Hebrews 5:11-6:12--Warning Against Apostasy

Hebrews 5:11-6:12 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.5.11-Heb.6.12
Warning Against Apostasy
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
6:1 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. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 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, 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. 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. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
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. 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.

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First the writer to the Hebrews admonishes his audience for only hearing what they want to hear and lacking spiritual growth and failing to be the reproductive Christians that Christ called for in The Great Commission.  How will we make disciples of the whole world if we as disciples of Christ don't turn around and teach others to also obey everything the Lord has commanded of us?  The gospel and the truth of God's Word is not something that is meant for us to keep to ourselves, but is something that is meant for us to shout from the rooftops and the mountaintops, even if it's something as simple as "Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so."  The Word of God should be like our daily bread....we should not be able to go without it without feeling hungry and going without it will make us spiritually "malnourished" and stunt our spiritual growth  God has given us everything that we need for life and godliness in His Word and He wants us to grow up to be spiritually mature so that we can discern good from evil so that those called to be teachers of the word of God will be able to teach the "meat" of the Scripture.  There is nothing wrong with preaching about repentance and issues of sin and sanctification and the Resurrection of Christ and of the Church when He returns or the eternal judgement that awaits those who are found to not be in Christ at His returning, but what if this is ALL you preach because you can only teach what you know and you know nothing more than the basics?  This is what these Christians are being admonished for....they have never dug deep into the Scripture to find the truth that they need to apply to their lives to tell them how to live daily.  Yes, Jesus paid it all so that one day we can be with Him in heaven, but He left us here on earth to accomplish a mission here and now and to be His ambassadors....to be salt and light.

Then a very bold statement....it is impossible for someone who had had a genuine conversion experience and is part of the elect to turn away to their old life before Christ and then once again be brought back.  They have made their decision to exchange the truth for a lie because they wanted to believe the lie instead of the truth and nothing is going to make them want the truth that they already knew and have turned away from.  Of this Jesus told us to be careful to not cast our pearls before swine and to not give what is sacred to the dogs.  Those that have divorced themselves from God and sought after strange gods and strange flesh should not expect God to let them enter the rest He has prepared for His Bride.

It is often times impossible for us to know genuine faith from fake faith until we see the fruit that is produced.  The writer here tells us that it is not the fault of the farmer (God) who prepares the soil of a man's heart if the time for harvest comes and instead of the seed that He has planted bringing forth fruit, the soil was toxic and all it will produce is thorns and thistles.  It is by their fruits you will know them and it is by our words and our actions that our thoughts and the meditations of our hearts and our true identity is revealed.  In such a case the ground is unsuitable for planting and the farmer moves on to find fertile ground that will produce even more than what He has planted because His true disciples will be reproductive and share the truth they know with others and also teach them to be disciples and in this way an eternal kingdom in subjection to our King will be formed of those who have been rescued from darkness and brought into His glorious light.

Even with all that said the author of Hebrews was assured of this group's salvation and that they had not committed the unforgivable sin.   We would all be in trouble if God cut us off any time we sinned after we sin after we are saved, but we do need to be careful to call each other back to repentance and to expel the immoral brother through the process of church discipline established in the gospels and the epistles so as to show that we take both sin and apostasy as seriously as God does, and we must also be careful to preach a true gospel to others--not just one that is "fire insurance" to keep us out of hell, but one in which we are bought with a price and now belong to God and are have a new identity, a new mission, and a new code of conduct--we are now soldiers in the Lords army and ambassadors of the King and His kingdom.  Let us proclaim the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the kingdom of God, and let us be those who are found faithful in the end.