Believers Move On to Maturity

Transcript

GR 1686
04/21/2013
Believers Move on to Maturity
Hebrews 6:1-3
Gil Rugh

We're going to return to the book of Hebrews, and we've come to a very key section of the book of Hebrews, a section which some identify as probably the most difficult in the book. In fact some commentators say they think it entails some of the most difficult material in the New Testament. We'll work through it and you can make your decision. It's material that God intends us to understand. In fact it is essential for our growth and development.

The writer to the Hebrews is writing to a congregation of Jewish believers. Under pressure, some of these in the congregation are contemplating a return to Judaism, thinking that if I go back to Judaism that will alleviate some of the pressure and persecution. These are those who have been believers for some time. They have a history of enduring trials and difficulties, persecutions and they see more coming. They see something of a shelter in Judaism and the Levitical system. So in this letter some five times the writer gives strong words of exhortation to remind them of the finality of Christ's work which means there is no going back. True believers will persevere and continue on to grow and mature in Christ.

So after introducing the subject of the high priestly ministry of Christ in the opening verses of Hebrews 5, he focuses attention on this word of exhortation and warning that covers Hebrews 5:11-6:12. Then he'll transition back to his discussion about the high priestly ministry of Christ. Verse 11, let me just read the closing verses of this chapter since they flow into Hebrews 6, to remind you. “Concerning Him,” the high priestly ministry of Christ after the order of Melchizedek, concerning that high priestly ministry in Melchizedek, “we have much to say. It is hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing,” sluggish and lack the interest. So it's not a problem with the material, it's a problem with the condition of the listeners.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers.” They have been believers long enough, they should have grown to the point in their understanding; they should be able to explain some of these things to other newer believers. “You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.” We'll be coming back to that phrase in a little bit, the elementary principles of the oracles of God. “You have come to need of milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

So he draws the analogy and comparison from the human realm, with infants and adults. And the infant needs milk. And as they grow and mature they develop the ability to handle solid food, adult food. So it's like that spiritually. When we come to trust Christ and are new in our faith, we are learning new things. But with the passing of time we ought to grow and be able to handle more. Some churches, all they do is go over the basics again and again and again and again and again. There is no growth in that. We have to come to grapple with the things, we say, that is not as interesting, that is not as much fun. But it is absolutely essential.

Now you note how you grow. You feed on the milk and then you are fed more solid food. Verse 14 said, “solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern.” You take in more and more of the solid truth of the Word and concentrate on it, consider it carefully. And thus you grow.

Let me take you to a couple of passages as review, but they will lead into Hebrews 6 where we are going. You'll note Hebrews 6 begins with the word therefore because what he is going to say in these verses in Hebrews 6 builds upon what these verses at the end of Hebrews 5 tell us.

Come back to Ephesians 4. We considered this passage in a previous study. He talks about the gifts of the Spirit in verse 11, that were given as a result of the death and resurrection of Christ, given to communicate God's truth to God's people. “To equip us,” verse 12, “as saints,” those set apart by God for Himself “for the work of serving to the building up of the body of Christ.” And there is God's plan for His church. We are taught God's truth to nourish and nurture us, to develop into mature Christians so that we can be exercising the various gifts God has given us, which those gifts working together cause the body as a whole to develop to maturity. So we will be a mature church, nourished in the Word.

As a result of becoming mature, verse 14 says, “we are no longer to be children.” Same word we had translated infants back at the end of Hebrews 5, a verse we just looked at. “We are no longer to be infants, children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and deceitful scheming.” So you see what the characteristic of an immature believer is. It's like a little child and when they are very young you watch them carefully. You just don't let them go out and play, you warn your children, don't talk to strangers, don't get into a car with strangers and so on. They are vulnerable, they are easily deceived. Here is some candy for you, little boy, little girl. Come here, I'll give you some more. They can be tricked.

So with God's children if they are nourished and nurtured and matured in the Word, every time new teaching comes down the road they are jumping after it. It is somewhat characteristic of the evangelical world today. Always something new. People say, that sounds good, that looks good. The lack of discernment has dire consequences, we are led astray from the truth. How do you develop the discernment? You are nurtured in the Word, you apply yourself, you function, you grow.

Come back to 2 Timothy 2. This is Paul's last letter. He is anticipating soon execution. He writes to challenge Timothy, to impress upon him the seriousness of the ministry that will be left to him and others like him. And you'll note what he says in verse 15, “be diligent.” A very strong command, aorist imperative. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God.” What does it mean to be approved to God? Get God's approval. You are a “workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth.” This is God's Word, this is God's truth. It is not something to be dealt with lightly, to be played with, that superficial understanding of it, able to throw out a verse here and there is adequate. To be approved by God you must be able to “handle accurately His truth.” That gains His approval and that takes diligence, earnestness. You must be diligent, you must be earnest; you must apply yourself with seriousness to this task so you can handle the Word correctly. That's what will enable us to develop and mature and grow. It's the meat of the Word.

Come back to Hebrews. So the solution to their immaturity, their sluggishness, their lack of interest is not just to keep giving them more milk. You have to carry them along, bring them along, give them the sound, solid truth of the Word so they will grow. So when you come into Hebrews 6:1 you have that word “therefore,” building on what he has just said. And the basic exhortation in these opening three verses that we are going to look is in the middle of verse 1—“let us press on to maturity.” Mark that, underline it, highlight it, circle it. That's the basic exhortation. You'll note verses 1-2 in English as well as in Greek are one sentence. And there is the leading verb. We press on to maturity. And then he will modify, elaborate and explain that exhortation.

Now that's encouraging. You might get the idea from verse 11-14 at the end of Hebrews 5 that their situation is hopeless. You are stuck in infancy and you are not able to handle the more serious truth of the Word, particularly regarding the high priestly ministry of Christ. So I guess we'll just go back and keep repeating the basics. No, we're going on. And he says, we. “Let us press on to maturity.” Includes himself. Why? Because even though the writer is further along than those he is writing to, that's evident by what he writes, he still hasn't arrived at perfection in the final sense. We looked in a previous study at Philippians 3. Paul says, “I don't count myself,” if I can summarize it, paraphrase it, “as having arrived at complete perfection. But I press on.” I am in the relentless pursuit of the completeness that I must have in Christ, realizing that that will only be finally realized when we are glorified in His glorious presence.

So he includes himself here. He is continuing to grow. But he wants to bring the readers along with him. “Let us together press on to maturity.” If you are a believer in Christ, you can't stay in infancy. And how are we going to go on? We've going to leave behind certain things and we will recognize we have to take in the truth that God has revealed. Let us press on to maturity.

There are two participial phrases. Don't you love grammar? No, probably not. I never did either, but participial phrases are phrases that have participles. That's helpful. In English our participles are usually identified by having “ing” on the end. So we have here leaving the elementary principles. Then after the word maturity “not laying again.” And these are translations of Greek participles. So the first part of pressing on to maturity is leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ. Now I want you to note something here, a change. We have leaving as though that's a present tense. But in Greek that is an aorist participle. And aorist participle refers usually to things that happened in the past. And so in relation to the verb here, having left would give you more the idea here. Having left the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on. Because he is writing to them as believers. And as believers they indeed have left the elementary teaching about the Christ. That elementary teaching, we'll see more about it in a moment, it refers to the Old Testament, particularly the Law and in particular the Levitical system which is at the heart of the Mosaic Law.

“Having left the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.” The other participial phrase. It's in the present tense. “Not laying again a foundation.” So we have left the elementary teaching, we're going to press on to maturity not laying again a foundation. There are three phrases that we want to connect together. I think they are all identifying the same thing. Back in Hebrews 5:12, I told you we would come back to this, “you need someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.” The elementary principles of the oracles of God are the same thing as we have in verse 1, talking about the same thing as “leaving the elementary teaching.” Now the word translated elementary is not the same, I'll say more about that in a moment. Those two things are the same thing with different words as not laying again a foundation. So he says the same thing in three different ways. In Hebrews 5:12, “you need to be taught again the elementary principles.” There is that word elementary, stoikaya, meant the ABCs, the basic things, the foundational things. We noted it referred to the Old Testament system, the old covenant, the Mosaic Law, the things associated with it. In Hebrews 6:1, “having left the elementary teaching.” In your margin you probably have literally the word of the beginning. So that's a literal translation, I wish they had done that instead of putting the word elementary in it again in English, because that tends to make you think it may be the same word. It's not the same word but it's carrying the same idea—having left the beginning of the word of the Christ, the word of the beginning of the Christ. In other words that beginning word or teaching about Christ, that's found back in the Old Testament. That's the same thing as not laying again a foundation. Where do you go for the foundation? Back to the old covenant, the Mosaic system.

So all these things here that he is referring to that are ABCs, that are the beginning of the teaching about Christ, that were foundational were from the Old Testament system. And these Jews have lost perspective and understanding. And we keep talking about progressive revelation. Progressive revelation is God has revealed over time more and more of His person and His will. So for example through the first part of our Bible we have revelation, we have the book of Genesis. During that time period you did not have a Levitical priesthood, you did not have a formal priesthood at all. Men offered their own sacrifices, often representing their family. Job would fit into that period of time. What did Job do? He acted as the priest for his family, he offered sacrifice on behalf of his children in case they sinned.

But you understand after the Law is given in the book of Exodus, a father couldn't offer the sacrifice acting as the priest for his children. He would be rejected by God because God had established a specific priesthood of the tribe of Levi in the order of Aaron. So this person after the Law has been given and the Levitical priesthood was established, he couldn't say, I'm going to do as Job would have done or Abraham would have done or one of the forefathers. I'm going to act as my own priest on behalf of my family. If he did that, it would be an act of rebellion, evidence of an unbelieving heart. You would be rejected and condemned by God. Why? God had given additional revelation. There is something to be learned from the prior revelation, that a priest is needed, someone to offer a sacrifice on your behalf to represent you before God. But now God has established the formal order of priests. Some people still don't understand that today. They are trying to carry on family ministries and act like the father of the family is the priest of the family like Job was. I say this with love and kindness—they are idiots. How far from the truth can you get? You cannot go back. They are not only going back to what was revealed in the Law, they're going back to what was revealed before the Law as though you can just ignore what God has revealed in between.

All that to say the Law was given, the Levitical priesthood was given. Then Christ came, His finished work on the cross accomplished, He died, was resurrected, ascended to heaven. The high priestly ministry of Christ has accomplished what no earthly priesthood, even the one established by God at a prior time through Aaron, now is non-operative. It is done. The sacrifices associated with that priesthood are done, they can no longer be considered acceptable before God. There is one high priest. Remember we talk about the Law was a schoolmaster given to Israel to oversee them until Christ came. With the coming of Christ it is done. These Jews need to understand going back is not an option. And if you think you can, you don't understand the finished work of Christ and he will go in our next study to consider if you do go back, you never understood and believed in the finished work of the only high priest there is. And you are placing yourself under eternal condemnation. So understanding the order and plan.

He is going to list six things now that are characteristic of the foundation that he mentions. “Not laying again a foundation,” which would be the same thing as the beginning of the word of the Messiah, which would be the same thing as Hebrews 5:12, the elementary, the ABCs, the beginning of the oracles of God. Where do you go for the beginning of God's revelation? You go to the Old Testament. Where do you go to find out in detail about the need for a priest? A need for specific sacrifices? Some way to be cleansed? You go to the Law, you go to the Levitical system. That's foundational. But we've left that all behind. That doesn't mean it was wrong, doesn't mean there is nothing to be learned from it. It does mean it is not operational now and we are not living under it. And you cannot place yourself under it, thinking you can still be accepted by God by going back to a prior time any more than a Jew after the Law had been given and the Levitical priesthood established could say, I'm going to function like Abraham or Job did. That would be an evidence of unbelief, of the rejection of God's revelation.

All right there are six items, and we are going to look at them. I think they are all connected to the Old Testament, and particularly the Levitical system as unfolded in the Old Testament. There are six items, they can be taken in three pairs. We're going to go through them one by one but you'll see, let me just note how they also connect. We begin at the end of verse 1, “repentance from dead works.” That's #1. #2, second item, “and of faith toward God.” You'll note the connection of the conjunction kai there, joins the two. So these can be taken as three pairs. There are six items but they seem to be arranged in three pairs. And repentance and faith go together as will instructions about “washings,” #3, and “laying on of hands” be connected together. And then the fifth item and the sixth item, “resurrection of the dead” and “eternal judgment” connected together. So six items, three pairs, they are all part of the foundation, the beginning that you would find given in the old covenant.

All right let's pick up with repentance from dead works, repentance from dead works. Dead works are the works that lead to death. This particular expression, dead works, only used one other time in the New Testament, it's over in Hebrews 9:13. “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh.” So there was provision under the old covenant and the rules and laws given there and the sacrificial system associated with that priesthood given there that provided for the cleansing of the people. If those sacrifices provided cleansing of the flesh, note verse 14, “how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from the dead works,” there is that expression dead works, “to serve the living God.” So if the Jews could experience salvation from works that only led to death by following God's instruction through observing the requirements under the Levitical system, which were all external things, how much more can the finished work of Christ provide true heart cleansing from dead works? So the dead works here are not particularly referring to the Mosaic Law, they are referring to the works that under the Mosaic Law, the works that people did, could be provided for. And they would come and bring their sacrifices. What does that indicate? It was to indicate repentance. I recognize my sin and my guilt, I want to turn from that sin and experience the cleansing that God will give me from the dead works I have done, the kind of conduct, behavior and so on that could only lead to death, that God has made provision for, in verses 13-14 .

So when you come back to Hebrews 6, repentance from dead works, talking about something that was familiar in the Old Testament. How did John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets come on the scene in the gospels? Proclaiming what? “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Jews didn't say, I wonder what he is talking about. They understood repentance, they understood the need to turn from sin and experience cleansing from God. Jesus Himself taught, Luke 13:3,5, “unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Now remember Jesus was living under the Law, the Law continues in operation until the death and resurrection of Christ and then the establishing of the church in Acts 2. Repent. That was part of the Old Testament system. They acknowledged God is right, I am a sinner, there is not a just man upon the earth, a righteous man who does good and never sins. They recognized the reality of their sin and guilt. And that's why they would come and bow before God and bring the sacrifice that He required to experience His cleansing.

The second item here that is connected to this first one, repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Repentance is turning from sin, if you will, and faith is trusting in God, turning to God. Not enough to just turn away from our sin, you must turn and place your faith in God. These two things go together. It's not like repentance is a work. Jesus wasn't telling people unless you repent you will all likewise perish, so good works can get you to heaven. True heart repentance is a recognition of the sin and guilt of the person before a holy God. It involves a turning from that sin and placing your faith in Him and the revelation He has given. That's why John the Baptist told the religious leaders of his day, unless you bring fruits that demonstrate true heart repentance, I won't baptize you because a heart that has turned from its sin will have placed his faith in God. There will be a change in life. You find that in the Old Testament, you find that even before the Law was given, back in Genesis 15 already where we are told concerning Abraham that he believed God and God credited it to him for righteousness.

So the whole Levitical system then as it was codified in the Law given to Moses was to be a manifestation of the recognition of sin and its guilt, turning from that to place your faith in God and thus do what God said He would accept what is offered with a repentant heart of faith to bring you cleansing. Now true, some of these things are going to carry over. That message of repentance and faith continues into the New Testament and is developed more fully and clearly for us to understand. But the beginning of that goes back to the Old Testament, the old covenant and the provisions God had made.

Look back in Hebrews 3, we've been here for our study in Hebrews. He shows that the problem in the Old Testament was that the Jews didn't do what God said, they wouldn't turn from their sin, they wouldn't believe in God. So even though they might continue to do certain things, they weren't repentant, they weren't truly believing. So the writer to the Hebrews has warned these Jews in verse 12, “take care, brethren, that there may not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” And you see he has quoted from verses 7-11 preceding that from the Old Testament. A word of warning, don't follow the pattern that those who lived under the old covenant, the old system did. They turned away from God, they weren't repentant, they didn't have a heart of faith.

Come down to Hebrews 4:2, “for indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” So God had revealed Himself but they chose not to believe that revelation. You see repentance and faith go together because there was no change, there was no turning, there was no coming to a different way of thinking. What God has said about me is true, I am a sinner, I am guilty. I want to trust Him and respond in obedience to what He says I must do to experience His cleansing. They didn't, they were disobedient. They were in unbelief.

Come back to Hebrews 6. These first, repentance and faith toward God, we go back to the Old Testament and find the beginning word of that, the foundation, the ABCs. You don't get the full development until you get to the New Testament, but we learn certain things about it.

The third thing mentioned is the beginning of verse 2, “instruction about washings,” instruction about washings. There was some confusion here because the King James translated this word translated washings as baptisms. And it's a similar word. The word used here is baptismos, you hear the word baptis mos, the end of that is os as we would have it. That's not the word for baptism, like the baptism of John or Christian baptism. That word is baptisma. So even though it is very similar, it is different. This word is never used of baptism like John did or Christian baptism in the New Testament. So the translated washings gives you the idea. It's only used two other times in the New Testament in addition to this verse in Hebrews. And another reason it is not referring to Christian baptism is it's used in the plural. And we talk about the baptism of John or baptism of Christians, it's always in the singular.

Turn over to Hebrews 9, see another use of this word. Look at verse 10, and he's talking about here the gifts and sacrifices and offerings made under the Old Testament, the Levitical system. Verse 10, “since they relate only to food and drink and various washings.” You see he is talking about the Old Testament, there were various washings that had to go on. If you had been defiled in a certain way, you had to wash yourself according to certain instructions, certain utensils. If they had come in contact with something, they had to be washed and cleansed, symbolizing the requirement that God requires purity in His people, separation from defilement. And the only other use of this particular word translated washings is in Mark 7:4, and you'll find it's another Jewish context, He's talking about Jewish washings of certain items and so on.

What he is doing here back in Hebrews 6:2, he's referring to the ceremonial washings that were characteristic of the Levitical system. We're not going to go back and look at those, if you go back in the Law in Exodus 30:18-19, just as an example. Numbers 19. And if you are familiar at all with the Old Testament Law, the various washings that were instructed and how they were to be carried out and so on. They were all to symbolize God requires holiness of His people, be separate. So we have the quote, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, God said, “come out from among them and be ye separate, says the Lord.” He says they are to be a separate people for Him. So they indicate you are to be undefiled, you are to live holy, separated lives. They are instructed, “you shall be holy for I am holy,” separated from sin and defilement. So these washings, they in themselves couldn't cleanse a heart, but they could be the foundation and the ABCs for preparing the people to understand and appreciate it. To be accepted before a holy God they will have to experience holiness, freedom from defilement. And God prepared them when He prophesied the coming new covenant. In Ezekiel 36:25 He said, “then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.” And that's in the context where He promises to give them a new heart. You see these ceremonial washings that only could touch the external, I mean, you can't get in and wash a heart with physical water. But it could remind the people and prepare them for the coming of the One who would provide inner cleansing, freedom from defilement and the holiness that would enable one to be acceptable before God.

Connected to that in Hebrews 6:2 is the laying on of hands. And it's part of the whole ceremonial system of the Law. And when we're talking about the Law we're particularly talking about the Levitical provisions of it, but it's all filled with this. It's part of the offering of sacrifices. Laying on of hands, what did they do? They brought the animal that was going to be slaughtered and the person who was bringing it laid his hand on the head of that animal. What was that indicating? This animal is being offered in my place. God had said, “the soul that sins shall die.” I deserve to die, there is not a righteous man upon the face of the earth who continually does good and never sins. I deserve to die, I'm offering this animal because I recognize my sin. I truly have turned from it, I am trusting God and He said He will accept this as a substitute for me. So you have the laying on of hands in Leviticus 1, Leviticus 3, Leviticus 4. On it goes. Often used to set people apart for ministry and service. All part of that ceremonial action.

So the washings, the laying on of hands, all part of that system. That was part of the beginning like the alphabet is the beginning of learning a language. But you can't stay there, you have to go on and put it together in words, and words in sentences, and sentences in paragraphs, and on we go. That's a foundation.

The fifth item in his list here, “resurrection of the dead.” The Old Testament taught the resurrection of the dead, implicitly and explicitly. For example in Exodus 3 God presents Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those men had been dead for hundreds of years. Jesus in the New Testament said the implication of that statement is He is not the God of the dead, He is the God of the living. How can you Saducees deny the reality of a literal bodily resurrection? So there it implicitly implies.

Come back, you have to look at passage with me, Isaiah 26. There are a number of passages, Job says, even if God would kill him he knew that someday in his flesh he would see God. Indicates a confidence in a bodily resurrection. Look at Isaiah 26:19, God says, “your dead will live, their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust awake and shout for joy for your dew is as the dew of the dawn. And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.” Those who have died, been buried, they are coming back. Promise of bodily resurrection. Daniel 12:2 “promises a coming day when we will have resurrection and some will be resurrected to life and some will be resurrected to condemnation.” Jesus picked up on that in John 5. So we can go back to the Old Testament and look at a variety of passages that directly promise resurrection or imply it.
But you go to the New Testament for the full development and unfolding. If you want to know about the doctrine of the resurrection we'd say, go to 1 Corinthians 15. But it's back there in the Old Testament.

So also eternal judgment, the sixth item mention here. And that connects to resurrection because resurrection is followed by judgment. We'll get to it in Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed unto man once to die. After this comes the judgment.” Eternal judgment. So that would be the third pair if we connect them together—resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. The Old Testament talks about that coming judgment. The book of Daniel anticipates the culminating judgment, the coming of the Son of Man. Isaiah 33, even in Genesis 18. We see “the Judge of all the earth will do right and all will be called before Him for judgment.” It's all back in the Old Testament, that's all back in the beginning.

But you leave all those foundational things, those things which were given in the elementary state. You left them behind. I mean, you go to college, you don't go to class and say, the first thing we are going to do is go over the alphabet and ABCs. Maybe they should, I realize, but they don't. Why? Let's presuppose, we've left that behind. Not in the sense it has no value, not in the sense it is wrong. But we've gone far beyond that as this writer said in Hebrews 5:12, “by this time you ought to be teachers.” And we have the fullness of understanding of God's revelation when we come to the revelation in the Son. Remember how we started Hebrews—“God in past times spoke in a variety of ways through a variety of people. But in these last days has spoken in One who is a Son.” The fullness and completeness and finality of revelation is found in Him. You cannot talk about rejecting that revelation and go back to a prior time.

Now there is something here you'll note in each of these things—repentance from dead works, faith, the need to be cleansed before God, resurrection, eternal judgment. Some of these believing Jews could think, we are not abandoning basic things. In Judaism we believe in repentance from dead works, we believe in faith in God, we believe in the need to be clean and pure before God, we believe in coming resurrection, we believe in the coming judgment. So if we go back to that, we are still safe and saved. That's a trap people fall into today. They look and say, there are a lot of things we agree on with other people. There are a lot of things I agree with on Roman Catholicism. They agree that Christ was virgin born, I do, too; that He was God as well as man, I do, too; that He died on the cross, that He was raised from the dead. All these things, great. It's not what we agree on that is the issue, it's what we disagree on, what is not true. They are operating with a priestly system that is more into the Old Testament Levitical system and yet is not it, it has no Scriptural foundation, which is a denial of the finished high priestly work of Christ. And yet we get Christians who get confused because they are like infants being swept around. And they say, I don't know why we always have to be pointing out what is wrong. So these Jews could think, what is wrong with going back to Judaism? We have all these things, don't you think they are true? Don't you believe in repentance from dead works? Yes. Faith toward God? Yes. The need to be holy? The cleansing? Yes. Resurrection from the dead? Yes. Eternal judgment? Yes. Well, then, I think we could go back to Judaism. He's going to go on.

In our next study we will cover this most challenging of passages. If you go back, you are eternally condemned to hell. That's how serious it is. Understand the seriousness here. Sure there were foundational things established in God's prior revelation. But if you reject the finality of revelation given in His Son, you have rejected His salvation. God hasn't given revelation down through the millennium of time and now we can pick where we will place ourselves in that revelation. And I'm going to choose to remain in Judaism. That's where I was raised, that's where my family is, that's where my friends have been and it doesn't present the difficulties if I go to this day, so I'll be happy here. Not an option, not an option. The seriousness of that will be placed when he considers the alternative, if you don't go on, if you don't proceed from the ABCs, if you haven't left the beginning of the teaching about Christ. If you are trying to lay the foundation again, you have an evil, unbelieving heart, and a refusal to repent. And the consequences of that are dire.

So he says in verse 3, “and this we will do if God permits.” We will move on to maturity, we will bring you along, instruct you. But I recognize the sovereignty of God in this. This becomes a serious matter. As we've seen earlier in Hebrews, these Jews could be in a position like the Old Testament Jews were. But they can make a final decision that will be irrevocable. He realizes this is not in his hands, even as God's spokesman, it is all in God's hands. And the moving on to maturity acknowledges the sovereignty of God in this. Remember we studied the book of James and James said in James 4:15,”those of you who brag about what you are going to do tomorrow, you need to stop, you have a heart of arrogance. You really need to humble yourself before the sovereignty of God and say, tomorrow we will do this, Lord willing. If the Lord wills.” Paul acknowledged this when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16:7. He talks about his plans to come and visit the Corinthians, God permitting. He uses the same expression that we have here in Hebrews. James is different, but carries the same idea. God permitting, He is sovereign in this. And that is serious. It is not a game to be played. This will come out again and again in Hebrews and it's going to come out strongly. Don't think you can play with these things, dabble in them. Yes, I'll do it when . . . You can make a decision here on which there will be no return.

So we are going to go on to maturity and I want you to come with me. And we continue to dig into this. This is where we are going. Some of you may not come along, I want you to know what the consequences of that are. This is black and white, there is no middle ground. People today like to think there is all this some kind of middle area. “Jesus said, if you are not with Me, you are against Me.” You are either a follower of Christ or you are not. Well, I'm in the middle. Well, Jesus said, if you are not with Me, you are against Me. If you are in the middle, that means you are against Him. There are only those who are positively for Him and we have to go on to maturity. Sluggishness, lack of interest, snap out of it. That's what the Scripture says. Well, I just can't do that. Do it. The sovereign God provides the enablement. We are not driven by our feelings, we are driven by the instructions of the Word of God. We are going on to maturity to understand more fully, more deeply, more completely the wonder and magnificence of the finality of the revelation given in Christ. God's only high priest offering the only sacrifice acceptable to Him and it's only through faith in Him and Him alone and the finality of that, that we come to salvation. And then when we do as God's children, we manifest that genuine saving faith by a diligence to continue to dig in, to study, to absorb, to put into practice His truth so that we mature.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. How privileged we are to grow together. Lord, that's our desire as we are in this precious book. We would press on to maturity. Lord, we all can acknowledge how easy it is to become lax, to become dull, sluggish, lose some of that zeal and passion to endure through hardship and difficulty, unpleasantness, opposition, become satisfied with where we are, looking for something new and different. Lord, may these truths grip our heart and may we be filled with a desire, a hunger and a passion to know more about the Savior, the wonders of what He accomplished when He came to this sin-cursed earth and offered Himself as a sacrifice and then ascended to the glory of Your presence, presenting Himself, the One who has done a completed work. We marvel that in Him we find perfection, we find righteousness, we experience Your cleansing and holiness. We praise You in Christ's name, amen.