Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing ye have become dull of hearing.
For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.
For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this will we do, if God permit.
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
And tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
And then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.
For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God:
But if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which ye showed toward His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and still do minister.
And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:
That ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.— Hebrews 5:11–6:12
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We just ask Thee to bless Thy Word, breathe upon it by Thy Holy Spirit, and make Thy Word living and operative to each one of us. To Thee be all the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We mentioned before that the book of Hebrews is a book of exhortation. In Hebrews 13:22, the writer tells us very clearly the reason why he wrote this book: it is for the sake of exhortation.
In this letter, we find at least five distinctive exhortations. By exhortation, it means a call to attention, to encourage, and also to warn against something wrong.
The first exhortation is centered upon this matter of so great salvation. Now, dear brothers and sisters, the salvation that we receive—the salvation that we have heard from our Lord Jesus, and then from the apostles and from those who received from them—is so great a salvation.
It is not something small. It is great, and it is so great that you cannot describe it. So the author just says, “so great salvation.”
This salvation has something to do not only with our sins forgiven, receiving eternal life, and going to heaven. Now, these are great. But this so great salvation has something to do with glory: that the only begotten Son of God should come into this world to accomplish such a great salvation, that He who is the only begotten has now become the firstborn among many brethren, and He is to bring many sons, conformed to His image, into glory.
Now, this is so great salvation. And because salvation is such a great salvation, therefore we need to take heed abundantly, to pay very close attention to what we have heard, lest it slip away from us, or we drift away from it. Through negligence, we may lose it; and what a loss it will be.
So that is the first exhortation. You will find that in Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 2.
Then we find a second exhortation. The second exhortation is centered upon this matter of the heavenly calling. We have a heavenly calling.
We are called to be the house of God, that God may dwell among us. And what a holy house it must be. We are called to be companions of Christ, partakers of Christ. And we are called to enter into His rest, that we may rest in His rest.
Now, this is our heavenly calling. And because the calling is so heavenly, we are encouraged to consider Him who is the great Apostle of our confession. Our Lord Jesus is the Apostle of our confession. God has sent Him into this world to accomplish such a great work, and He has gone before as a forerunner into heaven itself.
Therefore, we need to consider Him, to obey Him, to listen to Him, and to follow Him. We need to encourage one another as long as it is called today, because today is the day of salvation. We need to have a holy fear lest we miss it, lest we do not fulfill our calling. And we need to use diligence to enter into that rest.
The warning against us is that we may have a wicked heart of unbelief. The heart is the most important thing in our relationship with God. If our heart is deceived by sin, then our heart can become so hardened that we seem to believe in God and believe in what He can do for us; yet, because of this heart of unbelief, we may fall away from the living God.
So this is the second exhortation. Now, this morning we would like to enter into the third exhortation. You will find that in Hebrews 5, Hebrews 6, and Hebrews 7.
The third exhortation is centered upon this matter of perfection. In Hebrews 6:1, it is said:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection.
In some versions you will find, “Let us go on to perfection.” Whether you find in your version “full growth” or “perfection,” in the Greek original it is the same word.
The word perfection means completeness, fulfillment, the actual achievement of the end in view. Therefore, it means full growth or maturity.
You know, among God’s people, roughly speaking, there are two different stages in our Christian life. One stage is babyhood, and the other stage is manhood or womanhood.
When we first believe in the Lord Jesus, we become babes in Christ. We are born again. We are born with a new life. We are born into the family of God. But even though we are born from above, and we are born into God’s family, at that time we are just babes.
I think everybody loves babies. But this is just the first stage of life. It is beautiful in its time. But when it is time for us to grow up and outgrow babyhood into manhood or womanhood, and yet we do not grow, then it becomes the most ugly thing in life.
A life is born, and yet that life is never able to arrive at its end. It is a waste, instead of fulfilling its purpose.
Therefore, after a baby is born, we nourish that baby, cherish that baby, and help the baby to grow. One day, that baby grows into manhood or womanhood. Then the purpose of that life in that soul is fulfilled.
Now, the same thing is true in the spiritual realm. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are born again; we become babes in Christ.
What are the marks of babyhood?
Number one, a baby needs milk. A baby is not able to consume solid food. He needs milk.
Now, what is milk? Milk is predigested food. Somebody has digested the food for you. Your mother has digested the food, and the food has been transformed into milk, so she is able to feed you with milk. You cannot digest it yourself, so somebody else has digested it for you, and you just receive the nutrition out of it. Now, that is milk.
Spiritually, it also means the beginning of the oracles of God, or the beginning of the word of Christ. Milk is that which nourishes us by giving us the knowledge of initial salvation.
It tells us of Christ, His divinity, and His humanity: that He is the Son of God who has become the Son of Man. It tells us how He died on the cross, how He bore our sins upon Him, and how He died for us. It tells us how He was raised from the dead and how He is now in heaven.
Now, all these are the beginning of the word of Christ, the first elements of the gospel. These are milk. A baby can only consume milk. He is not able to take in solid food; he is not ready for it.
Number two, a baby is not skilled in the word of righteousness, as we find in Hebrews 5:
For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
He is not skillful in the word of righteousness. In other words, what he knows is the word of grace. All he desires is grace: “Give me this, and give me that.” That is why the baby is crying out.
But he has no knowledge; he is unskilled in the word of righteousness. In other words, how should I be right? How should I live rightly before God? What should be my rightful relationship with God, with my brothers and sisters, and with one another?
He is not skilled in the word of righteousness because he thinks it is hard word, too much for him. He is not ready for it.
According to 1 Corinthians 3:1, Paul said, “I treated you as babes, as fleshly.” Now, in your Bible, you may find it sometimes translated carnal.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1 and 1 Corinthians 3:3, you have the word carnal or fleshly, but in the original there is a little variation. In verse 1, Paul says:
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.
The word “fleshly” or “carnal” there means fleshy—the material you are made of. When you are a babe, that is what you are: you are just flesh.
But then in verse 3, Paul says that they are “yet carnal.” That word means not only the material you are made of, but a moral condition that goes with it.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, when we are babes, we are fleshly. Will you forgive me if I say this? We find that all babies are so innocent, so beautiful, so lovely; but do you know that babies are most fleshly? They are awfully self-centered.
A babe never cares whether it is day or night. If he is hungry, he cries. No matter whether you are ready or not ready for him, he is ready, and that is all that matters. He is fleshly.
But, dear brothers and sisters, even though he is fleshly, he is innocent. That is the reason why we bear with him and even love him.
But if that baby should never grow up—according to the time he should be a man or she should be a woman—and yet he or she still acts as if he is a baby, this in Scripture is called fleshly. There is a moral condition attaching to it which is not very pleasing.
So, dear brothers and sisters, a baby in Christ is fleshly, but that is just for a period. It should not continue long. If it continues long, it becomes a serious problem.
That is the reason why a child has to be disciplined. That fleshly nature has to be broken, so that he or she may grow up into maturity.
Number four, the mark of a baby is that he will walk according to man. Even though he is a believer, when a believer is in the baby stage, the way that he lives, the way that he walks, and even the way that he talks are according to man.
He is not very different from the people around him. Sometimes you wonder whether he is saved. Well, he is saved, but he is still a babe. He has not grown up yet.
Finally, the mark of a baby, as we find in Ephesians 4, is that a baby is easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, according to the sleight of men.
In other words, a baby can be easily swayed. When he hears one thing, he falls to it. When he hears another thing, he falls to it. You find that he is changing all the time. There is not that stability established in his life.
Well, that shows he is just a baby. He is so exposed to every influence, every wind. When the wind blows this way, he goes this way; when the wind goes that way, he goes that way. These are the marks of babyhood.
It is the will of God that we should outgrow that babyhood, that we should grow into perfection, that we should grow into maturity.
Of course, there is a slight difference when you compare the physical and the spiritual. In the physical realm, you begin as a baby, and if everything goes all right, then maybe after twenty years you grow into manhood or womanhood. In China, we often say you have to wait until you are thirty years old; then you are established. Maybe in this country it is earlier.
But somehow, you find that you need a certain time, and after certain years have passed, it seems almost naturally that you enter into maturity, into full growth.
But in the spiritual realm there is a little difference. It is true that years should mature a person, and that we do need time to grow. Now, that is true. But this is not proportionally true.
In other words, someone can grow out of babyhood into manhood quicker than some other people. It is not as in natural life, where it has to be twenty years or thirty years. Some people may grow faster; other people may grow slower.
The reason has something to do with our heart condition and desire. If we desire to grow, if we seek for perfection, then you find there is a chance for you to grow faster and earlier.
But if you are dull and sluggish, if you are so contented to be a babe—isn’t that strange?—then you do not grow.
I wonder if any baby is contented to be a baby. I think the desire of the baby is that he may grow. They do not want to remain as babes. How they long that they may grow up.
You know, I have a sister. Of course, at that time she was the youngest sister, and she was only a few years old. One day she and my cousin, another little girl of her age, were sitting on the stairway. They were talking to each other and complaining, and people overheard them.
These two little girls were complaining that they were the youngest in their families, and they were not happy with it. They saw their big sisters and big brothers, and how they wanted to grow to be like them. Being so small, they were in a disadvantaged position. They were not happy with it.
Now, isn’t this strange? Children like to grow, but grown-ups like to become children. We do not want to grow. We do not want to grow. We want to remain as babes.
Now, what is perfection? The New Testament does not speak of us as sinlessly perfect. There is only one Man in the whole world who is sinlessly perfect, or perfect in the absolute sense, and that is our Lord Jesus. He is the only One who is sinlessly perfect.
Even He who is so perfect, in Hebrews 5, had to learn obedience through the things which He suffered. And after He had been perfected, then He became the Author of our eternal salvation.
Now, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is perfect. So far as sin is concerned, He is perfect in the absolute sense. And yet He had to learn obedience. Why? Because, as the Son of God, He is God. And as God, how could He know obedience? God alone is the authority.
Therefore, when the Lord Jesus came into this world, there was something He had to learn. He had to learn obedience—obedience to His heavenly Father—and He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.
Thus He was perfected to be the Author of our eternal salvation. In other words, He accomplished the goal. Through His obedience and His suffering, He was able to accomplish the work of redemption. Thus He became the Author of our eternal salvation.
Now, this is about the Lord Jesus. How about us? We are not sinlessly perfect. We never will be until we are unclothed of this old tabernacle and clothed with a new building, which is a spiritual body. Only then and there will we not sin anymore.
So, dear brothers and sisters, perfection according to the New Testament, when it applies to believers, means maturity—growing up, full growth. We need to grow up. We need to mature. We should not remain as babes in Christ.
Now, what is maturity? It does not mean that after we believe in the Lord Jesus, perhaps three years or five years later, we have grown in knowledge of the Word. Thank God, we need to grow in the knowledge of the Word, and we need to grow in the times of our fellowship as we come together. We need to do that.
But, strictly speaking, growing up—maturity—simply means that the life of Christ is increased in us. Now, that is growth. In other words, it is not just growth in our mind.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, we may attend services every Sunday, and we may have heard many sermons and many messages. Our mind may be stocked with many messages, many teachings, and many doctrines, and we think we have grown. Well, no. That is not the meaning of growth here. That is not perfection.
Growth does not mean that you become very active in the church. Now, we need to be active in the church. Every member of the body of Christ has to be active. If a member is not active, sooner or later it will be paralyzed.
Would you rather be a paralyzed member in the body of Christ, or do you want to be an active member of the body of Christ? Now, being an active member, sometimes you have to be disciplined. That is true. If you are paralyzed, it is beyond discipline.
But whether you are an active member of the body of Christ or not, I think we need to be active. Yet it does not mean that after you believe in the Lord Jesus and engage in many so-called Christian activities, therefore you have grown. Not at all. Not at all.
The point is whether Christ has increased in you. When you believe in Him, you know Him as your Saviour. But has your knowledge of Christ—your knowing Him, not mentally but experientially—increased in an additional degree, more abundantly?
You remember Paul said, “That I may know Him.” Now, Paul already knew Him. He met Him on the road to Damascus. Paul had served the Lord for many years. He was now in prison in Rome for the gospel’s sake, and yet his cry was, “That I may know Him.”
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death;
If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
This is full growth—maturity. Oh, that we may continue to know Him. May we continue to grow in His life, that His life may be formed in us, that He may be formed in us, and that we may be conformed to His image. Now, that is maturity.
This is something to which we must press on. If we are contented with the little of Christ that we know, thank God, the little we know, so far as it itself is concerned, is great. Why? Because we know Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as Christ; we know Him as our personal Saviour. Now, that is great.
But if we are contented with the little that we know of Christ and refuse to press on to know Him more, to experience Him more, brothers and sisters, we will remain as babies. We will be a sorrow to God, not to say to ourselves.
Some people do not want to grow because with growth there is responsibility. We want to be babes. Let other people take responsibility for us. We give them problems and let them bear the responsibility.
Among believers there are believers like that. They do not want to take any responsibility, so they do not want to grow. With responsibility, of course, there has to be suffering. Suffering goes with responsibility. They are afraid of suffering, afraid to pay the cost, and because of that they stay in babyhood.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the will of God for His people? The will of God for His people is that we may grow up into sonship.
In John 1:12, anyone who believes in Him, who receives Him—that is, believing in His name—is given authority to become a child of God. Thank God for that. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we become children of God. We become little children, babes in Christ.
Thank God for that. But what is the purpose of God in saving us? What is the purpose of God concerning us? He does not want just babies. He has not opened a nursery. He wants grown-up sons—people who can bear responsibility with Him.
That is God’s purpose. God’s purpose concerning you is sonship.
In Galatians 4, we are told that in the fullness of time, God sent His Son into this world, born of woman, born under the law, that He might deliver us from the curse of the law, that we might receive sonship.
That is what God wants. He wants you to be sons and daughters. He wants you to grow up. Now, if this is God’s will for you, do you think you can sit back and say, “I am quite happy just to be a babe”?
You may be happy, but one day you will be sorrowful—not to say that your heavenly Father is sorrowful all the time.
So here you find there is a very important thing before us. God’s will is that we go on to full growth. He does not want any one of us to remain as babes.
You have believed in the Lord how many years? You know, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he had been in Corinth for a year and a half. He left, and after a few years he wrote this first letter to the Corinthians. He said, “According to this time, you should be teachers. You should not be babes anymore. I should be able to share with you meat, but I am not able to. Why? You are still carnal. You have not grown.”
The same thing you find in the letter to the Hebrews. According to the time—we do not know how many years had passed, though probably it was not too many years—you should be teachers. You should be able to teach others. But unfortunately, you are still babes. You are not able to consume solid food. You are still looking for milk, and nothing but milk. Is that not a sad thing?
Are we so dull in our hearing? Are we so sluggish? Have we become so lazy, so indifferent, so careless, that we cease to grow?
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know the only safety for us is to press on? If you stand still, you do not stand still; you go backward. If you slow down, you not only stop, but you go back. The only way for us is to go on.
So here you find in Hebrews 6:1, he says:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection.
The exhortation is to press on.
“Leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ.” Now, the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, or the word of the foundation—these are foundation truths.
What are the beginning truths, the doctrine of the first principles of Christ? You find them in Hebrews 6:1–2:
Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Here you find three sets of teachings, of doctrines.
The first set is repentance from dead works and faith toward God. We need to repent from dead works. It does not say repentance from sins. Now, we all know that we need to repent of our sins, but here it says repentance from dead works.
The dead works here are good works. When we first realize that we have sinned, you know what we do? We try to do some good works to cover up our sins, or to substitute for our sins, or to redeem ourselves.
Now, these are dead works. Why? Because these are works done by a dead man—good works that come out of a dead man, dead in sins and transgressions.
Dear brothers and sisters, unless the Holy Spirit shows you that you need to repent of that, most people depend on that. Most people depend on their good works. When they realize that they have sinned, they try to depend on their good works to go to God.
But one day the Holy Spirit will show you that your works are dead. You need to repent from your dead works. That is, you should see that this is utterly undependable—just like the fig leaves that Adam and Eve made to put upon themselves as aprons. They thought this would cover their nakedness, but the wind blows.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to repent from dead works. Only when we repent from dead works do we have our faith toward God. In other words, we cease to believe in ourselves anymore. There is nothing in ourselves to trust. We believe in God and in what He has provided for us.
So this is the first set. It is the past. We have repented; we have believed.
The second set is the doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands. Notice that it is not merely washing; it is the doctrine of baptisms.
Here you find two sets of teachings: one teaching concerning washings or baptism, and the other concerning the laying on of hands. These two teachings are also foundation teachings.
Why? Because the teaching of baptism is union with Christ. We who are baptized are baptized unto Christ. We who are baptized are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. So the teaching of baptism is the teaching of union with Christ. Thank God for this union.
What is the teaching of the laying on of hands? It is the union of the body. In other words, through the laying on of hands, we are identified with one another.
That is why you find Ananias came to Paul and put his hand upon Paul, saying, “Brother Saul, the Lord hath sent me.” In other words, Ananias identified himself with Paul, and through the laying on of hands, Paul was identified with Ananias in the body of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the present: we are united with Christ, and we are united with one another in the body of Christ.
Then the third set of foundation truths is resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. This is the future.
In the future there will be the resurrection of the dead. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus will be resurrected from the dead. We will put on a spiritual body and enter into life.
Those who are not of the Lord, they too will be resurrected a thousand years later. They will appear before the great white throne and be judged unto eternal death. So here you find resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. That concerns the future.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find these three sets of teachings, all the doctrine of the first principles of Christ. These are the foundation truths. Thank God, we must have that foundation.
If you do not have the foundation, you are not the Lord’s; you do not belong to the Lord. But if you have the foundation, then you belong to the Lord. You are the Lord’s. Thank God, the foundation has already been laid.
But after the foundation is laid, then what? The Bible says, “Leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation.”
Now, this is not in contradiction to Hebrews 3:14:
For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.
Here you find that we have to hold the beginning firm to the end, and in Hebrews 6 you find, “leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ.” Is there any contradiction? No.
So far as the beginning is the root out of which we grow, we never leave it. It is always there. The foundation is always there. In other words, you do not leave off the foundation. It is there, and out of that foundation you grow up.
But so far as the beginning is just a commencement of something for the future, then you have to leave the commencement and go ahead. Otherwise, you are just circling around the foundation and you never move forward.
You will be like the children of Israel. They were saved and delivered out of Egypt, and they were supposed to go into the promised land. But somehow they wandered in the wilderness, making circles in the wilderness, never outgrowing it.
Dear brothers and sisters, you have been saved for three years now, maybe five years, maybe ten years, maybe more. Where are you now? Are you growing up in Christ? Are you still in babyhood? Do all these marks of babyhood still characterize your life?
Or has Christ begun to be found in you, that He may be seen and heard by other people, that you may be a blessing to other people? Have you pressed on?
You know, pressing on needs a little effort. If you do not exert any effort, if you take it easy, you drift. You have to apply yourself to what God is calling you. You have to set your heart upon Him. You have to desire to know Him. You have to be willing to suffer and to pay the cost.
Dear brothers and sisters, only when you press on will there be full growth. It is not automatic. After twenty years, you are not automatically a mature man or woman. No. It has to depend on how you respond, how you desire, and how you press on.
So we need to leave the beginning behind. That does not mean that you leave off the foundation. The foundation is already there. If the foundation is not there, then you need to lay the foundation.
But if the foundation is already there, there is no way to lay it again. That is what he says here: there is no way to lay it again.
So it is impossible to renew again unto repentance those who were once enlightened, who have tasted of the heavenly gift, who have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come.
It is impossible to renew again. The word renew in the original means entirely new. It is not just remodeling or renovating. No. It means to start all over again—entirely new, afresh.
If you have already been enlightened, the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your sins, and you have repented and believed in the Lord Jesus. You have tasted of the heavenly gift. The heavenly gift is Christ, the Bread of Life. He is our life. That is the heavenly gift: eternal life.
You have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. You have tasted the good word of God.
The word tasted here does not mean that you have only heard it. It does not mean that you have only understood it in your mind. No, the word tasting means that you have tasted it, you have enjoyed it, you have experienced that it is real. It is very real and enjoyable.
Now, you have enjoyed the Word of God. Thank God, if you are saved, you love the Word of God. You enjoy it. You taste it. It is sweeter than the honeycomb.
Then you have tasted the powers of the age to come—that is, the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You have tasted that.
In other words, here you find a person who is saved, though perhaps lazy. The foundation is already laid. Now, for such a person, it is impossible to lay the foundation again. Why? Because the foundation is already there.
And if he has fallen away, what is falling away? Falling away is falling away from the goal. There is a goal, and the goal is perfection—full growth. You fall away from the goal.
If you could lay the foundation again, that would mean that you could repent as if you had never believed in the Lord Jesus. It would be like crucifying the Son of God a second time. It is impossible.
So, dear brothers and sisters, once you are enlightened, once you have received the new life, once you have received the Holy Spirit, once you have tasted the good Word of God, once you have tasted the powers of God—in other words, you have the foundation in your life—remember, this foundation can never be laid again. It is there.
If you throw it away, if you fall away from the goal of perfection, if you become dull, become sluggish, stand back, and do not grow, what happens?
Well, it is true: falling away is a serious thing. In 1 Corinthians 10, we are told, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The children of Israel fell and fell and fell until finally, at Kadesh-barnea, they fell again, and there was no point of return.
But, dear brothers and sisters, who are we to say to anyone, “You are beyond repentance. You are finished. Because you are falling away, you are finished”?
The writer of Hebrews said, “But we are persuaded better things of you.” Even though I am talking this way, you are better than that. You have not fallen away to the point of no return. That is apostasy.
You have fallen away because you have become dull, because you have become sluggish, because you are not diligent. That is why you have fallen. So if that is the reason, what should you do?
If you realize that you have fallen away, what should you do? You cannot go back to the very beginning, before you were saved, and be saved again and lay the foundation. You cannot do that. Then what do you do? Get up and go ahead. That is what you do.
Suppose I come to this place from my home, and I am walking. In the midway, I fall. Now, what do I do? Do I roll back to my home, then get up and start walking again? Nonsense.
If I fall down, I get up and walk forward, and I arrive here. Dear brothers and sisters, this is what the Scripture is trying to tell us.
Suppose there is one who has fallen away. You cannot start from the very beginning, because the foundation is there. There is no way to do it again. What do you do? Get up. Go on. That is what you do.
For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessing from God:
But if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.
It is like ground that receives rain from above. The seed is already there, and the rain comes upon it. The rain should bring forth herbs for those for whose sake it is tilled—that is to say, for God.
God has put the seed of life in you, and He is raining His blessings from above upon you in order that you may produce fruit for His pleasure. Now, that is what it should be.
But if you do not produce the herbs for His purpose, instead you waste all the blessings of God in your life and produce thorns and briars.
Thorns and briars, we are told, are brought forth through sin. Instead of bearing fruit for God, you live according to the flesh. You just want to do what you want to do. You do not care about God.
If you go on like that, you waste the grace of God. You produce thorns and briars, and what will happen? You become worthless to God. You are worthless to God, and nigh unto a curse.
Underline the word nigh. It does not say cursed; it says nigh unto a curse—very close. Whose end is to be burned.
Now, what is burned? The thorns and briars are burned. The ground cannot be burned. In other words, the foundation is Christ. He can never be burned. But what you build upon the foundation can all be burned. This is 1 Corinthians 3.
But thank God, the writer said, “We are persuaded concerning you, beloved, better things.” You are better than that. You are not that bad yet. You are very hopeful.
So, brothers and sisters, take heart. If we have fallen away, if we have become dull in hearing, if we have become sluggish, if our hearts have become hardened, may the Spirit of God speak to us, catch us up, and cause us to press on to perfection. There is still time for it.
We do not have much more time, but there is still time. I often thank God for today, because as long as there is today, there is opportunity. Let us press on to perfection.
And we desire that each one of you may show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end:
That ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is perfection? Perfection, or full growth, is to inherit the promises of God—not just to inherit one promise, but to inherit all the promises of God.
In this section of the book of Hebrews, what we need to consider is Jesus as the High Priest of our confession. In the second exhortation, we need to consider Christ as the Apostle of our confession, because it is connected with the calling. But in this matter of perfection, we need to consider Jesus as the High Priest of our confession.
He is our High Priest, not according to the order of Aaron—that He did when He died on the cross, offered Himself, and brought His blood to heaven. But after He was seated at the right hand of the Father, He is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Dear brothers and sisters, to know Christ as our Saviour is milk. To know Christ as a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek is solid food.
How can we grow unless we know Him as our High Priest? You remember when Abraham came back from the battle, Melchizedek the high priest met him and gave him bread and wine and blessed him, strengthening him.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a picture of Christ, our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. We have received His life in us. But how can we live upon this earth a heavenly life? Where comes the power for living a heavenly life?
Where comes the power of overcoming temptations? Where comes the power of reaching the goal that God has set before us? Unless we know Him as our High Priest.
He is our High Priest. He is the Mediator of the new covenant. In other words, God has given us the new covenant. In the new covenant, you have all the promises of God.
Christ, as High Priest, mediates the new covenant—that is to say, He brings the blessings of the new covenant to us. That is why He intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. He lives for us.
As He intercedes, the Holy Spirit in us begins to work in every one of us. The Holy Spirit is working to bring us into all the fullness of the promises of God, that we may inherit the promises of God. Now, that is what it is.
If you do not depend upon Christ as your High Priest, whom are you depending upon for your daily life? Do you depend on yourself? You try to live a Christian life, you try to live a victorious life, you try to live a heavenly life, but you find you are bound for failure. You cannot do it.
But thank God, if you depend on Him who is at the right hand of God making intercession for you, then you find through the supply of the Holy Spirit that you will be able to experience the power of that heavenly life and inherit all the promises of God.
Now, this is the way, the secret, into perfection. Let us put it this way: without Christ as your High Priest, perfection is impossible. But with Christ as our High Priest, perfection is yours.
But the promises of God are not automatically coming upon you. It is not because God has promised that, automatically, you inherit it.
All the promises of God depend on your response to the working of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit works in you, you respond with faith and patience. Then you will have it.
But if you do not respond with faith and you are impatient, you do not inherit.
That is the reason why, in the last part of Hebrews 6, the example of Abraham is given. Abraham inherited the promise of God. Why? Because he believed and he was patient.
Dear brothers and sisters, thank God for all His promises. Through the precious promises, we may grow into sonship.
The promises are all there, given to you. Through these promises, you may live a godly life; you may enter into perfection. But how are you to inherit all these promises?
Faith. You must believe. When the Holy Spirit brings God’s promise to your attention, believe it. And not only believe it: patiently wait for it.
Abraham—God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and God promised him. Oh, how he waited patiently, believing, and then he obtained the promise.
So may the Lord help us. Brothers and sisters, again let us conclude by saying: perfection, full growth, sonship, is God’s purpose for every child of God.
This is what you need to aim at. Never become contented to remain as babes in Christ. Press on to perfection. Do not be sluggish and dull. Be diligent, knowing Christ as your High Priest after the order of Melchizedek—that means after the power of an indissoluble life.
And by faith and patience, inherit the promises, like our father of faith, Abraham. So may the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, impress upon our hearts that it is Thy will for us to grow into perfection. Do not allow us to remain as babes. But, Lord, we pray that Thou wilt create such a longing for Thyself that we may press on to know Thee and to full growth.
Our Father, we do acknowledge that by ourselves we cannot make it. But we know that Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is now seated at Thy right hand as our High Priest, interceding for us, that He may save to the uttermost all who approach Thee through Him.
So, Father, we just ask Thee to open our eyes to see Christ as our High Priest, that we may daily depend upon Him and, through the working of the Holy Spirit, by faith and patience, inherit the inheritance. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.