A Superior Confidence

Good morning again. I want to turn your attention to God's Word. We're going to be in the book of Hebrews. As I told you last week, I'm taking this passage a little out of order from last week. I just swapped two weeks. So today we're in Hebrews 5:11–6:12.

It's our practice often to read God's word aloud together. So if you would join your voices with mine and read aloud what you see on the screen or in your bulletin.

We have a great deal to say about this and it is difficult to explain since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness because he is an infant, but solid food is for the mature, for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in Christ, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the eternal judgment. We will do well if God permits. For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the son of God and holding him up to contempt. For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned. Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints and by continuing to serve them. Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end so that you won't become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance. — Hebrews 5:11–6:12

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The Story of Susan Pevensie

One of the most difficult parts of the children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia, is the story arc of one particular character. Her name is Susan Pevensie. She's crowned a queen of Narnia in the first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and yet in the final book she's not there. What we find out is that she's chosen not to be there. One of the characters asks the other humans about their sister, about Queen Susan. Where is she? What happened to her? This is the conversation that goes on.

My sister Susan, answered Peter shortly and gravely, is no longer a friend of Narnia.

Yes, said Eustace, and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, oh, what wonderful memories you have. Fancy you're still thinking about those funny games we used to play when we were children.

Susan, said Jill, she always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown up.

Grown up indeed, said the Lady Polly. I wish she would grow up. She's wasted all her school time wanting to be the age that she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.

Well, let's not talk about that now, said Peter.

I don't know if you're familiar with these stories, but it's one of the saddest of the storylines of the Narnia series. I remember reading this for the first time and being shocked as a kid. Like, how could this character, having seen everything that she's seen and experienced everything that she's experienced, just sort of turn away and just sort of forget that.

C. S. Lewis wrote these books as a sort of a quasi allegory of the Christian life, and he wrote that very scene based on this very passage. It's sort of a commentary on this question of people who are with and then move on.

Understanding Apostasy

You may not be familiar with this word apostasy, but I know that you know what it means. It means somebody who is in one place and has moved on from that to another place. In relation to the Christian faith, it means someone who used to claim that they believe and has walked away, someone who used to believe in Scripture or the Gospels and say, I'm in, but who no longer is a part of it, who no longer identifies.

While Peter doesn't want to talk about it, we need to. We need to, not just because this comes up in Scripture, but because this comes up in our lives all the time.

So I've got points for you. Here's my outline for today, if you take notes.

A Sincere Warning

First, a sincere warning. Second, a better confidence. And then finally, two urgent calls.

Now, this is a really hard passage of Scripture. Of all that we've read in the book of Hebrews, more ink has been spilled on the verses you read just this morning out loud than any other section of the book of Hebrews. It's really hard. It's about assurance of salvation. How do I know I haven't shipwrecked my faith? What confidence can I have? What if I have recrucified Jesus, as this passage says?

There are good reasons for all those questions. The words here in verses four through six that you just read are some of the scariest in the whole Bible.

It is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of this coming age, and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are re crucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. — Hebrews 6:4-6

Some of you know enough about our Church's doctrine to know that we're a congregation that believes, "Once saved, always saved." The nature of your salvation in Christ is so solid and so certain that nothing can take that away. The question is really appropriate: Is this a real, sincere warning? Is this a fake warning? How are we supposed to understand this? This passage seems to imply you can lose your salvation.

So a couple of things. Time out. How do you interpret the Bible? How do you interpret any part of the Bible? You listen. You make observations. You make sure you understand what genre, what kind of type of literature you're reading. You study the context. It's always easy to take something out of context and make it mean something that it doesn't mean.

My favorite example of this has always been Philippians 4:13, which people use all the time to encourage one another:

I can do all things through him who gives me strength. — Philippians 4:13

That's on refrigerator magnets across the country. It's easy to take that out of context, which in context is about contentment, and try to apply that to things like dunking a basketball, which will never be in my future as a Bradford. We all have a two inch vertical. You can barely move off the ground. God is not going to help me dunk a basketball.

So this key idea of interpreting the Bible is always to let the scriptures interpret the scriptures. Read the context, and then read the rest of Scripture. One of the fascinating things about this very passage is if you turn over one page in your Bible to Hebrews 7:25, this is what we read:

God is able to save completely, or to the utmost, those who come to Christ through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. — Hebrews 7:25

There are so many places like this that you can read. If you struggle with assurance, I want to point you to passages like John 6 and John 10 and the entire book of 1 John—we read a couple of years ago—that talks about the security of the salvation we have.

But do you see how this helps us in our understanding of this section of Hebrews 6? It means that the salvation that Jesus accomplished on the cross for us can never be lost if it's real. If it's real.

But in the Christian life there are things that seem to be real that are not real. You remember the old adage that goes like this? If it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. Okay, three of you knew that. But that doesn't apply to the Christian faith. There are people who look like they're Christians, who can act like and talk like they're believers, and then walk away.

How do we understand that? Some of you are feeling like whiplash. Last week's sermon was about Jesus being the anchor of our soul, and there's such a word of hope for us, such a word of confidence for us, and it feels like we're going back and forth. And if you feel that way, you're in the right place.

The book of Hebrews seems to toggle back and forth between two things: the comfort of the Gospel and the call of the Gospel. Back and forth, comfort, call, comfort, call.

So you hear things like this: Don't drift away. We have a high priest. Don't have a hard, unbelieving heart that turns away. Rest in Jesus. Stay in the rest by remaining with God's people. Jesus is so sympathetic with us in our weaknesses. Don't be lazy. We have an anchor of the soul. Back and forth. Comfort call. Comfort call.

And it tells us, again, Hebrews was not written by a theology professor who's interested in just the theoretical. This is written by a pastor who watched his congregation come and go and is begging them, Stay. Stay with Jesus.

I find that the book of Hebrews does two things. It tends to stir up those who are too comfortable and comfort those who need to be stirred up, back and forth.

And here's the warning, and it's a sincere warning of this passage: Don't confuse a collection that you have of Christian experiences in your past with real, vibrant faith. Don't confuse a collection of experiences that you have in your past, looking back and saying, "See? See? That's plenty," with real and vibrant faith.

Listen again. Here's a person who has all these things in their personal history—whose history, collected experiences, includes being once enlightened, having tasted the heavenly gifts, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age—and yet it's not, over time, proven to be for real.

The Wine Tasting Analogy

Now, if you're confused, I have an analogy for you. Notice how the word "taste" is used twice in this passage. I want you to think about tasting. Some of you are old enough that you have been to a wine tasting before. If you go to a wine tasting at a winery, they have tables set out, and they bring out little tiny cups with wine in them, and there's a bowl in the middle of the table.

I remember going the first time—I'm like, "One of these"—and I'm like, "Why is there a bowl on the table? No flowers in this bowl. What's the bowl for?" Well, the bowl is there because you're supposed to taste the wine and experience it, but not really take it into you. You taste it. You savor it. You try to understand the flavors, and you pour the rest out. You can always tell newbies at a wine tasting. The newbies are the ones who take and drink every little sample. The experts taste, and they pour it out.

The opposite is the case in the Christian life. The opposite is the case in the Christian life. The experts, longtime Christians, are those who regularly drink Jesus to the dregs, who are regularly feeding on Christ—not just tasting Him but taking Him in regularly. But newbies are those who taste and pour out. Newbies—those who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have tasted the gift of salvation, even God's word—and then pour it out. This is a person who's had a little bit, a sip, a taste, a bite, a morsel of God's goodness, His gifts, but not really taking it in all the way.

This is why the warning in this passage is so very intense. If you have understood the Gospel, especially if you've had this experience of being convicted of sin, and you're not moved to repentance, and you're not moved to giving your whole self to Jesus, is there anything left for you to hear that will convince you? That's the point of this passage.

Either Everything or Nothing

See, either the death and resurrection of Jesus means everything to you or means nothing to you. It can't just mean something to you. It can't just be a touching tale or a nice story. There's too much at stake.

Either you experience the Gospel this way: You're so bad that Jesus had to die for you. You're so bad that Jesus was glad to die for you. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Or you reject it. There's nothing really in the middle.

It always makes sense to me when people reject their faith. That makes sense to me. I mean, it's big stuff that we talk about believing in this resurrection from the dead, life of the world to come, a king on the throne—He's going to make all things new, forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit within us—huge things that we claim to believe. But it never makes sense to me when people are casual about Jesus. Take him or leave him.

This is why He says here in this passage that an apathetic response to the Gospel is like someone asking Jesus to be crucified over again. Like, "Wasn't the cross big enough for you? What else do you want Him to do? What else can He do to convince you?" There's nothing more He can do.

A Loving Warning

I know you've had this experience. Many of you before—if you love people, you warn them. Many of you have had a coach in your past or a teacher or a parent who said something that was kind of sharp and hard to hear, and you loved them for it because they warned you. This pastor, if you love, you warn. He said, "Be careful. A collection of history, of experiences with God is not the same thing as vibrant faith."

And yet, he says, "I have a better confidence in you, in your case." Notice how he encourages them even as he warns them.

Even though we're speaking this way, Dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better that pertain to salvation. — Hebrews 6:9

Here's what's so helpful for us this morning. There are many places in Scripture like this. First John is really helpful for this. John 6, John 10—if you're struggling for assurance. But he gives us three tests: How do you know that you're a believer? How do you know that this is for real, not just in a general sense but for me, in my life?

First, this: Are you growing? That's the point of verses seven and eight.

Living things grow, for the ground that drinks the rain and often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God but if it produces thorn or thistles, it's worthless, and about to be cursed at the end will be burned. Really big biology principle? Really simple. Living things grow. Things that are not alive do not grow.

That's why it's so interesting. If you read the Chronicles of Narnia series that C. S. Lewis wrote, the story arc of that character, Susan. Over and over again, the words grow up are attached to Susan. When we first meet her in the very first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, she shames one of her siblings by calling them, "Would you just grow up?" And over and over again, those are the words that are in her mouth.

But here's the point. There is a way to act mature, to grow, and then there's a way to really grow into maturity. There's a way to act grown up that's really not grown up, being concerned with things that are superficial, materialistic, only about how you look to other people on the outside. The point that Lewis is trying to make in those books is to make simply a more simple explanation of what we read here.

Yes, living things grow, but people who are growing in God don't just grow in size or in sophistication or even in knowledge. We are people who grow more to be like Jesus, more and more into the likeness of Christ, more and more maturing in the fruits of the Spirit—love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control.

One more thing that I need to say to Presbyterians. A lot of times when we hear the word grow, we automatically think education, knowing more stuff. But I want you to be warned by this. Presbyterians are really often good at like, "We want to know our theology. We want to know lots of things." That's not maturity as defined here. Maturity, as we see here, they knew lots of things. That was not their problem. They knew lots of basic things like repentance from dead works, faith in God, teachings about ritual washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment. They knew all the stuff.

He's calling them to a maturity that is wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. Wisdom is knowing what is the right thing to do at the right time. Wisdom is knowing how to hear from the Lord and respond. Wisdom is defined here as being able to discern good and bad, right and wrong in different circumstances.

So here's test number one: Are you growing? Are you growing in maturity? Are you growing as a person in wisdom, not in sophistication? Growing more like Jesus, not just education, knowing things about Him. Are you growing?

Test Two: Enduring

Second, are you enduring? Do you remain with the faith? Over and over, one of my favorite passages of Scripture is the Olivet Discourse, John 15. Jesus teaches all in this passage all about the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, but He has this one illustration of the branches and the vine. Over and over He says, One command to them: Abide, remain, stay, endure.

This has been over and over the theme of the book of Hebrews.

If we've come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence to the end. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. My righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and persevere to the end.

Here in Hebrews six:

Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, that you won't become lazy, but we imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

A faith that saves is a faith that endures. A saving faith is a perseverance faith, an abiding, a hanging in there faith. I want you to hear this over and over. Hang on to the one that's hanging on to you. That's really the theme of the book of Hebrews, over and over. Hang on to the one who's hanging on to you. Trust Him.

So test number two, are you remaining? Are you abiding? Are you enduring in your faith?

Test Three: Love for the Church

Finally, third test is this. Do you love the brothers and sisters? Do you love the bride, the body of Christ? For listen, again, verse 10:

For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you've demonstrated for his name by serving the saints, by continuing to serve them.

This is one of the things we see over and over with the de churching movement in our country, and I want to say I'm really sympathetic to people who have experienced great church hurt and are struggling. What do I do with the church? But one of the things we have to hear over and over in the Scripture is that Jesus loves the Church, even the broken, compromised, hypocritical, very human Church. He never is like, "I'm done." Thank the Lord.

One of the things you know as a married couple, if you're married, is that you can't be couple friends with someone who hates your spouse. It just doesn't work. You're like, I love hanging out with them, but they don't really like my spouse very much. This is not going to work. Jesus feels this way about His bride. There are lots of people who I know who are really frustrated with the Church. I get you. But hang in. Do you love the Church? Do you love God's people?

Here's what it means. Let me just be really clear. To love God's people, to love the Church. I'm going to summarize it this way, then I'll break it up: Love not like specific people in specific ways.

So let me walk through that really briefly. Love not like. In English, to love someone means mutual affection, this sense of deep affinity, warm feelings. We use love that way all the time. In Scripture, the word love always implies something that you do. Love is not just good feelings. It is action. It's put into action. Here, it's described by doing acts of serving one another.

In other words, you don't need to feel all the feelings about the church body. It's okay if you're like, I'm supposed to love these people and I serve. I'm not sure I like them all the time. Is that okay for me to say as a pastor? One of the things I've found over and over is doing the works, doing the actions leads to the feelings. We always want the feelings to come first, and then we'll do the actions. Oh, I feel so close to them, then of course I'll serve them. One of the things that happens is the more you do, the more you feel. Don't wait for the good feelings. Love, not like.

Second, a specific people. In all the places in the Bible, except for one place, the word church is always describing a specific group of people who have specific names and faces and specific leaders who meet in a specific location. There's only one place in Scripture that's generalized where church is used for all the people who are believers in Christ all over the world. So it's sort of a parlor trick or a little sleight of hand that people do sometimes. We're like, Oh, I love the Church, just not the Church. I love God's people internationally through all kinds of places, but I don't want to have anything to do with the specific people. No, you can't do that. You can't divorce those things. Love, not like, but a specific people. To serve the body of Christ must mean real individuals with real names and real faces.

And finally, in person specific ways. Twice in the Bible, we get this description of the Church as a body with lots of parts that function in different ways. What that means is we will not all best serve the body in the same way. Some of us serve by hospitality, others by counseling one another, others by physical acts of help, others by teaching or instruction. One of the dangers I see regularly within the body of Christ is comparison. Like looking around like Martha of Bethany, looking around her house at what Mary, her sister, was not doing and saying, She doesn't care, instead of saying, All of us are different. We serve in different ways.

So again, love not like specific people and use specific ways. I'm so proud of this church. I am so proud to be your pastor. We're not the coolest church, and we don't have the best website, and we certainly don't have the best building. You don't have the best pastors. We don't have the best programs. We have really great music. But we're not the best church. But how God measures is by the way that we love. And I'm so proud of the way you love one another. It's so encouraging to see.

Test number three: Do you love the saints?

An Urgent Call

So let me close with this final point, an urgent call. Actually, two urgent calls. One for you, one for other people. First is a personal one. A personal one. Grow up.

You know, my elementary school art teacher, this was the seventies, and my school didn't have much money, and so this is one of her hacks as an art teacher. She had everybody bring in an adult size dress shirt. And it could be your dad's, your grandfather's from the thrift store, it doesn't matter. You bring in an adult sized dress shirt, and every day it was on the hook on the wall with your name. And you go get your adult sized dress shirt, you put it on backwards, the collar's right here going backwards, and it's all these elementary school kids wearing what she called art smocks that were really just dress shirts to keep us from getting the paint, the markers, the clay off our clothes. Of course, we look ridiculous in these things, but I think it's such a picture for us of what it means to mature in the Christian life.

In fact, the Message version of this passage, the paraphrase, says it this way:

Come on. Let's leave the preschool finger painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art.

Grow up in Christ. As a Christian, to mature in Christ is to grow up into what He has put on you.

If God has clothed you in the righteousness of Christ, it's like being clothed in the gigantic art smock that is ridiculous looking. It doesn't fit you. But to mature is to begin to grow up into that so it doesn't look so ridiculous anymore. You begin to grow up into it. As the Father views each of us in Christ, He views us perfect in Jesus' righteousness. But our calling is to grow up.

There's a place in the Christian life for milk. First Peter says so. There's a time when we need the milk of the word. But if you're 15 years old and you're still eating baby food and your mom is cutting up your food for you and giving it to you like this, there's a problem. We need to wrestle with this. Am I maturing? Am I growing? Would you take some time today, this Sabbath day, to spend with the Lord and ask Him that question: Am I growing? Honest, Lord. Help me. Am I lazy? What steps do I need to take to mature? That's a personal application.

Calling People Back

The second application for this is about one another. In a sense, this is a sermon that the people who are sitting in this room don't need to hear. You're here. You're remaining on some level. Many people are serving this morning. You're loving the body. But there are a lot of people who are not here, who need to hear this message, who need to be brought back.

And I know this for a fact, that you know names of people who you miss, who used to be part of our church, who used to be part of other churches. And do you know how hard it is to go back to church? What a huge hill that is to overcome for many people? You know what would help them so much? Is someone inviting them and saving a seat for them and having them over for lunch afterward? You bringing them to a community group, saying, "Come along with me. I'm going to make it not weird for you. Let me help you back."

There are so many people who want to come back. And you have an opportunity, brothers and sisters, Body of Christ people, to be a part of God's hands and feet in this city, calling people back to Himself. There are some scary words of this passage, but they do not have to apply. And you have an opportunity to help call people back to Him.

Prayer

Let's pray to the Lord together.

Lord, this is a hard word. We thank you for your word. Lord, there's nothing like your word. Your word speaks truth into our hearts. Lord, we thank you that we can have assurance that what we have in Christ is sure and certain, Lord, that You can save to the uttermost those who come to You and call on You.

But, Lord, we pray, Father, for an honest self assessment. We pray, Father, we would be those who are growing and enduring and loving Your people. Father, we pray that you would help us reconfirm our love for you in the way this morning we take your body, your blood at the Lord's table, the way that we fellowship with one another, the way we call each other into deeper relationship.

Lord, we pray that we would be on your agenda as a church. Lord, we want You to have Your way in our congregation. We yield all the control of our church to You, and we ask, Father, for You to come by Your power. Lord, renew us, revive us, encourage us.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.