Hebrews 6
I. A Superior Person: Christ (1-6)
A. \\#Heb 1:1-3\\ Christ is superior to the prophets.
B. \\#Heb 1:4-14\\ Christ is superior to the angels.
C. \\#Heb 2:1-18\\ Explanation and Emphasis
D. \\#Heb 3:1-6\\ Christ is superior to Moses.
E. \\#Heb 3:7-4:16\\ Explanation and Emphasis
F. \\#Heb 4:14-5:10\\ Christ is superior to the High Priest
G. \\#Heb 5:11-6:20\\ Explanation and Emphasis
1. \\#Heb 5:11-14\\ You are dull of hearing.
2. \\#Heb 6:1-8\\ We must continue to grow.
3. \\#Heb 6:9-20\\ The Lord will help you.
a. \\#Heb 6:9-12\\ A desire-Better things for these readers.
b. \\#Heb 6:13-15\\ An example-God gave to Abraham what He had
promised.
c. \\#Heb 6:16-20\\ A precept-God will not change what He has
promised.
4. \\#Heb 6:20\\ A transition back to Melchisedec.
I. \\#Hebrews 5:11-6:20\\ Explanation and Emphasis
A. \\#5:11-14\\ You are dull of hearing.
B. \\#6:1-8\\ We must continue to grow.
1. \\#1\\ "let us go on"-Paul goes from using the pronoun "ye"
\\#Heb 5:11, 12\\ to the pronoun "us."
a. In the last section, the writer was warning the Hebrews that their
spiritual condition would keep them from comprehending all that
would be theirs in Christ Jesus.
b. In this section, he is making a statement which is true of all
believers. (i.e. We should all be moving forward.)
2. \\#1-3\\ The direction of our spiritual growth is onward.
a. \\#1\\ "leaving the principals of the doctrine of Christ"
(1) This phrase is used to mean learning about Christ and the
first principals associated with knowing and following Him.
(2) Some of the doctrines the writer associates in these first
studies are:
(a) The doctrine of "repentance from dead works" (any work
that one might trust for salvation).
(b) "faith toward God"-Believing and trusting in God for
salvation and all other things.
(c) \\#2\\ "baptisms"
i. The plural of the word is used.
ii. Although the writer does not detail how many and what
kind of baptisms he means by using the plural, only
two mentioned in the Scripture.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
aa. There is the baptism of water.
\\#Acts 2:41, 8:12, 38\\
bb. There is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
\\#1Cor 12:13, Acts 2:4, John 7:37-39\\
(d) "laying on of hands"-A practice used to impart
blessings to another. It was used for…
i. …healing \\#Acts 28:8\\
ii. …ordination to an office \\#1Tim 5:22\\
iii. …imparting the power of the Holy Spirit
\\#Acts 8:17, 19\\.
\\(Barnes Notes on Hebrews 6:2)\\
(e) "resurrection of the dead"-This doctrine was of special
interest to the church then \\#1Thess 4:13-18\\ as it
is now.
(f) "eternal judgment"-No doubt judgment of the lost
\\#Rev 19:11-15\\ and the saved \\#2Cor 5:10\\.
(3) \\#3\\ "And this will we do…"-The writer is not against
teaching first principals and truths about Christ. His
point is that these are the "first principals"
\\#He 5:12\\.
b. \\#1\\ "let us go on to perfection"
(1) Perfection means completion and maturity, the state of being
and doing what is right.
(2) These Hebrews were stuck at the beginning of the growth cycle
and that indicates there is a spiritual problem.
3. \\#4-8\\ There are no second chances.
a. These verses are very controversial and used by many in an attempt
to prove that salvation is not eternal but can be lost.
(1) \\#4\\ "falling away"-This is the key phrase in the verses.
Some interpret it to mean that a person literally falls
away from Christ and His salvation.
(2) If someone believes this text is teaching that salvation can
be lost, it would be very hard to change their mind from this
text.
(a) This is a passage that COULD be used to teach that a
person might lose their salvation; and if it were the
only passage on the topic in the Bible, I would think it
too. However, it is not the only passage.
(b) The Bible has many passages that teach salvation is
eternal—that once it is received, it is ours forever.
Here are a few.
i. \\#1Peter 1:3-5\\
ii. \\#John 4:14, 5:24, 10:28\\
iii. \\#Romans 8:31-39\\
iv. \\#Phi 1:6\\
v. \\#Eph 2:8\\
(c) Since the Bible does not contradict itself, these verses
can not be speaking of one losing their salvation.
(3) It is my belief that this section is dealing with those who
are close to salvation but have not yet placed their trust
in Christ.
(a) This is in agreement with what the writer said in
chapters 3 through 4.
i. \\#Heb 3:18-19\\ The writer uses the example of the
Exodus Hebrews to show the reason they could not
enter into the Promised Land was UNBELIEF. They
did not enter and then get put out. They just never
came in.
ii. \\#Heb 4:2\\ The truth is restated. The gospel (good
news) did not help the Exodus Jews because it was
not mixed with FAITH.
iii. \\#Heb 4:6\\ Again it is stated, they "entered not in
because of unbelief."
iv. \\#Heb 4:11\\ The writer challenges his readers not
to let UNBELIEF keep them out of God’s rest (an
allegory for salvation).
(b) It is also in agreement with what the writer will
continue to teach. \\#Heb 6:12\\
(c) These Hebrews were close to being saved, they knew much
and had experienced the convicting power of the Holy
Ghost, but as yet, they had not believed on the name of
the God’s Son, Jesus Christ \\#1John 3:23\\.
(d) Without that faith, no matter what else they had
experienced, they were still lost.
b. \\#4-6\\ These verses make one long statement.
(1) The basic statement.
It is impossible for those who were enlightened, if they shall fall away, to renew
themselves again.
(a) There are four other phrases which are added to describe
those who are ENLIGHTENED.
i. Each description must be looked at to determine
whether they are describing a saved person or a lost
one.
ii. We shall look at all five, but for the moment, let’s
just concentrate on the statement.
(b) Notice that the main point is that if those who are
enlightened turn away, they cannot come to Christ a
second time.
(2) If the ENLIGHTENED are the saved loosing their salvation, they
could never be saved a second time.
(a) The reason is given in \\#6\\.
i. "seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of
God afresh"-Jesus died once for one salvation.
If you can lose it, you cannot get it back again.
ii. "and put him to an open shame"-Most believe that
this phrase means that by attempting to crucify
Jesus twice, you deem Him worthy of death, thus
disgracing what He has done for you.
(b) For those who want to use this text to prove a Christian
can lose their salvation, they must hold to the complete
interpretation that salvation is a one-time experience.
If you lose it, it can never be secured again.
(3) If the ENLIGHTENED are those close to salvation but still
lost and they reject Christ, they will never be saved for
they will never be so convicted again.
(a) This would make them reprobate or rejected.
(b) The Bible gives us many passages to describe this type
of spiritual condition. Here are a few.
2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth:
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him,
being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
2Peter 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the
way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
(4) \\#7-8\\ A picture to described those who depart. The
image applies to those who turn away, regardless of which
interpretation you accept.
(a) \\#7\\ "receiveth blessing from God"-These people have
been blessed like the land ("earth") which has been
blessed with "rain" enough to produce "herbs."
(b) \\#8\\ "But" instead of herbs, the land "beareth thorns
and briers."
(c) These people, like the land, "is rejected… nigh unto
cursing; whose end is to be burned."
(d) This picture makes it clear that whoever is being
described is damned by their "falling away" \\#6\\.
c. \\#4-5\\ The five blessings from which the cursed turns away.
(1) \\#4\\ "once enlightened"
(a) To be "enlightened" means to have the light to shine on
something or to be made to see something.
(b) Regardless of whether these people are saved or lost,
they know the truth of who Christ is. Like the children
of Israel who came out of Egypt, the will of God was
not a mystery to them. They simply chose not to obey
it.
(c) This description could apply to either the saved or the
lost.
(2) "have tasted of the heavenly gift"
(a) These people have "tasted" or experienced a "gift" sent
from heaven.
(b) Some would interpret the heavenly gift to be salvation,
but the verse does not tell us what the gift is.
(c) There are many gifts from heaven, including conviction
\\#John 6:44\\ and the Holy Ghost Himself
\\#Acts 8:20\\.
(d) The psalmist encouraged all, both saved and lost, to
come a "taste" that God is a good God \\#Psalm 34:8\\.
(e) This description could apply to either the saved or the
lost.
(3) "partakers of the Holy Ghost"
(a) The word "partakers" means to share in.
(b) It does not mean to be possessed by, indwelt with, or
filled with.
(c) When the Holy Ghost convicts a sinner, shows him the
truth of his sin, and draws him to Christ, that sinner
is partaking of the Holy Ghost.
(d) This description could apply to either the saved or the
lost.
(4) \\#5\\ "tasted the good word of God"
(a) These Hebrews have definitely "tried" or "tasted" of the Word of
God. Just what is being shared with them in this epistle proves
that.
(b) But having the Word of God preached to you does not make you a
Christian or else everyone who had heard the gospel would be
saved.
(c) This description could apply to either the saved or the
lost.
(5) "tasted… the powers of the world to come"
(a) And these people had been blessed to have insight into
the "power" of God’s future world.
(b) It is very possible that they had seen the moving of the
Holy Ghost, along with convincing signs and wonders;
but seeing those things does not save a person; else the
scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day would have all been
saved.
(c) This description could apply to either the saved or the
lost.
d. In summary, the warning given in these verses could apply to either
the saved or the lost, although it is my belief that other
Scriptures negate the possibility of it applying to the saved.
I do not think the writer’s intent was to teach that saved people
can be lost. Rather, he continued to warn these people that
they needed to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and not let the
same thing occur to them that had happened to their ancestors.
C. \\#6:9-20\\ The Lord will help you.
1. \\#6:9-12\\ A desire-Better things for these readers.
a. \\#9\\ "beloved"-Regardless of what spiritual condition these
readers are in, the writer has better ambitions for them than
that they be cast into fire and burned.
b. "things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak"-If these
people are saved, the writer hopes they will demonstrate it. If
they are not saved, his desire is that they will be.
c. \\#10\\ "in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do
minister"-These Hebrews had done good works by caring for God’s
people.
d. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love"-
Works do not save a person, but they do catch the notice of God.
The writer believed that because these people had a tender
heart toward the people of God that God would produce a saving
work within them.
e. \\#11\\ "we desire that…"-The writer has two desires for these
people.
(1) "that you do shew the same diligence… to the hope…
unto the end."-Just as these Hebrews had been diligent to
help the saints, the writer hopes they will be as diligent
toward the "hope" (that is towards Christ and the hope of His
salvation) until their end (however that may come).
(2) "that… ye be… followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promises"-The damning condition
described throughout this book is the Hebrew’s lack of faith
in the promises of God. The writer desires that condition
be corrected with his generation of Jews.
f. \\#12\\ "That ye be not slothful"-To be slothful in this
physical world can bring you financial ruin. To be slothful in
the spiritual world can bring you eternal ruin.
2. \\#6:13-15\\ An example-God gave to Abraham what He had promised.
a. \\#13\\ "when God made promise to Abraham"-Abraham, the first
Hebrew, had no problem with taking God at His word. He is the
epitome of the man who walked by faith. \\#Heb 11:8-10\\
b. "because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself"-God
did do one substantial thing to encourage Abraham’s faith.
Because Abraham was one of the first to be asked of God to abandon
himself to faith, God made a covenant FOR Abraham but WITH HIMSELF.
The details are given in \\#Ge 15:1-21\\.
(1) \\#Ge 15:1-3\\ Abraham shows some doubt in God’s promise to
give him a child.
(2) \\#Ge 15:4-5\\ God reaffirms His promise, telling Abraham
that he will have more descendents than there are stars in
the sky.
(3) \\#Ge 15:6\\ Abraham believes God.
(4) \\#Ge 15:7-8\\ Abraham asks for a sign.
(5) \\#Ge 15:9-11\\ God tells Abraham to prepare some animals for
a blood covenant. (In that day, one of the means of making
a legal commitment was for both parties to walk between a
divided animal while speaking their agreement before
witnesses. Abraham prepared several animals for such an
agreement.
(6) \\#Ge 15:12-16\\ God gives details of Israel’s Egyptian
bondage.
(7) \\#Ge 15:17\\ Then God walks through the midst of the
severed animals by Himself (in the form of a smoking
furnace).
(8) \\#Ge 15:18-21\\ Thus God makes a covenant with HIMSELF,
promising not only to give Abraham seed but to give to that
seed the land that Abraham was walking upon.
c. \\#14\\ "in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will
multiply thee"
(1) This is a quote from another time when God encouraged Abraham
concerning His promises, \\#Ge 22:17\\.
(2) This promise is likely used because it is a good summary
statement of all the promises God gave to Abraham and to his
descendents through Abraham.
d. \\#15\\ "after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise"
(1) Abraham’s faith was rewarded in that he did obtain what God had
promised.
(2) However, before he obtained, he had to endure.
(a) Such is the way things often work, both in life and in
spiritual affairs.
(b) The light seems to break after the darkest hour of the
night and joy comes after the greatest struggles.
(3) This was another challenge to the readers of this book not to
quit but to continue on to faith in Jesus Christ.
3. \\#6:16-20\\ A precept-God will not fail in what He has promised.
a. \\#16\\ "men swear by the greater"-The writer is laying the
groundwork for his point.
(1) His foundational truth is that when a powerful man wants to
assure someone of something, he makes an oath (contract).
(2) "an oath… is to them an end of all strife"-When the
greater of two makes an oath (contract), the issue is
considered settled.
(3) The thought is that a oath (or contract) binds the greater
to fulfill his promise.
b. \\#17\\ "Wherein God… confirmed it (His promise) by an oath (a
binding contract)" - The writer submits that this is what God,
who is the greater, has done.
c. \\#18-19\\ "That by two immutable things"
(1) \\#18\\ "immutable" means unchangeable.
(2) God has made His word certain by two unchangeable things.
d. First, by His nature.
(1) "it was impossible for God to lie" - The very nature of God,
which is also unchangeable, served to assure Abraham that
God would fulfill His promises.
(2) "that… we might have a strong consolation" - This gives to
all believers ("we) a "strong consolation" or confidence in
God’s promises.
e. \\#18-20\\ But God has also had our "hope" deposited into His
presence.
(1) \\#18\\ "to lay hold upon the hope"
(a) This "hope" becomes an important element in the writer’s
presentation. In both the Old and New Covenants, the
promises of God becomes the hope of the believer.
(b) The "hope" is the longing that God would fulfill those
promises, whether the promise was one of forgiveness,
rest, eternal life, or whatever promise the believer
had claimed.
(c) Whenever the believer claims a promise of God, that
promise becomes the believer’s hope.
(2) \\#19\\ "Which hope"-The writer describes some of the
effects of having this hope.
(a) \\#18\\ "who have fled for refuge" - The hope and the
God who gave it become a refuge, a place of safety, to
those who have claimed it.
(b) \\#19\\ It is "an anchor of the soul"-This hope is
something that gives the soul stability in the midst
of troubled waters, like an anchor stabilizes a ship.
(c) It is "both sure and steadfast"-This hope removes all
uncertainty and doubt, even while the storms of life
rage around us.
(3) The hope has "entered into that within the veil"
(a) Because of the importance of this hope, it has been taken
to a very sacred place, "within the veil."
(b) To go behind the veil is to go into the Holiest of
Holies, the place where God’s presence abode in the Old
Testament.
(c) So how did the believers’ hope get taken into the Holy
Place?
(7) \\#20\\ "Whither the forerunner is for us entered"
(a) The hope was taken into the Holy of Holies by "the
forerunner…, even Jesus."
(b) So Jesus has taken the hope of the believer with Him
into the very presence of God.
(c) This is to give us the added assurance that any and every
promise God has made will be fulfilled.
(d) But not just anyone can enter the Holy of Holies.
Whether we are speaking of the Holy Place in earth’s
tabernacle or heaven’s, only the High Priest could enter
there.
D. \\#6:20\\ A transition back to Melchisedec.
1. "even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of
Melchisedec" - The depositing of the believer’s hope into God’s
presence by our new High Priest takes us back to the deep truth that
the writer wanted to speak about back in \\#Heb 5:10\\.
2. The reference to Jesus being our High Priest after the order of
Melchisedec is a quote from \\#Psalm 110:4\\.
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