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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can and reaches toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calbryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

There are many difficult passages in the scriptures. And some of those you’ll find them in the book of Hebrews. And that just happens to be the book that says, your doll of hearing. It means that you’re tired and you’re weary and you can’t discern too well. And he says that your babes in Christ and meat belongs to those that are of full age who have their reasons exercised to discern of good and evil. And then after saying all of that, He gives them a morsel to really chew on.

I mean a very difficult morsel. I’ve even gone into our library. I pull books off the shelf that dealt with Hebrews chapter 6. You can’t believe how many guys don’t agree with each other. You think, well, everybody ought to agree, especially after talking to them about, All right, I’m going to give you some things to chew on. And you would think, well, he’d let up a little bit. And instead he talked to them about some very difficult things and what he said was, this will we do if God permits.

We’re going to go into some hard stuff. In the Lord, he didn’t because they were still babes. He didn’t just give them some milk. I believe he just kind of put the spread out there and kind of loaded the table down and says, now you think you know something? Chew on this for a while. And buddy, we’re still chewing on those things. And I have read a lot of great men who just can’t seem to see eye to eye.

I’m not one of those great men. They wrote a lot of books and did a lot of things over their life. But I couldn’t believe how many different views there were on Hebrews chapter 6. So I want you to take your Bible and go to the book of Hebrews in chapter 6. This is the second message concerning difficult passages. We’re going to be covering a few of them. We talked about Hebrews chapter 10. And today, Hebrews chapter 6. Sometimes it’s difficult knowing exactly how to start explaining a portion of Scripture.

Sometimes you have to lay the foundation. Well, that’s exactly where we’ll start with the foundation. And the reason is because he says we don’t need to lay the foundation. So I’m going to lay the foundation before we get here. There is a scripture that talks about and Corinthians in chapter 3 talks about there is no foundation which can be laid which is Christ Jesus and Take heed how we build up on the foundation So the foundation is Christ So there are certain basic things that you teach lost people so they can not understand and trust the Lord Remember this this is to the Christian Hebrews is to the believers But Hebrew believers They understood the law.

They knew about the temple. They knew about the high priest. They knew about Aaron and the sacrifices. They knew about Melchizedek and Abraham, the tribe of Levi, the tithe, all these things. They knew all these things. And even under Judaism, they did many of the things concerning the baptisms in the washing of pots and pans and various things. and the cleansing of themselves, various things that they had to go through, laying out of hands, certain simple basic things that even these Hebrew Christians What understand?

So there is a basic foundation that all believers have to understand, and that is there is eternal judgment. That’s why we need a Savior and that we cannot save ourselves so we need Christ. And so we know that after we’ve trusted Christ as our Savior we should be baptized in water because it’s a picture of the death barrel and resurrection of Christ. I believe to the Jewish Christian, it probably meant a little bit more in depth with Judaism and their understanding than what the normal Christian would understand because he’s talking to that kind of people.

He’s reminding them of Moses in his house about the wilderness, about the land of Canaan, And about how there were those that, because of unbelief, couldn’t go into the Promised Land. So there’s many things that’s Hebrew for the Jewish people. So you and I as a Gentile who don’t totally understand all the things about Judaism are going to have sometimes a more difficult time understanding some of these complex things. You would think since he just told him, he says, you have need of milk.

You would think, okay, this is really going to be easy from here on out. He’s going to give him some more milk. But he didn’t. I think it’s kind of like a wake-up call. Feed the ones that want to be fed. The ones that don’t want to eat, don’t want to grow, don’t want to do anything. Let them alone. Feed the ones who want to feed. Grow the ones that want to grow. the ones that want to be discipled.

And this is where I believe the apostle Paul who I believe wrote the book of Hebrews. I have absolutely no authority for that, just my opinion. But here in the book of Hebrews, I want you to look first of all in chapter 5 and verse 11. Ava hometp we have many things to say and hard to be uttered or explained. Seeing you are dull of hearing. What’s he talking about? We see the word right before this verse. In verse 10 says, Call of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

So what in the world does that mean? Ava home, and then he gets into it later on in chapter 7. talking about Melchizedek. He says, but there’s a lot of things that’s going to be hard for you to understand because you see, you haven’t been growing like you should. It wasn’t that what Paul, or I should say Hebrews teaches, is that much difficult is that you haven’t been feeding and growing in the Lord so that you don’t have the discernment that you ought to have.

So he made the statement in verse 12, for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, but it ain’t gonna be me. I’m not gonna do it. I’m going on. I got things to teach those who wanna listen, those that wanna grow. Sometimes that’s the same thing that happens in church. People can come, trust, crisis, Savior, sit for years, never grow.

But then you’ll have a few that says, I want more. I want to get in something that’s a little bit more meaty. I want something deeper. I wanna learn something that’ll help me to do more with my life. I want to think deeper. I want to be more spiritually minded. And there are Christians who just want to coast. Don’t shake the boat. Just let me alone. Let me just ride along. Let everybody else do the work, but just let me coast.

And there’s people like that. God’s work will always be like that. Most of all the work in every church is always done on the backs of about 10% of the people. He says in the last part of verse 12, and are become such as need of milk and not of strong meat. But what is he fixing to give them? Strong meat. And that’s why there’s so many difficult things in the book of Hebrews that causes a babe in Christ to really struggle with.

And sometimes even godly men struggle with the meaning of some of these topics because they’re deep. And it seemed like it could go three or There are four different ways, so many options. You see, there’s these people that will read chapter 6 and talks about, this has got to be talking about people who have been enlightened, but they rejected the light, and now therefore they cannot be saved. They have sinned away their day of grace, and I’ve heard this used many a time.

You’ve sinned away your day of grace. In other words, when you know the truth You rebel against it, that’s it. Door’s closed. You can’t be saved after that. Now there’s a lot of people who teach that. Many, many people. I do not believe that. I believe a man can be saved as long as he draws breath and desires to be saved. God will not save any man against his will. The only man that God can’t save is the man that won’t trust him.

That’s the only one. So he makes a statement in verse 13, For everyone that uses milk is unskilledful in the word of righteousness, for he’s a babe. Strong meat and the longer to them that are a full age, even those in the United Kingdom. Even those who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now where we have the word discern right there, I want you to take and go over there where it has in chapter six.

And this is what we do if God permits. You see, it depends upon your discernment. You can go on to maturity based on discernment. If you can’t discern right from wrong, you’re not going to go very far. You’re just not going to be able to understand what God is talking about. One of the men that really helped me an awful lot in my Christian life. More than he knows, I never met the guy. Was iron sight. My father-in-law got me on some of those books that iron side wrote.

Everybody ever heard of iron sight? Just about everybody. Well, anyway, those books really were good. My father-in-law got me the first iron side book. It was on the book of Galatians. Boy, I devoured that book. Oh, I love that book. And I would have been safe six months or so, six months or a year. And I would sit there and I read that book and I read regulations and I read that and I understand a lot of it. And I got a lot of other books and I got a whole bunch of his books.

I used to get a whole bunch of books by Dr. Oliver B. Green. Anybody ever heard of Oliver B. Green? Gospel hour. And he used to come down and preach at our church. And the guy was wild. Scared you to death. He could get you saved in one message and get you lost before it was over. And if you were saved before he started, he could get you lost. Then he had to get you saved again at the end of the service.

The guy was, he was good, but you just don’t know how good. Well, they’re not, he could cause you to doubt your salvation just like that. Betty’s mom used to listen to him all the radio on the time on the radio. And after a while she was, I’m not sure I’m saved. Because the guy would say, well, if you’re really saying, you’re not going to do this, this and this and this. But I read a lot of his commentaries.

We have many, many in the library. I read a lot of them. And they’re very good. He is very, very good. Every once in a while just says something off the cuff. But there’s a lot of people that you will not find everybody who agrees perfectly on everything. Dr. Alinstram and I, we both love the Lord, love soul, but we’re not going to agree on everything. We’re not going to teach every scripture exactly the same way. Dr. Stanford, he called me up yesterday, I think it was yesterday.

Anyway, we talked for a good while. And he said several things to me, and then several things more. But at 95, I just hope my mind is as clear as this is now. I’m glad he even remembered me at 95. So anyway, but we don’t agree on everything. You will not find out below and behold you and your wife don’t agree on everything. You didn’t know that. You just wait. You’ll see. If you’ve ever had an argument it’s because you didn’t agree on everything and I know you thought she was perfect and she thought you was perfect and you find out both of you just conned each other.

So that’s the way it goes. But anyway you can read a lot of books and the The thing is it causes you to study, study the Word of God. You need to be convinced yourself, not whole of you because, well, the pastor holds this view. That’s not a good reason to hold a view. You should believe what you believe because you’re convinced by the Scripture because you have learned discernment of what’s right and wrong and how it agrees perfectly with other scriptures and it will help you tremendously.

Now in chapter six, I want you to see the word there again. See in verse one, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go unto perfection or maturity, not laying again, not laying again. See that word again? Now look over there in verse six. If they shall fall away to renew them again. You see, this is talking about the same thing. So verse six is talking about verse one. And something that happened in verse 1 doesn’t have to be done again.

Because it’s impossible for a man to be saved. Lose the salvation, get saved again. It’s impossible. Now if you take it any other way, and many people do, they say, well, this is just a picture of those people in Israel who came through the wilderness, and there’s the promised land. and because of unbelief they didn’t get to go into the promised land. They got close! But they just get and get to go in. And that’s a picture of people who they hear the gospel.

They understand the right there. And God’s illuminated their minds. And they know I’m a sinner and I need to be saved. And they’re right there to door. And then they reject it. And they go away. Never to return. Because it’s impossible for those that have been brought up to the threshold. and then rebel against light, refuse it. And then they go their own way and they can never be saved again, never be saved in the future. Because it’s impossible.

God won’t even lighten you twice. I’ve talked to people who have seen it and heard it and understood for years. And just finally one day they trust Christ as their Savior. I heard it for three months before I trusted the Lord. How many times did you hear the gospel before you finally saw it? And you may have even waited. But you see, these scriptures are not talking about a person who comes up to the door of salvation and turns and goes away from it.

And then God will never save them again. Impossible. I don’t believe that’s what it’s talking about. And one man who wrote, well, this is talking about those who failed to persevere in the faith. They didn’t persevere. They were there, they believed it, partakers of it, but they didn’t persevere. So that was a sign they never were really saved, but because they had the opportunity, it’s all over, never be saved in the future. So you say, well, what is it talking about?

Let me just put it very clearly, simply. We’re talking to Hebrew Christians, we’re talking to believers, believers that should be serving the Lord, teaching the Word of God, but they haven’t learned their discernment as they should. And therefore, they’re looked upon as still spiritual babes. They’re not mature as they ought to be, but what he has to share with them and teach them is meet for the mature, something that they’re not going to understand and it’s going to be difficult for them.

And so he goes ahead and does it anyway, but he tells him this. I don’t have to lay the foundation again. So what I want you to look there is this word found there in verse one. Not laying again the foundation. Not laying again the foundation. That means you’re not going to have to lay a foundation again. Well, what is the foundation? The foundation is the Lord. The foundation is Christ. Let’s say for example. you trust Christ as your Savior, you are placed upon the foundation which is Christ.

He’s the rock, the solid rock. Now you may tremble on the rock, but the rock will never tremble under you. You are on the rock, you’re safe, you’re secure, He put you there by faith and faith alone. So you were not put there because you earned it, deserved it, it was by grace. God saved you. Now He says, take heed how you you build upon the foundation. So now as a child of God, you and I are supposed to be very careful how we build on this foundation.

And you build because of what the Word of God says. So that’s why you learn the Word of God so that you can do what God wants and build your life. So what we talk about is this, and I mentioned this to several here, we don’t want to take and use people just to try to build a ministry, but use a ministry to build people, to make people strong, strong in the Lord. Because the greatest thing you’ll ever build is going to be yourself.

Whatever you are is what you reproduce. And so we have a responsibility as God’s children to try to teach and help and educate others so they can be strong in the Lord because you want the best for them. So he says, you don’t have to lay the foundation again. See, they’re in this verse, the foundation of repentance from dead works. That means that you don’t have to get a person to get saved again because he’s not been lost. He hasn’t lost his salvation, so he doesn’t have to get on the foundation again because he never fell off the foundation.

He is on the foundation and he is secure on the foundation and that can never change. He has eternal life. But he says here… The foundation of repentance from dead works. That means you do not trust in your works, dead works for your salvation, but because of your faith in the Lord. So every man is to repent, change his mind and see that he cannot save himself by his works. Dead works can’t give life. Dead works come from a dead man.

And a dead man is someone who separates you. from God. So a lost man cannot save himself by producing dead works which cannot give life. Eternal life must come from life and that’s Christ. So he is eternal life and he gives me the free gift of eternal life when I trust him as my Savior. So when he talks here about the let us go on to maturity, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, then he tells us what those simple principle things are.

And he’s mentioned in them right here in verse 2 of the doctrine of baptism, laying on of hands, because you see this was in the transition period where the apostles laid their hands upon different ones to receive the Holy Spirit. And afterwards that is not done. And the baptism, eternal judgment, that’s all has to deal with the first principles of the oracles of God. And knowing and understanding you’re saved and why you’re saved and how long you’re saved for and you’re saved from something, eternal judgment.

So in verse three, he said, and this will we do if God permits. Well, why wouldn’t God permit it? The only thing that keeps you from growing and maturing in the Lord is your lack of faith in what God’s Word says, not to believe the Lord. And yes, there is a point can be made from chapter 3 and 4 of the book of Hebrews about the children of Israel in the wilderness didn’t go into the Promised Land because of their unbelief.

Now it is their unbelief that got them into the Promised Land, but the Promised Land wasn’t heaven. The Promised Land was a place of victory for the mature Christian. The wilderness is like for the person who just wanders all over the place for 40 years and wastes his life. So yes, as a believer in Christ, I want to go to the Promised Land. I want to go to that which God brought the maturing of a believer to believe the Word of God so that I can be mature where I can discern right from wrong and meet five mature.

And I learned these things. Then the Bible talks about cast not away, therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. You see, rewards in heaven is a result of your work and your work is a result of your confidence. And your confidence is a result of your faith. So therefore, as you study the word of God and believe the word of God, your faith increases, your work increases and your reward increases. So therefore, it’s important for every child of God to discipline himself to absorb whatever light you have truth that you know and walk according to the light that God has given to you.

So that verse here verse one is explained in the following verses. So he says, not land again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Why? Because it’s impossible, as he says there in verse six, if they could fall away to renew them again unto repentance. So that’s why you don’t lay the foundation again. In the words, once a man is saved, you don’t have to get him saved again. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior and you’ve been saved for 30 years, but you’ve never matured in the Lord, you still can’t get that person received because that person can’t get unsaved.

Because once you’re on the foundation, you have eternal life and you’re going to heaven whenever you die. And this is what the Bible is teaching here. So if you look up there in verse three, and this will we do if God permits. Several things here. One, God will not let you understand some deeper truths in the word of God because of your lack of discernment. You can’t understand what God is saying. It doesn’t make any sense to you. So that’s why sometimes when you will not obey the truth or the light that God gives to you, you can sit down and read the Bible, and you’ll get a little milk here and a little milk there, but the meat you won’t be able to get, and you will not understand it.

You will not develop as a strong Christian. You’ll see others that mature and take off like a rocket, and you’ll wonder, why? What’s wrong with me? Well, maybe you haven’t developed right. Maybe you don’t believe the word of God and trust Him like you should. And you’re discernment to make the wise decisions. See, some Christians, they just make some of the stupidest decisions that affects their whole life. And they don’t think it makes any difference, you know, who they marry or where they work or the way they live.

Nothing matters. Just do whatever you want. You’re lacking discernment. And so therefore you’re not going to get what you would have loved have had. Now look in verse four. In verse four it says, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, to have tasted the heavenly gift and made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Now some people say, See this is just those who come up to the threshold, but not really partake. They only tasted. They really didn’t go all the way and get everything.

They almost got saved. Almost. They were right there to door and they turned around and went the other way. Like a gripper says, almost, I persuaded me to be a Christian. Oh, we don’t know. He could trust the Lord later. He didn’t have to trust the Lord that minute. We don’t know. But is that what this is talking about? But look there in chapter two, Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two and look in verse nine, where it says, but we see Jesus who has made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.

Get this, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. But he didn’t really die, he just tasted it. would you say that about this verse? If you would say it about the other verse, then you ought to say it about this verse. So when he tasted death for every man, do you really believe that he literally died for every man? I do. And when he says in this verse, that have pasted of the heavenly gift and were made, that’s past it.

We’re made par takers of the Holy Ghost. Well, you only got a part of them. You didn’t get all of them. You just got maybe some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but you didn’t get the Holy Spirit. Why read all of that? Why just just carefully what he says? So, see, your theology sometimes will dictate how you understand the scriptures instead of letting the scriptures dictate your theology. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, In a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr.

Ralph Arnold, we pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Life broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friends, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.