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Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

Following in Their Footsteps

Father in heaven, we are today given the wonderful privilege of turning to Your Word and of learning from it.

Lord, I pray that Your Spirit would be here to be our teacher and our guide, that we might understand more of You and of Your truth and more of Your plan for our lives as we spend time in Hebrews chapter 6.

In Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 1, when you first start reading this verse, you might think that he is talking about negative things.

He says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, leading, Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

You might at first, especially with that repentance toward dead works, you might start thinking he's listing things that we shouldn't be doing.

And actually, these are not negative things that Paul is talking about.

These are the things that lead us to Jesus.

These are the things that made us Christians in the first place.

These are the things that we might talk, we might speak of as having played an important, even essential role in what we call conversion.

Conversion is the process or the experience by which God takes the sinner, lost and hopeless and without the promise of eternal life, in fact, with the promise of what we have coming towards us as we studied last week, which is eternal death, right?

A death hopeless and helpless apart from God.

It takes that sinner, that's you and me, and He makes us the children of God.

He makes us reborn with a new heart, a new outlook on life, a new spirit within our hearts.

He makes the old person dead, and he resurrects with the same power of the Spirit that brought Jesus from the grave.

It's a miraculous experience we're talking about here.

I want you to understand that very clearly, friend, this morning.

Christianity is not about getting better incrementally.

Yes, we do grow, but that's after our conversion experience.

Christianity is about this old man becoming a new man.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.

Christianity is about my filthy garments, my dirty rags of my own righteousnesses being taken from me and Christ's righteousness put in their place.

That is the work of a moment, friends, when we believe on Jesus Christ.

When we believe Jesus makes us righteous, He considers us righteous, I should say, In a work of a moment, we call that imputed righteousness.

Because of Jesus' righteousness, we are counted righteous for His sake.

That is how God looks at us, not as though we were sinners that we have been, but as though we were His perfect Son with His righteousness.

Having changed our hearts and now looking at us as righteous, He begins to mold us into what He has declared us to be.

Sanctification is the work of a lifetime.

As we walk, trusting in Jesus, remember what Colossians 2 verse 6 says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus our Lord, that's justification, so walk in Him.

It's simply staying in a justified walk with Jesus.

We use long words, but it's really simple.

So Paul here, he begins talking about the elementary things of Christianity.

He's talking about the things that made us Christians in the beginning.

The doctrine of Christ, knowing about Jesus, knowing that Jesus is our Savior, knowing that Jesus saved us from sin, knowing that Jesus died on the cross, knowing that Jesus is our High Priest, our intercessor.

He's talked about these things in Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

He's talked about who Jesus was and why He had the right and the privilege to be our high priest and our intercessor.

Let's move on from the doctrine of Christ and from these elemental things, these very basic things that brought us into Christianity.

What are some of the things that he lists here.

The doctrine of Christ not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

They're necessary for us to become Christians and even for us to stay Christians, right?

And he goes on, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.

Now, let's not stop here and think that these things are not important, that he's somehow castigating these things, that he's demeaning them, that he's making them less important.

Listen, if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you will find with me that Paul thinks that the resurrection of the dead is very important, because if the dead are not raised, then we, then Christ is not raised, and our faith is in vain.

So the resurrection of the dead is very important in Paul's mind.

He's not here in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 2 saying that these are not important things or even bad things or even things we don't believe anymore.

He's saying these are the things that we learned when we first became Christians.

We ought to know them, and knowing them, we ought to move on.

Not away from them, but building on them.

We ought to grow in our Christian experience.

And this is his opening of a challenge to the Hebrews, to the Jews that he's writing to.

And then there's this passage here which has also concerned some people, verses 4 through 6 of Hebrews 6, "'For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame." Some people have said that this is talking about a Christian sinning.

They will tell you, I've heard people have this idea, that once you become a Christian, you shouldn't sin anymore.

My problem with that is that it's too bad for all of us then.

In fact, my Bible elsewhere doesn't teach me that if a Christian sins, it's too bad for us.

It's not in my notes, it's not in my sermon, but you're just getting this, getting a little bit of a bonus here, no extra charge.

First John chapter 3, first John chapter 3, I'm sorry, first John chapter 2 and verse 1.

He's talking to those who believe in Jesus.

He's just said, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

By the way, that is part of these elemental things that Paul is talking about, Right?

This is what he says in verse 1 of chapter 2, "'My little children, these things write I unto you, that you'…" What?

"'Do not sin.'" Is that God's will for us?

Of course, because that's the way He wired us, that's the way He created us.

God wants to separate us from our sins, right?

The Bible says, and you shall call His name Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sins, Matthew 121, right?

And so here you have the mission of Jesus to save us from our sins.

So God doesn't want us to continue wallowing in the pigsty, the mire of sin, which is destructive and hurtful and painful.

He wants us, he says, if the Son of Man shall set you free, you shall be what?

In the context of He is, He who serves sin is the slave of sin.

That's the context of Jesus' promise to set us free, right?

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Following in Their Footsteps

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