Be Faithful to Teaching
Study Scripture: Hebrews 5:11 – 6:12
Lesson 5

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Key Verse

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Hebrews 6:1.

INTRODUCTION

Our studies in Hebrews so far, have among other things shown, that we have a most excellent and glorious High Priest; who has been through all of human experiences, tempted to limits that we can never imagine, and was victorious in his battle, remaining the Sinless One. He is therefore completely aware of the temptations we face and battles against sin that the experience, and He remains our faithful, omnipotent and compassionate Advocate. He is our Redeemer and friend, and our Helper in every situation and in all conceivable ways.

The book of Hebrews expresses deep reservations over the spiritual state of these professing Christians that he addresses. He warns them over and over that they were facing the perilous situation of repeating the unbelief of their forefathers in the wilderness. This unbelief inevitably led to ‘failure’. This failure to enter the promised spiritual rest of God, was a disaster for them.

Unbelief led to certain spiritual disaster; they had been warned to avoid this calamity, as there was no need for their departure from the truth.

It is in the context of these teachings, that our lesson today takes a deep look at the nature of professing believers.

It emphasizes that the choices we make as a consequence of our nature are extremely significant and always and inevitably lead to certain consequences.

Professing believers must understand that they are responsible for the choices they make. In addition, they must understand that they can reach a point, when the consequences of their choices cannot be reversed. There is a point of no return.

Note carefully, that the emphasis in the text is that believers must move forward. Believers must grow in Christ. This is a very serious matter, for if we do not grow we will stagnate and disaster will follow.

Our section of text, in examining the spiritual conditions of the Hebrew Christians, makes reference to four pictures or figures which some commentators list as:

The milk drinkers
The meat eaters
The ‘stillborn’, some call these the ‘never born’
The fruit growers.

As we look at these, let us remember that these analyses are extremely relevant to us. The psychological and spiritual profile of these early Christians match our profile perfectly.

THE TEXT

Verse 11. The writer now describes his readers as milk drinkers, people exhibiting a case of arrested development, or retarded maturity.

He would like to tell them much more about Melchizedek, and the great advantages bestowed on believers, because of the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ. Some matters were obviously hard to explain, but in this case the problem was not just that the material was hard, but because the Christians were unwilling to learn, since their hearing had become dull. They were now slow to learn because of dullness, and this exposed them to peril.

Verse 12. The high priestly ministry of Jesus requires believers to advance in their knowledge about him. It requires spiritual growth and a desire and perseverance in moving from the basic things, to a deeper and a more detailed understanding about Him.

This deeper understanding would make them able to teach others about the truth, so that they would grow in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord.

This failure to grow spiritually, to advance in knowledge and ability to dispense the truth of Christ, made them identical to spiritual infants, who need to be repeatedly taught about the elementary truths of Christ, for like ordinary babies they need milk and can only be given milk rather than solid food.

Note that in the background, is the implication that at worst they are not really Christians, but are really like the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness. This of course means that they are drifting away from acting in faith, as they had been taught.

Clearly, anything that is living must grow or else it will die. It is also evident that when one encounters stunted growth in the body of Christ, this should be a cause for great alarm.

Led us look at some issues.

First, we are told that age alone does not produce maturity. It is a tragedy, when people who have been believers for many years still are dominated by the things of the flesh, such as jealousy, bad temper and so on, never growing to maturity. They are simply marking time, suffering from prolonged adolescence.

One writer illustrates this sadly common condition using an example in the world.

“ I read recently of a principal in a high school who had an administrative post to fill. He promoted one of his teachers with 10 years of teaching experience to the job. When the announcement was made, another teacher in this school came to him terribly upset. She said, “Why did you put that teacher in this position? He has only had 10 years of experience, and I have had 25 years, yet you passed me over in favour of him.” And the principal said, “ I am sorry, you're wrong. You haven't had 25 years of experience. You have had one year's experience 25 times.”

Unfortunately many Christians come to church and sit and listen for a long time, not growing and not realizing that time and age alone will never cure immaturity.

Second, when believers are immature, their immaturity is self- identifying, for there are marks which indicate that the person belongs in this classification of immaturity. Verse 13 deals with this.

Verse 13. The immature person, the infant, the baby, can understand only the simple, basic, but nevertheless still important matters of doctrine. They still struggle with problems that they should long have overcome and therefore can hardly help anyone who needs to be shown, that Christ is the only refuge in the storm.

They, the babies, do not understand “ the word of righteousness”, that is the divine program of God, where the righteousness of God is revealed, as Romans 1:17 puts it, from faith to faith. This divine program includes the first or fundamental principles as well as the deeper doctrines of God. Increased understanding of this divine righteousness will result in right conduct, a total dependence on the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 14. The next group of people, those who can eat strong meat, stands in opposition to those believers who are unable to discern good from evil.

Remember that an important mark of the babies, is that they cannot distinguish between good and evil, and therefore will not generally show wise and wholesome conduct. The babies will often look on evil and call it good, simply because it looks good.

They will be blown about with every wind of doctrine, and follow every fad, because they cannot distinguish between good and bad doctrine.

They will be moved by every skilfully motion that appeals, judge things by their emotional content, and cannot uncritically evaluate appeals. They will be afraid of confronting the truth about certain popular and attractive religious personalities, because they are frightened of them or want to bask in their glory. They cannot distinguish between the flesh with its exhibitionism and egotism, from true manifestations of the Spirit. They will often support what God condemns and be against what God approves.

Those that eat solid meat however, are mature, moving on in the word to perfection or maturity. Note that Paul does not teach sinless perfection. Neither do the other apostles. In Philippians 3 Paul tells us clearly that he moves forward, because he has not yet attained the perfect understanding of God.

This maturity is not simply a matter of age, but it is rather produced by practice, that is, constant use. As believers continue to fight the battles around them, their spiritual senses develop as they follow God and his truths are revealed to them more and more. Their hearing becomes sharper and their understanding becomes deeper, as they continue to fight under the leadership and direction of God.

Immaturity continues therefore, because there is no willingness to obey what has been learned. Every believer must move on to be able to teach others, witness to others, and disciple others. They must become more and more capable; to bring hope to others and to encourage those to whom they witness to move forward.

This clearly teaches that the vast bulk of the work of God is not to be left to Pastors, Deacons, Church officers, evangelists, or Bible teachers. Anyone who teaches that kind of nonsense is not teaching the words of Scripture.

Believers, whether Jewish or Gentile must therefore be careful to avoid certain errors which creep in and affect our faith seriously.

Let us be practical, how can we train ourselves to understand and teach about righteousness? One wise commentator advises that the steps are the same in any age:

“1. Begin with truth you already know but have not been obeying. Does God want you to stop some activity you know to be wrong? Does Scripture exhort you to change your attitude, forgive someone, reach out with help to another? No further light will be given until you begin to obey the light you already have.

2. Review the promises of God for help from on high to obey his word, for example, Hebrews 2:18, 4:14-16; 2 Timothy 2:7.

3. Claim those promises for yourself, do whatever you need to do, and count on God's grace to see you through the consequences.

4. Follow this procedure whenever you become aware of areas of your life and thinking that need to be changed. This is the constant use which will enable one to grow and to handle the solid food of the teaching about righteousness. Paul, in Ephesians 4:14 says,

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”

CHAPTER 6

Verse 1-2. Therefore, since people should not be babies, they should advance beyond the fundamental or elementary principles of God, that is, they must move beyond baby talk. They must go beyond the basics.

Some of course would like to trick people into believing that worshiping God on the 7th day Sabbath, which they erroneously call the Jewish Sabbath, is an elementary principle, beyond which believers should move. They try to insinuate, and some even openly and bluntly express the false idea that the God ordained worship on the 7th day Sabbath as part of Jewish tradition, linking this worship in every extent to the many foolish traditions and legalisms that the Jews had built up around the Sabbath. They throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But this Gentile justification of deviation is clearly seen, because the 7th day Sabbath was instituted at the dawn of creation, when there was no Jew or Gentile, and Scripture tells us that when Jesus returns, 7th day Sabbath worship will be strictly maintained under his direct supervision, when He and the Saints rule on earth with a rod of iron.

This God-ordained worship day was never voided or suspended. We encourage believers to worship on the day that God has established, always remembering that he is first Creator, the only Creator, and then the Redeemer. He will be pleased with us, understanding that this Sabbath day stands as the emblem of who He is and what He has done for us, and prefigures our moving to the eternal rest of God.

This emphasizes that He is the one who has done it all for us, that we are his creatures, and that we must depend on him, his grace, and his righteousness, and always remember that salvation is of Him, and Him alone.

We are encourage to move on in our learning, go toward maturity and build on the building blocks, or elementary principles.

These principle are essentially given in three pairs:

-repentance and faith to together

-baptism and laying on of hands go together, and

-the resurrection of the dead and internal judgment are paired.

These practices in the early Church were of course important, for they are essential to Christian life. But these are really foundational.

We begin by talking about repentance and faith to new believers. They cannot be denied, neglected, or forgotten, for they are basic and essential elements of the gospel. No believer can go past or around them, for without them, repentance and faith, one is not a believer. Jesus and the Apostles preached that people must repent and believe.

To repent is to change one’s mind permanently, to stop trusting in the things that lead to death or in the useless acts and creations of men, which they have created for themselves. One must follow only those things that God himself created and set-up. Anything else is really an attempt to obtain favour from God, by following lifeless codes of behaviour, which are nothing but fantasies.

Repentance means turning from lifeless works. Then the person must positively turn to God. One writer says that Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.

After this come ‘the things’ in the middle. There was baptism, or acts of ritual purity practiced by the Jews and early Christians, and then the popular practice of laying on of hands for ordaining or commissioning. These identify the new believer and tie them to the visible body of Christ.

But these are matters of milk, for they by themselves, cannot take the believer on to full maturity or growth in the Christian life. These important matters about conversion and the church ordinances are the foundation.

After those we tell people about the importance of the resurrection and eternal judgment, for those important truths are critical but basic. These doctrines were important in Judaism as well as to Christianity. The Old Testament Scriptures in many places speak about the judgment to come and that the Son of Man will approach the Ancient of Days to receive authority to judge.

It was never intended however, that people should keep repeating those matters, and concentrate on questions about the Rapture, the Antichrist, and so on.

Believers would have to learn to identify Jesus as the one that the Scriptures spoke about, the One who would come with full authority to judge. They would have to learn that He is the one spoken of by the Prophets, and would therefore commit themselves totally to him, learning more about Him, not sitting still and placing themselves in danger of losing what they had. They really should be learning about the wonders of the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ and what that entailed, so that they would have a vital and enthusiastic Christian life. So should we.

We do believers a disservice, when we continue to preach over and over on those elementary truths as the sole topics on which we dwell. Laying down the foundation, the same foundation over and over again leads to week believers, for all they are doing is feeding on milk. They unfortunately come to believe that, that is all there is to the doctrine and program of God. This is a dangerous position in which to put people.

Believers should already know these teachings. What they need is to go on to apply the Scriptures to their lives and learn more and more about God.

The Jewish Christians faced the subtle temptation to slip back into a watered down Christianity, and to accept again the incomplete and speculative teachings of the many Jewish groups then existing. They would again become involved in accepting the traditions of men.

We nowadays face the subtle temptation of accepting a watered down Christianity, which fits neatly into the ways of the world, and which certainly resembles the world and the flesh more than the things of the spirit. In that religion, the things of the world are craved for, and there is comfort and luxury, but no suffering, no Cross, no growth in knowledge, no ability to teach, no dramatic change in personality and behaviour, no mind of Christ and no heart of the servant.

Verse 3. Now we are told that growing in truth is something that all believers must do, if God permits.

Why would we be told “if God permits”?

Let us remember that the Israelites who did not believe nevertheless wanted to go in to claim what God did not permit, because they did not believe. God had become angry with them and they had to wander in the wilderness until they died.

Believers must therefore remember that they are completely dependent on God. And it is only at the pleasure of God, that we can press on to maturity. We do what we do, only on the terms that God has laid down. There can be no disobedience and no unbelief. God will not accept that.

This warning is an extremely strong warning, and believers must never seek to establish their own righteousness, for it will not work. Here is introduced a passage that most people do not like to think about, for it is a most sobering passage, and elaborates on a most awful possibility.

This passage has one of the most hotly debated topics, and because so many take it out of context to condemn others, some consider it one of the Devil's favourite passages.

Verses 4-8. The text now deals with people who cannot be made right with God. It reminds us of Jesus’ very disturbing teaching that a word spoken against the Son of God could be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would never be forgiven. See Matthew 12:31 to 32.

It is said that it is impossible to restore to repentance people who have experienced certain blessings, and have yet fallen away. It is not just difficult to restore that person, but there is no possibility of restoration. The word “impossible” is emphatic.

Note that the word “impossible” is an extremely strong word. Hebrews uses the word “impossible” elsewhere, saying that it is “impossible” for God to lie (6:18), it is “impossible” for the blood of bull and goats to take away sin (10:4), and without faith it is “impossible” to please God. (11:6)

Coming shortly after this statement that God had sworn that some would “never” enter his rest, that there is perilous danger in prolonged immaturity, and that we mature “if” God permits, this is certainly a troubling statement.

We ask ourselves how can people experience all those great and impressive blessings that are listed and not be actual Christians! And if someone is a Christian, how can he fall away without any hope of restoration?

All these people clearly are associated with God closely. These are not people who oppose Christianity but don't understand it, those that do not appear to have investigated Christianity, or even those who have been exposed to a caricature of Christianity, or to a false Christ.

The definition is clear:

They have once been enlightened. Their eyes had been owned to their lostness and need of a saviour.
They had tasted the heavily gift, which is obviously a gift God gave from heaven. Some feel that this is an initial experience and not a “full meal”. But they have clearly encountered Christ personally.
They have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, which is more than being influenced by the Holy Spirit, for the term implies fellowship and interaction and companionship.
They have tasted the goodness of the word of God, which indicates that they have entered the joy and promises of God.
They have experienced “the powers of the age to come”, a term which describes God's supernatural power. They obviously have experienced the miracle of deliverance in their life.

Still, with all that, it is said that their case is hopeless when, not if, they commit apostasy. It is difficult to see how someone with those kind of credentials, who can display some fruit of the Spirit, who have had impressive spiritual experiences, can be a non-Christian, not counted among the elect of God.

Commentators are divided on this issue.

The Calvinists say that these people, no matter how impressively the phrases describe them, are not truly regenerated Christians, for if they were, they could never fall away.

The Arminians say that the phrases describe accurately a true Christian, and therefore clearly teach that regeneration can be lost after it has been obtained.

Some like the Montanists and the Novatianists taught that after baptism, significant sins would remove the possibility of restoration.

Others explain the passage by saying it is a hypothetical warning. It probably would never happen but it is nevertheless good to warn people this way. It is simply urging new Christians to go further in understanding their fellowship with Christ.

Others think that the penalty deals only with rewards, not with salvation itself. In this case it is repentance that is impossible, not salvation.

It will help us to understand that the church of the Hebrew Christians was really a mixed group, with some genuine believers that needed encouragement to go on learning, some that professed faith but gave no evidence of regeneration, while some were clearly growing to maturity. Since no one could know for sure who were true believers, the warning would be made in a general way, so that all could search themselves.

When we look at the expressions of description we note several things.

Understanding, knowledge or enlightenment comes at one point in time. It is one event. Understanding is needed for faith but even if there is understanding, it does not mean that saving faith is present. A person can therefore know quite a bit, but not have saving faith.

Second, it is still true that one can taste the blessings of Jesus but yet not have personal commitment to him. In Philippians 3:17-19, the Apostle Paul warned those who had become enemies of the cross of Christ. The Apostle John in 1 John 2:19 spoke of those that had been with them but had gone out from among them, proving that they had never been really with them.

Third, we also know that Judas spent three years with Jesus, ministering with him, was sent out with the Twelve, given power to heal, to cast out demons, and to preach the gospel.

Many therefore share in the Holy Spirit, do great things in the company of others, have hands laid on them, work in ministries, but who have never really arrived. They, like the Israelites in the wilderness, saw the miracles of supply from God, witnessed the miraculous, but were still not in the faith of obedience. Like Judas, they might never have really received salvation, and might have in their hearts resisted personal conversion, at last turning away from eternal life.

Like Simon Magus in Acts 8:9-24, we can see the convincing proofs, be baptized, but fall short of saving faith, and be still a captive to sin.

Verse 6 describes those that fall away, and note that this is very different from failing, they actually put themselves in a position of crucifying Jesus all over again. If they were able to, they would physically crucify Jesus again. Their rejection of him has now turned to hatred. They become enemies of the Cross of Christ. They actively resist and will corrupt others, participating in destructive things, such as Judas and Simon Magus did. They now will begin to put Jesus to open shame. It is not just a matter of private intellectual unbelief. The unbelief inevitably leads them to a determination to do things in their own rebellious way.

Clearly then, even if God wanted to renew them, he would have no way of doing that, for there is no way that he has revealed that could lead them to see the beauty in the Cross of Christ. They have already known of his love, his humiliation, and his exaltation. There is nothing that can persuade them. They had come extremely close, and had rejected all his offers. There is nothing more for them to see.

Verse 7. The picture of rain coming to the soil, is here used to illustrate the true position in the hearts of some people. We are pointed to two pieces of land with each getting good seed and good rain. One piece of land brings forth good fruit, but the other brings forth thorns and thistles. There is no point in doing anything else but burning, to produce from that piece of land. One writer explains what this means:

“ Verses 7-8 illustrate the situation exactly. The rain that falls from heaven corresponds to the enlightening blessings of verses 4 to 5. If the seed of the word of God is truly present in the soil (the hearts of men and women), the rain causes fruitful crops to grow, fulfilling the blessings intended by God. But where the word of truth, though heard, has been rejected, the rain can only quicken that which is already in the soil, (thorns and thistles), and continued rain will only make matters worse, not better. Such fruitless land will merit the ultimate cursing of God and be finally given over to burning. Such a scenario parallels the condition Jesus describes of certain branches of the true vine which do not abide in him, and are therefore cut off and gathered into the fire and burned. (1 John 15:2,6).” See also Isaiah 5:1-7.

Still, Christians should be careful that Satan does not to raise unwarranted fears in making them think that they have committed the unforgettable sin. Simply remember what one writer said:

“ There have been times in my own life when I feared I had committed the unforgivable sin. Perhaps you, too, in times of weakness when you felt depressed and abandoned and have felt that you would never be able to find God again-that he wanted nothing to do with you. Satan is capable of raising those kinds of fears in us. But it is extremely important to remember that anybody who regrets his sin, and fears he has lost his relationship with God, has the most certain evidence that he is not in that condition. The very fact that he feels pain over his perceived loss of his relationship with God is the best evidence imaginable that he still loves God! But the people under discussion here put shame to open shame and delight in doing so. As long as there is any note of sorrow of loss or longing for Christ left in us, no matter how grievous with see our sin to be, then we are not in the condition described here. We are depressed, perhaps under attack certainly, but we are not in the category of those who cannot be renewed to faith. The very concern we have to know him is the surest evidence that we are renewable-that we can be made right with God.”

Verse 9. The writer of Hebrews now encouraged his Jewish Christian readers, declaring that he is confident that they will persevere and continue in Jesus. He believes that they are saved. He has seen evidence of God in their lives. But it was still required, given their situation, that he present the truth bluntly to them to stop their drifting, and to prevent them from developing the perilous hardening of the heart.

Verse 10-12. The writer repeats the words found everywhere in Scripture, namely, that God is always faithful and will treat all his servants with all the mercy and grace that is required to keep them. God cannot forget his people, and what they have done. It is His promises, not our works that will keep us. He simply wants a life of active obedience.

He has seen their acts of love to the saints, and this has pleased Him. They have been great ambassadors for God.

He encouraged them to press on, and not be sluggish. God cannot fail and will keep his promise, and therefore they should be diligent, and persevere to the end, knowing that the coming of Christ was sure.

They should be imitators of those who were pressing forward, and who would inherit the promises. Patience and endurance was to be prized. There was to be no uncertainty, no troubling doubt, but an earnest, fervent hunger to learn, to do and to stick with it.

CONCLUSION

Let us examine ourselves. Let us stop being babies, dabbing with Christianity and refusing to grow. Let us move away from the doorway and go deeper into the dwelling place of God.

Christians must grow, and if we do not this should become a matter of great concern. When we refuse to grow, we will be automatically pulled down into the world to become filled with worldliness, a contrary state to godliness.

The text therefore calls on us to Wake up and get serious, to begin to practice what we know, to work and to show that we are indeed sons and daughters of God.

Sluggishness is not a good thing. We should never be discouraged for God's promises are reliable. Our great High Priest is always with us.

God has taught us many things and we must hold fast to those teachings. The truths we have learned are true and will inevitably lead us to eternal life. So let us stop drifting and instead concentrate on learning more and going forward, not neglecting the basic elementary truths, but learning and experiencing more and more of God's revelation.