 Alright, Hebrews chapter number six is what we're going to be looking at this evening. So this is a very, we're going to look at the first few verses of Hebrews chapter six, really up to verse number nine, and I'm going to explain that to you this evening. It's a very obscure set of verses in the Bible. It's not the easiest thing to understand. I don't even know if I've actually really preached about it in entirety, just in details. As a matter of fact, this was one of the things that as a satellite leader I avoided. I avoided even going to these verses because I didn't feel like it was my place to, you know, make judgment on what these verses mean as a satellite leader. You know, there's pastors that have different opinions about what these verses mean as well. But I'm going to show you this morning or this evening, I'm sorry, what these verses are all about. The title of the sermon this evening, let's read Hebrews six and verse number one. Then I'll give you the title of the sermon and then we'll get into it this evening. The Bible says in Hebrews six, one, where you can just look at the front of your bulletin, it says, 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. Now, before I even start, I just love that repentance from dead works, right? Because what does everybody say, what do all these false prophets say that we have to do to be saved today? They say, what, you have to repent of your sins, right? Meaning, you know, what they're saying is you have to turn from your sins or you have to stop sinning. You know, good luck with that, you know, but that doctrine, everybody's going to hell, right? Because nobody's going to be able to stop sinning in their lives. You know, yes, we should get sin out of our lives and we should be following the spirit once we're saved and not the flesh. But no one is going to be sinless until they're in their glorified state, all right? We're always going to be battling this flesh, but this is the true repentance that needs to happen right here. Repentance from dead works. You say, what are dead works? Works are works that you're trusting in to get you to heaven that are going to make you dead. That's what those are, all right? Dead works is the doctrine that, you know, basically there's two doctrines in the world today. There's two religions in the whole world and dead works is Satan's religion. Dead works is you have to do good things to get to heaven. Dead works is the Catholic, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Sikh, the whatever, the Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness. Those are dead works. Those are works that you're trusting in that are going to make you dead. They're going to give you that second death. You're going to go to hell if you're trusting in your dead works. You need to repent from that. Meaning what? You need to change your mind about that. You need to change your mind about trusting in your works and trust on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is repentance from dead works. What Paul is saying here is don't go back to that doctrine. He's saying don't go and lay the foundation where you have to go and repent of dead works. He's saying, how could he be? Look, he's talking to who? What's the book called? He's talking to a group of people here. He's talking to the Hebrews. He's saying, hey, you know, this reminds me of the argument in Acts that they had again and again over the Jews that were getting saved. What do we tell the Gentiles? And they start telling the Gentiles, yeah, in order to be saved, you need to be circumcised. You need to follow the law. All these things. Because they got all these Gentiles coming in that are eating all this disgusting stuff. They don't have any rules in their life. They're in fornication. They're doing all these different things. And so they start just tying that to salvation to try to get these people on board with their program. But look, they're making false doctrine. They're creating false doctrine. Yeah, teach them to abstain from idols and abstain from things strangled in fornication. Teach them that, but it has nothing to do with being saved. This is what we're talking about here. Paul is saying, hey, don't be going and teaching this type of stuff. Don't go back to these bad doctrines, you know, this repentance from dead works and faith towards God. Title of the sermon this evening is regression. And that I'm going to show you no matter how we interpret these verses, what these verses are talking about is regression. Regression. He said, what is regression? The word regression means a return to former things. You know, a return to, if I was going to regress in my life, it means I'm going to return to the way I used to be in some area. All right. What Hebrews chapter six is warning about is regression. You say, is it applying to save people? Is it applying to unsafe people? Is it applying to groups of people or individuals? I'm going to show you that this evening. Let's keep reading. So the title of the sermon is regression. Of the doctrine of baptisms on laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Paul is saying, don't go back to bad doctrine. Stay with the proper doctrine that you have been taught. I mean, this is kind of the same message that Paul basically is teaching to everybody. I mean, in all the different churches, in the letters that he writes to the churches, in one form or another, Paul's kind of saying like, hey, don't let people creep in and start teaching you a bunch of garbage. In Galatians, he's like, hey, don't let people creep in and start teaching you a different gospel. I don't care if he's an angel from heaven. I don't care if it's us. Nobody should be teaching you a different gospel other than the one we gave you. He's saying, don't regress back to that stuff. I mean, that's the frustration of Paul. That's the frustration of the apostles is they, you know, they're traveling all, you know, they're spread thin. You know, just look at the missionary journeys. He's spread thin. He's stopping. He's gathering groups of people. He's starting churches. Then he's leaving. I mean, he wrote letters because he couldn't be in every single place at the same time. So that's why he wrote the epistles to the Ephesians and to all these different churches in the New Testament. And as soon as he leaves, people creep in, start teaching garbage and all this kind of stuff. And it's frustrating. You can feel it when you read the New Testament from Paul. Look at verse number three. Verse number three, Paul says, it says, And this we will do if God permit, meaning we'll stick to the right doctrines. All right. Look at verse number four. Now here's where it gets obscure right here. I'm just going to read through verse four, five and six. And then we're going to talk about how to interpret the Bible. And then I'm going to give you what these verses mean. The Bible says in verse four, it says, And you're like, what in the world? What does that mean? That's not the most clear verse in the Bible right there. I mean, that is not the most easy verse to understand. So first of all, let me just give you some Bible interpretation rules here. Some Bible interpretation rules when you're reading the Bible. This is not one of these clear verses that is super easy to understand in the Bible. There are many verses like that. Every verse that explains the gospel is a very simple and easy to understand verse. The gospel is the simplest thing in the Bible. All right. Using the analogy that a child can understand of a gift, not of works. These are very easy things for people to understand. When you go out and you preach the gospel, when you become soul winner and you start sharing the gospel with people, you will hear people tell you that over and over and over again that, wow, this is really easy to understand. Wow, I've never had anyone explain it to me like this before. It's not like we're magical or we're, you know, some great orders. We're just explaining the gospel as God put forth in the Bible. It's all the false prophets and all the different, you know, works-based religions out there that are confusing things. The gospel is very simple. So here's your two Bible reading interpretation rules right here. First of all, we are not to define doctrine off of difficult to understand verses. Okay? We are not to, like, get our doctrines from difficult to understand verses. False prophets do this all the time. They take one verse. They'll even take simple verses and do this. And they'll just extrapolate some huge false doctrine from it. All right? So first of all, we do not define, we only define doctrine off simple clear verses in the Bible. The second rule of interpretation is this. Our interpretation of complicated verses must match simple verses in the Bible. It must match clear, easy to understand doctrines. A perfect example of this one is Ephesians 2-9. You know, this really hard to understand verse where it says, now just, you gotta really put your thinking caps on here, where the Bible says, not of works. Where the Bible, you're talking about salvation. What do I have to do to be saved? It's not of works. I mean, it doesn't get any simpler than that. It's just not of works. So then you look at a little bit more complicated verse like James 2-29, where the Bible says, you know, there's a phrase in there that says, faith without works is dead. And then people will take faith without works is dead, and they'll interpret that to be that if you don't have works, you can't be saved. That works has to do with, you know, works gets you saved. Wrong! Wrong interpretation, because it clearly contradicts that complicated verse of not of works. So if you are reading one verse interpreting one thing, and it doesn't match another clear verse in the Bible, look, the problem's not the Bible, folks. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. The Bible is perfect. The Bible is inerrant, meaning it is without contradictions. It is without error. So that leads me to the conclusion of faith without works is dead must not have to do with losing your salvation or have works tied to salvation at all, because Ephesians 2-9 must be true. And of course, you know, James chapter 2 is, it's not the most complicated chapter in the Bible. If you read the whole thing, it's simply talking about your works, having to do with how your works affect your profit towards your brother and sister in Christ. It's just saying, you know, if you don't have works, what good are you to everybody? If you don't have works, you're going to profit no one, and there's no way for any man on earth to see my faith except through my works. So who wants to have worthless faith? Who wants to have this faith that just gets me saved and is of no good to anybody else? That's what it's talking about. It's talking about that spectrum of perfect faith with none of us will ever get to and the other side of that spectrum of dead faith, which none of us are there either. No one has zero works, folks. It's silly to even think of it that way. It's just talking about, it's trying to convince people to push them towards the side of perfecting their faith. That's James 2, right there. Perfect your faith so you can profit other people. That's it. That's what God wants from you. So don't define doctrine off Hebrews chapter 6. And when we interpret Hebrews chapter 6 tonight, it must match clear doctrine in the Bible. That's pretty easy. That's pretty easy Bible interpretation rules right there. So let's get into it. So the question that people ask about Hebrews chapter 6, especially verse 4, 5, and 6, is is this talking about saved people or unsaved people? And first of all, I think that, I hope I can explain to you tonight that that's the wrong question to ask. That that's really not what the point of these verses are. These verses are teaching a philosophy or a doctrine. They're teaching a doctrine. And I'm going to show you tonight, I hope I can convince you tonight that the doctrine that these verses are teaching applies to everybody. It applies to saved people. It applies to unsaved people. It applies to groups of people. It applies to individuals. That's what I'm going to show you tonight. Let me just show you the two main interpretations of Hebrews chapter 6, 4, 5, and 6. Look down to Hebrews chapter 6 in verse number 4. First of all, let's apply it to an individual who is saved. An individual who is saved. Look at verse number 4 of Hebrews chapter 6. If you apply it to somebody who is saved, all Hebrews chapter 6 and verse number 4, 5, and 6 are teaching is that it's impossible to lose your salvation. Look at verse number 4. It says, what are the first few words here? It says, for it is impossible. For those who were once enlightened. Now this is if we interpret that enlightened to mean that this person is saved. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. So now I'm interpreting this as this person in verse number 4 is a saved person. This is somebody that is saved. It's saying it's impossible for this next few things to happen. Look at verse number 5. They 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 that they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. What this is saying if you apply this to somebody who is saved in verse number 4, what this is saying is it is impossible for them to lose their salvation. It's saying it's not possible to because it's saying if it was verse number 6 is saying if it was it's assuming you know that you're eternally saved. It's assuming that you know that once you've trusted on Jesus you're sealed by the Holy Spirit. You can never lose your salvation no matter what you do. And verse number 6 is saying if they shall fall away Jesus would have to die for them again. Is what verse number 6 is saying. This is a question that I asked before I was saved. This is a question that I asked my Lutheran pastor right before I left the church. My whole thing was eternal security. I wasn't saved. I believed Jesus died on the cross. I believed he rose again from the dead. I believed everything that the Catholic would believe. I just did it. I just thought you could lose your salvation. I thought that if I didn't go to church and I didn't do these things that I would be unsaved. I thought that I had to go to church on Sunday morning and confess my sins and shake the etch-a-sketch clean. It's etch-a-sketch theology. This is what I thought. And I started listening to Baptist preaching from Pastor Anderson actually and I realized that it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. And I asked my Lutheran pastor this. I asked him exactly what verse number 6 is talking about. I said where in the Bible is someone born again? Again. Think about it. That's exactly what I asked him. The Bible says in John 3 we're going to look at it on Wednesday that you need to be born again. When you're saved you're spiritually reborn. But if you could lose your salvation unless you believe once you've lost it you could never get it back what I've never heard that taught that would make no sense. The Catholic church wouldn't make any money if that was the case. Like you lost your salvation and you could never come back. They're like, ah, they would never teach that. But there have to be somebody that fell away, that was born again fell away and then was born again again. But the Bible is saying that that can't happen because it's not like Jesus is going to come and die for you again. We're not going to just crucify Jesus for you every single time you fall away. So that's what that is teaching. You know what that pastor he had no answer to that. He had no answer and the Bible doesn't teach that. So there's nothing he could have pointed to that where somebody got born again. Again. It's not in there. It's not true. Alright, so look. If you interpret it by this person being saved if you interpret it by a person an individual and they're saved all it is saying in verse number four, five and six is that it's impossible for that to happen. That's all it's saying. So is that interpretation valid? It's valid. It's valid. I'm going to show you the other interpretations valid too. But it's a valid interpretation because it matches clear scripture in the Bible. It matches this doctrine of eternal security. Now turn to Ephesians chapter one. Turn to Ephesians chapter one. Now let's apply this to unsaved people. Let's pretend the person in verse number four that he's talking about is somebody who is not saved. Okay, turn to Ephesians chapter one in verse number 18. Which, look, it's possible that it fits there too because enlightened doesn't necessarily mean saved in the Bible. Enlightened in the Bible, look at Ephesians chapter one in verse number 18. Ephesians chapter one in verse number 18. Partakers of the Holy Ghost is more of an argument towards the saved than that they were enlightened. Enlightened, and look, you're going to find people when you go out of soul when you give the gospel to people you're going to find people that are enlightened in verse 18 of Ephesians chapter one. It says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. It means your eyes are opened and that you what? You understand. It says that you may know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now he's talking to saved people here but the point I'm trying to get you to see here is that enlightened means you understand and you know. And you are going to have people that you give the gospel to. They understand it. They know what you're talking about and they're like, they just don't believe it. They understand it clearly. And you'll have them say, yeah, I understand that. You have any questions? No, I don't have any questions. What do you think? Somebody gave the gospel to a Muslim today or yesterday. I can't remember which one it was. But that's what I asked. Did he understand? Yes, he understood. He just needs to think about it. See? He just hasn't decided if he's going to repent and believe. But he understands he's enlightened. I mean this would be the person we're talking about right here. Somebody that has been given the truth understands that truth but doesn't trust in that truth. It's not that they're not enlightened, okay? Enlightened just means that you understand it. And not everyone that understands, look I wish this wasn't true, but not everyone that understands is going to believe. And you will see this soul winning. I mean think about the, even the thing partakers of the Holy Ghost. You could even use that as, okay we have partakers of a potluck. Everyone's invited to the potluck but not everybody eats. You kind of look at that as well. So partakers, everyone's invited, not everybody eats. Some people just don't eat or they reject it. But what this is teaching then, if you believe that this person wasn't saved and you think it's talking to an individual, it means that somebody that gets that close and understands it and then rejects it or doesn't believe it, will not get that close again. What this is teaching is that somebody that gets that close to the truth and then doesn't accept the truth, it will be harder the next time for them to get that close. That's what this means. And look, let me tell you something. This is talking about regression of the unsaved. That he will be right up to the truth and he will not, he or she will not accept that truth meaning that's going to be the best chance they ever had right there. That's what that means. Now this doctrine is in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. This doctrine of regression, this philosophy in the Bible is, I'm not saying they're never going to get saved if they didn't get saved the first time. I'm saying it's just going to be harder now. It's just going to be their heart is not going to... Look, and you know this is true. If you've ever given the gospel to somebody, you know, that first time you had a time and then they rejected it. Look, it's hard to give them the gospel again. A lot of people just don't want to hear it again. A lot of people don't want to even revisit that question. If they got to that point where they literally understood everything you said and they just said, no, I don't believe that. It's harder the next time. But this philosophy is in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. And I'm going to show you tonight that this philosophy of regression, it applies to the unsaved and it applies to the saved. This philosophy... I'm going to try to get you to be afraid of regression tonight because regression, the Bible teaches that regression even for the Christian is extremely dangerous. Look at Matthew chapter 12 in verse number 43. Matthew chapter 12, look at verse 43. The Bible says this. It says, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, now you have to kind of like just... Don't think about like this being a demon. Think about this as being just this idea of a guy that was in sin and then he got right and then what happened when he didn't stay right. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none. We'll talk about why he findeth none here in a little bit. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he has come, he findeth that empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself. The demons are an analogy here. The demons are an example here. It says, then he taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there. This is really the key point of the parable right here. The last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so it also shall be with this wicked generation. Now he's talking about a group of people again. Kind of like the Hebrews. He's talking about the Jews. He's talking about the people where Jesus was right there and they rejected him. He's like, you know what? The last state of those people. This is the closest they ever could have gotten and when they rejected it. This is an example of the worst type of regression. They rejected it as a nation. He's like, now it's going to be worse than it was before I came. The same with Paul talking to the Hebrews, which is the Israelites, which is the children of Israel. He's talking to a group of people saying don't get this close to the truth and then reject it because it's going to be worse for you now than it was when you were right there knocking at the door of truth. The philosophy of regression here, it is extremely bad. It is extremely bad. Don't regress. As an individual it fits too. Don't regress to the way you were. Why? Because it won't be the way you were. It'll be worse. Look, it has a saved and unsaved application even for the individual. For the unsaved, it's just going to be, every time they hear and understand the gospel, it's going to be harder and harder and harder for them to get saved. The more you hear, the more you understand and don't take it, the harder it will be to believe. The harder it will be for your heart to accept that truth. Now, let me just say this, I'm hoping it's saved, but let me just say this. Don't have this attitude where you give the gospel to somebody, and people see this as true. But let's not have this extreme attitude where we give the gospel to somebody and they don't get saved the first time and we're like, oh man, reprobate. Okay, we're like, oh reprobate. I gave them that. Look, I've had many people concerned that someone that they love is a reprobate because of the fact that they did not accept the clear presentation of the gospel. Look folks, I know many people who have gotten the gospel several times, saved the first time I heard the gospel. Okay? But I didn't reject it either. I had to think about it. I had to look into it. I had to study it out for myself. I had to hear it again, and then I got saved. But just don't assume so that's just a side note. Don't just assume. Somebody didn't get saved the first time, reprobate. Look, many times people in their lives that have gotten close to the truth they'll get shooken up by something. Maybe they're very proud in their life and something will happen. This is a good prayer for somebody that you know, that you love that you've given the gospel to, but they're too proud. They're too proud to let go of their works. They're too proud to think that they don't have something to do with getting themselves to heaven. Look, you can pray for God to shake that person up. God, take the pride away from this person. Because look, you must be humble to get saved. Because it is a proud thing to think you can get yourself to heaven. And many things can happen in people's lives that can just humble them like right now. I mean, people can lose jobs, their life can be flipped upside down. I mean, all sorts of things can happen. But look, if it is an unsaved person and their life gets flipped upside down and they lose half a million dollars and then that makes them humble and they get saved, it's all worth it. That can happen. So let's just not assume reprobate if somebody doesn't get saved the very first time that you give the gospel to them. They just take their pride removed and that's something that God can help with. You know, you can just pray and you can advocate for people like that. But tonight the main point I really want to apply Hebrews chapter 6 to is, you know, us. Is us, is the saved regressing. The saved going back to the way we were. Is it possible? You bet it's possible. You're not saved by your works. Your works don't keep you saved meaning your works can get your works can be good or your works can be bad and you're still going to go to heaven. But the Bible here is teaching us of the danger of backsliding or regressing to where we were. Turn to Proverbs chapter 26. This is the main applicable warning tonight is the danger of regression. The danger of regression. Look at Proverbs 26 in verse number 11. Proverbs 26 in verse number 11. The Bible says this. It says, as a dog returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly. This is a person that you know, the Bible here is comparing this dog going back to its vomit to somebody who reverts back to sin that they used to be in. And Matthew chapter 12 so first of all, the Bible here in Proverbs 26 is warning, you know you're a fool if you go back to the sin. You know, it's not like you know, it wouldn't be a wise thing for you to be like oh I'm saved. I'm going to go do whatever I want. That would not be wise at all. The Bible is calling you a fool if you do that. And Matthew chapter 12 is clearly telling you that if you do do that it's not going to be you going back to where you were, it's going to be worse than it was. Seven times worse. It's going to be, look I can tell you I've seen this before. I've seen this with saved people and it is horrible. It is horrible. Saved people are just like hey I'm saved. I'm going back to my sin. It is way worse when they go back to it. So look, if you're coming from some sin and you've got some things right in your life and you know that you have like a proclivity towards one type of sin or another you need to stay far away from that. You need to stay far away from those sins because there's much danger in going back to those sins. You're not going to lose your salvation but it's going to be way worse. You say why is it going to be that much more dangerous? Well turn to Hebrews chapter 10. It's going to be more dangerous because number one, Matthew 12 says the sin will be worse. When you go back you will be worse into that sin than you were before. And the second reason you need to understand is that you are saved now and the consequences will be worse. The consequences will be worse. You need to let people know this when you're out of soul winning. You need to let people know that when you're saved and you're adopted into God's family there's some sin free ride because God is going to chastise you and the chastisement of God is nothing to shake a stick at. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 in verse number 26. The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 26 the Bible says for if we sin willfully Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 25 is commanding you clearly to come and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It's commanding you to come to church. It's commanding saved people that they should be in church. But look at verse 26 it says if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remain no more sacrifice for sins. Doesn't that sound familiar just like verse number 6 in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse number 6 Jesus isn't going to die for you again. If I go back and just decide I'm just going to be a drunk now or I'm just going to fornication or do whatever you know it was that you were in before you got saved if you decide you're going to do that Jesus isn't going to die for you again. You say well what's going to happen? Well here's what's going to happen keep reading. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation you know what that means? It's like God's going to come down on you. God is going to come down on you and he is going to punish you and he will devour the adversaries. Look you're going to put yourself at odds with your heavenly father and he's going to beat you. The Bible says in Luke 12 the guy that knew his Lord's will and did it not? He's going to be beaten with many stripes. So not only is the sin going to be worse if you go back to the vomit is it going to be way worse I don't know why that is but it is so true. I don't want to see it anymore. I don't want to see say believers just go back to their sin because it's way worse. They do it worse. They get into it more and then the indignation comes upon them and it's terrible. Folks people that are not saved they're going to pay for that. You wonder why people get away with things? Look they're going to pay in hell. You're going to pay on this earth. God is going to chastise his children. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse number 6. Say why would God chastise me like that? Why would God judge me and beat me on this earth even though he's still going to keep me saved and not let me go to hell and I'll still go to heaven. Why would God punish me like that? Because he loves you. That's why. This is why the parents today let their kids do whatever they want. Let their kids have whatever they want let their kids do whatever they want they hate them. That's what the Bible says. He that spares his rod hated his son. The Bible says if you don't chastise your children you literally hate him. God punishes us and chastises us because he loves us. For whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth and scorches every son whom he receiveeth. If you endure chasening God deals with you as sons. If you're going through God chastising you the one thing you can take away from that is like God loves you. God's doing it to help you for what son is he whom the father chaseneth not. If you be without chastisement wherefore all are partakers of the sons. People ask this question all the time why do bad people get away with everything why do bad people get good things and bad people get away with stuff at work because they're not saved they're going to pay in hell. That's why evil people get away with evil things in this earth. It is us that are going to be scourged. So the point is for us tonight in Hebrews chapter 6 the point is for us and I want to wrap this sermon tonight. The sermon from this morning. The sermon of compromise. When you are in your Christian life when you are in your Christian life and you find out what you are supposed to be doing Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25 is a perfect example. Many people they get saved and they don't know they're like what's next? The Bible clearly says in Hebrews 10 25 that the first thing you should do is you should baptize but you should get in church. You should get in church and you see that truth it's just one of many truths that's coming in your Christian life but you see that truth and you creep up at it and you creep up on that truth you kind of dip your toe in the water of that truth but you know what you're doing? You're giving Satan time to convince you to compromise. You're giving Satan time to get you to think about you know half God said that I need to do these things you're giving Satan time to creep in and get you convinced of all these compromises that we talked about this morning and look here's the scary thing for the Christian as you're growing in your Christian life you're going to hit these barriers you're going to hit these miles I shouldn't say barriers you're going to hit milestones you're going to hit milestones where you say you know what I'm saved because that I'm going to be free to thrive I'm going to go to church three times a week and I'm going to hear the Bible preach I'm going to get baptized I'm going to do what the Bible says and then you're going to get to church and you're going to hear about all the soul winning how we're supposed to be out preaching the gospel and you're going to be like you know what that's another milestone you're going to be like you know what I should do you know what I'm in church but I just keep going to church and all these milestones keep being put in front of me what I'm teaching you is how to live a purposeful meaningful life and I've asked that question a thousand times to people out soul winning and I've never heard anyone say no I get somebody saved I'm like you want your life to be worthless how many lives do you have are you a cat and they say I have one life do you want it to mean nothing do you want to have a true meaningful life and they're like yeah of course well what you're supposed to be doing to have that meaningful life is in the Bible all these milestones would be set in front of you but I'm trying to get you to understand if you'd creep into these milestones you go up to this wall of learning how to be a soul winner look that takes some effort it takes some effort to learn how to give somebody the gospel properly it takes going out and being a silent partner again and again and again asking questions so memorizing verses studying it takes some effort if you creep into it and then you regress from it you will never get that close again it will be harder to get that close again this is what Hebrew 6 is teaching us you have to hit those milestones you have to get up to that wall of church you have to get up to that wall you have to get up to that wall of man maybe I want to go into the ministry maybe I could be doing more in my Christian life what next you have to get in a truck and you have to drive through that wall you have to bust that wall down you have to break through it all you have to do is ask yourself this is it true you're supposed to be looking down at your Bible when I'm preaching I'm saying go to this verse go to that verse so you can look down and you can see for yourself that it's true that it's not some guy standing up here telling you his opinion on things but if you get to these milestones of these walls these barriers and you tiptoe through them you tiptoe up to them and you touch the wall and you're like oh is that like you're going to be tempted to compromise the devil is going to find those idols in your life and he's going to as you creep up to that wall and you bump it with your elbow and you touch it he's going to throw those idols in your life in front of you and then you will compromise and then you will never get up to that wall again it will be harder to get to that wall the next time this is what Hebrews 6 is teaching us the danger of regression you hear every sermon and you just creep towards it you give time to the adversary to derail you just picture it this way folks picture it this way there's this great and mighty battle going on think of it this way because I mean look this is what's happening there's this great and mighty battle going on and there's somebody standing I mean it's a great and mighty battle where many of God's people are fighting they're fighting in this mighty battle look there's a spiritual battle going on it is happening and there's think of it you're in this battle and you're fighting and Jesus is the head of this army and you're fighting in this battle and there's somebody in the sidelines going should I get in should I get into the fight look this is why Jesus is constantly talking about people not doing this what does he say to the Laodiceans in Revelation chapter 3 he's like you're lukewarm does he say you're lukewarm and he shouldn't really be lukewarm he's like no you're lukewarm and I spew you out of my mouth because you're lukewarm in Luke 14 he talks about if any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and brother and his own wife also and what he cannot be my disciple he's saying if you don't what I have to hate my mother no it's saying that if you put anyone in a pedestal in front of Christ he's like you can't fight in the battle because we don't need tiptoes in the battle we need people that are going to bust down walls and fight that's what we need that's what Hebrews 6 is teaching Hebrews 6 is warning against creeping up against the truth Hebrews 6 is once you know the truth you get in your 3 quarter ton and you drive through the wall that's what it's saying look folks there could be no compromise if we are to fight in this war and Jesus says again and again and again using these extreme examples of the type of people that he needs to fight in this war it needs to be people that are going to fight they're going to accept truth they're going to bust through to the next milestone and through to the next one and you know what people that are just willing to make a difference in this world for the gospel he's saying this is what it's going to take because if there's some milestone out there as we said this morning that will stop you you will be stopped go back to Hebrews chapter 6 go back to Hebrews chapter 6 look at verse number 8 verse number 8 the bible says this actually look at verse 7 what about the earth bringing forth herbs in verse number 7 again this is an example look at verse 8 this is an example of something that's not bearing the right type of fruit and it's discarded that is what this is saying it doesn't mean like oh this is a person who goes to hell that's not what it's saying it's an example of good fruit and worthless things to be discarded it's what it's talking about but look at verse 9 but beloved we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany what things that accompany salvation though we thus speak he's talking about look don't regress don't regress into false doctrine he's talking to everybody he's talking to the Hebrews he's talking to the saved and the unsaved he's talking to people so what's the point there's three applications here the first application is that you can't regress from your salvation that's a valid interpretation the second one is if you're saved don't regress into sin don't regress into garbage that you were in before and for the unsaved he's saying when you're presented with the truth accept it when you're presented with the gospel don't creep towards it and likewise for the saved don't creep towards the truth in your life bust down that wall and go to the next milestone just grab it and go because you creep towards it and if you regress back to where you were it's going to be worse than it was it's talking about now tell me that man wrote the bible I mean give me a break these verses are a miracle these verses literally apply to every single person saved or unsaved group or individual they apply to everybody it's talking about the doctrine of regression and it applies to everybody that's ever lived at any time it's beautiful but for us we're all and look a church is always going to be filled with people at different levels of Christian growth and look quite frankly I like it I like it because one thing that really gives me joy as a pastor a leader of a ministry is to watch people grow I love that I love being part of it I love being part of it I love watching church members edify other church members I mean it just makes me very happy to do that you know just as I prefer to see that amongst you all as pastor Anderson said I don't know I like you people but it's one of the things about a church that at first confused me a little bit but now I really enjoy it really gives me joy there's different levels of growth but what you have to understand no matter what your level of growth is is when you hit that next milestone and you see oh brother so and so has been you know saved it's not even the amount of time you've been saved you know I know people who are more mature Christians after they've been saved for 2 years than people that have been saved for 20 why? you say how could a person that's been saved for 2 years be more mature of a Christian that has been saved for 20 years how's that even possible? I'm telling you I have met people that got saved and in one year you didn't even recognize who they were you're just like what in the world in an extremely good way you say how is that possible how is that person able to go from you know just got saved 5 seconds ago to can't even recognize them fully armored up soldier for the lord in one year's time they do that because they reach those milestones and they drove through every single one of them they never stopped they're like oh should I go the whole way oh if I want to sacrifice that much no it was in the bible and they just busted through it they're like oh man that's uncomfortable but there it is it's in the bible and they do it and you know what that is an extremely profitable person that person is going to be a soldier that is a huge value to the lord and what does that mean that person is going to make so many differences for all of the people in this community people in his lives a person like that will not even know on this earth the amount of lives that they've touched the eternities that they have affected and all they had to do was not creep towards it and just plow through every single truth that they learned and you know what they're at home they're listening to preaching they're going home and they're reading their bible and they're growing faster and faster and faster and they're asking questions like hey I read this in the bible is this true yep it is boom done just drive right through it that's what Hebrew 6 is talking about that's who we need to be that's what Paul is saying be this type of Christian be this type of person that never looks back much less goes back and that's the type of people that Jesus was talking about that he needed I mean he was literally like you cannot be my disciple unless you are this way like you can't what did he mean you won't make it you won't make it you won't even make it in church because at some point I'm going to tick you off if that's you if you hit some milestone and I'm just going to keep talking about it if it's in the bible quit and you can't be a disciple if that's you if it's in the bible drive through it that's the lesson of Hebrews chapter 6 let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer