Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Dreams have always been a fascination for us as human beings.

Why do we dream what we do?

What leads to happy dreams and what leads to nightmares?

Why do some people remember their dreams and others seem to not be able to remember them?

Dreams have this weird ability to impact our lives, even after we wake up.

If you have a good dream, you’re more likely to be happy in the morning… if you have a bad dream, you’re more likely to be groggy and grouchy when you wake up.

Sometimes we imagine the best case scenario in our dreams… other times, though, we imagine the worst case scenario.

Nearly 500 years ago, the leader of the protestant reformation, Martin Luther, had quite the dream.

In this nightmare of sorts, Satan approached him with 3 large books and each book was full of his sins.

Satan began accusing him of various things he had said and done and asked, “Did you really do that?”

Luther said, “Yes, any more?”

Book one turned into two, and eventually three… Luther asked, “Any more?” Satan said, “No.

But isn’t that enough?

You don’t really think God could forgive you of all that?”

Luther didn’t answer… in his dream he grabbed a pen and wrote across each book, “The blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin.”

As we sang about this morning, aren’t you thankful that the blood of Jesus alone washes us white as snow and cleanses us of our sin before our holy God?

This is good news and cause for celebration!

Whenever it comes to our salvation, though, people have questions.

What does it mean to be saved?

How do I know if I am saved?

Can I lose my salvation?

Will God kick me out if I sin bad enough?

For thousands of years, Christians have examined these questions and so many more.

Today, these are the questions that people want to know.

As we continue walking through Hebrews, we arrive at Hebrews 6.

This is one of the most debated passages of Scripture in the entire Bible and one that has the potential to leave people in hopeless despair.

As we walk through the first 8 verses this morning and continue to look at what lies underneath our mask, simply ask yourself this: Has Jesus saved you?

Not are you saved… Not have you prayed the prayer… Not have you done anything… Has Jesus sealed, saved, and secured you?

If your answer is no, if you’ve just been playing the church game but you’ve never been genuinely changed from the inside out by Jesus Christ, then I pray that this passage would resonate with you and convict you to understand how desperately you and I need Jesus each day.

Impossible is a strong word… In fact, it’s the strongest possible word in this context and it shows up 4 times in the book of Hebrews, first here in 6:4.

If you reject Jesus as Lord and Savior, that means that you are an enemy of Jesus Christ.

If you are an enemy of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the only way that we can be saved, that means that you have also rejected the only means of your salvation.

If you reject Him, it is impossible for you to be saved because, in essence, you are putting Jesus back on the cross.

Actions have consequences, church.

What have you done with Jesus Christ in your life?

Do you know Him as Lord or do you just know about Him? Are you growing in your spiritual walk with Him, or are you staying in your comfort zone?

Wherever you stand, let’s pray that God would help us heed this warning wisely and do business with Him faithfully.

The Pathway to Spiritual Maturity (1-3)

Last week we began unpacking this difficult section of God’s Word by seeing how, as Christians, we are called to grow in our walk with the Lord on the path of maturity.

To progress from milk to meat.

Now, everyone’s path to maturity looks a little different.

Some people immediately “get it” and are able to grasp the meat and other people are on the milk a little while longer.

Think of a swimming pool - because summer is around the corner!

In most pools you have a shallow end and a deep end.

Think of the swimming pool in relation to the church.

Whenever you are saved by grace through faith in Christ, you get into the pool but you don’t just jump straight off the high dive… you get your feet wet in the zero entry section.

You’re saved, you’re in the pool… but you can’t go very deep because you’re new to it.

Some progress down the pool quicker than others and they’ll start diving with the people who have been doing it for a long time… but others stay in the shallow area where it’s safe and they can touch.

Our church is like a big pool and what God’s Word tells us is that, yes, there is a shallow end for new believers as they enter into the family of God and we disciple them and encourage them to go and make more disciples and give them the basics of God’s Word.

There will always be that shallow end of the pool because that’s how we all got into the pool in the first place.

But for those of us who are in the pool, we have to understand that God wants us to make our way from the shallow end to the deep end.

Guess what?

That means that at some point, some sooner than others, you won’t be able to touch the bottom.

That can be a scary feeling - but whenever you’re saved and you grow in your walk with the Lord, all you are doing is putting your trust in Him and following Him wherever He leads you to go and growing in your understanding of His Word.

This is our call - to make our way down the pool, one step, one section at a time.

As we look at the shallow section of the pool, at least in Hebrews 6:1-3, we see some of the things that we encounter there.

Some of the basics and foundational aspects of our faith in Christ.

These are things that we all must understand in our Christian walk.

Let’s look at these 3 things along the pathway of Spiritual Maturity.

Repentance from Works / Faith in Christ

We’ll look at this text later in our service, but in Acts 2 we see Peter preach the first sermon after Jesus’ resurrection and he preaches about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The people are pierced to the heart and they ask what they must do to be saved and the first thing that Peter shares is that they must repent of their sins.

Repentance is not just saying I’m sorry… it’s not just praying a magical prayer… repentance is doing a 180 in your life.

The preacher of Hebrews is telling this congregation that part of this foundation of their faith is understanding that they must repent of their sins and not place their faith in their own works but in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

If you don’t think that you need to repent then you don’t understand how seriously God takes sin and you’re not saved.

Those who are saved understand how we could never save ourselves and how we all must place our faith in Christ as Lord.

Washing/Laying on of Hands

This second part might be confusing to an extent for us as Baptists.

What does the preacher mean here?

Many believe that this washing is in reference to baptism.

We know that baptism does not in and of itself save us of our sins because there’s nothing magical about the water up there or in the Current River (although sometimes the baptistry waters feel a lot like the Current River).

Baptism is what we are called to do as Christians.

We are called to follow Christ’s example and be baptized to demonstrate our faith in Him and make that public demonstration.

The laying on of hands is another one that might seem strange, but in the book of Acts and throughout the Old Testament, the laying on of hands demonstrated a blessing to the person.

Some were commissioned through this and in Acts 8 and 9 we see that the laying on of hands was whenever some received the Holy Spirit.

This foundational principle is all about genuine faith in Christ.

One has faith, they have received the Holy Spirit, and they have followed through with believers baptism.

This is important!

Resurrection/Judgment

The final pair is about the resurrection that believers are awaiting as 1 Corinthians 15 speaks about and the judgment that is awaiting those who have rejected Christ as Lord.

This is foundational as Christians look ahead to the future with confidence, not fear and share the Gospel with urgency because we know what is awaiting us.

These are good things.

These are necessary things.

As Christians we must know what Scripture teaches about these doctrines and more, but we can’t just stay here.

If you’ve heard the Gospel and you repented of your sins, placed your faith in Christ, joined the church through believers baptism, and are looking forward with joy to Christ’s second coming and you stop there… there’s a problem.

The preacher shares that we must leave this elementary teaching and press on.

This doesn’t mean that we forget it, we can’t ever forget what Christ has done for us… but if God gives us the time (verse 3), we must strive to grow and better understand the depth of His Word.

We must make our way down the pool from the shallow end to the deep end because there are riches that we must carefully mine from His Word.

The pathway to spiritual maturity is not necessarily an easy one - it requires effort and obedience to God’s Word… but it’s worth it!

Think about where you’re at in the pool today.

As we press onto spiritual maturity, this means that we study Scripture and we desire to grow to be more like Christ and this means that we have to deal with passages like Hebrews 6 that might be a little hard to fully wrap our minds around, especially verses 4-8 where we find, second

The Peril of Spiritual Apostasy (4-8)

Let’s do some fundamental Bible interpretation 101 tools for a minute.

A lot of people who reject the Bible as God’s Word and who reject Jesus as their Savior like to argue that the Bible has contradictions in it and that the Bible is simply man’s word, not God’s and as a result, isn’t anything special.

It’s a respected book because of its influence on the history of the world, but they argue that it isn’t applicable in general today because it’s outdated and things like that.

Part of understanding God’s Word is understanding its authority.

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is inspired by God… God is Himself truth and His Word is truth.

God is our creator and sustainer.