Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews 6:1-8. Not exactly your typical New Year’s Day message. But that’s okay. We’re not exactly a typical church. 

We are continuing our series today, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” And we are pressing on through the book of Hebrews. And today’s message is about pressing on towards maturity as a follower of Christ. Today’s message is about not getting stuck in kindergarten with your Christian faith, when by now you should be in graduate school. 

When I was in high school, there was a movie that came out called “Billy Madison.” It pretty much skyrocketed Adam Sandler’s career as an actor. It’s not a great movie, so please don’t infer from this that I’m giving it a recommendation. But I reference it because in that movie, Adam Sandler is forced to go back to school in order to inherit his father’s company. But for some ridiculous reason, he’s not sent back to college or even high school. He’s sent back to kindergarten. And the idea of a grown man going back to kindergarten to complete assignments with other five-year-olds is as comical as it is disturbing. 

Well the author of Hebrews is agitated in this section of his letter, because he sees some among his constituency, some among the church that he’s addressing, doing something similar in their Christian lives. They are languishing in grade school when they should be in grad school. As we saw in chapter 5, they are suckling milk instead of moving on to solid food. They’ve got “failure to launch” syndrome. They are stuck in neutral, living lives of perpetual spiritual adolescence. 

And the author of Hebrews is going to address that head-on again this morning, but he also puts forth a conjecture as to why this is happening with some in the church. He rebukes those who are stuck in neutral, but he also thinks that some are stuck, not because they are immature Christians, but because they aren’t Christians at all. They, instead, are fakers. They are playing the Christian game and piddling around with Christian appearances. But there’s no real transformation of their hearts. 

And for those “fakers” he gives the strongest warning of all, probably the strongest warning in the Bible. And it’s essentially this. “You better get off the fence. You better quit faking it. You better truly embrace faith in Jesus Christ, or else you might reach a place where your heart is so desensitized to the things of the Lord, that you won’t be able to trust Christ.” That’s a terrifying prospect, that I would never assert as a pastor. I’m glad that the author of Hebrews did it for me. 

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So let’s get into this, this morning. But before we do, let me just give a quick caveat. I hate giving caveats when I preach, but today’s passage requires one. This is one of the most debated, most controversial, and most difficult passages in the Bible. So I’m going to give you my view on this. If you disagree with me, or if you know someone who disagrees with me, don’t freak out, okay. I’m going to give you my best understanding on this, and how this passage jives with the rest of inspired Scripture. We can’t just interpret Scripture in isolation. We have to do the hard work of letting Scripture interpret Scripture. And at the end of the day, let’s pray and ask God for wisdom on how to not only hear, but also apply, what God’s Word says here. Everyone with me? 

And here’s another caveat. The title of this message is “Pressing On Towards Maturity.” My goal this morning is to comfort and challenge the converted and discomfort the unconverted. If you are pressing on towards maturity in Christ Jesus, you don’t need to be alarmed by the warnings that the author of Hebrews gives in this text. This is not a passage that is meant to bring eternal insecurity to sincere Christians. This is a passage that is meant to challenge lackadaisical Christians. And also, it’s meant to bring eternal insecurity to insincere Christians. Okay? 

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Enough caveats. Here we go. Here’s your outline for today. Today’s passage is about the pursuit of spiritual maturity as Christians. And spiritual maturity involves three things. Here’s the first. 

Spiritual Maturity for a Christian Involves: 

1) Building upon the basics of the faith (6:1-3)

The author of Hebrews says in verse one, 

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, 

The word for maturity here is the Greek τελειότης. It’s a word that is translated “maturity” or “completeness” or “perfection.” “The relentless pursuit of perfection.” You thought that was just a slogan for Lexus. It’s not. It’s also the pursuit of the Christian. And perfection isn’t achieved by staying in kindergarten. You’ve got to move beyond the basics. 

The word for “doctrine” here is the word λόγος, and the word for “elementary” is ἀρχή which often means “beginning.” So woodenly, this verse reads like this: “Therefore leaving the beginning of Christ’s Word, let us be carried forward towards maturity.” There’s a divine passive there that I think is important.   

Then the author says, 

not laying again a foundation 

There’s that pesky word “again” again! Remember that last time? In 5:12, he said, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” The issue is not the basic principles of God. The issue is not the foundation. The issue is the “again.” The issue is going back to kindergarten—again! 

not laying again a foundation of repentance  from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Now let’s look at these six things quickly. And these six items are presented in three couplets. First you have “repentance from dead works” and “faith toward God.” These are the basics. Repentance from dead works means that you don’t trust in your own works to save you. You repent of that! You turn away from that. And that’s really important. 

When we say repentance or “turning away” that doesn’t just mean repentance from sin. That also means turning away from your own works as a means of saving yourself. Those are “dead works.” Dead means dead, and you don’t get new life from dead works. You’ve got to turn away from them. And you don’t just turn away from stuff, you also turn towards something. You turn towards faith in God.

Listen, this is basic soteriology, okay. Everyone should have this down. Salvation is a matter of repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. You turn away from yourself, and you turn to God. You turn away from your own sin, and you put your faith in Christ. That’s how someone comes to Christ. The author here summarized faith in Christ as “faith toward God.” But the idea is simple enough from Romans 10:9-10 and elsewhere. You believe in Christ’s finished work on the cross as payment for your sin. And you believe in his resurrection from the dead. That’s how a person is saved. Not only should you, as a Christian, have experienced that, but you should be able to articulate that to someone else, quickly. Spiritual maturity isn’t just about Bible knowledge. There’s no such thing as a mature Christian who doesn’t know how to evangelize. Sharing your faith, and sharing your faith well is a sign of spiritual maturity. 

So you have “repentance from dead works” and “faith toward God.” That’s your first couplet. Then you have “instruction about washings” and “the laying on of hands.” These are foundational too. And foundational is a good word. You build a house on a foundation. You can’t build a house without a foundation. But it’s embarrassing to build only a foundation and no house. Or to rebuild the foundation over and over again and never get to the house. That is a fail.

And the second couplet describing this foundation starts with “washings,” or some of your translations might say “baptisms.” It’s the Greek word βαπτισμός. And this could be a reference to OT washings. But I’m more inclined to see this as a reference to Christian baptism. And the plural here may be a reference to the distinction between water baptism and Spirit baptism. Or he may be talking about how Christian washing is distinguished from OT Jewish washing and maybe even the washing (the baptism) of John the Baptist. 

By the way, all six of these components have OT counterparts. But he’s not talking about OT practices here. He’s not saying that the audience needs to move on from the basics of the OT to the New Covenant reality of Christ. He’s talking about the “elementary doctrine of Christ.” And another part of that is the “laying on of hands.” In the NT world, this language was used to symbolize and commemorate the Holy Spirit’s indwelling a believer. Oftentimes that accompanied baptism in the book of Acts. So the ideas presented in this passage have to do with what’s called pneumatology, that is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 

Soteriology is the first couplet. Pneumatology is the second couplet. And eschatology is the third couplet. The last two items that the author gives as foundational are “the resurrection of the dead” and “eternal judgment.” Remember what the author said last time? He said, “About this Melchizedek guy, we have much to say, but you’re not ready for it. Your still stuck on the basics.” So conceivably this church kept asking, “Is there a resurrection of the dead? Are we going to live forever?” Yes! And, “Will there be an eternal judgment?” Yes! They’re still stuck in kindergarten and this author wants to move forward. And he will. He will, if God permits. Look at verse 3.

3 And this we will do

What’s the “this” in that sentence? It’s the leaving of the “elementary doctrine.” This we will do…

 if God permits.  

What’s he saying there? Well I gave you a few caveats at the beginning of this sermon. This is a caveat from the author. This is the author of Hebrews saying, “I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make him drink.” This is the author of Hebrews saying, “I can’t enact spiritual maturity in your hearts. I can’t ultimately do what only God can do.” 

And I think he’s setting you up here in verse 3 for what might be the ultimate issue in some of the hearts of the people in verses 4-8. He is saying, “I can’t enact spiritual maturity in some of your hearts, because ultimately that’s a work of God. And some of you haven’t even been converted by God.” 

Listen, I know there’s a lot going on in this passage, and we might be tempted to look past verse 3. But can I just encourage you to linger for just a second on verse 3? Because if you do, it’ll help you sleep at night. If you do, it’ll help you be a better evangelist and a better discipler and a better leader of your family. You have a responsibility before God, and you must do it. But you aren’t responsible for another person’s spiritual state or spiritual growth. That has to come from God.

My job here on Sunday is to preach. And I’ll do my best. But God doesn’t hold me responsible ultimately for whether or not what I preach is received or rejected. That’s between you and God. And I hope this doesn’t sound trite, but that helps me sleep at night. That gives me a clear conscience. That actually helps me to preach with more boldness and more confidence. If everything hinged on me and whether or not I said things exactly right and interpreted everything perfectly, that would put me in a mental institution. I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. 

Look, here’s the applicational thrust of Hebrews 6:3. You just do what God has called you to do. You just share Christ. You just make disciples. You just do what God has called you to do, and you leave the results to God. That’s what this author is doing. 

3 And this we will do if God permits. 

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Speaking of “If God permits,” let’s continue here in verses 4-6. Here’s a second thing that spiritual maturity involves. It involves “Building upon the basics of the faith.” Also it involves, 

2) Burning the ships of your previous life (6:4-6)

The writer of Hebrews says this in verse 4. He says, 

4 For it is impossible, 

What does “impossible” mean in Greek? Well brace yourselves! It means “impossible.” It’s the Greek word ἀδύνατος. The word δυνατός means “possible” or “capable” or “able.” This isn’t δυνατός but ἀδύνατος with the alpha-privative. And this word is key for the writer of Hebrews. He uses it four times. He says in 6:18, “it is impossible [ἀδύνατος] for God to lie.” That’s intriguing. We’ll get to that verse soon. He says in 10:4, “it is impossible [ἀδύνατος] for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” He says in 11:6, “without faith it is impossible [ἀδύνατος] to please [God].”

So what’s impossible according to verse 4? 

4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 

What’s “impossible” here? The restoring again to repentance. What’s he talking about? What does that mean? Well, there are three views on this. I’ll call them 1) “the loss of salvation” view, 2) “the hypothetical loss of salvation” view, and 3) “the ‘nearly saved’” view. Let me walk through these one at a time.

The first view is pretty self-explanatory. Primarily among those who hold to an Arminian view of salvation or a Wesley-Arminian view of salvation, this passage clearly speaks of someone who was saved and then walked away from their faith. They were saved, and then they weren’t saved. The problem with that view is that it conflicts with other passages that speak of the impossibility of someone losing their salvation (see John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom 8:38-39; 10:9-10, 13; Eph 1:13-14; Phil 1:6; 1 Pet 1:3-5). If someone is born again, how can they be “unborn” again? If someone is sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, how can they be unsealed? I don’t think this view squares with Scripture. Love John Wesley! Love my Arminian brothers and sisters in Christ! But I don’t agree with them on this point. 

Another possibility is secondly the “hypothetical loss of salvation” view. This was Charles Spurgeon’s view. He would say that the author is describing something here as a hypothetical abandoning of the faith, and if they did that, then they could never be saved again. Therefore it’s an impossibility, but he’s using it to make a point that we should always be growing and maturing in Christ, and we should never look back. Again, love Charles Spurgeon. He’s my guy. But I don’t think that’s what this author is describing here. 

And that doesn’t really square with my experiences. In fact, I had a friend once who advocated strongly for this position. And she said, “It’s hypothetical, this possibility, because I’ve never really seen anyone who has abandoned their faith or apostatized like this.” 

Well, I understand where she was coming from. But with all do respect, I have seen that. In fact I’ve seen that a lot. We even have common terms now like “deconvertion” and “exvangelical.” There’s an ex-vangelical podcast that you can listen to, where people talk about how they used to be a Christian, and now they’ve walked away from it because they didn’t believe anymore. That’s not a hypothetical. That’s a real thing in our world. 

And it’s not a new thing either. Bob Dylan went through some kind of “Christian phase” in the 1980s. Larry Flynt told the world that he was born again in the 1970s. In the 1950s, there was a famous gangster named Mickey Cohen who reportedly converted to Christianity. He wanted to become the world’s first “Christian gangster.” I heard Tommy Nelson say this last week that there was a popular book that came out in the 1980s called Testimonies of Christian Apostates. 

I read a story this week about D.L. Moody. “Moody was once approached by a stumbling drunk on the street who slurred, ‘Mr. Moody, I’m one of your converts.’ To which Moody replied, ‘You must be, because you’re certainly not one of the Lord’s [converts]!’” 

And beyond that, you even have these people in the Bible like Alexander the Coppersmith (2 Tim 4:14). You have people like Demas (2 Tim 4:10) and Simon the Magician (Acts 8:9-24). You have people like Hymenaeus and Alexander who shipwrecked their faith (1 Tim 1:19-20; see also 2 Tim 2:17; 4:15-16). And then you have Judas. What do you do with Judas? Judas cast out demons in Jesus’s name. Judas was one of Jesus’s twelve. And yet does anyone believe that Judas was once saved always saved? No. He was never saved in the first place. 

And that leads me to the third view. I personally need to have a category for something like what Hebrews 6 talks about. And I’m calling this the “nearly saved” view. In other words, these are individuals who play the game. They speak the language. They went through all the motions. But there wasn’t genuine conversion. You might say it this way—they were professors not possessors. They professed Christ, but they didn’t possess saving faith. And they are sometimes intimately involved in the community of faith. 

Look again at verse 4.

in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 

Some people think that’s the language of conversion. I don’t. I think this is describing someone who was intimately involved in the church. They heard the gospel. They interacted with Christians. They shared in the goodness of the Holy Spirit. They tasted the heavenly blessing of being in a fellowship of saints. 

Look at verse 5.

5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 

In other words, they may have even seen miracles. They’ve seen changed lives. They’ve seen the power of the Holy Spirit, and they got a foretaste of eternity… just like we do here every Sunday as we gather to worship God and bask in his presence. They saw that. They experienced it. But they didn’t put their faith in Christ, not really. They just followed the crowd at chow time. 

John MacArthur has warned, “It is dangerously self-deceptive for a person to think that, by staying on the sidelines, by holding off deciding, by thinking himself tolerant of the gospel simply because he does not outwardly oppose it, that he is safe. The longer one stays on the edge the more he leans toward the old life. Staying there too long inevitable results in falling away from the gospel forever.” 

Look at verse 6.

6 and then have fallen away,

Follow the train of thought here. It’s impossible for those who got that close to conversion, but then fell away… It’s impossible…

to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 

Now there’s two possibilities for this last sentence. The author is saying either that it’s impossible for them to be restored because of their falling away. Or that word “since” there could be translated “while.” The idea there is that it’s impossible for them to be restored “while” they are crucifying once again the Son of God. For someone who doesn’t have saving faith, they are in effect putting Jesus Christ on the cross again and condemning the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. That is unforgivable. In fact, that’s the only unforgiveable sin. 

What’s the unforgiveable sin according to Jesus? It’s the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:22-32). It’s rejecting Christ and rejecting the prompting of the Holy Spirit to put your faith in Christ. That’s the only sin that God won’t forgive. And that’s the sin that will send you to hell for eternity. 

Now there’s a possibility here that what the author is saying is that those exvangelicals out there that have rejected Christ and turn their back on the gospel that was preached to them, their fate is sealed and there’s no coming back. That’s a possible implication of this passage.

Here’s an even scarier warning. 2 Peter 2:21-22 says, “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’” 

Now here’s the thing. I can’t say confidently who has or hasn’t committed some unforgiveable sin. And I don’t presume upon what God can or can’t do. I’m more inclined to read this passage the second way, that is with a “while” in verse 6. “It is impossible for them to be restored again to repentance while they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” So if I see someone who has rejected Christ, maybe someone that I grew up with in the church, or maybe someone that I ministered to as a pastor, I would never presume to say to them, “There’s no coming back for you.” I would say instead, “Stop holding Christ up to contempt. Put your faith in Christ for real this time.” And I would keep verse 3 in mind. 

3 And this we will do if God permits.  

Now here’s the applicational force of this text for us as Christians. Everyone listening? If you are not a Christian or if you are faking it as a Christian, the application is put your faith in Christ and stop faking it. But for those of you who are believers, the application is this. Burn the ships of your old life. There’s no going back to a Christ-less life. There’s no going back to your BC days. There’s no going back to the “leeks and onions” in Egypt. Don’t think about that. Don’t romanticize that. Don’t get lost in that: “Boy, it sure was easier when I wasn’t a Christian! Boy, I sure wish the Holy Spirit would just let me sin without so much guilt and conviction.” NO! There’s no going back. And there’s no staying put in kindergarten either. You’ve got to move forward. 

For the audience of the book of Hebrews, the temptation wasn’t going back to a life without Christ as a Gentile. It was going back to a life before Christ as a Jew. Before all the persecution. Before all the challenges of actually walking with Christ and growing in Christ in a world that is hostile to Christ. It was hostile to Jews too, but not as much. At least as a Jew, you could still do your temple sacrifices and blend in with the people of your youth. And the author of Hebrews is saying here, “Burn the ships. There’s no going back.”

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So, build upon the basics of your faith. And burn the ships of your previous life. And thirdly, you bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 

Spiritual Maturity for a Christian Involves: 

1) Building upon the basics of the faith (6:1-3)

2) Burning the ships of your previous life (6:4-6)

3) Bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (6:7-8)

Let’s finish this up in verses 7-8. The author says, 

7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 

I love the agricultural imagery here, because it ties in so nicely to Jesus’s parables in the gospels. Jesus talked like this. Jesus gave several parables about soil and harvesting and producing a crop. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt 3:2). Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits (Matt 7:16). Jesus challenged the people concerning bearing fruit. He echoed the words of John the Baptist who said, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8; Luke 3:8). 

In one of Jesus parables, he talked about weeds sown among the wheat (Matt 13:24-43). And the servants asked the master, “Should we remove the wheat from the weeds?” The master said, “No. Let’s harvest them together. The wheat will be gathered in the barns. The weeds will be piled up and burned.” In other words, the Lord will sort out those who are his and those who aren’t his. And even if the Christian community now is a mixture of true and false converts, the Lord will sort it out in the end. 

But in another parable, in Matthew 13:1-23, Jesus talks about soils. And I think there’s a close correlation with that parable and what the author of Hebrews is writing here. Jesus talked about four soils that had different responses to the Word of God. Some of the soil was so hard that the seed didn’t even penetrate the ground. That seed was eaten by birds. Then there was a second soil that seeded and sprouted up quickly. But it was shallow soil that was full of rocks and it didn’t produce fruit. Then there was a third soil. And the seed on that soil was choked out by the thorns and thistles. That soil didn’t produce fruit either. It was only the fourth soil that produced. 

That’s the idea here in Hebrews 6:7-8. The rain falls on both good soil and bad soil. The good soil produces fruit. They receive a blessing from God. They are productive, and an aspect of their productiveness is their perseverance. They persevere in faith. And they produce fruit as evidence of their faith. Bad soil is worthless. Bad soil is fruitless. 

What’s being described here is the phenomenological aspects of saving faith. The truth is I can’t see your conversion. I don’t know your heart. I can’t see the metaphysical realities of someone being born again or being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. All I can see is the phenomena associated with that. All I can see, all that the author of Hebrews can see is the “fruit-bearing.” All I can see is your commitment to Christ. Your service of Christ. The change of your countenance. The growth of your love for God. Your singing of songs. Your victory over sin. Even those things can be faked. You can fake phenomena, for a while anyway. But eventually, the truth will be revealed in this world or in the world to come. 

To all this, you might say, “How do I bear fruit, Pastor Tony? I’m a Christian. I’m not faking it. But I want to bear more fruit. I want to mature spiritually in 2023. How do I do that?” Well here’s my encouragement for you. Let me change the agricultural analogy for you to John 15. You just stay anchored to the vine. You abide in Christ Jesus. Learn about him. Love him. Serve him. Love his church, the bride of Christ. You abide in the vine. Burn the ships of your previous life, and you abide in Christ Jesus. I know I’m mixing metaphors here, but I don’t care. 

“That’s too ambiguous, Pastor Tony. Can you give me more specifics?” Sure. Get to church on Sunday. Serve the Lord at church. Disciple someone in 2023. Find someone who is bearing much fruit and ask them to disciple you. 

Also get into God’s Word every day in 2023. Nothing has been more significant for my own spiritual growth and development than daily reading God’s Word. Nothing! I’ve been doing that since I was thirteen years old. That’s key to growth and spiritual maturity.

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And do this. Let me give you one final application. Never, ever forget what Jesus Christ has done for you. Remember him. Remember his sacrificial death for you on the cross. Remember him as often as you gather. Let’s do that now. Bow with me in a word of prayer and then we can take the Lord’s Supper together. 

Allen, Hebrews, NAC, 95.

O’Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews, PNTC, 2.

Owen, Hebrews, 21.

France, “Hebrews” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews-Revelation (Revised Edition), 38