, it goes without saying that verse eight,
when it talks about thorns and briars,
if you study that subject in the Bible,
it's often referring to reprobates.
And the reason it likens reprobates to thorns and briars
is because thorns and briars are incapable of bearing fruit,
and according to the verse, they're meant to be burned.
In other words, that's, you know,
hell is reserved for them, understand?
But going back to the illustration here,
what is this referring to?
Well, I think it's interesting that the latter end
of chapter five is kind of instructing
or admonishing believers who have become apathetic
towards the things of God.
And then the beginning, the first couple eight verses
of chapter six is talking about people
potentially apostatized, and you have verse seven
addressing that first group,
and verse eight addressing the second.
Now, how is that so?
Well, when it says that the earth which drinketh the rain
that cometh oft upon it,
what I believe this is talking about here
is that the rain represents the word of God.
And when it rains on the earth,
it doesn't just rain in fertile areas of the world,
right?
It can rain upon in fertile areas as well.
Now, when it rains on fertile ground,
it's gonna bring forth fruits,
it's gonna be lush and gorgeous,
and there's gonna be all types of foliage
because it's alive, right?
That's what the rain will do.
But you can rain all you want in the Sahara Desert
or some desert or whatever,
and it's just like it's never gonna grow.
It's dead, right?
Or you can rain upon an area
that's only thorns and briars,
you're never gonna get an apple.
You're never gonna get strawberries,
you're never gonna get grapes,
you're never gonna get any type of fruit
or any type of flower.
It's just gonna produce more thorns and briars.
But I want you to notice that it's the same rain.
And what the rain is being represented here
is the word of God.
Because the word of God,
when it falls upon your ears, saved ears,
the result is always a blessing.
You will grow from it.
And in fact, the Bible likens us to being like trees.
We shall be like the tree planted by the rivers of water
that bringeth forth his fruit and his season,
and whatsoever we do it shall prosper.
And it's all based upon our meditation
of the word of God.
And in fact, when the Bible talks about
the word of God coming into our lives,
it bears fruit because of the fact
that this temple houses the Holy Spirit.
And what happens when we walk in the Spirit?
It bears fruit.
You understand?
So we always benefit from hearing the Bible.
Even if you're cold, it still benefits you.
Because it resonates with your spirit.
It speaks to you, it helps you to change,
it gets you right with God,
it develops a love for the Lord.
The inward man delights in that.
And it shall never come back void, right?
It shall give bread to the eater and seed to the sower,
as it says in Isaiah chapter 55.
But when it comes upon thorns and briars,
it just makes them even more apostate.
It doesn't produce anything because they can't do anything.
They are, their fruit withereth,
listen to this, without fruit.
Twice dead, plucked up by the roots, the Bible says.
So this is telling us that the word of God
will fall upon these ears.
It'll always fall upon these ears, okay?
Those who have become apathetic towards the things of God
and will renew their love for the Lord,
which when you read Psalm 119,
that's a big theme in Psalm 119, is it not?
You know, my soul cleaveth to the dust,
quicken thou me according to thy word.
So when you just feel like you're just dry as dust,
like you just don't feel like serving God,
you're just dry.
And he's like, quicken thou me according to thy word,
because it's the word of God that keeps us alive.
But then you can pour as much water upon thorns
or briars and it'll never bear fruit.
That's why it's a waste of time
to try to win homos to the Lord.
Unless you just want to give him a lower hell
or something like that.
It's not gonna do anything.
You can pour, you can saturate deserts
with water and more water, it'll never produce anything.
It's like, you could, look folks,
you can look far and wide in this universe
and you're never gonna find a planet that houses life.
It's never gonna happen.
And so, the teaching of verses one through eight
is an admonishment, a warning to people
to make sure that there's no evil heart
of unbelief in them.
And I think this is why the Apostle Paul is stating this,
lest there be an evil heart of unbelief in them
and they apostatize.
And this isn't just something that was common
in the first century AD, it's common today.
There's people who go to church, they're not saved,
they become heavily saturated with Bible doctrine
and they don't believe and then they apostatize,
they become reprobates because God finds that
extremely offensive.
It's offensive to God.
You know why God gives people over to a reprobate mind?
Because it's offensive to him
when he works in their hearts.
And think about this, God knows the heart.
Like he hears the words of the inner recesses of the heart.
And when you think about a particular reprobate,
you could imagine what they think in their heart
but you don't really know how evil they are
in their heart.
You don't really know how much they truly blaspheme
the Lord in their heart.
Because some people might have the attitudes like,
wow, God just gave them over to a reprobate mind,
like man, that just seems kind of rough.
Yeah, but you don't know.
You know, the word of God is quick and powerful,
sharpening the two-edged sword,
it pierces even to the dividing asunder,
soul and spirit joins in the marrow,
is a discerner of the thoughts
and the intents of the heart.
I mean, he knows every single fiber of thought
in that person's being.
And when he makes that judgment call
to make them a reprobate, he's justified
because he's heard things that you probably
will never hear in your life.
He probably hears some of the most blasphemous things
in the hearts of reprobates.
And that's why he's justified
in removing their ability to believe.
And so, now, I love what he says in verse nine,
because you know, when you're reading these verses,
let's say you're the Hebrews, okay?
You're just like, dang, is he claiming that I'm not safe?
And you know, again, you see this
throughout the epistles of Paul,
he's constantly like bringing this up.
You know, he's just like, I'm afraid of you,
lest I bestow upon you labor in vain.
But then in chapter five, he's like,
yeah, but therefore be steadfast
and let no one move you from the liberty
which is in Christ.
So he's kind of like reassuring them
while he's causing them the question
because he legitimately wants to make sure
that they're saved.
And you know, in 1 Corinthians 15,
he's like, you've believed in vain?
But then he's just like, you know,
therefore be steadfast, unbovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.
You know, he's like assuming that they're saved
because it's a possibility when you're speaking
to a large group of people,
it's gonna be sprinkled with unsaved,
unregenerated people.
And so he's kind of warning them like,
hey, you better get saved now, okay?
Look at verse nine, but beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation though we thus speak.
He's like, but you know,
I know you guys aren't a bunch of apostates
even though I'm talking about this.
And you know, but I'll tell you this though,
whatever Hebrews were in that particular crowd
during that time, if there was one that's not saved,
they're tasting of the heavenly gift at that moment.
They're tasting of that good word of God,
like the Holy Spirit was probably working in their heart.
You know, and you know, and it's a possibility
some of them didn't get saved.
And they remained in that state permanently.
But he says, you know, I'm persuaded better things of you
though we thus speak.
And then he begins to talk about their works.
He says in verse 10, for God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labor of love,
which you have showed toward his name,
and that you have ministered to the saints
and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope and to the end,
that you be not slothful, but followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
What he's basically saying here is that he's persuaded
that they are saved.
And he's telling them like,
God is not forgetting the things that you've done.
Your goal should be though,
that you would maintain those good works
all the way to the end.
Now, obviously we know that if a person
does not maintain good works to the end,
to their death or to the second coming of Christ,
they're still saved.
But the goal of every Christian should be
that they want to make it all the way to the end,
being faithful unto the Lord.
Like that should be the goal.
Like that's my goal.
My goal is that, you know,
I'm serving God to my very last breath,
that I'm not backsliding,
that I'm not getting out of the fight.
I'm still fighting the good fight of faith.
I want to do it until the end.
And he says, to have the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
So, you know, we want to emphasize the fact
that you can't lose your salvation because you can't,
but we also want to emphasize the importance
of serving God all the way to the end.
Because that's what God wants from us.
You know, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
And so you need to pace yourself in the Christian life,
and make sure you're not biting off more than you can chew.
Make sure that you're just being consistent in church,
consistent in your Bible, consistent in prayer,
and allow yourself to just be a mature Christian
throughout the years.
Be in this thing for the long haul, okay?
That's what he's referring to there.
Now the second half here,
let me spend about the next 10 minutes or so,
verses 13 to 20, what is being referred to here?
Because, you know, the apostle Paul
is not just a great preacher, he's a great writer.
And he is exquisite when it comes to just bringing
the subject back to the first topic at hand.
Because of the fact that in chapter five,
he's talking about how Jesus Christ
is the great high priest.
And it's possible that some people in the crowd
were growing a little bored of what was being stated,
which is why he brings up all this other stuff.
But then he kind of segues back to that topic
of the high priest, but he does it by explaining
the oath that God made to Abraham, okay?
Look at verse 13, it says,
"'For when God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater,
he sware by himself, saying,
surely blessing I will bless thee,
and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And so after he had patiently endured,
he obtained the promise.
For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath."
Now let me explain a couple things here.
And what's interesting is that,
you know, I was studying this earlier,
and then Hike called me.
And he, you know, he's always like,
trying to teach me stuff, you know what I mean?
But he succeeds a lot of the time, so, you know.
He ends up getting the gears turning in certain ways,
and I'm just like, it brings me to like another thought.
But he was talking about a particular sermon
that Pastor Anderson was preaching.
And it's a sermon where Pastor Anderson
is talking about the fact that
in the major prophets you have two men making an oath,
and solidifying that oath through a sacrifice.
And the way that that oath would be confirmed
is by having both parties pass through the sacrifice, okay?
Basically implying that they will both
keep their end of the bargain.
But then in chapter 15 of the book of Genesis,
you have God making this oath
that we see here in Hebrews chapter six
that's being talked about,
God making this oath to Abraham.
Now let's go to Genesis chapter 15.
Well, I'm just gonna go over this briefly.
I hope I don't, I'm not boring you,
but if I am, I got you for the next 10 minutes, so.
You're just gonna have to endure
and stop being dull of hearing me, man.
Chapter 15, this is by the way,
after his encounter with Melchizedek, right?
And of course, God tells him,
fear not Abraham, for I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward.
And he begins to, he starts to tell him again
regarding the promises that he's gonna make to him,
the promise, the oath that he made to him in where?
Genesis chapter 12, that he's gonna bless him
and that he is gonna curse them to curse him
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
And you need to remember that.
So that promise is reinstated once again in chapter 15.
And it's this oath that he's giving him.
Look down at verse number seven.
He says, and he said unto him,
I am the Lord that brought thee out of the earth,
Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know
that I shall inherit it?
And he said unto him, take me and Heifer
of three years old and a she-goat of three years old
and a ram of three years old
and a turtledove and a young pigeon.
And he took unto him all these
and divided them into the midst
and laid each piece one against another,
but the birds divided he not.
Now skip down to verse 17,
says, and it came to pass that when the sun went dark,
excuse me, went down and it was dark,
behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp
that passed between those pieces.
So we see there that just as the two men
were to pass through the animal sacrifice
to give this indication that they will both
keep their end of the bargain
of the oath that they're making,
God is making an oath with Abraham,
but he's the only one passing through the pieces.
Why, because salvation is only by,
it's only determined by God, right?
He's the one who's keeping his end of the bargain.
Because salvation is not of us.
It's of Jesus Christ, right?
Through Jesus Christ.
And he's indicating that by allowing
the lamp to go through the pieces,
that's how he's kind of symbolizing that.
But if you go up a couple verses,
go to verse number 11, this is after he divided them,
and this is what I discovered today.
It says, and when the fowls came down upon the carcass,
Abraham drove them away.
Now, ever since I've read that
when I first got saved, I just didn't,
I'm like, why is that verse there?
You know, we're talking about dividing the animal,
and then all of a sudden it's like,
the birds come down and Abraham was like,
shoo, shoo.
I'm like, why would God, why did he put that there?
Such a random verse.
But let me just say this,
anytime you run into passages like that,
there's something there, okay?
Not there on accident.
Why would it be there?
Well, going back to,
and I'm exercising your mind here,
if you were to go back to Matthew 13,
where the Bible, where Jesus Christ
is talking to the Israelites
and saying that they're dull of hearing,
meaning to apostatize,
thereafter, he begins to talk about
the seed and the sower.
And the first seed that is sown is upon the wayside.
And what does the Bible say?
The fowls of the air come and they snatch the seed.
And we know that that bird or that fowl is Satan.
And it says that the people whose seed
falls on the wayside,
which is the one that comes,
the ground that is highlighted
after he talks about being dull of hearing,
they reject the word of God
and what does God allow to happen?
He allows Satan to come to snatch the seed
out of their heart.
Listen to this, lest they should believe and be saved.
And so when we look at that passage in Matthew 13,
in conjunction with Genesis 15,
God is making an oath with this world
and we see Abraham, I'm gonna call him Abraham
even though it's Abram right here,
we know what we're talking about, right?
We see Abraham and when the fowls of the air
come to light upon the carcass,
he's shooing them away,
showing that he wants this to happen.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so going back to Hebrews chapter six,
the only way someone can apostatize
is if they legitimately don't want the truth.
Because God's already made the oath with them.
Go back to Hebrew six.
He's already made the oath with them
and in fact, he's doing it by two immutable things, right?
And let me explain to you
what those two immutable things are.
Give me about five more minutes.
Because this is cool.
Look what it says in verse 17,
Jesus is wearing God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath.
So God's not gonna, he can't swear by anything greater
because he is, he's the great one.
He's God.
You know what I mean?
So he's swearing by himself.
He's giving Abraham this promise, this oath
but it says that he does it by two immutable things.
What is the first immutable thing?
Well the first immutable thing is his counsel.
The second is the oath.
Now what does it mean by his counsel?
Go to Ephesians chapter one if you would.
Ephesians chapter one.
Now, well let's read it first.
Look at Ephesians chapter one and verse number nine.
It says having made known unto us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times
he might gather together and want all things in Christ
both which are in heaven and which are on earth
even in him and whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will.
Now when you and I think of the term counsel
we often think of advice.
So I've always like read this and thought
after the advice of his own, all right, you know,
I'll accept it, you know what I'm saying?
If that's what the Bible says.
But counsel here is actually used in a different way
because there is a more archaic definition to counsel
the way counsel was used and that is can be defined
as essentially a secret plan,
something that's been concealed.
When you impose that definition upon the term counsel here
it makes perfect sense.
Now why?
Because if he says that he's doing this
according to the counsel of his own will
what is that secret plan if that's what it means?
We'll look at chapter three.
Chapter three says in verse two,
if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God
which has given me to you word,
how that by revelation he made known into me the mystery
as I wrote a four in few words,
whereby when you read he may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ,
which in other ages was not made known
into the sons of men as it is now revealed
into his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs
and of the same body and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel.
So what is the counsel of his own will?
His plan to engraft the Gentiles
into the promises that he gave him to Israel.
So what is that immutability of his counsel and the oath?
Well, they're basically two things
that have to do with Abraham.
Since Abraham was given the promise
that in him shall all families of the earth be blessed.
And who are all families in the earth made up of?
Gentiles.
So he's giving him that promise
because that is the immutability.
His counsel is not gonna change.
So you know what, these people who only think,
oh, you know, salvation was only for the Israelites
in the Old Testament.
No, the immutability of his counsel said
that he wanted all people to be saved
from the very beginning.
And guess what?
He's not changing that.
Gentiles are not plan B.
You know, what's that guy's name?
Sam Gibb, who said that the Gentiles were plan B.
No, they're plan A too.
So how do you know?
Because his counsel is immutable means it never changed.
And from the beginning,
he wanted the Gentiles to be saved.
And we know that God will not change
if that's what he says.
But here's the thing, if that's not enough,
he gave an oath.
And he said, this will happen.
The Messiah will come through Abraham.
And anybody who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ
will be a part of that promise.
Pretty interesting, right?
Go to Hebrew six and we'll finish off.
Give me one minute.
He says in verse 18 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 an anchor of the soul.
Who's the anchor of the soul?
It's Jesus.
Anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which enter it into that within the veil.
So what is this referring to?
The anchor, if we were to remove,
both sure and steadfast, you could read it as,
which hope we have an anchor of the soul,
and which enter it into that within the veil,
referring to Jesus.
Because Jesus, when he died, went through the veil,
went into the holiest of all
in that heavenly tabernacle
and spread the blood on the mercy scene.
And this is why it says in verse 20,
whether the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus.
Forerunner means he went in before we did.
So the reason we as Gentiles
and anybody who's part of that oath
is able to go to heaven
is because we have the forerunner Jesus
who entered into that veil,
and now we have salvation
that could be likened unto an anchor,
sure and steadfast, meaning it's not gonna move.
He says, whether the forerunner is entered
for us, excuse me,
whether the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus,
wait, wait, wait,
I thought only like the high priest
can go through the veil.
Made in high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.
And the reason he's bringing that up
is because of the fact that people can make a big deal
out of the Levitical priesthood all you want.
The order of Melchizedek precedes that.
The order of Melchizedek existed before the Levitical law
and it's still here today.
So people always wanna make a big deal about this era
known as the Levitical priesthood
with the Levitical law,
not understanding that there was an order
before the Levitical priesthood.
It's called the order of Melchizedek
which is an eternal order,
and I don't wanna get into that
because that's chapter seven.
But this is good stuff, I'm just telling you.
It's powerful to show us the importance
of desiring and loving the deep things of God.
And so it's God's will for you
and it's God's will for me
to learn the deep things of God,
okay, and to move on to perfection
and not allow yourself to be apathetic
towards the things of God, okay?
It's the propensity of every Christian, it happens,
but when it does,
you need to drink the milk till you can eat the meat,
exercise your senses to the discernment,
both good and evil,
and if there's someone in here that's not saved
and you've been consuming large quantities
of the word of God,
you better get saved before you apostatize.
Because it's happened to people in the past
and the Bible's telling us here
that it can happen to you.
So take advantage of those, listen to this,
two immutable things that God's not changing on.
Shoe away the fowls from that oath
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, amen?
Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your word,
thank you for Hebrew six
and what wonderful things we can learn
from the Bible, Lord, I pray that you bless us
as we go on our way
and help us to think upon these things
and be grateful for the immutability of your counsel
that you wanted us Gentiles to be saved
and you confirmed it with an oath you promised to Abraham
and if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are spiritual children of Abraham
and so may you help us to think upon those things
and continue to saturate our hearts with the word of God
and if there's someone here who's become hardened
towards the Bible, may you soften their heart,
Lord, touch their heart and help them to renew again
their love for the Bible.
But if there's someone here that's not saved
and they know what the Bible says about salvation,
please be merciful to them and help them
to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
What better place to do it than here at church
where there's people who can lovingly show them the truth
and not be judgmental if they've been coming for a while
and they're not saved, Lord.
We want all these people to be saved
and I just pray that you'd help us, Lord,
as we go on our way.
We love you, we thank you,
pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
["Praise the Lord"]
All right, now we'll do song 339.
["The Comforter Has Come"]
Song 339.
The Comforter has come for our final song,
everyone all together nice and strong.
Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound
The Comforter has come
The Holy Ghost from heaven
The Father's promise give
Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found
The Comforter has come
The long, long night has passed
The morning breaks at last
And hush the dreadful wail
And fury of the blast
As o'er the golden hills
The day advances past
The Comforter has come
The Holy Ghost from heaven
The Father's promise give
Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found
The Comforter has come
Lo, the great King of Kings
With healing in his wings
To every captive soul
A full deliverance brings
And through the vacant cells
The song of triumph brings
The Comforter has come
The Holy Ghost from heaven
The Father's promise give
Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found
The Comforter has come
Oh, boundless love divine
How shall this tongue of mine
Two wandering mortals tell
The matchless grace divine
That I, a child of hell
Should in his image shine
The Comforter has come
The Holy Ghost from heaven
The Father's promise give
Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found
The Comforter has come