The Tragedy of Rejecting Full Revelation, Part 2
Hebrews 6:1-8
Turn your Bibles to chapter 5 of the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 5. Dealing with this particular passage is somewhat difficult, and I'm going to perhaps take a hint. Every one of us that have gathered for prayer in recent days and praying about our Sunday evening series, all of those who've been praying about it have been asking the Lord to give me wisdom when to quit...so that I don't give too much material, and so we'll trust the Lord'll answer their prayers. However, if I do go long, it's that the Lord said no...
The issue in the passage that we're considering, Hebrews 5:10 through 6:12, is the issue of spiritual maturity. This is the third parenthetical warning in the Book of Hebrews given in very specific terms to a group who have intellectually responded to the Gospel, who have, on the outside, made a profession of faith in Christ, but who are not real believers...They know the truth. They believe it. They even follow some of the patterns of Christians, but they aren't for real; and they are warned periodically through the Book of Hebrews that they better be for real lest having heard the Gospel so much and become so familiar with it, they find themselves falling away into an evil heart of unbelief, and it is impossible for them to be saved.
Now, the question in Hebrews 5:10 or 11 through 6:12 is not whether one is a Christian, immature or mature, but whether one is a Christian or not a Christian. In other words, the issue is when talking about a babe or a mature person, the issue of whether one is an unbeliever or a believer, the babe referring to an unbeliever, the mature person referring to a believer. We went into that in great detail last time. The babe in this passage is the Jew who hangs onto the ABCs or the elements of Judaism. The mature person is the one who grows up instantly by putting faith in Jesus Christ and accepting the more mature, full revelation of the New Testament.
So the issue here is not simply a contrast between two Christians, not at all; but rather a contrast between Jews who hold onto Judaism with all of its ABCs, baby talk, and basic elements, and the Jew who receives Jesus Christ, moves into the maturity of the new covenant, the full and final revelation. That's the issue.
Now, in this passage, those Jews who are still hanging onto the old covenant and warned that, if they continue to do that, if they stand on the edge of faith in Christ, they've heard it all; they've seen the miracles; they've heard the message; they've got all the information; but they never make the decision. They are in danger of turning around and going back to Judaism and being lost forever. This has special importance to anyone, for that matter, who comes to the edge of a decision in Jesus Christ and plays around with it, never makes it, turns around, and falls away...
Someone mentioned to me this week that perhaps in the message I oughta say something about the fact that people can go to church for years and years and years and hear the Gospel over and over and over again and never really make a commitment to Jesus Christ. That kind of person would definitely fall into the category of those here. One who knows the truth, who's seen it in action, who's heard it preached, who's seen it operate in the lives of people, yet turns around and walks away from Jesus Christ; and that's what always happens to one who's indecisive. He soon turns his back, winds up with an evil heart of unbelief, and departs from the living God.
So it's a serious warning then to them who hear, who know the truth, but who make no response of faith in Christ. Maybe those who go to church, who understand it all, who maybe even believe it, who even pretend to be a part of it, but who never know Christ. Like these Jewish people to whom he writes in Hebrews in these warnings, they have adopted a form without a reality; and there are many people in the church of Jesus Christ who have adopted the form, but have not the reality. Jesus said, "Many will say unto Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and I'll say, 'Depart from Me. I don't know who you are. I never knew you. I have no blood relationship with you.'" So the issue here is just that. He is saying in a parenthetical statement, for the main of Hebrews is written to Christians, but in this parenthetical statement, he is saying to the intellectually convinced who have not really received Christ, "You better come on, lest you fall away and be lost forever."
Now, let's return to our study; and a brief review will start us off; and let's look at the problem. The problem. The problem he deals with is verses 10 to 14, and it's a very simple problem. Verse 10, he wants to talk about the order Melchizedek. Now I'm not gonna talk about that now till we get to chapter 7 when he talks about it; but it's...it's a kind of a view of the priesthood of Christ. Christ being a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now, it's kinda heavy stuff, and he'd like to talk about it, but he says in verse 11, "Of whom...that is Melchizedek...we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered seeing you are dull of hearing. I'd like to talk to you about the priesthood of Christ. I'd like to explain to you about how He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek, but you are dull of hearing."
We talked about the fact that the word means slow, sluggish, or stupid. In other words, "You are spiritually so immature that I can't really open up to you these deep truths. You'll never be able to handle them."...They had become neglectful of the truth they had received, chapter 2 verse 4 says. They had become hard in their heart, chapter 3 verse 15 says; and now they have become sluggish in their thinking. They were in danger, chapter 6 verse 6 says, of falling away and never being able to come to repentance again. Verse 12 says, "For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have become such as have need of milk and not of solid food. You're bab