Thank you.
We're going to go to 143.
Blessed assurance.
143.
Blessed assurance.
They're on the first.
Blessed assurance.
Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation, purchase of God.
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story.
This is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story.
This is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Perfect submission.
Perfect delight.
Visions of rapture.
Rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending, bring from above.
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
This is my story.
This is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story.
This is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Let's start with a word of prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this opportunity to be gathered.
I pray that you would just bless all aspects of our service.
You would bless the preaching, that we'd all be edified by the word of God this evening.
That we pay attention and that you would keep us safe as we go out through this week.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Go ahead and go to our second song.
356.
I must tell Jesus.
356.
I must tell Jesus.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
I cannot bear these burdens alone.
In my distress He kindly will help me.
He ever loves and cares for His own.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus all of my troubles.
He is a kind, compassionate friend.
If I but ask Him, He will deliver.
Make of my troubles quickly and in.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Him did and tried, I need a great Savior.
One who can help my burdens to bear.
I must tell Jesus.
He all my cares and sorrows will share.
I must tell Jesus.
He I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
They are the last.
Oh how the world to evil allures me.
Oh how my heart is tempted to sin.
I must tell Jesus and He will help me.
Over the world the victory to win.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Very good singing.
If you need a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high
and one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin real quick.
We have our Bible memory passage on the front.
John 1-8.
And then on the inside we have our service.
Soul winning times.
We have our church stats.
I'm going to get a count for any soul winning report for the last few days.
Was there anything from this past Thursday as far as soul winning?
Okay.
One for Thursday.
What about Friday?
Anything on Friday?
Ain't nothing for Friday.
What about Saturday?
Anything on Saturday?
Looks like two.
What about today?
I think our church event we had three.
Was there anything outside of that?
Alright.
Keep up the good work on soul winning.
And then on the right we have our list of expecting ladies.
We also have our prayer list.
The Spurgeons asked of you to ask them down below for prayer for their health as well.
And I mean really it's just it seems like almost every one of our families is just going through the sickness lately.
And so let's definitely try to pray for everybody and try to stay healthy.
Obviously that change of weather and just everything else I guess just really hits everybody hard.
On the back we have the note about the ordination of brother Ferv for an evangelist in Oklahoma City.
On the 16th the 29th we have the baby shower for Miss Tina Galasso.
And that's pretty much all I have for announcements at this time.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
We're going to go to song 250 in your hymnal.
Song 250.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Song 250.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
There on the first.
Days are filled with sorrow and care.
Hearts are lonely and drear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Cast your care on Jesus today.
Leave your worry and fear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Troubled soul, the Savior can see.
Every heartache and tear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
This time we'll turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter number 6.
Brother Ben is going to read for us.
Pass our offering plate.
Hebrews chapter number 6 will read the entire chapter, starting at verse number 1.
Hebrews chapter number 6, the Bible reads,
Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection,
and again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment. And this will 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, if they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to 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 and meat for them by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth 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 work and labor of love,
which he have shewed toward his name, in that ye 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 ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
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, 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 as an anchor of the soul, both sure and 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 fire heads for a quick word of prayer.
Father God, we thank you for the evening service at Steadfast Baptist Church and for Hebrews chapter 6.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley now with your spirit and enable him to preach his sermon for us with clarity of mind and with boldness.
I pray that you would also help us to listen and learn so we can learn more about the subject matter this evening.
We love you and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
The title of my sermon this evening is Hebrews Chapter 6 Explained, or Hebrews 6 Explained.
It's an interesting chapter. It's actually a pretty controversial chapter in Christianity
because a lot of people will try to use this chapter to teach that you can lose your salvation.
In fact, it's a pretty common teaching.
I grew up going to church where often the pastors and preachers would get up and they would say,
Well, you can't lose your salvation, but there is Hebrews 6.
They would always go to Hebrews 6. It's kind of a notorious passage in a lot of churches and a lot of places.
A lot of people use Hebrews to twist and teach a works-based salvation.
The reason why people are going to go to passages in Hebrews or perhaps even James
and try and teach a works-based salvation is because both of these books of the Bible are really emphasizing works.
That's the major emphasis of these books. They're not teaching you how to get saved.
Of course, if the book is just laying on thick the importance of works and doing works and why works are important,
it's going to be easier to twist some of those verses out of context, out of the proper place that it's supposed to be put in,
to then try to attribute that to salvation or try to suggest that you have to work your way to heaven.
Even though it's kind of a thinly veiled works salvation, teaching that you can lose your salvation is a works-based salvation
because ultimately they're attaching good works, good attributes, or basically a list of no-nos in order to get into heaven.
People are basically trusting their future good works or their future self to get them into heaven.
Whereas the Bible clearly teaches from Genesis to Revelation, you can't lose your salvation.
Salvation is a one-time event. It's an eternal event. Once you trust in Christ, you get eternal life.
The Bible makes it very clear in many passages that salvation is just by faith. It's not of works as any man should boast.
We can prove that all day long, but I really want to just explain what Hebrews 6 actually means.
What does it really mean? Let's just identify a few other points though.
The book of Hebrews is written to the saved, and it's also not teaching the saved how to get saved.
Let me give you a few pointers when reading the Bible. Look at chapter 3 and look at verse number 1.
Notice what it says here.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.
If we were to just try and guess who is he talking to here, are you going to really look at unsaved people and say, holy brethren?
What makes an unsaved person holy anyways?
In fact, none of us are holy on our own merits and own righteousness.
We're only holy because of Christ's righteousness, which has been imputed upon us.
The only reason we're even described as holy brethren is because of the holiness of Jesus Christ that's been given to us.
Also, look at the next phrase. Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
Is this group of people people that don't even claim to believe in Jesus Christ?
No, no, no. This is people that believe in Jesus Christ, their holy brethren.
Some have suggested that the book of Hebrews is written to unsaved Jews to try and get them saved.
It couldn't even be further from the truth because, first of all, the Bible is making clear holy brethren.
They're also partakers of the heavenly calling, so they've already partook, and they profess Christ.
This whole book is written to the saved, but it's obviously targeting those who were of the false religion of Judaism before, or even the right religion of serving God in the Old Testament.
Basically, either way, if you were doing the sacrifices before you believed in Christ, this book is written for you.
That's why it's called Hebrew, because it's really explaining how you don't need to do those sacrifices anymore and do a lot of these things.
It also tells us in chapter 5, it's giving us the context of the lead-in to chapter 6.
It says in verse 12,
For when, for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not strong meat.
For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So in chapter 5, it's very clear that the Apostle Paul is kind of reproving them, rebuking them for the fact that they haven't matured.
They haven't grown up enough. He's saying that they should be teachers, right? Verse 12, he ought to be teachers.
So he's basically saying, you've had enough time and enough instruction that you should honestly be a teacher by now.
But for whatever reason, they haven't grown yet, they haven't learned enough, and basically have to be re-taught certain things.
Notice he describes them as being a babe.
Let me ask you a question. Is a babe already born? Yeah, absolutely.
So if we're talking to babies here, we're talking to things that have already been born, we're already talking to save people, right?
If we're talking to a baby, are we talking to a full age adult though? No, okay.
So what is the goal of a baby? Isn't the goal of a baby for it to grow and develop and to finally become an independent person?
I think that every parent that has a baby is like, I'm ready for you to be an independent person.
You want to get them out of the nest eventually, right? You want them to stop suckling at the teat, you want them to start being useful,
you want them to be able to wipe their own bottom, you want them to use the bathroom on themselves, feed themselves, dress themselves, educate themselves, and then pay for themselves.
That's the big one, right? We want them to eventually get there, okay?
So the same is being applied, these cardinal truths are being applied to spiritual truths in the sense that when someone gets saved, they're a babe.
You know, they just got born again, okay? And they're going to need to go through that same process and development of learning how to wipe themselves, and how to feed themselves, and how to educate themselves, and teach themselves, and then pay for themselves, okay, essentially from a spiritual context.
And he's rebuking these Christians by saying, you guys should have already gotten here, why are you not there, right?
This is when you're looking at your 25-year-old son who's still living at home, has no job, doesn't have, you know, basically doesn't even graduate from high school yet or anything like that.
And it's like, look, you should already be out there making some money, like you should already be like taking care of yourself, and I guess I'm going to have to kind of kick your butt in gear and get you, you know, you're like a baby.
You know, you're like needing us to feed you and bathe you and whatever.
That's the context that's leading into chapter 6, okay? I think it's really clear, I think everybody pretty much even understands this portion, everybody agrees with this portion, because it's a very commonly used portion of scripture.
But it's important as our lead-in in chapter 6, because look at verse 1, therefore.
Now if you have a therefore in your Bible, it's therefore, it's there for a reason, okay? Therefore is there for a reason, okay?
So why is he saying therefore, right? Well, he wants them to not be babies anymore.
So this is the 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 the faith of our God.
So let's slow down for a moment. He wants them to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ.
Why would you leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ? Because we need more than just the bare necessities, right? Doesn't a baby need more than just milk?
You know, if it's going to grow up and be a full strong man, you know, a baby can live on breast milk alone just like its whole life, I mean at that portion of its life, the whole time, right? It only needs.
In fact, my wife exclusively breast feeds, you know, and like my daughter Ellie, she's 5 months, she's never had anything but breast milk and she's totally fine.
But here's the thing, if we started putting all the grown men in this room on a breast milk only regimen, they would be severely malnourished, okay?
They would, you know, lose a lot of their muscle mass, they lose a lot, they could probably survive for a while, I don't know.
I mean it'd be rough, but I'm just saying like you might be able to physically survive, but you're not going to have the nutrients and all the vitamins and everything that you need to really be as strong and as healthy as you possibly can.
You need some meat too, right? You need some other food, okay? So when it's saying a Christian, a Christian needs more than just milk.
So this, and this is a reason why a lot of people leave churches is because they say I'm only getting milk. I'm only ever coming to church and hearing about salvation.
I'm only ever coming to church and hearing about basic doctrines, you know, the things that we've already done, that we've already seen, we've already heard.
And you're never going to be perfect, meaning complete, with just that basic little doctrine, okay?
The word perfect in your Bible often just means simply complete, okay?
And really, when we think about something getting a perfect score, like on a test, you got every answer right, it's like you're complete, okay?
If you have a perfect circle, it means that there's no hole in it. It, you know, makes the whole loop, right?
So we're talking about completeness, perfection, right?
So as a Christian, God wants us to be perfect in the sense that we know all the Bible.
And obviously, I'm not saying, no one's going to figure it all out, but he wants us to get all the doctrine.
He doesn't want just some doctrines. He wants us to learn all the truths and all the relevant things that are needful, and we're all striving for that perfection.
We're all trying to go on under that perfection.
He says very clearly in verse 1, though, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and the faith toward God.
Now, here's the thing. If he just plainly states that he's not laying this down, then we can basically just mark off our list that this passage is about salvation.
Because he's saying he's not laying again the foundation.
Now, what is the foundation? It's salvation.
And this is the only time the word foundation is found in this chapter, if you think about it, okay?
What is foundation? If you're talking about Christianity, it's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the foundation, believing in him.
Now, how do you get saved? Well, you have to have repentance from dead works, meaning you're not trusting your works to get you to heaven anymore, and you're putting your faith toward God.
So he's saying the most principle, the most basic, the most foundational, important doctrine is getting saved.
But here's the thing. After you get saved, you don't need that doctrine anymore.
Now, you should give it to others, but here's the reality. You've already laid the foundation.
Imagine a house. You're building a house, right? You've laid the foundation.
And then someone comes up, what's next? I'm going to lay the foundation again.
And they're like, oh, are you going to put a second foundation? No, no, no. I'm going to put the first foundation again.
It's like you already got it. Like you don't need, like if you've already laid the foundation, you then go on to the next layer of building, right?
You don't need to necessarily lay the foundation again. You've already laid it.
So you want to move on from the foundation. You want to go to possibly the plumbing rough-in, which you probably had to do if you already put the foundation. I understand that.
But you want to work on the plumbing or the framing, or you want to get to the next stage in this house construction.
And we're kind of like a house construction with God. We're built up in a house for God to dwell in and live in, and God wants us to have more than a foundation.
He wants some drywall. He wants a roof. He wants all the other aspects of the building.
So we're not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith for God, and in the same breath of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Now, again, verse 2 is just other really simple doctrines that you kind of only have a one-time need for if you think about it, right?
If someone gets you saved, what would be the next doctrine that would be really good to teach them?
It would be baptism. Let's say someone teaches you baptism, and then you get baptized.
You really need to be like, okay, now I want to teach you about baptism. You're like, I just got baptized.
Okay, but I really need to teach you about baptism. Will I need to get baptized again? No, because we're not a cult, okay?
No, we're not the Jehovah's Witness or Mormons or something. We're not going to just baptize people every week.
And you only need to get saved once. You get baptized once, right?
The doctrine of laying on of hands, you know, we could look at this as maybe ordination, right?
How many times do people get ordained? One time. Okay, good. Let's move on to the next doctrine, right?
We learned about how we escape from hell. We learned that there's resurrection.
Once we kind of learn these basic, simple doctrines, we really need to move on to some other stuff.
How about marriage, right? How about going soul winning? How about learning how to be a godly Christian?
How about how to work hard? How about the importance of, you know, other aspects of the Trinity?
Or, you know, there's other doctrine, there's other teachings that we can learn that are important.
And some of these teachings are even life, like, I'm sorry, repeat things, right?
We don't need just one sermon on marriage.
We kind of need to be reminded on marriage, like, over and over.
And not to lie, not to steal, and not to have foolish thoughts, and to go soul winning again and again and again.
We kind of need those over and over and more doctrine and more understanding and everything like that.
Whereas, once you get saved, you're saved.
Now, there's nothing wrong with expanding upon your understanding of salvation and getting more salvation verses,
but if you really want to be a perfect Christian, we've got to get more than just the basics, okay?
Verse 3, and this will we do if God permit. Now, here's the question, what are we doing?
Well, what does it say in verse 1? Go on into perfection.
So, what is he saying? We're going to go into perfection, God willing.
And again, this is an attitude you're going to find in your Bible, all over scripture,
that no one is ever presumptuous that's basically speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost, okay?
Even when they say tomorrow, they're like, God willing, you know, we'll do that tomorrow.
You know, you're not supposed to ever presume anything.
So, essentially, he's saying, we're going to go on to perfection if God allows us to go on to perfection, okay?
That's basically what he's saying and it's basically the attitude of we should all strive to be a great Christian
and we should all strive to be the best Christian on the planet, but we're only going to do that if God allows us to basically get there, okay?
You know, taking heat unto ourselves, realizing that we could fall, realizing that we could stumble,
realizing that we could get backslidden, realizing that none of us, as much as we want to believe we're steadfast,
can really just press a button or sign our name and just say, like, I know I'm going to be steadfast, right?
I mean, that would be pretty presumptuous. That would be pretty arrogant and prideful to think that you couldn't stumble or fall or basically get backslidden in any way.
So, he's having the attitude of we're going to try and go on to perfection, God willing.
Verse 4.
For.
Now, the word for is basically, you know, tying to this previous thought.
He's explaining what he just talked about.
For could mean because of, it could mean to acquire, okay?
I'm just going to give you answers. It's because of, okay?
So, he's going to say because of what?
It is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted 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,
if they shall fall away, renew them again under repentance, seeing they crucify themselves, the Son of God afresh, and put them to an open shame.
Now, that's a mouthful and that's one sentence.
So, he's saying, let's just think about our context for a second, right?
Verse 1, he's saying, let's go to perfection.
Okay, let's not, verse 2, no more baby doctrine and we're going to try and do this, God willing.
Why? Why would you do that?
Why would you move on from basic doctrine?
Well, here's a good reason why.
Because it's impossible, if you fall away, to be renewed under repentance again.
And I'm paraphrasing that verse and I'm skipping all the descriptors because they're not necessary to understanding that sentence.
If you strip away the descriptors here, what is sentence 4 saying?
It's impossible, right, for someone who's fallen away to be renewed again under repentance.
That's basically the sentence that we're reading, more or less.
And we'll get into this a little bit more.
Let's think about it.
If we're being renewed again under repentance, what does repentance mean in this chapter?
Well, in verse number 1, it was repentance from dead works.
Did he say he's going to lay that foundation again?
No, he said not laying this foundation again.
Why would I not lay the foundation of salvation again?
Because it's impossible, even if someone falls away, to lay it again.
Now think about it this way.
Once I've laid a foundation for a house, I can't lay that foundation again unless I removed it.
But here's the thing. Let's say I laid a permanent foundation.
It's impossible, even if I never build on that house, to lay the foundation again.
Otherwise, I would basically be saying there's something wrong with the first foundation.
Now let's think about this in the context of Christianity.
If I've laid Jesus Christ as my eternal salvation foundation,
it's impossible, even if I don't build on that, to lay that foundation again because the person's already saved.
There's no point in laying that foundation. The foundation's already laid.
If we're talking about a person that was not saved, which does not fit this context whatsoever,
they never repented in the first place.
They never got the foundation in the first place.
So of course, you can't even apply that to them because how can I lay the foundation of Jesus Christ saving them when they didn't even do it the first time?
Obviously, it's talking about someone that's already got it laid and that it's impossible to lay it again.
Now if you laid it again, what does that do?
Well, it says in the last portion of this verse, it says,
seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.
So if I lay the foundation again, what would I be doing?
I would basically say that what Jesus did was not sufficient to pay for all of my sins.
Just like if I laid the foundation again, I'm saying,
well, that was a crappy foundation, or I didn't like that foundation,
or that foundation wasn't permanent, or that foundation wasn't going to satisfy the building construction,
and I'm basically putting that first foundation to shame.
If what Jesus did didn't truly pay all of my sins, and I sin and I need a new foundation,
I'm basically putting Christ to shame here.
Now the Bible makes it clear that he doesn't have to be sacrificed multiple times.
He doesn't have to be sacrificed afresh, meaning again or anew.
Hebrews chapter 9, let's just skip forward a second and look at verse 24.
For Christ is not entered in the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true,
but in the heaven itself, not to appear in the presence of God for us,
nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entering the holy place every year with blood of others,
for then must he often have suffered sins of that nation in the world,
but now once in the end of the world that he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
So notice the Bible has to explain to the Hebrew audience that Jesus Christ is not an often sacrificed.
He's not a future sacrifice. It was a once sacrifice.
And that that once sacrifice paid it all, past, present, and future.
That's why once you believe in Jesus Christ, it's done. You're sealed.
You're sealed on the day of redemption, you have the foundation laid,
and no foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
We learn that in 1 Corinthians, and the Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that he's already laid that.
So if I were to fall away from Christianity, let's say I believe in Jesus today,
but then I fall away tomorrow, okay, what do I need?
Do I need someone to walk up to me and be like, I don't think you're saved. Let me give you the gospel again.
No, because I already got the gospel. I'm already saved.
I might need to get my butt kicked with the word of God and say like,
you need to get your butt in church and start following God's commandments, right?
But it would be impossible to lay that foundation again.
And if you were to ask me to lay that foundation again, okay,
either one of two things, either I wasn't saved already,
or you're trying to get me saved again.
But you can't get someone saved that's already saved.
So think about our context.
Why would I lay the foundation again if it's already been laid? I wouldn't.
Let's go on into perfection then.
Okay, let's move on to other doctrines, let's learn on to other teachings,
because if I've already established you have the foundation,
I'm not going to lay it again with you, okay?
Doesn't that make sense then why that would be another good reason to leave?
But think about it this way, if you could lose your salvation,
let's say as soon as you commit a bad sin, you need to get saved again.
Why would I ever want to leave the doctrine of foundation of salvation then?
I need to get my congregation saved every week.
That's why some churches that believe in a workspace salvation,
that's why people like John MacArthur and stuff,
they're trying to get their congregation saved every single week,
because the Methodist thinks you can lose your salvation.
So they got to lay that foundation every single week,
because they don't want anyone to go to hell, right?
So they're just laying this false, but they're laying a false foundation every single week.
They're laying shifting sands every single week,
that's why no one's ever getting saved has the security,
eternal security or anything like that, or their assurance.
Blessed assurance. We sang blessed assurance.
Jesus is mine. It's done.
Okay, so now that I have that, let's get something else.
Let's start building on that foundation.
If you look at the descriptors of this chapter,
it doesn't make it any worse, the context and the description I just gave you.
I mean, all the things we're talking about, in my mind,
clearly describe a saved person.
Notice it says, who were once enlightened.
You know when the Bible says when we get saved,
it's like our eyes are lightened, okay, we're enlightened.
And it says it's already happened.
It's not like we were never enlightened.
The people that are not saved are only considered ever being in darkness, okay.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them.
Now once the gospel shines unto you, guess what you are now?
Once enlightened, okay.
Notice the next description.
Tasted the heavenly gift, okay.
You're made partaker of the Holy Ghost.
How can an unsaved person be a partaker of the Holy Ghost?
You know, I believe only the saved people are the partakers.
I have the Holy Ghost, I'm sealed with the Holy Ghost, okay.
Verse five, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.
Now the word taste in your Bible means a short space.
It does not mean you didn't experience it though.
It means it was only a short duration.
Look at chapter two for a second and look at verse nine.
But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels,
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Now here's the thing, did Jesus taste death?
Did he experience death? Absolutely.
But we know it was a short period of time.
It was three days and three nights that he tasted death, okay,
for every single man.
But he still went through that process.
No one can say that he didn't taste it
because he clearly says in Revelation chapter number one,
I am he that liveth and was dead.
So he really was a period of time where he was dead, right.
So then if I go back to Hebrew six and I apply the same test,
that means that these people really had the heavenly gift.
It wasn't, even though it's only been a short period of time
that they've had it, they haven't.
You can't tell me that they don't have the heavenly gift
just because they tasted it.
No, no, no. It just means that it's been a short period of time.
We're looking at someone that got saved
but they've only been saved for a little bit of time, okay,
a short period of time.
They've tasted the good word of God and these other scriptures.
So again, we're saying it's impossible for someone
who just got saved, if they fall away, okay,
to renew them again under repentance.
Think about it another way.
What did an unsaved person ever fall away from?
They were already falling.
They never were standing upright in the first place.
The only way to fall away from something is to be actually there.
Notice the falling away is being right with God,
being saved and everything like that.
They're falling away from Christianity, okay.
Someone that's not saved, they're not falling away.
They're already falling. They're already there.
There's nothing for them to basically fall away from or depart from, okay.
So, again, it's talking about a saved person can't get saved again.
Now, let's think about our context.
Let's move on from the doctrine of salvation
because a saved person can't get saved again.
Doesn't that fit really well?
Doesn't that kind of make sense?
And it's saying, let's take it to a bigger extreme.
We're not going to teach the doctrine of salvation to our church.
Because even if you guys quit my church and stop serving God and become really sinful,
you're still going to heaven.
That's the context of what we're talking about
and that's why I don't need to teach that to you.
I should teach that to the unsaved, but here's the thing.
If I get up and teach John 3.16 every single service for the rest of our lives,
we're not going to grow. We're going to be babes.
And then it's going to be frustrating because we're going to all be crying and whining
and needing people to wipe our bottoms, okay.
Because you need to teach other doctrine and leave this doctrine and start going on to perfection, okay.
And this we will do if God permits.
Verse number seven now, okay.
Now here's what you have to understand about verse seven.
And this is going to be my help to you.
Is that when it says four, it's not talking about the previous sentence,
talking about the previous context.
The way to interpret Hebrew six is to say the reason why we're leaving the doctrines of Christ is two reasons.
Number one, it's impossible to lose your salvation.
Number two, and now we're getting into the second reason why.
So the four is not because of the previous verse.
It's for the previous context that we're talking about.
There's two fours.
He's basically giving us two reasons why we're going to leave the first principles.
We're going to leave those baby doctrines.
Number one, as a saved person it's impossible to lose your salvation.
Point two is it says for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it
and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed receive a blessing from God.
That which bear thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt.
Seven and eight do not have to do with verses four through six.
It's completely different.
Okay, they're completely different contexts.
What it does though is it's in the context of the chapter.
What does it say? You reap what you sow.
Now let's think about our overall context again.
Let's stop teaching basic doctrines.
Number one, you guys can't lose your salvation and number two, you're going to end up reaping what you sow.
So if you guys don't learn the other doctrines, if you don't learn how to be a good Christian,
if you don't learn all the other instructions that you need, you're going to end up sowing a lot of bad things.
Because you need to learn how to be a good Christian and get the sin out of your life
because inevitably you're going to reap what you sow.
So essentially when you understand the context of Hebrews chapter number six, he's giving you two reasons why.
Four, it's impossible to lose.
And four, you're going to basically receive that recompense of your works.
Now in verse number seven it says,
For the earth which drinketh in the rain, that cometh off upon it.
What is the object upon which is bringing forth fruit?
It's the earth.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it, and bringeth forth herbs.
Who's bringing forth herbs?
Earth.
Now let's keep reading.
It says, meat for them by whom it is dressed.
So we have two objects now.
We have the earth and we have the dresser, the person that's doing the tilling.
Where is the fruits coming from though?
It's coming from the earth again.
The earth is bringing forth the herbs and it's meat meaning it's suitable for the person that was doing the work.
What does it say in the next breath?
Receive a blessing from God.
So if you do work, if you work hard in God's earth, what are you going to get?
The herbs, you're going to get the fruits of your works which is going to be blessing.
So if you work hard, you serve God, you're going to get a blessing.
What if you don't do that?
Verse eight, the that which bear thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh in the cursing whose end is to be burned.
So here's a question.
If I get the herbs, I'm getting the blessing, right?
What if I don't work hard and I'm slothful and I'm lazy and I'm not serving God and I don't know how to live the Christian life?
What is going to be the fruit of my sin in my life?
Thorns and briars.
Now what will I do with the thorns and briars?
Those thorns and briars are going to be rejected.
And how do you reject thorns and briars?
You throw them in a fire and you burn them.
So you have to understand this parable first carnally to then understand it spiritually.
If I go out and let's say I'm a farmer and I have a field and I work really hard and I plant a bunch of corn.
And then it grows up and then it has buds, ears of corn.
What am I going to do? I'm going to rip those ears of corn off and I'm going to eat them.
And I'm going to enjoy that, right?
Let's say I don't do anything and I'm just lazy and it doesn't rain. What's going to happen?
Well then just thorns and briars come up in my field.
Then what am I going to do? Well I'm going to rake up all those thorns and briars and throw them into a fire and burn them.
When it's talking about something being burned, what is it that's being burned?
It's the thorns and the briars. It's not the person, okay?
And that's an important distinction to understand in this chapter.
We're not saying that the person is nigh into cursing. We're not saying that the person is going to be burned.
We're saying their thorns and briars are nigh into cursing and their thorns and briars are going to be destroyed by the fire.
Now you say, well how does a saved person have thorns and briars?
Well let's look in the Bible. Go to Luke chapter number 8.
Let me just prove to you that the Bible teaches that a saved Christian can have thorns and briars.
But that doesn't make them a thorn and briar.
And this is where it gets confusing for some, okay?
When a person is described as being a thorn or a briar, it's typically because they themselves are a reprobate, okay?
So there will be places in the Bible that describe a person as being a thorn or a briar and those are reprobate people.
And again, if you're a reprobate person, what happens to you?
You get thrown in the fire, okay?
But then there's other places in the Bible where it teaches a saved person has thorns and briars in their life, okay?
And what is that? It's the consequences of their sin.
The thorns and the briars are the consequences of their sin.
I'm going to prove this to you very clearly in the Bible, okay?
If you pay attention, it's going to make a lot of sense.
Luke chapter 8, look at verse 5.
A sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside.
And it was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it.
So here we have the parable of the sower.
And it's similar because we're talking about exactly what the context is of Hebrews chapter 6.
Someone sowing a field, you know, basically the fruit, right?
And it says in verse number 6, and some fell upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
Another fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit a hundredfold.
So in verses number 7 and 8, we have an illustration of bringing forth thorns.
And then we also have an illustration in verse 8 of bringing forth good fruit.
Now fortunately for all of us, Jesus told us exactly what all this means.
If you skip down to verse 14, he's going to tell us the thorns and the good fruit.
Verse 14, and that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.
That on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.
This parable will help you understand the other parable.
What is the earth represented as in Luke chapter number 8?
It's their heart, exactly. Because we have ground in every single instance of this parable.
In verse number 5, the wayside, that's hard ground.
6 is stony ground or the rock ground.
7 is the thorny ground.
8 is the good ground.
He explains to you, you understand we have the four grounds.
And then we have in verse number 15, he explains that that soil is your heart.
So if you have no thorns, no stones, and it's not hard pan, it's a good heart.
All people have a heart.
Everyone has a heart no matter what.
What is verse 14 illustrating then?
A heart that has something with it.
It has thorns.
What are those thorns?
The cares and riches and pleasures of this life.
Now here's the thing, are the cares and the pleasures the person?
No, it's just their sinful desires inside of their heart.
And when you have sinful desires in your heart that you don't purge, what's going to happen?
It ends up destroying your crops.
It ends up destroying your fruit and ruining your produce essentially.
So in order to produce good fruit, what do you have to do?
You have to clean up your life.
And this is illustrated in our lives today.
Why is it that some people come to our church, they hear good doctrine about soul winning,
and then they never go soul winning and they quit our church?
Because they care more about money.
Because they care more about the cares of this life.
Because they have certain things coming into their life that choke the word,
and they care more about money, this world, fame, whatever,
and it ends up causing them to be drifted out and they end up not getting anybody saved.
It's not that they don't realize that salvation is something they should preach.
It's not that they don't know how to get someone saved.
It's not that they themselves aren't saved.
It's the fact that they haven't gone on to perfection.
They're not cleaning up the things of their life,
and they're letting sin drown out or choke out their fruit.
Now let's go to another place and I'll explain this even more.
Before we go there, I want to point one more phrase out here.
Notice what it says in verse 14.
It says that they're choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life,
and I like this phrase, and bring no fruit to this word.
Perfection.
What are we talking about in Hebrews chapter number 6?
Going on unto what?
Perfection.
What's stopping you from going on unto perfection?
The thorns and the thistles will stop you from getting to perfection.
So why is it important that I would teach doctrine other than salvation?
Because if I don't get the thorns out of your life,
if I don't preach the doctrines that help you realize how to get thorns and all this stuff out of your life,
you're not going to bring forth fruit unto perfection.
So when it's necessary to go on to perfection is to hear other doctrine,
other places in scripture, you to study the Bible yourself,
you to clean up your life so that you then can go on unto perfection.
Notice how these fit together like hand in glove.
They explain the exact same concepts here.
Let's go to Genesis chapter number 3.
Let's go all the way to the beginning now.
Genesis chapter 3, and let's get even more clear on what we're talking about.
Genesis chapter number 3, verse number 17.
Now of course, again, I could find a dozen places in the Bible that teach that a person is a thorn and they're a reprobate and they're going to hell.
But you cannot just then attribute the word thorn always to being a reprobate.
It also could be sin in your life.
Just like the word fruit.
The word fruit in your Bible can mean a lot of things.
The word fruit could be describing literal apples, oranges, and whatever.
Fruit could be describing a child in his mother's womb.
Fruit could be describing the words that you speak, the fruit of thy lips.
Fruit is a generic word that has to be interpreted by its context.
The same as the thorns and briars.
And thorns and briars are the consequences of sin in a lot of places in your Bible.
Genesis chapter 3, very famous portion of scripture. Why?
We introduce sin into the world.
Who introduces sin? Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve, right?
Eve eats of the forbidden fruit and basically gives to her husband.
Adam also partakes with her.
God then doles out what?
A punishment, a cursing to them.
Why are they being punished?
Because of their sin, right?
Look at verse 17. This is the punishment in Adam.
And in Adam he said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,
and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,
cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,
and thou shalt eat there over the field.
Notice in verse 18.
Why is it that the ground is cursed?
It's nigh unto cursing.
Why is it cursed and why is it bringing forth thorns and thistles?
Because of sin.
And what is it that he needs to sustain him is the herbs.
And if he doesn't have the herbs, he's going to die.
Okay, basically.
So he lives by the herbs. The herbs are the good, the blessing.
And in order to get the herbs, how does he get the herbs?
He has to basically toil really hard to getting all the thorns out of his life
and all the briars out of his life so that he can then enjoy the herbs.
And here's the thing. In the Christian life,
it's a lot of getting thorns out of your life in order to get the herbs.
It takes effort, energy.
Whereas in the Garden of Eden, everything just grew
without thorns and thistles.
You didn't have to worry about it.
Imagine if you're sinless, you don't have to worry about getting
thorns and thistles out of your heart because they're not there.
You're just sinless. So you're just enjoying all the fruits of the garden.
But as soon as sin is introduced, now we have to work.
Now we have to go and we have to dig up and get the thorns out of our life
and out of our heart so that we can then bring forth fruit unto
perfection. So the thorns are the consequences of sin.
Look at chapter number 2 and look at verse 15.
What was Adam's job?
It says, And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it.
So he's the one that's supposed to dress it.
And whenever he dresses the garden, what is he supposed to receive
according to Hebrews chapter number 6? The herb.
You receive the herb and it's meat for them by whom it is dressed,
meaning that when you work hard, you receive the blessing and the work of God.
Verse 4, go back up to verse number 4.
These are the generations of the heavens of the earth when they were created.
And the day the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
and every plant of the field before it was in the earth,
and every herb of the field before it grew,
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,
and there was not a man to till the ground.
So the Bible is showing us again, the ground got the rain or the dew or the mist from God.
That's what produced the herbs.
And man would dress it and basically then reap that produce.
We think about it for soul winning, right?
Jesus is saying the harvest truly is plenteous.
But when we go out, we enter into other men's labors, don't we?
And we really truly just get to reap.
And that's kind of what he's picturing.
God's doing all the hard work by getting the rain and the soil and all that stuff to work.
And we just come and we just have to do the little bit of labor of taking the ears off the corn or whatever.
But the hardest part is just making sure that we get the thorns out of our lives.
So it doesn't choke that produce and ruin that produce and everything like that.
Go if you would back to Hebrews chapter number 6.
Hebrews chapter number 6.
I think when you compare these passages, this parable in Hebrews chapter number 6 becomes abundantly clear what we're talking about.
And it fits perfectly with the context of this chapter.
Why would I not preach salvation every single week?
Because it's impossible for you to lose your salvation.
And number 2, because you need to do other works and you need to get sin out of your life
so that you don't end up having cursing, you end up having blessing in your life.
Based on your works.
But one thing is very clear.
And I don't know how anybody would argue with me on this.
But verses 7 through 8 is clearly talking about just works.
However you want to interpret it, it's talking about the works of a person.
Someone dressing the field, that's work.
There's no way to get around the fact that we're talking about works.
And look what he says in verse number 9.
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Now that would make sense if we're talking about works, that they're things that accompany salvation, but we're not talking about salvation.
7 and 8 can't be talking about salvation because, guess what, salvation is not of works.
So it's impossible to take a parable about works and then apply that to salvation by faith as a gift because that's incompatible.
If we're talking about works, then we're talking about works, right?
This is the same in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Luke.
False prophets, you know what they love to do?
They love to go to parables that emphasize works and then try to teach that that's about salvation.
Think about Matthew chapter number 25.
He's talking about the righteous and he's talking about how they visited him when he was in prison.
Lots of false prophets would love to go to that and say,
Oh, see, in order to be saved, you've got to visit Jesus in prison and you've got to give people cups of cold water or you've got to do all these works or whatever.
Not realizing that the works in Matthew 25 is really just referencing what saved people are like, not saying it's that the works that they did that saved them.
So again, why are we not going to lay a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God every single Sunday morning?
Because we want to go into perfection.
And if we want to go into perfection, we need to teach deeper doctrine.
Why would you teach deeper doctrine?
Because it's impossible to lose your salvation.
Number two, because you're essentially going to reap what you sow.
And in verse number nine, why is he saying,
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you.
I believe it's a tag on from verse eight.
And he's saying, I am persuaded that you guys are not going to be the thorn and thistle Christians in your life.
I am persuaded better things of you.
So what do the thorns and thistles have to do with this context?
It's talking about things that accompany salvation.
It's talking about herbs to accompany my salvation, not thorns.
Luke chapter number eight, you can be the guy that's basically having the thorns,
or you can be the guy with good ground that's bringing forth fruit under perfection.
Right? And he's persuaded that they're going to be the ones that have those good works.
Look at verse number 10 now. It says,
Notice that every single verse is like connecting.
Notice how it's like, for, for, but, for, right?
So we're just constantly on the same theme.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work.
Now if you didn't believe me that verse eight was about works,
how about verse 10?
Isn't he just doubling down and saying,
Everything I was talking to you about previously was works.
So again, it's impossible for verse, for chapter six to be talking about salvation
because works has nothing to do with getting someone saved.
But what does work have to do with the Christian life?
Well after you're saved, your work is really important
because you're going to be judged according to your works.
But praise the Lord that 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.
So, if I'm saved, Pastor Shelley, and I cannot go to hell for any reason,
why serve God?
Well, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work.
Meaning that God is going to reward you according to your work.
Why would I go into perfection?
Why go to church three times a week, Pastor Shelley?
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work.
Why would I read the Bible, Pastor Shelley?
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work.
Why would I learn all the doctrines?
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work.
This is constantly telling it's like, look.
The reason why we're striving to go on perfection,
the reason why we go to church three times a week,
church three times a week, the reason why we read our Bible cover to cover, the reason
why we memorize scripture, the reason why we sing the hymns, the reason why we try to
clean up our lives, I mean, why clean up your life? Why not just eat, drink, and be married?
Why not just be like the world? Because God is not unrighteous to forget your work. And
here's the thing, if you want to bring forth herbs, if you want to actually bring forth
fruit under perfection, you got to get some of those thorns out of your life. Yeah, you
can't lose your salvation. Got it. But guess what? You're still going to reap what you sow.
And at the end of the day, God is not going to forget your work and labor of love which
you have showed toward his name. Verse 11, and we desire that every one of you do show
the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Now, again, what would
a work salvationist want to like import here? Oh, you got to work all the way to the end
to get saved. You know, that full assurance. But again, us knowing that salvation is a
free gift that we've already obtained, we've already gotten that foundation, we understand
that this is talking about working all the way to the end of your life, right? It's saying
we got to show the same diligence of constantly going into perfection, constantly learning
the doctrine, all the way to the end. Verse 12, that you be not slothful, right? But followers
of them who through faith and patience, inherit the promises. Now, these promises, are we
talking about salvation? No, we already got that. We're talking about crowns. We're talking
about eternal rewards. You know, the Apostle Paul talked about the fact that he was going
to get a crown of life for the fact that he endured unto the end. You know, we have passages
in Revelation chapter two, the church at Sardis, God talking about be faithful unto death,
and thou shalt receive a crown of life. So, how are you going to get that crown? You got
to endure to the end. You got to be diligent. You can't be slothful. You got to go on under
perfection. You got to get the thorns out of your life. You know what? Praise the Lord.
God is not unrighteous to forget your word. Isn't that great? I mean, sometimes it could
be disheartening if when you're on the job, let's say your salary, right? And you get
to go home at 4.30. You show up, you're at 7.30 to 4.30, right? But you notice, like,
everyone's already left for the day, and there's a little bit of work that needs to get done.
And if you don't get it done, like, you know, it's going to be bad for your company, right?
But if you do get it done, no one's going to know you did it. They're just going to
think that everyone did it because it was supposed to get done by everyone, but everybody
just quit and went home early. So, if you go and you work really hard and you get all
that done and you go home, you won't get any extra pay, any extra recognition. Nobody
will know. Wouldn't that be kind of disheartening? It'd be like, what's the point? But see, here's
the thing. God's not unrighteous to forget your word. Even if the boss heard it, or let's
say, you know, basically there needed to be this extra weekend, and it's like your boss
comes up to you and says, hey, I need you to work the weekend. Everybody else is off.
And he's like, I'll take care of you. And you work the extra weekend, and then a couple
of weeks go by, nothing. And you're like, hey, remember when I worked that extra weekend?
I forgot. No, no, no. I did it though. He's like, I don't remember. It doesn't matter.
That would, that would, you'd be kind of like, well, why did I work that extra weekend? Right?
And that could be the same mentality a Christian could have. Well, I'm already saved. Why,
why keep going to church? No. Why keep reading the Bible? Why keep doing these things? Because
God is not unrighteous and God will reward us according to our words. Okay. That's why
we want to, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. It's going to take a lot of
patience because guess what? Most of the rewards we're going to get for our Christianity are
not going to be realized until the judgment seat of Christ. I'll just say it. Most of
the great things you've done that nobody knows about, nobody's going to know about it until
Christ is there to reward you. But guess what? Christ will reward you. Christ will remember.
But you have to do that through faith. It's only faith too. Because how, how do you even
know? Here's the thing. I guarantee any of us in this room that have actually done good
works, like a lot of things for other people, we've probably forgotten. Like, we're not
going to, I don't remember every, you know, I don't care to think about that kind of stuff.
You just want to keep just laying up though, all these good works is year after year after
year, and then be surprised when you stand before Christ. Like, I didn't remember doing
that. And he's like, I did. And you're like, cool. I'm better than I thought I was, you
know, I didn't remember that I did that great thing for helping somebody. You know, I just
had faith that when I did it in the moment, you know, what is the right thing to do, and
that God's always watching, and I just did it. But I didn't even let my left hand know
what my right hand was doing. You know, and really, that's the best thing you could do.
Once you do a great work, just forget it yourself. Because even if you forget it, God will forget.
And then when you forget it, you won't tell anybody and ruin it. You know, you don't want
to give all this money and then blow a trumpet, because then you lost your reward, right?
So it's better if you just have a short term memory when it comes to doing good. You just
keep doing good and just forget that you did good. And just go on to the next good thing.
You go on the next good thing. Because God has a record keeping, and his record keeping
is really good. He's going to make, it's like, basically, think about this way. All the bad
stuff you did that your wife can remember is like how Jesus can remember all your good
things, okay? So it's like locked in the bank, all right? Now it says in verse number
13, for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swerved 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. Now think about how
ridiculous this would be if we put this chapter in context of salvation. Did Abraham really
have to patiently endure to get saved? No. But did he have to patiently endure to get
saved by Isaac? Oh yeah. That was a long promise they had to wait for. Did he have to patiently
endure to receive other blessings in his life? Yeah. So, you know, when it comes to us, we
should also expect that there's going to be certain blessings God's going to give us after
a long continued time of doing that which is right. You know, like having lots of children.
That's going to be something you have to patiently endure before you receive all the blessings
and the benefits from that, like the grandchildren, like all the other stuff that you get. So
you have to do all the hard work now and you have to get all the thorns and thistles out
of their life, okay, so that you can then reap the herbs and the rewards from them later.
He says in verse number 16, 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 that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie he 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 sure and steadfast and which enter it into that within the veil
where the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made in high priests forever after the
order of Melchizedek. So you have the Bible telling us that Jesus is the anchor of our
soul and really again he's that foundation that was laid and he anchors us and what I
like about the picture of an anchor is what is the goal of an anchor? It's to keep you
in a particular position, okay. Now when you set down your anchor that does not mean that
your boat won't move. In fact your boat will drift but here's the thing there's a stopping
point at which your boat will drift and when we think about salvation here's the thing
once you're saved you can drift but guess what you can't get out of his hand because
he's got you but no matter how much you want to go in the other direction you're chained
to that anchor which is Jesus Christ and you're always saved, okay. And so Jesus we want to
make him our anchor we want to get saved and have him as our anchor but no matter how
much we drift he's got us and we can always try to come back closer to that anchor, okay.
We can get away from him but you know what the chain will never be broken, okay. And
some of you that's have a big chain, all right. But that's why we need to learn the whole
Bible and mature spiritually because we can't lose our salvation and we're going to reap
what we sow. Go to 1st Corinthians 3 this last place of your turn. I believe that when
you slow down and you pay attention Hebrews 6 fits very very well in the context of the
book of Hebrews and it teaches us a really important lesson that we need to go on into
perfection that we need to not just learn the basic doctrines of the Bible but learn
all of it and we need to work hard at driving out the the thorns and the thistles of our
life so that we'll stand before Jesus and we'll be pleasing in his sight. Now as a reminder
1st Corinthians 3 is going to help us with this passage and some of the same concepts.
Look at verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay and that is laid which is Jesus
Christ, okay. So what's that foundation? Jesus, salvation. What is the next verse? Now if
any man build upon this foundation, okay, this is going to be the same context that
we've already read. What are you going to build on that? Herbs? Are you going to build
thorns and briars, right? In this he says build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare
it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what
sort it is. So the foundation salvation, everything other than the foundation is things
that accompany salvation. When it describes things that are accompanying your salvation,
what does the Bible describe it? It describes as our work, okay. If you try to lay the foundation
you're going to hell. But once the foundation's been laid by Jesus, now you go into the building,
now you're going to lay all the other necessary components, the framing, the sheetrock, the
curtains and all the other stuff, you know, your kitchen, everything else that you're
going to put in there, you know. The foundation was Jesus. Now at the end of our lives it's
basically we're presenting the house to Jesus, which is our life. And you know, some of you
all put in like an above ground pool, you know. Some of you put in, you know, basically
stuff that you're not real proud of, right, as far as our building. We all do. We all
have some things that are going to be on our building that it's like, no, okay. But we
want to make sure we also have some good things, right, gold, silver, precious stone, and that
it's not all wood, hay and stubble. Imagine if someone went out to build a house out here,
wherever they're building houses, probably everywhere, okay, and they put this great
concrete foundation, they lay it real thick, they've got good rebar, it's salvation, right.
And then on top of that they just build a, just a thatch hut. What is that going to benefit?
You know, you're going to have to knock that whole thing down and basically be like, let's
put some real, you know, material down on here now, okay. Something that's actually
going to last, that's going to be more permanent, okay. So that would be the same as, there's
a lot of saved Christians in this world and all they do is build thatch huts on that foundation.
And we don't want to be those type of people. We want to put the gold, silver, and the precious
stone, getting people saved, doing the right kind of works. It says in verse 14, if any
man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. Isn't that great?
A blessing. Verse 15, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself
shall be saved, yet sowed by fire. So in Hebrews chapter 6, it talked about the thorns and
the thires being burned, right. That's the consequences of your sin or just vanity in
this life. And we have here the things that you do that have no eternal value, that aren't
good. What happens to them? They get burned. But the person still goes to heaven, okay.
The person's still saved. The person's foundation was still laid. So things can be burned in
your life, but you can't be burned, okay. The thorns and the thistles in your life could
be burned. You won't be burned because you're saved. And, you know, we go through that fire,
you know, we're going to basically come out unscathed just like Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego did, right, where it didn't hurt us. See that little thatch straw hat you got,
it's toast, okay. You know, so we want to make sure that we have the right type of garments
and basically we build upon our Christianity in the right way. And at the end of the day,
what does Paul say? I'm persuaded better things of you. You know, he believes that they're
going to be those Christians. You know, I hope the Steadfast Baptist Church is a church
where when we stand before Jesus, you know, there's a lot of things abiding in that fire.
You know, there's a lot of gold and silver and precious stone that we don't, we're not
like an Aborigine tribe where it's just, you know, like another thatch. There's another
thatch hut and thatch hut and thatch hut and it's like, Pastor Shelley, what were you doing?
Well, I taught them how to get saved every single week. You know, that's not going to
fly. You know, God's going to be mad at the pastors who got up and taught salvation every
single week with their congregation. And, you know, in their mind, they think that God's
going to be mad at you for not preaching salvation every single week. But in reality,
God's mad at a pastor for not teaching the whole Bible, not teaching all the counsel
of God, not helping people get the thorns out of their life. And you know what? You
should go to a church where every once in a while a thorn gets ripped out of your heart.
And let me tell you something, it hurts. It doesn't feel good. You know what? If you can
recognize, you know what? I got some thorns out of my life. Maybe you need to stick around
in that building, right? And maybe you need to start learning how to take thorns out of
your own life, not always expect someone else to do it for you. You know, you ought to be
a teacher and not just to be a babe for the rest of your life. You ought to learn how
to help yourself and learn yourself and grow yourself so that we can all, when we stand
before God, basically not be ashamed but rather glorify and rejoice in all of our awards.
Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this great chapter and
reminder that what we do after salvation matters and that you've given us all the tools here
in the Word of God and with church and with Bible reading and with fellowship. I pray
that we wouldn't undervalue or underestimate the works that you have for us to do beyond
salvation. And I praise the Lord that you're not unrighteous to forget our work, that we
know that every single work that we do, you're going to reward us for, that you're going
to come alongside us and help us, God willing, to go on under perfection and to grow up and
to be a mature and a spiritual Christian. I pray that we would strive to know all the
doctrines of the Bible and we would strive to clean up our lives and we would strive
to not be worried about vain things but rather we would have an eternal focus for our entire
life and that we would just, through diligence, work and labor to inherit those promises and
rewards. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Go to our final song for the evening. Song number 410. 410. Faith is the victory.
There on the verse. Encamp'd along the hills of light, ye Christian soldiers rise, and
press the battle air the night, shall veil the glowing skies. Against the foe, in vales
below, let all our strength be hurled. Faith is the victory, we know, that overcomes the
world. Faith is the victory, faith is the victory. O glorious victory, that overcomes
the world. His banner over us, his love, our sword, the word of God. We tread the road,
the saints above, with shouts of triumph trod. By faith they like a whirlwind's breath,
sweep'd on o'er every field. The faith is the victory, we know, that overcomes the world.
Faith is the victory, we know, that overcomes the world. Faith is the victory, we know,
that overcomes the world. Faith, by which they conquer death, is still our shining shield.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory. O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.
On every hand the foe we find, drawn up in dread array. Let tints of ease be left behind,
and onward to the fray. Salvation's helmet on each hand, with truth all gird about.
The earth shall tremble neath our tread, and echo with our shout. Faith is the victory,
faith is the victory. O glorious victory, that overcomes the world. They are the last?
To him that overcomes the foe, white raiment shall be give. Before the angels he shall know,
his name confessed in heaven. Onward from the hills of light, our arts will love a flame,
we'll vanquish all the hosts of night, in Jesus' conquering name.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory. O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.
Let's sing another song. Oh, we're ready? We have a baptism for their Chase Franks,
it's coming for baptism.
All right, brother Chase, have you trusted Christ as your savior? Then I baptize you
in the name of the Son, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
in the very likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of light. Congratulations.
Thank you all so much for coming. God bless you, you are dismissed.