Outline: “When Faith Doesn’t Stick” Hebrews 6:1-12, March 8th 2015

The author of the book of Hebrews in writing primarily to a Jewish Christian audience. People who had grown up traditional Jewish, but then came to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

Some of them out of the comfort of familiarity of Judaism and the discomfort of ungrounded faith in Christ were considering leaving Christianity and going back into Judaism. He is calling on them to push on to maturity and not stay in stagnation or drift back to the Old Covenant.

How do we respond when faith doesn’t seem to stick?

“Four Responses to a Stagnant Faith”

I.     Press on to Maturity [1-3]

a. Foundation (1-2)

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

We are called to grow spiritually.

2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

b. Perspective (3)

³ And this we will do if God permits.

This work of maturing will occur as people strive for maturity and as God works to bring them to maturity.

James 4:14-15 (ESV)
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

 Life is a book in volumes three:

      The past, the present, the yet-to-be.

      The past is written and laid away;

      The present we're writing day by day;

      The last and best of volumes three – which is the yet to be, The future. Which Is locked from sight--God keeps the key.

      -- Anonymous

II.     Do Not Fall Away  [4-6]

a. Christian or non-Christian?  (4-5)

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,

The Main Views

1. Saved persons who are subsequently lost.

But (John 10:28 NIV)  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

2. Professed believers who were never really saved.

3. Hypothetical case to illustrate the folly of apostasy

4. Saved persons who backslide from grace to legalism.

b. restore them again ?  (6)

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.

God has a higher standard for those who should or should have known better regarding their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.

Numbers 14:22-23 (ESV)
22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

This call to restore is expressed in

James 5:19-20 (ESV)
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

III.  Learn From Your Garden [7-8]

a. Vegetables (7)

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.

b. Thorns (8)

⁸ But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

The Apostle Paul wrote that some Christians in Corinth died under the discipline of God.

1 Corinthians 11:30 (ESV)
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

The fearfulness of discipline is also expressed in

1 Corinthians 3:15 (ESV)
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

IV.  Persevere in the Faith [9-12]

a. Author’s Perspective (9-10)

⁹ Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

A man came to a construction site, where stonemasons were working. The man said to one, "What are you doing?"

   The stonemason said, "You can see, I'm chipping a stone."

   The man walked over to another mason and said, "What are you doing?"

   He answered, "I'm building a wall."

   The man walked over to a third mason and said, "What are you doing?"

This mason answered, "I am building a cathedral." Ha! All three were doing the same thing, but what a difference perspective makes!

   -- Gordon Johnson

What are you doing?

Going through the motions of life till you die?

Or

Seeking to Serve God whenever, however, and wherever he allows?

Life makes more sense when we live with an eternal perspective.

b. Author’s Desire (11-12)

¹¹ And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

                  

Put your name in the Verse....

Isaiah 53:5 (ESV)
5 But he was pierced for [----------------our] transgressions;

 he was crushed for [--------------------our] iniquities;

 upon him was the chastisement that brought [----------us] peace, and

with his wounds [----------] are healed.

Put your name in the Verse...

John 3:16 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved [____________],

that he gave his only Son,

that [_______________] believes in him should not perish

 but [____________________ ] have eternal life.