On To Perfection
Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore, aleaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to 1perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from bdead works and of faith toward God, 2 cof the doctrine of baptisms, dof laying on of hands, eof resurrection of the dead, fand of eternal judgment.” [1]
I. Leaving
A. Discussion
B. Direction
II. Laying
A. Decision
B. Determination
III. Losing
A. Destination
B. Delight
Introduction: This message is a follow-up to one that was preached several weeks ago. That message was entitled “Receive Him.” That message is posted on our webpage for anyone interested.
The text this morning is from the New Testament book of Hebrews. There are many things that we do not know about this book and not knowing has caused some controversy through the years.
What we do know is it was written to Hebrew Christians. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles which are like many of us here today, so some believe this letter was probably not written by Paul. The Jews have an inside track to the law of God. Their ancestors were given the ten commandments. Some of the writing here in this book entitled Hebrews seems a little harsh as if an elderly college professor was having a bit of frustration with his class.
Remember that even Jesus got frustrated when He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and the disciples hadn’t learned to use the power, they held to cast out demons? He said this in Luke 9:41, “Then Jesus answered and said, “O 6faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and 7bear with you? Bring your son here.”[2] Sometimes pastors get frustrated too. God uses that to let them know when to move on to where He wants them to go.
As we review this text, put yourself in the place of a parent who has shown a hardheaded little boy the same thing over and over. When are you going to get this? It is time to move on to perfection! Do you even know what perfect means?
In Matthew 5:48 we know that Jesus said that we will be perfect. “fTherefore you shall be perfect, just gas your Father in heaven is perfect.” [3]
The title of today’s message is “On to Perfection.” The global church is not heading towards perfection now. There is that word progress that is being kicked around about this progressive movement in the world today. A prominent Christian leader has made statements that our nation has progressed too far away from God to return to our place of Spiritual prominence that we once enjoyed.
He may be right. I look around and I watch as Christians use the right words and seem to want to show love, but they really don’t understand God’s perfect love. Many want God to forget and do what they say instead of lamenting over the things we have allowed. There seems to be no remorse or survivor’s guilt. Jesus left heaven and died here so that I don’t have to. Many say that they are praying for you even though they don’t accept God’s will for themselves or the one they are supposedly praying for. Jesus demands perfect followers. He doesn’t accept demands from spoiled children. How can we get where Jesus wants us to be.
Scripture: The scripture for this message is Hebrews 6:1- 2. Please Stand Under the reading of God’s word.
Prayer: Please be seated and keep your Bible open to the text.
Message: I am reminded of an old mountain saying about needing direction to continue to the destination but insisting on going back to where you started instead. If you ask mountain folks why they are late they might say, “I just got turned around.”
I was waiting for a close friend to come out of the woods from deer hunting. Finally, I went in to where he was sitting in a tree, and I found the tree but no Billy. As I was standing there, Billy showed up wild eyed with a broken flashlight. “I just kept finding myself back here at this tree.”
You will never reach your destination if you are afraid to leave where you are. This is essentially what the author of Hebrews is saying here. If we don’t conclude this comfortable conversation about the feel-good things, we will not take up our cross and follow Jesus. We will never leave the truth of the so-called elemental principles of Christ, but we must move on. This author was simply saying that it was time to discuss where we are going and move in the perfect direction as Jesus moved.
We must be perfect to be in the presence of God and we will be. I am not there yet.
He listed some of the principal things they kept going back to in their conversations that kept them from moving on to perfection. These things are essential and should be understood such as, repentance from dead works and faith toward God. It is easy to talk about where you came from or where you still are. It is very good to hear people testify about their devotion from those who have taken Jesus as their Lord. These are not conversations about moving towards perfection. This is how God made you better than you were. This is a conversation about moving from where you were. The author said it was time to talk about where you are going not where you are.
There is so much talk now about politics. It seems that’s all that people want to talk about. What is the government going to do with the church? Don’t you know that in God’s perfect world the church allows government to exist. Just a few weeks ago we were talking about Independence Day. Many said they were glad that we live in a country that allows us to have church. We’ve got it backwards.
Jesus was asked when all this stuff would end. The disciples insisted that they must know the date so they could prepare. At that time, Jesus said even He didn’t know the exact time but only The Father in heaven knew. Jesus gave us signs so that we could understand that the end is indeed coming but we must live by faith as we wait.
Strange thing in the Bible… In the gospel accounts Jesus gave many examples of what heaven is like. I felt God’s call to talk about those things that were important to Jesus. There are thirteen sermons on our webpage from the gospel of Matthew concerning what heaven is like. There is only one chapter in Matthew about the signs leading to the end of this place. It is time for us to talk about where we are going and move in that direction.
The author talked about laying a foundation. Once a building is built the foundation is surely there, and it will not move, but the building is that which is seen. He talked about decisions such as baptism and laying on of hands that relate to evidence of a changed life. He talked about God’s determination of raising a dead person to an eternal living Christian. And the author talked about those who would experience eternal judgement.
The next paragraph is very controversial because it has been taken out of context. Keep in mind as we hear verses four through eight that the author here mentioned eternal decisions that we make and eternal determinations from God. Those next five verses contain a hypothetical idea. The truth is this, each of us has one shot at eternity with Jesus. He is the way, not a way. He is the truth, not one truth of many. He is the life and there is no life without Jesus. Once a person has truly accepted Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit will be the guide to the Christian. This is not a religion. It is a relationship between Creator and creature.
Now let’s hear, “4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted gthe heavenly gift, and hhave become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 3if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, isince they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, jreceives blessing from God; 8 kbut if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.” [4]
There are two thoughts here. It is impossible to regain your way back to perfection if you have ever truly had it and decide then to reject it. That is scary and the author talks more about that later. So will we. There is a doctrine held by some that believe this text is the basis for praying each night for forgiveness from backsliding. Backsliding is surely what I do, and it is good to pray and give God thanks that He has forgiven you but you doing anything is not the basis for your salvation. This that the author is talking about here is not that. This is the unpardonable sin that Jesus mentions when He told us about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is unpardonable. If you have The Holy Spirit and accuse Him of being a liar, you are done. That is a great big “if.”
Verses seven and eight refer to those who hear the word and produce fruit versus those who hear and do nothing with that which they hear. Some refute the truth of Jesus as the Holy Spirit gives witness. They didn’t lose their delight. They chose to be rejected. They never had the delight of a relationship with Jesus. We choose our own destination and God is not the blame for our decisions.
Aren’t you joyful that God is omniscient? There are many preachers that would tell you that God forgives and forgets your sin. If God were not all knowing so that He forgets nothing, Jesus would not have had a need to leave heaven. Sin is terrible. God hates it. He doesn’t forget anything and yet He sent Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for you and me. Forgiveness is a miracle which is impossible without God’s perfect love.
NO! God does not forget. And He doesn’t forget the better things that He has in store for us either. He loves you. He hates sin because it separates us from God and He wants a relationship with us. The author talked about the “if”, now let’s hear what he says about the “but” or the perfect alternative to that “if.”
Let us read the next few verses. “9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. 10 For lGod is not unjust to forget myour work and 4labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have nministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence oto the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become 5sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience pinherit the promises.” [5]
Prayer:
Invitation:
So now, what is this perfection? What is it that we must attain? Is the world’s idea of love like the Beetles sang about really all we need? What kind of love is Paul speaking of in 1 Corinthians 13? It is the epitome of the gifts from the Holy Spirit. Let’s hear about it from the one who refers to himself as the one Jesus loved.
1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but sperfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth eis not made perfect in love.” [6]
We fear those who seem to be in control over our earthly existence such as politicians, the press, programmers who create so-called social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and the like. Nobody has control of you if you allow God in your life and we should not live in awe of them.
The word awe is often compared with the word fear. We fear God which is to say that we are in total awe of God. That is a good thing. John is not saying here in 1 John 4:18 that we lose that awe of God when we achieve perfect love. To have apprehension which causes a person to lose total trust in God alone is that fear which John is mentioning here.
There will be times of apprehension when we do not know whether we can trust God recklessly or not. God will allow trials to come and pass which will strengthen your faith in Him. The result through those tests will be reliance on God alone. We will finally learn to trust and love Him perfectly without reservation. If we don’t and we continue to fall back into believing that we can believe those who don’t believe in Him, we will only find torment of soul.
Was Jesus ever tried in this way? Gethsemane! Let this cup pass from me Father but not my way but thine be done. Jesus loves His Father perfectly and even Jesus had to face indecision. On His cross Jesus felt rejection as He cried, My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me.
When we feel that apprehension, we are getting closer to perfect love. Hebrews 5:8, “Though he were xa Son, yet ylearned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And zbeing made perfect, he became athe author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;” [7]
We will sing a song of reflection as The Holy Spirit invites each of us to respond. Let us each search our hearts and put off those petty fears and apprehensions that are getting in the way of us moving to trust Jesus perfectly. Then we will have perfect love and the church will finally be perfect.
a Heb. 5:12
1 maturity
b [Heb. 9:14]
c John 3:25; Acts 19:3–5
d [Acts 8:17]
e Acts 17:31
f Acts 24:25
[1] The New King James Version (Heb 6:1–2). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
6 unbelieving
7 put up with
[2] Ibid, (Lk 9:41). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
f Gen. 17:1; Lev. 11:44; 19:2; Luke 6:36; [Col. 1:28; 4:12]; James 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15
g Eph. 5:1
[3] Ibid, (Mt 5:48). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
g [John 4:10]; Eph. 2:8
h [Gal. 3:2, 5]; Heb. 2:4
3 Or and have fallen away
i Heb. 10:29
j Ps. 65:10
k Is. 5:6
[4] Ibid,(Heb 6:4–8). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
l Rom. 3:4
m 1 Thess. 1:3
4 NU omits labor of
n Rom. 15:25; Heb. 10:32–34
o Col. 2:2
5 lazy
p Heb. 10:36
[5] The New King James Version (Heb 6:9–12). (1982). Thomas Nelson.
s So Ecclus. 25:12. See Rom. 8:15.
e See ch. 2:5. So ver. 18.
[6] Ibid., 1 Jn 4:18). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
x See ch. 1:2. So John 14:31.
y So Phil. 2:8.
z Wisd. 4:13. Phil. 3:12. ch. 2:10. & 7:28. & 11:40. & 12:23. See Luke 13:32.
a So ch. 2:10.
[7] Ibid., Heb 5:8–9). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
