HEBREWS: Lesson 10 - Maturity, Eternal Security, & Apostacy

After the author's very encouraging words in verse 6:3, the text drops abruptly into a very dark passage extending from verse 6:4 to verse 8.

Hebrews Chapter 5:11 thru Chapter 6:8 (especially 6:4-8) is a most controversial section of Scripture which has caused many believers considerable distress. For centuries Hebrews 6 has been a battleground. The crux of the issue is whether or not a born-again believer can lose his salvation.

The Bible clearly teaches that anyone who is truly born again and indwelled with the Holy Spirit is saved forever. They can never lose their salvation (see verses on Eternal Security below).

If you can spare 23 minutes and want to get a great overview of Hebrews Chapter 6 on the topic Does Hebrews 6 teach you can lose your salvation?, check out Todd Friel's animated teaching:

  Does Hebrews 6 teach you can lose your salvation? 

Todd Friel from WRETCHED

The concern of the author is with those of his unsaved Jewish readers who under stress of persecution were in danger of renouncing their professed faith in Messiah and returning to the abrogated sacrifices of the Old Covenant. These he repeatedly warns against this act, and repeatedly exhorts to go on to faith in the New Covenant through Christ Jesus. The fact that he urges them on to faith, shows that they merely made a profession and were not saved.

The question to be answered is if one's profession of faith at one time was truly a possession of faith. Did the mouth speak something other than what the heart believed? If one is truly indwelled by the Holy Spirit, then we should expect that one would be "steadfast to the end," (v. 3:14). Paul said in Philippians 1:6: "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;". Based on scripture, we must assume that those who "fall away" (v. 6:6) were never saved. They might have made a profession of faith at one time (intellectually believed) but never truly trusted Christ as their Savior.

"Fall away" does not mean to stumble, backslide, or sin. It means to renounce the faith they once confessed. This is called apostasy. This is why the warning in Chapter 6 is so very important. The author is warning these Jews of the danger of having intellectually believed and then fallen away. The results were to be forever damned.

Eventually, one who has only intellectually believed will drift away (Hebrews 2:1), then their heart will grow hard (Hebrews 3:8), then they will become dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11), and finally they will fall away (Hebrews 6:6) and be lost forever--an apostate. The author is warning his audience to NOT let this happen!

So, can one who is truly saved lose his/her salvation? Absolutely not! So, how do you know if you are truly saved?

Ask yourself...

Is the Bible my joy and the delight of my heart? "Your words were found and I ate them. And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart: For I have been called by Your name. O Lord God of hosts." (Jeremiah 15:16)

Is God's Word my love which I seek to meditate in all day? "Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97)

Is God's Word sweet to my taste, sweeter even than honey?" "I have restrained my feet from every evil way. That I may keep Your word." (Psalm 119:101)

Ask yourself...

What are you longing for most earnestly and with the greatest passion in your personal walk and relationship to Christ?

Are you longing for greater intimacy? Are you longing for greater depth? Are you longing for greater power? Are you longing for greater clarity as you see His glory in the Scriptures? Are you longing to hear His voice with greater confidence as you read His Word? Are you longing to discern His will more confidently? Are you longing to walk more closely with Him in a real, living relationship, as a real person? Are you longing for His smiles of favor rather than His frowns of discipline? Do you even think in these terms? Do you go to bed with these longings? Do you wake up with these longings governing your life? Do you devote time, perhaps on the Lord’s Day, to seek His face to intensify these longings?

Ask yourself...

What are you longing for in your relationships with other people?

Do you long to represent Jesus with greater compelling forcefulness? Do you long for a greater love for people and a greater zeal for their salvation? Do you long to have greater boldness and encouragement from God in your own representation of Christ? Do you long to be a means of other people’s holiness, and purity, and power? Do you long to bring the Word of God from your encounter with the risen Christ into the lives of other people with effectiveness? Do you long for readiness to speak hope-filled words into the face of those who are dying or suffering or coming out of divorces? Do you have the aroma of Christ about you and do you long for it in conversations with others so that they say, there is an aroma about you that is different. Do you long to be able to inspire others by your own example in a life more consistent and deep and satisfying prayer

In the first slide, I showed two identical characters and asked "What is different between these two men?" Assume that both made a profession of faith at a young age. Both are regular church attenders. Both are even deacons. Both have been on foreign mission trips. The difference is that one man is saved and the other man is not saved. Sadly, there are many "pretending" Christians in churches today that are very actively involved in religious activities. Only God knows the condition of their heart.

Paul said, "Test yourselves whether you are in the faith, examine yourself." (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Next week we will begin with 6:9: "But, beloved...". Beloved is never used in the NT to describe unbelievers. The contrast word "but" signals a marked change in tone as the author addresses the reader as beloved rather than "...those who..." (v. 6:4). The severity of the previous warning passage is further balanced in this section by an exhortation to be diligent and an encouragement (vs. 6:9-20).

 

Eternal Security

The Bible teaches that everyone who is born again is indwelled with the Holy Spirit and is saved forever.

"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:28)

"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" (Philippians 1:6)

"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us." (1 John 2:19)

Parable of the Wheat and the Tares: Matthew 13:24-30
Parable of the Sower: Matthew 13:1-9

"Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men," (Isaiah 29:13 & Mark 7:6)

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16)
 

"Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you." (2 Tim. 1:14)

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)