 The writer writes for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receives blessings from God. But if it bears thorns and briars it is rejected and near to be incursed whose end is to be burned. As we have been going through Hebrews in chapter 5 and into chapter 6, the writer of Hebrews has indicated his desire for the Hebrew believers to move into spiritual maturity. His desire for them is to leave the ABCs of the faith and to move on to more advanced teaching. He had already spoken to them and said, by now you ought to be teachers of the law or teachers rather, but what you are is your babies because you don't have discernment, you haven't exercised those things that you've been taught gaining experience and understanding in the ways of Lord and in doing so having a depth develop. And that I think is very common in general. It's very often in the words easy for us to receive more Bible study than we understand or put into practice. But over time, if we take the things that we've been taught and put them into practice, we begin to experience the things of God at a deeper level and begin to grow and gain spiritual maturity. So the hope for a young believer to move into maturity is actually a good thing and that's what the writer has. He's got this hope that those who are reading and understanding the things that he's writing will grow into spiritual maturity, therefore leave the ABCs or the basics of the faith and move into a stronger and deeper understanding. And so that's what he had been saying in verses one and two here in chapter six. I desire you to move on. I desire to take you further on into the things of God. And so in verse three he says this we will do if God permits. So my great desire is to move you on. And so at this point he begins to bring them further on into spiritual maturity. Now as we begin, I want to slowly develop a foundation that will help us understanding his teaching here. I want you to notice some things with me and it's going to take a few minutes for me to develop this, but you need to listen carefully and just to see where I'm going with this so that you can understand ultimately what I'm going to try and communicate to you in just a moment. But if you'll do this, it'll help you to understand this passage. I want you to notice that he shifts from certain words. I want you to see the way he's writing. For example, look at chapter five again for just a moment. Notice how he says in verses 11 and 12. Notice how he says of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Notice first that he uses the word you as he's writing. So he says you need these things. But in chapter six verse one, notice how he uses the word us. Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. So I want you to see the words you. I want you to see the word us. And then he continues on. And in verse three, he says us or rather we in verse three says this we will do if God permits. But then he moves on to words like those, they and them. It started out with a you. It included an us. It spoke of a we. But now you have those, they and them. So that gives you two categories as you're reading this. And you're going to see that he's going to develop something in a moment that's going to help us. We have to ask the question of whom is he speaking. That's something that we're going to be looking at as we go through these verses before us. Now in verse four, notice he says it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away to renew them again to repentance. So he begins by saying it is impossible for those who are once enlightened. The word once there. That word once there means one time for all time. The word enlightened means to bring delight to enlighten spiritually or to imbue with saving knowledge. And so the literal reading would be to be one time for all time spiritually imbued with saving knowledge. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened is another way of speaking about those who have received saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So once enlightened and notice and have tasted the heavenly gift. The word tasted means to try the flavor up to take food to fully experience. You have tasted the heavenly gift. The heavenly gift is more than likely Jesus himself. Because Jesus is the gift God gave to mankind. You see that in John chapter four. In John chapter four verse ten where Jesus said to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God even He who is speaking to you. And I'm going to do this slowly and I'm actually starting to speed up ahead of myself and I have to slow down a bit here. I'm wanting to take some things very basically for you so I can lay a solid foundation and I don't want to confuse you. I could come right out and just tell you what's on my mind but it's going to take a half hour 40 minutes to get there so please have patience with me. But I want to give you key words because I want to give you some something to think about so that when you leave here you can say oh I'm more confused than ever and that that'll be of help. It's impossible for those who are once enlightened. One time for all time imbued with saving knowledge. We have tasted the heavenly gift tasted means to fully partake of fully experience. The heavenly gift would be Jesus Christ and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. The word partakers is another word for partners. They have partnered with the Holy Spirit. So that speaks of fully sharing the spirits in dwelling presence. They have partaken in the Holy Spirit continuing in verse 5 and have tasted the good word of God. The good word of God is the word of God that has been spoken speaking of the gospel. The word tasted means to perceive, to enjoy. In other words to have experienced the gospel and found it to be good and he says the powers of the age to come, the powers of the age to come speak of the various miracles that have been performed by the hands of the apostles. Those works confirm the word of God. You see that in Mark chapter 16 verses 17 and 18 where Jesus said these signs will follow those who believe in my name they will cast out demons they will speak with new tongues they will take up serpents if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover so these works are the various miracles performed by the hands of God that confirmed the message the hands the apostles confirming the message and then he goes on in verse 6 to say if they fall away if they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they crucify once again the Lord Jesus Christ and put them to an open shame okay here we go over the years over the years there have been various interpretations concerning the few verses that i just read to you i'm going to give you four of them tonight four of them to to help you to see how deep this passage really is the first one the first interpretation has been presented by those who interpret this passage to be speaking of Christians who have lost their salvation there are those who who believe and teach very firmly that what is being referred to here is somebody like you and somebody like me who has tasted of the spirit of God believe in the miracles and everything that relates to that and have embraced the gospel and one time we're walking with Jesus Christ who have fallen away and have apostatized as have walked away given up their faith and are no longer saved individuals and and many of us in this room perhaps might even point to some people that we would say uh were at one time Christians who no longer are i wonder how many of you if i ask i might as well i've never done this before uh how many of you know somebody who at one time had professed a faith in christ and you believe was a saved person that walked away and have never come back to christ how many i want to see your hands see quite a number of you the the people when i first got saved i was i was in a you know a van load of people who went to the hollywood palladium and and the person who took me actually brought me to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ his name is bill bill to this day doesn't even remember a time when he claimed to be a follower of jesus christ and yet he's the guy the lord used in my life to bring me to salvation he's the guy who who witnessed to me he took me on the streets in wittier boulevard in wittier to take our faith and to share it with people i saw him arguing faith with people i went into the military with him he and i went on the buddy plan and he said you need to bring your bible bring a good christian book he and i led a guy to christ who had gone awall into canada and it's just a variety of things and yet if you speak to him now bill would say to you i don't even remember a time that i professed a faith in jesus christ i think every one of us has met at least one person may be related to somebody who at one time had claimed faith in christ and has walked away and so there are many people there's a great scholars who would say that that's what the writer is speaking about he's speaking about somebody who's been born again and walked away from his faith notice what he says the writer plainly states that they've been once for all time enlightened they have tasted the heavenly gift they have become partakers of the holy spirit they've tasted of the good word of god and the powers of the age to come and they would say this obviously implies full regeneration so they would say as you look at this passage you're looking at somebody who's been born again who walks away from god now there's a problem with that interpretation and that is that it doesn't take into full consideration other scriptures you see when you interpret the bible you interpret the bible through scripture it's scripture interpreting scripture and so that doesn't take into consideration what other scriptures say concerning eternal life john chapter 10 verses 28 through 30 says and this is jesus speaking i give them eternal life they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand i and my father are one so somebody says well you know nobody is snatching that person from the hand of the father of jesus that person voluntarily walks away from christ but the retort to that is well it says no one and i'm someone so if i'm someone that means that i'm part of the no one that can snatch me out of the hand of the father and so you end up in tremendous arguments concerning whether a person can actually do that and that's where the church is look at romans chapter 8 verses 35 through 39 with me it it says who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for your sake we are we are killed all day long we are accounted as a sheep for the slaughter yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us i'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord and so on the one hand those who would argue and say well look at it's it's obvious that these people have been enlightened they've tasted the heavenly gift jesus christ they're partaking in the spirit they have walked away they're believers who've lost their salvation but you have to look at the other side of the coin when jesus says no one can snatch them out of my hand no one can separate them from the love of god and so that's one interpretation though and there are many who believe that and they will very forcefully teach this passage to to warn you not to walk away from jesus christ it's an accepted doctrine it's orthodox but at the same time there are other scriptures that have to be taken into consideration for that to be obviously true that's one interpretation there's a second interpretation that i'll give you and that is some will teach that this passage refers to saved people who backslide the word backslide simply means you were going forward at one time and now you've returned you've turned and gone backwards you're backsliding now because they don't believe it's possible for a christian to lose the gift of salvation they refer to these people as backsliders who repent and return to the lord now that's a very important point they are backsliders who repent and return to the lord well there's a problem with that interpretation because the writer has stated that it is impossible for them to be renewed it's impossible for them who were once enlightened to be renewed a backslider can take first john chapter one verse nine and apply it to their life if you're a backslider tonight if you at one time were walking with the lord and have turned away from him as a christian you can turn back to christ you can say i confess my sin and you are faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness a backslider can come back to jesus christ an individual who at one time has been following the lord and enters into this lull in their walk with god and begin to live a carnal life that person can return to christ he can be he can be refreshed in the things of god as a new believer on many occasions i backslid and if you to see me you would not have believed i was a christian and i don't want to go through a lot of stories like that but i can tell you for the first few years of my walk with christ there were some major bumps in the road for me you know and a lot of you understand that i mean if you were into drugs and you were into alcohol and all the things that went along with that and now you're a christian and people will begin to offer you things and and you're thinking well you know i can drink one beer or whatever you can understand what i would do because i would say well you know one beer is not going to hurt me but before you know what i've got three or four or five or six and i've drunk them all and and i'm feeling terrible for it and then i'm by myself weeping and crying saying god how did i do that backsliders can do that it's possible to do that but you wake up and you say how come i went there oh god be merciful to me lord forgive me i am so sorry so a backslider can say god your word says if i confess my sin that you are faithful and just to forgive me and and lord i i just i claim that promise and i need your help but he's saying here it's impossible to renew them he said in verse four it is impossible for those who are once enlightened in verse six if they fall away to renew them again to repentance and so this cannot be speaking of a backslider because for them there's no place for remorse repentance or a fresh start so i don't look at this in that fashion there i might as well tell you this is not referring to save people who backslide there's a third way to look at this some think this speaks of professing believers who have never been saved professing believers i'm going to develop this with you notice how the writer states that they have been enlightened that interpretation says that they've become acquainted with the gospel in other words they are intellectually aware of the meaning of the gospel that is possible it is possible to be able to say i know what the gospel says about salvation i remember hearing of a hebrew scholar who also was a teacher of the new testament and this was not a christian man this is a jewish man a hebrew scholar who memorized the entire gospel of mark word for word and he taught a class to college students on the gospel of mark this guy's not a christian this guy is a jewish scholar and he could literally have you reading to him the gospel of mark and he would sit back with his legs crossed and his eyes closed in his arms folded while you read a chapter to him and he would stop you if you misread the scripture and he would correct you because his mind was so sharp that he was able to actually correct you if you misread the the passage before him he didn't embrace christ he didn't have any desire to do that i can tell you that there are people that when we've gone to israel are guides who are not christians by and large sometimes we have christian guides most of the guides i've had in israel are not they are they're jewish people but i can tell you that when we go to certain locations my guide has many times walked up and said well you know look at at this at this particular place here pastor chuck has taught out of matthew 24 and i think that's a great passage but you might want to go to mark 13 because mark and they'll tell me you know what i ought to be teaching and they will sometimes listen to you as you're teaching and they're just they're they're listening with interest they're able to regurgitate they're even able to speak to you concerning what you said but they are they're they're acclaimed with the claims of the gospel but they've never embraced it i remember one in particular who's become my friend over the years and marie and i actually love this man very much and i remember him on one occasion i was teaching in in at cupurnium in a synagogue there and i gave the message and he was standing off to my side he's the jewish man and when i finished teaching and i was telling the people you need the lord jesus christ because christ will transform your life and this is what happened here he came walking up immediately after me and he said what he's saying is absolutely true and he starts to preach himself this guy doesn't know the lord but he's giving this message and regurgitating saying it's true you need to have this and you need to have that and i'm looking at him and later on i talked to some of my friends and i said and all the years that i've gone to israel i have never experienced something like that where my jewish guide got so motivated by that passage that he wanted to preach too amazing we love this guy at pieces we see him every time we go to israel he'll be our guide the next time we go dear friend to us we love him very much yet to know jesus christ there are numbers of people who are capable of explaining the gospel there's no doubt about that there's no doubt about that who are able to share with you things who have never ever been born again and so in interpretation of this passage is that this may be professing believers professing believers who have never been saved there are many places that you can go today especially in the south the bible belt there are many places that you can go today that are have churches filled with people who have yet to be born again but if you speak to them they will tell you that they are christian i have lots of friends who have planted churches in the south and because it's cultural christianity it's just an amazing thing they're able to talk to you about about those things but i've never experienced it all you need to do is watch the country music awards if you can stomach them in and if you watch them yee ha if you watch them my daughter karin loves country music where did i go wrong but anyway if you if you watch them many of those who receive an awards the first thing they want to do is give praise and glory to their savior jesus christ but many of them don't know the lord and you know that or you can watch some of the uh other you know some of the other awards that are given you know for urban music and all and very often the guy will be swearing and then give praise to jesus christ in the same breath you know they they they have been raised in a certain way to embrace certain things but have never experienced those things so yes it is possible that people can have knowledge intellectually and mentally but not spiritually and so that's one of the ways that this is interpreted and so when it says here concerning that that these may be professing believers who who have never been saved because when he uses the word enlightened it could mean that they're understanding intellectually the meaning of the gospel well people will say well there are passages in the new testament that point that out for example matthew chapter four verse 16 in matthew chapter four verse 16 it says the people who sat in darkness saw a great light and to them who sat in the region and shadow of death light has sprung up so all who saw and heard jesus saw this great light but not all who saw and heard jesus believed they heard his words they saw his works they watched his life but they never came to saving faith in him so when the writer states they have tasted the heavenly gift they say well jesus is the heavenly gift but they were only they only sampled but did not fully ingest or feast on him in other words they didn't accept christ fully they tasted and rejected him and the salvation that he offers now when jesus was speaking to the woman at the well there in samaria jesus told her to drink of the living water jesus said in john 651 he said i am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread that i will give is my flesh which i give for the life of the world and so salvation requires full participation not a sampling some of us have gone to cosco or places like that and and you know how they'll have people who are employed to give you samples and you know how you walk through and you can walk through and here's somebody there with some kind of sample of some sort with the toothpick normally and marie always has me get one even enough i don't want it so i can give it to her i mean i have to do that just say you need to give me that i don't want that no you need to give me that go and get that get two of them say no in the name of jesus i will not i refuse but you know you go in they have a sample and you take that little toothpick and you taste it and so that's the point they're making they're saying that these are people who've only sampled but not fully partaken and so from that perspective when he writes that they have partaken of the holy spirit they're in verse four they would say that partaking has to do with an association and not a possession of in other words they never possess the holy spirit but we're only witnesses of the work of the spirit they can be around when he's moving and still remain unsaved that of course is is true also multitude saw the works of the lord jesus christ they saw him do a variety of things and yet remained unsaved not every person who saw work of jesus christ came to saving knowledge of him some who saw the works of christ actually ascribed his his works to satan rather than god anyway remember with me and matthew 12 24 the bible says when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow doesn't cast out demons except by balsam of the ruler of the demons they saw the works of jesus christ but remained unsaved and that's possible to do obviously during the time of christ multitude saw him do a variety of things three different times jesus raised people from the dead and yet people still remain hardened towards him jesus christ did so many miracles that john says that every book in the libraries of the world could not contain the details of every one of those miracles that he did he only selected a number of miracles to present to his people so that they might understand that jesus christ is the son of god but jesus did so many things and so many multitudes were touched by him and yet not everybody came to saving a knowledge of christ and so it's it's it's true you can see these things you can be aware of these things you can talk about these things you can even speak about what you've seen and remain unsaved he says that they have tasted the good word of god they heard his word taught they heard it preached but they didn't trust him they didn't hold fast to his message these are people who have gone to church have been taught about god but have never trusted him again that's a possibility that's a possibility because there are people like that in the bible there was a man by the name of harrid harrid was the one who eventually ended up taking the head of john the baptist from his body but the bible tells us that harrid loved to hear john the baptist preach and then he ultimately killed him he was somebody who actually had a preacher of righteousness in his own jail and often would have conversations with him and the scripture says he liked to hear what he had to say but ultimately even though he was interested in the things that were being said when it came down to it and his wife erodia said i want this man dead that was all there was to it and and he sent for him and and he said i want the the head of john the baptist and put it on a platter and bring it up to me so that he can give it to my i can give it to my wife and that's what happened so and that one interpretation they're pointing out the people who have heard and have not received and it says that they tasted of the powers of the age to come they've seen the works they know of the miracles miracles that have happened yet they refuse to turn to jesus christ they taste it they did not receive and it end up it ends up with them bringing greater judgment on themselves those are the first three interpretations let me give you the fourth the fourth interpretation is that this is hypothetical it's a hypothetical case and it would be intended to illustrate the folly of apostasy and the reason that it would be presented hypothetically is those who believe they can leave jesus and return to the jewish religion would be given a description of what would be the result of such an action this would be speaking of anyone repudiating illumination the illumination that regeneration brings there's a bible scholar by the name of w h griffith thomas and griffith thomas says the passage is apparently a supposed case to correct their wrong ideas and the argument seems to be that if it were possible for those who have had the experience of verses four through six to fall away it would be impossible to renew them unless christ died a second time now what would be the point of a hypothetical warning while true believers in christ would be warned to remain firm in him which would illustrate human responsibility you might find it interesting but notice verse nine here i haven't touched on verse nine because it would seem that that is being implied in verse nine because he says beloved we are confident of better things concerning you yes things that accompany salvation though we speak in this manner now remember i started the study by asking you to look at the words you us we then it went to them they those and now he returns to you and we and then here's your large word the word if the word if is the is the key to the hypothetical interpretation because he doesn't say they are he says in verse six if they fall away and so there's a strong argument that this is basically speaking hypothetically this isn't the only place that the bible can use a hypothetical illustration you see that in james chapter two verse 10 in james chapter two verse 10 it says whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he's guilty of all the reason that's hypothetical is because nobody can keep the whole law so he was only hypothetically implying something he wasn't saying that you could do that he is saying that if it were possible to keep the whole law you still could be found guilty by missing it at one point but there's no way that you can keep the whole law now in verse six again the writer wrote if they fall away the word fall away is to deviate from the right path to fall away from the worship of jesus christ so the question is if they are genuinely converted how could they ever come back why can they never be recovered well because they reject the message that jesus was crucified for them they reject the vicarious sacrifice of christ uh they ultimately would be saying jesus christ died for himself and not for them and because of that what they're doing is rejecting him and they're actually putting him to open shame in other words he's deserving to die the shameful death on the cross that he died and he does that because he deserved to die like that four basic ways to look at this particular passage each one has its merit each one has its merit some believe that genuinely converted people lose their salvation others say there's no way you can lose your salvation some say well this is hypothetical it's a variety of ways to approach this and this may seem irresponsible to you at this point but i would say to you that if you held to three of those four you're in good company i think the second one that i brought up is is incorrect to interpret it as a backslider for the reasons i gave you i i don't know that backsliders cannot be recovered some believe that you can go so far away from jesus christ that you just basically leave him others believe that the grace of god is like a long chain and you can be rushing off in great distances but the chain ultimately reaches the end and snaps you back um it you know either way i mean there's such strong argument in the and the body of christ over can you be saved once for all time or do you have an opportunity to walk away from christ and to return to him the problem is if you're saying that the person um who apostasy the person who's walking away from christ it's impossible to renew him into salvation then at that point you have to ask the question just just how deep is the grace of god is it possible for somebody to go for weeks months even years walking away from the lord and still be brought back and and i think many of us in this room could say that we've known people like that i speak to people like that on a regular basis in this fellowship i do it almost every sunday in one way or another you might find that interesting but it's true i will speak to people often who will say listen i was raised as a christian i believed the things of the gospel when i got into high school i walked away from the lord i get letters from people all the time we'll say pastor i listened to you on the radio and i want you to know my story and they'll write me their testimony i get those weekly where somebody will say that i was saved i ended up making bad decisions in high school and college i met a guy i got married to him i received letters like that ladies will say and i was a christian i married an unbeliever and i've lived for years to the point where i haven't been reading haven't been in church i haven't had a relationship with christ but something deep inside of me was always aching i had an agony and and i finally began to listen to christian radio and and as i've been listening to radio i've heard messages that have brought me to an awareness that i've walked away from christ and i want you to know that i've returned now in the years from the point where they they walked away visibly and returned would somebody say they were unsaved all of those years or could you not say that they were quenching the holy spirit grieving the spirit of god not walking with jesus but within them there was still a seed of god within them the the life of christ in them that when it was awakened once again was blossoming into a relationship with him and and they come back to him well if that's the case then this can't apply to them because it says it's impossible to renew them that means that it would be a final kind of decision that you don't have a relationship with christ and you're gonna end up in judgment because in verses seven and eight it says the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receives blessing from god but if it bears thorns and briars it is rejected and near to being cursed whose end is to be burned in other words all those who have heard the gospel are like the earth the rain falls which speaks of the gospel going forth producing fruit in some but being rejected by others but when he says in verse nine we're confident of better things concerning you i think it gives the hypothetical approach some real merit and that's to be honest with you where i am i look at this as hypothetical now if you don't that's fine too you know just don't ever come back to this church no if if you don't if you say no pastor i would prefer believe in that these are people who are lost their salvation i'm not gonna i'm not gonna argue with you about that if you're somebody who says you know it sounds to me like like backsliders i'd say well i think you have a problem with that argument but the bottom line is there are multitudes who have witnessed the things of christ and have never really yielded themselves to it but because of the strength of the word if and because he changes his tenses from the you the we to the them and those and because he uses the word if i lean more more closely to the hypothetical and feel fairly comfortable with that position though i'm open i'm open to being taught better and if that's incorrect then i would like to know the exact correct interpretation three out of the four that i gave to you are fairly solid orthodox believers cling to them and walk solidly with Jesus as they interpret the passage that way me on the other hand i believe that he's speaking hypothetically based on what i just shared with you but uh all i say to you is shows you that there's a whole lot more that we need to learn about the things of god and that's what we're trying to do as we study the bible